A New York Times photographer was told by the U.S. Military that he could not take pictures for the newspaper anymore because he was violating the rules for journalists who are embedded with the soldiers. The photographer was taking pictures of dead people, Americans and Iraqis. Those pictures are reprinted below, taken from the New York Times website. The Times reports:

Zoriah Miller, the photographer who took images of marines killed in a June 26 suicide attack and posted them on his Web site, was subsequently forbidden to work in Marine Corps-controlled areas of the country. Maj. Gen. John Kelly, the Marine commander in Iraq, is now seeking to have Mr. Miller barred from all United States military facilities throughout the world.

I am convinced that one reason the Iraq war has not ended yet is that the gruesome pictures of wartime casualties have been kept from us. The government does not want these pictures published in the media. War is now sold to us like a television series. People don't really die, and no one really gets injured. Few of us actually know someone who was killed or hurt in the war, so the real pain is contained among the family and friends of the victims.

Many commentators have noted that there is no shared sacrifice for the Iraq war. In a break from the past, taxes were not raised to finance the war. So the economy tanks as our national treasure is being squandered, to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars. Meanwhile, the war is being fought on the cheap. Our men did not have enough body armor, and many died because of this as President Bush was paraded around like a war-time visionary. There is no draft, so anti-war rallies do not have the same urgency as Vietnam protests, where young men were taking to the streets out of self-preservation.

Public relations is everything. Out of sight, out of mind. We know that over 4,000 American soldiers have died in the Iraq war, and over 25,000 have been injured, some of them severely injured, their lives changed forever. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have also died. This war will not end, because no one has the guts to stop it. Politicians say that the war will end once we "win." Victory will take forever. "We can end the war now but . . ." The war would end a lot faster if pictures like this were in the newspapers and on national television. These images will stay in your head for a long time. This is what thoughtless war looks like, and it isn't pretty.