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2004-11-21 Iraq-Jordan

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Posted by Bulldog 2004-11-21 6:41:49 AM|| || Front Page|| [1 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 But in fact, something in the rules had indeed been broken. A photo of a dead US soldier was printed before his family was notified. I can't tell if he could have been id'd by the photo, but it was against the rule none the less.

Posted by rkb 2004-11-21 7:46:24 AM|| 2004-11-21 7:46:24 AM|| Front Page Top

#2 Last week, if the distinction between journalist and soldier was becoming blurred, it was part and parcel of being an "embed". On one occasion, I spotted a copper wire that could have been the trigger for a booby trap. The sergeant thanked me and we all stepped over it.

*scoff* I don't even know where to begin scoffing at this insight into this reporters myopic, mini-brain - so I'll just say a big sarcastic, oh thank you!.

I had become one of them.

I have never met this guy or the platoon, but just from reading his own words, it's hard for me to believe that the soldiers would have accepted this condesending, holier-than-thou, I'm-here-to-watch-over-the-the-animals, reporter.

when a photograph of a dead soldier - the body lying in a dusty kitchen, blood seeping from a bullet wound to the head.

You can just picture this guy, with a adolescent, smug. smirk on his face, acting all coy and telling his CO..."I don't understand, it was art".

I guess it made ya famous, so what the F?, ey, Stefan?

Posted by 2b 2004-11-21 7:48:45 AM|| 2004-11-21 7:48:45 AM|| Front Page Top

#3 Do a Google on Zaklin. It seems he belongs to a group that celebrates anti-war photography.

Posted by surrounded 2004-11-21 9:57:54 AM|| 2004-11-21 9:57:54 AM|| Front Page Top

#4 Sounds like the embed writer did a fairly good job, it was the photog who queered it.

Posted by Shipman 2004-11-21 10:11:03 AM|| 2004-11-21 10:11:03 AM|| Front Page Top

#5 But relations did sour towards the end, when a photograph of a dead soldier - whom I had been speaking to minutes before he was killed - appeared in a German newspaper. It was a haunting image of the body lying in a dusty kitchen, blood seeping from a bullet wound to the head.

Oh, maybe the idea that you were exploiting them like a gladhanding lawyer or agent who pockets the money and disappears the next day, sort of ran through their minds. That you exist off their pains and commitments so that you can get that byline, that pulitzer, or that personal rush. You can pack it in, go back to the Baghdad Inn, take a shower, catch a ride out of country and be safe at home in a day at your choosing. They only have each other for months on end, to cover their backs, to be there to console the survivors, or to have someone gently place them into a vehicle to take their last remains to be shipped home. Where are the photos of the good days, when they opened that school they help build with their own hands, or with the children they handed out shoes to after asking folks back home to send because they didn't believe any kid should go without. Oh, but your buyers don't want good news. They only want blood and guts. If it bleeds it leads. It might have just entered their minds, that you are just like the carrion fowl which circle after any battle to pick at the remains for their meal. Of course, they might just have had a bad day at work and didn't have a dog to kick.

Posted by Don 2004-11-21 10:36:03 AM|| 2004-11-21 10:36:03 AM|| Front Page Top

#6 "None of us had much difficulty with any of this. After all, anything that put the lives of soldiers at risk would be potentially just as dangerous for us."

Doesn't it strike anyone as odd that the threat of danger to American troops wasn't enough for this shithead to abide by the rules? But it required his own life to be in the crosshairs in order to follow basic rules of common sense to keep our troops safe!

Strikes me as more than odd - he's no better than the goddamn enemy.

Posted by Curious1 2004-11-21 1:16:58 PM|| 2004-11-21 1:16:58 PM|| Front Page Top

#7 I just couldn't help myself, the germans were looking for a anti-us photo and would pay! WHat could i do, i'm such an asshole, I forgot about the solidiers family! I'd sell photos of my dead mother for the right price, I don't see the problem here, someone please explain to me!

Posted by Phitle Pherese4694 2004-11-21 1:24:57 PM|| 2004-11-21 1:24:57 PM|| Front Page Top

#8 "placed under armed guard"

I really like that one. Is there such a thing as an unarmed soldier?

Posted by gromky 2004-11-21 2:28:54 PM|| 2004-11-21 2:28:54 PM|| Front Page Top

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