Harsh images of war

In a striking scene in the film Lawrence of Arabia, the "Arab army," led by Col. Lawrence, blows up a train. One of the survivors tries to shoot Lawrence and is killed by an Arab chief. An American journalist exclaims, "Never seen a man killed with a sword before!" Lawrence replies, "Why don't you take a picture?"

Last Friday marked Veterans Day. Nov. 11 was the day of the armistice that ended World War I in 1918. It seems so long ago as to no longer be relevant. But according to the six surviving veterans in France, we have not yet learned the lessons of that war.

In an interview with Le Monde, Louis de Cazenave, 108, called the war useless and absurd, heroism a fraud and patriotism a way to make a person swallow just about anything. He concluded that the massacre was for nothing, and nothing could ever justify it.

The same criticisms have been raised in the present day. One of the criteria of Just War Theory is that there be a reasonable expectation of success. Obviously, this is difficult to gauge. Everyone likes to say the war will be over in a few weeks and that the troops will be home for Christmas.

But every war has its share (fair or not) of casualties. In addition to the more than 2,000 soldiers killed in Iraq, significant numbers suffered devastating injuries. In covering the New York City Marathon, The New York Times had a special section on a team of disabled veterans.

Their accomplishment is admirable. But their presence should remind us of the heavy cost of war, even more than the names of the dead that we may see for five seconds on television or in the newspaper.

This doesn't mean that no war is ever justified. But when considering a war, it is the duty of a country's leaders to make a responsible choice.

Seeing the veterans in their lives back at home is important. Footage of the daily struggle of war is important as well. It puts the war in a real context, so it is no longer just a series of incoherent events in a far-off place.

The last thing any of us should want is for war to be hidden. Terrible things happen when no one is looking, as we saw most recently in Sudan. Other examples abound: Rwanda, Bosnia and the Holocaust.

Access to information and freedom of the press are two of the hallmarks of liberty that we enjoy today. Voltaire said, "I do not agree with what you say, but I shall lay down my life for your right to say it."

In principle, this statement is a good guide, both for life and journalism. Yet as with every freedom, it does have limits. And when this freedom infringes on the rights and freedoms of others, it should be limited.

An obvious example is the publication of grisly photos of Saddam Hussein's sons, Uday and Qusay. Despite the desire to establish their deaths definitively, publishing these images demonstrates a lack of respect for death. Besides being contrary to general practice, it sets a dangerous precedent for publishing the photos of the dead without consent or consideration of their families.

Journalism's place in wartime is intertwined with another debate. Are people increasingly desensitized to violence?

When I was in first grade, during the first Gulf War, we had a map of the Middle East in my school. We marked battles on the map with tacks and talked about the events of the war in class. It was too much for first graders. It gives me nightmares to this day.

These discussions were one of the few places I was exposed to violence as a child. I watched cartoons once a week and only played Tetris. I avoided the negative influence that watchdog groups like Children Now and the American Academy of Pediatrics claim violence has on children.

That experience is atypical. These same watchdogs estimate American children watch more than three hours of television a day. By the end of elementary school, an average child sees 8,000 murders on television. More recently, children have also been exposed to the harsh images of foreign conflicts.

I'm not saying murders and up-close reports of the war shouldn't be on television. After all, they happen all the time in real life. But everyone should stop and remember that both murder and war happen to real people. And death is not entertainment.

Edith Mulhern is a senior French, international relations and history majorfrom Ardmore, Pa. Voice of the Sparrow appears on Fridays.

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