Through the Crosshairs: Reading the Weaponized Gaze
In recent years, weapon-cam footage from distant wars has invaded the screens of civilian life. Now the crosshairs of the drone, smart bomb, helicopter gunship, satellite, and sniper scope have become a dominant window through which we see and “experience” war. Drawing from his book on this phenomenon, Dr. Roger Stahl traces the origins of this targeting footage and explores how it has been used to shape the public image of war in the twenty-first century. Stahl follows the dissemination of this “official” footage as it winds its way from remote military stations to government information offices into news, viral videos, and entertainment media – in the process normalizing and glamorizing a one-sided view of war, militarism, and U.S. military interventionism. From the air-conditioned offices of military public relations officers to jammers, activists, and artists in the streets, Through the Crosshairs offers a stunning and broad-ranging analysis of how the “weaponized gaze” has become a prime site of struggle over the meaning of state violence.
