Showing Photos of the Effects of War Might Help to Stop It

[mopaul]

but do we have the guts to look at blasted children and crippled soldiers? men with their faces burned away forever? little boys with arms blown away? mothers full of bullet holes, old men bleeding in the streets?

these people, the horribly mutilated and dead, are invisible because we are too weak stomached to look at them.

nobody wants to look at it, and that makes it unreal to most americans

[flamin lib]

1. Worked in 1973 . . . nt

[Bluerthanblue]

4. worked back in 1860's too-

brought home the hell-

[iconoclastic cat]

2. Hell, the Op Rescue freaks did it. Was it effective then?

[ClassWarrior]

3. Getting folks to fly the flag at half-staff is a small but significant...

...and positive way to get people to think about the consequences.

NGU.

[VPStoltz]

11. Apparently, only the president can order flags to half-staff.

When a very popular football player who had played in Green Bay (don't ask, I know nothing about football) died, the flag of Lambeau Field was lowered. The team management got a heap of shit from the "patriots" about this.

[ClassWarrior]

14. That's incorrect. Check with your governor's office. It is right...

...and proper to fly your flag at half-staff in wartime to honor the dead.

NGU.

[VPStoltz]

16. I guess what the "patriots" were upset about

was that the Packer who died was not a veteran.

[walldude]

5. I saw a slide show yesterday

and realized that if we were seeing more of the reality of war alot more people would be speaking out, alot louder. There was one picture of a man holding his dead baby, that just about killed me. I'm pretty strong but I saw myself in his eyes and my son in his arms and I couldn't stop the tears....

[w8liftinglady]

8. The one from salon.com?

That was a disturbing slideshow.They should show it 3 times a day.

[Fridays Child]

6. Aaron Brown told us that such things were in bad taste...

Remember that, way back at the beginning of the invasion?

Well, you know something, Aaron? YOU'RE in bad taste, for declaring that Americans shouldn't see what they're paying for. Maybe your taskmasters at Time-Warner wouldn't care, but I'm guessing that 99%+ of all Americans would demand an end to the war, NOW, if they could see what their leaders have done.

[steve2470]

7. I read somewhere that a graphic photo of American dead bodies

on a South Pacific beach helped further galvanize America during WW2. I'm sure it can work the other way also.

[DELUSIONAL]

9. When I was very young (6 or 7)

I looked through a book of photos -- of what the Nazis did to the Jews. Photos taken by the Nazis and by US Military photographers (I've since learned these details).

Anyway those photos made me anti-war --- and also aware of prejudice of groups of people based on stereotypes.

The book should not have been left out for someone so young to see -- and I remember asking and the adult said that the photos were what bad people did to the Jews.

I believe that we need to see images of what is being done in our names -- we must be made aware that a war is going on and that people on both sides are dying. I've looked at the photos found on the Internet -- posted by people who believe we have a right to know what is being done in our names -- because it is my DUTY to be a witness. The photos of the children rip me to pieces -- the dead babies and the little ones who just want to BE children.

As long as Americans are protected from seeing the real costs of war -- they will remain ignorant and stupid.

Actors on TV will get up after they "die" and work in another film or series -- the "actors" in the real war images will rot in the ground -- IF they are lucky enough to be buried.

[Bluerthanblue]

12. ignorance isn't bliss in this case, its criminal-

let's be honest. How many people really cared squat about the middle east, and understood the magnitude of our presence there, and dealings and manipulation UNTIL 9 11 .? When it was 'in our face'- when it couldn't be avoided.

I thought immediately of the Holocaust when i saw this post, thinking that there probably not many photos. I didn't know about the Nazi's having records that survived. What a frightening thing that must have been for you to see, but it has changed you in a very positive way.
I also thought, how DIFFERENT things would likely have been had the 'truth' come out, in vivid black and white images, faces of people that couldn't be discounted, or avoided. But secrecy and silence, and denial allowed horrors to go on, and continue.

We may not 'like' seeing the truth- We SHOULDN'T like it. But we MUST face the reality of what is happening. Not through the filter of the MSM- or the Photo-ops handed out by the administration- if the Abu Garib photo's would incite incredible hatred for America abroad, then my GOD, how can we turn a blind eye. We should DEMAND that the photo's be released. Pretending they don't exist gives us a false sense of ....righteousness.... self-respect... and causes the world, who DO see, and know, to judge us believing we are aware, and don't care.????-

The truth WILL come out, eventually. I read about a leader in one of the lesser known camps...oh man, my brain is mush, but recently read about the freeing of the Jews after the Allies got there. And this man, made EVERY person in the village, ones who had slowly and silently stopped associating with the Jewish people among them, and turned away, pretending they had no clue what was happening- This leader made every person walk through what was left of the death camps, people who had been stolen away, and lived and died suffered and witnessed unbelievable evil, while not far away their fellow humans didn't question, and went on with their lives.

As my son said just the other day on hearing of the sudden death of a friend he'd been with the night before, and snapped a quick picture of.- (erie coincidence) she died in a car accident later that night....... a picture is worth 1,000 words.

[VPStoltz]

10. I'm glad you brought this up.

I was just reading in The Progressive about the issue of land mines. Apparently, the Italian government, probably to appease the US, did not want to sign on to the ban. I'm not certain how the campaign started or who was responsible, but over a million post cards with pictures of people mutilate by the mines were sent to the President/Prime Minister. He then signed the accord banning the mines. If we could get one million pictures of the dead and dying in Iraq to the Chimp, do you think it would make a difference?

[laureloak]

13. Thanks to Matthew Brady it worked during the Civil War.

Paintings glorified war but Brady's Civil War photography opened eyes to harsh reality.

[beetbox]

15. There is a way to get the images into the public sphere

and that requires something of us all.

Here is an example: You can print out a gruesome war image from a website on an 8X11 and have it blown up. You can then put that image onto a solid backing and nail it to a long stick/pole and stand at a busy street corner with the image staring the oncoming traffic in the face, with a short statement accompanying the image. It's the only way it will happen. Any expectations one might have from the disgusting American media is a total waste of time. You must become the media. There are other options.

If you don't do it who will?
Your point is a good one.