Military to Avoid Embarrassing Pictures by Banning Photography

[HarveyDarkey]

Photos 'Only for Official Purposes,' General Warns
by Jason Ditz, May 25, 2012

It sounds like the punchline of a bad joke, but after years of dealing with photographs of troops torturing prisoners, desecrating corpses and generally behaving badly, commanders in southwestern Afghanistan have announced that they are going to solve the problem by banning photography.

The command, which covers some 36,000 troops including 15,800 US Marines, announced that troops will only be allowed to take photographs for “official purposes,” and will no longer be taking “happy snaps,” apparently the official name for pictures like those showing US Marines urinating on corpses in the nation.

“This isn’t rocket science,” noted Gen. Charles Gurganus, who emphasized that taking pictures of the various atrocities committed on the ground “can undermine the war effort.”

Though the move will avoid these embarrassing moments for the administration, in many cases the photographic evidence of war crimes collected by the war criminals themselves are materially the only way they are ever discovered.

http://news.antiwar.com/2012/05/25/military-to-avoid-embarrassing-pictures-by-banning-photography/

[2on2u]

1. Military to supply standard issue "No Phones", no camera, no keys,

no mic, no reception. This is funny, next thing you know they will want to ban photons.

[gratuitous]

2. A cunning plan, m'lord

It will be interesting to watch the punishment meted out to offenders who take unofficial pictures versus the military's somnambulance in going after folks involved in torture, corpse desecration and other war crimes.

[quinnox]

3. of course, gotta sanitize the war photos

Can't let the public know about any possible war crimes photographed by the troops.

The irony is this sounds like something China would do, not supposed freedom loving America.

[Generic Other]

4. Almost thought it was the Onion

I'm not sure what I think of this. I collect old photos and have many shots of soldiers mugging for cameras -- although not in a grisly fashion. Just ordinary moments. How could they enforce such a policy anyway? Don't men have phones and way too much access to technology to ban photos?

[sad sally]

5. Guess we'll all have to depend on telepathy to get uncensored pictures of war seen thru the eyes

of soldiers, war photographers and independent journalists?

"For whatever deserves to exist also deserves to be known, for knowledge is the image of existence; and things mean and splendid exist alike."
--Francis Bacon

[lunasun]

6. no pictures =no proof =no whistle blowers= no problem!

[crunch60]

7. So much for the great war photographers like W. Eugene Smith

I remember how moved I was as a child, looking at photos taken by Smith and published in Life Magazine. The horrors of war, and what impact it had on my young mind. We need to know so we can prevent further atrocities, like the last unnecessary war caused by the George W Bush wrecking crew.

snip:
As he observed and photographed the Japanese victims of the war, Smith’s conscience was stirred. It was then he began to develop in his work the theme of social responsibility. He sought to touch the viewers’ emotions and inspire them to work for social justice. As Smith explains, “I wanted my pictures to carry some message against the greed, the stupidity and the intolerance's that cause these wars.

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/w-eugene-smith/about-w-eugene-smith/707/

[rocktivity]

8. Does that mean we'll see no more of these?

rocktivity