What some of you are missing is the true violent nature of war. War is about groups of people fighting. Killing, "justly" or not happens, and it occurs on both sides. War is about using force - the military whose use of tactics is to shoot toward their opponents when necessary. Regularly, this shooting is at their opponents, and can result in death or dismemberment. And often times, those opponents shoot back. As a result, people in the military suffer death or dismemberment. The news have a responsability to report the events of a war. The photo in question is of a part of the US military. Would you care if it was a truck or tank or plane? Sure. Would your emotions get riled up as much? Probably not. But your (the ones missing the point) emotions are riled up because of the "it could be me/my child/somebody I know" syndrome. They are reasonable and honest. But they are not justification to not publish the picture. In the end, the picture should have been published. It shows what war is - violent. Should the face have been blacked out? I'm not sure - perhaps it should have been, for now. Perhaps the picture could have been delayed in publishing to give time for the family to grieve. But the family really has no right to think the picture would not be published. They were honorable in their request, but for anybody who had a family member in the military, the should (and do!) know the risk of having that person killed and the surrounding publicity. Of course, I do have empathy for the family. They lost a son that cannot be replaced.
If I died in OEF -- and I've been there -- I would have no objections to my photo being shown. I would welcome it. Yes.
Here in California, doing this is a part of the driver education which is required for all high school students. Haven't you heard of "Red Asphalt"? Oh, man, that one was the worst, but my class also saw at least three other films like it.
There is quite a difference between showing a photo of a man who killed himself in a public place to make a political statement and a photo showing a young man in the final moments of his life dying a violent death... a photo his next of kin pleaded not be published.
Are you saying Marines don't enter service voluntarily? How do you know what the monks' family thought of that photo?
What does the Marine's decision to sign up have to do with it? The monks' families view is less important in comparison, because the monk planned his actions and deliberately went out to a public place to kill himself, to make a political point. The Marine didn't make the decision to die and to have his last moments photographed and shown around the world. The monk did. Pretty obvious difference.
So you're saying we don't know what we're signing up for when we join the Marine Corps? With respect to the families, it is the same. The monks' family is no less important just because he's not a Marine, but a monk.
I can't decide how I feel about this. On the one hand, I feel for the parents of this poor guy and sympathize with efforts to protect them. On the other hand, I don't think that the public should be spared pictures of the gory truth of war. On the third hand, I keep thinking about how creeped out I was a few years ago when verybdog (or whatever his name was) told us that it was our duty to watch the video of Nick Berg being beheaded because it was "educational." So I dunno. Sometimes there is no right answer. Sometimes all the choices suck.
I would say this instance with the Marine straddles the line, but saying people have a duty to watch that beheading definitely crosses a line imo.
I don't think ITN is a sock, but he's definitely a persona. There was a time when I thought that the same person was ITN & vbd.
Stopped by FOXNews a few minutes ago and there was a "debate" going on about this AP photo. It's disgusting that it was realeased, etc, etc.......... All the while the photo was shown repeatedly in the background and all by itself. Sheesh! I don't know whether to laugh or cry.
You're an idiot. Here's your original quote which I responded to: But since you had to try moving your goalpost here's another response to your original post:
K THX! How did I try to move the goal post? Because no one would realize people die in war unless the AP released this one photo of a kid dying against his parents wishes.