@ManifestDestinee
/I'd like to see footage of some of the many airstrikes in the years after 9/11 where US forces killed at least 25,000 civilians,
That would be pretty harrowing, but in the west we focus much more on the NY terrorist attacks as if if American lives are worth more.
See this is kind of where i am to an extent.
I watched 9/11 and heard all the commentary at the time. And it made me angry talking about terrorism as if it was the only time it had ever occurred whilst knowing how many Americans had funded the IRA who had bombed my town.
My university had been doing research into the media and the first Iraq war when i had been there. As one of our lectures they had shown us distressing footage filmed by the BBC in a discussion about the morality of what could and should be shown.
At the time, Aljazera News was just being launched and there was a lots of anger about how it showed far more graphic and distressing content than the Western media
It left me with the impression about how disconnected with violence so many people were and how they couldn't understand the mentality of people who had grown up in areas of conflict - in which the US had secretly funded privately, publicly or illicitly.
9/11 is horrific. But its still sanitised viewing believe it or not. And that in itself is food for thought.
One of the things about social media is above how things are now filmed in real time and uploaded instantly to twitter. If 9/11 happened now we'd have footage from those top floors shared for enternal viewing.
Given that Vietnam ended largely due to domestic pressure after war journalists were publishing graphic images which horrified Americans (the little girl running down the road covered in napalm being the classic best remembered), i cant help but think some of this control and censorship isnt conducive to international peace and has only made things worse.
9/11 and horror for it almost has this sense of well its America and its more civilised than some of these other places around the world where civilian deaths are labelled as 'collateral damage'. Its this concept that some how American deaths are worth more and are more shocking.
Ive had a fascination for war journalism since the events that happened in my teens and seeing stuff like the Bosnia war.
I can't help but this that 9/11 footage and the distress it causes isnt just about that event though. Its about a reluctance to admit that wars and violence are common around the world and its one of those rare times we are forced to confront the reality that is daily in the lives of others.
Its shocking and horrid. I also argue we should be exposed to it more in someways rather than pretending it happens to other people who 'aren't like me'...