"If war was hell and only hell and there were no other colors in the palate, [if] that was the essence of the experience and all that there was to the experience, I don't think people would continue to make war,"

- Michael Herr

"That first moment, your first kill... it's... strange. Because it's something you've never done before. But after that, well, with me - it started getting good. The killing started getting good. Well, you know... something is wrong here. Something is wrong in this picture. "

- Vietnam veteran, First Kill.

*promote

Promoting this video and sending it back into the queue for one more try; last queued Sunday, March 9th, 2008 12:32am PST - promote requested by calvados.

Farhad, is docsonline subscription only? It asked me for cash.

Yes it is. However you can find the film on Emule network for download.

I have tried to find a DVD to buy for ages now, however only one company sell VHS copies of the film at a incredible $398.

Moving this video to Farhad2000's personal queue. It failed to receive enough votes to get sifted up to the front page within 3 days.

*beg

Sending this video to Beggar's Corner to plea for a little attention - beg requested by original submitter Farhad2000.

I think there is a more benign explanation as to why people in war experience such transcendence and it doesn't require humans necessarily having a dark side. I think their experience has to do with how seductive and how addictive the chemistry of stress can be. Recently I was working on a deadline that kept me under an immense amount of stress over an extended period of time. Towards the end I found every experience so heightened that could it only be described as transcendent - everything - the good, the bad - fear, joy, the way the music sounded, the lows, the highs - the intensity of all experience was just pushed to the extreme. Now that the deadline is over I sometimes romanticize about that period even though I know how painful it was. I'm almost looking forward to the next year's deadline.

I imagine these soldiers are experiencing a lot more stress than I did and they are similarly romanticizing this time of stress because of the meaning it gave their lives. But the good news is that people can achieve the same level of transcendence by other, less darker means. I don't think war has to be an integral part of the human condition.