Does our willful ignorance contribute to collateral murder?

A military video from an American Apache in Iraq in 2007 was posted a few days ago on Wikileaks, and independent online journalism site. The controversial video reveals the gunning down of two Reuters news staff, several unarmed civilians, and a family that drove in to try to help the wounded. The video has generated significant online conversation, and now even the international news conglomerates are picking up the story.

Emotions are running high in this debate. Many are outraged, others are jumping to the defense of American soldiers, claiming that this is not representative of reality and that those who have never lived through combat can not understand and have no place to judge.

With this much contoversy and heated debate, how could I not blog about it?

I watched the video. My stomach started churning in the first minute and I had to force myself to finish watching it. I don't know what sickened me more: watching the civilians gunned down, or listening to the soldiers who sounded like they were playing a video game.

I have never lived through combat. I have never even lived in a violent neighborhood, so I can not imagine the emotional and mental state of soldiers, charged with battling terrorism, living day in and day out in a hostile environment.

But that's just the point. We don't have to see it. That's the American way of life.

We can wake up in the morning and enjoy our cheap eggs and bacon without once asking ourselves what the true cost is of this cheap food, without ever visiting the unnatural, unhealthy, and painful lives animals are forced to live. We don't have to think about the various ways we rape and pillage the land and poison the world's water for our insatiable appetites.

After breakfast, we can choose our day's outfit from our closets stuffed with relatively inexpensive clothing without ever looking in the eyes of the children who labor 12-18 hours a day in sweltering factories producing our latest styles.

We can sip our coffee and savor our chocolate without considering the children sold into slavery so that those who harvest the beans can still turn a profit off the backs of this cheap labor.

We can flash our dazzling diamond earrings without ever sullying our hands with the blood that was shed over them.

And we can breathe peacefully and easily in an empire that sends boys and girls barely old enough to vote into combat on the other side of the world. We don't have to think about what it means to their fragile souls to be given the duty to kill. We don't have to live daily with the reality of the shattered lives on both sides of the weapon.

We are no more civilized, no less brutal than the very first humans. We're just better at shielding ourselves from the ugly truths. We turn our faces from what should sicken us to the core while rail against sports stars for setting a bad example for our children.

I don't know what I can do. I just know that I can't look away any longer.