AP Photographer Wins World Press Photo

[NNN0LHI]

World Press Photo of the year 2003 and first prize People in the News singles category by French photographer Jean-Marc Bouju of The Associated Press, showing an Iraqi man comforting his 4-year-old son at a regroupment center for POW's in Najaf, Iraq (news - web sites), march 31, 2003. (AP/Jean-Marc Bouju)

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040213/ap_on_re_eu/world_press_photo&cid=1856&ncid=1618

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands - A picture of a hooded Iraqi war prisoner holding his 4-year-old son at a U.S. detention camp, by Associated Press Photographer Jean-Marc Bouju, won the World Press Photo of the Year award Friday.


The winning photo, made on March 31 in Najaf, was selected from a record of more than 63,000 images by 4,176 photographers from 124 countries.


In 2003, there was also a record 81 percent of entries taken with digital cameras, as was the winning photo.

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[JNelson6563]

1. This picture is a clue re: the future

Does anyone here think this little boy will ever forget the horrors of the situation captured in this photo? I don't. He's the face of the next generation who will grow up hating the US. With good reason.

Julie

[NNN0LHI]

2. Not just that one child. The whole Arab world has seen this photo now

I just can't see the advantage in that? Bush is in the process of creating millions of people who will hate all Americans over this kind of stuff.

Don

[Name removed]

14. Deleted message

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[Fovea]

16. That is the best al Qaida recruitment poster you could possibly imagine.

Here is the big clue.

You can talk as tough as you want, downing your beer in the living room.
But our troops in Iraq are going to suffer for that picture, fool.

[flamingpie2500]

3. I just hope the world understands that we did not do this--Bush did!

We have got to get this man out of office.

[Bonobo]

4. For all intent and purpose, WE did do this. Sorry.

But that distinction is not not going to be accepted by many. We are after all a "democracy" and thus must bear the burden -the full burden- of what our leaders do.

We are guilty, guilty, guilty. Just as the Germans were guilty in their complicity during WWII while millions were being exterminated.

Can you imagine if it was an American (or even a white man and child) in that photo? Can you imagine the reaction!!

I feel sick.....:puke:

[Jacobin]

5. Thank you Mr. Boosh*

For throwing gasoline on the fire of rage of Arabs and for the attacks upon our country which this invasion and occupaton will spawn.

May you rot in eternal hell.

[Gin]

6. This picture is so sad....what have we done? God help us all.

gin

[bluedog]

7. the world sees

I hate this picture….it shows the world what once was a great nation America has become under the rule of bush….if he is such a religious man…how can he accept this humiliating and inhumane treatment of this man? This poor child to see his father like that…a man he looked up too…to be brought to the level of this ultimate unmanly treatment……. bush should be ashamed….

[Media_Lies_Daily]

9. Have you never seen any of the photos of frightened villagers...

...that came out of the Vietnam War? Very similar in emotional context, IMHO. This isn't a recent development...it's how our troops are trained to see the "enemy" everywhere, regardless of the circumstances.

[Name removed]

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[MrSoundAndVision]

8. Rate that a five please

SO that uthers may see it on the main Yahoo page.

[gulliver]

10. I have an eight-year-old son.

That scene really bothers me. The man is comforting the son and the son is comforting the man. It is a heartbreaking picture... makes me very sad and very mad.

How far down have we come as a country that we let a bunch of cowardly chickenhawks stampede us into a war? How far down have we come that we put ourselves into a situation so desparate that we need to perpetrate acts like the one in that picture?

George "I'm a war president" Bush and his pig-picked advisers have brought us to this.

[PaDUer]

11. Wasn't it always

a "wartime president"? Now they're using "war president"..Hmm..looks like they're using those terms for a reason?

[ElsewheresDaughter]

12. we need to swamp the WH and Congress's E-mail with this photo

[mobuto]

13. The photo isn't exactly damning

Now I agree the war was a mistake, but the photo shows an enemy POW - and there's nothing wrong with taking POWs in a war. What the photo does show is that the US Army is letting enemy POWs have contact with their children - that's an usual humanitarian gesture demonstrative of the integrity of our Armed Forces in the face of the incompetence of our leaders.

We should be reaching to support our Armed Forces - and rush to condemn them. The only failures have been on the part of the Administration - not on the men and women in the field who are giving their all to make the best out of a bad situation. I think the photo shows that.

[NNN0LHI]

17. If the war was a mistake as you admit, then how can taking POW's be right?

There appears to be a disconnect here. That statement confuses the hell out of me. Perhaps I am just thick or something?

Don

[mobuto]

19. ???

The soldiers taking the POWs aren't doing anything wrong. They didn't decide to invade Iraq. That was Bush. Give credit where credit is due.

And it would seem that our soldiers are treating their POWs a lot better than they are required to under the Geneva Conventions, if they are allowing visits by family members.

The Army isn't the problem, the Administration is.

[gulliver]

20. Geneva Convention

What about the bag over his head? It's like something out of the movie Brazil, humiliating and dehumanizing.

From the Geneva Convention, Part II, Article 14: Prisoners of war are entitled in all circumstances to respect for their persons and their honour.

http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/lawofwar/geneva03.htm

[mobuto]

21. If prisoners are kept with bags over their heads

all the time, then you'd have a point. But they're not. Sorry.

[gulliver]

22. Why do you suppose this photo got picked?

A lot of people think there is something wrong there. I don't think it's just me.

[mobuto]

23. And they're wrong

My initial reaction to the photo was of dismay as well. But when you actually stop to consider the situation, you begin to think.

The US soldiers could have kept the man locked up - but they didn't. They took him out through security, with a bag over his head so he couldn't jeopardize US security procedures, and took him to meet his son.

Prisoners in US prisons aren't normally allowed to hold their children, and yet this man is. Don't rush to judgement just because you've seen a well-composed photo.

[NNN0LHI]

24. "took him to meet his son" I cant believe what I am reading here

I won't discuss this any more with you. See you later.

Don

[mobuto]

25. Ok

You think his son is a prisoner?

If not, come up with an alternate explanation. He was allowed to see his family. The Army didn't have to let him to do that.

[gulliver]

26. I guess it's point of view.

You see it as compassionate because our soldiers cut the plastic wrist restraints off a guy and let him hold his panicking child. But the guy still has a big bag over his head. The "security procedure" you are talking about is humiliating.

The man was dishonored and subjected to public curiosity. And his son was traumatized for life. And what do you think the onlooking Iraqis thought of it?

Our soldiers were honorable. They are just doing what they were ordered to do in a situation they should not be in in the first place. The administration put the U.S. in a position where an act of humanity looks like this. They declared the war and bought the bag the guy has on his head.

I guess you could also say his son is lucky we didn't kill his father. That's true too. It's all point of view.

I think it's a violation of the Geneva Convention; you don't.

[maggrwaggr]

18. Hey, that could be me! If they start cracking down on "dissent"

I have friends who think i'm crazy for being on Democratic Underground.