war is not healthy...

This is horrible and sad.

Apparently, US soldiers are trading photos of mangled Iraqis for access to a Dutch porn site. The guy who posted this story on his blog did a lot of fact-checking and it looks like it's for real. Read the full story here.

He writes very well about it. He does have some of the photos posted, with the gory bits blocked out, which is good—you can definitely get the idea, but aren't distracted by the awful details.

I'm not sorry I clicked, because as he reminds us, this is the cost of war and we should know about it—this should be in our heads, firmly, if we ever toss about some glib idea of...well, of violence in general, or particular acts of violence such as assassination, war, revolution, whatever.

I have been a confirmed non-pacificist for a while now but these pictures demand that I re-evaluate.

Is there any cause worth creating these scenes for?

Maybe. Maybe not. But we must, we must understand the cost. I urge you to look at this link.

The blogger reminds us that, if this is upsetting for us, what must it be like to be living over there? as a soldier or a civilian? to be seeing these horrors on a daily basis?

The "trophy winner smiles" of the US soldiers are as horrifying as the bodies/body parts they're holding or pointing to. In fact, looking at the "censored" photos highlights these young boys' faces all the more.

These guys have lost their souls and probably their minds as well.

It's just very very very sad.