What can we do about this war ? (warning graphic photo)

[truthpusher]

I saw this photo for the first time today (from the New York Times):



caption: An Iraqi girl screamed Tuesday after her parents were killed when American soldiers fired on their car when it failed to stop, despite warning shots, in Tal Afar, Iraq. The military is investigating the incident.



Reminded me of this photo:




Have we finally reached the point that we were at when the 'Kim Phuc' photo was taken during the Vietnam War? Is the horror of the occupation graphic enough to start bringing our people home? Will we finally decide that collectively, as a country, we will no longer continue to inflict these unspeakable sufferings on others?

Or is this war different? Times are different; are there entirely new levels that we must reach in war in order to stop? What is ahead from here? Whatever it is, I can hardly imagine.

[Rick Myers]

1. That photo rips my heart out!!!

I don't have kids, but I have a nephew, and to think this poor innocent girl was in the car when 'we' shot the Hell out of her parents...

I know it would never happen, but I hope this image is burned into the retinas of Rummy, Dick, Wolfie and The Chimp!!!

:grr:

[BrklynLiberal]

3. The sad truth is that they really don't give a damn!

[truthpusher]

5. If they ever see it...

...I doubt seriously that it will be shown at their daily briefing.

[aMurder.com]

2. What [i]can[/i] we do.?

Camp out near your Army recruiter. When someone tries to enter, hand them this photo...

[BrklynLiberal]

4. Excellent idea.

[truthpusher]

6. If it wasn't for the children seeing it...

...I would like to see the photo on a billboard in Times Square.

[enough]

15. Send the picture to every media outlet you can think of,

with a short explanation and good link.

We're desparate, we're beyond thinking we are a cliche. The country is about to die. I mean OUR country. We are about to forget everything.

[aMurder.com]

18. Will it work?

The media is so deeply in love with its right-wing overlords... they'd probably track your email and send it to the NSA. What happened, people?

[cags]

7. I seriously don't think I can take much more of this.

Everytime I see these things I break down balling. The worst thing for me is that there is no help for these children. Its not like I can donate money or volunteer time. I know its happening everyday and noone can do anything. It breaks my heart.

[truthpusher]

8. I feel pretty powerless myself. n/t

[Azathoth]

9. All we can do is remember

One day, twenty years from now, Time Magazine will publish a photo of an Iraqi woman in her 20's, dressed in black, armed with an AK47 and chanting "Death to America!" She will be labeled a "terrorist" and an "extremist" by our media, and the right wing will quickly denounce her as a monster -- a product of extremist Islam who hates us for our freedom. They will claim that it is people like her who make it necessary for us to pre-emptively invade extremist countries and forcibly install "democracy". And many Americans will simply nod their heads in agreement.

Those who remember this photograph will have a somewhat different perspective on the situation.

[Smarmie Doofus]

10. Virtually no one in America will ever see the Iraq picture....

as the commercial media has already jumped on board this horror show for the duration, and are firmly "embedded".

Sadly, people don't know what they don't *want* to know, and they are content to be spared the realities... whether flag-draped coffins or the above carnage.

Might help if our elected Dem leaders would speak up. 'Cept for one or two in the senate, and a couple of dozen stalwarts in the House... where the heck ARE they?

[truthpusher]

11. I wonder what would happen if, while the cameras were rolling...

...someone like Boxer would get up in front of the Senate and display a poster of this photo...would it have any impact?

[Smarmie Doofus]

21. It's absolutely the ONLY way anyone will ever hear about it.

Have an impact? I don't know. People romanticize the past. Even though the VN picture ( girl and kids running from napalm attack) got a lot of play in the media, the fact is, that happened in late spring of '72, as I recall and the Republicans went on to renominate Nixon who proceeded to demolish the anti-war McGovern in the general election.

Not much has changed. People are people. The big difference now is there is no really independent news media now, there was then. But I'm not sure that even viewing the unvarnished truth re. Iraq would shake people from their apathy.

Still, I vote for and $$$upport Democratic candidates because I want them to speak-out about things like this. And I get pissed when I don't hear anything .

[Nitrogenica]

12. We liberated her from her parents.

[Minstrel Boy]

13. Since the invasion, there's been 12-year old Ali with his arms blown off.

Everyone saw the picture yet nothing changed, besides nearly making some of us crazy with grief.

I don't know what it will take. I don't know how much more I can take.

[BeHereNow]

14. Americans today are FAR different than in Nam days.

We have become so desensitized to other humans
and their suffering. People went fucking ballisitc when
the image of the naked child hit the press back then-
they actually FELT the APPROPIATE human response
to such horror- people today are SO fucking maladjusted
drugged on antidepressants and neurotic, I truly believe
many of them are not capable of normal emotional
responses or empathy.
My two cents on the reasons why people are not
outraged by these images these days.
BHN

[enough]

17. You are so right, BHN

We are witnessing the willful senilitizing of our country. We are purposefully deciding to forget and to deny reality. Even the immediate realily of our actual world.

[Smarmie Doofus]

23. I'm not so sure.... remember, people saw the VN napalm picture

in 1972... it was all over the media...and went on to reelect Nixon by the largest margin in US history.

I think there was more opposition to VN because of the draft, frankly. Think back, when Nixon ended the draft, it pretty much took the steam out of the antiwar movement. The war was harder for the average ____ to ignore.

Only difference now, seems to me, is that the media is completely compliant and complicit in this immoral war; in the old days there was collusion , but it wasn't so *total*.

[BeHereNow]

24. Yes, the media is a factor too!

The consolidation of the media into the hands
of the people who profit most by this war certainly
does not help.
I also think they are responsible for fostering and encouraging
hate among our neurotic public at large...deadly combination.
BHN

[truthpusher]

16. There is something about the 'Iraqi Girl' photo that penetrates....

I will not forget the photo...in the same way I never forgot the Kim Phuc photo. There were a lot of other Vietnam era photo's that helped bring the power of war home.

Like the Kent Sate Photo:



The Viet Cong Execution Photo:



And the Burning Monk Photo (Thich Quang Duc):




Here is a very long Essay: "A struggle to contextualize photographic images: American print media and the Burning Monk."

http://www.quangduc.com/BoTatQuangDuc/02quangduc.html

Really interesting stuff about the power of the photo to get across an agenda.

[BeHereNow]

20. Ah, but herein lies the rub...

You have to have a society capable of
FEELING appropriate emotional responses
to the images- we don't.
Our society is in the grips of collective neurosis
characterized by a sense of entitlement, self aggrandizement,
and narcissism. Americans today are MUCH different than
in the days of Nam, they have no sense of empathy.

BHN

[truthpusher]

22. I think we all have empathy...

...but it lies under so many layers of hate...I think you are right about the other things you mention. Let's hope we aren't all lost.

[alexisfree]

19. Photos like this is the reason people are not supporting the troops.

before i get flamed. The troops are just as responsible as the lunatic bush. 1 they have a choice not to go fight. Alot of soldiers have exercise that right.

[truthpusher]

25. They are all in a real tough spot...

...I could only imagine enlisting because I want to get some cash for college and finding myself face to face with a little girl who's parents blood I just spilled all over her.

What must have been going through the soldiers mind at the time? Yes he could have been a trigger happy psychopath...but I think he was more likely thinking that he was killing a suicide bomber or the like. His heart probably dropped when he saw all the kids come out of the car...I am sure these guys will be haunted for a long, long time.