AP Made Right Decision to Run Marine's Photo

Are you that hard up for anguish and pain? I will tell you a personal experience with just this issue. Out scout team was hit, my best friend got cut in half, as he lay holding in what was left of his intestines as he bled out I held him close trying to tell him "It's gona be OK", he looked at me as a reporter attempt to get his camera through our guys and they would not allow him to pass. As he lay dieing in my arms he said two things, two requests. 1: Tell my wife I will always love her 2: Don't let nobody see me like this" and he got both wishes when I came home minus one limb.....and my best friend...screw the AP and the people know what it is like over there, read your history books we do this crap ever 20 or 30 years and for what? Not a damn thing but to make some fat cat more rich, hell I am done.

If you want them to know what it was like then let the history books show the pictures that only your memories describe or all will be forgotten. Censorship will let history change.

I can speak a bit calmer due to the fact it has been a few more years for me. I served in Nam, over 50,000 of us died there. There were basically two types of soldiers, one wanted to be a Politician when they served their tour, the other type was the guy who was there by circumstance, they were drafted or could not find employment in the public sector other than perhaps a minimum wage job but we all had one thing in common. You can't go into war thinking your going to serve your tour and come back stateside, it will get you killed, short timers die because they have a few days/weeks left and they slip, they forgot to pay attention and began to worry about making it back home and they bought the farm. You got to go into it thinkig you are already dead and the last thing any trooper wants is a photo of his last minutes with his blood spilling out posted on some photogs resume so he can make brownie points. Don't fool yourself, and do not try to fool anyone else. The guy who snapped that photo didn't do it for the greater good, he or she snapped the photo because it would make great headlines making the photographer famous and a higher priced commodity.... Your news camera person did it for profit and the guy who spilled his blood did it for his or her country. You that desperate for blood and gore go watch the Texas chainsaw massacre the trooper and his or her family deserve respect. You want to be reminded of what was is really like, you want to remind the country? Go to the VA Hospital, talk to the GI's, tellt them what you want and ask to take photos of the guys with a chunk of their skull missing, a leg, arm or even their face burnt off. I am not trying to be gross or mean but simply explain with the words of someone who went through hell and got spit on when I came home. Go to the VA, get permission from the wounded and take your pics, get the story. I got news for you, 1 year after this crap is over guys will still be in the VA attempting to survive, they will all but be forgotten. Your big picture of this trooper dieing will have served little purpose other than make a name for a photographer. The GI's sitting, laying wounded in the VA 1 year after this is over will not even be a memory for you that say "It is for history", hell it isn't history, it is human suffering and missrery to feed the blood thirsty masses. Get to the VA if you want to do some good and make people see the ultimate price of war, these guys are the ones who pay it each ad every day and there are hundreds of them

your absolutely right 001... we need to keep showing the pictures because the American people dont know what death is, and we need to show disrespect to family and the marine. You must have been far away from the front lines as a former military person... to ever wish pictures such as this make the front page, or top headline. disgusting.