Should ALL War Footage Be Shown No Matter How Graphic?

[Placebo]

I say: ABSOLUTELY.

If you're going to support the war, but can't stand looking at what our soldiers have to see and experience everyday, then you are a hypocrite and a coward.

I hate when the media blurs out details, or simply refuses to show footage. (like the footage today of the US soldier shooting the unarmed injured Iraqi)

If it's happening, the people must see it, they just might find it harder to support the war if they had to see its raw, unfiltered human consequences.

[JohnKleeb]

1. gives people an idea what the truth is

Yes, I saw a picture like that today, poor two year lost her leg, sigh how terrible.

[ogradda]

2. no pain no gain

it's a lot easier to condone it when you can lie to yourself about what's going on.

[grannylib]

3. Yes. I agree; if people want to support the war, let them see what they

are really supporting, in all its horror.
There should be no censorship whatsoever.

And when Chimpy reinstates the draft, I wanna see all the Repukes lined up, elbowing each other out of the way to be first in line.
Come to think of it, why aren't they doing that NOW??? Why wait for the draft? If the war is such a great thing, why are there any Republican young'uns left in this country? Why have they not all enlisted in this wonderful cause of liberty and democracy, hmmmm??

[dave502d]

4. Yes! On Sunday . n/t

[Nikepallas]

5. I think in this war it must be shown w/ a warning to protect the kids

[Placebo]

7. Do our bombs & bullets come with a warning...

to protect the Iraqi kids?

I didn't think so.

Our precious Amurkan youth can handle the truth.

[Skittles]

25. the same kids playing those ridiculous war computer games

perhaps it may be good to let them know what a war REALLY looks like

[patdem]

6. Not only that...but the Viet Nam war footage was shown during the dinner

hour..with kids watching...so I say not just yeah...but HELL YEAH!..and during the dinner hour..so all can see the atrocities of that which is war!

[jjanpundt]

8. I totally agree with you. If the war was braodcast as

the Vietnam War was, it would shake people up. It's easy for them to be sympathetic to the deaths of our soldiers but there's a huge disconnect to the Iraqi people. The media should be showing all the pictures they can get their hands on and reminding people that there are no WMD, no connection to 9/11 etc. Then we might have a chance at getting some real anti-war protests going.

[EST]

17. I am not at all clear what you refer to.

I well remember that era, and most of the coverage was thoroughly sanitized, except for the daily lies like, "well, sure we lost fifty seven soldiers, today, but we got eight hundred ninety two gooks." There was a little actual bloodiness slipped through, from time to time, and it was these tidbits that started getting people upset. The biggest upset, however, came from the exposure of thousands of protesters singing out, "stop the war," as well as pictures of cops and rednecks beating up on peaceniks and teenagers divorcing their parents because of their support for the blind hate mongering of the period.
Of course, I am quite sure I filtered my own perceptions through my attitudes about what was going on, so I may not be precise, but that is to be expected, I suppose.

[Smarmie Doofus]

32. Yep... it was more the draft....

than the immorality of the war itself that brought VN to an end. Although the networks spent a few yr.s after VN patting themselves on the back for influencing public opinion against the war, the media coverage was 98% propaganda.( Now it's 100%!)

Had there been no draft, there would have been much less opposition, whether or not the media showed the actual cost of the war to the people of VN.

[CAcyclist]

9. Didn't that footage remind anyone of Columbine?

That soldier sure seemed amped up to me.

[autorank]

10. Show it on a loop. We see nothing here.

Foreign press puts our louts to shame. Some of the pics from our recent escapade are, IMHO, worse than the torture pictures. Just amazing!

Corporate America controls the media and we get manufactured news.
Corporate America now controls the voting machines and we get manufactured elections.

http://www.blackboxvoting.org/

[EST]

11. After considering this issue over many years,

I, too must come down on the side of full exposure. Perhaps a warning should be offered to prepare the more sensitive, but the nastiness and heartbreak of war has to be pointed out, in the name of truth.

[K-W]

12. It should be available to anyone to see.

I don't think it would be a good idea to scar the entire nation. I understand the punitive glee that might provide in punishing this country for its acceptence of this mess, but we are going to have a hard enough time handling the soldiers who come back from seeing things no one should ever see.

[Karenina]

41. "I don't think it would be a good idea to scar the entire nation."

Pray tell, WHAT DO YOU THINK IS HAPPENING TO THE GOOD PEOPLE OF IRAQ? It's not "film at 11" for them, it's the REALITY of Americans kicking in the doors of their homes. It's the reality of YOUR kids being compelled to commit atrocities that CLASH with their core values. I should hate to think of the "scars" you, safely tucked away in your segregated suburban communities, would suffer seeing accounts of what they are being forced to do in your names while sucking down your super-size Slurpees and scarfing jiffy-pop. :puke:

And BTW, if you need a reminder of how the soldiers of my generation were "handled," just stop in at your local homeless shelter. Take some canned goods with. Thanksgiving is coming and I'm SURE your contribution would be appreciated.

Sorry, K-W. This rant is not personally directed at you. Your post just hit a button. I don't know yet if M. got out of Iraq alive trying to check up on his family... FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! :argh:

[DuaneBidoux]

13. YES

[Dem2theMax]

14. Hell yes. And I do mean hell because that what war is.

I want the idiots who voted for * to see it on a daily basis. I want them to see what their vote has done -- and will continue to do. I also want them to see where their children will soon be going. We ALL need to see it. If we are ever going to change what we are doing, we MUST know the truth.

[immoderate]

15. What's wrong with the truth?

--IMM

[Smarmie Doofus]

16. Absolutely. The primary reason these Republican wars...

( i.e. Grenada, Panama, Iraq 1, Iraq 2, Afghanistan, covert wars in Central America, etc. ) are so successful is precisely the fact that there is, essentially, no domestic news coverage.

In VN, the network coverage helped end the war. Subsequent war planning took this into acct. to the point where now the US infotainment media is literally embedded, in every sense of the word.

Joe and Jane Sixpack are perfectly content to support and even pay for a war the dynamics of which they do not understand ( because they have never been told) as long as they don't have to watch the reality of it unfold on TV.

They're a lot like us meat eaters who don't like to think about exactly how that roast chicken actually ended-up on that plate in front of us.

Paul

[EST]

19. Good post.

Particular note should be taken of the fact that an embedded reporter has both his past and immediate future thoroughly linked with the troops he is with and this can't help but influence the reporting. This is, probably, the biggest stroke of sheer genius in this entire fiasco.

[mmonk]

18. Yes

its the only thing that can reach an uninformed public about how we appear to the rest of the world. Then maybe they will get it and say this policy is bad.

[izzie]

20. I do not think Bush should see that stuff. He is to near God

Sorry I must get hold of my self. It, I really think, should be out there but frankly I am not sure I would let my very young children see some of the stuff. I know it is life and young kids are living it in Iraq but I still think I would keep it away from young kids. I guess felling lucky I could. Bush really seems to be rubbing Iraq nose in death and dying . I wonder no one sees that we are getting as bad as Saddam? Can Bush see what he is doing? He is like doctor death to the world.Between his guns, death and Bible he really is putting a bad name on this religions just as the terrorist has on their religions.

[uncle ray]

23. you made the point for yourself, now let me explain

of course you don't want your children to see it, that's the point. it should motivate you to feel strongly enough to not allow our leaders to make war that kills innocent children. or shoot wounded unarmed men at point blank range. or sodomize prisoners. now what the hell are we gonna DO about it?

[yurbud]

21. Yep. Make people look

I saw a photo of a baby that had it's leg blown off today, and I keep thinking of that kid who lost his whole family and both arms. Someone took a picture of him when they first brought him in, and the bones were sticking out of the charred stubs of his arms. That should be sent to every toothless, cousin-fucking hillbilly pastor who told his sheep to vote for Bush.

I sent one to some DJs once who were rah rah war, and they actually wrote back and asked how I knew they weren't faked.

[laheina]

22. Unfortunately that's the mentality

of some of the American people, especially right now. Regardless of what they see or what you show them, they are going to find some way to rationalize it.

Secondly, even showing these people ugly realities, it will not be the same for them as it is for the average soldier. The soldier is there, in the minute, scared to death, and then has to live with his actions afterward. An American spectator is safe in his or her Lazyboy chair; They simply get am uncomfy twinge of guilt, maybe.

[Selatius]

24. I say show them

It's been 30 years since the end of the Vietnam War. People have long since forgotten what the true costs, the true horrors of war are. The old vets know. They remember, but everyone else has been lulled by materialism and superficial pursuits. It's time people are reminded once again what the true toll of war is, the true reality. Perhaps this time around people will not forget. Perhaps this time the lessons will not be forgotten.

People have forgotten what it was like.

[alphafemale]

26. It should be more accessible, But add appropriate warnings.

Even if it's 10 secs or so to get small kids out of the room.

Once images are out there they find the eyes who need to see them anyway.

That little running, crying, burned girl awoke many people about Vietnam. She became everybody's daughter/little sister.

[JI7]

27. don't the Arab Sattelite stations like Al Jazeera show it ?

i agree with you that they should show the truth of what is going on there.

i'm sure there is a huge disconnect between what people in the arab/muslim world are seeing and what we see. this makes the overall problem even worse. if we can't see what they are seeing how can we understand what to do .

[Peter Frank]

28. News is not 'New' if it's filtered!

YES !!

Married women voted overwhelmingly for Bush (Pro-Life & all). Imagine their vote if they'd seen a steady stream of innocent people, including pregnant women blown up in Iraq?!

It was the steady and graphic national news that finally turned the majority of Americans against against the Viet Nam War.

Today's "liberal media" doesn't have balls anymore. It's biggest concern is market share (market share concerns equating to sanitized "News").

It's not news if it's been filtered !!!

[Peter Frank]

29. Kick!

[dbt]

30. Mo Kick!

Hell YES, the footage needs to be shown. Our tax dollars are going to finance this bloody little capital venture; as investors, we have every right (Reich?) to be shown our ROI.

:argh:
dbt

[arwalden]

31. Yes! Show Us The "Saving Private Ryan" and "Full Metal Jacket" Style

direct explosive body hits, gaping wounds, projecting bones, charred and peeling skin, spewing blood, mangled corpses, dismembered living corpses, disemboweled and beheaded soldiers.

SHOW ME THE HORROR!!! SHOW US ALL THE UGLY REALITY!!

[Placebo]

33. "SHOW US ALL THE UGLY REALITY!!"

My thoughts, exactly.

[arwalden]

34. And Don't Forget DEAD MUTILATED BABIES and Ali Abbas!

[Fleurs du Mal]

35. Absolutely

Perhaps it would remind people why it should be avoided at all costs.

[Javaman]

36. yes, until we learn the true horrors of war, it will just continue

[Djinn]

37. I was going to say

absolutely but maybe not during kid's programming, but then thinking about it, if people have to explain to little timmy why that Iraqi boy has no legs it might force them to think about it a bit.

This should also be the case under Dem admin's - civilians died in Serbia too.

[JVS]

38. No

It would be inconsiderate to the families of the deceased to show all the footage.

[npincus]

39. It should have been shown BEFORE Nov. 2nd

that might have whittled down the 52% brain-dead enough to usher in the Kerry Administration.

[mtnester]

40. Most people will not take to the streets unless they are jolted there

so absolutely yes, it should all be shown