Body horror on the internet: US soldiers recording the war in Iraq and Afghanistan

Abstract

Since the Kosovo conflict in 1999, attempts to manage the reporting of wars and conflicts, and specifically their visual representation, have accelerated. The global ‘information space’ is a key battlefront in the ongoing war against international terrorism, with all parties increasingly engaged in the production, distribution and mobilization of images to support their cause (Campbell, 2003; Keeble, 2004; Robinson, 2004; Webster, 2003; Taylor, 2003). The blurring of boundaries between those who are fighting and those who are documenting the war is critically manifested in the recent phenomenon of coalition soldiers logging on to the web from Iraq and Afghanistan, publicizing personal, at times shockingly brutal, photographs and video clips from the frontlines (Kennedy, 2008; Mortensen, 2007). The ability of global audiences to access the soldiers’ own images and stories directly through war blogs, mass emails and popular video-sharing sites such as YouTube and MySpace is opening up a new window on modern warfare that throws into sharp relief the ways in which mainstream media and governments cover the reality of war. The firsthand testimonials by soldiers actually living the war offer the public uncensored insights into the dark, violent and even depraved faces of warfare, thereby providing the basis for the kind of critical perspectives needed for a more open democratic debate. However, the soldiers’ visual recordings are at times so violent that they run the risk of severing the viewer’s emotional connection to what is represented. These hideous sights bring to a head the ongoing debates on the forms of witnessing called forth by the representations of distant suffering in the media (e.g. Boltanski, 1999; Chouliaraki, 2006; Hesford, 2004; Tait, 2008). If the moral justification for publicizing the death and agony of others lies in its potential for fostering an active public response,