By By Chris Carvo
The conscious left that opposes the war in Iraq may have a new slogan to chant; “No blood for porn!” Finally, a legit site where soldiers overseas can trade pictures of themselves with recently blown-to-bits Iraqis for amateur and homemade photos of explicit housewives engaged in homoerotic acts, ‘facialized’ girlfriends and anything from what’s called “Brandi’s New Boots” to “How Sierra Spent Her 21st. Birthday.”
I thought the exchange of seeing pictures of human brutal suffering for a “Bonsai Kitten” was only in my dreams!
Soldiers were offered the opportunity to receive free access to the site, called NowThatsFuckedUp.com, in exchange for realistic images with amusing post titles. One is from the user name RalphMalph entitled “What every Iraqi should look like,” which includes a photo attached of a purple corpse with its brains lying in a surprisingly composite pile adjacent to where the man was gunned down. Another photo advertises five American Marines posing with the charred remains of what looks like a black-light skeleton abducted from a carnival ride. All the soldiers are posing like we just won the war.
Chris Wilson, the site’s administrator claims the pictures are, “An unedited look at the war from the soldier’s point of view.” This guy continues to stand by his statement and refuses to remove the disturbing and shocking images.
Remember when the Bush administration banned the media from photographing flag-draped coffins? Using government funded equipment soldiers have the unlimited resources to go over these imposed laws with the click of an “upload” button. This comes surprisingly close to the latest positive spin-junket the media gave to “milbloggers” -a few months ago. USA Today called them “raw, powerful reflections on the war.” Open mouth and insert severed foot here.
Originally the site started out as a way for fans of Wilson’s other sites to contribute and share pictures and footage of their significant others engaging in sexual and explicit acts. The site became a landmark, or should I say landmine success when soldiers stationed oversees began to get free access to the Internet. Servicemen started e-mailing Wilson, thanking him for his sagacious business enterprising and patriotism. Other soldiers complained credit card companies were refusing to approve the purchases because they were in a high-risk area. Never one to rob good ol’ American boys of their right to view broadband bawdiness, Wilson offered free memberships to soldiers who sent images from the front lines in Iraq and Afghanistan. The pictures were so gruesome and gory; a special site was dedicated to the most bloodstained and violent.
These types of postings are providing a negative image to an already unglamorous public perception of the treatment of prisoners of war. Dang! And I was just becoming a staunch supporter of leashing war criminals and dragging them on cold concrete floors.
Why hasn’t the media tackled this story yet and why hasn’t Wilson’s site been shut down? Oh yeah, a lack of American ethics and morals. They always seem to disappear whenever a touchy subject arises. You may have heard this story if you ever read Express. But you haven’t, because they don’t plague their pages with pictures of Jessica Simpson scooping up her poodle’s poop outside of Starbucks.
The most terrible part of the equation is that Americans will only react to the moral outrage (which violates the rights of soldiers killed in war, as dictated by the First Protocol of the Geneva Convention) if they see the pictures themselves. I thought the story was a nasty rumor until I researched it and saw six photos of the ill treatment for myself. This gave me the ammunition to diffuse the old stigma, “Any publicity is good publicity.”
Wilson’s site, although lawful, is an abuse of the Bill of Rights. He takes advantage of sex-depraved soldiers by exploiting pornographic images in return for debased and controversial pictures. This sounds quite similar to the unlawful act of prostitution, doesn’t it? The only difference is that money isn’t being exchanged, but bad taste.
The government shouldn’t curtail or regulate Internet sites that continue to share these files, but they should regulate soldiers committing war crimes before they turn into “photo-ops.”