Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

[machett AT ibiblio.org]

First off, I don't want to stick my foot in my mouth, so I'll ask if anyone 
has seen images or footage of the KIAs or POWs?  If so, please describe to me 
in detail what they consist of.  I haven't been able to get to al-Jazeera 
online, neither Arabic nor English; and I haven't been able to find any of 
these so-called horrific images.  I did see a very brief and censored bit of 
video on one news station.  I'd like to see these pictures for myself, or at 
least get a decent description of them, so I can make an informed decision.

Now, in the absence of solid evidence, I make an educated guess at events:
Images of the dead and dying and of POWs, although terrible to behold, are a 
fact of war.  Anyone who thinks such images should be withheld from public 
scrutiny is just deluding themselves.  My only caveat is that the Western 
media (at least the US media) should adhere to mass communication law 
concerning the privacy of the families; but I don't believe there is any such 
limitation in these cases (I'll refer to my mass. comm. law text this evening 
and get back to you...)
Secondly, this crap about displaying such images being against the Geneva 
Conventions is just that -- crap.  As an interrogator with the US Army I was 
required to study the Geneva Conventions; although not an expert, I do have a 
certain familiarity with the subject.  The section being quoted by the 
military and regurgitated by the media has nothing to do with images of POWs 
being broadcast by the media.  The Conventions were created in response to 
WWII, and that particular passage was intended to protect POWs from public 
display and ridicule, such as marching Nazi POWs through a town and allowing 
the townspeople to curse at, spit upon, throw objects at, or strike the POWs. 
 Photography and cinematography existed in 1949, at the time of the 
Conventions creation, so if this were truly an issue of concern then the 
creators would have addressed it then.  Furthermore, this issue, as far as I 
know, has not previously been raised.  We've seen footage before of KIAs and 
POWs from Somalia to the first Gulf War to Kosovo; why is it suddenly an 
issue?(answer below)  And it hasn't seemed to stop the media from presenting 
images of Iraqi POWs in US camps.  I've seen videos from times past of 
incinerated Iraqis hanging half-way out of their burning vehicles and of poor 
souls on the streets of Haiti being set ablaze by angry mobs.  Why wasn't the 
issue raised then?

I am disgusted and disappointed with the media's kow-towing to the military.  
"Shock and awe" is right; but it describes the effect on the media, not on 
the Iraqi people.  I suspect that the Powers-That-Be don't want any fuel 
added to the fires of dissent; they learned their lessons from VietNam and 
Somalia, wherein images of dead and dying US troops swayed public opinion 
back home.  But these are the sort of truths the public needs to know in 
order to make an informed opinion on the matter.  It's painful, but it has to 
be done; the sterilized images of precision bombing must be accompanied by 
the grotesque reality.  It will hurt some; it will relieve others.  Since 
yesterday I have read and witnessed two interviews of wives of former POWs.  
One said it traumatized she and her daughter; the other said it was a welcome 
relief to know that her husband was indeed alive.

my $0.02,
Alan