Our
View: Picture of an American war
It's
not really fair, is it, when seven Spanish
intelligence agents killed in an ambush
by insurgents get front page coverage, for
more than one day, and our brave soldiers,
dying alongside the foreign agents get nary
a picture, mention or honor for their lives.
This
policy is, in theory, for the better of
the American soldiers. So that their deaths
cannot be capitalized on by the ferocious
media, they are forbidden to run photos
of caskets or bodies. We understand not
showing graphic portrayals of bodies before
families have had a chance to get the news,
and for the sake of the more sensitive viewer.
But the truth about the war, the actual
deaths that occur everyday in Iraq, are
a graphic and powerful element that are
missing pieces from the bigger picture.
And 440 Americans have died, whether or
not we have seen photos of them.
It
is hard to imagine Vietnam, when the war
came into American's homes compared with
our new "embedded" system. The
embedding of journalists in theory brings
us closer to the war, but with embedding
comes rules and certification. If you get
to hang out with the armed services, you
are going to follow their rules. And that
means what you can and cannot report on,
take pictures of and talk about. Also with
embedding there is the peer pressure of
being a member of the group, the soldiers
may not talk to you if you run that story
about a controversial event.
The
real issue here is the fact that our government,
since Sept. 11, has disaccociated death
as a part of war. The numbers they stick
in front of "soldiers died today"
has made it a stale reality. We barely think
about the deaths anymore, unless they are
particularly compelling or particularly
gruesome.
So
what benefit would there be from showing
photographs of U.S. caskets? Well, people
would understand that each blurb in the
paper is a body somewhere that used to have
a soul. Each time a person waved an American
flag, people could remember the one that
was draped across the caskets as they came
off the plane.
Honor
could be bestowed, as it has upon the fallen
for generations in other wars and at other
times, instead of shrouding them in mystery
and something akin to shame. If the Spanish
officials who are killed get a ceremony
with crowds and lights blared across the
front page of the Los Angeles Times, then
shouldn't our soldiers, who died fighting
in this supposedly honorable war be given
the same respect and pomp as other soldiers?
This
is censorship at it's best, or worst we
should say. Other news agencies from other
countries can show our dead, and we can
show their dead, but for some strange reason
we cannot show our own soldiers. This post-Sept.
11 referendum needs to be tabled and a new
policy is needed in this world of perpetual
war.
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