Thoughts about burned bodies in Fallujah

[HEFFA]

I know that lots of people were appalled that the pictures of the dead Americans were shown recently. Personally, I think that this was a good thing. Not only did it finally bring some of the horrific reality of this conflict out into the light, but it also provided a gruesome reminder of the costs of any war. While most of what we have seen in the "news" since the start of the American invasion was surely sanitized for the viewing public, the reality of the conflict has just as surely been much more graphic and brutal...on both sides. The thought of the American public sitting comfortably in their homes and believing that everything in Iraq is going according to plan, or that America is harming only the "bad" people, is troublesome at a minimum and could more accurately be described as dead wrong. Our bombs are not smart, our airstrikes are not surgical, our victims are not all combatants, and the likelihood of victory there is far from assured. To present the terrible picture of the real costs of war was a brave move by the press and long overdue, IMHO.

[LARED]

1. Showing those pictures

is a two edged sword.


Many will be galvanized to stay the course by those images.

[HEFFA]

3. You raise a good point, but I'm not really concerned about the role that

scenes like this play in our decisions to stay or go from Iraq. Whatever those decisions are, or should be, they absolutely must be based on all of the available evidence. I am simply noting that I am encouraged that the cowardly American press has finally begun to stand by their responsibility to the viewing public. They have a duty to inform us fully about what's happening in the world. Until now, I haven't seen even a hint that they were fulfilling that duty. At a minimum, I believe that those who support our invasion and occupation of Iraq (or any country for that matter) should be made fully aware of the results of those decisions. The sanitization of war is what truly concerns me, and this is at least a small hint that it may be starting to subside.

[knight_of_the_star]

2. And there are people suggesting that those images be censored

Last time I checked, this country has a free press to allow for the public to decide what to do. War is a grim, bloody business, and to pretend it isn't by putting big black spots over offending words and images doesn't change that. To have kept the American public in the dark for so long is a crime by itself, but after this to attempt to put the cat back in the bag not only would be infinitely worse, but most likely impossible. What impresses me the most is in MSNBC online's article, for the first time that I know of, they were asking IRAQIS not ONLY about what they saw but about things that US troops were doing that only killed civilians and nothing more. THAT is a big first, along with this other tidbit from the article:

Bush's approval rating is at 43%.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

4. I basically get all my news from the internet. Did the print versions

of the papers show the actual burned bodies?

[Joanne98]

5. There will be burned bodies in this country tonight

Burned bodies of poor people who can't afford gas and have fires instead. There will be people who die outside of an emergency rooms tonight because they did not have health insurance. Women and children who die at the hands of men who kill them because of the shame of not being able to provide. The slow insidious suicide of addiction. Maybe war will become even more popular when people realize dying figging is the only way to be noticed. Be a tree falling in the woods nobody hears. Or one everybody talks about. If you're going to die anyway, which one would you pick?

[RC]

6. I want to see pictures

of the body bags coming back. And an honest tally.