The face of death in Iraq

May 10, 2008

Guest Post by Morbo

No one likes to see photographs of dying 2-year-old children. But when those children are dying because of a war your country started without justification, a war that has since gone horribly awry, sometimes it’s necessary to see photos like that — so you understand the gravity of the situation.

On April 30, The Washington Post ran, on page 1 above the fold, a photo of Ali Hussein, 2, being pulled from the rubble of a house in Sadr City. The house had been hit by U.S. missiles during an air strike. The boy was taken to a hospital but died.

The photo, taken by an Associated Press photographer, is not easy to look at it. I felt a lump in my throat as I unfolded the paper that morning. As a father, I could only think of my own children at that age, of their vulnerabilities. Every parent strives to protect their children — but how do you do that when bombs rain out of the sky?

It took some courage for The Post, which has been relentlessly pro-war on its Editorial page, to publish the photo. And of course it didn’t take long for the right-wingers to start complaining. One asserted that images like this only help the enemy.

Deborah Howell, the Post’s ombudsman, asked a Post editor to explain the decision to publish the photo. Bonnie Jo Mount, deputy assistant managing editor/photos, said:

We often publish images of war in the form of inanimate objects: blown-up vehicles, piles of debris, missiles in the air. The injured child reflected the civilian toll and related directly to the news of the day. We have a responsibility to inform our readership; sometimes that means publishing images that might make people uncomfortable.

Indeed we do need to feel uncomfortable. And we need to understand that it isn’t just trucks that are being blown up in Iraq, or even our own soldiers for that matter.

Shortly after the invasion, I searched American newspapers in vain for information on Iraqi civilian casualties. I found very little. By contrast, European newspapers and the BBC did a much better job talking about the death toll among non-combatants. Americans, it seemed, would rather not know.

Even now, the primary organization attempting to keep a tally of civilian deaths in Iraq is British. (That number, by the way, has been documented to be somewhere between 83,000-91,000.)

Here’s a link to the photo. As I said, it’s not easy to look at. Do it anyway.

Damn right, people should be uncomfortable. Stop living this fantasy that no one needs to pay the price (money, live or whatever.)

Unlike Janet Jackson’s nipple, a photo like this stays with you a long time.

  • arguments that the means justify the ends should be comprised of all the evidence. the media’s malfeasance in not reporting the full story makes them willing accomplices to the horrors of war, and our addiction to continuing to think we can solve problems thru violence.

    nice post, morbo — now if only this ran on the OpEds of the major newspapers.

  • The deliberate blackout of unpleasant war images by the Pentagon has made an obscene mistake, the invasion, into even more of a war crime. Congratulations to the news editor that had the courage to print the image. Perhaps other so-called news organizations will now find the courage to do likewise, assuming they can even get access to similar images. There certainly can’t be a shortage.The American people should also see images of our wounded personnel, especially those with missing arms and legs, and images of coffins draped in American flags. The Iraq atrocity has finally revealed the lie of a free press.

  • Ah America, the tough, the brave, the country that spends millions of dollars to see fake blood splattered all over the place while it eats stale popcorn, has always been a bunch of pusses when it comes to real gore.

    Prior to the invasion of Iraq the argument for keeping images of the effects of explosives on the human body out of the U.S. news (a prohibition not found in other parts of the world) was “OMG, WHAT IF A CHILD SEES THAT?!”

    Because we all know kids often sit down and read the World section of the news papers, right?

    Now some dumbasses want to add “OMG! YOU’RE EMBOLDENING THE ENEMY!!”

    Because the enemy won’t find out unless a U.S. paper runs the photos, right?

    I hope none of those clowns ever gets a hold of a paper from overseas. Or maybe I do. The shock might send them into a catatonic state.

  • ..And would that enemy perchance be that child (or his relatives?)…by the way all these photos can be seen at FACESOFGRIEF…it is heart-wrending and makes me ashamed of our country…

  • “One asserted that images like this only help the enemy.”

    what the f**k is the matter with these people?

  • It’s not the pictures that “embolden the enemy,” but the actions. For the family of this child, and of all the children killed and injured in Iraq by the U.S., to hate us is entirely understandable and justified. God knows, if my child were killed or injured due to the actions of an invading country, I would certainly hate them and do everything in my power to rid my country of those invaders. The U.S. should be acknowledged for the good we do, but the American people need to KNOW that we are also capable of great evil. It’s not just “THEM,” the enemy that represent evil. “War is Hell” is not just an empty phrase.

  • I saw a bumpersticker one time that said: “I’ll look at your aborted fetuses if you’ll look at my clear-cut wastelands.”

    People should be made to confront fully the results of policy.

  • Thanks Morbo.

    Even now, the primary organization attempting to keep a tally of civilian deaths in Iraq is British. (That number, by the way, has been documented to be somewhere between 83,000-91,000.)

    That’s about the toll that Mynamar suffered. It just took us a little longer than God to kill that many.

  • Boy, if you think the image like this helps the enemy, imagine what it’s like to actually be there.

    Obviously, right wingers object to photos like this because it shows Americans back home that Bush is Osama Bin Ladens biggest ally, and that the war in Iraq is the worst foreign policy mistake America has ever made.

  • I am reminded of the picture of the little girl and the fireman in Oklahoma. Problem is I am never sure who the terrorists really are.

  • the truly obscene thing is for 90% of the people involved here in the US, in Afghanistan and Iraq (and for that matter Iran), we are just trying to get through our day. We get up, get dressed, worked too hard, come home late, go to bed and do it all over again.

    I know I have no control over most of my elected officials since they always seem to draw the lines so they are ‘safe’ in every election. I certainly wouldn’t want someone blowing up my town in retaliation for crap pulled by Bush, Cheney, Rummy and Rice. I suspect the same is true on the other side of the fence is well.

    That’s why they don’t want these pictures shown. Its always more difficult to demonize something that resonates with your own humanity.

  • The establishment certainly learned their lesson with Vietnam. It was pictures/posters like this one:
    http://www.amherst.edu/magazine/issues/05winter/images/haeberle_brandt.jpg
    making it out into the public view that led to the mass mobilization of public sentiment against the war. I’d like to think that most Americans don’t wish for the death of Iraqi civilians and children. If more pictures like this one were publicized, I think we would see a similiar upwelling of outrage about the war in Iraq.

  • Even now, the primary organization attempting to keep a tally of civilian deaths in Iraq is British. (That number, by the way, has been documented to be somewhere between 83,000-91,000.)

    Actually, Iraq Body Count, only tallies the deaths with some public report. They admit this is only a fraction of the actual number of deaths, which they do not estimate.
    The best estimate of this fraction is about one-fifth, so the estimate of the total (since no tally is possible) is about 500,000.

  • The fact that the first imagine of human death took 5 years to appear on top major media real estate tells you all you need to know about our media’s relationship with our government.

    Consolidating the media was the root of all that ails this country. Voting means nothing when the voter isn’t informed or worse, manipulated.

  • But hey, we’re putting an amusement park over there in Iraq.

    I wonder if it’s an unbid contract for that amusement park?

    BUT the silence from the liberal blog set is deafening on this subject.

  • Don’t need to look at photos of suffering I had nothing to do with.

    I’ve condemned war hawks for as long as I can remember and urge a more Christian outlook for my nation and countrymen.
    Jesus (divine or not) went to his death passively, supposedly accepting unjustified persecution and suffering, refusing to do harm to those who improperly sought him ill.

    Rather than make innocents suffer in fear for our safety, doesn’t a Christian nation accept the risks of potential harm so that we might be seen as the innocents; the beloved meek that shall inherit the earth?

    Even assuming no faith in the divine nature of Jesus, the example of a person willing to suffer for the sake of others can be admired as it was with Mohatma Ghandi or Mother Theresa or Martin Luther King. (I’m happy to throw in more secular references if anyone wants to offer them up.) Do we not find these suitable role models?

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