Vietnam Refilmed

Early on the rapid decline into the cesspool that this war has become, many people began comparing it to America's part in the Vietnam war. Those on the right quickly mocked this similarity, with some actual reasoned argument as to why this war was unlike Vietnam. For many of us, though, it was quickly reduced to a war more closely related to Vietnam than, say, the second World War. The domino theory replayed in reverse [in Vietnam, we were stopping "all the little countries" from toppling under the weight of the falling dominos of Communism around them; here we were instead tipping the first dominoes of Democracy]; the War in our homes on Television; the recent use of white phosphorus and potentially versions of napalm. One war is not any other in history, but they may share many similarities.

And now, in a very sad twist of fate this war is being filmed with a lot of similarity to that one.

In Apocolypse Now, and many other Vietnam films there were scenes of random, gleeful shootings by Americans into civilians; with a bumping soundtrack, we watched young kids laughing as they strafed whole towns. We were watching, then, filmed recreations of what we feared, and somehow knew, was happening. In the above link, we see something we couldn't have even concieved as happening- and it's the same fucking scene. It's the same thing.

Remove the helicopter, replace with a moving car. Remove the seventies soundtrack, and replace with a hipsterish Elvis song. Remove the faces of the Americans, but replace with the knowledge that the guys pulling the trigger are American defense contractors. Remove the Vietnamese actors; replace with actual, real, living breathing Iraqis- citizens.

The video I've linked to above through Crooks and Liars is as horrifying as anything else we've seen in the war. The video itself is not as shocking as what is contained within it- random and astounding violence. It's creepy, to be sure. But it is also simply sad.

I can't purport to claim knowledge of what the war in Iraq looks like on the ground. There's a blogger at Spittle & Ink who is on his way to Iraq to do just that- so he'll give us the insights. But while I can't claim anything, what I see is terrifying definition and focus of the war- it is random, victimizing, ferocious, gleeful, ideologically fun, and completely unaccountable.