Vox

Musings, rants, rambling, general nonsense

Photo Finish

Posted on | July 25, 2003 | No Comments

Our guys decided to release photos of the deceased Husseins. I imagine they are all over the internet by now, I won’t be finding you a link.
The rationale for this is the need to prove to the Iraqi’s that the bad guys are really gone:

  • If they are unlikely to believe our pronouncement of the deaths, why would they believe the photos were real?
  • We were quick to cry foul when pictures of our dead soldiers and the POWs were shown on Arab TV. We, in the West, railed against this violation of the Geneva Convention. Of couse, every major American news outlet carried the footage – while reporting how horrible it is that the film was released.
  • I read on another blog (found it) that it won’t offend Muslims, so it’s alright. Basically, their argument was that the Muslim culture is one that revels in death. Since we are in that region, we are just behaving in a way that is familiar to them – “when in Rome” – and we should not apply American sensibilities.
    • I am not ready to accept that Islam revels in death. Some certainly do, but I am not going to write off the entire culture.
    • What another culture is willing to accept should not be the basis for making decisions about our behavior. Character is what you do consistently, not situationally.
  • If photographic evidence was necessary to prove the point, we should have released it to the Iraqi Council working to establish the new government. They could disseminate the information however they felt would best accomplish the task.

I expect my leaders (despite the 8 miserable Clinton years) to take the high road when possible.
Removing these vermin from the planet was good.
Showing the world these pictures was not.

UPDATE: Yes, the previous also applies to Osama bin Laden corpse pics



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Category: Iraq, Middle East, military, politics, USA

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