This war that I find myself in the middle of can be looked at many different ways and it is, by people from all walks of life.
In the final historical analysis, one of the things that is most important, from my own perspective, is the amount of value that each side places on human life. It seems so obvious to me, even on the days when I want to throw up my hands and walk out of here (an impossibility no matter what I want), that my side cares oh so much more about human life. It’s often what keeps me going in the face of sometimes moronic bureaucracy.
No matter what it is I think I’m fighting for, no matter what my situation is, if I am injured in the line of duty, my fellow soldiers will move mountains to try and save my life. And that’s comforting because it is a reflection of the overall value system of the society I come from, which, as a general rule, affirms life. The people I am fighting against are willing to shoot you in the head because you aren’t wearing a scarf. They will murder you on general principle just because you want to wear shorts when its hot outside. They have demonstrated over and over that they don’t discriminate when it comes to death. They’ll blow up something small just to attract a crowd of rescuers so they can blow them up with something big.
When we attack, we do everything possible to minimize casualties. If all we cared about was winning, Iraq could easily be pounded into a flat plain devoid of human beings. We provide medical care to our enemies once they are down for the count. We love life, and want it to thrive. The reality of war is painful and often heart-rending. Americans are insulated from the sacrifices, the pain and the daily effort that goes into fighting a war against an enemy that hides in mosques, blows up children and beheading anyone who displeases them (Atwar Bahjat now appears to have been shot to death, not beheaded and tortured and drilled into so that’s a real relief cause the person being beheaded in the video was just some truck driver who worked for the wrong people *insert sarcasm here*).
I’ve always been of the opinion that we should all be exposed to the photos of people who jumped from the Trade Centers as they were being burned alive by jet fuel. We should have to see what really happened to Daniel Pearl and hundreds of thousands of other victims of modern day religious fanaticism. We should also be exposed to the human toll in Iraq, since we are told the two are related (and I believe they are).
HBO has just released a compelling documentary that chronicles what happens in an emergency room in Baghdad. You owe it to yourself to watch.
CDR Salamander has an opinion about the Baghdad ER HBO documentary too. Go read it.