In an apparent effort to convince Middle Eastern skeptics that Saddam Hussein's two sons are really dead, the United States has released gruesome pictures of the dead bodies of both Odai and Qusai Hussein. These are now not only widely available on the Internet, but also are appearing in mainstream publications, including Web sites easily accessible by children as well as adults.

The publication of such photos is both morally offensive and politically incendiary. In the U.S. media, there is a widespread reluctance to show photos of the dead, especially close-up photos of those who have been severely disfigured in death. In part, this is simply a matter of respect, a respect even for those we condemn. The media did not, for example, show photos of Timothy McVeigh after his execution, even though his death was a painless one and even though he was probably the most condemned of American citizens in recent years -- and we certainly did not show detailed pictures of the human remains of his victims.

Moreover, we have been morally incensed when foreign media have shown the bodies of American servicemen being dragged through the streets. Our objection then was two-fold: not only to the desecration of their bodies, but also to the media replay of that defilement. It is morally offensive to see the United States sink to the level of those it has so justly condemned in the past. We expect civilizations, others as well as our own, not to make a public spectacle of death.

Not only is this offensive, but it is also incendiary. Pictures of the mangled bodies of Odai and Qusai Hussein will not convince skeptics that they are dead. Intransigent skeptics will simply claim to believe that the photos were faked. After all, we still have people in the United States who doubt that we have ever traveled to the moon. In the volatile and deeply mistrustful climate of the Middle East, photographs do little to change minds.

This is not to say that such photos are without effect: they will serve to enrage those who they do convince. The challenge right now for the United States is to create a peace in Iraq, to bring together a society that has traditionally been deeply mistrustful of Western ideals as well as practices. The public display of the bodies of the Hussein sons will serve to inflame already enraged feelings throughout the Middle East and will, in all probability, lead to further guerrilla attacks.

For those who think the United States is the devil, the publication of these photos will intensify their already fanatical beliefs. Those who are seeking a path of greater tolerance toward the United States will find that these photos just create another obstacle on that road.

None of this, of course, is to suggest that Odai and Qusai Hussein were not evil men. There is plenty of information to show that they were. Nor is it to suggest that it was wrong to seek to apprehend them. However, in releasing photos of their bullet- and shrapnel-ridden bodies, we have taken a major step in the wrong direction, falling short of our own ideals and further exacerbating a situation more in need of leadership and healing than offensive divisiveness.

San Diego Union-Tribune, July 23, 2003 pg. B.7 [1,2,6,7 Edition]