Graphic photos from Iraq spark controversy...

[cynatnite]

http://rawstory.com/news/2005/The_American_Iraq_1007.html

A face, frozen in an expression of muted surprise, trails a wormy, bloodied vertebrae. Below it, a caption penned by an American soldier: “new meaning to giving head.” A bearded man, his bloody-crusted shirt accordioned below his neck, bears, “come on and give me some sugar.” Typed beneath a cross-eyed, lacerated corpse with one arm extended, are the words, “oo, ooo, pick me.”

These are the raw images of Iraq, taken by American soldiers. Besides the underbelly of war they reveal a quintessentially American aesthetic: tourist snapshots, boys toting beers and smoking cigars, notes taped to slumbering soldiers’ backsides, mohawks on fire. They reveal a fascination with brutality and death: charred corpses, severed limbs, and an American soldier whose face has been blown in so far that his brain is exposed.

Some are intimate and at once quotidian. Scores of photographs document the dull hallways of palaces, gaudy jewelry, even crystal chandeliers. Dozens display helicopters hovering in bare blue skies and silhouetted against rich, pumpkin-colored sunsets. A palatial, empty room is festooned with the sign “GOD BLESS TASK FORCE IRON HORSE.” In another, a GI looks stolidly into the distance, his helmet hugged against his chest, vaunts the caption, “yes, yes i am a sexy man-beast.”

These images are collected at UnderMars.com, an online library dedicated to photographs taken and captioned by American soldiers who have served in Iraq. The site was created by an American expatriate and computer programmer, Mark, who spoke to RAW STORY on the condition his full name not be used.

Here is the link to the photos (WARNING:VERY GRAPHIC!)

http://www.undermars.com/gallery65.html

[seriousstan]

1. Dupe

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x5001070

[cynatnite]

2. Not a dupe...this has all the links and the details n/t

[Stephanie]

3. I can't look

but I recommended anyway - the world should know

[cynatnite]

4. I did and they are VERY graphic...

I agree the world should know.

[proud patriot]

5. Don't , they are just simply awful

:-(

[MADem]

6. It is possible to read the story without clicking to see the images

I skipped them as well. I get the idea already, unfortunately...

[Stephanie]

8. the article is at the first link, rawstory

the graphics are at the second link in the OP

[Pacifist Patriot]

19. I can't look either.

[gratuitous]

7. Isn't war such a nice, civilizing enterprise?

Brings honor and dignity by the truckload to warrior and civilian alike, enhances everyone's humanity, builds community, and results in 32% fewer cavities.

Can't for the life of me imagine why anyone would be against it simply as a matter of principle.

[WatchWhatISay]

9. Pyschopathic comments below the picture

But you can bet the guy'll be in church on Sunday (my apologies to people who really believe and live accordingly, but I just live around too many of these kind of people)

[Larissa238]

16. The site owner didnt write them

the people who took the pictures wrote them.

[Burried News]

10. Life mimics video game. Viktory in Iwreck.

[tk2kewl]

11. too horrifiying for my nomination

:puke:

[Qanisqineq]

12. embarrassing as an American

that the troops would do this. And especially embarrassing and disgusting to my husband who is a soldier and is thus associated with scum like the troops that participate torture and this crap.

[madmom]

13. Gee, I can't understand why anyone would be upset by these, after all....

boys will be boys!(:sarcasm:) :cry: :mad:

[RebelOne]

14. This was on DU last year. This is old news.

How come Raw Story just now discovered it? I've had it bookmarked for a long time.

[Cults4Bush]

15. I think because the owner gave an interview...

Nothing else in it seems new.

[RebelOne]

21. I guess that explains it.

[Memekiller]

17. I'll get jumped for this...

But I think it's a mistake to use this as some justification to be anti-soldier. This is exactly what we can expect to happen in war. These guys have likely lost comrades to these Iraqis, and no doubt there are atrocities being committed by our soldiers. We sent these guys to kill these people, unfortunately, and this is exactly what happens in any war zone. The real culprits, here and in Abu Ghraib, are the ones who made the decisions that turned regular American high school kids into this.

This is why the decision to go to war should not be made as flippantly as our leaders have done. May our leaders burn in hell for it.

[cynatnite]

18. 'Casualties of War' is a good example...

It's one movie that shows how badly war can affect people.

[Pacifist Patriot]

20. I think it provides more evidence of how evil the men are who

send others into battle. The problems wars are meant to solve are always insignificant compared to the problems wars create. The chickenhawks have created another generation with serious psychological trauma.

[despairing optimist]

22. You won't get jumped by me. I saw photos like this from Vietnam

One of my cousins was a marine, and he showed me photos probably taken with an Instamatic that were graphic too. And I'd be willing to bet that there are gruesome photos from the dawn of photography that because of social norms didn't get circulated widely, but of course with the Internet more people who wouldn't have known about such things are made aware of them.

As you said, war brings out the worst in human beings. I think that on balance it's good for civilians to be exposed, so to speak, to the horrors of war so that they become more motivated to prevent it--or failing that, they realize exactly where on the food chain they fall themselves if they remain indifferent to what they're asking soldiers to do in their name. What the troops do to their targets, they do to their minds. We should all learn that lesson and question those who manipulate events that lead to these horrors.

[LittleClarkie]

23. Have the new photos that the ACLU made the Pentagon cough up

come out yet?