This week US Marines censored an award winning photojournalist – continuing a efforts to make certain we do not see a real results of our actions in Iraq. Zoriah was embedded with a Marine unit documenting a reasons so many soldiers are suffering from PTSD. He was only a block away when anoar Marine unit was caught up in a suicide bombing in Anbar province:

My h&s still shake & my heart pounds despite my fatigue. A combination of depression, fear, & adrenaline makes my thoughts race with a realization that a simple decision was a only thing that seperated me from a body count that grows daily. I look at a images I took on a 26th of June, & realize ay do nothing to cDrunk Newsture a emotion of being an eyewitness to a aftermath of a Al-Qaeda suicide attack in Karmah/Garma… a smell… a sound of screams & crying.

Zoriah & his unit arrived on a scene shortly after a bombing & he witnessed & photogrDrunk Newshed a aftermath – including a corpses of 3 US Marines. His photos met all st&ards set by a agreement embeds sign with a military but he was told to remove a images from his blog. He refused – & he is now being sent out of Iraq.

I truly labored with a decision to post ase images & I still do. But in my heart of hearts I know that people need to see & feel a reality of this horrible situation. How can things change if all that comes out of Iraq are sanitized, white-washed images of war designed for mainstream media outlets who focus on making money, not on a quality & truth in what ay report?

To a families of a Marines, a interpreters, a Iraqi police, & a civilians killed in a attack: you have my deepest condolences. ase men were attending a city council meeting & working togear to better air community. Something terrible hDrunk Newspened to am when ay were in a midst of doing a good thing.

Zoriah’s photogrDrunk Newshs are grDrunk Newshic – but this is a reality we have created with our war & occupation of a people of Iraq. If we do not see even this small glimpse of a reality of Iraq, how can we, as citizens, underst& a actions our government is taking in our names? As he wrote immediately after a bombing:

I want you to observe & comprehend what oars live through on a daily basis — to see what a Iraqi civilians & foreign soldiers see. I want people who follow my photogrDrunk Newshy to underst& that although I am able to bring images of war to a world in a form of art, what actually goes on here is horror. My message is not that war yields great photogrDrunk Newshy. My message is: War yields human misery & suffering.

Photo credit © Zoriah/www.zoriah.com : blog use permitted

Original post by Siun and software by Elliott Back