Beyond Newsweek: showing REAL images of war....

[madhat]

This column in Editor and Publisher argues that Americans should see the truth about war -- about what it costs our soldiers who are faced with ugly decisions.

Kevin Sites: Show the Shooting in the Mosque

The NBC cameraman who shot the controversial video in Fallujah that showed a Marine involved in killing an unarmed, wounded insurgent, wants Americans (like those abroad) to see the actual shooting. "You can not bury the truth," he says. The Marine has been cleared by the military.

By Allan Wolper

NEW YORK (May 23, 2005) -- Kevin Sites has the scene embedded in his psyche. Once again he sees a Marine corporal cursing, "he's f------ faking he's dead" just before shooting an unarmed Iraqi insurgent slumped against a wall in a Fallujah mosque. Another Marine, standing nearby, says, quietly, "Well, he's dead now."

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/columns/ethics_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000930642

Sites said that must change. "People need to see the full video, so that they can make up their own minds about what happened," he told me during an interview from his California home. "It is important to show the reality of war. It is important to tell the truth, the whole truth. ... You cannot hide the truth. You cannot bury the truth. You cannot destroy the truth."

He paused, making certain he was understood: "We are a nation of adults. The video has been seen around the world. We should be able to show it here."

[riverwalker]

1. great article

We ARE adults, and we NEED to show what this war is. Too many still have refused to look.
When the war first started, I watched all the coverage,24/7. Late one night on CNN they were showing live feed from a foriegn network, I think BBC. It was video of marines and an Iraqi family. The marines just shot up a car full of civilians (this was before anyone bothered to learn how to say "stop" in Arabic)and had just helped the family bury a small child they had killed. A marine was weeping, the family wailing, and all gathered over a little mound of sand that was the grave. It was the purest image of war I had ever seen. The film was shown only once, CNN pulled it quickly when they realized how powerful it was.

[madhat]

2. I remember that!

It was awful. I think the most important thing learned from Vietnam is that our "support" for the troops should be based on the fact that they are being asked to do awful, awful things....and since they are asked to do these things, we ought to have a good reason for asking them to do such things.

[madhat]

3. 8 dead in 2 days and we're talking about the filibuster still?

C'mon -- let's deal with the WAR!