Horror of war

Unable to sleep last night, I found myself watching an obscure BBC channel in the early hours of this morning. You know the type, they sit between national geographic and hard core porn, with viewing figures only marginally worse than channel 5. Anyways I'm glad I flicked far enough up the channels to BBC documentary.

I found myself watching a program which followed the story of cameramen and journalists in Iraq during the war. They essentially concentrated on two groups, those 'embedded' with 40 commando, who were amongst the first into Iraq and those described as unilateral - ie independent. The program brought a little bit of mixed emotion, fascination in the first instance especially with the crews exploits in capturing footage of 40 commando at work. However, this was replaced by nothing if a little horror at the true extent of what 'shock and awe' really meant.

If nothing it brought home the perhaps often understated true nature of war, its a dirty, seedy business. A fact highlighted most graphically, when the convoy within which the BBC's unilateral crew was traveling came under attack by allied forces. This friendly fire incident was captured in very graphic detail.

The program overall served to act as a poignant example of the true price of freedom, perhaps even emphasizing our own macabre desire to watch this cost in real time?