Apache gunman update

What Really Happened has the following comment on the video clip I linked in an recent post.

I agree with the readers who wrote in suggesting that the vehicle on the left is a tractor and that the Apache just blew away some farmers. I'm a farm kid myself, and there is no question that the men were involved in some kind of agricultural activity, most likely ploughing. This is cold blooded murder and this video records a war crime. Certainly the video makes it clear that the Apache was not engaged in evasive flight indicating that it was under any kind of a threat. Make local copies of this video. Put them on CD-ROMS. Hand them out. The US Government is desperate to explain this away. One individual wrote in to claim that since the video is dark, it must be night and since farmers don't plough their fields at night, they deserved to be killed. However, as the display in the video itself confirms, this is an infrared thermograph, which shows emitted heat (bodies, engines, shrapnel) as white over a dark background. One thing is clear from the body language of the people. They were clearly unconcerned about the helicopter until it opened fire, which means they did not think they were doing anything that the helicopter would see as a threat. I don't think there is anything that illustrates how low the US military has sunk than this video.

UPDATE: excuses continue to pour in from people I have never heard from before trying to explain away the video. The scene was at night (do the people in the video look like they are having trouble seeing as they kove back and forth?), they didn't know the chopper was there therefore they would not act guilty after shooting at the helicopter (I'm not kidding, someone actually sent that in). One person suggested tha Iraqis would shoot at the helocopter then quickly try to hide among the crowd. The fact that these men are all in an open field with nowhere TO hide seems not to have registered with the apologists.

But I wish to add one final comment to this discussion (which will then move onto its own permanent dedicated page).

From The Geneva Convention 3-1: 1. Persons taking no active part in the hostilities, including members of armed forces who have laid down their arms and those placed hors de combat by sickness, wounds, detention, or any other cause, shall in all circumstances be treated humanely, without any adverse distinction founded on race, colour, religion or faith, sex, birth or wealth, or any other similar criteria

The very FIRST person gunned down was the person who had been driving the tractor.  article

I should have picked up on that being a tractor myself, having grown up on a farm. There are also obvious field markings that indicate the continguous rows which have already been worked. You can also tell by the way the one man dismounts that he's getting down off a tractor. I do still wonder what the other man is doing in front of the tractor. It looks like he's pulling out a large piece of cloth, just before he gets shot up.

I'm sure we have a perfectly reasonable explanation for this.