In the old days of war, it was fairly common to remove the heads of your enemies. Proof that you had slaughtered them and a warning to anyone else who dared test your armies. Taking the valuables off the dead enemy wasn’t seen as theft or robbery, like in the civilian world, but was instead seen as a ‘souvenir’. Even up into the latter half of the 20th century, there have been reports of ears, fingers, and toes being severed as trophies. The taking of war trophies, despite regulations strictly forbidding them, still occurs in 2010 among American soldiers.

When the gunfire stops and the all clear is given, boys covered in sweat, dirt, and Kevlar begin to produce digital cameras. They click and snap with tiny little flashes. The cameras take digital war trophies that the soldiers trade and collect on disks.

And just like the heads, jewelry, uniform insignia, fingers, toes, and ears, these war trophies have the same effect.

Proof that you were there, that you saw it happen, that you lived, and they didn’t.