Sotloff killed (probably)

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He seems to have been beheaded.

Most sites have taken down the video, but for the less squeamish, here it is:

[Mod. edit: Please do not post links to the specific video. Given the subject matter, even a mere link will be considered offensive content under WP rules, and this website will not participate in the diffusion of such content.]

I didn't notice until just now that my post had been moderated. I have no problem with that, but I think that it brings up some interesting questions.

I can understand suppressing these videos on the grounds that ISIS is trying to get attention by making them. Publishing them might encourage them to behead more prisoners. That said, the argument that it's too shocking seems weaker to me. What about My Lai? I'll post a link, but feel free to moderate it:

[link redacted]

There we have pictures of dead, naked babies right at the top of a Wikipedia article that will be read by junior high kids doing their history homework. And what about Abu Ghraib, or the alleged pictures of US soldiers raping Iraqi women? Aren't those shocking? (They're readily available.)

It's fair to argue for protecting the prisoners' safety when we're dealing with ISIS, but you could make a similar argument about the safety of US aid workers in the other three cases (or, for that matter, the safety of the 99% of US soldiers who don't target civilians, the >50% who aren't even in combat roles, and the majority of Vietnam-era infantrymen who didn't ask to be there.)

The link in your first post was removed by another moderator for breach of the bolded rule below.

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