This now famous Iraqi war picture of Samar Hassan, was taken in 2005 as she watches her parents get killed by U.S. soldiers.Samar's parents were taking their son, also Samar's brother, to the hospital because he was sick. On the way back was when their parents were shot and killed.
Three years later, Samar's brother died from an attack at their house. He was shot several times.
Many of Samar's sibilings are perscribed medication for their mental health problems.
Military forces asked that the pictures taken to no longer be shown to the public. But why are the photos being taken in the first place? Also, why are the U.S. killing the innocent? Why is it that Iraqi children have to see these tramatic actions all over their country? Shouldn't the Americans have some sympathy towards how these people are going to feel after the fact?
14 comments:
It disgust me to look at these pictures like this, but I feel like I only got one part of the story. I think that there might be a reason for the killing of the parents that we don't know about. It could be the work of the media or some propaganda by the enemy, I mean, why would the US Army let the people take this picture in the first place? Why haven't they attempted to take it down? What I'm saying is that we don't really know if the killings were justified or not because we only have half the story, but I agree with Shelby. If the US soldiers are found to have killed innocent people, they must face the consequences and pay for their actions.
I agree that this picture is quite disturbing with blood splattered, form her parents being shot,on the little girls face. How could any person take a picture of this poor little girl crying with the blood of her parents on her? you have to be one morbid person in order to do this. i also wonder if the girls parents were shot for a just reason or not. we don't know the full story, but knowing the full story would be better so that we are not making false accusations towards neither the US soldiers or the Iraqi parents.
War is an ugly, evil business, always. Just because we're a supposedly civilized country does not mean that atrocities will not be perpetrated. While I agree that we should get the whole story before casting blame on any party, I fear that it is very likely that this is just what it looks like: an unjustified attack on the innocent. These things happen in war, no exceptions. How can we prevent them from happening? I don't know. I think the only way is to stop war altogether. Easier said than done, I know.
This picture definitely hit me hard. No child should endure the pain of seeing his/her parents killed in front of them. Jack is right; war is a nasty business, but as long as people have differing opinions, and are willing to murder to execute their opinions, war will forever be inevitable.
As to why the pictures were taken, maybe the soldiers were documenting their travels. Oftentimes, soldiers lose sight of themselves and their lives in the constant exposure to death and destruction. Perhaps the photographer thought the situation so disgusting that he/she took the picture to remind himself/herself and everyone else that we must not lose our compassion and humanity in the face of despair.
I think that our soldiers have a purpose for the things they do, even though often times they can be extremely grim and mortifying.There are always two sides to the story and apparently we only have one. It seems unlikely that the army would allow a person to take pictures of this and have the ability to leak them to the public, unless there was a valid reason to the killing that the soldiers didnt care, but that seems extremely unlikely also.
You really have to be a harsh soul to be able to look at this picture with no compassion, judging by the comments above, this hit everyone pretty hard.. whenever anything like this happens (and it does, somewhere in the world, every day) it's hard to sit and wonder where these children are now, and how hard their lives must be..while i have all that compassion for them, i think that war creates situations like this. we have no indication as to why the parents were being killed, or if the soldiers were simply just murdering them..i hope that this is not the case, but mistakes are made. it is almost a good thing that pictures like this are documented, hopefully the gut-wrenching reactions people have when they see this will be enough to convince countries to end wars.
The original post seems to be extremely biased, in my opinion, as do the feelings that the picture are prompting. We cannot help but feel compassion for the little girl and her family, her being surrounded in blood and killing. However, we cannot just make an implication like "Why [is] the U.S. killing the innocent?" when we really have no idea of the situation at hand. Sure, American soldiers should have some sympathy "towards how these people are going to feel after the fact", but remember that we are at war. In times of war, people are going to die. Things like this happen all the time, no matter how sad that is. We hear of people dying in suicide bombs on the news extremely often; some of those people are parents, and they have children who are suffering as well. We simply just don't hear that for ourselves, and don't feel the compassion that we do when we see a child in the context that we see here.
And who took the photo? I don't really have that much of a problem with the photo being taken... after all, without it, you wouldn't feel all that compassion you feel right now, right?
Just a thought...
-Ryan Yu
There will always be innocent lives lost in war. That's the harsh reality and we unfortunately have to accept it. No one likes to see civilians and innocent bystanders be killed in cold blood but sometimes its a risk that one side has to take. It's really sad to see the Iraqi children to be engaged in such a hostile and harsh environment but as long as the war continues, they will continue to see and experience more violence and trauma.
The original post provides no evidence that the parents were innocent. As some of the comments above have mentioned, we're only seeing one side of the story. It's possible that the murder was justified and we're just making false accusations. However, it is also possible that the parents were innocent.
As horrifying as this image is, it's not very surprising. In times of war, the death of innocent people is inevitable. Situations much worse than this have happened and that's just reality. Like Eric said, it's almost impossible to completely end wars.
There is not enough information about why Samar Hassan's parents were killed. However, under no circumstances is it acceptable to kill someone's parents right in front of them. That is cruel on so many levels.
I do believe that to an extent the American people should feel a sort of sympathy to these people. They should sympathize with innocent civilians like themselves.
Photos like these are necessary to show the American people what's really going on while they are safe in their own homes. It's necessary to have photos that document what's really happening to these people.
This picture really does disturb me. I don't know how someone could take a picture of a little girl who is watching her parents be murderer. This picture is highly innappropiate and sickens me. Its a shame to commit these acts in front of children because this is going to scar them forever, let alone take a picture of this affair. This just shows that whoever took this picture and was part of this has no sympathy for the innocent family memebers.
This picture represents exactly what the Iraq war is about. Killing people-innocent or not. However, in this particular photo, we do not know the full story-why the girls parents were killed. People from any country seem to jump to conclusions and assume the worst before knowing the evidence. Who knows what those parents did, maybe they killed on of our US soldiers, maybe they raped someone, it matters. We cant just look at the picture and see the harm that the US has caused, even if they did kill a child's parent right in front of them. Is that even what really happened? There is always the "if" factor, and that's something worth considering.
Actually we do know why this poor little girl's parents were killed. They didn't stop at a checkpoint because their son was ill. They were murdered by trigger happy US soldiers who should not and should never have been in Iraq anyway. Stop try to whitewash this appalling crime. And one more thing - has the US compensated this little girl for the murder of her parents. No, of course not.
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