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Reuters
Photojournalist Tim Hetherington is seen in this undated handout image during an assignment for Vanity Fair Magazine at 'Restrepo' outpost in Afghanistan. Hetherington, the co-director of Oscar-nominated war documentary "Restrepo," died in the besieged Libyan town of Misrata on April 20, 2011, doctors said. He was among a group caught by mortar fire on Tripoli Street, the main thoroughfare leading into the centre of Misrata, the only major rebel-held town in western Libya and besieged by Muammar Gaddafi's forces for more than seven weeks.
Phil Moore / AFP - Getty Images
Tim Hetherington, center, is assisted by Libyan rebels as he climbs down from a building after gunshots rang out from loyalist forces inside in the besieged city of Misrata on April 20, hours before he was killed in the city while covering the conflict.
Tim Hetherington / Panos Pictures
Sekou, a young LURD (Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy) rebel sits in an abandoned classroom in Liberia in 2003. The infrastructure of the country collapsed during the four-year civil war which forced Charles Taylor, the President and indicted war criminal, to step down from office.
2007: Photojournalist Chris Hondros of Getty Images talks about his life behind the camera, and his award-winning pictures from Iraq to Liberia that capture the moments in war-torn countries.
Chris Hondros / Getty Images
Chris Hondros / Getty Images
Samar Hassan, 5, screams after her parents were killed by U.S. Soldiers with the 25th Infantry Division in a shooting January 18, 2005 in Tal Afar, Iraq. The troops fired on the Hassan family car when it unwittingly approached them during a dusk patrol in the tense northern Iraqi town. Parents Hussein and Camila Hassan were killed instantly, and a son Racan, 11, was seriously wounded in the abdomen. Racan, paralyzed from the waist down, was treated later in the U.S.
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These stupid wars are immoral.
I'd like any empty suit in Washington to answer this question.
Are the people in Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. any better off today than they were with their dictators in charge ???
I think not.
A lot of people are making money - That's the only answer.
My immediate answer to your question is I highly doubt it. Maybe not in my lifetime will their lives be better. Maybe not ever. I do think there are some, even in Washington that at least had the intention of bringing a better life to those two countries. The probably with wars is the war creep. Pretty soon what originally was the focus is no longer the primary goal.
We don't live under a dictator and thus I can't comment if that life is better. I just don't know....
My view on wars has changed a lot over the past 10 years. The bombs are not making life better for anybody if saving lives was really the pursuit.
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wrong- only a few select people are making a LOT of money..
After watching the video, I couldn't help but think what a sad and awful waste war is. I can understand why someone like General Eisenhower could be moved to say, "I have come to hate war." Equally sad is the money made off of war. The US budget is over 40% geared toward war. GE, a major contractor of war, pays no taxes, even gets a "refund" back. I see NOTHING heroic about sending young men and women into such brutal and horrific wars such as we have today. I wonder how many future wars are being created daily by the mass killings of civilians in these countries. The jury is still out on Iraq. It is a deeply divided country with no real Government. Like Iran 40 years ago, our billion dollar embassy sits in the middle of a future powder keg. When will we ever learn? Sadly, probably never as long as there is money to be made, new weapons to be "tested" and "values" to be protected.....
RIP to these journalists trying to give us a historical record which, again sadly, we will probably never learn from....
Instead of asking the empty suits in Washington maybe you should ask people in Iraq if they are better off or not.
You're saying the war in Libya is unjust? You'd rather we let Moammar Quadaffi resume power? It wasn't America that started the war, but we're countering a man killing innocent civilians.
WOTC....I'm merely stating a perspective on wars, not trying to make a moral judgment on them one way or another per se, just stating that war....all wars......are hell, with mostly citizens, women and children (like those captured in photojournalism) who suffer the most, while suites sitting in leather chairs, eating well and making money hand over fist never get a scratch....just stating a fact. Don't get your undies all bunched up over that mere observation which may displease you....
btw, we didn't do a damn thing to Moammar for 40 years while he has kept his iron fist on the neck of his country! That's a fact too! Oh, and those same suites I mentioned already? They have made billions in arms deals with him....again, facts are facts......
RIP. Their work has been, and will always be, greatly appreciated and admired by those of us who want to know what the world is really like, but are not brave enough to find it on our own.
it is truly sad when anyone becomes collateral damage in a war zone, but place themselves there they did, and unfortunately paid the ultimate price. What I have always wondered about photojournalists, ever since the first war where they were permitted to go as they pleased (that being Vietnam) is this: How did the photographer not drop his camera to hug that screaming child in Iraq covered with her parents' blood, just as the journalist in Vietnam was able to stand and film for seconds on end, a naked, burning, screaming little girl as she ran away from an explosion---already burned all over her little body and screaming---he was able to film her agony and terror instead of grabbing her and putting her OUT; grabbing her and getting her to a medical unit; or just falling apart at the horror of it all, like the rest of us did who saw that horrible footage. Were I in that position I'm pretty sure I wouldn't just be snapping photos. Not saying they are heartless, because I don't know them, but I wonder how they can sleep at night with what they do for a living.
Without them, you would received the sanitized version of events. It turns out that sometimes they even pay the ultimate price to bring you that information.
RIP Mr. Hetherington. Your and Sebastian Junger's Restrepo will live with me forever. Your ability to capture the story without becoming the story is a rare and special gift. Thank you for sharing it with us.
rip
This is a sad day for all journalist and photographers who are committed to their craft because today two of their colleagues’ were taken down while in the middle of documenting the truth. This is not a profession for the faint of heart or mind and each day they practice their craft in the field they are usually working on barrowed time. Just the same they are there to reveal the truth regardless of the danger and in the spirit of the late Ernie Pyle they soldier on in search of the story or picture that will sum up the essence of the conflict.
Ernie Pyle was not only a trail blazing journalist, he was clearly and simply a decent human being. He didn't have to go to the Pacific Theater of World War II after D-Day, but he did it out of a sense of responsibility to the men out there fighting and their families at home who were worried about them making it back alive. He came from a special breed and few if any in his profession have come close to reaching the level of respect that he earned from his peers and those whom he wrote about. This was clearly a great man.
Today the Press lost two young men that will also be remembered for their fidelity to their work, Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondros have now passed on to join Mr. Pyle and I pray that God embrace them for their great body of work and their tireless commitment to seeking out the truth even if it meant falling in harm’s way. I think it would be a tragedy if they were to be forgotten because they were the real deal!
the loss of these great journalist is a loss to the human factor in the war.
I fully agree. It's just too damn bad they can't carry along at least a side arm aside from their cameras with them, although in this situation it would have done no good, but just saying...
It never ceases to amaze me how all our troops overseas in so many different conflicts around the world today get so much credit, yet you rarely hear of the photojournalists that are right there on the front lines with them putting their lives at stake as well. It's amazing we haven't lost more of them, but I do also believe it's the protection they do get from our troops for helping to keep them safe, along with having God on their side, or whomever they believed in.
RIP to both men who lost their lives today. Their legacy will last for a lifetime in their photographs.
A very sad time indeed. The body of work you did (Restrepo)will live on, sadly longer than you Tim.
The work is so important when it is as factual and well done as you did it! The sadness we all feel is tremendous and may your loved ones know some peace. Godspeed
His photograph of the Iraqi girl will stay with me for a long time. Thanks for his service in sharing the world we are creating with those of us back home.
The picture of that young child should be front and center on every television newscast and on the front page of every newspaper in the world. This is the reality of too many children in a world they never made. Every decent human being should remember that horrific picture before they place a vote for some corrupt politician who, when voting to go for any war, says they they are only trying to help.
Dave, are you thinking there is any other KIND of politician? Was there ever an INcorrupt one? At least back say forty years or so at least. the politician should be forced to imagine their own precious, cossetted, spoiled, rich brats in the same position before they sign ANY declaration of war. (OR police action)
I don't know how anyone can see the pain in the girl's face after her parents were killed. I saw a similar picture of another such incident, and I couldn't stand it. Devastating. But so many people can so easily call for war when they are so far away and protected in front of an abstract computer screen.
Those photos are so powerful--great war photographers can convey the reality straight to our hearts and minds; it's so easy to think of war in the abstract and not see the fear and suffering. What a great loss to humanity. Perhaps a scholarship should be created in their names so that other brave souls can follow in their footsteps.
In viewing the girl in the picture, you should also know her brother was crippled. He was later taken to the US and restored back to health. After being returned to Iraq he and his family were targeted and the boy was killed by a bomb planted by insurgents. After what they did to this family, they should have brought them back here to live out the rest of their lives.
http://visualcultureblog.com/tag/samar-hassan/
It is sad but not unexpected that America and the Western propaganda machine is using the deaths of these two battlezone journalists to further the foolish and shameful support for these Al Qaeda linked rebels out of East Libya. What did these journalists expect?
They hung out with armed, active Al Qaeda Islamic militant rebels and got themselves blown up by the government forces reclaiming their stolen city. Such would be no different than a journalist hanging out with the Mexican drug cartels in Mexico getting blown up and shot by the Mexican forces attempting to eliminate that scourge from their nation.
East Libya Rebels LIFG is listed as a Al Qaeda Terror Organization http://xrl.in/8r13 see #3,4,5,6
A well written,researched Libya Documentary outlining the hidden history,hypocrisy behind the War on Libya http://xrl.in/8ur7
ABC News Investigative Report reveals the East Libya Rebels had a 'Perverse Pride' in Killing Americans! http://xrl.in/8tpz
ABC News Investigative Reporters expose that US State Dept.Chris Stevens attempted to hide East Libya Rebels have direct links to Al Qaeda from the American public. http://xrl.in/8tpz
These photographers' work is extraordinary and we shall miss their talent and humanity. The photo of the girl Samar Hussein is particularly heart-wrenching, as are her circumstances. I would pose to MSNBC however whether is suitable to post that photo. If it were me or my family in the photo, in that terrible moment of a child losing her parents, I very much would hope I could be left in private. I think we pay the same respect to our soliders by refraining to publish the most horrific details, and likely would do so for photographers themselves. Can't we respect others in the same way? I hope Samar finds the positive in life, someday, someway.
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For What It's Worth:
I just finished reading Dispatches by Michael Herr, and this unfortunately is what also happened in Vietnam and virtually every other conflict covered by The Press. These folks who bring The News to us put their lives at stake every day, so we can decide for ourselves what is going on.
Everybody Look What's Going Down.
What the hell does a horrendous picture of a blood stained child whose parents were killed 6 years ago in Iraq have to do with the deaths of 2 journalists in LIbya today?
Evidently you're not going to post my question. I still want to know why a horrendous and agonizing picture of a bloodstained child whose parents were killed in Iraq 6 years ago is posted directly under your front page headline about the 2 journalists killed in Libya today and what the hell the 2 have to do with each other aside from your sensationalizing.
One of the photographers who died today took that photo
The photo of that little Iraqi girl is so absolutely heartbreaking, as is what became of her brother. Poor children, those photos will be with me for a very long time. Such innocence. :(
and how much time and webspace was devoted to that dead soldier... I am no right wing nut.. I abhor wars.. but these two man wanted to be there.. our boys and girls didn't get to do that... these 2 journalist wud be the first to cry out against this
In the course of human history, war has been a constant norm. Peace is merely an accident.
The images are at first stunning. Then they leave us sickened and finally numb. After a prolonged silence, and a complete lack of words...I find myself heart broken, alone and filled with dispair. We occupy a front row seat in the never ending drama of man's inhumanity to man. We are all witnesses, and usually formulate quick and authoritative responses to the obvious suffering and indignities perpetrated on the innocent. And predictably, we deepen the line in the sand and take our respective positions according to political slant and affiliation. The truth is, we are all powerless to stop it, slow it down, or protect those that need it most. For all of our moral outrage, good intention and saber rattling, we are unable to remove or even diminish evil from this world. No, we can't be the policeman of the world. Nor can we change the hearts and minds of those oblivious to human rights and elevated thought. Libya is only the latest. We have had World Wars, Police actions, Viet Nam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Hitler, Pol Pot, Amin, and our own Civil War. I know there are many ommissions here, but space doesn't permit! We are a good, decent and honorable people. That doesn't mean for one second we can change the world, or mitigate its problems. Mr. President please, bring our men and women in uniform home. Let's roll up our sleeves and go to work, let's right the ship, right here in America! Let's do the right thing by our people. Take a stand against corruption, corporate theft, hunger and poverty. Stand up for what's right, and watch us stand with you. We need leadership. We deperately need it now. Maybe if we begin to stand united again, the world would see us differently...maybe not. The point is, we cannot force our way or our will on other nations. We must lead by example. Restore civility, educate our young, raise the bar, and the expectation. Use the brilliance of technology to design and build, not destroy and kill. The photo journalists who died bringing these images to us all, have not died in vain. If anything, their work has captured not only the horrific images, but the utter futility of war. It will never stop...but we can!
Elizebeth Marie, Thank you for your endorsement. Regarding the photo journalist appearing to be somewhat detached or removed from this little girl's gut wrenching pain, I can only speculate as to what he may have felt. You are correct in saying he was doing his job. Through his many photos we can readily see that he possesses exemplary skill sets and immense talent. Thank God for professionals like him, that can function in such chaos. This baby has suffered physical and emotional pain that most of us cannot fathom. This consummate pro has captured the horrific nature of her loss, and given a real and unforgettable face to the otherwise sterile term "collateral damage."The photo will live for others to see. I have seen it once, and it is indelibly etched in my mind...and across my heart. Like you Elizebeth, I could not do it. I don't have the courage, nor the stamina. Without the talent, conviction and selflessness of this man, her story would never be told and she would have perished in obscurity and anonimity. I choose to believe this photo took but a moment to capture. Immediately thereafter, he held her in his arms and offered compassion and consolation. I believe it with everything in me. Some of us are trauma surgeons...and some of us are simply blessed because they are. Thanks for listening.
My heart aches not only for these brave men, but for all my colleagues who courageously cross dangerous lines EVERY DAY. They are most assuredly fulfilling the first law of journalism: to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable. May God bless each and every one of you. Home safe, all.
Jan 2011, Libya under Gadhafi abolished taxes,duties on local,imported food eliminating global food price increases on all Libyan people http://xrl.in/8weu
European Station states NATO has (broken UN Resolution 1973) sent 1,000 Ground troops into Libya which is not covered in USA NEWS! http://xrl.in/8wed
Who precisely is the East Libyan Rebels Islamic Group? LIFG is part of Al Qaeda and Banned by the UN http://xrl.in/8vwt
Libya's economy and revenue sharing with all the Libyan people coupled with extremely generous Free Medical Care, Medical Supplies, Electricity, Housing, Medicare, Welfare, Education anywhere in the world totally disputes the Al Qaeda East Libya's claims that Libyans were oppressed and largely living in poverty.
CIA FACTBOOK, only 10 Nations out of the worlds 140 had fewer people living in poverty than Libya's 7.4%. America has far more of it's population at 12% living in poverty. http://xrl.in/8w3w
America certainly does not provide me and all other citizens with free electricty, free housing, free medical care, free prescriptions and medical supplies.
America certainly does not provide me and all other citizens with free college tuition anywhere in the world. America certainly does not give me a 50% free downpayment on the cars that I or all other American citizens purchase.
America certainly does not give all of it's citizens interest Free Car and Home Loans.
Oh but the Al Qaeda East Libyan Rebels cry, whine and wail they have it BAD!
Those lieing scum-bags are the same ones that killed thousands of US Soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. Nearly ALL of the suicide Al Qaeda bombers who murdered Thousands of Iraqi and Afghanistan Civilians CAME from East Libya whom Gadhafi was and is intent on eliminating.
America should be helping Gadhafi eliminate the Al Qaeda Rebels who had killed US Soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. America should be modeling their economic domestic investment on the American people based on Libya's rocking economy under Gadhafi.