AP publishes photo of Marine fatally wounded in battle

[sadaist]

OK...We've all seen the picture by now.. Without arguing with anyone, I think that brave Marine and his family would prefer he be remembered like this.

[Blackflag]

Close call, but if the parents asked not to publish, that's what I'm going with.

And the photo isn't really that informative to me...more sensational. There's nothing in the photo that I couldn't have just read about. The shooting in vietnam picture above, for example, is a different story.

[standin]

OK...We've all seen the picture by now.. Without arguing with anyone, I think that brave Marine and his family would prefer he be remembered like this.

Wow, he is so very young in that picture.


So sad.

[sadaist]

Wow, he is so very young in that picture.


So sad.

I know. That really struck me too. Almost as if he fudged his age to get in early. Maybe not. Seems as I get older, kids look younger too. Especially once you start having your own.

[jhale667]

Almost as if he fudged his age to get in early.

I just thought the same thing as I saw that pic...kid did look young...

[Igosplut]

OK...We've all seen the picture by now.. Without arguing with anyone, I think that brave Marine and his family would prefer he be remembered like this....

Sorry, I meant to thank that post not groan.....

[Nickdfresh]

Close call, but if the parents asked not to publish, that's what I'm going with.

And the photo isn't really that informative to me...more sensational. There's nothing in the photo that I couldn't have just read about. The shooting in vietnam picture above, for example, is a different story.

You know nothing and it's NOT a "different story." Just for the record, I would have been anti-Vietnam War and detest the morally-coward and corrupt South Vietnamese regime which caved only a couple of years after the Americans left.

But that picture is completely out of context and horribly ridden with false-symbolism. The shooter was a colonel in the South Vietnamese secret police, while the man that was executed was a junior officer in the National Liberation Front or "Viet Cong." The problem with the photo was that although the colonel was a notorious drunk and probably a cunt in his own right, the supposed "martyr victim" may have responsible for atrocities such as killing civilians for the crime of being family members of RVN gov't officials. I think he was accused of wiping out a family of six IIRC, which resulted in his execution...

He's no more a "victim" than is Charles Manson...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nguy%E1%BB%85n_Ng%E1%BB%8Dc_Loan

[Nickdfresh]

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/-2wj37EabqU&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/-2wj37EabqU&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

Ha!

[sadaist]

Sorry, I meant to thank that post not groan.....

Hee hee, I bet all of the groans I've received were mistakes by you guys.

[Blackflag]

You know nothing and it's NOT a "different story." Just for the record, I would have been anti-Vietnam War and detest the morally-coward and corrupt South Vietnamese regime which caved only a couple of years after the Americans left.

But that picture is completely out of context and horribly ridden with false-symbolism. The shooter was a colonel in the South Vietnamese secret police, while the man that was executed was a junior officer in the National Liberation Front or "Viet Cong." The problem with the photo was that although the colonel was a notorious drunk and probably a cunt in his own right, the supposed "martyr victim" may have responsible for atrocities such as killing civilians for the crime of being family members of RVN gov't officials. I think he was accused of wiping out a family of six IIRC, which resulted in his execution...

He's no more a "victim" than is Charles Manson...

Nguyễn Ngọc Loan - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I don't disagree. And there's a whole backstory to it, etc.

And isn't that different from this case, which just shows a wounded and dying Marine?

There's nothing particularly revealing about that picture, or anything I need to learn more about. It's just sensational.

But I do like the "you know nothing" comment.

[LoungeMachine]

MY OPINION:

Although the family's wishes should be taken into account, they do not get the final say. I've seen photos of traffic accident victims and victims of random violence printed as well.

How can a Marine's death NOT be considered "news"???? Have we become so used to the senseless, and needless loss of life over there as to think this isn't "news" Gee, maybe if he played NFL Football, or was the FIRST death, or the 2,000th. Some milestone.

IF he were my son, father, brother, or friend, I'd want it published with the headline: WHY DID THIS HAVE TO HAPPEN, HE WAS ONLY 21??????"

Tell me what our mission is, tell me what our exit strategy is, tell me what "victory" looks like over there, but DONT TELL me the senseless death of a 21 year old kid isnt newsworthy.

I'm willing to bet that if EVERY death over there was published in detail, the American people would be much more engaged than they are.

Talk about the "Forgotten War"

sad.

[Blackflag]

MY OPINION:

Although the family's wishes should be taken into account, they do not get the final say. I've seen photos of traffic accident victims and victims of random violence printed as well.

How can a Marine's death NOT be considered "news"???? Have we become so used to the senseless, and needless loss of life over there as to think this isn't "news" Gee, maybe if he played NFL Football, or was the FIRST death, or the 2,000th. Some milestone.

IF he were my son, father, brother, or friend, I'd want it published with the headline: WHY DID THIS HAVE TO HAPPEN, HE WAS ONLY 21??????"

Tell me what our mission is, tell me what our exit strategy is, tell me what "victory" looks like over there, but DONT TELL me the senseless death of a 21 year old kid isnt newsworthy.

I'm willing to bet that if EVERY death over there was published in detail, the American people would be much more engaged than they are.

Talk about the "Forgotten War"

sad.

It's news. And nobody's saying to not talk about it. The family didn't ask them to suppress the story.

But, given that the family asked to leave the picture out of it...was the picture really necessary? Does it really add that much to the story?

[LoungeMachine]

...was the picture really necessary? Does it really add that much to the story?

Yes.

A great deal, actually.

[Seshmeister]

This is where our tax dollars are going.

If one can't stomach viewing photos of what we as a nation are bringing overseas, then one really shouldn't advocate any of these wars.

This kind of stuff is what citizens in Iraq and Afghanistan have to see live in real time.

Yes, it is unfortunate the family of the soldier may have to see these images. Censoring such images (be they combat injuries or coffin-draped caskets) tends to minimize the human cost of what America does when wars are fought in the minds of the citizenry; if we can't see the results, it's easier to relegate the results to the back of our minds.

Indeed.

Some people complained about too much press coverage of Vietnam losing the war because the US people didn't have the stomach for it. Now though I think most people would agree it was a dumb war and not worth 50 000 US deaths so I would argue if you don't have the nerve to look at what your government is doing then you can't support it.

If this picture was of a guy whose legs were blown off on the beaches of Normandy almost no one would debate whether he should have been there or whether his sacrifice was worthwhile. The problem therefore is our discomfort in validity of this war against tribesmen in Afghanistan as a method of preventing educated Saudi or even homegrown suicide bombers attacking us.

[sadaist]

Yes.

A great deal, actually.

What exactly do you believe the picture added that could not have been expressed in words?

If your wife cheats on you & breaks your heart, do you really need a picture of it to understand what happened?

If someone tells you they vomited, do you need a picture of it to actually comprehend?

Do you need photographs of the torn pieces of people recovered from the WTC recovery site to realize what happened to people inside the building?

People like Cindy Sheehan who use the argument "costs of war", why didn't she open Caseys coffin and take a picture of his corpse to put on all her Bush protest signs? Instead she used pictures of Casey alive and well.

I don't buy the argument of people not realizing the costs without seeing a very graphic picture. It's just shock value / sensationalism and sells papers. The real reason pictures are needed is because journalism is so poor and very few write well enough to get a point across and paint an accurate picture that they need a photo to do it for them.