Primetime - Iraq

HFXOC

Did anyone see last nights prime time on RTE?

Well if you didnt, it showed some horrific and graphic film of the Iraq civilian dead and injured.

We, the Irish viewers, are sometimes cast as voyeurs in someone elses conflict and as such watch in a surreal environment. However, the sight of twisted smashed and broken bodies of babies and children, especially for those of us who are parents, brings home the awful reality of war.

It also makes a lie of the Governments position on Shannon.
We ARE involved.
We ARE complicit in the murder of the innocents.
We ARE part of the Coalition of the Willing (puke up)

We have been let down by our leaders.

We should hang our heads in shame

I agree.

I'm against this war, and have been from day one.

However, i'm a citizen of this nation, and this nations government has decided to support this war.

As such, iwe're also responsible for this.

HFXOC

Thats the point Klaz

The only way to try and effect change is to voice our outrage by directly challenging them to continually justify their policy, be it by email, by letter, by constituency clinic or ultimately in the ballot box.

If the Government decided that all left handed gay homeless men were to present themselves for 'de-lousing' in a Nazi kind of way would we happy to accept it? I think not.

Just because its easy for them to be pragmatic on Iraq doesnt make it right.

Beruthiel

especially for those of us who are parents, brings home the awful reality of war

I saw the clip also, it was on my mind going to bed and first thing when I woke up, I still feel sick from it - I believe any country that goes to war on another should have its public see exactly what it's agreeing to - most of the time the war looks so clean it seems like no body is getting hurt - my heart goes out to those ordinary men, women and children who have no choice in this

Wook

that makes it even more disgusting that in ireland it was agreed to continue support to fight another man's war in an another man's country.

bonkey

Originally posted by Beruthiel
most of the time the war looks so clean it seems like no body is getting hurt

This reminded me of some coverage I saw yesterday...

some group of Iraqi soldiers were after surrendering after an all-night bombardment of their positions in one of the towns.

And so, they were shown coming out, hands on heads, climbing into vehicles, etc. - all nice and polite and in good ol' GC accordance.....

And they were all spotless. One was wearing an ankle-length white almost-like-a-dress things (that the proper name of which escapes me right now).

Spotless. No dirt on them, on their clothes, hair neatly combed.

Regardless of whether or not it was a staged shot, the point is that these are the images the US and UK officials would like us to believe - that war is a clean affair.

jc

Victor

The other day I saw footage of parents with toddlers when a British checkpoint came under attack, I was nearly sick when I saw it.

I saw footage last night (could have been Primetime, not sure) of a kid in hospital with his intestines hanging out, Network2 wouldn't show that part of the footage. Perhaps George and Tony will visit him in hospital after the war. :rolleyes:

HFXOC

There you have it Bonkey - welcome to the world of US/UK black propoganda. And these guys have previous...


In the opening days of Gulf War I in 1991, the Iraqi military were accused of switching off incubators in Kuwaiti maternity hospitals as they retreated. They were condemned throughout the world as being barbaric, capable of any type of heinous crime. Fact is that this NEVER happened, but as is the norm, retractions or corrections always appear on page 19.

In the war in Kosovo, a report was circulated in the US/UK press that a Kosovan teacher and her class were lined up and summarily executed beside the walls of their school. Again, upon later investigation, this was proved not to have happened.

Let there be no doubt that both the Iraqi and Serbian military were responsible for outrageous acts of murder.
However, we must also remember that often the most emotive incidents can contain, at best, massive amounts of hyperbole. Particularly when it paints the US in a better light.

Victor

Originally posted by bonkey
And so, they were shown coming out, hands on heads, climbing into vehicles, etc. - all nice and polite and in good ol' GC accordance..... And they were all spotless. One was wearing an ankle-length white almost-like-a-dress things (that the proper name of which escapes me right now). Spotless. No dirt on them, on their clothes, hair neatly combed.

Once they don't publicly ridicule them ...

On a more serious note, there may have been an agreed surrender, where they were allowed "get ready" before surrendering, like when you are allowed put on a suit before going in front of a judge.

mike65

Did you all come down in the last shower or what?!

War is ugly and those shots which I saw also last night on RTE1 are surely exactly what you'd expect given they had shot at with large calibre machine guns. The kind of images we saw are bread and butter to Arab TV stations who go big on those scenes night after night.

One interesting angle about lasts nights Prime Time was mentioned on Liveline today, namely RTE has never shown such graphic footage of a contermpory war before, including Norn Iron. So was there, one caller wondered, an editorial decision taken which reflects
a bias on the part of RTE regarding war coverage...

I dunno for sure but RTE is seems to me to be anti-war in a subtle way.

Mike.

Victor

Originally posted by mike65
One interesting angle about lasts nights Prime Time was mentioned on Liveline today, namely RTE has never shown such graphic footage of a contermpory war before, including Norn Iron. So was there, one caller wondered, an editorial decision taken which reflects a bias on the part of RTE regarding war coverage...

And maybe it is about time it was shown, it might make people think twice about supporting war.

Originally posted by mike65
I dunno for sure but RTE is seems to me to be anti-war in a subtle way.

Perhaps because it reflects the public's feelings, perhaps because it is the right thing to do.

Éomer of Rohan

Face it. Nations across the world had their largest public demonstrations for years against this war. Did the government listen? No. I have the vote but never have I felt more disenfranchised and we are in real trouble when a)that can heppen in a democracy and b) it is the people who are advocating things like this war actually have the ears of the politicians or as seems to be the case, actually are the politicians.

Sarky

The kind of images we saw are bread and butter to Arab TV stations who go big on those scenes night after night.

Maybe that's why anti American sentiment is so strong over there. If these images were shown on Irish TV then there'd be a lot more pressure on government to do the right thing.