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Sep. 27th, 2005 10:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
taratemimaBTW, this has been on my mind most of the morning:
If you want to see the true face of war, go to the amateur porn Web site NowThatsFuckedUp.com. For almost a year, American soldiers stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan have been taking photographs of dead bodies, many of them horribly mutilated or blown to pieces, and sending them to Web site administrator Chris Wilson. In return for letting him post these images, Wilson gives the soldiers free access to his site. American soldiers have been using the pictures of disfigured Iraqi corpses as currency to buy pornography.
I tend to relate events to whatever I'm reading. Today it's Helter Skelter. I can just imagine the people giggling as they caption their pictures of the dead, much like Susan Atkins giggled during Linda Kasabian's account of the Tate murders. While the disclaimer labels the subjects "dead terrorists," a dark little part of me wonders how many of them are civilians.
But I feel less anger toward them than I do for the armchair realists who compare Abu Gharib to frat hazing, who link 9/11 to Iraq, consider Geneva 'quaint' and who deny something that is known from at least World War I.
War fucks people up. Not just kill them. But facing death and the possiblity of dying and killing before you are killed and finding out you shot someone unarmed and all that. I'm not so angry at sending pictures as knowing that the grinding down of humanity is expected. Because people want some payback for the televised murders and do not connect that with, oh, how American POWs are treated, I don't see it stopping. Especially since saying that truth implies that the person thinks all armed forces members are deeply fucked up. No, some people come out of it saner than others. Some people come out with something valuable. People come out of being diagnosed with cancer with something valuable, too. Being anti-war doesn't make you anti-troop any more than being anti-cancer makes you anti-cancer patient.
Saying "they volunteered" doesn't stop that fact. They may have some idea of the fucked-upness, but somehow, I don't think they would face it without a good reason. I have people I knew who are in the armed forces. I also know myself and I know I am not armed forces material. A lot of times, I ask if I am willing to put acquaintances' lives and sanities on the line, and why. It's a luxury that someone who enlisted doesn't have. It should be a necessity for people paid more money and with a wider platform than me.
(And unknown army guy, I don't think your average jihadist is going to stop bombing you looking at those pics. If you treat their friend, brother, whatever, like shit, maybe they figure how badly they can fuck you up so others will think twice before coming to their town. Besides, if someone I forgot analyzing groups employing suicidal terrorism is right, most likely, they are secular [most likely Baathists].)
(BTW, when one person captions a pic, "What every Iraqi should look like," I find it real hard to believe that we are all about democracy, freedom, and having Iraq suck less than under Saddam's rule. The phrase "Zippo squad" comes to mind)
If you want to see the true face of war, go to the amateur porn Web site NowThatsFuckedUp.com. For almost a year, American soldiers stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan have been taking photographs of dead bodies, many of them horribly mutilated or blown to pieces, and sending them to Web site administrator Chris Wilson. In return for letting him post these images, Wilson gives the soldiers free access to his site. American soldiers have been using the pictures of disfigured Iraqi corpses as currency to buy pornography.
I tend to relate events to whatever I'm reading. Today it's Helter Skelter. I can just imagine the people giggling as they caption their pictures of the dead, much like Susan Atkins giggled during Linda Kasabian's account of the Tate murders. While the disclaimer labels the subjects "dead terrorists," a dark little part of me wonders how many of them are civilians.
But I feel less anger toward them than I do for the armchair realists who compare Abu Gharib to frat hazing, who link 9/11 to Iraq, consider Geneva 'quaint' and who deny something that is known from at least World War I.
War fucks people up. Not just kill them. But facing death and the possiblity of dying and killing before you are killed and finding out you shot someone unarmed and all that. I'm not so angry at sending pictures as knowing that the grinding down of humanity is expected. Because people want some payback for the televised murders and do not connect that with, oh, how American POWs are treated, I don't see it stopping. Especially since saying that truth implies that the person thinks all armed forces members are deeply fucked up. No, some people come out of it saner than others. Some people come out with something valuable. People come out of being diagnosed with cancer with something valuable, too. Being anti-war doesn't make you anti-troop any more than being anti-cancer makes you anti-cancer patient.
Saying "they volunteered" doesn't stop that fact. They may have some idea of the fucked-upness, but somehow, I don't think they would face it without a good reason. I have people I knew who are in the armed forces. I also know myself and I know I am not armed forces material. A lot of times, I ask if I am willing to put acquaintances' lives and sanities on the line, and why. It's a luxury that someone who enlisted doesn't have. It should be a necessity for people paid more money and with a wider platform than me.
(And unknown army guy, I don't think your average jihadist is going to stop bombing you looking at those pics. If you treat their friend, brother, whatever, like shit, maybe they figure how badly they can fuck you up so others will think twice before coming to their town. Besides, if someone I forgot analyzing groups employing suicidal terrorism is right, most likely, they are secular [most likely Baathists].)
(BTW, when one person captions a pic, "What every Iraqi should look like," I find it real hard to believe that we are all about democracy, freedom, and having Iraq suck less than under Saddam's rule. The phrase "Zippo squad" comes to mind)
