ABC NIghtline 3/31: The very ugly face of war (Falluja today)

 
Nightline Daily E-Mail
March 31, 2004


TONIGHT'S FOCUS: It's a horrific incident, even in the midst of war. Four Americans, on contract to the government, were ambushed in Falluja. It's what happened after that, and the pictures of all of it, that is so disturbing.

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This is a tough one. The contractors were traveling in two cars when they were attacked. The cars were set on fire, and the bodies badly burned. A crowd of cheering men gathered, and mutilated and dragged the bodies through the streets. In the end, two of the bodies were hung from a bridge. All of this happened in front of a cameraman, who recorded it all. After a career of going to bad places to document bad things, I can easily say that this is just about the worst thing I have ever seen. Will we show it tonight? Yes, and no. And that's where things get complicated. I'm sure my description above will sound very familiar to anyone who remembers those horrible images of the bodies of American soldiers being dragged through the streets of Somalia. The tape of that incident played a big part in triggering the withdrawal of American troops from that country. Initially, news organizations showed those pictures, and only later decided not to use them again.

But those pictures remain the single most indelible image of the U.S. involvement in Somalia. Not the pictures of starving children being fed, or anything else, good or bad, that happened. Pictures have tremendous power. Which brings us back to tonight. Will we show you all of the pictures from today's tragedy? No. Some of them are just too horrific. There is a question of respect for the families and loved ones of those who were killed. There is also a question of taste. But that also raises the question of whether, or how, images should be sanitized. War is a horrible thing. It is about killing. If we try to avoid showing pictures of bodies, if we make it too clean, then maybe we make it too easy to go to war again. After all, these men and women are over there in our names, whether you agree with the war or not. Shouldn't we know what price we are asking them to pay? The bottom line, we can never know what the final impact of any of the images we use will be. Our job is to present, as best we can, what we know to have happened. If we start to try to determine the impact, or shape the reaction, then we are going against all of the principles of this business. And yes, we do have principles. But we get back to that question of taste.

Can we simply describe what happened today? Of course. Is it important to know all the details? Probably not. But what the pictures do show, is the hatred, the emotion, of the people who did this. And it is that hatred that is fueling the ongoing conflict. And that is something that we should see. On a purely human level, you have to ask how anyone could do something like this. I have no idea. It leaves me speechless.

Chris Bury will report tonight on the incident, and the images. Ted will anchor, and we're still working out who his guests will be. This will be a difficult broadcast both to produce and to watch, but I think it is an important one.

Leroy Sievers and the Nightline Staff
ABCNEWS Washington D.C. bureau

 

Might that be the explanation?

Maybe it is simple as the defense of your homeland?

Maybe we should not have gone there to begin with?

There is a solution.

Send all the Christian fundamentalists on a new crusade to Iraq.

This should satisfy their blood lust and get them out of the US at the same time.

Seems like a win-win for everyone.

I think it will be good to see some of the images to show this country that all is not going well over there! If we were to just rely on Fox, CNN, MSNBC, etc... everything is under control. Outside of loosing a Service person here and there, everything is going smooth. What these images will show is how that is not the case. The sacrifices of our fellow Americans are not as wanted as this administration would like us to believe.

Again, it is just my two cents!

It's pretty dangerous to be a Halliburton war profiteer.

most of these civilians are just contract/government workers. I get job postings every week in Kuwait, etc. because I work for a government contractor. these are normal people like you and me--not the profiteers.

Let's see... take a job in a war zone?

These folks are either too stupid or too greedy to be "normal."

charts! I have NO sympathy for people who go that far; not even if our own people do it. All of it is equally barbaric. I was under the assumption that those people were aid workers of some sort(?)

In anycase, I am enraged and beyond my tolerance level here today. I say put that bung hole of a town down!

We shouldn't be in there, but I'm not for just letting things happen for some "comsmic cause"...it's okay to kill us but not okay to strike back...how lopsided. The anger I feel in DU many days, including my own today, is equal to an atomic bomb...so don't talk to me about Peace and pacifism. that's bs.

eom

thing...except leave. Then what? If we stay, how do we cope with the mess created there? How do we respond? Many talk about bringing in the UN and the other parties who went with into Afgahnistan...will that happen? The whole thing is truely a mess.

Please. Lopsided is the Bush* war machine crushing a third world country. 30,000 plus Iraqi dead. Maybe they asked themselves your question and decided to strike back. Get a clue.

Those people don't like us--and for good reason.

no matter who does it. As I stated in another thread, perhaps we should parachute Bush and Rummy into downtown Fallujah.

And, again, we tore up the country, we have some responsibility to them. I can't see how attacking the UN, non-military aid workers (red cross/crescent for one), and other civilian targets is okay, with you, as a form of of rebelling against american occupation.

I wish we could get the hell outta there. How is this thing going to end up? Any ideas?

People on the war bandwagon should SEE what is really happening.

The Bush cabal may block access to military caskets but they can't block all reality.

People need to open their eyes.

Nightline, don't cave in....

Of course when we see images of badly burnt iraqi civilian corpses it's time for a "krispy kritter" kaption kontest.

of their perverted view of the bible.

It is time that the wrath of their God is seen front and center with full force.

about how we have treated the civilians of Iraq from the sanctions we imposed on them to now.
This war has been sanitized for Bu$h's re election

and begged them to show the truth, and told them I have a kid over there. I was a mess this morning til I got an email from Michael he is alive in Baghdad. My heart rate is really high still, after those pics on the web. Why should my blood pressure and terror go up with my kid over there in the middle of this and not the rest of the United States populace who continue to ignore the lies of this admin and this war? why should I handle this alone, and watch my husbands knees buckle as they did this morning when he saw the crowds of angry Iraqis and the burned bodies being dragged thru the streets, imagining that might be his son any day now?
LET THE US PUBLIC SEE IT they have been asleep for far too fucking long.
http://www.bringthemhomenow.com
and mark my words, it will get worse, much worse, as June 30 approaches.