NEWS: Iraqi Invites the Internet to Shoot Him

POLITICS: Iraqi Invites the Internet to Shoot Him

What a nice way to spend a relaxing holiday weekend. A beer by your side, a burger in your belly, a ball game on the tube… and the ability to pump an Iraqi full of paint at your fingertips.

It’s simultaneously one of the most interesting, entertaining and disturbing performance art pieces I’ve ever seen. For the next week, viewers can log on to Mr. Bilal’s blog, aim the camera attached to a paintball gun at (or away from) Bilal, and squeeze off a few rounds. It’s kind of like Duck Hunt, but with real people. Good times abound, right?

Not exactly. As Bilal explains in this rather sobering Chicago Tribune piece, he began this project as a response to the U.S. military’s practice of firing rockets at Iraqi targets remotely from places within the United States. He argues that this practice desensitizes its participants to the destructive and terrible realities of war and contributes to American apathy towards Iraqi casualties.

Bilal knows of those harsh realities and mounting casualties all too well.

Living under constant fire has clearly taken its toll on Bilal, who seemed a bit frazzled but confident in his day one video blog...


...22 days later, he’s on the verge of a mental breakdown.

Bilal speaks of “the gun” ruling his life. It’s hanging over him like the Sword of Damocles and he is paying a steep psychological price for every round. It’s enough to make me feel a bit sheepish about the two or three shots I took at him initially and downright terrible for the millions of Iraqi citizens who live under a much more fatal and permanent threat. In that sense, Bilal’s work here is (pardon the term) right on target.

Perhaps Subrosa will stick to Duck Hunt.

My worry is that people will not understand his point as well as you did Subrosa. I can imagine how many people are thinking "hehehe, I get to shoot some of them Iraqis!".

I think that's part of the point. To test people's initial reactions to the opportunity to be anonymously sadistic.

That's pretty much how I veiw it as well.

reminds me of that fish in a blender art installation where it was left up to you to turn the blender on or not.

Ive been to iraq. people are only shot by soldiers when they are doing something wrong. something like, oh I don't know, trying to kill me! So this gentelman is just trying to stir up anti soldier sentiment. Support our troops, eve the assholes like me.

First off, let me earnestly commend you on your military service.

Beyond that, what you've said here is a load of utter shit. To pretend that there aren't innocent Iraqi casualties is completely asinine. Moreover, the idea that an artist who is attempting to show the human cost of war is somehow "anti-troop" is not only insulting but completely wrong. This installment is anything but anti-troop. It's (loosely) anti-war and definitely anti-dehumanization of Iraqi citizens. They are not at all the same thing.

I suggest you seriously think about why you've come to the conclusion that someone suggesting that innocent people are under considerable stress during wartime is an affront to the troops.

Well, it's not 100% anonymous, though. It displays your IP address and location after you shoot. I was looking at the site and not entirely understanding how it worked, so I clicked the gun and suddenly my IP address shows up, and I realized that that must mean that I'd shot the gun and I felt kind of bad, in a weird sort of way.

This is an intense idea.

Hey, it's the holiday weekend.

Doesn't make what he said any less dumb.

I didn't realize it showed your IP address. That's really interesting. Gives people a very, very distant sense of accountability.

Yeah why is it when people use paintball markers they are always the junky wal-mart 50 buck marker? If he wanted to do this with an artsie flair he should of used the 1 of 5 Aurora Nexus Ego then its art till then its a another pointless abuse of a great game. asshole.

It seems like it shows every once in awhile a list of the last 10 shooters by IP address and location. So yes, very distant, but something. Everything can be traced back to somewhere (even an unintentional firing of a paintball gun over the internet); maybe that's another side point of that part of the project.

That's fucked up. The entire time I was reading it, I had this this image in my head that when you fired the gun it was fake. Like the computer would somehow record whether the person aimed at him or not. Then when I watched the video and saw that it was a REAL paint-ball gun I was like, wtf?!?! That takes some balls (no pun intended) given the amount of assholes out there that probably sat around and actually tried to hit him. On that note, I tried shooting it at the near wall to the left, 'cause I couldn't see any paint, and I'm not entirely sure it's actually shooting paint-balls (tonight anyway).

I have seen the human cost of war. On both sides. But more civilians have died due to roadside bombs than due to american soldiers shooting them. And to try to un-dehumanize iraqis is not a good idea. In every war we have dehumanized the enemy. it makes what we do acceptable. we should just accept that war is hell and where ever it is fought there will be casualties. and considering that region has been fighting themselves since christ walked the earth makes me able to sleep.

Yeah, I think the yellow paintballs against the white background were a bad choice. I would have gone with green or red or something.

Red certainly would have been provocative, but you're right, a darker color would have been better.

The whole thing was an interesting idea, although (to me) it says more about peoples tendency to inflict pain when there are no repercussions than it does about attitudes towards American Iraqi populations**.

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He made it too "fun"...I don't think it mattered who the hell you put in front of that gun. People were going to shoot it. But there definitely was an element of catharsis involved.

Please explain how innocent Iraqis are "the enemy".

...o.o disturbing...

Duh. They're Iraqis.

They're brown aren't they?

this is a very good piece. i very much appreciate how you allude to the desensitization and sadism inherent in the 'game'. i read an article somewhere once about how nintendo is training all of our future american warriors. im looking for it now...

Sounds like you've been de-humanized.

hunh...this isn't a law/lawyer-related article...

'in every war we have dehumanized the enemy. it makes what we do acceptable...' these are your words. i am torn between appreciating and saluting what you do in the military, and criticizing the general viewpoint that 'dehumanizing the enemy' is ok. i understand you are putting your life on the line for all of our first-world freedoms, but it is incumbent upon military leaders to at least BEGIN to understand the cultural root of these problems. i also realize, in my own rudimentary knowledge of the areas historical and cultural history, that many creeds and faiths have been at each others throats for millenia. there is something large at stake for these populations, and to gloss over these profound and complex issues with...'and considering that region has been fighting themselves since christ walked the earth makes me able to sleep...' represents an american attitude which does nothing but compound the problem. dont kid yourself, though, were not over there because 'its the right thing to do'. were over there because it profits a very few rich, white men to make war. their similar lack of cultural awareness has trickled down the ranks, so to speak. you serve them and their immoral ends, yet at the same time you ACTUALLY ARE helping protect first-world liberties...is it ironic? yes. you know what the man said, though, war is hell...

The simple explination is that this war has only one side wearing uniforms. So you have to assume that everyone is the enemy. There life is meaningless unless its Your family or clan. They have been desensitized by violence all around. They learn early that life is short. So with the way they live, Im inclined to believe Mr. Bilal isnt bothered nearly as much as he is projecting.