Administration officials and the President himself worked themselves into a froth this weekend over al-Jazeera’s insistence on showing film of what a war actually looks like, rather than carefully selected and bloodless bomb camera footage. Donald Rumsfeld went so far as to imply that American networks that rebroadcast the al-Jazeera footage might face war crimes charges.

You may support the war or you may be against it, but please do not allow yourself to pretend that it is a bloodless affair in which only the bad guys are killed, maimed, or terrorized.

Al-Jazeera has long talked of offering content in English to a non-Arab audience, and they are now offering translations of some of their reporting online. The site is somewhat slow, is updated only sporadically, and includes only a small portion of the material available to their Arabic-speaking audience. Nevertheless, whatever your political stripe, I cannot urge you strongly enough to have a look at it.

The website claims to offer “objective and balanced news coverage and analysis.” It will be immediately apparent to Western readers that this is not the case. That being said, read the site, and then watch CNN, putting yourself in the perspective of, say, a Palestinian, or a Syrian.

When the US attacked Afghanistan, I was working in Jordan. I had access to a number of news channels, including CNN International and BBC World. The contrast between the two was striking. The BBC’s newscast often opened with footage of houses destroyed by stray bombs, grieving families, and angry villagers. CNN never mentioned such things, but did linger on signs of the Taliban’s oppressive rule, and the general celebration once it was over.

The two channels seemed to show two different countries. One was a place where innocents suffered at the hands of the US military. The other was a place where citizens yearned to be freed from oppression. The country you think represents Afghanistan depends on which television channel you watched. No doubt neither country is the real Afghanistan.

Some people believe CNN presents things the way they do because they are a willing tool of the US government. I do not believe this to be the case. I think they give their viewers what they think their viewers want to see. American viewers want to see how humane Americans are even as they bravely go into battle with unshaven and unambiguous bad guys. Americans want to be moved by the courage of their soldiers and by the virtues of their value system. CNN gives them what they want. And of course, CNN’s reporters are American, too.

It is the same with al-Jazeera. Al-Jazeera is the first truly independent Arab television media outlet, but they still need to be relevant to their audience. They both shape and reflect opinion in the Arab world, and that makes them incredibly important.

This war is being prosecuted for the stated purpose of making America more secure. Take a minute to look at the war through an Arab lens, and think about how safe it makes you.

And never again ask, “why do they hate us?”