By Tim Collins

Warning: This article features graphic images. If you are easily offended, then please select another story.

War is a profit maker for many defense contractors. Interestingly enough, much the the media is owned by corporations with ties to defense contracting. These corporations report on war and give us an illustration of what’s really going on. Well, they actually don’t show us what’s REALLY going on, they produce propaganda.

The run up to the Afghan war was filled with patriotic graphics, music, and images of bravery and selflessness. Iraq was no different. The media made war look like a great thing, something that was needed. The nightly news gave us sanitized views from the battlefield, usually looking like this:

 

 

Or like this:

 

 

Here is what they don’t show you on the corporate run media:

 

 

An interesting fact is that half of Iraq’s population are children. The media talks about “collateral damage”, but they don’t show the face of the damage. If we saw images of American children like this, we would be outraged. The only crime these children are guilty of is being born into the wrong country at the wrong time.

The government granted never before seen access to the war by offering networks the chance to imbed reporters with army troops. These reporters had to sign waivers stating that they would do whatever their commander told them to do, which included canning raw footage. The government has long censored the real images of war, while other nations saw what was really going on.

There were a handful of independent journalists who traveled to the war zones without military protection to report the real story. These journalists have been made targets by the US government in an attempt to suppress the truth.

 

 

The fact is that most major networks find real images of war to be distasteful. Often times you see images of soldiers and children posing happily together. You see Iraqis high fiving US troops, and the world seems to be a perfect place.

 

    Why The Censorship?

There is one image, and one image alone that is credited with changing public opinion regarding the Vietnam War. The image is of a naked little girl in agony running away after being hit with napalm.

The little girl’s name is Kim Phuc. She was badly burned and stripped off her burning clothes in an effort to stop the pain. This is the image that many associate with the Vietnam War.

The US government doesn’t want another image like this to influence popular opinion regarding the war. But we found one that is heartbreaking:

You see, the media loves the money that war brings in, but hate the real images of war. Again and again, the media will show only the most patriotic of images and not the real faces of war.

Maybe before we chalk up the death of innocent children to collateral damage, we should think about what could happen should the government turn the military on us. Imagine that the image above is your son or daughter. It’s time to put away blind patriotism and realize that America is great, but we aren’t always right. No man will ever be right 100% of the time.

We need to remember that war is hell, and even our own troops are shcoked by what they see. The war machine is strong and well funded, they have a great PR team to help shape their image. The MSM will never tell the truth about war, unless it benefits the United States.

And if you wonder why people in the Middle East hate us, here is a reminder:

So tonight as you sit and get aroused by the excitement of war as it is neatly packaged for you, don’t forget these images.

Some will see this article as unpatriotic, but it is in fact the most patriotic thing to do. We need to show the truth so that we can better understand the reality of war.

Related articles

• The eyes that reveal the trauma of war: Haunting portraits show Marines before, during and after service in Afghanistan (aytacgok.wordpress.com)
• Woman in iconic Vietnam War photo to be honoured (cbc.ca)