Back Fire vs. Backfire

I've been meaning to post this fine cover since it came out one week ago.  My hope, if we could, is to focus on Israel versus Hezbollah in terms of results on the battlefield.

In the last few days, a forming consensus (exemplified by this NYT piece on Tuesday, or Billmon daily) is that Hezbollah has shown surprising strength while the fight has been going badly for Israel.  This cover surfaced, however, on the cusp of that impression.  So, while it might have originally had a more understandable skew, the image seems to be growing more ambiguous by the day.

On first pass, I assumed the Israeli soldier was standing next to a missile launcher, having just fired off a round.  After all, wasn't that the picture in Week 1 -- and historically, as well?  On that score, where the ambiguity specifically lies in this shot is in the feeling of Israeli isolation, the sense of absorbed shock and the implication of blowback.  Pushing it further, though, the photo might even suggest an IDF soldier suddenly caught in the open, dodging fire, maybe even disoriented.  In light of yesterday's ambush in Bint Jbeil, these latter suggestions -- no longer far fetched -- suddenly tap a whole new level of Israeli vulnerability.

(And, as a side note, how often would an American newsmagazine offer its audience something like this?  For all its suggests, this cover remains remarkably open ended. Credit The Economist  for trusting its readers to work with it.)

I'm sure you see other inferences here, and also have thoughts about the title.

(image: The Economist - North America Edition.  July 22, 2006.  Cover)

Comments

[al]

this is so typical of the british press-- either don't mention israel, or show it as vulnerable and weak as possible. what better way to slam israel than showing one of its soldiers cowering from a blast that completely envelops him. why do you post this propaganda?

[steve laudig]

Eyes closed, face covered, feet obscured by dust, deafened. all in a brown straight jacket. Insulated and isolated and facing away from the light.

[Keir]

This war is no accident. And for all the civilians involved (and it is overwhelmingly civilians who are experiencing what this particular magazine cover depicts), this war is no war. It is a direct attack on their right to be alive. But back to accidents: too many plans drawn up, too many weapons in place, too much rhetoric at the ready to wave away the continuing murder of actual people, the bombing of their towns and cities, the destruction of their infrastructure, for anyone to be calling it an accident. As to the soldier in the photograph: I do hope he (she? I don't know) does the right thing by putting down his weapons and refusing to participate.

[Annoying Old Guy]

It seems aggressive to me. That's a standard artillery firing position and the swirling dust and debris typical of the local effect of that. It has the same feel as would a picture of a hand on a gun with the trigger finger all the way back, the sense of just released power hurled at one's enemy.

[Natasha]

To me the soldier's saying "Oh my god what have I done?"

[Nezua-Limón Xoloquinta-Jonez]

Blind, deaf, no humanity visible, matchstick of a man in a tinder box of violence.

The accident? That GW Bush was put into office. It's been one long war since then. Mission Accomplished, yet?

[Shaun]

These photos serve as a strong, if somewhat obvious, symbol for 'blowback' and I agree that's why they keep showing up everywhere. The times photo is particularly amazing in that the two plumes of flame are emerging from the tank in exactly opposite directions... The scene is earilly illuminated as if to suggest one can only see the 'true' landscape of the region bathed in artillery fire...In both photos the soldiers are holding their heads in a posture I might call 'existential surrender...' Incidentally it also looks just like when pious Jews are 'davining' ie praying...The dusty explosion also serves as a good metaphor for the conflict, as if its just a sandstorm rising up from the desert on its own...

[lytom]

Pretty well equipped soldier aggressor. Yes, one could pity him if there were no facts available such as:
1. Daily bombing raids by Israeli air force of civilian targets in Lebanon, knowing full well the Lebanese have no defense against air attacks!
2. Movements of Israeli army into Lebanese villages, finding only resistance by Hezbollah fighters and no Lebanese army in sight. Thousands and thousands of fleeing civilians in desperate way to save their lives. New refugees to cry for humanitarian help. They will exist somewhere and for a long time displaced with a prospect of never returning to their homes. How can they have a compassion for this soldier? No mercy! He has a safe home, those fleeing masses have none.
3. Complete destruction of civilian infrastructures in cities and villages. No luxuries of safe water, food, shelter...and the prospect of future as bleak as Palestine people have endured for decades!
Yes, we certainly can hear about the shelling of Haifa, but how easy it is to forget, that there the city lives on!
The fight is not army against army, state against state, it is clearly a fight of an aggressor against a nation without defense and the principle of invioable rights of Lebanese has been conveniently forgotten by one nation which claims to be the freedom guarantor! The nation who insisted that the Syrian army should withdraw from Lebanon as an affront to independence of Lebanon - empty phrases now since the invader of Lebanon has been given green light. Green light by the nation who is exporting “democracy” to Iraq by the use of force. How ironic! The US diplomacy is bathed in blood. Rice is the complicitor. The hypocrisy of her playing the piano piece called “Peace” is as disgusting as Nero playing violin.
How guiet it is.

[margaret]

I agree this war is no "accident." Israel had plans drawn up for the invasion before the kidnappings.
(And, I suspect, with Washington's approval.*)

The image suggests "blowback" to me, and a justifiable "defensiveness" in the posture of the soldier, although it is a natural position after discharge of rocket launches: the noise, the shockwave. It is a good, symbolic image, but doesn't match the title on the cover.

*It was fascinating, but not surprising, that the Israelis withheld firing while Secy. Rice was arriving in Lebanon for talks. Wasn't Israel the first country she called, right after the 9/11 attacks?

[A.J. Bassett]

The headline "The Accidental War" has an interesting construct, and is arguably a dismissive misnomer. To suggest that the intensifying conflict involving Israel is merely an "accident" of violence, serves to dismiss the deeply flawed Bush Administration's policy of attempting to impose Jeffersonian Democracies in the region, which has only served to intensify not only the international angst against America, but Arab anger towards Western Imperialism, the net result almost certainly being the recent events in Southern Lebanon.

The Economist headline very aptly frames the conflict with dismissive and simplistic coats of gloss.

[ummabdulla]

This could be any soldier, anywhere, anytime. Just looking at the picture, I considered whether it might be Irag, Afghanistan, Palestine... but I assumed it must refer to the war that's most newsworthy now. He's dressed about the same as Hezbollah fighters I've seen pictures of, though; does the caption identify him as Israeli?

I don't understand how this can be labelled anti-Israel propaganda, but then maybe they have more volunteers than they have real propaganda to counter.

[ummabdulla]

Both sides had obviously planned and trained for this. If there's anything accidental, it's only the timing.

[Doozer]

First thing that popped into my mind; Gahan Wilson's cartoon from the late '60s or early '70s, I think I won"

Our troops in Vietnam loved it. They weren't winning, either...

[jt from BC]

Its rare I get to concur with the comments of AOG and Shaun, but Oh! how I wish for the reality of Natasha's > "Oh my god what have I done?"
The first guy I recall saying something to that effect got crucified and the latest one court-martialed.

[Rafael]

That probably a Israeli soldier manning one of those mobile 155mms you see so much in the news (u.S. made, BTW). I think that the swrily dust mixes well with the title giving it an ironic twist. Because no plan, no matter how elaborate, survives contact with the enemy.

Q? for the Israeli soldier, is the real enemy Hizbollah or is it you?

[Shaun]

umabdulla, nobody said this is anti-Israel propaganda, Al's post was just convoluded...I think there's a general concensus this image depicts Israel in a sympathetic light (and that's obviously an Israeli soldier). kudos on the smooth transition to your irrelevant reference though.

by the way, there's nothing accidental about the timing: Iran and Syria are using Hezbollah to get pressure off Iran's nuclear program (and Assad's problems). they knew Israel would react to the additional kidnappings right in the midst of the Gaza situation. its the scope of hostilities that's 'accidental', i.e. that its becoming impossible to deny its a 'war' and its not letting up.

[readytoblowagasket]

The BAG's comments of "going badly for Israel," "Israeli isolation," and "Israeli vulnerability" in relation to this or any image boggle the mind. That's because all three phrases have a decidedly biased weight to them.

First, some facts: This is a photo of a well-armed, well-trained, well-funded soldier, supported by his own country and eqipped to the teeth by the United States taxpayers. This is *not* a picture of an unarmed, untrained, bottom-of-the-food-chain civilian just trying to live (or save) his life.

Lesson: Military personnel and civilian populations should *never* be confused as one and the same. The military does not = all of Israel, which is what The BAG's phrasing suggests.

This soldier gets paid to do this very work, to be isolated and vulnerable and, quite possibly, to die (or be kidnapped). That is the job of a soldier. Why exactly should I be sympathetic with this particular soldier? Seems he is in a much better position at the moment than most people in the region, since he has his government's backing, as well as food, clothing, shelter, weapons, and protection.

Furthermore, Israel itself is not isolated or vulnerable, except in its own imagination. The United States has rammed a stick in the spokes of progress toward an immediate cease-fire, which would have taken this soldier out of harm's way sooner rather than later. You can't ask for a better buddy than one who will stop the world for you. So again, why should I have sympathy for the soldier? No cease-fire means keep fighting, boys.

I don't see this cover as a positive portrayal of the military actions taken by Israel. I think what The Economist is daring to imply is that Israel fucked up royally. At least that's what the image and title both suggest to me: Israel's military leaders were unprepared to encounter the resistance they are encountering from Hezbollah, and *that* is a gross military miscalculation which Israel (and anyone in the way) is paying for. Hence, the "accidental" part of the title; the photo shows the "war" part.

Maybe The BAG meant all of these things. His words, however, conveyed something else. The Economist cover seems much more judgmental than ambiguous — of Israel's military actions to be sure.

We all have our biases, but I'm not willing to help romanticize anyone's, here or anywhere.

[cfinstr]

The soldier knows why he is there. He knows that he and his fellow soldiers in arms are what stands against the islamic imperialist forces that have been arrayed against Israel by Iran, Syria, and more covertly by Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates. That soldier, if one listens to Israeli National News, in English or in Yiddish, knows that but for his willingness to force the enemy to lay down their lives, and his willingness to risk his, Israel would not exist.

That soldier is not surprised, dismayed or in anguish. He is a proud and faithful warrior who is determined to make the enemy pay dearly for its continuous missile attacks against the Israeli non-combatant citizens of all ages.

The people who act with perverted glee at the normal picture of a soldier who obviously is standing near a large Israeli gun that is pummeling the hezbolla islamic imperialists who started to wage their campaign of murder by unilaterally and without provocation attacking Israel and kidnaping two Israeli soldiers are pathetically "sick excuses for HUMANS".

Only the evil who rejoice in the senseless slaughter of innocents rejoice in the necessary excisement of the cancer known as hezbolla, the islamic imperialists.

Pathetically the evil tries to claim that there is a moral equivalence between Israel and hezbolla and its puppet-masters, Iran, Syria, and in a more covert manner Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates. Understand that Israel has spent hours and resources to warn the Lebanese population to "GET OUT OF THE AREA TO BE ATTACKED". The hezbolla islamic imperialists are blockading the common civillian Lebaneze population in the apparent joyful expectation that they can use the innocents as "HUMAN SHIELDS" and when that fails, much as the U.N. Observer Station failed to shield the hezbolla islamic imperialists, the hezbolla islamic imperialists feign shock and disgust that THEIR CAREFULLY CALCULATED AND CRAFTED HIDDEN PLANS have resulted in the deaths of so many civilians "at the hands of Israel". People at this site... WAKE UP and smell the coffee. The civilian deaths on both sides of the fighting can be blamed SQUARELY on hezbolla and its puppet-masters, Iran, Syria, Saudia Arabia, and United Arab Emirates.

Do not take the DISINFORMATION of the islamic imperialists in the Mosques and Madrases worldwide who are funded in their mission of spreading hate largely by Saudi Arabia.... an alleged "FRIEND" of America... (With friends like Saudi Arabia, who needs enemies...)

Read.... Educate yourself as to the motivations of the various warring factions.

hezbolla wants nothing less than the destruction of Israel. Israel gave back land that it had lawfully won in the various wars that were begun by the islamic imperialists over the past 50 or so years. Israel attacked now in response to the incursions by hezbolla islamic imperialists.

The bottom line to all of this is this: If you disarm the islamic imperialists and put in a good border patrol around Israel's Borders you get peace. If you disarm Israel, you will get the wholesale murder of all Israelis at the hands of the islamic imperialists.

Pause to think for a moment... Who needs to be "reined in?"

Then think some more... If Israel has so completely "fouled up" their campaign against the islamic imperialist hezbolla, WHY IS HEZBOLLA TRYING TO GET A TRUCE TODAY??? hezbolla wants a truce because it wants a respite from the severe and effective POUNDING that Israel is giving it.

When an inherently evil organization like hezbolla wants a "truce" and does not capitulate ans abandon its weapons and attacks on Israel, THEN is the time to hit hezbolla TWICE AS HARD! Peace comes through victory, not mealey mouthed socialist platitudes of "can't we all just get along?" Clearly in the case of hezbolla they have proven to the world that the answer is NO.... hezbolla CANNOT "...just get along".

Oh, by the way, I am not a Jew. I am a Christian who recognizes the evil islamic imperialist movement and its pedophile pseduo-prophet, mohamed.

Israel is now doing yeowman's work for the ultimate goal of World Peace.

[King of Pants]

I think this thread is an object lesson in projection, is what I think.

[black dog barking]

Israel has or is about to bury its fist in a 4Gen tar baby much like what occupies Team USA a Scud missile flight to the east. Given the Israeli reputation for adroit planning and execution, did they build in a breaker circuit to stop before they punch too far?

The soldier in the image is caught in a minor tempest, braced against the Newtonian consequence of action. Imagine the scene at the business end of that trajectory. Stunning composition capturing and visually communicating the sound and fury at the point of attack.

Works as a visual metaphor for states-side supporters, hunched over, back to the destruction, head down, hands tightly over the ears.

[rporter]

I don't see this figure as inherently symbolic of Israel per se. The lack of facial features makes it both universal and dehumanized. The uniform may be Israeli, but there isn't enough in the way of insignia or other identification to make it read as anything other than generic. To my eye, this image reads as fragile body caught up in the violence of war. In that light, it could apply just as easily to members of Hezbollah, or even the civilians whose homes and families are being destroyed.

[Rafael]

Wow....

I never new somebody could write so much and say so....litle.

Who are these "Islamist Imperialist" is it all Muslims, just the Shiites, the Sunni Salafis, the Saudi Princes (last time I heard, Bush was holding hands with the Saudi Prince, now the Saudi monarch), the Iranian nutjobs?

The only Empire I see the U.S. and as I far as I know, all Empires fail....

[daniel]

Indeed this is quite obviously, even moreso than the usual BAG debates, an object lesson in personal projections.

I read this somewhat the way rporter does. While it's laughable that this war is "accidental," (both Hezbollah and Israel seemed to have been planning for it for quite some time) the image itself does portray the suffering of individuals caught up in a war. In the sense that all war, any war, is a human tragedy, picking sides (or being born on a particular side and not having the courage to develop an independent moral conscience) and blaming others and shouting becomes only so much bluster and noise. This soldier, be he "aggressor" Israeli or "hero" Israeli, is a human whose true face has been obscured by war, surrounded by noise and dust and heat and violence.

If it weren't for the disingenous "accidental war" caption, I would consider this one of the Economist's best covers ever.

[cfinstr]

Rafael... Disingenuous post. We all know who the islamic imperialists are. We see them posting and publically speaking on Al Jazeera. We see imperial islam as it rejoices at the behading of four Christian girls in India who were on their way ot school... We see imperialist islam as it murders non-muslims in Africa... We see imperialist islam in Iran, in Syria...

We see the evil of imperialist islam and recognize it, unless we intentionally blind ourselves to the truth.

As far as Junior Shrubbery, George W Bush; that Globalist has seen fit to almost "lovingly" clasp the claw of the European created Saudi Arabian (*cough*) "Monarch". You have to understand that Junior is sadly following in the Globalist footsteps of Daddy Bush who was indiscreet enough to proclaim the "New World Order" as he was leaving office.... In addition, Billy boy Clinton so loved Chinese money for his various electioneering purposes that he sold what had previously been HIGHLY CLASSIFIED micro ball bearing technology to the Chinese... That Technology has been incorporated by the Chinese into the Gyroscopes for their intercontinental Ballistic Missles.... Thank you Billy Boy Clinton....

You see, the fact that there is a "D" next to the name or an illusory "R" next to a candidate's name is MEANINGLESS.

Wake Rafael.... Smell the meundo... Oh , y para que' entiendas, yo so nacido en Mexico asi que no soy racista... Hablo la verdad....

Que Dios te bendiga.

[Nezua-Limón Xoloquinta-Jonez]

cfinstr, why not speak it so they can understand, be proud of those words. they are nothing to hide, right? at least translate for them. don't you want them to read it? or does incomprehensibility equal strong argument to you?

O, and guess what? there is nothing in Mexico's air that gives those born there moral authority to hate Israel's enemies, right? confusing logic, there, hombre. and i don't appreciate it that you give Mexico a nasty air when you use your birth there to justify killing other people who are not related to Mexico's past, cause, or in any way to her situation. What the hell is that? You do our people no service...if you are really Mexican. (and don't you mean "Menudo?")

finally, i don't care what ten cent phrases you or anyone else uses. making a choice to kill people when the choice exists to avoid killing them is WRONG. i don't care what symbol you have on your heart or on your sleeve or in your family album. Murdering humans (whom you don't need to strike at in order to survive the moment) is wrong. If you want to call that "moral equivalence," have fun with adjectives. if you want to call it "fred," consider me kickin' it with betty and la familia.

te watcho,