US wakes up to pictures of body bags and military grief

[NNN0LHI]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/us_iraq_media&cid=1506&ncid=1618

NEW YORK (AFP) - Pictures of body bags and groups of US soldiers praying around dead comrades are creeping into American media coverage of Iraq (news - web sites), highlighting the growing unease at events.


The mounting death toll and particularly events such as the brutal mutilation of four private security contractors in the Iraqi city of Fallujah have broken the taboo on showing the US victims, according to media experts.


Many US dailies on Friday showed a picture of US marines praying over the body of a member of their unit after he died from his wounds at a first aid point in Fallujah. snip


US authorities have sought since the 1961-75 Vietnam war to control the media use of conflict images. Since the 1991 Gulf War (news - web sites) they have banned photographers from covering the return of military coffins to the United States.


"It's really moving towards a more normal situation, to publish pictures of the dead, because after all a war is about killing," said Jim Naurekas of the media analysis organisation Fair and Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR).

more

[proud patriot]

1. :-(

I have no words :-(

[saigon68]

9. RIP Marine-----------saigon

we will pray for you unknown Marine

[BiggJawn]

14. That photo was Page One in today's Indianapolis "Star"

Printed 5X7. the caption was below the fold so it wan't until lunch that I found out the Marine on the ground was dead.

And next to it, a pix of Condi-Sleezy Rice perjuring herself (I Swear")over the headline "Bush knew of threat, Rice says"

And people STILL claim they're gonna vote for Bush! WHY??? Because he didn't get caught (yet) with his PANTS DOWN!?!?!?!?

[saigon68]

36. A Field of Sadness

Nancy Tunnell, right, a member of Veterans for Peace (VFP) smooths the sand at a memorial dedicated to American soldiers killed in Iraq (news - web sites) Sunday, April 4, 2004, in Santa Barbara, Calif. In silent protest every Sunday, VFP groups in Santa Barbara, Santa Monica, Calif., and Oceanside, Calif., erect white wooden crosses on the beach for every American serviceman killed in Iraq. (AP Photo/Ric Francis)

My note: this should be on page 1

[leftchick]

21. hey saigon....

check your pm....

[saigon68]

32. Thanks Did

Thanks LC

[saigon68]

33. This Ain't Pretty

Iraqi youths hold a U.S. military uniform near a convoy of burning fuel trucks after they were attacked in the Baghdad suburb of Abu Ghraib April 9, 2004. Iraqi insurgents said they had seized four Italians and two Americans on the western outskirts of Baghdad on Friday. A Reuters journalist saw two captive foreigners, said by the insurgents to be Italians, in a mosque in a village in the Abu Ghraib district. One was wounded in the shoulder. Both were weeping. (Akram Saleh/Reuters)

[Terran]

24. My god, what a goddamned waste...

;(

[fishnfla]

27. Daytona Beach News-Journal

all the grey-haired freepers will be bitchin about it next week in LTTE

[hippiechick]

2. I hate to say it

but THIS is what its going to take to get a groundswell to realize what a friggin' mess the BFEE has gotten this country's military into.

And, for what ?


:( :( :(

[nini]

8. I agree 100%

the REALITY of this horror has to arrive in people's living rooms before they'll get it.


I'm gonna be sick :cry:

[maggrwaggr]

18. even Musharaf is now saying Iraq is distracting from the war on terrorists

I posted this 2-3 days ago but it sunk like a stone

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20040407/wl_sthasia_afp/pakistan_qaeda_iraq_040407081034

SYDNEY (AFP) - Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf complained that the war in Iraq (news - web sites) was drawing resources from the battle against Al-Qaeda leaders and their supporters hiding in Pakistan and Afghanistan (news - web sites).

[Karenina]

3. As angry as so many were

at Star's rant... SHE CALLED IT. CORRECTLY.
The lack of empathy is SO SAD. :cry:

We here SCREAMED to the rafters that 50% of Iraq's population was UNDER 16. How could BOMBING them bring about anything other than chaos and hatred? Fast forward and now a bunch of fresh-faced AMERICAN 19 yr olds are being blown to bits. FOR WHAT??? It's ALL SO SICK. :cry: :argh: :cry:

[Richardo]

4. Well - another media "inaccuracy"

US authorities have sought since the 1961-75 Vietnam war to control the media use of conflict images. Since the 1991 Gulf War (news - web sites) they have banned photographers from covering the return of military coffins to the United States.

What about these from the return of the casualties from the USS Cole?

http://www.hazegray.org/features/cole/tributes.htm

[leftchick]

13. You are right, I seem to remember that the pentagon started this

practice right before our new and improved Iraq War II.

[54anickel]

15. I think I remember reading the ban dates to Poppy when they did a

split screen shot. The Clinton admin did not enforce it, Shrub adored it.

[ultramega]

34. Maybe because Cole was a terrorist attack, not a conflict

"conflict" is the way FAIR puts it. I guess because taxpayer money didn't fund the attack on the Cole, so they could afford to let us be pissed.

[stevedeshazer]

5. It has to be exposed.

It is horrifying, but Americans need to see what we have wrought.

Is American Idol on tonight? </sarcasm>

[BiggJawn]

17. No, I think it's a "Very EXTRA-Special 'Survivor'..." <heavy sarcasm>

Somewhere, somebody is saying "Eh, he knew it was dangerous when he signed up" (probably Perle or Wolfowitz)

[bleedingheart]

6. War involves death

and people shouldn't be shielded from the reality of war.

When war is sugar coated and pictures are hidden it gives people a false sense of security.

People should see the grief and agony caused by war...so that they don't forget it and so they make better decisions.

* was so busy drinking during Vietnam that he probably never saw anything that disturbed him about that war and look at how he turned out...

[seemslikeadream]

7. The Truth

[booksenkatz]

11. Oh no!

My beautiful mind is being assaulted!
-- Barbara Bush

Were it up to me, I would wallpaper Barbara Bush's entire domicile with these images. However, it frightens me to think that, were I able to do this, she would lack the soul to be impacted by it.

[fryguy]

10. As much as I don't like to see it

I still think its necessary to remind the public what smirkco is doing, and what it is costing us in human lives as well as in a monetary and resource sense. I think that each and every day, the front page of every newspaper in the country should print the name and a picture of those who died in Iraq the previous day, as well as how munch money was spent and how many gallons of fuel was used. Let all those "I trust what my government is doing"-types see what our government is doing in stark terms.

[Zhade]

12. Oh, sure. Now we'll show the AMERICAN deaths.

Forget the 400 Iraqi civilians killed and thousand wounded in the past few days - only the American deaths are worth showing, so we can further dehumanize the Iraqi people.

The deaths of the mercenaries have been spun to show how "evil" the Iraqis are - meanwhile, Iraqi mothers wail tonight, and few in America give a damn.

Disgusting. I am ashamed of this country.

[Dhalgren]

20. You are right. This country has committed a serious crime,

and is completely callous about it. I mourn for the victims.

[Skittles]

16. two days ago on the Dallas Morning News front page

a very young soldier, his face twisted in absolute anguish, reacting to the combat death of his buddy. I agree these are very, very powerful pictures. Kudos to combat photographers, including our own Saigon68.

[Chicago Democrat]

19. This is why AL JAZEERA must be allowed to report unfettered!

[ultramega]

35. Speaking of reporting, why has the DOD stopped reports

of the wounded? My homepage is lunaville.org and they have a message up that the DOD stopped reporting the numbers of the wounded on April 1st. Things must be getting really bad if they are censoring themselves.

[Go Eagles]

22. we need to see this

We need to see more of this stuff and maybe the rest of the sheeple who were out waving flags and proclaiming their patriotism will wake up. War is devastation, death, destruction, chaos, heart break, hatred and shattered lives on all sides and not the sanitized video game entertainment cable new packaged. We need to see more of the ugly reality.

[Purrfessor]

23. These are considered indecent material and the FCC......

can fine any organization that publishes such indecency $27,500 for each photo published. If a newspaper has a circulation of, say, one million, the fine would be $27,500 X 1,000,000.

[madrchsod]

25. my hometown republican newspaper

published a 5x7 picture on the front page of an iraq father comforting his son..they are starting to run front page articles about the war everyday now...

[Earth_First]

26. Unfortunately, I believe this is what it will take to shake some cages

[aquart]

28. No. Too clean and antiseptic.

[aquart]

29. No. Too clean and antiseptic.

[yardwork]

30. I think it's disgraceful that the media ever censored these images.

Americans need to be told the truth. We need to see the truth, hear the truth, and read the truth.

Lying about war is just providing false data to Americans, and we need to stand up and insist that the truth be told.

[nodehopper]

31. speaking of images...a photo essay from The Guardian

post-war Iraq. We don't get this in our press, so take a look.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/gall/0,8542,1189116,00.html