|
| |
Who Really Violated
the Geneva Conventions?
Media/Frank
Salvato, Managing Editor |
May 23, 2005
- A British tabloid – The Sun – has published pictures
of genocidal maniac Saddam Hussein in his underwear and the progressives
around the world are aghast! Mind you, the reaction on the Arab street isn’t
outrage. In fact, many in Kuwait, Iran and Iraq think that humiliation and
embarrassment are quite appropriate for the "Butcher of Baghdad.” Those who
are affected by the "outrage” are all about the perception. Political
correctness – this time hiding behind the Geneva Conventions – exposes its
absurdity once again.
Granted, the use – in this case The Sun’s publication – of photographs
defaming prisoners of war is against the Geneva Conventions. The Conventions
state that countries must protect prisoners of war in their custody from
"public curiosity". This stipulation is in place for a good many reasons.
It, and the Geneva Conventions in total, were written to adhere to a core
belief in honor despite the barbarity of war.
Today’s War on Terror is a different animal. It pits an organized group of
traditional military forces against a rag-tag group of fanatical ideologues
who adopt the dress of and hide among civilians. Those who are fighting to
end a terrorist movement that murders indiscriminately – and those regimes
that sponsor and harbor them – are battling clandestine forces that exploit
the chilling effects of fear as they murder, rape, pillage and plunder in
the name of a religion whose motives are in question, especially for their
proselytization of violence toward non-believers.
So, when I hear that the International Committee for the Red Cross is aghast
at the publication of pictures of Saddam Hussein in his underwear, when I
hear that they want an investigation into how this "atrocity,” this
injustice, could have been allowed to occur, it makes me shake my head in
disbelief. It also leads me to believe that an investigation should be
launched into the motives of all those who have been abusing the word
"atrocity.”
In fact, the ICRR has displayed such an anti-Americanism stance they
shouldn’t be ruled out as perpetrators of this "outrage.”
This
brings me to my point. The ones who are really responsible for this
"outrage” are those who published the pictures. Those who instinctively and
blindly point the finger of blame at the United States, its government and
its military, are purposely incendiary. They are truly the ones inciting
hatred for the United States around the world.
While The Sun wouldn’t have been able to publish the photographs had they
not been taken, the taking of the pictures in and of itself didn’t violate
the Geneva Conventions. It was the exploitation of the pictures that
violated the Geneva Conventions. It was the unabashed insatiability of the
mainstream media – first The Sun and then every mainstream publication that
used the story about The Sun to justify running the pictures – that
perpetrated this violation of the treaty and its ethical standards.
Once again, the mainstream media is the culprit, exercising incredibly poor
judgment while inciting those disposed to over-reaction to outrage, all in
the name of a news story.
Graham Dudman, managing editor for The Sun tried to justify the publication
of the pictures:
"People seem to forget that this is a man who is responsible for the
deaths of hundreds of thousands of men, women and children and all that's
happened to him is someone has taken his picture. This is a sort of
modern-day Adolf Hitler. These pictures are an extraordinary iconic news
image that will still be being looked at at the end of this century."
The fact remains, Mr. Dudman and the rest of the salivating media hoard,
knew full well that publishing Hussein’s picture, whether in his underwear
or washing his clothes, was a violation of the Geneva Conventions. Yet they
decided to publish them anyway. Why? Because they consider themselves above
the rules. Their violations of treaties, laws, agreements and ethics are
done in the "valiant pursuit of the truth” – even if what they publish as
truth isn’t and even if they have to make it up.
Arrogance, thy name is the mainstream media.
Related Reading:
Paper publishes new Saddam photo
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,15359355%255E1702,00.html
Paper Prints More Photos of Saddam in Jail
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20050521/D8A7KOKG0.html
US probes Saddam's prison photos
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4568235.stm
|
|
