Feedback 2 - Tell Us: How Can This Be Liberation?

Tuesday, 8 April 2003, 11:14 am
Opinion: Scoop Feedback

Letters To The Editor

Scoop Feedback 2 - Tell Us: How Can This Be Liberation?

The following feedback has been received from Scoop readers in response to our decision to publish graphic pictures from Al Jazeera, ArabNews.com and other sources showing the true horror of war.

Scoop Editorial - Scoop Continues To Publish Reality Of War Images.

Photos - War Images Feature Page (WARNING. GRAPHIC IMAGES MAY DISTURB).

Scoop welcomes reader feedback. Please send your news and views to editor@scoop.co.nz or via Scoops ‘mail the editors’ form…

Pictures of War

Spread these around then the Chickhawks can see what their greed does to real people.

Dan

....

This is sick. Why would any decent human being put pictures like these available for anyone to find? From what i can tell looking at the pictures, especially the ones of the U.S. POW's, all you are doing is supporting Iraq in the war. Anyone, in my opinion that is anit-war, is in one way or another supportive of Saddam Hussein/terrorists. plain and simple. Just remember this... IT'S TIME TO FIGHT FOR WHAT'S RIGHT; IF WE DON'T, WE'LL BE FIGHTING FOR WHAT'S LEFT.

I hope the employees of scoop sleep well at night.

Patrick

pictures of the war.

Thank you for bringing these photographs to us. I was browsing through your site, it gives a wonderful view of what is really going on in Iraq, but I can't seem to find the pictures of the mangled victims of the World Trade Center attack. Is turnabout fair play? I think a great chant at the next protest should be "Kick their ass and take their gas" You have to admit, it has a nice ring to it. After all, the summer drive season will be before you know it. Love Mitch

mitch davis

Comment from Europe and great websites to pass on !!!!

I´m glad I found your website - a guy in San Francisco writes articles - real good ones - and he had you as a reference...- please inform your readers of his website - and also a great one from uri Avnery Israel - Author and Peaceactivist - very smart and wise (old guy) - his website is this: http://www.avnery-news.co.il/english/index.html (read his older articles as well - he is brilliant ! Excellent knowledge and research !) Please help to transport these websites to people all over ! (I´m in Germany)

Angela – Germany

Graphic Photos from Iraq Invasion

Thank you for publishing these photos. All of us, safe & warm in our own homes far away from the bombing, bloodshed and horror, need to see these to be reminded of the REAL people - innocent civilians - who are being injured and murdered by these hideous weapons. We need the photos to show us, clearly, what the Coalition forces are actually doing, in their "independence" drive. And also to balance the sanitized non-news of the co-opted media of the Coalition. Again, thank you.

Shell – Canada

ugly truths

You are entirely right to publish the ugly truth. The evil masterminds of this invasion made no secret of their intent to use the media and the internet as a weapon of war. (See the Wolfie/Kristol et al. blue print at www.newamericancentury.org) Part of that strategy is verbal and visual sanitization. (Hey folks have you noticed? Bombs aren't dropped anymore. Instead it's "explosions were heard...." )

A Rule for the Perplexed: Take anything the USGov says about anything, turn it around and inside out and THAT's the truth of the matter. Over 20 years I've gotten about an 80% truth ratio. Latest example: "it couldn't have been one of our bombs that hit the market" Two days later pieces of Raytheon S/N for Harm missile are found. (see www.independent.co.uk, rpt by Fisk)

k

Civilian casualties

Numbers are only as good as the sources. In Gulf War 1, independent observers after the war estimated total civilian deaths at over 100,000, although the governments involved ONLY estimated 10-12,000. Hasn't anybody checked the population density of Baghdad?

jim tang

Thank you...

I'm reading responses from people saying you're sick for showing these pictures. Yes, they are horrible. Yes, they are not nice to look at. Hello. It's WAR. War is not a nice thing. At least you're giving us the whole picture, showing war as it really is. Maybe if everyone saw these images, there would be less gung-ho support for sending our children into battle. Thank you for what you are doing.

Emily

Thank you!

As a embarrassed American, I THANK YOU for telling the truth through you photographic record that tells the truth of Bush's "war of choice." I'm just glad you have freedom of speech, because the conservative regime here in US is spying on us like you wouldn't believe. Keep up the great work. Zaine Ridling – USA

thanks

finnally someone who is willing to standup and give the world a real view of the human destruction of this war. thanks for the great reporting although graphic and disturbing i believe its the reality of innocents being killed and hurt that will prevent conflicts in the future. Peace,jay

jay renzulli

thank you

I am a journalist from Colombia, who is in USA with a fellowship in journalism. It has been distressing for me the covering of this invasion. The New York Times and the other newspapers have betrayed the journalistic integrity. I agree with you. Because the mainstream media have fooled people here, giving them the idea that war is not a terrible thing. I am trying to tolerate the indiference of this people to the death of so many children. But It hasn't been easy. Thank you

Z.C - USA

evil

Where do you draw the line when it comes to fighting an evil and what price are you willing to pay?

woody

your photos

Scoop editors, I am one american that appreciates and supports your truth in reporting. Although I have the most advanced technological access to news perhaps in the world through my computer, I do not trust any of "my" news sources via the television. Thank God for your courage, honesty and integrity. My experience is that "we" Americans do not want to see anything that will cause us "confusion" or the deep emotional pain that your photos elicit. I wish there were more American news sources like yours.

God Bless all of us humans. Thank you Scoop News.

George

George Martin-Mauser – USA

Thank you

Thank you, thank you, thank you. Don't let the right wing get away with sanatizing something so terrible.

Craig Diehls

Graphic Images

The people demonstrating in the US against the war don't give a flip about the Iraqi's. Don't be deluded into believing what you see - this is merely a political demonstration against the Republicans and George Bush. Disgruntled Democrats, mad because they are out of power. You saw no demonstrations when Clinton was in power and bombing Arabs, did you? Yes, the images are disturbing, but not near as wretched as Saddam Hussein's insanity toward his own people. Show us the pictures of the shredding machine that shredded live people while their loved lones looked on - what? Hussein didn't supply you with those? Show us the electrocution rooms (actually, we have seen them already on everyday TV)the torture rooms... and on and on. Showing just one side of the conflict doesn't make you a newsworthy channel, only an opportunistic one, willing to show perverse and cruel scenes, think By the way, those crowds in San Francisco are mostly gays - Arab kind of people.

Caroline Phillips

Let them see it!

I'm so ashamed for this country... Let those "liberators" in US see what their wishes do to Iraqis. They wanted it, let them see it!This is the truth of war, not lame news channels bubbling.Let these fragile flowers explain to their children why they voted for somebody who acts like typical psycho. Let them see and explain...

Irma

photos

http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0304/S00006.htm - I went to this web page to see the war photos. Is it possible my ISP, or somebody else, is blocking them? Only two downloaded: one of a bloody face, the other; a dead soldier.

N. Printz

the photos we will never see

Scoop: I don't question your right to show these photos, we live in free societies, but I wonder if our visual understanding of the world distorts our comprehension of it. Show me the lurid deaths of fifty people from five camera angles, and I will be sickened. I will have a hard time condoning whatever caused those deaths. This is true even if my intellect knows that those deaths may be an unavoidable part of preventing thousands of deaths that I won't see.

Have you ever seen pictures of someone being tortured in a dungeon? Why not post a picture of an Iraqi being fed through a plastic shredder by his own government? Free-world journalists are never allowed to shoot this type of thing. How many photos have you seen of most of the non-war killings of the 20th Century? We never see photos of the intentional famine in Ukraine, and it killed millions. Realize that more people were killed out of camera shot by their own governments than were killed in wars, even in that war torn century. Maybe if the camera really saw it all we would have been more willing to fight totalitarianism.

Dennis McLain - Portland, Oregon, USA

pictures

Thank you for having the courage to show the war. The major corporation media in the United States are "COVERING" the war.

Jay Raskin

pictures from Iraq

The same persons who protest your pictures must be the same ones who love John Wayne movies and all other pre PLATOON war movies who never saw blood or guts and the dead disapeared from the screen and every scene was sanitized so Americans would not know the truth about war. The Bush administration would like Americasns to return to the early days when war was fun and enjoyable. THE LAST REFUGE OF A SCOUNDRAL IS PATRIOTISM AND FLAG

Dan

War Images Feedback

More stats from the Red Cross for people like John Tennant : from Catherine in Canada (a country of people who overwhelmingly condemn this brutal massacre by the US government, while feeling saddened as well for the American & British troops that were sent there to die by their corrupt leaders and for their grieving families. War is Terror! Red Cross Reports High Iraqi Civilian Casualties Australian Broadcasting Corporation 4-3-3

Red Cross tells horror of war The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is reporting high numbers of civilian casualties throughout Iraq. ICRC spokesman in Baghdad Roland Huguenen-Benjamin says an average of 100 civilian casualties a day are being recorded at hospitals in the capital. Mr Benjamin says he and his staff have also been shocked by the numbers of dead and injured in a hospital in the town of Hila, 100 kilometres south of Iraq. "That hospital where we had a chance of travelling with our own surgeon was utterly overwhelmed by hundreds of civilian casualties brought in, in just over 48 hours," he said. "And there were lots and lots of dead bodies that were practically dismembered by the violence of the explosion they had been subjected to." http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s823972.htm

Cathy Welsh – Canada

this damn fool war

I used to be proud to be an American. I am still grateful to be an American, but proud? No way. Now way under this regime. I still work at waging peace.

Karen Kerr – USA

War is not "clean" or "smart"

I wish more Americans could see what "our" government doesn't want us to see about this illegal attack upon Iraq. Where are those "weapons of mass destruction"? Where is the threat to the world that Bush claims that Iraq presents? The biggest threat I see is FROM the US and it's imperialist arrogance.

This war is about control of middle east oil,not about "liberating" the people of Iraq from Saddam.

It's not a proud time to be an American.

Sheila L.chambers

Iraq war pictures...

First, let me say that I'm glad to have finally found some pictures of the war (although they aren't nearly as terrible as I would have thought...I've seen worse). Most Americans don't realise what happens in war, even one that is justified like the one against Saddam (against Saddam, not Iraq). With that said, I was disappointed to see that your coverage was indeed biased. What happened to the pictures of the casualties the Iraqi military has imposed on it's people? How about the pictures of those who were tortured, raped, and/or maliciously killed by the Butcher of Baghdad? I have no problem with you showing "gory" pictures of what America has done, but please, as a service to everyone, show the WHOLE picture.

Chris Frank – USA

Hypocrisy

Re; Mark Morford's article on "Who Cares About Dead Iraqis?" I wonder if the writer and The Scoop feel that his view is any less hypocritical than what he criticizes? Does he have anything closely approaching the credentials, access to information, or leadership experience that the leaders he trashes do? I'm typically unimpressed when hacks like Morford seek acceptance and aggrandizement by sensationalizing issues the way he does, without ever setting foot in the environment he discusses. Has he seen war? Has he listened to any of the Iraqis speak about the crimes and torture of innocents within the regime? Would he expect ANY other country to take such care to avoid civilian casualties? I don't care if any weapons of mass destruction are found or if it's all simply an excuse, as Morford insists, such human rights abuses committed by Hussein’s regime cannot be tolerated and s

Alan Buwalda

War Images

Thank you for your honest coverage of what is really going on in Iraq! Comments from readers such as John Tennant only serve to prove how right you are about these mass murders. His facts are fictional about what the Red Cross is saying (not that their info is the most reliable or up to date either):

"The International Red Cross, meanwhile, said some its staff members saw the bodies of dozens of people - including women and children - at a town south of Baghdad where Iraqi officials claim U.S. helicopters attacked a residential neighborhood. At least 280 injured were being treated at a hospital in Hillah, 60 miles south of Baghdad, the Red Cross said." "According to the Iraqi government, 425 civilians have been killed by U.S. air strikes. The only neutral foreign organization currently in Iraq, the International Committee of the Red Cross, has generally confirmed the government's casualty numbers while declining to ascertain which side was to blame in specific incidents. Red Cross spokesman Roland Huguenin-Benjamin, who has visited the Hilla hospital and toured the region, said the casualties here are "horrific . . . the worst I've seen in Iraq." Keep up the good work! People need to know the truth about the massacre. Not in our name!

Catherine - Canada

US people VS US government

Please understand something. Many US people do not support this war! I am from California. Protests happen around the clock. The US government has set an agenda that has ignored the people of the US and their wishes. Our military was meant to defend us, not invade. I am ashamed of our leader and of the damage and distruction he feels he has the God given right to inflict while bypassing the organization the US esablished, the UN. I pray the world will only understand that the people of the US are different from our political machine. I do not support Saddam. He is evil. But evil begets evil. Hatred begets more hatred. We overlook or very own history. Bush is full of hatred. Even worse, he is disconnected, passionless. I only have one message: Peace on earth. Please don't hate all Americans.

dave

thank you

thank you for having the courage to show these images! your site has become one of those that i turn to often to counterbalance the crap the american media spoon feeds those of us who are limited in our television exposure. God bless the internet and God bless you!

Erika Rohlfs

photographs of Iraq invasion

We thank you. I wish you were on our local TV; but alas they are gutless to carry and see it; and correspondingly fear and hatred ridden and blind.

Raghuram family

thank you

These images are, as Mark Morford writes, required viewing. I'm so angry that the mainstream media isn't showing these, and so grateful to you for making them available.

Allison McLean

bombed market

There seems to be some debate as to the source of the missile that destroyed the market as depicted on your site. International sources have identified it as an Iraqi version of a Chinese Silkworm missile. Perhaps a bit more discretion on your part would be warranted.

Michael Daugherty

Your aims

Strength to your elbow! Your motives are right. Thank you for being un-afraid to show people what war is really about.

Ronald Spencer

War photos

Why don't you also publish photos of Iraqi citizens hanging in the town square with their tongues cut out because they merely spoke out against Saddam? Show some photos of the dead families that were killed by Saddam's own troops for whatever absurd reason they had. I'll bet they look equally horrifying. Your characterization of the US's intentions are not entirely fair. Nobody wants war. Nobody that went to the night club in Bali wanted to get blown apart either. Show some of their photos. I realize Iraq was not involved with that, but it serves as a graphic reminder of why the U.S. is agressive in seeing that stuff like that happens less often. You might even benefit from it without ever knowing. The Iraqi citizens that have sufered under Saddam Hussein for years and years, and as terrible as it is, people will die getting him removed, because asking him politely wasn't going to

Scot Humphrey

Thanks for some Truth

A grizzly reality indeed. I wish those US Flag Waving A-Holes would open their eyes to the carnage that their Un-Elected Shit Face of a President is really up to. Thanks for letting a little bit of reality seep out to the public.

:Nathan

Iraqi War Pictures

Thank you for showing the world the travisty of war.

I only wish there were more journalists out there who are committed to showing the entire picture of war, not just the tanks. Maybe then more would reach us in US, and the American public would not be so eager.

Thank you.

J. Moore - USA

war reports

Thank God some people are trying to accurately report on this war/invasion. People do not look back proudly on Vietnam, mostly because of the important role the media played in demonstrating what was really happening then.

The users who are sending in complaints about your site are unAmerican. America is supposed to be a democracy where the people are all represented and get to know and participate in what their government does, where there is a free press and freedom of speech.

While many, mostly poor, Americans go over to Iraq and die, supposedly for freedom, others have the nerve to shit on their graves by trying to undermine freedom here in this country. They want to see reporters who consider both sides and all angles be silenced and fired. They want to see pictures of the war and of its casualties suppressed. They are trying to turn our country into a dictatorship like a Russia of the Cold War.

Thank you for presenting the truth without prettying it up for people who can't stomach what's really happening over there! Almost no one else will.

Pear Michaels

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