Considering the WikiLeaks video

This video has converted me from merely opposing the war to being anti-war. Not pacifist, but no longer content with being passive about my opposition to this war and what it does to our country and human beings.

Worst of all, it corroborates observations I’ve been reluctant to acknowledge about what conflicts like this do to young men who train to become soldiers and find that it’s sometimes necessary to dehumanize their opponents, and hence compromise their own humanity for causes their “superiors” insist are unquestionably noble. I’ve winced when hearing otherwise decent military friends pass around their jokes and thought, ‘Whatever is necessary to do their jobs — I sure couldn’t.’ Is this dehumanization sometimes necessary? Perhaps. But we’d better be darned sure that American lives hinge upon it before giving our support and consent; surely I don’t need to tell you that our national security was not at all helped by the soldiers in that video, and hardly more by any of our military’s actions in Iraq and Afghanistan.

It is already being said, no doubt, that incidents like this are few and far between, and that they are the cost of freedom and American safety. Even granting the former (and I truly regret that I cannot confidently do so), the latter is tantamount to consent for such barbarous acts that we selectively recognize as “terror” when perpetrated by Arabs.

God have mercy on us. How can we remain silent?

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