The blurred picture of dying 21 year old Lance Corporal Joshua Bernard of the US Marine Corp has caused apoplexy in government circles for its alleged 'lack of compassion and common sense."

Taken by Associated Press outside the village of Dahenah in Helmand province, it shows LC Benard shortly after a Taliban ambush.
 
After losing a leg in the rocket propelled grenade attack, the image captures two of his colleagues frantically trying to save his life in a dusty pomegranate grove, ultimately unsuccessfully.

He was the 19th American to die in this province of Afghanistan in a single month.

AP distributed the image widely, some chose to print it others not, but it reopened an argument that is as old as photography itself, what is and what is not acceptable to publish? It shows even in the internet age with live video streaming possible from virtually anywhere across the globe, a still picture remains a very powerful communications medium.

Defenders of the picture accuse defence secretary Robert Gates of trying to sanitise the conflict by suppressing its grim reality.

But critics say it violates a fundametal human right, the right to privacy at the moment of death and raises interesting moral questions about journalism in the public interest and intrusion.

It was published without the blessing of the dead Marine’s family.

The authorities have always been sensitive to images that portray military failure, it was only four years ago that the Pentagon lifted the ban on photographing coffins returning from the frontline.

However, this picture is different, it is neither overly blood soaked or gory, nor clearly identities anyone in it.

But what it does do, in much the same way as Robert Capa’s famous picture – The Fallen Soldier- did for the Spanish Civil War (although ironically it was recently exposed as being staged), is epitomise the whole conflict. The danger that this becomes the iconic image of the 'war on terror' is the real reason why the authorities would like it supressed.

In a sea of images from this war it is easy for the public to become immune, for senses to become dulled to the reality of the killings, the maimings, the trauma and sufferings going on daily.

This picture in its imperfection reminds everyone that war is not clean cut and clinical it is blurred, brutal and messy.

This ability to immediately make people stop and think is ultimately the power photography still has over words or the moving picture.