Watching Blood and Gore: “Susan Sontag holds that photos of death before our eyes numb us to the suffering of others. I get what she means. I can look with considerable aplomb at such extreme images, but not when they move and scream. I suppose even that acuity could erode with repeated exposure, but not as long as the pictures show me something I don’t already know.

That’s why the beheading footage didn’t enrage me. I expect that sort of thing from a ruthless enemy like Al Qaeda. As a gay American Jew, I know exactly what they have in mind for me. But the images from Abu Ghraib revealed something I hadn’t wanted to confront. It was the real-world manifestation of the snarl-behind-the-smile that Rummy wears so well. Thanks to those leaked photos, we’re closer to understanding why most of the world reads this leer as the look on America’s face.

Pictures of the unfathomable force us to see. That’s why all the evidence of prisoner torture must be released.” — Richard Goldstein, Executive Editor of the Village Voice