March 16, 2006 at 15:16:34

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By David Swanson (about the author) Page 2 of 2 page(s)

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I also think Americans would be shocked to see our own soldiers as humans, as they are in this film, rather than as faceless incarnations of machismo and xenophobia to be "supported". That alone would be enough to end this war and to fund care for veterans and military families.

But many Americans would be most shocked to realize that much of the world sees these suffering young men and women as war criminals. In fact, this film shows a human picture of people who are indisputably committing war crimes. They are engaged in an illegal and aggressive war. They are fighting people in their homes and treating them as sub-human.

Yet, we treat our soldiers as less than human if we "support" them by putting them in and leaving them in this situation.

Our soldiers ask Iraqis to understand the suffering of the soldiers occupying their country. And so they should. It is real. But do we understand the suffering of the Iraqis? Do we understand it the way we would the death of someone in our household? Are we even halfway to that understanding?

And what of the Saudi men who flew airplanes into our buildings? Is it possible that those criminals were also human beings and that some jumble of thoughts worth separating out was in their heads?

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David Swanson is the author of the upcoming book "Daybreak: Undoing the Imperial Presidency and Forming a More Perfect Union" by Seven Stories Press and of the introduction to "The 35 Articles of Impeachment and the Case for Prosecuting George W. (more...)

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