These Pictures – Moon of Alabama

October 7, 2005

These Pictures

When I was in my younger teens, my best friend’s parents had this book that really made me think about war. I sneaked into their library to look at it again and again. It was Ernst Friedrich’s ‘War against War!’. Ernst Friedrich was a pacifist who, in 1924, founded the Anti-War Museum in Berlin.

Part of Friedrich’s book is his strong call To Human Beings in all lands!, but what fascinated me more were these pictures from World War I and the sarcastic notes attached to them.

The most disturbing ones are of people who survived despite extreme head wounds. How must they have felt living like this?

From ‘War against War!’ via The Memory Hole

In later years I did some (lucrative) weekend ambulance duty with the local Red Cross unit. The typical Saturday night emergency in that rural area was some car filled with drunk teens about my age wrapped around an alley tree. You don´t ever forget your seatbelt again after one of these.

We all might have seen some blood and some accidents, but only few of us have seen real war. And to understand what war is about, to understand those who are the inevitable collateral damage and to understand those who fight wars we need to see pictures.

Now RawStory comes up with a piece about UnderMars.com. That side has pictures taken in Iraq of interesting buildings, broken tanks and dead bodies. (I have been at that site some two years ago. Why does this come up now?)

Some of the captions are blunt, some are racist. But then, racism, like sexism, is always part of what war is about. Racism even though I don´t find much real difference between Americans and Iraqis.

American head

Iraqi head

After this story the press echo will thunder again. Americablog will raise alarm. Delayed maybe, like with its outcry about nowthatsfuckedup.com, four weeks after Helena Cobban published about it. But it will and others will follow and will rally again against such pictures. Could this be a violation of the Geneva Conventions? – Oh boy, are you kidding me?

I want these pictures on the NYT front page each day. I want them on CNN at the top of each hour. I urge you to get Friedrich’s book and to pass it around.

This is what war is about. Maimed and dead people – not the sanitized civilized reporting and discussions that we are getting each day. Let everybody know what this is about. Shove it into their face.

—

The original English edition of ‘War against War!’ is quite expensive ($50) and not easy to get. Amazon lists a few copies. But you can order the new edition from Germany for some €25 + shipping through Ibis. The ISBN is 3421058407.

A valuable gift with hopefully longterm effects for any 14th birthday.

Posted by b on October 7, 2005 at 19:11 UTC | Permalink

Comments

Hi B — a collection of similar pics can be found in the US called, I think, The Indelible Image. Highly disturbing, haunting, and certainly an underpinning of my own visceral horror of war and all who promote it.

Posted by: DeAnander | Oct 7 2005 20:53 utc | 1

Good post. I’ve hoped since the war began that the Gold Star Families against war, etc. etc. would establish a program for parents w/children to assist those injured in the war. This would both provide concrete services, and help prevent young boys from getting sucked into their hormone & media fueled fantasies.

Posted by: jj | Oct 7 2005 21:13 utc | 2

Great post B, unfortunately nothing changes for this species on the planet. We seem to be on the same downward spiral that created the conditions for WW1; except nukes are the option now.
I drove my son to an 18th Birthday Party tonight; now I am back at home, and I hope he lives to my age (but then again, what age will he live in?).

Posted by: Friendly Fire | Oct 7 2005 21:26 utc | 3

Otto Dix painted his experiences of the war…and was identified as one of the “decadent” artists by the Nazis.
War Cripples is devastating…this online version doesn’t do it justice.
Card Players (war cripples) was too real even tho it wasn’t.

Posted by: fauxreal | Oct 7 2005 23:25 utc | 4

This is an excellent post. A tragic post. Since WWI what have we learned?
An old song (old for me, any way)from Steeleye Span – haunting:
What makes you go abroad fighting for strangers?
When you could be safe at home free from all dangers.
A recruiting sergeant came our way
To an inn nearby at the close of day,
He said, “Young Johnny you’re a fine young man.
Would you like to march along behind a military band,
With a scarlet coat, a big cocked hat,
And a musket at your shoulder?”
A shilling he took and he kissed the book;
Oh poor Johnny what’ll happen to you.
A recruiting sergeant marched away
From the inn nearby at the break of day.
Johnny went too with half a ring;
He was off to be a soldier, he’d be fighting for the King
In a far off war, in a far off land,
To face a foreign soldier.
But how will you fare when there’s lead in the air;
Oh poor Johnny what’ll happen to you?
Chorus
Oh the sun shone high on a barren land
As a thin red line took a military stand.
There was sling shot, chain shot, grape shot too,
Swords and bayonets thrusting through.
Poor Johnny fell but the day was won
And the King is grateful to you;
But your soldiering’s done and we’re sending you home;
Oh poor Johnny what have they done to you.
Oh they said he was a hero and not to grieve
Over two wooden pegs and empty sleeves.
They carried him home and they set him down
With a military pension and a medal from the crown.
You haven’t an arm, you haven’t a leg,
The enemy nearly slew you.
You’ll have to go out on the streets to beg;
Oh poor Johnny what have they done to you.

Posted by: maxcrat | Oct 8 2005 1:03 utc | 5

Home Depot Set to File Spin-Off with SEC
By Dane Hamilton
NEW YORK (Reuters) Home Depot (HD.N: Quote, Profile, Research) announced a
$500,000,000 materials procurement contract with the US Department of Homeland
Security, through FEMA, for the Katrina reconstruction program. In taking advantage
of President Bush’s suspension of prevailing wages, the contract includes sourcing
and then job-kitting materials shipped in from all over the world, at prices below US
domestic materials suppliers, to be used for construction of high-end condo units
in New Orleans and Biloxi. The new spin-off division will be called Homeland Depot,
and will be funded by diverting 1% of the next Senate appropriation for war in Iraq.
– – – – –
You just don’t get the concept of collateral damage, do you? $50B more, after $80B more,
in less than six months, is more tax money
for war, than all state and county programs
in all of the 50 US states combined. Word.
Nearly one-half trillion dollars a year for
the Defense welfare mafia and their masters,
and you’re worried about a few broken heads?
They will kill anyone who stands in their way.

Posted by: lash marks | Oct 8 2005 3:30 utc | 6

And we’re in Iraq!!!!????? .
Rania al-Baz’s popularity as a TV news presenter was always an implicit threat to Saudi Arabia’s repressive, male-dominated culture. But it wasn’t until her husband beat her so badly he thought he had killed her – and she decided to publish the photos of her injuries – that she really shook Saudi society. She talks to Ed Vulliamy about what happened when she dared to challenge the culture of violence against women

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Oct 8 2005 4:35 utc | 7

Damn straight we’re worried about what you so moronically term “a few broken heads”.
The US voters are stupid enough to waste their taxes on guns instead of health care that’s their business. When they use those guns to kill and maim the citizens of Fallujah and the Euphrates Valley that’s everyone’s business.
What would more federal programs mean? More wastrels sitting in offices blogging all day?

Posted by: Debs is dead | Oct 8 2005 5:35 utc | 8

Uncle $cam, thank you for that article. I think that’s the 2nd one you’ve posted on women recently. It’s noticed & appreciated. It’s about as taboo for women to exist on male blogs, as well…Insofar as they’re noticed, it’s overwhelmingly w/very nasty remarks.
Thank you again.

Posted by: jj | Oct 8 2005 6:36 utc | 9

@jj I guess you’re right although I gave up trying to guess the gender of fellow netizens a long time ago, generally one assumes that a contributor is male unless they point out they are a woman.
I remember one of the first times I went to the whiskey bar when Billmon was running a comments section, there was a heated argument about Condaleeza Rice. I was very hot under the collar because some of the posts appeared to be implying that African Amerikans had no ‘right’ to be conservative. I saw it as a patronising way of saying “we (meaning white liberals) emancipated you so it is your duty to be a liberal which apart from being totally untrue showed exactly how unemancipated some white liberals consider African Amerikans to be.
In fact it is the whole Dr Rice package which disturbs some people on the left. Her gender as well as her race encourages some to think they know exactly what’s best for her.
It has always struck me as hugely ironic that the most outspoken critics of the repression of women in the ME are redneck wingnuts who would have been very outspoken against ERA.
I am pleased to see that Rania al-Baz was at pains to point out that she believed this repression had little to do with religion.
I have thought that the role of women in society has normally been a function of that society’s social evolution rather than any religion.
I mean do the women of Salt Lake City feel so disempowered because of what the blokes reckon Jesus said or because they live in a community that has consistently refused to evolve?
Sure the blokes reckon the bible is on their side but isn’t that just a rationalisation to justify having a house slave or two or three?

Posted by: Debs is dead | Oct 8 2005 7:32 utc | 10

b, thanks for posting this. I am convinced if more of this kind of pictures, would have been posted from the beginning of the war instead of the sanitized computergame pictures, it might be over or at least there would be a stronger movement to get out of Iraq.

Posted by: Fran | Oct 8 2005 8:11 utc | 11

Survivors
No doubt they’ll soon get well; the shock and strain
Have caused their stammering, disconnected talk.
Of course they’re ‘longing to go out again,’ —
These boys with old, scared faces, learning to walk.
They’ll soon forget their haunted nights; their cowed
Subjection to the ghosts of friends who died,—
Their dreams that drip with murder; and they’ll be proud
Of glorious war that shatter’d all their pride…
Men who went out to battle, grim and glad;
Children, with eyes that hate you, broken and mad.
Craiglockhart. October, 1917.

Posted by: Outraged | Oct 8 2005 9:07 utc | 12

and so we must continue the war in iraq, otherwise the fallen will have died in vain, which is of course, feeding upon the dead to insure that the killing will continue == with a life, as it were, of its own.

Posted by: anna missed | Oct 8 2005 9:48 utc | 13

Great post B. Thanks.

Posted by: Noisette | Oct 8 2005 12:36 utc | 14

@Debs
“The US voters are stupid enough to waste their taxes on guns instead of health care that’s their business.”
I understand your sentiment, but I am bristling at the repeated implications that a majority of US voters support the present status quo, and even that minority of lunatics who do approve of it are powerless to direct where their tax dollars are spent. I trust that you were employing a rhetorical device in your statement.
It might be correct to remark that the average US voter is too stupid to recognise the real depth of their disempowerment, but that does not make them any less disenfranchised at the end of the day. Please direct your hostilities to the actual decision makers.

Posted by: Monolycus | Oct 8 2005 17:48 utc | 15

@Monolycus
I think I can grasp how frustrating it must be to live in a society where so little respect is paid to the beliefs and aspirations of many of it’s members.
I have no way of knowing exactly how many Amerikans ‘support’ the invasion now and how many did when it occurred but the sad facts speak for themselves and that is that following this illegal occupation of another sovereign nation US voters returned the criminals to power. Even now that the tragic reality of this exercise is out for all the world to see, including those who voted to return BushCo, the US domestic opposition is based around ‘our boys’ rather then the civilian victims of this obscenity.
In fact according to one Counterpunch article there is an active group within the anti war movement in the US trying to stop discussion of Iraqi victimisation.
Do I think there is something about Amerikans that makes them more selfish, uncaring or blind? No I don’t. US imperialism has about the same support within it’s community as any Imperialist movement has had when other nations have been trying to make themselves ‘a cut above the rest’.
But I also don’t believe that any society particularly one that encourages citizen participation in the decision making process, could or should, allow its citizens to wash their hands of the actions of that society and reserve all blame for the leadership.
BushCo probably did ‘steal’ both elections but that wouldn’t have been possible if there weren’t already so many rabid ‘patriots’ supporting them and then after the theft if so many people hadn’t stayed silent.
Yes it could equally have happened the same way anywhere else, but until the members of the society which has transgressed are hold themselves accountable for those transgressions there isn’t much impetus for change.
There are very few Amerikans I have met I didn’t like. I know that the chances are I would have a better time hangin out with some redneck Okie that thinks W is a great and holy man than I would hanging with the average Iraqi bloke but as far as I know this isn’t about whether people are ‘good’ or ‘bad’ or even whether my cultural framework is closer to theirs than their enemy’s. It is about whether people should be accounting for their society’s actions.
This horror occurred within a generation of Vietnam. There’s a link up thread to a column by Chuck Colson once described as “The meanest man in Washington” but now he’s become a folk hero.
That happens because some members of US society have successfully avoided taking a good hard look at the horror of the IndoChinese invasion and their personal role in its occurence.
I can’t control anyone else who comes to MoA but neither can BushCo. In the end the only sentient being I have a modicum of control over is myself. Same as anyone else. I’m not trying to judge ‘the average Amerikan’ but I do believe that every citizen of every country involved in this slaughter needs to look at themselves and see what it is they need to do to stop it.
As long as people dismiss other’s misery with phrases like “a few broken heads” while they appear intent on blaming this misery on others they are engaged in exactly the self delusion that permits these atrocities to continue.

Posted by: Debs is dead | Oct 8 2005 22:19 utc | 16

Maybe I’m misreading it but I don’t think Lash Marks was attempting to dismiss anyone’s misery with the “few broken heads” remark. Instead, I viewed it as placing things in perspective. Dead people don’t matter to this administration as much as dollars, and there’s a huge fucking buttload of dollars exchanging hands here, on a scale we’ve never seen before.
And on that scale, 20,000 US soldiers injured or dead mean nothing. 100,000+ Iraqis dead +who knows how many injured mean nothing. The rest is propaganda and lies, tools used to unlock the vaults of the treasuries of the world. They _will_ kill those who get in their way, and possibly the only reason you or I are still here is because we aren’t, won’t, and likely can’t stop them.
Those pictures will never grace the cover of the NYT because it costs them money. The majority of American citizens will never be allowed to get really pissed off because it will cost them money. A different congress in 2006, a different president in 2008 won’t really make any difference to them because if it would it would cost them money — real money — and that just won’t happen.
These corporations like Halliburton and Raytheon and their ilk exist because people suffer. They produce both the means of death and the method to clean up the mess afterward, so they can then charge someone else (or sometimes the same people) to destroy it all over again. Politicians come and go while these corporations continue to graze and grow fatter. Their only undying purpose is to provide profit for their shareholders, and no ethics or principles prevent them from doing so on the crushed flesh of the humans from once they were spawned.
They, in many respects, are the real monsters we face… not the Iraqi insurgents, not nouns like “terror”, not chimp-boy puppets like Bush or even their Rovian puppetmasters. As we continually privatize away our governments until our existence hangs on the whim of organizations that exist not to serve us but to their god, capitalism, will we truly reaped what we have sowed?

Posted by: Pyrrho | Oct 8 2005 23:14 utc | 17

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