Because the most threatening moments for the Marines in HBO’s generation Kill are represented as they move through cities, the worst atrocities they commit stem from their avoidance of them. When they move through a city, the camera captures their peril well (note how their Humvee is surrounded by buildings, any one of which could be harboring combatants who might fire on them: Figure 13).
.Figure 13: Passing Through A City
As a result, Colbert (in Epiosode 17 wonders aloud why they have to pass through cities in their vulnerable Humvee while tanks and LAVs are available. Relieved when they see a city on their route go up in smoke from the explosives they launch from a distance, they wonder nevertheless whether it’s a legitimate target (Unable to tell if the village had any combatants, they had been instructed from the command behind them to destroy it). And as they close in on an airfield nearby they learn that, “The order is everyone is declared hostile.” However, although the most gung ho killer in their patrol, “Captain America, shouts, “engage, engage” (see Figure 14 “Captain America”), Sergeant Colbert demands restraint “We’re not engaging; those are civilian huts.”
Figure 14: Captain America
And crucially, to the extent that Colbert becomes increasingly worried about killing civilians, it is a function of the return of the military gaze by civilians – for example this woman whose son has been mortally wounded (Figure 15)
Figure 15: The Return of the Gaze
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