For the Love of War

In case anyone is still under the impression that American forces detain and punish only terrorists, that bombings can be surgical, that only the bad guys kill innocent people, that only other governments' militaries stand and lie to their citizens, and that the very light of God's good graces shines like a divine beacon out of Uncle Sam's benevolent asshole, please take a second to remind yourself of what happens when you support war as a policy, as an ideal, and as a culture.

We have Reuters' tenacity and Wikileaks.org to thank for the release of this video, which depicts a 2007 helicopter mission in Iraq. In it, we see and hear Americans misidentifying two journalists' cameras as weapons, then making the decision to hose down a group of suspected insurgents with gunfire. A little later, a van pulls up to help a wounded man. That vehicle, too, is obliterated, on the grounds that brown men were attending to a man already determined to be a threat.

As it turns out, the attack was off. Way off. I'd rather not link to the Huffington Post, because I regard it as something of a vampire on my profession, but it has the best coverage at the moment, so here ya' go.

As soldiers arrive to lug wounded children away from the scene, the tape crackles: "Well, it's their fault for bringing their kids into a battle." Giving the benefit of the doubt to soldiers in this edited tape, we can only guess whether one wondered, at any point, whether the presence of children in fact suggested the battle was in their minds alone.

Look, the military has its share of fuck-ups, same as any business. This is a horrendous action, a blatant atrocity, but still you can't pin it all on a few triggerhappy goons. Frankly we just need a clear-eyed accounting of any endeavor in which blowing up humans based on spotty visual evidence is anything like a good idea. For moral, economic and strategic reasons, a policy of violence ought to be a last resort. Every time Americans forces massacre people for holding oblong objects on a street corner, or bomb a wedding party, or torture people, I'm chagrined that 9/11 continues to be such a resounding success.