Joanna Schroeder admires Salon’s John Rico for his honesty about what makes young soldiers pose with corpses during wartime, and wonders whether war porn is deviant, or a natural by-product of teaching young people to kill.
The nation was shocked last week when we learned of more supposed bad behavior by US troops overseas, in the form of posing with the bodies of dead enemy combatants. This isn’t shocking news though, is it? It’s been happening since the beginning of this war, and as far as we know, as long as war has been happening, in one form or the other.
In a fascinating Salon.com piece, former infantry soldier and combat veteran John Rico an insider’s perspective on the function of so-called war porn, and wonders what it is about society that makes us so shocked to learn that young people who’ve been trained to fight and kill since they were 18 years old have reveled in the death of their enemies:
I have to say that I find all the political and polite posturing to be quite amusing. I say this because with a single email, attaching just a few of the files in my own treasure trove, I could ignite this controversy all over again.
You see, I too have a secret collection of “war porn.”
I am not alone.
Every single infantry soldier I know has a collection of war porn. Photos of IED sites, shots of spent shell casings after a battle, and most notably, the photos of the people we’ve killed. And yes, sometimes in these photos, we’re mugging for the camera with the dead guy behind us.
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For those of us who’ve been protected from the horrors of war, for those of us who’ve never seen a the dead body of someone who was actively trying to kill us, it’s impossible to imagine keeping photographs of any dead body, let alone gory ones, let alone ones where we’re mugging alongside a body.
That’s serial killer stuff, right? Like Jeffrey Dahmer? Not so fast, says Rico.
As much as I’m disturbed by what Rico says in his Salon piece, I believe honesty is the best way for us to attempt to walk in someone’s shoes:
As with all things, context is everything. And considering that the United States has tasked soldiers to kill on its behalf; that they are, in fact, killing and also being killed; and that their duties sometimes include picking up body parts after a suicide attack – is their desire to document this insanity really the crazy part?
The real grotesqueness isn’t in infantry soldiers taking a few war trophies. No, it’s the idea that’s been sold to the American public that war can be sterile. It’s the idea that 18-year-olds who have been ordered to kill people will never play with the body parts afterward.
I think before we judge these young men and women, before we decide that they are “bad” or deviant, we need to do as Rico commands us to do, and examine what’s truly behind these photographs. Perhaps the worst part of these photographs is that they are made public and create worse anti-American sentiment in an already dicey situation.
What do you think? Is War Porn deviant, or a natural byproduct of teaching young people to kill?
Photo courtesy of The U.S. Army
Even if war is not deviant, I think the best option would simply be to NOT teach young ones how to kill, don’t you think?
Say what you will, you cannot expect people to fight, kill, and die for you, without consequences. Everyone hear has stated in one way or another, that violence is a part of nature, and no one hear can really say what is right or wrong until being in a soldiers place. Violence is a part of us, it comes naturally to some, scarcely to others. It is the job of those that shy away from violence(which is most of the population in America) to accept those that fight for us, not ostracize them for doing what soldiers have been doing… Read more »
I have always been bemused by all forms of war porn, and yet having dealt with those who have served and returned such items and images have extremely strong emotional connections. I find the use of the word “Porn” odd – would you call someone who has strong emotional bonds to a Rock Star and their music a collector or porn – T-shirts, Posters, Concert images …. even autographs? Porn is evidently used to express negative emotions, views and to incite negative emotions. I recall a particular quote from Oliver Stone’s film “JFK” (1991) – “The organizing principle of any… Read more »
Is War Porn deviant or a natural product of teaching young people to kill? We fail to recognize how many of the people around us think that death and suffering are funny without having been “taught” to kill. Walk into any 5th grade classroom and see how many boys you could get laughing over the thought of exploding frogs with fireworks.
Anyone who plays video games knows that it’s bound to happen. I wouldn’t say it’s natural but most of what we do isn’t unfortunately. I doubt you would see a wolf kill another wolf, then tea bag him and piss on his dead body, but people are very likely to do that upon conquering death in a physical “besting your adversary” type way. I bring up video games, because it’s a simulated alternate reality that shows what we WOULD do in a given situation. In a video game you don’t kill the boss, beat the game, and wait for the… Read more »
To me, the whole thing makes perfect sense. War is, as has been said, part of human nature for better or worse. It is also an unfathomable nightmare. We’re talking about young men and women with almost no life experience being sent to a faraway place to shoot and be shot at. I am certain that they experience nightmares that the vast majority of us could not even comprehend to be real. These images, I’m sure, are a reminder that it was real. “I’m not crazy, this happened. Here is photographic proof that it happened.” Totems, physical reminders, and pictures… Read more »
(First off I wonder what the seeming obsession with use of the word porn. It seems like these days every time its noticed that people take pleasure in something that may be bad people trip over themselves to call it some sort of porn. I know there isn’t some exlicit link to sex when they do that I just wonder how/why people have gotten to the point of constantly coming up with such new types of porn. Reveng porn, war porn, torture porn, etc…) If you look back in history these types of photos are by no means the first… Read more »
Is war deviant? OMG! What an utterly ahistorical (dare I say ignorant of history?) comment. War is exceedingly natural to humans. Violence, murder and mayhem is par for the course amongst humans. Our modern era of peace is the abnormality and deviance, not the norm (historically speaking). Granted, that’s a kind of deviance of which we can all approve. Violence is a tool and it is a tool that has been effective to achieve certain ends for a long long time. One is wiser to examine why it has become a less effective tool in recent times than to attack… Read more »
“The question would be is War deviant. Apparently not. Human beings, must someplace in their deep genetics, love violence. There are so many things that happen during war time…from taking trophies to sexual assault to torture…seems the purpose is to completely dehumanize the enemy all while bonding with your own side through the activities listed above.”
Did you read my answer? I said as much as you. It’s part and parcel of human existence.
I understood your words to suggest there was a question. I’m sorry if I misinterpreted you. It is abundantly clear that humans are violent, sadistic and cruel creatures. The degree of our sadistic cruelty and violence is hidden to us today because our society are so peaceful, respectful and benign. The real question is, how did this happen and how do we repeat it. Nature ain’t nice. That’s where we came from and that’s still where we reside. War was endemic in nature and remains endemic today (though in different ways than in the past). How we change this is… Read more »
The question would be is War deviant. Apparently not. Human beings, must someplace in their deep genetics, love violence. There are so many things that happen during war time…from taking trophies to sexual assault to torture…seems the purpose is to completely dehumanize the enemy all while bonding with your own side through the activities listed above. As for ” Perhaps the worst part of these photographs is that they are made public and create worse anti-American sentiment in an already dicey situation.” No. The more light shed on the things our government tolerates (or encourages) the better, save for the… Read more »
Julie, You don’t think there’s some consideration to be made with respect to who our opponents are in Afghanistan? Make no mistake, the US gov’t could create propaganda if they wanted to. They could get all the images of Americans being beheaded by jihadists (of which there are several), and all the images of the 9/11 victims, and put together great video packages suggesting the average Afghani is sub-human. But they don’t do that. Unfortunately, our opponents in Afghanistan do. Go watch the documentary Restrepo (this is also a great documentary for other reasons), and you’ll see. The average villager… Read more »
Honestly, only people who lead such sheltered lives could find this behaviour odd.
I’m not a soldier, but having studied war since a young age, I am unsurprised by anything that is done in warfare.
Anyways….