http://blog.sojo.net/2010/04/07/video-of-civilian-deaths-in-iraq-and-americas-culture-of-violence/
Video of Civilian Deaths in Iraq and America’s Culture of Violence
by Logan Laituri 04-07-2010
“C’mon, just let us shoot…”
“I think they just drove over a body.” “Really? Ha!”
“Well it’s their fault for bringing their kids into a battle.”
These are things one might expect to hear in a living room, uttered by pre-pubescent boys playing the latest Call of Duty video game, not the utterances of grown men, moral agents acting on behalf of and as representatives of U.S. citizens abroad. Obscenely ironic is the fact that this is exactly what was spoken by several commissioned officers in the U.S. Armed Forces.
By now, many of you have likely heard of the videos released on Monday depicting the morally reprehensible actions of some Apache helicopter pilots in Iraq in July of 2007 as they fired upon several people, including two Reuters journalists. If you have the stomach for it, I recommend watching at least the 17 minute clip released by WikiLeaks (below). Several years ago, I would not have encouraged folks to watch such a graphic depiction of morbid carnage. However, my current belief is that we as a society have become detrimentally detached from the violence our government presumes to be conducting in our name, essentially giving our leaders a blank check for military force while we immerse ourselves in the latest release from Apple, Inc. or episode of American Idol.
For those that are able, watch how the 30 millimeter rounds tear up solid asphalt. Unless my training has been outdated, that particular caliber round is not to be used against personnel. Anything above 7.62 millimeters is strictly for use against equipment (that restricts anti-personnel weaponry to only rifles, carbines, and squad automatic weapons). In the videos, the Apache pilots are likely talking to an infantry platoon on the ground. “Bushmaster” is the infantry element, trying to get to the location to take pictures, while “Crazyhorse” are probably the pilots. It took me a full 24 hours just to build the nerve to watch the video myself after being alerted to the New York Times article by a friend and fellow combat veteran. The most gut-wrenching part for me, ironically enough (and indescribably tragic), is that “Bushmaster” was the call sign for my infantry company in Iraq in 2004. “Crazyhorse” is another radio call sign I am eerily familiar with. I am not yet sure if that particular unit was in Iraq again in 2007, but it is entirely possible.
Just as disturbing is the initial response by the military — providing pictures of RPGs and AK-47s — which does not satisfy my own concern for justice. As I stated in a blog post I uploaded the day I testified at the Truth Commission on Conscience in War (it was an original form of my testimony that I scrapped), my own Battalion Commander promised to drop weapons to “protect” his soldiers from the juridical claims of those “quaint” international treaties we signed into U.S. law back in 1977.
But can we really place the entirety of the blame on a few people whose fingers are closest to the trigger? No person is able to stoop to the depraved moral place those pilots were at without some social framework that enables such a lofty fall from common understandings of basic dignity. Those pilots are byproducts of a culture compromised by concessions to violence, not trailblazers forging gruesome new ground.
By this, I mean that I do not believe this culture originates in the military, but can be easily solidified there. For example, just think of the way firing ranges in military training differ from those in law enforcement ranges. In the former, any and all human-shaped targets are shot down, but in the latter one is required to differentiate between bad guy and good guy, between firearm and photographic equipment.
Despite the incredible disgust and shame I felt as I watched the clips, I do have cause for hope. Thursday I will be screening the documentary Soldiers of Conscience at the local university. The University of Hawaii has a big ROTC program, which includes cadets from my own school, Hawaii Pacific University. I know that the future leaders of our military are taking the imperative of conscience very seriously; on a panel with me after the screening will be the Professor of Military Science (basically the ROTC commander) as well as a senior ROTC cadet. They have already screened the documentary once in their required ROTC course this semester and are looking forward to input from other students on Thursday.
As the video makes clear, there are people in uniform who disregard very basic concepts of restraint and moderation. There are also those who would disagree with the language used, but side with the official response by the military, that the pilots were acting in accordance with the Law of Land Warfare (FM 27-10) and their rules of engagement at the time. But it is important to remember that there are also men and women in uniform who are as disgusted by the lack of humanity displayed in the videos as you and I are.
Logan Laituri is an Army veteran with combatant service in Iraq during OIF II and experience with Christian Peacemaker Teams in Israel and the West Bank. He blogsCenturion’s Guild. sporadically and is a co-founder of
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