Bloody Web Videos Show Horrors of War

Sept. 18, 2006 — -- War is hell. But you might never know it from watching your nightly news or picking up the morning paper.

If you really want to see how violent, disturbing and outright terrifying war can be, all you need to do is log on to the Internet and stop by any of the Web's many community video sites such as YouTube, Ogrish or Google Video.

Armchair generals, current, former and wannabe military service people, jihadists, snuff seekers, the curious and the political are all posting and watching both tame and graphic videos or life on the battlefield.

"Mainstream media has traditionally constrained themselves or have been constrained from showing really graphic images," said Brian Marcus, director of Internet monitoring for the Anti-Defamation League. "Now there's technology out there that's made things so easy -- anyone carrying a cell phone these days can take a picture or a video and post it on the Internet and within minutes it can be viewed all over the world."

The Internet gives anyone with a computer the ability to speak to the world, but that power cuts both ways. It gives users the power to choose how to supplement the news they get from their TV or newspaper, but it also acts as a soapbox for propagandists to spread hate, fear or just confusion.

For the U.S Department of Defense every day presents a new challenge.

With U.S. military power spread thinly across Iraq and Afghanistan, and the war in Iraq becoming less popular, a new warfront on the Internet is an unwelcome addition to a war that already has too many fronts.

As insurgents and terror groups seek public sympathy and try to exploit more advanced methods of warfare and recruitment, videos of attacks on U.S. troops, hostage beheadings and worse popped up all over the Web.

"We are aware that this stuff is out there. We know the enemy is going to try to put propaganda out there," said Capt. Rebecca Goodrich, a spokeswoman for the DOD. "As the Secretary [of Defense] has said, we just need to make the public aware that this is out there and that they're [the enemy] trying to manipulate the media."