In regards to the Viewpoint "Parading the Dead," I'm unsure what the connection is of comparing the U.S. military's use of a murdered al-Zarqawi with my husband's display of his son Alexander.
I am Melida Arredondo, both Carlos Arredondo's wife and the late Lance Cpl. Alexander Arredondo's stepmother. As a Gold Star family, the sadness over every loss of life is profound and our grief compounded. The motives for this war are undefined and the perspective of the Iraqi populations are unknown in the United States. This makes anyone who has had a loss due to war feel only more confounded.
I only know this for sure. My husband has opted to display Alexander lying in repose in order for the U.S. public to see and feel what the government won't let you see - the U.S. troops who have died. Carlos' mom took the picture. It does invoke an emotional response - from anger to sadness.
When I see al-Zarqawi lying dead, I feel the same. However, I do not know the motives as to why the United States opted to show this picture. To have the country rejoice? To truly see al-Zarqawi dead (we are presented people and do not know who they are other than what is presented to us)?
Therefore, I suggest a little more investigation into the "why?" of each display in order to draw any sort of comparison at all.
Melida Arredondo
Online reader
June 9, 2006
Viewpoint: Parading the dead
Something emotional happens when the face of the dead is exposed for all to see. A frozen countenance, perhaps bloodied, looking up to the heavens leaves a viewer with a sense that "this is death." It stops you in your mortal tracks, a reminder that one day you will join their fate in the ground.
On Thursday, Gen. George Casey and company held a press conference in Baghdad announcing the death of Iraqi insurgent leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in a U.S. airstrike. A close-up photograph of the bearded Zarqawi, bruised and in a pool of his own blood, eyes permanently closed, was the center point of the announcement. It was disseminated (and published) in one form or another all around the world.
The photograph of Zarqawi stares back, a trophy on the wall, like Saddam's sons Uday and Qusay Hussein three years ago. It stares as a reminder that murder can be lauded, praise heaped from on high. It stares as a reminder that death can be used as a political tool.
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi became the face of the insurgency in Iraq as leader of the group al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia. Unlike Osama bin Laden, many American and Iraqi officials believe Zarqawi spent time carrying out terrorist attacks himself on the front lines.
His group masterminded the October 2003 bombing of the United Nations building in Baghdad, as well as the grotesque beheading of U.S. telecommunications contractor Nick Berg. Zarqawi was directly responsible for the deaths of American troops and countless innocent Iraqi civilians. He was worthy of a fiery death by 500-pound bombs.
But war plays funny games with morality. We feel a collective need to rejoice. The murderer will murder no more! The military not only instantly provides but encourages the news media to transmit footage of the terrorist that once was.
It is time to parade the murdered.
A similar thing occurred at an anti-war demonstration on campus last semester, but with opposite political implications. At the rally, Carlos Arredondo displayed an oversized photograph of his son, Lance Cpl. Alexander Arredondo, who was killed in An Najaf, Iraq in August 2004. The photograph, pictured below, shows the American soldier dead in his casket, arms crossed, in crisp uniform. A sharply folded American flag rests behind his head.
Arredondo was murdered by a sniper. His life was cut disgustingly short by an Iraqi insurgent, perhaps one that praised Zarqawi.
Murder is not dignified. It is not worthy of praise. It is not worthy of exploitation. It is not a tool to score political points. It is not a means to sell more newspapers or drive up traffic to a news Web site.
It is a hideous consequence of the world we live in, and of wars we create.
Media Credit: Khalid Mohammed | Associated Press
U.S. military spokesman Maj. Gen. William Caldwell at a press conference in Baghdad, Iraq, pointing to a photo purporting to show the body of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
Media Credit: JJ Hermes
Carlos Arredondo displays an oversized photograph of his son, Lance Cpl. Alexander Arredondo, at an anti-war rally on campus in April. He is joined to the right by Juan Torres.
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