War, what is it good for?

Diedre made a few comments recently about the Iraq war, and the callousness toward human life that seems to be accompanying it.

Al-Zarqawi, a powerful al-Qaeda member and "prince of terror" was killed recently by American forces. Diedre is uncomfortable with what she calls "100% jubilant 0% remorseful" murder. Now it seems that it is worse than we thought. Al-Zarqawi was not killed immediately, as originally reported, but bloodied and tried to run. American forces claim that he died of his injuries soon afterward, but some witnesses claim that the Americans beat him to death. His face was cleaned off before a picture was taken.

This war is vile. Maybe all wars are. I'm not an absolute pacifist in theory, but so far I am a pacifist in practice. I keep hearing stories about this war, about atrocities committed. It makes me sick.

I don't think Americans are somehow worse than other people. I don't think that soldiers are inherently evil. But I do wonder what killing people does to you. I wonder how you can kill people still respect their humanity. And I wonder how you can devalue and dehumanize your opponents without leading directly to atrocities. Maybe it's possible. I'm not sure.