To war victims of all times..

Several ethical questions arise at times like the ones we're witnessing now with the war on Gaza Strip. Regardless of whether it's justified or not, because I personally don't see what would justify the killing of 900 human beings, to date. The good news today is that Israel might stop operations next week, so I guess we should expect about a minimum of 400 more dead? And more injured? So I guess we should be thankful that the end is just 7 days away, just 400 human away..

But the ethical question is not really about war, nor the killing of infants, nor if as long as it's a "war on terrorism" then it's ok to accept it as an excuse, or if a divided population deserves what they're getting anyway.. My question is: how ethical is it to use images of cadavers in news? How crucial is it really for the integrity of the news itself that you attach the picture of a decapitated child?

You may argue saying that people around the world need to see the ugliness of such a war. But do people really need to see blood to condemn? Did we lose all kind of common sense to incriminate any war in any part of the world, that we need to be addressed through our primary senses to raise reactions? That humans all over the planet can no longer be touched without seeing body parts in front of their eyes?

I agree that such violent images do create a mass reaction protesting against it (regardless of a counter-reaction), but what happens when the emotional reaction fades away? When the war is over? We cheer up and go back to our normal state of carefree?

I also agree that an image can be very expressive, and I agree that every human has the right to be informed.

I'm not against the use of war images, I'm just against the use of human corpse' images, for many reasons. One of those reasons is the fact that it just feels too commercial. As if it's a race to show the best picture with the corpse that would attract the most, to gain more readers, more viewers.

But mainly I'm against it out of respect for the body itself. The one of the eight dead kids of the Sammouni family, laying in the garbage one week after, or if the newspaper was paid a lot of respect, it would be used to clean windows. With the blood of those eight children, many ladies around my country would be cleaning their windows, or their coffee tables, in one week, or at most in two months.. For those who don't use newspapers as a cleaning tool, garbage would be the best place, in very few houses it would go to recyclable garbage bin..

I'm against the broadcasting of the agony of men laying under tons of cast, and then dying right there in front of viewers' eyes, so that we could zap later on to watch another episode of the dubbed Turkish series, or maybe another new hit to clear our mind off..

But I guess, I could protest as much as I want, at the end of the day, there are millions of people waiting for the next shocking picture from Gaza to riot about it, and on the other side there are networks always concerned about doing their job, and giving the audience what they want..

Just a thought: if my house was ever bombarded by a "barbaric enemy", and if I was killed, I would really appreciate it if you do me the honor of locking me away, of sparing me of human affection touched by my mutilated body..
Do me the honor of talking to people's minds instead of their hearts..