[Leica] covering the news....

[ricc at mindspring.com (Ric Carter)]

Phillip--

You are absolutely right on all counts.

The thing that worries many of us is that the concerns you have are  
not at the center of the problem here. We see  an administration that  
is attempting to slant coverage for domestic political purposes so  
that America does not see the cost of this war.

Hell, we even had a Secretary of Defense who so little valued the  
lives of our military, he didn't even bother to sign letters to  
survivors -- he used a machine to do it.

Our country should be reminded of the sacrifice that is being made here.

Ric




On Jul 26, 2008, at 5:50 PM, Philip Forrest wrote:

> I could have taken photos of lots of dead Marines. That could have  
> been
> considered part of my job. I didn't want to though. I didn't want to
> photograph a lot of what I did, but it was my job. I lost enough
> friends out in Iraq that I didn't need to capture that memory forever.
> I'll have it forever. I respect the men and women who've died. Their
> war is over and there is nothing but peace for them now. Us who
> survived have the hard battle to deal with. Memory.
> There are a few things I agree with on the DoD side, and a few  
> things I
> agree with on the journalist side. If he did indeed break some
> protocol, then he deserved to get kicked out. Were he military, he'd
> have been tried at a courts martial possibly. On the security side, I
> completely understand the DoD point of view. The enemy is extremely
> smart and if they can use any intelligence gathered from the internet
> to find a weak spot in our tactics, then again, the journalist is in
> the wrong. I DO believe that there should be more imagery coming out  
> of
> Iraq and Afghanistan, but not if it endangers my comrades.
>
> Further, this war CANNOT be compared to Vietnam in regard to imagery
> and journalism. There was no way for the enemy to use photos such as
> these in a timely fashion since most film was sent back to the
> publication it was shot for, then developed, then edited, and then
> possibly used for publication. We all have access to the means of
> production now. Remember Nick Berg and the many beheadings which were
> seen on the internet during 2004 alone. The internet is free
> information, pure and simple and it's quite easy to do a little
> snooping to find out who got bombed, where, when, how and possibly  
> what
> tactics were used. Blogs are a product of our egos. Now that we can
> take a digital photo of a dead Marine then post it on the internet  
> soon
> afterwards, we do so in order to get attention. A kind of "look at me!
> look at me! Look what I made! I risked MY life to take this photo of
> this guy who GAVE his life for it, all for you! Pay attention to me!"
> This is what I think of exploitative bloggers. There is a time and a
> place for showing our dead. It's after the family has done their
> grieving. After we have paid our respects to our fallen friends. After
> the security environment surrounding the death has changed enough that
> it can't be exploited to hurt us. Until then, take the photos and just
> keep them for the future. War hasn't changed at all in all of
> history. We all are wounded and all die the same way. The photos
> can wait for a while, they'll still have plenty of impact later on.
> Maybe put the camera down once in a while and hold the hand of that
> Marine who is bleeding out.
>
> Phil Forrest
>
> _______________________________________________
> Leica Users Group.
> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information