Thursday, April 01, 2004

Escalation in Iraq

I really hate to say this but it seems as as though the self-censorship of the video/photos by the media only cushion the public from experiencing cognitive dissonance. And the graphic images of real violence made a huge difference with Somalia and Vietnam.

Seeing the dismembered and charred remnants brings it home to me. This could be my child, my brother, my dad. This isn't the time to stop showing the images. We get too much of the phony stuff all the time, as in that Mel Gibson film, I forget the name of it.

Harder is trying to understand the rage of the Iraqis on the street. This isn't the time, however, to pull away into our cocoons and pretend we are insulated from it all. What happened was not right, it was wrong, it should be condemned. But the rage of the occupied need to be understood at some level. I know this isn't the proper or the popular route. But without that extra effort, we only guarantee further escalation of violence, not just in Iraq but worldwide.