International outcry over release of Hussein sons’ photos and video

[IndianaGreen]

International outcry over release of Hussein sons’ photos and video
By Chris Marsden and David Walsh
26 July 2003

Bert Hall, a professor of military history at the University of Toronto, told the Toronto Star that the publication of the photos might well, in fact, violate the Conventions, which forbid subjecting enemy prisoners or fatalities to humiliation or ridicule. “Having your enemy’s head on a pike is one way of showing you have won and your enemy has lost.... It’s a ritual humiliation,” he commented.

Kamal Samari of Amnesty International asserted, “It is true that there is no explicit prohibition in the laws of war to show pictures of dead bodies. However, the spirit of the rules is that the dignity of everyone—dead or alive, be they Iraqis, United States nationals, British or others—must be respected.”

Several factors played a part in the provocative decision by the US government, apparently over the objections of military officials, to release the ghastly photos and video footage. In the first place, it reflects the primitive and savage mentality of Bush, Rumsfeld and company. These are people to whom placing the head of an enemy on a pike on the gates of a city is not an unthinkable act. Moreover, there is the question of the social element within the US to whom they are appealing: the most backward, degraded and inhumane layer of the population. The administration feels the need to throw this layer some “red meat” from time to time to maintain its political credibility.

There are no doubt as well more immediate political calculations in the continuing release of gory images. The US news media in particular has been more than happy to “change the subject,” from the revelations that the Bush administration lied about evidence of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction to the “good news” of the Husseins’ extermination. Moreover, the congressional probe into the September 11 attacks released July 24, although essentially a whitewash, raises troubling questions about long-standing relations between Islamic terrorists and US intelligence operatives that the government would like to bury.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/jul2003/huss-j26.shtml

[Judi Lynn]

1. This needed to be aired.

(snip) Several factors played a part in the provocative decision by the US government, apparently over the objections of military officials, to release the ghastly photos and video footage. In the first place, it reflects the primitive and savage mentality of Bush, Rumsfeld and company. These are people to whom placing the head of an enemy on a pike on the gates of a city is not an unthinkable act. Moreover, there is the question of the social element within the US to whom they are appealing: the most backward, degraded and inhumane layer of the population. The administration feels the need to throw this layer some “red meat” from time to time to maintain its political credibility. (snip)

Thank you for posting this.

[NJCher]

2. these reactions are the "early returns"

I was thinking about the release of these photos and the video and that's one reason I decided to come here to read. I was thinking about the impact this is going to have on the world's psyche. Something like this grabs people at a level not usually reached by the media and that is why the fallout from this will be so tremendous.

I don't think this was even comprehended by bushco.

I also think this will be a turning point--yes, still another--in how America and bushco are perceived around the world.

The article quotes the early reactions but we will see a lot of fallout from this over the coming weeks and months.



Cher