A little over nine years ago I was sitting in my friend Gavin’s family room watching CNN. It was March 20th, 2003 and I was home from college for the weekend. We were eating pizza and talking about Spring quarter. On the TV: a live feed of Baghdad. In the middle of our conversation my friend stops and said: “holy shit.” I looked at the screen.  We were watching cruise missiles impact in the city.  I was puzzled, fascinated, and exhilarated all at the same time. We were watching the start of the Iraq War, live. At that time, I was a 19 year-old college student. I felt what I thought was a natural reaction for the teenage American male: let’s kick some ass. The who and why of bombing was far less important than that fact that we were bombing. It was like a video game, cruise missiles live on CNN. It was both awesome and horrifying all at the same time.

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