I have to say I went out and looked for the images/videos of that zaquari(sp?) bloke executing those nepalese workers from a US base in Iraq. Not for any purpose of gratification. But I had to see for myself, based upon what I had read in the news, what people are capable of. In a strange kind of way it was compelling - you wanted to look away but could not.
Most of us lead a very sheltered life and (lucky for us) are not exposed directly to such events. But imo there is an importance in understanding the sort of things people are really capable of. Personally I had to see it for myself.
In some ways I wish I had not, but in a way having watched and understood, I owe it to the men who were murdered not to forget what I saw or pretend it was somehow less than it was. Visceral, bloody and violent death is something which most of us will never come face to face with, thank god.
These kind of images should not be shown to minors but I think all adults should be made aware of the kinds of things that 'only happen in foreign climes' or 'somewhare else' - show us all the stunning complacency of our life here.
More recently with the D-day landings (etc) being revisited on discovery channels I was struck by some of the comments from veterans concerning the awful truth of the way things were back then: one guy had a japanese skull that he kept, it was somehow less than what he had witnessed every day for the last couple of years, brutalised and dismembered bodies, unrecognisable fleshy lumps. In his own words keeping the skull reminded him of what he was there for and as a symbol of the death that they had become. And another GI talking about collecting gold teeth from (mostly) dead japanese soldiers and how a medic had persuaded him not to do so, thus preserving the thinnest veneer of decency and humanity - "How would your mother feel about you doing that?" "She would be absolutely horrified."
Civilisation is but a small step away from something truely awful and we would do well to know this and not forget it amongst the daily minutia of our lives.
War is what shows mankind for what it really is; a savage beast capable of just about any atrocity given the right motivation or circumstances. Pretending otherwise or hiding from the reality of human nature is foolish imho. Obviously I'm not advocating wallowing through the darkest and most base aspects of action, but we really should keep the knowlege and memories alive and perhaps we can move on from that.
To paraphrase one veteran of the pacific war:
"I learned what it is to kill and how to do it. I also learned that men like to kill and what it means to understand that feeling."
I am very glad that the chances of directly experiencing some of those things is unlikely for me. I believe there is a tendency to hear and see the way the media presents conflict in a kind of ascetic detached way. Let me explain, you don't identify victims of a foreign war as being like you. Oh, that's so far away... it's on the news all the time, but the factor that makes it more than just a news story is missing because the 'grisly bits' are edited out so we get used to a clean and sanitised version of these events. Death is intimately part of life and of who we are and you cannot really appreciate one without the other, no matter how shocking it can be; pretending it's less than it is is a diservice to all of those who have gone before and those who will innevitably follow.
I still have mixed feelings about the way we should see certain things. Perhaps it is a good thing that we are sometimes sheltered from such terrible images, I guess it's just a shame that there are those who do not have the luxury to choose to be exposed to such terrible things.
Knowlege that a thing exists is not the same as realising it and for me such an event as I described in my first paragraph, I had to see to understand - it's difficult to explain. Watching it unfold with the sounds and actions of a man having his throat cut and then having his head severed an placed upon his tosro and to see the eyes still moving and the lips working (if that's too much pm and I'll edit) lent a more personal and infinately more powerful and changing knowlege to one who had not truly concieved the reality of what some people are prepared to do in the name of an ideal. For sure I will never ever forget that. How could I? Yet there was also (dare I say it) a kind of dignity to it too- those men knew they were going to die, how could they not? Yet there was not a word from any of them; no pleading or emotion. I can scarecly comprehend the sheer courage of those men facing such a certain end. That such a brutal event shoud also reveal the other side of humanity was not something I was prepared for or saw in that film until I had chance to reflect upon it some days later, after my initial shock and outrage at the actions of the perpetrators of such a crime, reducing living breathing people to mere beasts not worthy of any more consideration than you would show to cattle going for slaughter.
Such humanity wonderful and terrible though it is gives me some slim hope for the future of this world and to see the best qualities of man revealed by his worst actions is a strange and alkward dichotomy to assimilate. Perhaps, eventually, we can have one exist without the need for the other to reveal it.
Most of us lead a very sheltered life and (lucky for us) are not exposed directly to such events. But imo there is an importance in understanding the sort of things people are really capable of. Personally I had to see it for myself.
In some ways I wish I had not, but in a way having watched and understood, I owe it to the men who were murdered not to forget what I saw or pretend it was somehow less than it was. Visceral, bloody and violent death is something which most of us will never come face to face with, thank god.
These kind of images should not be shown to minors but I think all adults should be made aware of the kinds of things that 'only happen in foreign climes' or 'somewhare else' - show us all the stunning complacency of our life here.
More recently with the D-day landings (etc) being revisited on discovery channels I was struck by some of the comments from veterans concerning the awful truth of the way things were back then: one guy had a japanese skull that he kept, it was somehow less than what he had witnessed every day for the last couple of years, brutalised and dismembered bodies, unrecognisable fleshy lumps. In his own words keeping the skull reminded him of what he was there for and as a symbol of the death that they had become. And another GI talking about collecting gold teeth from (mostly) dead japanese soldiers and how a medic had persuaded him not to do so, thus preserving the thinnest veneer of decency and humanity - "How would your mother feel about you doing that?" "She would be absolutely horrified."
Civilisation is but a small step away from something truely awful and we would do well to know this and not forget it amongst the daily minutia of our lives.
War is what shows mankind for what it really is; a savage beast capable of just about any atrocity given the right motivation or circumstances. Pretending otherwise or hiding from the reality of human nature is foolish imho. Obviously I'm not advocating wallowing through the darkest and most base aspects of action, but we really should keep the knowlege and memories alive and perhaps we can move on from that.
To paraphrase one veteran of the pacific war:
"I learned what it is to kill and how to do it. I also learned that men like to kill and what it means to understand that feeling."
I am very glad that the chances of directly experiencing some of those things is unlikely for me. I believe there is a tendency to hear and see the way the media presents conflict in a kind of ascetic detached way. Let me explain, you don't identify victims of a foreign war as being like you. Oh, that's so far away... it's on the news all the time, but the factor that makes it more than just a news story is missing because the 'grisly bits' are edited out so we get used to a clean and sanitised version of these events. Death is intimately part of life and of who we are and you cannot really appreciate one without the other, no matter how shocking it can be; pretending it's less than it is is a diservice to all of those who have gone before and those who will innevitably follow.
I still have mixed feelings about the way we should see certain things. Perhaps it is a good thing that we are sometimes sheltered from such terrible images, I guess it's just a shame that there are those who do not have the luxury to choose to be exposed to such terrible things.
Knowlege that a thing exists is not the same as realising it and for me such an event as I described in my first paragraph, I had to see to understand - it's difficult to explain. Watching it unfold with the sounds and actions of a man having his throat cut and then having his head severed an placed upon his tosro and to see the eyes still moving and the lips working (if that's too much pm and I'll edit) lent a more personal and infinately more powerful and changing knowlege to one who had not truly concieved the reality of what some people are prepared to do in the name of an ideal. For sure I will never ever forget that. How could I? Yet there was also (dare I say it) a kind of dignity to it too- those men knew they were going to die, how could they not? Yet there was not a word from any of them; no pleading or emotion. I can scarecly comprehend the sheer courage of those men facing such a certain end. That such a brutal event shoud also reveal the other side of humanity was not something I was prepared for or saw in that film until I had chance to reflect upon it some days later, after my initial shock and outrage at the actions of the perpetrators of such a crime, reducing living breathing people to mere beasts not worthy of any more consideration than you would show to cattle going for slaughter.
Such humanity wonderful and terrible though it is gives me some slim hope for the future of this world and to see the best qualities of man revealed by his worst actions is a strange and alkward dichotomy to assimilate. Perhaps, eventually, we can have one exist without the need for the other to reveal it.
