[Peace-discuss] Casualty posters

[Morton K. Brussel]

I don't know what the reaction will be regarding posters of US military 
personnel killed in the Iraq war. Sure, the pro-war crowd will no doubt 
object to having their heroes used as anti-war symbols, but I don't 
know whether that's a compelling reason not to have them. who knows how 
relatives of the faces displayed will react if they know what we were 
doing, although the chances are as Al says.

What I do feel is that my sympathies are nowhere near as deep for our 
military casualties as they are for Iraqi civilians. Hence I have been 
quite lukewarm about those poster-like Marine faces. To me the pictures 
seemed a little like war recruitment posters. That turned me off.

At this stage in my life I feel a there is no comparison between the 
sacrifices and travail of our military relative to the horror wreaked 
by their weapons on Iraqis.  There is no equivalence here.

MKB

On Wednesday, April 9, 2003, at 05:12 PM, Alfred Kagan wrote:

> As one of those in opposition to Randall's project, let me try to 
> answer his questions.
>
> As Randall states, placing more value on the lives of US soldiers than 
> Iraqi civilians in indeed morally reprehensible.  I think we should 
> not buy into this idea in any way.  In fact, it should be our job to 
> make sure that the kind of thinking that happened during the Vietnam 
> War does not happen again. People still say that 58,000 died in Viet 
> Nam.  No, it was certainly over one million people.  It is our job to 
> focus on the death and wounding of thousands of Iraqis, not a few 
> hundred invaders.
>
> Whether or not we have a legal right to display the posters of the US 
> military dead is besides the point.  Rather what would be the 
> consequences of doing so? Since the first person to die was from 
> Illinois, it is quite possible that the family will find out that we 
> are using this poster. . It is also likely that the family will be 
> pro-war and will be very upset.  That could lead to very bad publicity 
> for us as well as provoke the pro-war demonstrators. The pro-war 
> people are organized and will take every opportunity to try to 
> discredit us. We should not underestimate their resources.
>
> On the other hand, it is unlikely that anyone will get angry if we 
> display the posters of dead or hurt Iraqi civilians.  In fact, I think 
> this is the best concrete evidence of the immediate affect of the war. 
>  This might get a few people in the middle to wake up.
>
> Sure, doing anything will upset some people.  Effective organizing 
> means limiting the upset to what will build the movement.  I don't 
> think this meets that criteria.
>
> I would rather not see AWARE's name on Randall's posters.
> -- 
>
>
> Al Kagan
> African Studies Bibliographer and Professor of Library Administration
> Africana Unit, Room 328
> University of Illinois Library
> 1408 W. Gregory Drive
> Urbana, IL 61801, USA
>
> tel. 217-333-6519
> fax. 217-333-2214
> e-mail. akagan at uiuc.edu
>
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