Student 1 Student English 120 Professor Rosselli 08 December 2009 The Cost of War: An Urban Legend Since it s invention, photography has had an intimate relationship with war (Marwil). A marriage fiercely debated since the first images of fallen soldiers were taken. Graphic images of war are traumatizing, and raise heated emotion, but war is traumatizing and deserves heated emotion. These are images of our soldiers fighting and dying because we send them to fight and die. We have an obligation to these soldiers, to witness what they experience, so that we constantly re-evaluate our decisions to go to war, with a better understanding of it s consequences. By not seeing the true gruesomeness of it, we are robbed of our right and responsibility to be affected by it. Photography has routinely been used to bring war to the general public. In the article A Brief History Of: Photographing fallen troops, it says in 1943 Franklin Roosevelt wanted Americans to see their dead soldiers because of the growing complacency about the war, and During Vietnam, it was the grisly images on TV and in print that caused public opinion to turn negative (Lacayo). David Perlmutter, an associate professor at the Manship School of Mass Communication says that, in 1992, the photos of hunger stricken children in Somalia ignited our nation s overwhelming support to send troops to assist the United Nations humanitarian mission there (30). But, as a Newsweek article points out, for American troops, the mission that started as humanitarian aide, within a year had become one of peace keeping and establishing a stable Somali government (Elliot). Perlmutter picks up by explaining that in October 1993, the battles
Student 2 American forces were fighting there, that most Americans didn t know were happening, suddenly became visible (30). Fig.1. Paul Watson, U.S. soldier being dragged through the streets of Somalia. In an article about this iconic image, Brian Bethune says that by late summer in 1993, after four reporters were killed by a Somali mob, Paul Watson remained as the only western reporter left with a camera in Mogadishu. On October 4th, Watson captured the image of Staff Sgt. William Cleveland s lifeless corpse as it was dragged through the streets of Mogadishu (26). Cleveland was a crewmember on board an Army Blackhawk helicopter that was shot down conducting a mission to apprehend a Somali clan leader (Schnaars). According to the National Press Photographers Association, The picture of his ghastly, mutilated body is something no one wanted to see, especially if he was your husband or son, but the need for this photo to be shown
Student 3 greatly exceeded the need to protect anyone s emotions from it. It was a fair and accurate portrayal of the situation that gave American citizens the opportunity to examine why US troops were dying in Somalia (Ethics). Bethune says it was this examination that sparked intense public opposition and caused President Clinton to quickly end our involvement there, and a year later, keep him from sending troops to the genocide in Rwanda (26). I can find no trace of protest by family or government for the publishing of Paul Watson s photo. This leads me to believe it either does not exist, or the purpose of the photo and the outcry it caused greatly overshadowed any objection to its publication. This was not the case in 2009, when the Associated Press released the image of a mortally wounded Marine in Afghanistan. A photo that garnered harsh criticism for the photographer, the Associated Press, and anyone that published it. Fig.2. Julie Jacobson, Lance Cpl. Joshua Bernard Mortally Wounded in Afghanistan. In her journal, Julie Jacobson details the events of August 14 th, 2009. The Marine unit she was with came under fire by Taliban forces. It was dusk in the Helmand province of
Student 4 Afghanistan, and the Taliban attacked with AK-47 s and rocket propelled grenades from the cover of a pomegranate grove. It was when the first explosions stopped, that she saw Lance Cpl. Bernard ten meters away, lying on the ground, badly mangled. She did what she was there to do, document the war with her camera. Later that night, she learned that Bernard, after being transported to a hospital, died of a blood clot in his heart on the operating table (Jacobson). The photo of Joshua Bernard was released by the AP Associated Press, despite requests from his parents, and Defense Secretary Robert Gates, to not show it (Bauder). This provoked fierce objection by the general public to the photo s release. Jacobson says that photographers were allowed to take pictures of dead or injured soldiers, as long as it was from a distance, the soldiers were not identifiable, and the next of kin were notified before publication. The AP believes she was within these parameters, as the photo was taken from a distance, the soldiers were blurred, and his parents were shown the photo before it was published (Jacobson). Even though they were within written guidelines, the release of this photo had great consequences for journalists. The Washington Post reported that on September 30 th, because of this photo s release, military command imposed a ban on any photo of soldiers killed in action, a move that lawyers argued violated the first amendment s freedom of the press. Weeks later, the military revised the rule, allowing fallen soldiers to be photographed, but still bans any publication of such photos (Tyson). The government has ways to counter our first amendment s freedom of the press and our right to information by censoring our experience of the war. This may benefit the government, and protect the emotions of the families of fallen soldiers, but will ultimately weaken our society, and distance us from soldiers returning home. According to Jacobson, when the Marines in Bernard s squad were shown the pictures, none of them complained or grew angry about it.
Student 5 They understood that it was what it was,... [that] it was the reality of things (Jacobson). Dan Calahan, an Afghanistan veteran wrote the AP saying, this is one of the realest accounts from a journalist I have ever read and just wanted to thank [Jacobson] for her honest reporting of the war (qtd. in Bauder). Marine veteran Jorge Ruiz says he and other veterans are concerned about the censorship of this war, and how not seeing the reality of it will affect our society (Bauder). It seems that the average person objecting to these photos, is not a soldier at war, but someone who experiences war through print, with the luxury of things like censorship. It is because of this, that the photos need to be shown. Julie Jacobson, The AP, and every publisher who had the option of printing the photo, grappled with the idea that Bernard s family did not want it shown, but ultimately found it more important to publish because it is too easy to sit at Starbucks far away across the sea and read about the casualty and then move on without much of another thought about it. It s not as easy to see an image of that casualty and NOT think about it (Jacobson). Photography speaks with a universal clarity and subtleness that spoken language will never communicate, and so long as the eyes remain a path to the soul, there is no defense from it s content. Still images are invaluable as a tool to document the consequences of war, because the reality it provides is second only to witnessing it first hand. This makes it a powerful political weapon, and like any weapon, there must exist rules for its employment. These rules though, must not be so severe that our rights are violated, and we are denied accurate information to make informed decisions as a society. Photography is necessary to remind a complacent society of the true cost of war, but care must be taken, if possible, to attempt to safeguard the emotions of veterans families and prevent these images from becoming, as Charles Michener puts it, a kind of pornography of suffering (27).
Student 6 Works Cited Bauder, David. AP Picture of Mortally Wounded Soldier Sparks Debate Over Duty and Taste. Canadian Press, The (n.d.): Newspaper Source Plus. EBSCO. Web. 18 Nov. 2009. Bethune, Brian. The Ghost of a Man I Never Knew. Maclean s 120.33 (2007): 26. Points of View Reference Center. EBSCO. Web. 16 Nov. 2009. Elliot, Michael, John Barry, and et al. The Making of a Fiasco. (cover story). Newsweek 122.16 (1993): 32. Points of View Reference Center. EBSCO. Web. 28 Nov. 2009. Ethics in the Age of Digital Photography. National Press Photographers Association. National Press Photographers Association, n.d. Web. 28 Nov. 2009. Jacobson, Julie. Journal Entries of AP photographer embedded with US Marines in Afghanistan. Journal Entries of AP Photographer in Afghanistan. Associated Press, 03 Sep. 2009. Web. 29 Nov. 2009. - - -. Lance Cpl. Joshua Bernard Mortally Wounded in Afghanistan. 14 Aug. 2009. E&P Pub. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Nov. 2009. Lacayo, Richard. A Brief History of: Photographing Fallen Troops. Time 173.10 (2009): 19. Points of View Reference Center. EBSCO. Web. 16 Nov. 2009. Marwil, Jonathan. Photography at War. History Today 50.6 (2000): 30. Points of View Reference Center. EBSCO. Web. 16 Nov. 2009. Michener, Charles. Charles Michener on Photography: Shooting War. New Republic 185.5/6 (1981): 27. Points of View Reference Center. Web. 16 Nov. 2009. Perlmutter, David. Just How Big an Impact Do Pictures of War Have on Public Opinion? HNN Articles. History News Network, 07 Feb. 2005. Web. 28 Nov. 2009.
Student 7 Schnaars, Christopher. Real Black Hawk Down Crew Honored at Army Facility. Daily Press (Newport News, VA) (n.d.): Newspaper Source Plus. EBSCO. Web. 28 Nov. 2009. Tyson, Ann Scott. Military Limits Publishing Images of U.S. Casualties in Afghanistan. Washington Post, The (n.d.): Points of View Reference center. EBSCO. Web. 18 Nov. 2009. Watson, Paul. U.S. soldier being dragged through the streets of Somalia. 04 Oct. 1993. Photo District News. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Nov. 2009.