The NYTimes is reporting that a military analyst who leaked the “Collateral Murder” videos to Wikileaks has been arrested.
If you missed the leaks at the time, you can watch them at CollateralMurder.com. They are videos taken from the gun-sights of US helicopters, complete with the commentary from military personnel firing down into the Iraqi neighborhoods below them. The videos capture the killing of civilians, including two Reuters journalists. They show just how impersonal murder has become. This is a video game war and there’s no real consequence to shooting the wrong target from thousands of feet away.
The arrested soldier is Specialist Bradley Manning, 22, of Potomac, Md. Motives for leaking the videos are unreported at this time, but one would suspect they include a moral revulsion to what the American war has become. The war has largely been fought out of sight. Manning has helped give us a glimpse of what’s happening. It’s horrific in its banality but so is the war in Iraq.
Jeremy says, Thank you Martin, we really
must keep these things in mind, and try
to act upon them.
Please send me your postal address so
I can send a little check for QuakerQuaker.
Please don’t publish the e‑mail address.
Hi Jeremy: thanks, the postal address is 364 North St. Hammonton NJ 08037.
ps: it doesn’t look like the comment is listing your email.
As the revelation Jesus’ life, death and resurrection brought works like yeast in the world war becomes more and more confusing. We can’t live with it yet we can’t live with the consequences of not having it. Jesus said that his coming would bring a sword not peace. As more and more people withdraw from waging war the more violent the world becomes. Terrorism is violence taken to a new extreme.
The snippet of war in “Collateral Murder” hardly tells the whole story nor does the traumatic experience of the soldier who pulled the children from a truck that was hit.
What was it that Jesus revealed? What does it mean to have a table set for us in the midst of our enemy? What was the joy set before Jesus as he went to the cross?
Diane