WAR PHOTOS THAT DO NOT SHOW THE DEAD AND WOUNDED ARE LIES

This is not a long article; however, if you are following the war in Ukraine, it is a critical article that attempts to desanitize the horrors of war. If you are smart enough to subscribe to the New York Times (or WaPo and read The Guardian), you saw a photo yesterday of a dead family slaughtered by the Putin war machine. A mother, two children and a family friend lay clearly dead on the street, killed trying to escape. So far, the NYT is the only news organization to show this unvarnished photo. We need to see them all, as war is a process of basic slaughter.

REF: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/06/world/europe/ukrainian-family-killed-war.html (subscription required)

This IMO is the most important photo of this conflict as it shows the unvarnished truth of any War. The object of war is to kill the enemy and civilians (think carpet bombing by Allies in WW2). News organizations shy away from showing these “graphic photos” as if they can sidestep the basic brutal truth of war — gruesome deaths. This is a grave error IMO. As long as our news-sources DO NOT SHOW THE DEAD, THEY ARE LYING TO US THAT WAR IS WEAPONS AND STRATEGY, NOT THE DEAD SOLDIERS AND CIVILIANS IT REALLY IS!

When we read about any war, it is easy to get lost in the battles, the skirmishes, the losses of tanks and vehicles. None of this conveys the horrors of war — the death of young women/men combatants and innocent civilians. Over two centuries ago, the very cynical Spanish painter, in one graphic scene, showed the suffering of civilians at the hands of Napoleon’s soldiers. If you study this print, you can see the smiling French soldier, obscenely enjoying the death of a civilian.

So I have a vital plea to the world’s news organizations: To prevent war and to inform us of the true cost of war, show us the graphic, the obscene deaths, the agony of the dying. To do less than this is to sugarcoat war.

As the bulldog Union General Sherman on his way to Atlanta said: It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, more vengeance, more desolation. War is hell!

It is way past time that we hear the shrieks, the moans and see the dead. Kudos to the NYT for putting away the sugar to coat this war and show it in the graphic terms it really is.

WAR IS HELL!