Gruesome images stir bad memories of Mogadishu

Graphic images of Americans being mutilated in Iraq could shake US public support for the occupation and may affect the presidential campaign, say pollsters and media analysts.

Television networks began showing the images of cheering Iraqis in Falluja celebrating the murders of four American security contractors whose bodies were burned, mutilated and strung up for public view. Newspapers carried front-page pictures showing charred bodies surrounded by exulting mobs.

"These pictures speak volumes. It's just what the Bush administration did not want. Americans are seen here as real victims, not just statistics," said pollster John Zogby.

The images immediately evoked comparisons to the 1993 killings of 18 US troops in Mogadishu, when crowds were filmed dragging the corpses of two US soldiers through the streets. Washington ended its military presence in Somalia soon afterwards.

"The media is linking the Falluja incident to Mogadishu and those images are already imprinted on our collective visual memory," said Cara Finnegan, a communications professor at the University of Illinois.

The incident became the basis for the movie Black Hawk Down.

The Bush administration said it would not be deflected from its determination to stabilise Iraq and hand sovereignty back to Iraqis at the end of June.

The Falluja images spread quickly on the internet on Thursday. Even as some US networks tried to tone them down, they were available in graphic detail on some websites.

Ralph Begleiter, a former CNN correspondent, now a journalism professor who teaches a class on the political effects of the Mogadishu incident at the University of Delaware, said it would take time for the latest images to sink in.

"It will be interesting to see if this is a watershed, a turning point where people start to think that the Bush administration's arguments that things in Iraq are generally going well does not match what they are seeing on TV.

"If that happens, we will see the emergence of a credibility gap, which would be a major problem for the Bush administration."

The administration has made strenuous efforts to keep the news from Iraq as upbeat as possible. It has banned TV crews from filming the bodies of dead US servicemen arriving back in the country and President George W. Bush has not attended any funerals of personnel killed in Iraq.

A Los Angeles Times poll taken before the killings showed the country divided over Bush's handling of Iraq, with 49 per cent approving and 46 per cent disapproving.

With the presidential race between Bush and Democrat John Kerry virtually tied, any erosion of support for Bush could be crucial.

"If things continue as bad as this, we will see an even more active debate on whether we should have gone into Iraq at all," said Andrew Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center.

"That could undermine Bush's standing on national security which is his strong suit in the campaign."

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq