See No Evil? Censoring the Truth of Iraq
By Siun Sunday Jul 06, 2008 4:00pm
This week US Marines censored an award winning photojournalist – continuing the efforts to make certain we do not see the real results of our actions in Iraq. Zoriah was embedded with a Marine unit documenting the reasons so many soldiers are suffering from PTSD. He was only a block away when another Marine unit was caught up in a suicide bombing in Anbar province:
My hands still shake and my heart pounds despite my fatigue. A combination of depression, fear, and adrenaline makes my thoughts race with the realization that a simple decision was the only thing that seperated me from a body count that grows daily. I look at the images I took on the 26th of June, and realize they do nothing to capture the emotion of being an eyewitness to the aftermath of the Al-Qaeda suicide attack in Karmah/Garma... the smell... the sound of screams and crying.
Zoriah and his unit arrived on the scene shortly after the bombing and he witnessed and photographed the aftermath – including the corpses of 3 US Marines. His photos met all standards set by the agreement embeds sign with the military but he was told to remove the images from his blog. He refused – and he is now being sent out of Iraq.
I truly labored with the decision to post these images and I still do. But in my heart of hearts I know that people need to see and feel the reality of this horrible situation. How can things change if all that comes out of Iraq are sanitized, white-washed images of war designed for mainstream media outlets who focus on making money, not on the quality and truth in what they report?
To the families of the Marines, the interpreters, the Iraqi police, and the civilians killed in the attack: you have my deepest condolences. These men were attending a city council meeting and working together to better their community. Something terrible happened to them when they were in the midst of doing a good thing.
Zoriah’s photographs are graphic – but this is the reality we have created with our war and occupation of the people of Iraq. If we do not see even this small glimpse of the reality of Iraq, how can we, as citizens, understand the actions our government is taking in our names? As he wrote immediately after the bombing:
I want you to observe and comprehend what others live through on a daily basis -- to see what the Iraqi civilians and foreign soldiers see. I want people who follow my photography to understand that although I am able to bring images of war to the world in a form of art, what actually goes on here is horror. My message is not that war yields great photography. My message is: War yields human misery and suffering.
Photo credit © Zoriah/www.zoriah.com : blog use permitted
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this is what we unleashed, this is what our soldiers and iraqi civilians see every day . . . why should we be protected from such sights, when they are not?
"Why should we hear about body bags and deaths," Barbara Bush said on ABC's "Good Morning America" on March 18, 2003. "Oh, I mean, it's not relevant. So why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that?"
Truth is indeed the First Victim of War.
It was the pictures of the wounded and dead soldiers in Viet Nam that changed public opinion and brought that war to an end.
No wonder the government doesn't allow pictures from this war.
It's okay to kill people and cause people to be killed but it's not okay to show what it looks like?
Why do they not want these pictures shown? Does it run in conflict to the news reports that things are going so much better these days?
He is lucky he is alive.
Or worse in a cell somewhere.
Have you called, emailed, or posted about the FISA vote tomorrow?
Anyone?
RayC @ 2:
Barbara bush should be locked in a room and forced to watch pictures like these in a loop for the rest of her life. Hell, put criminal son in there to watch it too.
pissed off patricia @ 7:
what you suggest would have no effect . . . the woman, like her son, is a sociopath
Zoriah expects to be out of Iraq later this week - and I'm sure will appreciate reading your comments when he gets to a faster net connection. Thanks to C&L and all of you for reading and supporting.
pissed off patricia @ 7:
We could do that but I don't think that she or he would ever understand what they are watching or why.
The Vietnam War, called back then the living room war, displayed images which showed, for the most part, the realism of war. Apparently the U.S. government learned its lesson, since it seems to have successfully pressured the network and cable television programs to show as little realism on the screen today compared to what was seen forty years ago. As Norman Solomon's documentary War Made Easy pointed out, the networks have continually pushed and accepted the propaganda that the government has handed to the American people regarding how the U.S., as Jane Fonda said in Sir! No Sir!, was thought "to have been on the side of the angels." Today it is even more egregious, as almost no pictures of what war truly is should be allowed to grace the small screen and splash Americans with a cold dose of reality.
But then this should not be too surprising, unfortunately, since the television executives have caved to the government by not allowing the flag draped coffins to be seen across America. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan must be sanitized, as the last thing that television and the government wishes to have happen is for Americans to see the true horrors of war and how its victims, soldiers and civilians alike, are affected.
After viewing those photos, I felt sick to my stomach. How someone can see those images and not feel SOMETHING is beyond me.
Yes, the term would be sociopath. And that term well describes The Bush family and this admin. This is the reason that they've censored all images coming out of Iraq. It truly is sickening.
we need more of this every damn day! working at cbs in 2003 I can tell you there's reams and reams of footage we have not seen, it's been shelved for years. no one else need die to tell of the grimness, there's already a never ending supply of the horror well documented.
Siun @ 9:
He has my sincere and heartfelt admiration for listening to his heart and leaving the photos up. It's rare today to see someone buck the system and do what they know inside is the right thing to do. I hope he takes care of himself both physically and mentally because witnessing what he has, could have effects on him as well. I know what just looking at the pictures did to me.
Blown up people in American uniforms might make Americans dislike the war in Iraq. Go figure.
Sorry, but we don't do body counts. Just get by watching HBO, the cleaned up, hoo rah version of history. Or ask Ollie North. It's all there on Fucks News. Fair and balanced.
Shockin' Y'all!!!!
America. FUCK YEAH!
Now where did I leave my passport?
Why do they not want these pictures shown? Does it run in conflict to the news reports that things are going so much better these days?
I think the deeper reason is: you are not supposed to identify with or feel compassion for the brown people we are dropping bombs on.
If this was happening in American cities daily... the US public would be outraged, shellshocked, grief stricken, furious, incapacitated. America as we know it would collpase into chaos.
Over there, its somebody's 9/11 every day.
Maybe a lot of people have been brainwashed or made to be callous about pictures such as these. They equate them with the people who were killed on 9-11 and feel some sort of justice or something has been done. I just don't know, but I wonder if these photos were shown on tv during the news each night, would the American public really care? Seeing them breaks my heart, makes me feel sick inside and guilty as hell, but I don't know if the majority of Americans would feel that way also.
prunes @ 17:
Exactly. Just keep the billion dollar paychecks flowing into defense contractors pockets. I'm sure Bush and co don't want all these unneccesary deaths, but given the choice of:
1) Pull out of Iraq and the money stops flowing to Bush's Buddies, Iraq's Oil remains in the hands of an unstable Middle Eastern State, OR
2) Stay in Iraq, Bush's Buddies get fat and happy off the taxpayer, oh and many thousands of brown people get blown to pieces..
They have chosen 2. No amount of dead people is too many for them, it seems.
innocent bystander @ 1:
I absolutely agree with you. Why are we protecting anyone from seeing the havoc war causes? So people will no longer want to perpetrate this against other people? So we'll have peace? So the warmongers and war profiteers will lose their blood-for-money profits?? Enough already...
If we dont see the pictures of violent crime here in America, what makes you think that we would see pictures of the war? Has anyone seen a picture of a dead gang member on the street on the local news? We saw pictures of the dead in NOLA, but that was not a violent death, no gore or blood in the pictures. That old statement "Some of our younger and more sensetive viewers..." has led to a media that is afraid to show the truth of what life is like, not the "Leave it to Beaver" world that the media holds on to.
pissed off patricia @ 14:
Well said, POP... I agree wholeheartedly. Zoriah, your courage is a beacon. Thanks for your integrity, bravery, and for doing the right thing. We need each and every individual seeing these pictures to stand up and be counted. It's time this fake war was over.
But it's all about the "winning", or so Senator McCain will tell you. When he and Lieberman et al, say we are winning and we will win, do they understand there will be many more sights like the ones in the photos before that magical victory day? Think back about McCain and his frivilous attitude as he sang about bombing Iran. Has he really seen what bombs do to human beings? Has he seen the horrendous results of bombing anyone? If he has, how could he be so nonchalant about war?
In the 1960s and early 1970s, certain brave reporters ran to helicopters in Viet Nam and asked to get on. They went out into the bush (as it was called) to see and sometimes film what they saw.
They saw a lot and were not lapdogs.
They captured war.
War today is like war in the past. Killing. Enemy soldiers and innocent civilians. The only thing that's changed is technology. And media coverage.
RayC @ 2:
You're kidding! She didn't really say that...did she? Please say this was out of context or something. I can't believe someone could be so uncaring, callous, selfish and just plain arrogant...her "beautiful" mind? WTF? That's not beautiful, that's pretty d@mn fugly in my book!
RayC @ 2:
from the beginning F#CK barbara bush, what a douche bag attitude.
if it's not pretty, why should i see it? because it's your 0% pres
that is the cause of all this criminal activity. you are in collusion
with him and just as guilty..........go the the bottom of hell and burn.
Here's the horrible truth. Most of the American public doesn't *want* to see these images, or even think about what's going on there.
{ Deleted, Do Not post in all Caps or in all bold lettering! It's YELLING! SiteMonitor}
Reminds me of when Grandpa Simpson was baby-sitting Bart and Lisa in the old folks home. He was leafing through a photo album show them Germans they burnt to death with flame-throwers.
Grandpa: It sure toasted their waffles.
Lisa: Grandpa, how do you sleep at night?
Grandpa: They drug us.
Okay how about this;
'Why don't you all stop your bleating, your pathetic whining, and do something substantive'.
You all just make me sick. You are no better than the republicans even though you may go pains to suggest otherwise.
now that's a brave guy, hope he doesn't die in a car accident or "commit suicide" like so many other brave journalists. let's embed limpballs and insanity and see how they take the reality of this occupation and theft.
A few weeks back we had lunch at a FRIDAY'S restaurant and our waiter looked (to these old folks) like he was about 12...but told us he was 30 and had just left the military after two tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan...we mentioned that we understood according to McCain that all was going swimmingly over there...he laughed and replied that it would be hard for McCain to get any idea at all as whenever any "personalities" are there they close things down for miles, put helicopters in the sky and surround them (as viewed in videos from McMakeitup's last trip) with so many guns and bodies that no one could get near them...otherwise, he said, they'd be blown away...sounds like a vacation spot to me!
no surprise! just another example that requires outrage.
If I was going to start a new country the first order of business would be a free press ,for informed citizens to make smart choices. It sounds like it should work.
As Laura bu$h says to the American people, "Get over that one car bomb a day. Big deal." That's why we "love you" Laura. (snark) (OK, and I embellished a wee bit, but... that's what she was sayin'.)
http://www.zoriah.net/photos/uncategorized/2008/06/27/zoriah_iraq_war_fa...
This by the way is a powerful image.
Gee, where did these War Photojournalists get the strange idea that the Bush administration wanted them to actually photograph the War over in Iraq???
The Bush administration only wants them to photograph ponies...lots and lots of cute ponies, ponies that are alive, no dead, blown-apart ponies allowed.
uk visa Says: Truth is indeed the First Victim of War.
================
Truth is the first victim of a fascist regime...
Less than 1% of our citizens are doing the dirty work for us in Iraq, with 3, 4, or 5 tours. Why would we want to remind the other 99% that people die in wars? It interrupts our shopping......
innocent bystander @ 8:
they would wind up doing each other!
Excellent article. I saw a longer version with many more pictures on another blog . . . but it disappeared pretty fast.
Bush and McCain can't allow the truths portrayed in this excellent article because they are pumping the people full of "The surge is working . . . all is getting so much better" . . . "People are casually roaming in the markets enjoying shopping" absolute bull!
If more people saw the true ugly results of war, more would be insisting we get our troops out of there.
{Please don't post in all Caps or in all Bold lettering. It's yelling. Thank You. SiteMonitor}
The most sickening thing is that this is just one incident of HUNDREDS (if not thousands) that the military censored. As unpopular as the Iraq quagmire is, the reality has been even much much worse. What a despicable propaganda machine our government has become.
RayC @ 2:
When will grandma Barbi Bush send her own grandchildren and grandchildren in law to Iraq.the same question is also applied to Cheney and his spawn and grand spawn. Why are this stupid rich brats enjoying their freedom when their fathers are the one who made this chaos. It is so ironic that the president and his mother and Cheney spew patriotism when they and their families have not demonstrated their patriotic duties. Shame on all of them. I wish Grandma Barbi and the rest of her stupid freeloading useless clan will be haunted by the souls of the dead soldiers and Iraquis that perishes because of her spoiled out of touch delusional poor excuse for a president spawn.
And please what beautiful mind does that bitch hag has. That's her dementia moving in.
If we see too many images like this, we won't believe the surge has worked, and our disapproval of George and his war will rise even more. We must be protected from pictures of death in Iraq, so we can continue to be good Americans and support our troops, even when they're blown up by suicide bombers.
I think historically the ratio of civilian casualties to military causalities is 10:1. And that is military casualties on all sides of the war. Considering the fact that much of America’s weapons can destroy a city block or more, that ratio is probably higher now than in the past.
But, as Rummy, or was it Chaney, said "Collateral damage happens." In other words the Bushies knew innocents are slaughtered when the shooting starts and the bombs fall, and they invaded anyway.
Hopefully the Hague and other foreign courts will try our Liar/Murder/War Crimes Commander-in-Chief et al., in absentia, and make the head Bushies "Collateral War Criminals," as our nation's Leaders (don't laugh) in Washington haven't the decency to even try to stop the Bushie’s crime syndicate.
These photos and many others will become evidence in those trials and will live in the world's histories as the Bushie’s legacy to mankind.
And that’s why they don’t what photos!
Maliki has explicitly and publicly called for a time table to withdraw U.S. troops. The WarPigs disagree. According to CNN this morning Iraq has now reached all 18 benchmarks that was set for them.
Why are our kids still there...literally being slaughtered???
JerryO @ 47:
Oil, war profiteering, and because the terrists hate our freedoms.
To those on the right, "reality" is un-American.
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