Why we should fight fewer wars.

If you haven't seen it already, and if you can watch a video where innocent people are being killed, there is a classified video,leaked by Wikileaks, in which a dozen people, including a Reuters photographer and his driver, are killed.

There is a lot of interesting commentary on this video which, as a photographer, I have been watching with interest. I think the most cogent argument boils down to, essentially, "don't hate the player, hate the game."

Because war fucking sucks. It sucks for soldiers. It sucks for civilians. It sucks. I think this video is a particularly blunt and effective reminder of what everyone was protesting in 2003: war. Not in Iraq, not in Afghanistan, but war. Anyone that watches this video and dislikes the actions of the soldiers is, as you were saying, not placing the blame in the right place.

One of the Economists posts (linked below) mentions that we only see this video because they were Reuters employees, which is worth paying attention to. This video is most likely one of thousands with people being shot at and pilots treating it the situation with such disdain, and we are only seeing it because of the special circumstance. Again, more reasons to be mad at the system than the participants.

Here's some commentary from elsewhere:

Politics, Theory, and Photography:
"War is shitty. And the young men we send to fight are desensitized by the experience. War is kill or be killed. So we should be surprised not in the least about the crass attitude articulated by the American troops in the video sound track. In fact, this is precisely what you claim to be grateful for when you thank military men and women 'for their service.'"

The Economist has two very good posts, from different authors.

The first:
"The second essential point is the moment at 15:29 of the Wikileaks video, when someone, a pilot, gunner, or controller, says, "Well, it's their fault for bringing their kids into a battle." Another voice answers, "That's right." No. Nothing could be more wrong. When you see children being evacuated from a van you've just destroyed, the thought running through your mind should be: What did I just shoot at? Who was in that van?"

The second:
"...no matter how precise our weaponry gets, no matter how much information we feed into our targeting systems, the decision to fire will always be based on incomplete information and come down to fallible human judgment. So while it is normal to react to these tragedies with varying degrees of moral repugnance, let us not be shocked. This is the nature of war and there is only one truly effective way to avoid such incidents."

Both the NYTimes Lens blog and The Online Photographer have thoughtful posts remembering Noor-Eldeen.

This comment, from a poster on reddit, is also a worthwhile addition to the discussion, and easily the most personal feeling.