Put simply: Happy viewing. Although navigating the world of online war videos is at best a haphazard venture, there is enough material to provide as clear a view into the lives of combat, boredom and pointless amusement of the soldiers in Iraq as one will find anywhere.
On this particular video:
A more subtle view of the role of private military firms is shown in one of the most heavily viewed videos from the war, in which Blackwater USA contractors join the fight to defend the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) headquarters in Najaf during the April 2004 Shiite uprising. The video shows a Blackwater sniper firing countless rounds at insurgents, part of an operation that included the use of Blackwater helicopters to deliver supplies, ammunition and close-air support and that is credited with saving the CPA compound from being overrun when U.S. Army helicopters were held back because of heavy enemy ground fire.
The Blackwater sniper video was filmed a week after the mutilation of four Blackwater contractors that forced the Marine Corps into the battle of Fallujah, a strategic debacle that upended months of Marine commanders' planning to gradually build trust with the local population and root out the insurgents with minimal collateral damage or U.S. casualties. It is not apparent that Blackwater's heroism in Najaf did more good than the Fallujah mutilations did harm, but this single video posits the evidence for our consideration.
