The Iraq War as a Trophy Photo

[ElsewheresDaughter]

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=15&ItemID=10430

An artist should keep a human skull on the desk as a constant reminder of death, of the need to -- in the words of a currently popular country tune -- live like you were dying. A peace activist should keep a photo in his or her wallet of a small Iraqi child torn to pieces -- a constant reminder to live like others are dying.



The trouble is that we find it almost unbearable to look at such images. We believe the war would end if the corporate media showed such images, yet we turn our faces away if they're placed in front of us; even more so, if they happen to be images of torture or of soldiers enjoying humiliating Iraqis. Worst of all are the gruesome images that soldiers have created themselves in this new digital age as war trophies.



If such images were in our wallets, we wouldn't want them to give anyone the impression that we took some sort of sick pleasure in seeing Iraqis blown apart. Yet some of those images have come to us over the Internet from U.S. soldiers who evidently found exactly that pleasure in taking and posting them. As hard as we find it to look at the images, we find it a hundred times harder to try to think our way inside the minds that could do such a thing. We're afraid that, once there, we couldn't freely leave.



We know, of course, that the parents of a murdered child will never be free of the horror, that the soldiers who did it will never forget, and that the people those soldiers live with when they come back home will not be unaffected. To properly address claims that some wars are good wars and that the worst deeds of war are performed by "bad apples," we have to have a clear picture of what war is, including the worst of it. If we leave out an understanding of the worst of war, all of our thinking must be distorted.



Therefore, look at this picture.



Did you look? Those are children who, as likely as not, were running and playing in the months before our government launched a war on the basis of lies. I don't know how those particular children died, but most of the deaths in this war, like all modern wars, are civilian ones, many the result of bombing. This is what "collateral damage" looks like.



Now look at this image.



These are mild images. I'm going very easy on you. This child is alive, but wounded --quite probably wounded psychologically as well. Does the woman holding this child look grateful and liberated? Does she look like she will have an easy time forgiving the people who did this? Why do I write "the people who did this"? Why can't I be honest and write "us"? The United States government launched this war, making us responsible for everything that happens in it.



This image is far more powerful than Edvard Munch's "The Scream."







I don't know what happened, but I know that this is a picture of unbearable rage. I've looked at many images like this one in which, even if I have no way of learning the details, war is presented far more powerfully than could be done in words.



Here's someone with enough years ahead of him to forget and forgive.



so much more saddness at link

[OwnedByFerrets]

1. I believe

the reason that AI is so popular is because it allows Americans to NOT see the truth behind this illegal and immoral war.

[Lisa]

2. and in particular, the last paragraph ...

"Update: On June 9, soon after I wrote that, I got my wish. The U.S. military killed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, took a photo of his dead head, blew it up to enormous proportions, and displayed it in a frame at a press conference. From the way it was framed, the head could have been connected to a body or not. Presumably this was meant to be not only proof of his death, but a kind of revenge for al-Zarqawi's beheading of Americans. The image would fit perfectly in a collection of war trophy photos. Is there any mystery about where rank and file soldiers learn to behave this way?"

[panader0]

3. Three kids in one coffin? I have 3 kids. I would die in a second for each

[ElsewheresDaughter]

4. if that was done to my children i would become Osama

[Lisa]

6. my co-worker's wife just gave birth to their first child

I asked him what the most unexpected thing is, that he's learned since they brought the baby home (since everybody else has been asking about whether they've gotten any sleep).

He's a jovial, easygoing guy, not overly political. He thought about it, and answered: "I knew I would love him, but I didn't realize that I now have this enormous potential for rage if anyone ever tried to hurt him."

And this is just one ordinary parent speaking. I cannot imagine how much grief and rage there must be in a country where hundreds, even thousands of people have seen their children die.

[Contrary1]

5. Oh my God.

I just looked at a few of the "War Tropy Photos". Why would anyone want to take pictures such as these?

I have no words. :cry:

[Contrary1]

7. Kick.