As much as it pains me to admit it, Tim Robbins made a great point in his recent speach to the National Press Club when he wondered aloud about the dichotomy between something like “Saving Private Ryan” and how we praised the realism of it (the blood and bullets and such), and how we were treated to a sanitized version of the war coverage.
Why is that? Why is it okay for us to see the tragedies of war only when it is fictional and not in real life?
Do you think the american public can handle the true images of the war in iraq?
I’m reminded of a Bloom County, where they start watching something partway through, and they don’t know whether it’s actual war footage, a document, or a war movie, and it ends with Opus yelling, “Can somebody please tell me whether or not I should be enjoying this???”
Probably because Saving Private Ryan is based on events from several decades ago, whereas the Iraq war is based on policy decisions made a few months ago.
It’s certainly not in the Administration’s image to present graphic images of the horrors of war; after all, if more Americans were to see footage of Iraqi families getting blown up and mangled and whatnot, they might gasp! actually have doubts about the whole thing.
Can’t have that, no siree, go back to watching American Idol, folks…
I’ve seen Marines shoot up passenger cars, tanks blow up buildings, first aid administered to dying soldiers, rockets hitting armored vehicles, injured and dead civilians being pulled from rubble, all in real time, often live.
What the hell do you want? These aren’t special effects. You can’t plan them out ahead of time. You can’t make sure that the guy who gets blown up by the car bomb will just happen to be standing next to a perfectly focased super slow mo camera just so you can see his intestines being ripped out. It just doesn’t happen that way.
Also, the analogy between Saving Private Ryan and war footage doesn’t really hold. As graphic as Saving Private Ryan was, no one actually died. Sure, lot’s of folks died during the D Day invasion, but we aren’t seeing them. We are seeing, at most, people pretending to be people who died. In war footage, when a guy drops, he doesn’t get up. No one yells “cut”. You are seeing his last moments on this Earth, with no opening for a sequel. This thought disturbs most people a hell of a lot more than just seeing someone act it out.
Just speaking for myself, but I think American support for this damn fool war would be much less if more Americans were confronted by images like those on this page on a nightly basis.
As it is (was?), too many folks are content to coo at the pretty pictures of fireballs blooming over Baghdad, without bothering to see the aftermath of said fireballs.
I personally find that support for the war is more likely to be found among folks my age (19) than it is to be found amongst folks who are old enough to remember Vietnam, and who KNOW that the so-called elites are willing to bs the people into supporting rediculous wars.
And if I hear one more person call me “unpatriotic”, I swear to Christ…
Sir, IMHO you are far more genuinely patriotic that the mindless masses flying flags and yellow ribbons in blind support for what history shows to be insane and doomed to failure. The United States was once the most productive nation on Earth and through the Constitution did guarantee the rights of its citizens.
Since some planes crashed into a couple of buildings, killing far less than is killed on American roads each year, the melodrama and blind-revenge-mentality has been exploited to tear apart what the stars and stripes essentially stand for.
Those who recognize what America once was and abhor what it is becoming are the ones truly demonstrating genuine patriotism.
During the actual war that “Private Ryan” depicts, press coverage by and large did not show most of the actual horror that was occurring. There was a controversy over even showing unidentified dead soldiers on the battlefield.
Another issue is privacy, respect and consideration for the surviving family. It’s bad enough if your husband, son or brother is killed; it’s made worse if there’s a picture of his dead and mangled body on the front page of the newspaper or displayed on everyone’s t.v. screen. It’s bad enough that reporters shove microphones in front of grieving people in all kinds of situations: “Tell, me, Mrs. Jones, how do you feel about the tragic death of your son?”
Another cause is private enterprise, capitalism and freedom of the press. Newspapers and t.v. stations exist as private enterprises, not charities. They obviously need readers or viewers in order to make money. If the images shown are too graphic or disturbing for the general audience, readership or viewership will decrease. They have complete freedom to decide NOT to show such images.
lander2k2, I don’t know what country you’re living in, but the U.S. is still one of the most productive nations on earth if not the most productive. AFAIK our Constitution does protect the rights of our citizens. I’m sure someone can point out examples of where the system did not work perfectly, but then it’s being run by imperfect human beings.
IMHO one who focuses on the idea that America was once great and perfect and is now going to the dogs has not read enough history. Part of what causes that idea to be prevalent is that too often schools teach only the great and wonderful things that were accomplished in prior generations and omit or gloss over the faults and problems of the past. I don’t think you really want to return to slavery, or Jim Crow laws, or to restrict voting to property-owning white men, just to name a few of the easy ones.
Did you know that at one time a poor person could be arrested, tried and convicted without ever knowing his rights or having consulted a lawyer? Did you know that at one time a woman could be fired from her job for being pregnant? Or not be hired at all simply because she was a woman? Did you know that “No Irish Need Apply” was at one time a permitted criterion for hiring? That a black person could be denied a job, or to rent an apartment simply because someone did not want “your kind” here?
Finally, September 11 was not just about “some planes crashing into a couple of buildings.” I don’t know where you were that day, but some of us who watched it happen have been changed forever. I would hope I don’t have to explain the difference between motor vehicle accidents and deliberate attacks.
The productivity of actual economic goods in the US has decreased considerably since WWII. Meanwhile its consumption has continued to bloat. The US economy morphed into a consumer-service oriented leech, sucking life out of the global economy. I’m sorry if CNN hasn’t bothered to point this out to you. It is a pity for the average hard working American that the power brokers running his and her country are milking the prosperity out of it and it is a shame that few in America even know that it is happening (and many won’t ‘cause I assure you CNN won’t start covering the issue).
As for your constitution, keep an eye on the folks in Washington. The misnamed “Patriot Act” is most likely merely the beginning. I wouldn’t be concerned however, since news on this issue won’t contain the immediate shock value of most news stories today, it probably won’t see much air time on the news either. If it isn’t on TV it isn’t happening…right?
Well if it’s history that you’d like to address, then you’d better extend your horizons beyond American history. Start with the Roman Empire and isolate those factors which brought about its demise and look for the indicators and mile-markers that foretold of its demise. Then compare it all to an objective view of America.
America was once great in that it was a production oriented nation. It is now going to the dogs in that it is now a consumer oriented society. Any entity consuming more than it is producing in the proportion that the US currently is has its days numbered no matter how your economists try to obfuscate the issue.
When was the last time you saw a severe motor vehicle accident up close? The horror of bodies crushed and torn is still very hard hitting. I’m sure you aren’t suggesting that lives lost in vehicles are trivial. And I’m pretty sure that you wouldn’t like to confront the victims’ families and say that because their husband/wife/son/daughter wasn’t killed in such a spectacular manner as on 9/11 that their lives meant less. The sheer truth is that the volume of lives lost on the road is a greater tragedy than 9/11. The fact that 9/11 was a shocking sight gave all the TV networks such a hard-on that they couldn’t help but play the footage and dramatize the story and the branding of the image into the minds along with the characterization played out by the media is what changed your life that day, as you put it. I’d be willing to bet that if you witnessed graphic footage of all of the car accidents that occurred in the US in a year, that you’d would also come away changed, if not disturbed. Your nation’s media has exploited the tragedy for the sake of ratings and, yes, left a lot of people changed. My point is that it has not left people with a more accurate view of reality nor with a better ability to come to rational conclusions. If anything the sensational nature of 9/11 has been used to bring out the worst in many people.