Los Angeles, CA—The amazing video technology has brought the horrors of war to our pockets. Both to capture and to later see the death and destruction.
In contrast the Vietnam war brought films of battles to our TV’s at our dinner tables. They were gathered by seasoned war correspondents. The graphic violence for the most part was edited out. We were given the American casualty count.
The memorable unedited and unforgettable Vietnam War images were that of Buddhist monks burning themselves to death in protest, the proof of the atrocious, My Lai Massacre and the impromptu street execution of a Viet Cong spy by Republic of Vietnam Brigadier General, Nguyen Ngoc Loan. Last but not least was the horrifying image of a critically burned little girl running away after a napalm attack. Those four powerful images fueled propaganda that defined the war.
Today we are bombarded with videos captured on smartphones. Some were shot and uploaded by terrorists. Other videos were found on dead terrorists phones and uploaded by Israeli solders and/or Hamas. The same is true for the Russia/Ukraine conflict. The videos are often sloppy, shaky poorly composed but they all tell a story. They are all stored in our pockets.
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