That's Jonathan Jones' view:
When I look at this photograph what do I see? War. War and nothing else. How many times do we need to be told that war is hell? The phrase has lost all meaning for us. Think about what hell is. Hell, in paintings by Bosch, is chaos. It is meaningless, monstrous, and lacks any place of safety or redemption. This picture of Gaddafi dead is a day in the life of hell, also known as war: a corpse photographed for souvenirs, displayed to satisfy the oppressed, in a moment of violent gratification. When Nato intervened in Libya what we see in this picture was probably the best – not the worst – outcome on offer. And we should be grimly glad of it. What fantasy makes us long for some impossibly dignified and humane end to a bloody conflict?
Norm Geras is unimpressed:
This, however, is only half the story – the sociology of war, as one might call it. One need only recall that the critical reaction that Jones laments came not only from political actors or media outlets but also from human rights NGOs, to be reminded that, as well as a sociology, there is also a morality of war. It is contained in international conventions that codify the laws of war, and in just war doctrine, the different 'branches' of it. Would we really be better off if there weren't this morality, if wars were just fought without restraints of any kind? It is hard to believe that Jones really thinks so: that he would prefer that there be no rules against murdering prisoners, or torturing and mutilating them, or treating their dead bodies abusively; or that the deliberate bombing of civilians should be seen as an acceptable practice; in short, that in war anything goes. At times this seems to be the subtext implicit in his piece. But it is more likely that he hasn't thought the issue through and just wants to moan about Western attitudes.
I'm with Norm. War is hideous. But the laws of war – evolved over centuries – try to mitigate this in some core respects. Those laws do not celebrate or condone war; they just try to civilize it at the margins. They are not to be despised.
The Dish 
