"You can see, in this case we really have unique material that shows how modern aerial warfare is done," WikiLeaks' co-founder Julian Assange said, appearing on MSNBC. "Hasn't been revealed before. It also shows the debasement and moral corruption of soldiers as a result of war. It seems like they are playing video games with people's lives."

Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer, who joined Assange on the program, said that based on what he saw in the video, it appeared to be a violation of the military's Rules of Engagement.

"First rule is, you may engage persons who commit hostile acts or show hostile intent by minimum force necessary," he said. "Minimum force is necessary. If you see eight armed men, the first thing I would think as an intelligence officer is, 'How can we take these guys and capture them?' We don't want to kill people arbitrarily; we want the intel take.

"Now, most importantly, when you see that van show up to take away the wounded, do not target or strike anyone who has surrendered or is out of combat due to sickness or wounds. So, the wound part of that I find disturbing, being that you clearly have people down, you have people on the way there. Speaking as an intelligence officer, my intent is to capture people, to recover them. That is the idea here. If you're not really doing that, you're not really doing precise combat."

Salon writer Glenn Greenwald, who also appeared on MSNBC to discuss the leaked video, later wrote that the footage " is truly gruesome and difficult even for the most hardened person to watch, but it should be viewed by everyone with responsibility for what the U.S. has done in Iraq and Afghanistan (i.e., every American citizen)."

This video is from MSNBC's The Dylan Ratigan Show, broadcast April 5, 2010.