I can't imagine being jealous of a nation for having violent upheaval. I'm very glad that in the US, when we think an election is stolen, we don't have riots in the streets.

There is a word for films that exist so that voyeurs can watch someone die.

Political agendas find such images useful and to be used or something shameful and embarrassing which must be hidden.

We have lots of snuff films that no one will ever see.

Our national interests are more important than some other country's national interests.

Let's use her death to provoke and justify many more deaths.

It's for the greater good. Just like in Iraq.

Also a luxury - navel-gazing about the ramifications of watching a video of something that actually happened that is, sadly, not that uncommon in many parts of the world. It reminds me of the countless articles asking "what should I tell my children?" after 9/11. For God's sake, this is your concern right now?

I did not even read your article. The title and highlighted text says it all. You are an asshole. Please, quit your day job.

I think co-opting the tragedy is comparing the recent election with the 2000/2004 election. Our situation was not nearly so dire as it is in Iran. I admire the fight for freedom and democracy, admire what the protesters have given and continue to give despite the threats of violence and death.

As with most things, I think the impact of watching videos like the one from Iran varies from person to person. I choose to watch them so I can possibly understand what these people are feeling and experiencing. It's so far from my privileged life here in the United States that I can't even imagine having to run for my life because I oppose my government. I certainly never had to fear tear gas attacks or water full of skin irritant thrown on me from helicopters when I protested the Bush administration. I choose to watch the videos so that these stories, these deaths and injuries, these battles do not go unseen and unknown.

I hope someday, when my freedoms are challenged as overwhelmingly as the freedoms are challenged in Iran, that I am willing to take to the streets until my voice is heard and my freedoms are returned.

I have avoided seeing that video because the world doesn't need me to bear witness, I don't need to bear witness to know it's a tragedy, and frankly I'd be too upset by it.

I'm tired of the news being so horrific that it haunts me. Most of it I can't do anything about but rail against the system, vote, write letters, etc.

I did not want to see any images of that poor woman dying. At the very least let us have the choice to click on it or not.

"Big things are happening. There's a popular uprising in Iran. Everyone is talking about it. A young woman was killed. Her death touched and horrified people. Although, to be honest, I much rather that people revolt and die more *sniff* discretely. Also, I've seen people die in movies and so I'm not shocked, which shows the underlying problem with reality itself, not me.

But more importantly, how can I take all these things, from sweeping historical events to a personal, public death, the special providence in the fall of a sparrow, if you will, and turn it into a discussion about me?"

Very revealing, Kate. Go get a latte and a pedicure now and leave genuinely giving a shit to others.

We think watching the death of one Iranian girl at the hands of Iranian forces absolves us of the tens of thousands we have killed in a similar way but which we are protected from seeing by our government and media.

"Our national interests are more important than some other country's national interests.

Let's use her death to provoke and justify many more deaths."

Did you ACTUALLY just post that? My God...you scare me...

why is this insulting piece at the top of the headlines on the coverage of the situation in Iran? I'm not one of those people that complains when there is any article that doens't cover the/an ongoing crisis but isn't this a little over the top obnoxious? Keep it in the self obsessed 'but this is how I feel' little corner of the world not front page.

I don't look at roadside accidents. Flipping channels, I accidentally saw a man falling from the Trade Tower so I kept the TV off for weeks. Watch Nick Berg's beheading or Saddam Hussein's hanging on YouTube? Why introduce poison to my eyes and memory?

I know someone who enjoys watching tragedies and death, like she gets off on the blood. In my opinion, she is sick. Or maybe she's inured to violence or stupid like a woman who knits while waiting for the next spurting head to bounce away from the guillotine.

There is no ethical question here of honoring a victim. It sounds like viewing for the sake of "honoring Neda" is an excuse to satisfy curiosity. I hope I never become that detached.

If I scare Fascists, Nazis and psychopaths, that's just too effing bad.

Propagandists fear truth.

i agree. especially after refusing to release the torture photos and the general sanitization of war by the media (how many babies with dashed skulls or eviscerated women have we seen in the media including salon through these 2 wars? though i do give salon credit for showing the abu ghraib photos, even though these kinds of things are rather much for me. they are important nontheless). the normal disincentives re: launching wars are being individually dismantled. these include 1- the human cost to the instigator , regardless of the enemy size (employ massive technological asymmetries, use poor peoples kids, and ultimately drones, etc) 2- the financial cost of war (borrow and exclude from the budget) 3 - loss of public support upon appreciating its brutal reality (control the information and images out of theater). couple this with a profit incentive for our largest and most influential corporations, and the outlook becomes even gloomier.