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Honoring The Dead

By Dr. Trudy Bond

02 September, 2005
Countercurrents.org

The Veterans for Peace project, http://www.veteransforpeace.org/bostonworkshops.htm has become best-known recently for its display and the desecration of the display at Cindy Sheehan’s camp outside Crawford, Texas. The cemetery is made up of small wooden grave markers in the shape of crosses, crescents or Stars of David, each with the name of a dead American soldier. The purpose of the project is to make the consequences of war real, and to allow people to express their grief, respect and thoughts. Pro-war protesters, however, are incensed that the name of their child, husband, wife, or parent is being used to protest the war in Iraq, and have walked through the symbolic cemetery in Crawford, removing grave markers. The claim is that the name of their relative is personal and private, resulting in Veterans for Peace agitating about the conflict.

Crosses and tombstones with names, photos of caskets, all with the question as to whether we are honoring or dishonoring the dead and their families. Sensitive issues here in the United States. In contrast is the recent report carried by the Italian Press Agency http://www.ansa.it/main/notizie/awnplus/
mondo/news/2005-08-21_1057322.html
. What follows is a portion of a dispatch written by correspondent Gioia Giudici for
http://www.corriere.it/Primo_Piano
/Cronache/2005/08_Agosto/21/blog.shtml
Corriere
della Sera, which has been translated http://nuralcubicle.blogspot.com/2005/08
/what-noble-people-what-noble-cause.html


As if they were figurines, terrifying images of Iraqis and Afghanis dismembered by explosions are exchanged on-line for free access to a porn site. The invitation to post photos of shocking cruelty is proposed to US combat troops who are asked to post their horror shots in order to enter the porn section of the site. Once gaining entry, many site visitors have been unable to resist the deal offered by www.nowthatsfuckedup.com : "If you are a US soldier deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan or any other theatre of war and you would like free access to the site, upload the photos which you and your buddies took during your service." . . . The other section is a veritable chamber of horrors with photos of dead Iraqis and dismembered bodies. Once you enter this section you are immediately advised that you will be seeing cruel images and that persons not wishing to view this type of material should not enter.

Browsing through the posts is like a descent into hell. Each post contains the most graphic of images, escalating in barbarity and viciousness and accentuated by the comments left by posters. The posts exalt the violence of the images, shot in a theatre of war. You see headless, armless burnt bodies, a face in a bowl, the remains of suicide bombers, an arm or a leg accompanied by inhuman comments, extolling the horrors..."the only good Iraqi is a dead Iraqi." The comments are stupefying in their cynicism...there is even a barbaric quiz, asking the question, "what body part is this"...?

Interesting dilemmas that this website, www.nowthatsfuckedup.com, creates. People are agitating here on the issues of honoring our dead soldiers, though some of our soldiers and our government, in the form of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, appear to have no compunctions regarding dishonoring the dead. Perhaps the incongruence are best expressed by the blogger http://nuralcubicle.blogspot.com/2005/08
/what-noble-people-what-noble-cause.html

“If you question the President's lies, you're a subversive. If you hold a candle in solidarity with Cindy Sheehan, you’re an old hippie consigned to the dustbin of history. If you complain to your Senator, you don't understand the nobility of our cause. If you go downtown and carry a sign, you're part of a flakey focus group. But if you hate the human race, if you're devoid of compassion, if you sell your soul for a peep show, if you ambush Italian reporters, if you stalk "foreign-looking" civilians on the Tube, if you murder the wounded and the imprisoned, if you torture for information, then to our twisted masters, or so-called Executive, then you are a twenty-first century hero for democracy.”

Dr. Trudy Bond is a psychologist in Toledo, Ohio, and a peace activist. She
can be reached at [email protected]


 

 

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