Scoop Feedback 2 – War Coverage

Tuesday, 22 April 2003, 10:15 am
Opinion: Scoop Feedback

War Images

For getting my attention, congratulations. Where is the journalism with your pictures? Exactly who took your pictures? Where exactly were your pictures taken? Your only credibility is for being graphic. There's no news in being graphic. "Guernica," by Picasso was graphic and "Guernica" offers a better sense of the truth of war than your pictures. We all know that war is Hell, and most Americans are ignorant of the painful truth, except most New Yorkers, like myself, and Washington D.C. residents. I have worked in the World Trade Center on many occasions. In the Autumn if 2001 I breathed the acrid air of the smoldering wreckage of the destroyed World Trade Center. I know war is Hell, I've breathed the air in Hell, but I won't be sending you my pictures to glorify your own self-righteous graphics.

With integrity,

Shawn Lucas.

Is this Liberation?

comment: Thank you for making it possible for me to see what American media have suppressed, presumably due to government pressure. I'm capable of handling these images and drawing my own conclusions. You have made a singular contribution to world peace by allowing American to see what Arabs are seeing.

Gary

Well done Scoop

comment: Hi there

Congratulations on performing the terrible task of bringing to the public the horror and reality of war in Iraq - an unmitigated invasion of a sovereign state by the economically powerful, and for economic reasons. It is interesting to see how divergent views are by and large quashed. Anti-Iraq sentiment, such as cartoons depicting Iraqis 'getting the shit kicked out of them' are commonly circulated, using business tools (email) - to the delight of some - while anti-US sentiment, if circulated, is met with censure, as I discovered this morning. I for one absolutely deplore the United States, am deeply disappointed in Britain, and will do all I can do boycott US and British products and services, something I think should be the duty of every consumer. And I will continue to use the tools of business, and any other means, to do this, just like US proponents do.

Keep up the good work. Donovan Jackson

foto di guerra

comment: i don't know if in your country you can see this photos, but they are terrible as the war

sante

Horrid Chemical Weapons Assault On Halabja Pictures - THEY WERE CIVILIANS!!

http://www.geocities.com/wehatehippies/Halabja_Massacre.html

I am sending this link to Scoop so that these pictures may be shown to give some balance to the extreme bias Scoop is showing to the USA.

Sally McIntyre

horror/war

comment: i do not understand how a man who inflicted all this suffering and horror can sleep at nigth''has he no fear to face god ?seeing all this pictures of an endless killing and suffering,made my heart full of sadness and i'm ashamed to be a part of this country''i see no glory,i only see madness of a man,who is not human,but a beast..shame an my western world,who harmed so many nations and cultures... a human who still feels..

celia

Evil being justified

comment: The war is one that is very evil. We try to justify it by saying that we are getting rid of a dictator. Sadam may be evil but killing innocent people is also evil. If the coailition is so powerful so that they can reduce the UN to nothingness, couldn't they organize Sadam's assination along with his dictators? I think the US and Britain has a lot to hide by trying to prevent the world form seeing the images of its own destruction. They think everyone on this side of the world is gullible? We all know that this is evidence of extreme "oil greed" and the extent to which the other evil will go to gain power over such important resource. Britain and USA should remember that when they point 4 fingers, there is a total of 16 fingers pointing back at them.

veronica clarke

War Coverage

I was just wondering why your website seems to have ceased reporting on Iraq? It would seem that today's events and Baghdad's development would warrant at least an acknowledgment. No stories, no Al Jazeera links, no photo essays; the lead story is "Goldie Gets a Gong." What's going on?

Eric University of Pennsylvania

The Innocent Victims

comment: I was utterly devastated when I saw the graphic pictures of innocent civilians. The prayer that came to my heart was "May the barbaric American and British soldiers and politicians who ordered this unnecessary genocide of Iraq rot in Hell if they don't repent their bloodthirsty orgy."

Can this be ever justified especially against a nation which was broken in the first Gulf War, sanctioned for 12 years and bombarded by US and UK jets for the last five?

The dead are the lucky ones who didn't live to see their "LIBERATION"!!!!

i malik

image use

comment: Do I need permission to use these images for non-commercial use, that is for anti-war posters? Thank you for posting these. I have had a difficult time finding images of civilian casualties because of the sanitized war coverage. I saw some of these on Al Jazeera but cannot find the equivalent on English Al Jazeera.

Kathryn Marsailes

9/11 and October Surprise scandal

comment: When will the FBI polygraphers arrest George Bush Sr. and Robert Gates for planning the 9/11 attacks?

Google and type in "Operation Ringwind"

David Howard

Hiding

comment: When you tolerate fascism, when you excuse brutal dictatorship, when you abandon justice, war comes. It's worse than anything you imagined because it takes a greater evil to kill a lesser evil. This is what tolerance of institutionalized evil begets. Take responsibility for your politics. I see you hiding behind these horrible images pretending to be innocent.

Brooks Imperial - Kiowa, CO

Pictures of Truth

comment: for the past few weeks i have watch history unfold before my eyes but i dont see it from a digital piont of view but what i have read and saw myself /its seems to me that if you dont want others to see what you are doing you try to focus on the other problems that is much a child's game/ my question to you is what about the pictures of saddams burtally and china' russia's and north koria and so on and so forth/ inclosing I as God is not just a God of pease but also A God of War as well and Jesus Christ Will do what His Word says and it will be as Revelation said amem and amen

elyne Johnson

War Photos Feedback

I don't know what's more horrifying, the pictures or the ignorance I read blaring back at me from the feedback archives! People, please! You've got one guy ranting about how, and I quote, "You should be ashamed of your self. People are dieing to protect your rights. If you are still alive from the present conflict that means you were hiding with the women and children." -What?!? the soldiers and Iraqi people aren't dying for OUR freedom or the NEW ZEALAND website people's freedom to be exact, they are supposedly dying for the Iraqi peoples freedom. Along with a very large and long laundry list of other reasons that people would know about if they read more than one paper and watched more than one news station, ie. Fox News - which is about as balanced as my double D frame with no hips! The last time I checked, the Iraqi army was not camped outside our borders preparing to invade and take away my rights. The only people who seem hell bent on taking away my freedoms are the very people who proclaim they are sending troops to fight for it or those supporting it now. Which is backward and ignorant. My rights are in more danger of being revoked by my own government (see Ashcroft, Rumsfeld & Wolfowitz), and jarheads who insist they should have a right to kill me because I hold a different point of view than they do. Oh, god forbid somebody ask for peace these days, lest they be labeled a coward and unpatriotic and deserving of the gallows. Oh, yes, America the beautiful, land of the free - so long as you fall in line with mob rule, ignore the facts, and support without question whatever you're told to do and believe. Sounds like religion to me, since when did Bush and his "Hawks" become god? Well, I can't believe that this is America, because if it is, maybe I do want to immigrate to New Zealand or some other place where I'm truly free, without fear of reprisal for my beliefs/dissent and threatened with bodily harm.

Another comment asked, "what's your point?". Well, I believe the point was to show the pictures that nobody else would show people, so that people would be in fact informed about all aspects of this war. Not the nice sugar-coated, easy to swallow pill of tidy "smart" bombs and universal thumbs up. A war that some obviously get a real rush from, while others justify it in the name of the price for freedom or maybe so long as it's not their children who are getting blown up? The point is to bring it home, and as the person commenting may have pointed out, he can make up his own mind. So do that, while you still can. It doesn't make the pictures any less horrible, or any less real. And it doesn't make them any more or less justifiable. Not to me! No matter what the motivation behind posting the pictures, they still exist. The pictures show a reality that most have never and will never see, and should hope not to again. Some people's only response is, "where are the pictures of what saddam did?"...well, they're out there too maybe. They just weren't circulated and covered by our media, or part of your knowledge either, until it was in the interest of supporting an otherwise questionable war, and if it weren't for people posting these pictures of the other side, we would never see them either. Until the next time we needed to be emotionally prodded a bit to support some other INVASION or just cause if that's what you believe in. Maybe the Scoop should post some of these pictures of Saddam's tyranny, just so that would make people happy? That still doesn't take away from the reality or the relevance of these war photos. If you're justification is where were you when they were gassing the Kurds, well you and I both were ignorantly paying our government money so that they could continue giving Saddam money to pay for weapons...before and after they gassed the Kurds. Our beloved George Bush & Reagan continued giving him money, despite the inhumane treatment they're all up in arms about now including the gassing...continued to almost right up until the first Gulf War. Because of special interest and politics. That's of good moral fiber.

Don't tell me to wake up, I did a long time ago. And if you think these actions we're taking are making us any more secure, I suggest YOU stick around and see how secure we're really making the world and our citizens. You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. We'll soon see if their divine democratizing the world through Iraq strategy really works, but just remember there is no one right way for all people, and we are not the country that gets to dictate it. While you're digging that hole for me as some have suggested, for speaking my opinion in a so-called free society...dig one for yourself while your at it. Because the second you believe someone doesn't have a right to dissent or should give up their freedoms in the name of "homeland security" and fear, you may as well be dead.

By the way, check out the Patriot Act I and II, and how they're going to try to repeal the "sunset" provision in the first. Know what that means? Anyone? - PERMANENT. Sounds like democracy to you?

A.Tatem – USA

Scoop's Detractors

Dear Editor: I have only just now discovered your website, unlike some others who have sent letters. I have viewed the photos which of course are not published here in the U.S. They make bad press. Some people would like to remind you of the hundreds of people Saddam H. has killed, including his own people.

These are brain-dead, brainwashed Americans and others who would like to forget that the U.S. and Rumsfeld were behind those massacres and didn't blink once. Note we see none of the "requested" pictures of those dead out of pure political savvy and embarrassment. This "Bush regime" does not want that connection advertised. Tell them to ask Bush for those photos.

Especially the one of Rumsfeld shaking hands (hugging?) Saddam Hussein just ten years ago. Iraq had a culture thousands of years before Columbus stumbled upon America, a pure accident and a tragedy for the indigenous cultures already here.

We have been stealing land and committing genocide ever since. When we finished with our own country, we moved on to others.

Wake up, you narcotized flag-wavers. The soldiers are not dying for our rights, the rights which are being removed one by one by the Patriot Acts (try reading them). No, they are dying so that George Bush and his henchman, his gang of thieves, can steal the land and the oil and the very, very ugly American can move into the Middle East for good. They won't have to kiss up to Saudi Arabia any more, hey? A horrible act of sadism and murder for pure greed. Pure evil. I'll get back to you. Thanks for the forum and the hard work!!!

Susan A. Trear

TELL THE WHOLE TRUTH!

You show grotesque photos as if you somehow believe that we in the USA do not know what war really is. We have seen these on our TV as well. Unlike your country we have given our sons and daughters for the freedom of OTHERS, who do not really deserve it in the first place. We should have never liberated France or Germany. I challenge your organization to tell the whole truth. You will undoubtedly fail to show the jubilation that the Iraqi's have shown to the US and UK forces. You also fail to comment on the fact that Saddam kills in one month 10 times the number of innocent civilians that have died in war.

All wars are a tragedy, but some are necessary to stop evil men. This war will save lives the first day that it ends. Saddam perpetrated genocide on his own people and Europe, as usual, does not care (remember Kosovo?) Some things are indeed worth fighting for, even if it is the freedom of Iraqi's which you seem to place very little value on. We in the US believe that liberating Iraq is worth it. I wish we still thought the same of France and Germany who value their own freedom, but do not feel compelled to care for the freedom of others.

I challenge you to show both sides of this war. It is violent and brutal, as all wars are. We already knew that. We also know that the world is a better place because brave men have picked up a gun to fight oppression. I only wish more in the world could realize this.

Matthew Sheldon, proudly from the USA

I AM PROUDLY FROM THE USA

comment: The recent pictures, of which you have none, of jubilant Iraqis welcoming the liberation of their country have proven your premise entirely wrong.

On the other hand the horrific you chose to show could have easily been from France in 1944, but did that make fighting Hitler wrong? Of course not.

War is hell, and we already knew that--so stop with the self-righteous bluster. Wars are fought because bad men still rule good people. To argue that Saddam should be left in power is to argue in favor of genocide, torture, rape, oppression and lawlessness. You ignore his crimes as if his victims are not worth mentioning. If you really cared about the Iraqi people as much as you hate the USA (for whatever envious reasons) you would publish accounts of what he has done to his own people.

I think you are simply hypocritical and do not care a bit for the good of Iraq or it's people. Today's events have shown you to be wrong yet again.

I pray that more of the priveleged and lazy industrialized world would care more about protecting the oppressed people of the world, even if by force. At least the USA tries (i.e Haiti, Somalia, Kosovo, Panama and so on). These countries do not have oil, yet the USA did not hesitate to put it's sons and daughters in harm's way to protect others.

The USA is unilateralist, and it is because Europe (ex-UK) always fails to stand up for what is right. Apparently we can lump NZ with them too....

Matthew Sheldon – USA

photos of Iraqi war

The U.S. media is not trying to "cover things up." More like everyone already knows the war is a bad thing, that people suffer and die, and they don't need graphic pictures to prove it. No one wants these thigns to happen. being pro-war doesn't mean being pro-suffering. The fact is the things in these pictures happen everyday in Iraq by there own government. Iraqi men are praised for shooting their sons when they don't join the military. Is that your idea of peace? Sometimes there is no way to bring about peace except fight for it, there is nothing wrong with fighting to bring about peace. We've tried other solutions, ever since the end of the gulf war and Iraq has disobeyed every one of them. What else is there to do besides invade? War is horrible, but sometimes we need to fight. Tony Blair and George W Bush know that, and are brave enough to go against even the UN. Th

...Nick

asesinos

comment: deseo con toda mi alma que esa basura de sociedad yankee sea castigada por la ira de dios por tantos atropellos cometidos por estos viciosos degenerados malditos

sven koppler

War Photos

Very sad, why don't you show the pictures of the dead Americans from the world trade center, or why don't you show the dead Kuwaties from the the 1991 gulf war, There are two sides to the truth.

Rob - Gulf War vet

Death

comment: You people are a joke!.....The Iraqi people love George Bush. Today in Bagdad, we see people tasting freedom for the first time ever!!

Phil

Graphic War Photos

You and your sympathizers are the same people who sat on your hands and whistled in the wind while Hitler systematically slaughtered 6 million Jews. Pacifists enjoy the luxury of their beliefs and protests because there are those who know evil when they see it and are willing to confront evil with whatever force is necessary to defeat it so their children and grandchildren can live in peace.

The RAF fire bombed Dresden in WWII. The asphalt on the streets actually caught on fire. 135,000 civilians died. Prior to dropping nuclear weapons on Nagasaki and Hiroshima the US fire bombed both of those cities and Tokyo. An estimated 330,000 civilians died in this bombing. Regrettable? You bet. Unavoidable? Not unless you were prepared to speak Japanese and worship Hirohito as a god. Do I feel guilty? Nope. Do I lose sleep over it? Not a friggin' wink.

New Zealand, the home of so many pacifists like you and your ilk in America, is a wart on the ass of the world. Who cares what Kiwis think? Hell, French commandos unilaterally! scuttled Greenpeace's flagship--The Rainbow Warrior--while it was lying at anchor in a Kiwi Harbor. The French, for God's sake. See, the French weren't afraid of the Kiwi's reaction. No one respects or fears New Zealand--even the impotent French. If New Zealand and Scoop disappeared tomorrow, no one who matters would know the difference. The one possible exception might be the rich, self-indulgent America's Cup community. That's the one thing Kiwis seem to be able to do well--sail.

Nobody needs to remind me war is hell. I'm so friggin' sick of the peace movement making the US out to be the big bad boogeyman I could scream. This world is a far, far, farrrrrr, better and safer place because of the U.S. Close your eyes and visualize Saddam Hussein with the military power of the USA. Now, visualize what the world would look like given that hypothesis. I have nothing but contempt for New Zealanders, French, Germans and Russians. Like a buddy of mine who worked with Russian Army soldiers after the dissolution of the USSR said, I can't believe we used to worry about the Soviet military. They are poorly trained, poorly equipped, poorly fed, poorly motivated and the whole system works on graft and corruption. New Zealand, along with France and Germany couldn't fight its way out of a 5 cent bathroom stall. If you think sitting back and whining about America while your brains and military atrophies makes the world safer, you are sadly mistaken.

I apologize to no one. I'm proud to be an American and that will never change. I'd rather be one of those dead, American soldiers shot in the forehead while in Iraqi captivity whose photos you published than live as an Iraqi under Hussein. There are millions of dead men who gave their lives so the pacifists like you and your strokers from the US, Europe and wherever can whine and show brutal photos of war. Gee, did you think we didn't know war is brutal? Grow up, for God's sake. The world is a dangerous place filled with evil. Pacifists are a waste of good food and clean air as far as I'm concerned. You let other people do the dying for you.

I'm going to sign off now. I think I'm going to be sick.

Duane F. Hurt, USA

You have opened my eyes....

comment: I must thank you guys for showing me something that the media in my own country refuses to print and air. I admire you for what you are doing. I started off protesting Bush, then I protested his war, now I understand why. Thank you.

Marshall Massengill

the stench of war, the stink of bush

comment: You should be proud, americans that aren't afraid to stand for their rights, the right to expose their government. Be proud.

Patrick C

I agree

comment: It is hard to view pictures of the suffering inflicted on the innocent - especially children - as the result of war. But I am glad you did and I sure wish those who advocate for war could be put in solitary confinement with pictures of the likes of the horrifc wounds of the civilians plastered all over the walls and ceilings. Makes one wonder how long it would take until the very idea of war would become repulsive to them. Thanks for bringing truth to the horrific , brutal reality of war.

Judy Gooding

Dead soldiers

comment: I am not entirely sure that your motives are all that pure in showing such graphic images. We all know that war is an ugly, brutal business and that people are getting killed - just as we know that around 400 people die on our roads each year, but we don't need to see real photos of them. You are showing these pictures because you think that somehow 'Uncle Sam' is bullshitting us. But remember the soldiers in those pictures were young men and women who were sent to Iraq by their government - many of them probably never expected to fight an actual war, but now find themselves doing just that. The maimed and dead individuals you are showing do not deserve to be paraded on the web to aid your essentially ideological position. You are using them as pawns in your own 'crusade.' I guess it's a fairly un-PC view, but I personally believe that the U.N. would never have been able to d

Kirk

Images of war

comment: I'm an Australian living in San Francisco. Images of the war in America are romanticised and glorified. All one hears and reads is how well military progress is going. There is little talk of all the civilians that are being killed and injured. Thankyou for publishing, the real pictures of war, they are graphic, disturbing and painful to view, but I think it is important for people to see the real devastation that the American and British government is causing. If people understood what war really was, I believe that most people would be less likely to support it. Keep up the good work

Julilynn Carter - San Francisco, CA - USA

thank you

comment: Thank you for publishing those hideous images. We in the US would otherwise not see them (although we know they exist, no matter how much we try to deny it). I managed to stop crying long enough to send the link to my (very extensive) e-mail list & suggest that they visit to get a dose of reality. The flashback of #6 is, for me, the most heartbreaking: he looks just like my nephew, Max.

Nancy Anton

I'm ashamed to be an american..

comment: Thank you for allowing us to see these images for ourselfs - I can hardly belive it, why does our goverment do this? Greed? I think so..

We aren't just killing Iraq civilians, we are killing our own troops, why all these 'friendly fire' incidents? I really want you explain how it can happen so many times, Mr. Bush.

Thank you,

C Jerico

pics

comment: thank you. I feel sick and hate myself, but thank you for posting them. Someone has to. I guess if I multiply my current nausea to the power of 100, I might actually grasp what it might be like to be in Iraq right now.

Cecilia

Images

comment: Bring 'em all on, the more gruesome, the better. Plain and simple: this is what war - any war - is about.

Hope you find the time and energy to continue your work. Don't waste it too much on people complaining about your site.

Regards,

Zayd Abdulla

Question

comment: With all due respect:

We all understand the tragedy of war, and I would be so bold as to guess that no one likes to see human suffering for any reason. My question to you is, or was, what is your alternative plan of action in dealing with an Iraqi regime that has suppressed and tortured their own people for decades while taunting the rest of the world with the threat of chemical weapons, terrorism and possibly weapons of mass destruction?

Thank you.

Rich

comment: I appreciate covering other side of story. Story that our media want't to cover up to support un-just war.

Habib.

Habibullah

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