Please, no more dead children
In America television stations are not allowed to show caskets coming home from the war. We never see the Americans dying in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, and we most certainly never see the thousands of Iraqis that have been killed since the war began. While there are certainly some positives that come with not seeing dead people on the news every day, seeing death so blatantly forces you to face it. It doesn’t allow you to ignore or forget those who are dying as a consequence of military action.
All this leads me to wonder what the news coverage is like in America of the war in Gaza. On Al Jazeera in Syria we see death every day, all the time. We cannot escape it. We see dead babies wrapped in white sheets in the arms of their crying parents. We see blood streaked across the faces of young children, and wonder what kind of life they will have after experiencing such pain and suffering. We hear stories like the one of an 18-year-old girl who had to have both her legs amputated after being injured from phosphorus. Al Jazeeras ominous music plays and I find myself turning away from the screen. I cannot see anymore dead children.
So my question to you: What are you seeing in America of the Gaza war? What is the media coverage like?
Note: This post is a little dated now since I did not post it while still in Syria, when the Gaza war was still going on, but I still wonder what you saw in America of the war, and what you are seeing now. The conflict may have ended for now, but we still see dead children every day on the news.
sbeamish on January 26th, 2009
Hey, sis, this is really touching to me, and so true. The media coverage is different in the U.S. than in other countries, and graphic images of death are not routinely shown. I agree with you that it is absolutely horrific; but without this type of in-your-face realism, it is too easy to pretend that “it’s not that bad.” I appreciate your talking about this, I think it is well worth thinking about.