Conspicuously absent from our newspapers and blogs and televisions during the "War on Terror" have been images of the human toll.

Unless Americans see in graphic detail what their government's foreign policy wreaks on other human beings, they won't understand the costs.

Michael Blaine
http://www.rudelystamped.blogspot.com

"Congress Defends Gaza Assault 404-1"
Wednesday, March 5th, 2008 in News by Eric Garris

Today Congress passed a resolution (HR 951) condemning Palestinian rocket attacks that include a strident defense of recent Israeli tactics in the Gaza Strip. The resolution also condemned Iran and Syria for “sponsoring terror attacks,” and demanded that Saudi Arabia publicly condemn Palestinian actions.

The resolution was originally introduced in January, but contains new language including a passage saying that that “those responsible for launching rocket attacks against Israel routinely embed their production facilities and launch sites amongst the Palestinian civilian population, utilizing them as human shields” and “the inadvertent inflicting of civilian casualties as a result of defensive military operations aimed at military targets, while deeply regrettable, is not at all morally equivalent to the deliberate targeting of civilian populations as practiced by Hamas and other Gaza-based terrorist groups.”

Although 23 Congressman abstained or voted “present,” only one bravely voted no: Rep. Ron Paul.

from http://www.antiwar.com

'Yes, but not just the presence of propaganda; perhaps even more crucially, the absence of distressing images. I'm not sure if the deliberate withholding of the sort of pictures (or simply making their production impossible) that turned opinion on Vietnam can be considered 'propaganda' but it's part of the same effort and to me, it's more effective for being, by it's nature, silent, and not prone to the sort of multiple info source challenge you allude to.
People react viscerally to images, but they have to exist first. Their absence now makes the propaganda that much easier to swallow. With Vietnam, the propaganda didn't go down so easily once images of My Lai appeared – people choked on it, because they could see with their own eyes the reality under the spin. This collision with the truth no longer happens.
How many Americans saw or even heard about the awful photographs featured at Nowthatsfuckedup.com? What would have happened if they's been featured on the MSM primetime news? Where are the apparently shocking images from Abu Ghraib and elsewhere mentioned by Seymour Hersh some time ago? Will Americans ever be able to see what they are responsible for?
Related to this is the fact that where in the 60s and early 70s, the major media was still independent enough to cross the military/govt, to actually hold them accountable, it now seems co-opted, part of the problem. They are 'on side'.'

I wonder if Mr Slater would feel the same way if the killing ratios in Iraq and the Occupied Territories were reversed.

You've GOT TO be kidding me — a man who approves of Clinton's wanton slaughter of civilians, presumes to take Phil to task about a photograph showing civilians killed by violence?

Slater's not only an advocate of expedient state murder; he wants to conceal it afterward. What I want to know is how NATO apologists like Slater get soapboxes in the media to spread their government-approved line.

With his partisan ranting about "Serbian genocide," I don't think Slater even deserved a response, Phil. He's certainly not going to publish any response to YOUR comments. Let him scribble on for the statists that he serves.

Madrid,

Here's a link to the roll call vote on H. Res. 951:

http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2008/roll093.xml

The sponsor, Scott Garrett (R-N.J.), was a noisy advocate of invading iraq. Like G.W. Bush, Garrett has two daughters — so HIS family is not on the line, as he sends his neighbors off to die. With his 98-pound-weakling physique, Garrett is the classic, cowardly armchair admiral.

I'm waiting for Richard Witty to inform us that the 404-1 vote on this inflammatory resolution was purely coincidence. Nope — no Lobby here! Just us Americans, buzzing round the Capitol like a swarm of mosquitos.