War: The Video

Harrowing doesn't begin to describe this video. Please do so knowing you're about to watch war in its sadistic glory.

That is, the extermination of human beings by fellow human beings. Who enjoy it.

Being 'anti-war' in 2002 meant being tagged as more than just a lefty, a liberal, a peace-loving hippie. It meant being called a pussy, a wuss, a naive, wide-eyed doe bounding through sun-drenched fields, unwilling to accept the hardness of a dark world intent on destroying me and my blessed-by-god country. I watched Colin Powell address the UN and was shaken by his conviction, if not his 'proof', of the threat posed by Iraq and its wacky dictator. It was clearly bullshit. Nevertheless, the American public assumed the role of terrified children in need of protective adults like Rumsfeld, Cheney, Wolfowitz, Rice and The Miserable Failure, who lied with comforting gravitas and impunity. The US media, to its shame, carried water like pampered minions desperate for acceptance into the cool kids' clique.

Convincing a brainwashed populace accustomed to TV war coverage introduced by waving-flag graphics and soaring soundtracks was like explaining the hazards of gambling to a person gleefully waving a million-dollar-winning lottery ticket. The reality of war was irrelevant. US = Good. Brown-skinned people = Bad. War as humankind's most evil invention was relegated to a far corner of the mind by a great bulk of the world's most prosperous country. Bloodlust was in the air. Only a fool wouldn't breathe it in.

I've read dozens of books written by soldiers or war correspondents but have never been exposed to a more searing indictment of any country's decision to go to war than this 18-minute video. This is war. This is what it does to soldiers and civilians. This is how it destroys all that it touches, regardless if they walk away from the battlefield.