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03/05/2004: "It don't matter!"
Pictures of caskets draped with the US flag... fallen soldiers displaying the human cost of the Iraq war (actually, some were the caskets of the Columbia astronauts, but never mind)
Pictures of prisoners undergoing ill treatment... the brutality of Allied troups towards Iraqi prisoners (actually, some cannot have been taken in Iraq since the equipment shown wasn't employed, but never mind)
Fakes? Wrong pictures? Who cares! Their visual impact remains and their purpose is thus fulfilled...
CBS is showing a video of a helicopter gunning down enemy combattants in Iraq. One target who appears wounded and is crawling away is hit again. CBS presents this video as the US military killing wounded soldiers in apparent violation of the Geneva conventions. However, the same video appeared on Military.com a few weeks ago but was presented as showing a combattant trying to continue his mission despite being wounded, with the helicopter preventing him from doing so by hitting him again.
In the war of images, the meaning is in the eye of the beholder...
