In just 5 days, this footage from a helmet-mounted video camera strapped to a US soldier who was shot in combat has received over 12 million views on YouTube.
While most civilians probably wonder what the real-life experiences are of combat personnel serving in Afghanistan are like, this is the first time many are seeing it exactly as it happens. Turns out this anonymous soldier was struck 4 times, all while rolling film.
The bigger questions remain: Does footage like this glorify war? Since we don’t see any faces, and we know this soldier survived, does this just add to the idea that real-life war is probably just like a video game, when in reality it is devastating? Combat veteran Sean Davis’ story here on GMP, The Breech reminds us that what stays with you about war aren’t necessarily about the bullets, but the losses—of your friends and of the humanity around you.
None of that is shown here.
What do you think? Do videos like this help or hinder our society’s understanding of the true horrors of war?
Also read: The Breech by Sean Davis
what was striking for me was seeing that puff of dust just before his feet as he walked down the hilll. then realising ‘ that puff of dust was from a BULLET. that, could have killed him.’
Yeah, honestly I don’t think it glorifies war either… But I do think there’s a strange sort of detachment there only because we can’t see the enemy and there aren’t a lot of movie theater-type dramatics.
I see absolutely zero glorification in this video. The footage shown is absolutely horrifying, showing properly the exhaustion, fear and pain this man went through, in fact I’m sure most military PR would not allow this video to see the public sphere.
The video-game-like angle of viewing I think just serves to enhance the reality of the situation for those that do game, I know I game quite a bit and found this video very confronting. It’s much easier to rail on some other videos for glorifying war, leave this one alone.
From where I’m sitting, the perspective I get isn’t that this glorifies war. It doesn’t display a soldier parading valiantly through the streets amongst carefully-scored background music. It seem utterly surreal, without the sounds of bullets firing it would just be a beautiful sunny day atop a hillside. There’s no warning, suddenly he’s hit, gasping, rumbling and sliding, and once he’s hit he’s prone, shouting “I’m hit” over and over. And still, the odd silence in the air, the knowledge that there are no respawns. If the bullet had hit somewhere else he would be dead. It’s chilling not glorifying,… Read more »