BAGnewsNotes

Rods from God

(This post is based on a book in-progress, titled:
“Visible Wars and American Nationalism:
Militarization and Visual Culture in the Post-Cold War Period.”)

by Wendy Kozol

Despite long-standing debates about the viability of missile defense technology and the ramifications of “weaponizing” space, a range of websites -- from the Department of Defense’s Missile Defense Agency, to lobbying or advocacy groups, like Missilethreat.com -- use powerful visual rhetoric to sustain the economic, political and military investment in this still questionable technology.

Computer-generated pictures, diagrams, and video scenarios depict satellites and sensors orbiting in space around a peaceful globe. Threat and defense are completely disembodied.  There are no “viewers”; no “people” making decisions about when to send out interceptors; and no face of the “enemy."  Devoid of any constraining conditions, everything functions to plan 100% of the time.  And, because every "kill" is a clean kill, free of impact on populations or environments, nobody ever gets hurt.

This illustration, appearing on the Global Security website, extends U.S. military technological power to a wider universe by positioning planets and stars in the composition.  The beauty of the blue planet, so common in popular discussion of Space travel, provides the color scheme for the picture by bathing the technology in the same reassuring tones.

Against the racially empowering function of threats from rogue nations, pictures like this imagine American interceptors destroying enemy missiles in Space.  The illustration prominently foregrounds the American flag on the satellite, while a laser emanating from the satellite furthest in the back successfully hits its target.  A small white light in the background appears as the attacking missile, thus diminishing the threat while emphasizing the omnipotent power of the satellites to protect not just America, but the entire globe.

Importantly, missile defense advocates also rely on moral claims to justify these defense systems (which these "almighty" and "heavenly" visual objects reinforce, as well).  For instance, “Rods from God,” is the nickname for an Air Force Space Command missile defense program.  Technology and religion combine in this label to invoke an image of omniscient power by the U.S. military to protect the nation and its allies from space.

In claiming Space as an extension of national territory, the Air Force Space Command describes themselves as the “guardians of the High Frontier.”  Mobilizing an imperialist logic of military dominance, such references invoke a moral geography based on a mythic ideal about the founding of the United States.  As General Lance Lord, former head of the Air Force Space Command states in this NYT article:

“Space superiority is not our birthright but it is our destiny. . . . Space superiority is our day-to-day mission.  Space supremacy is our vision for the future”

Unlike spectacles of violence and suffering more typical of war imagery, Space is a blank screen for clean technology that never hurts and always protects.  Images from the war on terror -- including photographs of suicide bombings, American casualties, Haditha, and of course Abu Ghraib -- have provoked enormous attention and an occasion for many to critique American Occupation policies.

When we ask the question, how is it that people can look at pictures of suffering and then look away, perhaps it is because they are finding something easier or more comforting to look at.

Wendy Kozol is Professor of Gender and Women's Studies at Oberlin College.  She teaches courses on feminist theories as well as visual culture.  Among her publications, Wendy is the author of LIFE's America: Family and Nation in Postwar Photojournalism.  I warmly welcome Wendy to BAGnewsNotes.

The Compassionate Bean Counter

With Iraq now appropriately finessed, GWB has been busy covering his flank on the economy.  (If you hadn't noticed, the phrase "go shopping" has finally been replaced in Junior's cue card stack by the term "give back.")

So how/why did Bush end up getting photographed like a spokesman for beans at the food bank during his all-too-clever pre-Turkey Day road show? (Here are slides.) Well, being the formulaic people they are, the thinking at the White House follows some well-worn trajectories.  One (especially since Katrina) is: never make Prez look like he's out-of-touch with the common folk.  Another has been: never repeat any of Poppy Bush's mistakes.

As such, we have something of a three-fer here.

Iraq: The Space Between. (First Pass)

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in his new book, Iraq: The Space Between, photographer Christoph Bangert offers three images which, as a related group, are emblematic of a war that completely failed to add up.

In the shot above, an American soldier is standing on a chair, peering over a concrete wall.  From our vantage, all we see are the forlorn tops of two Cypress trees, each vaguely linked to offset clouds like a weak joke on a "dotted i."

In a second shot, we see two American soldiers standing close to a more primitive wall, the scruffy head of a camel barely poking up from behind.  And in the third shot, we see an American soldier on his knees, pushing up with his toes, his gun all alone, his missing head inserted inside the hole of a wall or a vessel of some kind.

In his introduction, Bangert lays out his thesis:  These images (taken mostly while shooting for the NY Times) are about the gap or space between two Gulf wars; between "us and them"; between our invasion and the Iraqi's subsequent war with themselves.

Looking at the visual digests emerging just now, I can only think that the legacy of the Iraq War is turning out to be some kind of Dadaist expression.  In Christoph's book, as in Ashley Gilbertson's Whiskey Tango Foxtrot and Magnum photographer Thomas Dworzak's M*A*S*H I*R*A*Q (which I plan to take up in the near future), if the visuals lacks a more logical visual narrative or a more obvious and familiar organizing principle, it is because nothing close was ever offered by reality itself.

Coming Upon The Cage

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I found Michael Kamber's image, documenting the bombing in the Baghdad pet market last Friday, to be particularly moving.  (It is that much more poignant when compared to Joao Silva's image in the same setting just a few days prior.)  Reporter Stephen Farrell's story embodies the tempered sadness and disappointment of a reporter-narrator who had also just been there when the place was bustling.

(I'm sorry, too, that my post last Wednesday, questioning the media's -- and Farrell's -- impulse to trumpet Baghdad's normalcy, proved prophetic.  In light of the shattered tanks in this square, using fish to make the point also seems twisted.)

So what is Baghdad coming to?  (Perhaps the photo begs the question, as two contrasting figures seem to be staring at, and converging upon the same point.)  If the man in all-black conveys an all-too-familiar depression and jadedness, the young girl's expression and "carriage" suggests something lighter.  She gazes at that damaged cage as if whatever creature occupied it might somehow reappear if she were only to blink, then look again.

(revised 9:05 am PST)

(image: Michael Kamber for The New York Times.  Baghdad.  November 23, 2007.  nytimes.com)

Because The Pictures Are Going By Pretty Fast

... Here's my latest take at Huffington where I call out The Economist (they more than deserve it for this one) as well as that charade in Annapolis.

... Another freaky smile ... and our original pass at it.

... I loved Ward Sutton's visual analysis of campaign logos and bumper stickers last time and this time.  I especially liked his confusion over the Obama "O," which I need to think more about myself.

... I liked this shot of Bush and Lott.  These guys never got along -- the rule breaker and the parliamentarian.  Anyway, it seems no coincidence Lott quietly bowed out of the Senate in a loaded news week, and just before new rules kick in requiring two years (versus one) before he might roam the hallowed halls again as a gold-plated lobbyist.

... Before I completely forget, I also liked the NYT piece about your brain on politics.  (Romney messes with my amygdala too.)  If some of the analysis here is pretty watered down -- maybe that is to dissuade us from considering how much further brother Rove and Company could be getting into our heads.

And a quick note for newsreader subscribers:  I just restored the full-feed, including images.  To make it worth the loss of direct viewers, however, please click on those ads at the bottom of the feed from time-to-time.  Each view sends some well-appreciated nickels this way.

Blinding At The Border

by Bryan Finoki

This image, spotted in a recent LA Times article entitled "Apprehensions of Border-Crossers Drop," should bring a smile to the face of anyone who believes the border fence has a constructive role to play in the issue of illegal immigration along our southern border.

Photographed in Naco, Arizona, which is just outside of Nogales, the fence installation is the DHS’s attempt to steer the flow of migrants further out toward the Rio Grande desert where geographic conditions are dangerous and public scrutiny is scarce.

This photo of contractors hard at work has all the visual ingredients to convince the viewer this strategy has made considerable progress in slowing border crossers.  In the background there’s a clichéd panorama of the formerly open range of the wild west – the classic American landscape in all its glory – while in the foreground, we witness the fervor of heavy work with teams of tractors scoring the landscape in expansive flourishes of tough American steel.  The flag on the helmet adds the perfect patriotic stamp to the notion that America can be safeguarded by a ubiquitous external barrier.  Whether backed up by hard hat, heavy equipment or poured concrete, the message is the same: barricades are the answer.

A more interesting sign, however, is the blinding flash of light emitted from the welder.  What  does it mean that the barrier is presented with a light so blinding  that, even on a screen, we are forced to look away? Equally – if not more – disturbing is what is being politically shielded by this flash of light.

Hussein Update (plus: Bombs The Way)

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If you didn't know anything about the photo, you might assume you were looking at damage inflicted on Lebanon by the Israeli Air Force in Summer '06.  In fact, this picture  -- dating back to October 2004 and the American siege of Fallujah -- is significant for two reasons.

First, it leads off an excellent msnbc slide show collecting, in one place, a sample of photos by  photographer Bilal Hussein.  If you're not up on the story, Hussein -- who was part of a group of AP photographers that earned a Pulitzer prize in 2005 for their work in Iraq -- has been held by the U.S. Military in Iraq for more than a year-and-a-half.  His detention followed allegations by right-wing bloggers (simply based on the content of his photos) that he was connected with insurgents.

(Scott Horton at Harpers discusses the flimsiness of the impending criminal charges to be filed against Hussein by the DOD.)

Second, the photograph foreshadows a strategy that has been gaining momentum since the beginning of the year (if not well before that).  Despite reports that coalition airstrikes in Iraq have increased fourfold in the first nine months of this year over '06, both the fact, and the fallout, seems to to get little play in the domestic media.  (Notice, by the way, how the USAT piece I just linked to parrots military talking points that munitions are more accurate and less lethal.  As Air Force Brig. Gen. Stephen Mueller says in the article: a lot of today's bombs are now "designed to take one building and not the whole block.")

Still, I doubt you can say that blowing up fewer Iraqis (especially innocent civilians), while affording the ability to place fewer American boots on the ground, is doing a lot for winning hearts and minds.

(image: Bilal Hussein/AP.  Fallujah.  October 12, 2004.  via msnbc.msn.com)

Taking My Cue

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If Ron Paul can take a short rest on a long march... I guess The BAG can too.

If you've got a take on the composition, be my guest.  As well, I would love your thoughts, feedback or requests on The State Of The BAG. If you're feeling particularly reflective, you might also revisit recent posts featuring work by contributers Nina Berman (Wartime America) and Lori Grinker ("Canyon of Heroes" ) (Regarding Lori's shot, by the way, did anyone notice that the policewoman and most of the soldiers happened to be women?)

In the meantime, I'm going to not think about pictures for a couple days, until I pick up again on Saturday (or Sunday at the latest).  I wish you a warm and peaceful Thanksgiving.

(image: Jim Cole / AP. "Rest for the Weary."  November 7, 2007.  caption: Republican presidential hopeful, Representative Ron Paul takes a short rest from campaigning at his headquarter in Concord, New Hampshire.  time.com/pictures of the week)

Baghdad Rebirth Slightly Fishy

One can't help but welcome the bright, well-illustrated reports -- arriving yesterday in both the NYT and Newsweek -- of normalcy returning to Baghdad.  (Apparently, the fish restaurants along the Tigris are helping lead the way.) 

Still, I hope you won't mind my sarcasm.  Both reports largely attribute the calm to the ethnic cleansing and physical partitioning that now distinguishes many city neighborhoods.  If Baghdad can be brought back to life -- still a substantial "if" at this point -- similarity to its previous self is likely to be more in name only.

(revised 11:30 PST)

(Joao Silva for The New York Times.  November 2007.  Baghdad. via nytimes.com)

No Parking

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So, America's almost sole recourse for contending with al-Qaeda has come down to ... bribery.

With real diplomacy, legitimate foreign aid and honest cultural exchange judged as too slow, too weak, too passive, too expensive or too codependent by Washington, what is left is the "Anbar model."  Effectively giving up on Pakistan and its military to carry the fight to al-Qaeda and the Taliban, the U.S. is now attempting to breech the gap through mercenary tribal fighters to supposedly pursue our interest -- for awhile.

As part of the package, you get awkward portraits like this, of the bad guys recruited to fight the bad guys.  They mostly don't look you in the eye, but if they do, it's simply to humor the photographer of the devil they've made the deal with.

As an amusing attribute, the "No Parking" sign (especially the way it spherically echoes the crossed-gun insignia on the fighter's sleeve) seems to crudely reference our failure to land any benefit, by way of our supposedly good Pakistani friends over these past six years, in what was the "original 9/11 war."

Instead, we resort to frittering away capital on stateless figures -- one day in white hats, the next day in black -- while being played for fools in the proxy bazaar.

(Ali Imam/Reuters.  2007.  via nytimes.com)