The tapes they are showing of Saddam sons now look less like like...

[NNN0LHI]

...them than the photos did. This is a real cluster#%&*. Its going from bad to worse for Rummy and company.

Don

[ewagner]

1. tapes????????

so much for respecting the sensitivities of the 'Merican people.

[Liberal Veteran]

2. Given the amount of violence on tv...

I am less concerned about American sensitivities and more concerned with what an appalling display is going to do to our international reputation.

It makes us look like bloodthirsty thugs and barbarians.

[OrdinaryTa]

18. Bloodthirsty Thugs

It makes us look like bloodthirsty thugs and barbarians

Yes, we always have to be aware of the possibility that people will come to the wrong conclusion. I remember during the campaign debates, Bush actually chuckled over a Texas execution. If we didn't know better, we might assume that Bush himself is a bloodthirsty thug. How reassuring to know he's not.

[Liberal Veteran]

20. Well, I was referring to the collective "we".....

....meaning "we" the good people of America who still have our conscience intact.

[Spazito]

3. I agree!

I have heard the question "grisly miscalculation?" and the word "gloating" used on a Canadian newscast and now they are taking reporters to the bodies in order to justify or, more accurately, re-justify their actions.

I think this is gonna backfire big time on Rummy and his cabal.

[newyorican]

8. Waiting for soldier with rifle with foot on chest..

ala Teddy Roosevelt.

Words from guy on MSNBC who is also mortified, wondering what America has become.

[karlschneider]

24. Jim Zogby. Yep that Zogby...as he also said,

these images are unlikely to change anyone's mind and will likely inflame much of the Arab world (which of course understands perfectly well).
:grr:

[newyorican]

4. I am mortified and embarrassed to be American today.

:-(

[Liberal Veteran]

5. I've been embarrassed since "shock and awe"...

was unleashed on Baghdad.

Welcome to the club, where we always sorry that our government keeps giving reasons for for people to join.

We are definitely on the wrong track in this country.

[leftchick]

10. I have been embarrassed since aWol was selected...

it has gotten worse daily since then...

[ewagner]

6. Just saw the tape on MSNBC

Totally uncalled for........

this is just wayyyyyy over the top.

I could almost understand needing to show the bodies to the Iraqi citizenry but why this?

[ShaneGR]

7. I'm sure it's them but, WTF?

Perhaps we could behead them and place the heads on a stand in downtown baghdad. While doing that we could place their limbs in all four corners of Baghdad. If we capture Saddam, we'll have a public execution involving a slow disembowling process while asking him to repent his sins.

This administration is simply nuts.

[leftchick]

11. They look like molded clay to me

This is not going to convince anyone let alone any Iraqis. Sheesh don't they know when to quit?

[chiburb]

19. They ARE molded clay!!!!

"A U.S. military official said they had undergone some post-mortem facial reconstruction -- standard practice they said, not an attempt to deceive the Iraqi people. There was no sign that either of them had committed suicide, they added. snip


"The two bodies have undergone facial reconstruction with morticians putty to make them resemble as closely as possible the faces of the brothers when they were alive," a U.S. military official said. "

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=33703&mesg_id=33703&page=

[nostamj]

9. this is backfiring

just like the Saudi redaction is backfiring.

and it doesn't help when * calls it "justice"

and CNN should be ashamed of their morning anchors. absolutely salivating over the videotapes and expressing disappointment that they had been delayed.

if they really MUST show them to Iraqis, they certainly DON'T need to show them on US television

[caribmon]

12. I am mortified and embarrassed to be American today.

I am mortified and embarrassed to be American today.....


_________________________

And so should you all be. This is wrong. Real wrong.

REALLY WRONG.

Caribmon

[fertilizeonarbusto]

13. f*cking savages

My friends, we are the Romulans and the Cardassians now-and as any Klingon can tell you, they "have no honor." Displaying your enemies' corpses is not only illegal and appaling, but dishonorable to all of us.

[Maddy McCall]

14. I may be no fan of Reagan...

well, I'm definitely no fan of Reagan, but at least he had more class than to allow this to happen. (IT goes without saying that neither Clinton nor carter would have considered doing this.)

I am sitting here in shock..this is the most grotesque carnival of flesh I have ever seen.

This IS going to backfire...anyone who thinks this is good is sick sick sick.

How can this spiral downwards any further? What tops this? I am disgusted by this.

It is one thing to discuss abstractions about bush, but for he an his admin to authorize this...amazing.

The Zogby guy from the Arab League on MSNBC right now said that people are mistakenly saying this kind of thing is common in Iraq--as if they are savage beasts used to the sight of bloody corpses. He said this isn't enough to quell the fear and paranoia in some quarters of Iraq, and that Iraqis will see it as getting rid of one bloody dictator for another.

You know, I was thinking about it like this...cultural relavism...even though I abhor bush, how would I feel if our former leaders were photod and filmed lying dead on gurneys? It would piss me off at the aggressor. I am sure that is how Iraqis feel.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

16. Two Points

I believe the Hussein boys are dead but you couldn't convince me by the these pictures


and


The Russians did an infinitely better job on Lenin but they didn't blow him to smithereens first.

[Maddy McCall]

21. True...then again, Mussolini...

:(:(:(:(:(

[The Night Owl]

15. Truly disturbing.

The reconstructed faces seen in the video are far more disturbing than the badly damaged faces seen in the photos. From the shoulders up, the brothers look like mannequins now.

Also, the fact that the faces are so heavily reconstructed will serve only to convince the Iraqis that we are trying to pull a fast one.

If the administration believes this video will convince the nonbelievers in Iraq, then they are both delusional and stupid.

How can they not realize that people will believe what they want to believe no matter how many grisly photos or videos they are shown? The photos and videos change nothing, so why show them?

What's next? A live autopsy of the brothers performed by Rummy and Wolfowitz?

[Liberal Veteran]

17. Hey! Fox will show it....

They can rerun Alien Autopsy right afterwards.

Followed by World's Most Disgusting Vomit Videos and then show When Animals Fuck!.

[UTUSN]

22. Wingnuts Are Orgasming and Fundraising

It's not a matter of "convincing" anybody. The wingnuts are GETTING OFF to the nekkid bodies. The top tier of donors to Shrub will get a peek under the loin cloth.

The real questions were:

1) Let's see, there were a total of FOUR (4) firing back?

2) against a whole phalanx of forces armed complete with missiles on down?

3) and this was a "fierce battle" that lasted SIX (6) hours?

[whoYaCallinAlib]

23. This is a window into their sick minds.

Nothing like the smell of burnt flesh in the morning to get a repuke going.

[Fleshdancer]

25. I feel lucky this morning...

I usually turn on the news networks in the morning but I didn't want to see the photos again and now after coming to DU, I find out there's a video??? A video???? What's next? Stringing them up like puppets and putting on a show?

I don't speak for him/her, but I'm pretty sure God doesn't like things like this. Just a hunch.

[Devils Advocate NZ]

26. I disagree with those who believe that these images should not be shown...

In fact I believe they should be compulsory viewing for every man, woman and child in America!

Why?

Because this is the face of war, not some cammo'd up soldiers riding gloriously into battle, but the bloody, shit stained bodies of men women and children blown to pieces by the most devastating weapons YOUR TAX MONEY could buy!

How can you complain about the damage done to children by viewing these images? The damage done is done not by showing them the consequences of war, but by sheilding them from it.

Americans OF ALL AGES need to learn a valuable lesson: that WAR is NEVER an option, not even the final one! Until then, 400 billion dollars a year will keep being siphoned out of your pockets to ensure that more images like this can be shown to people all over the world, often in a most terribly personal way.

Americans (even many liberals) love to brag about how great your armed forces are, well this is the result. Don't bitch when the result is not to your taste.

You should NOT be disgusted that they are showing pictures of dead bodies, you should be disgusted that there are dead bodies to show pictures of!

And for those who will cry that these men were brutal murderers, and thus deserved to die, let me remind you that all you are doing is showing your own brutality, and becoming that which you claim to despise.

[Philosophy]

27. I totally agree with you

And they should show pictures of dead Iraqi civilians and children, and dead American soldiers. Only showing the dead bodies of our enemies is so obviously propaganda.

[Devils Advocate NZ]

30. Exactly...

People should DEMAND that the bodies of ALL of this or any war's victims be shown, not just the ones that the warmongers feel boosts their cause.

This is probably the one area of the Geneva convention that I disagree with. Remember, the Geneva Conventions were not deigned to prevent war, they were designed to legitimise and regulate war. ALL WAR IS A WAR CRIME! Not showing the consequences of war, merely prolongs the viability of war.

Case in point: Viet Nam. When the images of dead and dying American and Vietnamese were shown to the world, the anti-war movement gained momentum, eventually resulting in the end of that especially bloodthirsty war.

War is hell, and that fact should not be hidden in dusty history books, but blasted into every living room on the planet.

[zbdent]

28. One of those pics reminded me of Mad Dog Vachon

after a match with Da Crusher.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

29. Uday

looked like Joe LeDuc