The pornography of war
Editor's note: The graphic subject matter of this blog may be disturbing to some readers.
The future of television, or so we are so often told, is about video on demand, movies on cell phones and full integration with the Internet.
Well, it seems to see that future we need to look no further than Baghdad.
An Iraqi friend of mine today showed off his new cell phone, with a slick two-inch screen and full video capability. He showed me his home movies.
Video one: Severed head of a suicide bomber
The head was intact except for a few front teeth that were missing. The head was on the ground, surrounded by a huddle of Iraqi national guards.
Each one of them had video-cell phones out, looking down at the head and filming their combat boots crush the bombers face like they were putting out smoldering cigarette. Others kicked the head like a soccer-ball.
Then, the Iraqi troops didn’t bury the head, but tossed it in a trash container. The national guards all thought that was very appropriate and very funny. They laughed a lot.
Video two: Severed bust of suicide bomber
This was a study in anatomy and explosive ordinance. The bomber had been wearing an explosives belt that sliced his torso in half. His head and shoulders were perfectly intact and, believe it or not, sat perfectly upright on the ground.
It looked like the bomber was buried in the pavement up to his shoulders, until the Iraqi troops kicked him over, toppling the bloody stump like a piano bust.
Video three: Attack on American soldiers
A group of American soldiers or Marines (the video was not clear enough for me to recognize their uniforms) patrolling what looked like a farm. A bomb explodes and the troops disappear from view, until a new group of what looked like more American troops run in to drag away the dead and injured.
"Why do you have this on your phone?" I asked. He just shrugged his shoulders and gave me a look that said, ‘I dunno.’
I suspect that in the same way pornography was one of the fastest industries to take advantage of the new technology in the Internet, in Iraq too there’s a growing taste for this new war porn.
It seems all sewn up, but will it last?
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