Use of Torture Images and the Media’s Responsibilities During Wartime
The Daily Mirror has traditionally been controversial.
In 1934, it backed up Oswald Mosley’s plans for a National Socialist
Britain. 30 years later, it demanded the resignation of Harold Wilson.
In 2003, when the UK joined the US at war with Iraq, the Mirror was
the only tabloid newspaper to campaign against the war.
During the Iraqi war, the Daily Mirror bought and published images of
torture from the Queens Lancashire regiment (QLR), which were almost
immediately declared to be false by army personnel.
The images displayed Iraqi soldiers suffering torture at the hands of
the allied forces, but Simon Treselyan, a retired military
intelligence officer claimed that they were false. He raised 15 points
about 5 images, all of which suggested that the images had been
recorded in Britain. This was supposed to have been done in order to
both dupe the Daily mirror and make them look foolish, possibly with a
view to ending Piers Morgan’s rein as editor at the tabloid, or even
just simply to make a bit of money with a sensationalist story. False
or not, the images had been published to question the behaviour of
Allied soldiers in Iraq.
What arose was a huge controversy about whether the images were false
or not, and if they were, then what were conditions really like for
Iraqi captives? The Army were infuriated by the images; If Iraqi’s saw
the images, conditions would become a lot harsher for the captives
that the Iraqis had taken; even if they were to be proved to be fake,
the Iraqis would surely presume that this was a cover up by the
government.
Following persistent allegations of abuse in the Abu Ghraib prison in
Baghdad, the US Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez ordered Maj. Gen. Antonio M.
Taguba to produce a report on the prison, which concluded that there
was regular abuse taking place, including 8 separate examples of abuse
given by prisoners, and 13 examples recorded by Maj. Gen. Antonio M.
September 11, 2001 marked a tragic day in the history of the United States; a terrorist attack had left the country shaken. It did not take long to determine those who were behind the attack and a call for retribution swept through the nation. Citizens in a wave of patriotism signed up for military service and the United States found resounding international support for their efforts in the war on terror. Little opposition was raised at the removal of the Taliban regime and there was much support for bringing Osama Bin Laden and the leaders of al-Qaeda to justice. Approval abroad diminished approximately a year and a half later when Afghanistan became a stepping stone to the administration’s larger ambition, the invasion of Iraq. The administration would invent several stories and in some cases remain silent of the truth where would prove positive for the Iraqi invasion. It seems they were willing to say anything to promote the largely unpopular and unnecessary war they were resolved on engaging in.
Michael Levin’s essay “The Case for Torture” is trying to express many things but one of the most important is to show that sometimes torture is necessary. During the story, Levin resorts to lots of arguments, with the speculation that torture is only reasonable when saving lives, he demonstrates three situations in which torture may be okay. The author is basically saying that he agrees with torture if it means saving innocent lives. But we can’t always be too sure about that. Levin’s argument states many of theoretical cases like an atomic bomb, a terrorist on a plane and a newborn baby being kidnapped. He gives three scenarios for the reader to think about.
Britain afford to pay for a war like this? The only way to pay for a
In the novel All quiet on the western front by Erich Maria Remarque one of the major themes he illustrates is the effects of war on a soldier 's humanity. Paul the protagonist is a German soldier who is forced into war with his comrades that go through dehumanizing violence. War is a very horrid situation that causes soldiers like Paul to lose their innocence by stripping them from happiness and joy in life. The symbols Remarque uses to enhance this theme is Paul 's books and the potato pancakes to depict the great scar war has seared on him taking all his connections to life. Through these symbols they deepen the theme by visually depicting war’s impact on Paul. Paul’s books represent the shadow war that is casted upon Paul and his loss of innocence. This symbol helps the theme by depicting how the war locked his heart to old values by taking his innocence. The last symbol that helps the theme are the potato pancakes. The potato pancakes symbolize love and sacrifice by Paul’s mother that reveal Paul emotional state damaged by the war with his lack of happiness and gratitude.
...onger fighting Saddam Hussein loyalists, but instead we began to fight with what became known as the insurgents.
In his essay “The Case for Torture,” printed in The Norton Reader 13th Edition, Michael Levin argues that torture is justified and necessary under extreme circumstance. He believes that if a person accepts torture to be justified under extreme cases, then the person automatically accepts torture. Levin presents weak argument and he mostly relies on hypothetical scenarios. There is not concrete evidence that torture solves problems and stop crime but rather the contrary. Under international law, torture is illegal and all the United Nation members have to abide by those rules. The use of torture does not keep people safe, but rather the opposite. Torture has a profound effect on democracy. As the use of torture becomes normal in society, the right of the citizen will suffer greatly.
The Iraq war, also known as the second Gulf War, is a five-year, ongoing military campaign which started on March 20, 2003 with the invasion of Iraq by U.S. troops. One of the most controversial events in the history of the western world, the war has caused an unimaginable number of deaths, and spending of ridiculous amounts of money. The reason for invasion war Iraq’s alleged possession of weapons of mass destruction, which eventually was disproved by weapons inspectors. Many people question George W. Bush’s decision to engage a war in Iraq, but there might be greater reason why the decision was made. The ideas of George W. Bush might have been sculpted by one of the greatest works of all time, "The Prince."
In “The Case For Torture” an article written by Michael Levin, he attempts to justify the use of torture as a means of saving lives. Throughout the article, Levin gives the reader many hypothetical examples in which he believes torture is the only method of resolution. Though I agree with Levin, to some degree, his essay relies heavily on the fears of people and exploits them to convince people into thinking pain is the only way. In certain aspects, I could agree entirely with Levin, but when one reads deeper into the article, many fallacies become apparent. These fallacies detract from the articles academic standing and arguably renders the entire case futile. Levin’s strategy of playing with the fears of people is genius, but, with more creditable details of the issue the article would have sustained the scrutiny of more educated individuals. The addition of more concrete information, would have given people something to cling to, inherently improving the articles creditability.
In the article “Bring Them Home,” the author talks of how countries “are seeking the return of objects important to their culture and history.” Examples of countries such as these would be: China, Iran, India, and Turkey. Why would these countries want their artifacts back if they have not seemed to miss them? Well, most of the time this happens because another country is in control of them and do not care for the objects themself. They do not care because they are not from that country and do not realize what value they hold to the people of that country. That is why countries should hold their own historical artifacts. It is their history, their culture, and it matters to the people to have the treasures from their land that could quite possibly be from when the land was first
U.S. launches cruise missiles at Saddam. (2003, March 20). CNN.com. Retrieved February 18, 2010, from http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/03/19/sprj.irq.main/
Sahn were sent home for all of America to see (Klein 50-51). Again, war is
The Sunday Times is a quality broadsheet newspaper aimed at the upper end of Britain’s readership and is a market leader with an average Sunday sale of 1,395,046 copies, which represents a 50.58% share of this area of the market. Clarkson, being an out and out Conservative, is immediately identifiable with the readership of the Sunday Times, and his ‘overgrown schoolboy’ approach presents as a welcome relief amongst the principally serious editorials of the papers other journalists. In ‘Behind Jeremy Lines’ the situation in Iraq is revealed as totally opposite to what the politicians would have us believe, this is made apparent in the title of the article. Behind the lines in a military sense and behind the lines of what is being reported. Clarkson takes the opportunity here to ‘bash’ two of his pet hatreds, Blair’s Labour Party and the Bush administration of the U. S.A.
2) Re-introduce capital punishment for just the "worst" murderers which would at least be some retribution for the terrible crimes they have committed and would permanently incapacitate them. It would also save a small amount of money each year which could, perhaps, be spent on the more genuinely needy. This option is unlikely to reduce crime levels.
Some events, which are perpetrated by Jewish Zealots against Roman Occupiers and moderate Jews, contain basic characteristics of terrorist attacks and show the fact that terrorism existed even in the year 66 A.D. (Nacos 174). However, effects of these early terrorists attacks were relatively small and these attacks were not creating serious consequences like recent terrorist activities. So, even though terrorism is a very old concept, it became one of the most important factors that shape politics and social order all around the world with the new millennium. Especially just after 9/11, terrorism became not only a matter of politics and state businesses but also became a matter that affects ordinary people's lives because attacks of terrorist organizations take thousands of lives and promote fear among millions of people who are not directly targeted by terrorists. Since the affects of terrorist events are so significant and vital, the concept of terrorism and reasons that lies behind this increase on the influence of terrorism deserves attention. There are articles which indicate the news media as the main reason of the increase in the influence of terrorism. Obviously, there is more than one reason behind this increase on the influence of terrorism but even Margaret Thatcher, who is one of the former prime-ministers of the United Kingdom, agrees with the articles by defining the publicity which is provided by news coverage as the "oxygen" of terrorism (Nacos 175). That massive effect of the news media creates ethical problems about the news coverage of terrorism. However, the subject is not simple enough to solve by banning the news media from making news about terrorism or terrorist activities because it can be a violation of ...
Mass media be it in written, broadcast or spoken form, is a communication process that encapsulates a wide audience. Among it are television, radio, advertisements, movies, newspapers, magazines and the Internet. The main role of media is reporting news serving as a mediator between governmental bodies and public in determining issues to be addressed and keeps people involved in socio-politics. With the role of media also comes the right to freedom of expression in media. Initially, the concept of media freedom originated from the US and Europe in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Freedom of media is the freedom to express through press mediums including electronic media and published materials. Matters pertaining to governmental information