Pentagon Monitors War Videos Online

jonfr writes "According to the BBC, the Pentagon is monitoring online war videos on YouTube and other webpages." From the article: "There is no specific policy that bans troops from posting graphic material. But troops who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan are hearing the message that they should consider carefully what videos they upload to the web. Sites such as YouTube and Ogrish have hundreds or thousands of clips from soldiers, some set to rock music."

Comments

Interesting phenomenon

[timeOday]

I used to have a co-worker who had served in Gulf War I a few years earlier. One day for no apparent reason he pulled out snapshots of charred bodies and body parts, which he had taken on the "highway of death", some days after the end of the conflict. I wonder if some soldiers feel a need to help the rest of us understand what it's really like out there, or if it's cathartic for them.

I don't choose to look at the photos, but in a way I think it's good to de-sanitize war, because it isn't.

how I lost respect for soldiers

[SuperBanana]

I lost significant respect for soldiers the day I found some clips on a military-ish website.

One was a surveilance helicopter (dunno which one...probably the one with the camera/sensor ball above the rotor) and the video was from a training session. Most of the video, however, was of the crew watching thermal imaging of a couple having sex in the back seat of a convertible. So, if you think your military isn't spying on you as a civilian, you're right- "The Military" isn't, but a bunch of bored 20-somethings in multi-million-dollar toys ARE. And discipline in the military is so lax that apparently that kind of crap is tolerated.

Second sealed the deal for me. It was video from one of the big cargo-plane gunships in either Iraq or Aghanistan. The video consisted of thermal camera footage of them systematically gunning down people at some sort of small building- almost like a small church, quite possibly a mosque.

It showed people running for cover and the crew gunning them down, and it went for a good 5-10 minutes. They didn't appear to have any weapons, and were trying to hide behind walls and such (which didn't work since the gunship was circling.) That turned my stomach. However, when I listened more closely to the radio chatter, I wanted to throw up. The gunners and crew were laughing and joking. "Oh, quick, get 'im, there he goes!" "Oh, he thinks he's safe now, ahaha!", "hey, good shot there man! You really got him good!" etc. It was like a video game to them; my portrayal just doesn't do it "justice". There was no hate or malice- just very sickening joy on the part of those watching a video screen and plugging real people with real bullets and shells from miles away up in the sky.

Talk about video game violence just doesn't compare to the joy these murderers (I don't think the term "soldier" is even appropriate) took in killing other human beings. I feel a twang of guilt after a session of Battlefield 2, but these guys took joy in the real thing.

Re:how I lost respect for soldiers

[ubrayj02]

No offense, but what else do you expect? I assume that you know people who have served in the military. What should a gunship operator be saying as he is gunning someone down? If it were me, I too would have to use a very black sense of humor in order to forget about the reality of having a job as a professional person killer.

The stupidity, foibles, and miscommunication that exist in our everyday lives also exist in soldiers' everyday lives. When you reflect on it, I believe that you will see that these videos are not so outrageous after all.

Whether or not they belong on the internet however - that is another question entirely.

Re:Yeah this bad music is making me sick...

[Aladrin]

Hm, 'A Clockwork Orange,' anyone?

Re:you must be crazy

[plasmacutter]

While I agree with everything you said, in defence of the average soldier on the line the basic training (boot camp) process is basically designed to brainwash people into being indifferent to death and cruelty.

I don't really decry the use of "conversion tactics" such as this in basic training, because otherwise, you end up with situations like those reported in wwII, where in the heat of conflict 60-75% of soldiers avoided firing their weapons because they are still horrified by the idea of killing another human.

These incidents though indicate a need for greater subtlety in this "training" process, and I don't pretend to know exactly how it needs to bet tweaked, I think some phds in psychology and experts on conditioning and hypnosis need to work that out.