They also never wanted us to see the pictures of flag draped coffins on that cargo plane returning from Iraq. Basically they don't want us to see anything that will further diminish support for a war that we were misled into. There aren't a lot of legs to stand on now if you are a supporter other than shallow flag waving.

Iraq war supporters say that showing difficult images will lessen support for the war. Well of course it will, and should. That's because Iraq is a war of choice, not necessity. If it was a justified war of necessity, even the worst images would deter only the few who lack the capacity to see the larger issue. The exception is when unnecessary and unjust actions are taken in an otherwise just war.

This is what happened in Dresden, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki during World War II. Dresden, Germany was firebombed in 1945 and over 100,000 were killed. The bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki were entirely unnecessary and cost the lives of more than 200,000 Japanese. (The propaganda which many still believe that it would have saved the lives of tens of thousands of americans was just that, propaganda. Japan was already finished.)

But what if we saw, immediately, or even live, the images from Dresden where entire families, buildings, and blocks were incinerated, one after the other? What about the radiation burn victims from Hiroshima? They should have been in the paper the very next day. First person accounts should have been broadcast across American radio. If they were, such excesses would be less tolerated today.

Just like Vietnam reduced, for some, the appetite for war, so should recent images from Iraq quell the blind patriotism of Bush war supporters, few of whom seem to think beyond the sloganeering.

It's one thing to see dead enemy soldiers, quite another to see dead civilians, especially when they are not "collateral damage" but rather intentionally or carelessly killed. It is our duty to view and reflect upon such pictures, to consider the impact of our political and military actions.

I make a point of looking at difficult images of wars, past and present. I look, and I say "This is what my government is doing. I am responsible for this."

Lupus est homo homini