Monday, March 28, 2011

The power of images, part 3

Rolling Stone today has published a story following up on the reports of American soldiers in Afghanistan murdering civilians for sport. There are more graphic pictures and videos attached to the story, partly because any photographs of this sort, whether caused by normal casualties or otherwise, are prohibited by the military's rules - so that in and of itself is newsworthy.

The more this stuff trickles out, the more likely it is that our presence in Afghanistan will be undermined.

3 comments:

  1. There are two parties involved in spreading of these images: those that publish the pictures and those that take them. I think it is interesting to consider the photographer. I wonder what there motive is..are they compelled to capture the events? make money? to be the one who takes that image that defines a generation?

    It would be interesting to see an article written by the photographer about being a photographer, do you know of one?

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  2. I don't know of any offhand - it would be a great find, though, I agree.

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  3. I don’t think these pictures have to become publicized for our efficiency to fall. I'm pretty sure the village elder, who was the father of the child the soldiers killed, is already unhappy with us, and has used or will use his influence to support anti American efforts there. Furthermore, since his son wasn't the only civilian killed, there must be many others who feel the same. So the very fact of these acts, even without a global awareness of them, has already severely damaged our chances of accomplishing our goals with the minimum blood spilled of either American or Afghani people.

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