Comments on: Little Iraqi Madonna: What Reality the News Media Suppresses When It Only Says “15 People Killed by Car Bomb Outside of Baghdad, November 16, 2008″

By: Madonna greatest hits

Madonna greatest hits — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 00:57:51 +0000

Madonna discography…

Madonna is known for exploring religious symbolism and sexuality in her work. This drew critisc from the Vatican throughout the 1980s. In 1992, she founded an entertainment company, Maverick, which published a book of erotic photographs named Sex….

By: spirasol

spirasol — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 06:40:10 +0000

What this photo and Brian DePalma's film “Redacted” have in common is the wonton killing of innocence. The film tells the true story of a 15 year old Iraqi female student who had to walk past an American checkpoint daily on her way to school where she was searched and remembered for her beauty. The movie also depicts the soldiers for who they are: young and immature, bored, horny, frightened, taught to hate their enemy, etc. In the movie as in real life they search the young girls house arresting the men of fighting age. They decide, despite much internal conflict, to return to the house at night to rape the girl. At the platoon level some participate some don't, and some can't live with themselves after. They rape her repeatedly, kill all her family members, including a baby, then they shoot her and throw gasoline over her body, lighting her up. Needless to say it was an incredibly uncomfortable film to watch. The soldiers too, are innocent, pumped up immaturity ready to spring in hatred. You need only point them and they will destroy what is in the way. It is what they are taught. The tragedy as I have read elsewhere is that there is nothing noble in their cause, in the war, and because of that the soldiers themselves have witnessed or participated in this kind of behavior so much they are coming home traumatized and killing themselves in epic proportions. It is when all laws, all morality falls to the wayside, a dark night of the soul, a place where all is lawless, much like the the film Apocalypse Now! where a once worthy General breaks down in his effort to understand the insanity of war, where he breaks away from central command to create his own army where rules and laws no longer matter, anarchy rules the day, and who lives and who dies can be decided by the animal instinct of the person beside you, who may suddenly develop an attachment to your ear as a souvenir of war.

By: Ghostdreams

Ghostdreams — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 00:25:05 +0000

Doc,
I'm very glad you posted this pic but ….I worry.
We've seen pictures not unlike this one before…
Pictures of children in Viet Nam running naked, burning, napalm all over their little bodies.
Pictures of children starving to death in “put name of third world country here”….
Pictures of children thrown down, like so much trash, piled up in ditches during the Holocaust….
and so on and so forth. The list is, as we all know, endless.

I think that until the human race, as a whole, realizes that even one person dying as a consequence of war is too much …
Until the human race, as a whole, realizes that no amount of money is worth even one persons life …
Until the want and need for justice overcomes the wanton greed of money ….
We are doomed to re-live these nightmares over and over and over again.

One life = a whole universe of possibility and if only the people who start these insane military campaigns could see this.
A whole UNIVERSE of possibility …one child ….one person….
A trillion dreams are undone before they had the chance to be dreamt and all in the blink of an eye.
That is the true horror….the end of a life for …
What?
A political agenda gone terribly awry? An oil deal too good to pass up and we can do it behind the guise of a “war against terror? A “Them” vs. “Us” war that lost track of who the good guys were supposed to be (as in the end, all to show for the war is a lot of dead people who only wanted to live their lives in peace)?

It needs to stop but I have no answers and that is so frustrating.
What happened to the good old days (when I was 20), many years ago and I had the answers for everything! All such surety is gone now.
I find I have to stay hidden and stay to myself or I'll be overwhelmed with the need to just stop the world and get off.
There's one thing I am sure of ….
I hope the rest of the human race isn't as gutless as I am.
I'm glad you posted this picture as it gives us much to consider, reflect on, and hope/pray our gov't isn't going to make the same mistakes that we've made before…
We can but hope.

Thanks for post doc!
Ghost

By: river

river — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 22:23:37 +0000

dear Silhouette. . .i re-read you comment a couple of times. . .i think you make a poignant point about war photography and the Pro-life/Pro-choice ongoing debate. . .There really is a similarity. . . that which is not seen is so much easier to legislate for or against. . .i have many feminist leanings and have stood with Pro-choice. . . but as i saw this picture and sat in the silence the words that came for me were, “yes, it is time for the “seamless garment” for all peoples and all contexts. . . .both seen and unseen. . .

By: river

river — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 21:58:05 +0000

Thank you Dr. E. for posting this horrific image of war and the ravage of innocence. . .with this photo the well constructed and enforced military strategy by invading countries to keep the other as, 'impersonal--strange--and foreign' (other than who and what we are)'. . . All dissolves. . .

With deep knowing we cannot deny that every Dad that views this reality also is beating the heart of this collapsed Father. . .and although we cannot hear we know every Mother's heart is filled with the grief and anguish inexpressible the Mother is struggling with this moment and many more to come to contain. . .

Perhaps for a few minutes we lose words and fall into the silence where we from a Nation that has turned the vast military complex into one of our remaining national economic enterprise. . .

With this photo. . . perhaps we can truly see the "other" is not impersonal, foreign or strange. . .but we the collective are so very impersonal, foreign and estranged from our own hearts and soul that could allow such as this. . .

I hope you continue to post these kinds of photos for they speak volumes. . .And yes, i will join in prayers for this family and all. . . .

May i forever remember this photo and

By: Silhouette

Silhouette — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 15:54:58 +0000

One thing I hate most about wars, especially illegal ones like BigOil's invasion of Iraq on our tab, is that they try to hide the faces of death from us.

Death is a sobering reminder of the cost of war. How many pro-life republicans could look on that picture and still continue to justify the breaking of most of the 10 Commandments all in the name of oil? I guess since that girl isn't a fetus, they don't care as long as there is capitalism to be gained.

This picture evokes anger, rage...but most of all astonishment. I am utterly astonished how voting members of the GOP can live double lives. One as "devout" christians who ostensibly revere all God's creations (even this little ethnic girl in the photo), and yet consistently line up behind politicians and policies that affect the exact opposite of reverence for life.

Pro-life? My ass..

I'd like a print of this picture to turn into a postcard to send to every member of Congress who still thinks this hostile corporate takeover (Iraq for Oil) is a good idea..

By: spirasol

spirasol — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 15:25:54 +0000

You are brave to publish such pictures, Dr. E. We have been at war in Iraq for longer than WWII, and major media, the govt. do not print who the greatest victim of war is: the innocent. Who are the perpetrators? Put a blind fold on and let them spin you round and round. No matter where you point your finger..........yes it was them, and them, and they too.

Where are the pictures of the Wedding party in Afghanistan?

Yes, don't forget, and never let them tell you it was worth it.

Ps: hats off to your husband and yourself for helping the ones who are cast out, the old GI's who can't live with themselves for what they have seen, experienced.

By: archangel

archangel — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 14:48:40 +0000

makes my eyes fill with stars, thank you dear Dave_Schuler for such a powerful heart prayer for the dead, praying in the final line, “May Perpetual LIght Shine upon her”… this little madonna.

continuan, compadre.

dr.e

By: Dave_Schuler

Dave_Schuler — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 14:15:00 +0000

Requiem æternam dona ea, Domine,

et lux perpetua luceat ea.

It's so much easier to avert your eyes.