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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings, Torture and Big Money |
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August 4th, 2006 - Don't Look Now |
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US soldiers’ ‘trophy videos’ of Iraq make uncomfortable viewing for
the American government next to TV networks’ coverage By Chris Shaw The Guardian Friday August 4, 2006 Last week the Pentagon ordered
American servicemen in Iraq to stop posting private video clips on the
internet. These "trophy
videos" have become one of the more extraordinary by-products of
modern-day warfare as soldiers - like everyday tourists - send video images
ranging from the comic to the utterly horrific back home to impress friends
and titillate the fans of "uncensored war". There are hundreds of hours
of this stuff posted up on a range of internet sites - most of it is fairly
crudely shot and edited and usually set to thrash metal soundtracks. But these homemade war
videos offer an insight into modern warfare and the psyche of the average
serviceman which conventional broadcast news and current affairs coverage
cannot get close to. Some of the material - like
the famous Show Me the Way to Amarillo Peter Kay video rip-off by British
servicemen - is clearly just an innocent exercise in overcoming the boredom
between patrols, but it is the stuff shot on patrol that really has the power
to shock. Images I have seen recently
include a close up of a suicide bomber exploding in two, an insurgent being
shot through the head by an American sniper, full scale firefights between US
patrols and insurgents plus endless images of body parts scattered about in
the aftermath of the latest bomb explosion. This footage is often
supported by a running commentary of "awesome" and suchlike from
the cameraman who has literally strapped a digital camera onto his helmet or
gun barrel and shot the video while he was shooting insurgents. So why do servicemen want to
film this stuff and why do they want to share it with the folks back home ? One filmmaker compared his
material with a video game: "you're stepped away from reality ... you're
seeing it through the camera lens." Another said it was the only
way he could feel proud of his work, "like a big game hunter feels proud
of his kills". Yet another said it made him
feel good to bring the gruesome reality of a soldier's life in Iraq to those
living safely behind their "clean, white picket fences at home". In each case, the taking and
posting of trophy video served as some kind of relief from the psychological
stresses of serving as a soldier in such a violent and acutely dangerous
place. To some extent this stuff is
also the flip side of the horror movies of hostages being decapitated with
kitchen knives that are posted on the internet by the insurgents. Already embarrassed by the
notorious Abu Ghraib prison abuse photos, the US government has successfully
shut down some of the more extreme "war porn" websites. But in truth it is almost
impossible to keep track of this stuff - hence the attempt to stop it at
source by banning laptops from US military camps in Iraq. Back at the start of the
Gulf war in 2003, Fox TV and other news organisations proudly boasted that
they were transmitting the first truly unedited, and therefore real, images
of modern warfare thanks to the power of modern satellite technology. This mainly consisted of
victorious American forces racing unopposed towards Baghdad and US artillery
firing at an unseen enemy. The homemade stuff now
finding its way onto the internet offers another less attractive but probably
more realistic version of modern warfare in Iraq today. And it is a version
that is making both the American military and US government feel very
uncomfortable. Chris Shaw is senior
programme controller, news and current affairs, at Channel Five External link:
http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,,1836768,00.html |