Posted by Dave on 11/22/06 at 08:11:16 am
Categories: Foreign Affairs

This makes me incredibly angry [hat tip Roxanne].

American troops, sitting in a truck, taunting little children with a bottle of clean water. It must be nice to have access to all the water bottles you could need, while all of those around you have little of the same.

I know, or at least I hope, that is not representative of the troops that are in Iraq. But in a war that has already been shown to be unnecessary, and in a place where the troops are already not wanted, this type of thing just angers me.

It make me wonder the mindset that is created among those troops in a time/place of war. A war experience has to mess with the way you think and in turn the way you act. And it is exacerbated by the fact that you have an enemy. And you want to kill the enemy. There has to be a hatred towards those who are the enemy. Is that what drives this type of thing? Or is it just a bunch of young, immature soldiers who don't have anything better to do? War obviously has a dehumanizing affect on those that fight, those that kill. It has to. I do not understand how one could possibly kill without becoming desensitized to the fact that these are fellow human beings. But it is all a guess - I have never killed a person, and I hope I never will. But I simply do not comprehend what would drive someone to do something like this.

Maybe I am reading too much into this isolated event. I know it is just one small event in a very large and messy armed conflict. But I saw this and wanted to cry.

At least watch the video for me:

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