[PEN-L:33090] Peter Turnley, "The Unseen Gulf War"

[Yoshie Furuhashi <furuhashi.1@xxxxxxx>]

Peter Turnley, "The Unseen Gulf War," December 2002

...As we approach the likelihood of a new Gulf War, I have an idea
and it occurs to me that the Digital Journalist may be the place for
it. As we all know, the military pool system created then was meant
to be, and was, a major impediment for photojournalists in their
quest to communicate the realities of war (This fact does not
diminish the great efforts, courage, and many important images
created by many of my colleagues who participated in these pools.).
Aside from that, while you would have a very difficult time finding
an editor of an American publication today that wouldn't condemn this
pool system and its restrictions during the Gulf War, most
publications and television entities more or less bought the program
before the war began (this reality has been far less discussed than
the critiques of the pools themselves).

I refused to participate in the pool system. I was in the Gulf for
many weeks as the build-up of troops took place, and then sat out the
"air war", and flew from Paris to Riyadh as soon as the ground war
began. I arrived at the "mile of death" the morning of the day the
war stopped. It was very early in the morning and very few other
journalists were present and the military had not yet to have the
time to attempt to barricade access to this scene (they would try to
do so a short time later that morning). When I arrived at the scene
of this incredible carnage, strewn all over on this mile stretch were
cars and trucks with wheels still turning, radios still playing, and
there were bodies scattered everywhere. Many people have asked the
question "how many people died" during the war with Iraq and the
question has never been well answered. That first morning, before the
military could cordon off the area and the road, and before most
other witnesses arrived, I saw and photographed the 'graves detail'
bury in large graves many, many bodies. By noon that first day, most
of the bodies were already buried, and the the road block preventing
other journalists from arriving at the scene was dropped.

I don't recall ever seeing television images of the human
consequences of this scene, or for that matter many photographs
published. A day later, I came across another scene on an obscure
road further north and to the east where, in the middle of the
desert, I found a convoy of lorries transporting Iraqi soldiers back
to Baghdad, where clearly massive fire power had been dropped and
everyone in sight had been carbonized. Most of the photographs I made
of this scene have never been published anywhere and this has always
troubled me.

As we approach the distinct possibility of another war, a thought
comes to mind. The photographs that I made do not, in themselves,
represent any personal political judgment or point of view with
respect to the politics and the right or wrong of the first Gulf War.
What they do represent is a part of a more accurate picture of what
really does happen in war. I feel it is important and that citizens
have the right to see these images. This is not to communicate my
point of view, but so viewers as citizens can be offered a better
opportunity to consider the whole picture and consequences of that
war and any war. I feel that it is part of my role as a
photojournalist to offer the viewer the opportunity to draw from as
much information as possible, and develop his or her own judgment....

<http://www.digitaljournalist.org/issue0212/pt_intro.html>

[You can access Peter Turnley's photographs of the Unseen Gulf War,
with his accompanying text, at
<http://www.digitaljournalist.org/issue0212/pt01.html>.]
--
Yoshie

* Calendar of Events in Columbus:
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* Anti-War Activist Resources: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/activist.html>
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* Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osu.edu/students/CJP/>