At a Dallas-Fort Worth airport gate, when I was coming home from a trip to Guatemala, I saw several desert-fatigued non-coms who were heading to Sea-Tac Airport after returning from Iraq. I passed closely by two of them sitting on their baggage. Using a laptop commuter, the younger one was showing his buddy video clips that had been shot through his vehicle's night vision system.

The soldier narrated the scene of a truck blowing up after being hit by a heavy-duty round. Next, a human figure ran off, only to be shot by the soldier's machine gun. The soldiers were really pumped about what they were seeing; they could have been watching the Super Bowl.

As I walked on to my gate, I heard the younger soldier say, "Hey, look at this one, I put music to it." I did not want to hear or see any more. I sat down, stunned. Not only was this young man proudly displaying his kills, but he also had edited them into a music video. Killing to him was a video game.

I will never forget that moment. It was a rarified moment of complete, evil insanity and, regretfully, it was immersed in a world increasingly desensitized to it.

Everyone, when told about this, has expressed contempt and disgust for the individuals and what they were doing; my first emotions were the same. But the direction of my disgust changed the more I thought about it.

I believe that, given a set of choices and conditions, each of us has the capacity to be trained, detached and operated to exhibit those same behaviors we call evil. The military is about creating killers; it does its job very well, and today it continues to deliver its violence in more efficient, detached and sanitary methods. What else could explain how the average Joe, who could never be paid, convinced or coerced into bombing his family or his neighbor's homes and businesses, could do so every day in Iraq?

This violence seeps into our society from the periphery of war and supporting military-industrial-political complex. Perhaps the number of wars we fight is related to the ambient levels of violence and intolerance in our own country. Canada has one-tenth the murder rate of the United States and, as a country, has openly and readily debated and legitimized gay marriage. How many wars has Canada declared?

We must wage peace on war, until peace wins. This view is widely claimed, but not widely held. Most, who follow some of the wisdom of our holiest, ignore teachings that say we should stop all hostilities, lay down our arms, ask for forgiveness, become accountable, heal those we've harmed and do good.

Fear now holds our faith captive; most believers really don't act on what they say they believe, judging solely on what today's black hole of faith creates. But, faith unleashed allows us to be totally free, by being assuredly willing to bare ourselves to the brunt of our malefactor's ill intent until their own shame turns their hearts toward mercy. One does not create quietness by yelling "Silence!"

I saw evil that afternoon, but not in the original way. In Seattle, when the airline crew asked us to remain seated, allowing military men to exit first, the applause from the majority of passengers convinced me that the soldiers and the government were not responsible for these war crimes. Their applause told me that this evil is created, enabled and rewarded by most of our individual hearts, minds and actions. That is what scared me the most.

Algie Abrams of Snohomish is a digital artist; www.ovalrock.com.

© 2005 Seattle Post-Intelligencer