And that is why I embarked on another path to solve problems than through war; not because I thought I was surrounded by cold-hearted murderers, but because the system that we were a part of forced away our humanity; and though it is natural to want to exchange a slap for a slap, it seems to only justify each side's hatred of each other.
The Good Soldiers is a book written about the 2-16th Infantry and it describes the event in Collateral Murder and it's aftermath"
""an EFP had killed his friend" (his) memorial service had been on July 7, and now, 5 days later, as M saw all of the bodies scattered around, blown open, insides exposed, so gruesome, so grotesque, he felt as he would later explain"happy. It was weird. I was just really very happy. I remember feeling so happy. When I heard there's thirteen Killed In Action, I was just so happy, because C had just died, and it felt like, you know, we got "em"
""But the one on top was still alive, and as M locked eyes with him, the man raised his hands and rubbed his two forefingers together, which Mhad learned was what Iraqis did when they wanted to signal the word for friends.
"So M looked at the man and rubbed his two forefingers together too.
"And then dropped his left hand and extended the middle finger of his right hand.
And then said to the other solder, "C's probably just sitting up there drinking a beer thinking "Hah! That's all I needed'" -The Good Soldiers by David Finkel, Ch 5
And as one side hardens their hearts more and more in the name of their lost friends, I have no reason to doubt that the other does exactly the same. If people mourn fallen soldiers here, imagine how much more grief there would be if the person fallen was a child, or somebody who had nothing to do with perpetrating the violence. Because I have felt grief and sadness in my own heart, both in war and with the rush of emotions following 9/11, I can put myself in the shoes of the community of New Baghdad who had protested our prescience to begin with, seeing how creating Freedom, Peace, and Democracy through actions like the one shown in this video seem an extremely odd recipe" to say the least.
And even if somehow this contradictory recipe cooks up the desired product, I can't help but recoil at re-watching the van being shot, the celebration of death in the gunner's conversation, or reading the words of a fellow soldier as quoted in The Good Soldiers without thinking of the religion that I went to Iraq in the name of and being haunted by the words of the man it's named after: "And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?" -Matt 16:26
And at the end of the day, when the internet videos are watched, when our guns rest beside our beds, when we judge those who we don't try to understand (American or Iraqi), I hope we also remember to ask, "is anything worth more than my soul?"
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