“It is a graphic image of the harsh realities of war: the fatally wounded young marine lying crumpled in the mud, his vulnerable face turned to the camera. And it is one the US defence secretary would rather you did not see.” - storyI honestly don’t get all the noise over this image. I feel like I saw far more graphic or harsh representations of war as a kid, looking at Life magazine pictures of the Vietnam war.
Not to take away from the tragedy of this man’s life ending, but I just don’t get why anyone would be acting like we haven’t seen anything like this yet.
We haven’t really seen much like this from the current wars. The military keeps a tight lid on images depicting U.S. casualties. There are, however, some that have come out, like these images (warning: some are graphic) from Zoriah Miller.
Though Zoriah followed protocol of dealing with the images (no nametags, faces or identifying features of U.S. personnel, waiting until family notification until publishing) he was thrown out of his embed with the Marines and had to be under armed guard for his safety before they could get him out of the country. The New York Times ran a story last year about just how few images we have seen come out of Iraq and Afghanistan. Look for the images of Lance Cpl. Bernard to continue to make headlines.
