Keep Them Ignorant, In The Dark, And Feed Them Shit: You Will Get Away With Anything

I had an argument with my wife about this. She thought this was atrocious. To me the atrocity was the suppression of truth and the hypocrisy of Defense Secretary Gates. When he want the pictures of the coffins coming home to be continued to be suppress they did not care a whit that mothers and fathers wanted them shown. Now he uses a mourning father to promote his point of view. Of course Gates et. al. are concerned. Their hypocrisy shines in the light of day.


Thank you Lance Cpl. Benard for your service and sacrifice.
Thank you Julie Jacobson for your pictures and your courage.

LENS

September 4, 2009, 5:26 pm

"It is a scene from which many of us would naturally recoil, or at least avert our eyes: a grievously injured young man, fallen on a rough patch of earth; his open-mouthed and unseeing stare registering — who can know what? — horror or fear or shock; being tended desperately by two companions in what are the first moments of the final hours of his life.

It is a scene that plays out daily among American troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, but one that has largely been unseen by the American public in eight years of war.

On Friday, after a couple of weeks of intramural debate and over the objections of the young man’s father (supported by the defense secretary), The Associated Press released such a photograph, by Julie Jacobson.Julie Jacobson.

It depicts Lance Cpl. Benard, 21, of New Portland, Me., shortly after he was struck by a rocket-propelled grenade during a Taliban ambush of his squad last month in Dahaneh, Afghanistan. He lost one of his legs in the attack and died later at a Marine compound during surgery. To provide context for this deeply troubling image, the A.P. sent out a series of photos before and after the attack, a news article about the attack, and...... excerpts from Ms. Jacobson’s journal and a video that she narrated."

Source: read more

See the series of pictures for yourself: comercialapeal.com Memphis Tennessee

I have sent this blog entry to the NYT Lens Blog.

I have been appalled at the tight control that the U.S. Government has exercised on the Journalistic community regarding the report of all Military issues since the first Gulf War.
I have been appalled at the bleating sheep mentality of the faux journalist who submit to being lead around by goats in desert camouflage while filing stories with less than half truths in them.
Lance Cpl Benard died a Marine's death in a Marine's war. I have seen the set of pictures concerned and I applaud Ms. Jacobson for the tasteful way in which she display the scene of horror. Oxymoronic as that is, it is true.
Thank you Julie Jacobson for your courage to be there and take these picture. Thank you and you editors for having the courage to share them with the world. As a Regular Army volunteer in Vietnam I know why our government is censuring these kinds of images. They can not maintain a wrongful and inept war in the light of day. Your pictures are greatly feared by them. Keep it up.