First person account of this week's deadly attack in Iraq...*GRAPHIC PIC*

[YellowRubberDuckie]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1303827,00.html
Snip:


It started with a phone call early on Sunday morning: "Big pile of smoke over Haifa Street." Still half asleep I put on my jeans, cursing those insurgents who do their stuff in the early morning. What if I just go back to bed, I thought - by the time I will be there it will be over. In the car park it struck me that I didn't have my flak jacket in the car, but figured it was most probably just an IED (improvised explosive device) under a Humvee and I would be back soon.
On the way to Haifa Street I was half praying that everything would be over or that the Americans would seal off the area. I haven't recovered from Najaf yet.

Haifa Street was built by Saddam in the early 80s, part of a scheme that was supposed to give Baghdad a modern look. A long, wide boulevard with huge Soviet high-rise buildings on both sides, it acts like a curtain, screening off the network of impoverished alleyways that are inhabited by Baghdad's poorest and toughest people, many of whom are from the heart of the Sunni triangle.

When I arrived there I saw hundreds of kids and young men heading towards the smoke. "Run fast, it's been burning for a long time!" someone shouted as I grabbed my cameras and started to run.
End snip.

They were innocent people hanging out on a city street. I'm sick.
Duckie

[UpsideDownFlag]

1. damn.

..no text.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

2. Here's an earlier thread on this

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=2350320

[ugarte]

3. These colors don't run

We just kill kids.

[bvar22]

4. The kids in the pic weren't "killed",

they were BUTCHERED!!!

[amandabeech]

5. This picture belongs on network news,

together with shots of dead an wounded American soldiers. It is easy to ignore the horror of war when one does not see it. Obviously, the current regime learned its lesson in Vietnam. The networks must regain their nerve and defy the regime, otherwise we'll be in an endless war.

[Smarmie Doofus]

7. Not bloody likely...

in an era when even PBS news is " brought to you in part by Exxon-Mobil."

[DodgeDart]

6. Thats terrible!!

[PittLib]

8. How ironic ...

I just got my first letter to the editor published - in regards to a photo on the cover of the paper that some people felt was too graphic. Here's what they said:

Appalling photo
I was extremely upset and appalled that you would print a photo of the children killed in the Russian hostage crisis on the front page of the Sept. 4 issue of the Post-Gazette. These weren't body bags; these were dead children covered in blood.

Not only was I in shock to see such a sad situation being exploited in a newspaper, but I have school-aged children that are supposed to look for current events each day. To see a photo such as this would have devastated them. I am thankful it was in the Saturday edition so that they didn't see it.

I feel that you need to use a little bit more tact and better judgment when publishing such photos. You just made a horrible situation even worse. Let these families say good-bye to their children in peace. What if these were your children?


JOY PANKO
Cranberry



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Why show this?
What is the purpose of the graphic picture of the deceased children on your front page Sept. 4? Do you think you need to show that picture to impress upon your readers how tragic that terrorist event in Russia was?

Do you really feel that you are doing your readers a service by publishing this gruesome picture? Or is it that you decided to print it for other reasons, like hoping to sell additional newspapers? I'm inclined to believe that it is the latter.


DAVE HARHAI
West Homestead



And here's my point:

Open your eyes


How nice that we live in a country where we can not only pick and choose what we see, but also admonish when we decide that it is "inappropriate." Sept. 8 letter writers Joy Panko ("Appalling Photo") and Dave Harhai ("Why Show This?"), who criticized the PG for publishing front-page photos of schoolchildren killed in the recent Russian hostage crisis, have that luxury. They aren't forced to look at and acknowledge dead children in their own backyards. It is this sort of mentality that allows us to attack others with out so much afterthought.

If you don't see it, then it ceases to exist. Maybe if we were forced to look, then people would be more conscientious about the choices they make and realize how much we have to be grateful for. I ask you, Mr. Harhai, how much reality is "too much" when it comes to the news? Is it exploitation only when it makes you uncomfortable? Ms. Panko said, "You just made a horrible situation even worse." Is that even possible? "Let these families say good-bye to their children in peace. What if these were your children?" And to that I say, these children did not die in peace and if they were mine, I would want the world to see the devastation and mourn them so it wouldn't happen again.

I am horrified by this, and also for Iraqi children and countless others that we don't see. I don't, however, think a "little bit more tact and better judgment" is the answer.

Denial doesn't solve much, now, does it? Oh, and Ms. Panko: If war, fearmongering and everyday violence in our own neighborhoods weren't enough warrant a little parental supervision, your problem is greater than you think.


TANYA BENNITT
South Side

Am I wrong?

[wtmusic]

9. Nope

Spot on. Surprised it got published.

:thumbsup:

[PittLib]

10. Not really ...

It's our "liberal" paper ... as opposed to the Tribune-Review, the one who's reporter was on the receiving end of the now infamous "shove it".

[PittLib]

11. Oh - and thank you!

Goodness, I can be so rude! :)