World Press Photo of the Year

[anitram]

I saw the World Press Photo 04 Exhibit this weekend. This was voted the winner for the year 2003.

It is a photo of an Iraqi man in custody with his son. His son became scared when he saw his father hooded and started to cry, and one of the American soldiers present untied the man's hands so he could comfort the boy.

 

[U2democrat]

oooooooo that's fascinating.......thanks for posting that!

 

[Jamila]

a pretty damning indictment on the "war on terrorism"

(my opinion)

Thanks for posting the pic.



GRACE FINDS BEAUTY IN EVERYTHING....

 

[joyfulgirl]

That's powerful.

 

[VertigoGal]

To understand the nature of the situation, we have to understand that the opposition is human, and the majority of the time the low level guys doing the dirty work are poor, angry at the US, desparate, and do not have ulterior motives (ie, recruiting young men for death, when you are more concerned with wealth and power than any particular cause). [Of course, we still must fight the enemy, but the particular situation demands we use other tactics as well to build strong cilvilian support...something which doesn't often happen when an oil company has the reconstruction bid, unfortunately.] Anyway, this photograph captures that beautifully.

I think it does also say something though about the relative humanity of our soldiers. Most other armed forces throughout history and even today wouldn't have the compassion to allow a man who is suspected of a crime during wartime to be a) alive, and b) allowed to comfort his son.

 

[MrsSpringsteen]

I remember that photo

Disturbing to say the least, as are so many photos from Iraq

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

the problem with pictures are that they're not impartial...

if you were to be told that the man in the picture was a mass murderer, would you feel the same disgust to see him hooded like that? no... we don't know why the man is in prison... but odds are he did something that wasn't kosher, to say the least. perhaps it was for some petty crime, in which case this picture would be "disturbing." or maybe the man cut someone's head off. monsters have children, too. but we just don't know.

 

[Liesje]

I was thinking the same thing as Headache. The real victim is the child.

 

[BVS]

the problem with pictures are that they're not impartial...

if you were to be told that the man in the picture was a mass murderer, would you feel the same disgust to see him hooded like that? no... we don't know why the man is in prison... but odds are he did something that wasn't kosher, to say the least. perhaps it was for some petty crime, in which case this picture would be "disturbing." or maybe the man cut someone's head off. monsters have children, too. but we just don't know.

I don't think anyone is arguing that we should feel anything toward the man. You're right we don't know what he did. The problem is not that pictures aren't impartial it's that they don't lie, and I have to ask why is this poor child here?

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

children are allowed to visit parents in american prison... why should iraqi prison be any different?

 

[nbcrusader]

and I have to ask why is this poor child here?

Because of the poor choices of his father?

Children frequently suffer because of the choices of their parents.