Warning: A site where US soldiers post gory photos

[Bushknew]

Horrifying but invaluable, because these pictures show a side of the Iraq war the American public never sees.
Neva Chonin
October 2, 2005

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/10/02/PKGM9DCU7L1.DTL&type=printable

On Tuesday, a military court found Lynndie England guilty of humiliating prisoners, in a grandstanding trial that branded her and her co-defendants as isolated deviants in a squeaky-clean war. Well, that contention is becoming increasingly hard to swallow. Conversely, England's contention that her acts were covertly sanctioned is sounding likelier every day, especially after visiting an amateur porn site called http://www.nowthatsfuckedup.com/bbs/index.php Obscene? No, what's obscene is what's on the site. And what's on the site? Reality, dude. Reality's on that site, and it's not pretty.

For a year now, American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan have been posting photographs of corpses -- insurgent corpses, civilian corpses, unidentifiable piles of guts in various stages of mutilation -- on the site in return for free access to its porn cache. And these pictures have in turn drawn thousands of civilian gawkers who find the sight of laughing soldiers posing with dead bodies at least as titillating as candid shots of women in flagrante delicto. Explicit sex, graphic violence. For some guys, they're twin stimuli.

Be warned, should you visit the above URL, that this is a nausea-inducing advertisement for the pornography of violence. Consider the titles soldiers give their snapshots, and you'll get the picture: "Sniper Video," "Iraqi Driver Tryed (sic) to Run a Check-Point," "Hand Bag Bomb (Video MUST SEE)," "Name This Body Part," "Destruction of the Afgans (sic) at the Hands of the MARINES," "DIE HAJI DIE," "Dead Shopkeeper in Iraq," "Guy Missing Some Parts." In turn, fans of the pictures respond with posts of their own: "Hey, soldier buds -- post some FRESH KILLS for US!"

Horrifying? Oh, yeah. Horrifying but invaluable, because these pictures show a side of the Iraq war the American public doesn't care to see and from which it's been meticulously shielded. We're spared the sight of flag-draped coffins arriving weekly to hometowns across the country even though we're deluged with newscasts painting a shiny picture of soldiers fraternizing with Iraqi children. Death has effectively been eliminated from our media's war coverage, as if protracted combat doesn't involve killing, and killing isn't gory, and the personalities of people who have to do the killing don't eventually start warping in the most unpleasant ways.

The photos posted on NowThatsF -- Up.com strip off the blinders. Those brains splattered across a car's dashboard? Not your usual human-interest story. The mocking commentary by the enlisted guys supplying the photos? Not so heroic. Together, they paint a picture of war as a dehumanizing hell, sans political commentary or analysis. Welcome to Operation Iraqi Freedom.

The most pathetic aspect of this -- and there are so many pathetic aspects -- is that in an age of satellite TV and 24-hour news coverage, it took a porn Web site to bring war's reality home. One soldier told the Nation's George Zornick that he posts images on the site "to give civilians a more accurate view of life in Iraq than the one they're presented on TV." Actually, he's pulling that excuse out of a hat -- he's posting the images so he can get access to smut, because sometimes killing just isn't enough, y'know? None of the soldiers participating in the site's carnage-for-carnality exchange are driven by a moral imperative. And that just makes the images more horrific and powerful. It's hard to suppress a gag reflex while viewing a disemboweled human body above a caption proclaiming that this is "what every Iraqi should look like."

As I write, the New York Times has just reported that the Army is opening an investigation into NowThatsF -- Up.com's war gallery. No doubt the brass will find a way to blame it all on the Evil of Pornography. Displaying images of war casualties for entertainment violates the Geneva Conventions, but the Bush administration long ago dismissed those ethical niceties, so what's new? Equally probable is the gallery's imminent demise. And that's a pity. Because sometimes ugliness serves a higher purpose.

By the way. For those of you who have written to say you don't want to read political content in this column, I have three words: Turn the page. As NowThatsF -- Up.com so graphically shows, the line between politics and entertainment is history, man.

Coming to a swimming hole near you: There are psychotic and fascinating reports that Hurricane Katrina freed 36 armed dolphins, trained by the military to attack terrorists, into the Gulf of Mexico. They're carrying "toxic dart" guns, and they shoot to kill. No, I'm not making this up. Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water, here come the cetaceans. Maybe we should give them cameras and start a Web site.

[mike_c]

1. army says there's no proof that soldiers are posting those snuff pics....

Right. Maybe it's Iraqis posting pics of murdered family members in exchange for American porn. That's the ticket.

[ladylibertee]

2. I can't find it.Too much work to look for it.

[mike_c]

3. you'll be disgusted....

http://www.nowthatsfuckedup.com/bbs/forum23.html

on edit: note that with all the recent publicity, that forum is getting "diluted" with text posts questioning its morality and others defending it. Before that it was mostly snuff pics, all the time.

[ladylibertee]

4. I'm already disgusted just knowing they have photos of "their"

girlfriends and wives like they're a buch of sluts.Tells me a lot.

[WildEyedLiberal]

5. They all seem to love Bush and hate Kerry, too

Why am I not surprised... Bush is welcome to those monsters and their war porn. Hell's not hot enough...

[REP]

6. "The Porn of War"

The Porn of War
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20051010/the_porn_of_war

by GEORGE ZORNICK/The NATION



On November 15, 2004, a report on CNN.com briefly described a clash in the Iraqi city of Baquba, including an insurgent attack with rocket-propelled grenades on members of the First Infantry Division, in which four American soldiers were wounded. CNN did not post any images of the battle, and the incident wasn't given much attention in other media.

But visitors to the amateur porn website nowthatsfuckedup.com were given a much closer view of the action: "today in baquba we got into the shit again and got some of it on vid.....this is me and my wingman fuckin some shit up when these fucks shot 3 rpg's at us so we took down the whole spot.....look for yourself...the fight lasted like 85 mins total and they are still counting up the bodies."

The poster, an anonymous soldier identified only as "Stress_Relief," uploaded two videos of the clash onto the website, drawing enthusiastic responses from patrons: "nice work, guys. Keep blasting those mujadeen bastards."

Originally created as a site for men to share images of their sexual partners, this site has taken the concept of user-created content to a grim new low: US troops stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan are invited to display graphic battlefield photos apparently taken with their personal digital cameras. And thousands of people are logging on to take a look.

The website has become a stomach-churning showcase for the pornography of war--close-up shots of Iraqi insurgents and civilians with heads blown off, or with intestines spilling from open wounds. Sometimes photographs of mangled body parts are displayed: Part of the game is for users to guess what appendage or organ is on display.

(more at link)

[Bushknew]

7. They gloat over their killings

Thanks for this other article.

[Bushknew]

8. kick