Two-year-old Ali Hussein is pulled from the rubble of his family's home in the Shiite stronghold of Sadr City in Baghdad, Iraq on Tuesday, April 29, 2008. The child, who later died in hospital, was in one of four homes allegedly destroyed by U.S. missiles. More than two dozen people were killed when Shiite militants ambushed a U.S. patrol in Baghdad's embattled Sadr City district, bringing the death toll in area on Tuesday to more than 30, a U.S. military spokesman and Iraqi officials said. (AP Photo/Karim Kadim)
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Two published reader's reactions were offended by this photo. Read their reactions.
We know that a war is going on. Must you use a photograph of a dying Iraqi 2-year-old, especially on the front page?I can think of no other reason for putting such a picture on the front page than to stir up opposition to the war and feed anti-U.S. sentiment.
You have sensationalized a child's death and subjected young children to inappropriate images. From now on, I will preview what's in your paper before my children see it.
-- Valerie Murphy
The picture was horrendous. The Post sank to a new low. I am sure that you wouldn't be very happy if that was your baby pictured prominently on the front page.I have never seen anything as cruel as this.
It's not bad enough that we have lost -- and keep losing -- young people in this war. Veterans coming home from this war are having to get all kinds of physical and mental help; I wonder how they feel looking at this sort of picture.
Why don't you print positive news for a change?
-- Pat Onderdonk
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These two letters would make Orwell dizzy.
The Iraqi War has been overly manipulated by the government, the military, and the always docile media. We have been in an image blackout, where we barely ever see the horror of death that war is.
The time has passed a long time ago for all of us to become honest with ourselves and start looking at the images of pain and death that our money is paying for.
And we should be honest also with the language that we use. There are no "collateral damages" through out military actions: there are innocent children dead.
If we cannot see these images, or explain this to our children, or stand the psychological toil from them, it means that we shouldn't be doing it.