[Peace-discuss] Casualty posters

[Randall Cotton]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Morton K. Brussel" <brussel at uiuc.edu>
To: "Alfred Kagan" <akagan at uiuc.edu>
Cc: <peace-discuss at lists.groogroo.com>
Sent: Wednesday, April 09, 2003 6:38 PM
Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] Casualty posters


> 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.

But the idea is not to convince *you* to question the war, Mort =8-)
Seriously, though (and I touched a bit on this in the message I just posted)
I appeal to everyone to please make an effort to appreciate the distinction
between ourselves and other anti-war folks and the intended audience of the
"casualty posters" project. These groups are, indeed, entirely disjoint
=8-). I humbly suggest that whether these posters would appeal to us if we
drove past them is of little consequence. The idea is to effect positive
change with an entirely different set of people.

Having said that, the full-size US casualty poster I used as an example the
past two meetings was, indeed, a little off-putting. I had chosen that one
because the soldier was from Illinois. That particular image was rather
stern and cold, even aggressive. I don't plan to use it. There are others
that are much more innocent (and I intend to tilt in that direction).

> 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.

Be assured that I'm right there with you in same boat together on this.
Anyone who suspects otherwise has read me wrong.

R