BAGnewsNotes

Afghanistan: On The Rise

If this photo of a mass funeral convoy passing through the town of Wootten Basset doesn't end up marking a turning point in English popular opposition to the Afghan war (the Brits lost these 8 soldiers in a 24-hour period last week), it has certainly ratcheted up the tension over the Afghan"investment." The angle of the Getty photo not only captures the entire procession, it also suggests how the death toll is on an upward path with no end in sight.

And then, with American casualties also increasing as the result of the U.S. escalation, I can't tell if this kind of imagery -- amidst the noise of ultimately uneventful happenings like the the Sotomayor hearings or the G-8 summit -- has a better or a worse chance of capturing domestic attention.

(image: Carl de Souza/Getty Images. Wiltshire, England. July 14, 2009)

Chris Hondros on "The Hurt Locker"

Given the rave reviews this film is receiving, the fact that a film can be largely responsible for the picture of a conflict people walk away with in their mind's eye, and because Chris Hondros, having made twelve trips to Iraq in covering the war, is one of America's most respected and highly praised photojournalists, BNN is pleased to offer this review.

I’ve been waiting for a truly great movie about the Iraq War. I know it’s still going on, but I don’t think it’s impossible to ask: Casablanca came out right in the middle of World War II in 1942, and M*A*S*H, with its Korea-as-Vietnam theme, was released in 1970. I’ve thought a lot about this, since like many journalists who have frequented Iraq I’ve often been frustrated by the public’s misunderstandings about the place, and have thought for some time that a thoughtful, tone-perfect movie could help explain to a general audience what the experience of being in Iraq was (and is) like.

The Hurt Locker, recently released to positive reviews and much acclaim, seemed like it could have been that movie. But having seen it I don’t think The Hurt Locker will do for the Iraq War what, say, Apocalypse Now or Platoon did for our understanding of Vietnam.   It might be the best Iraq movie out so far, but that’s not saying much. To me The Hurt Locker fell flat--partly because the soldiers behave in implausible ways throughout, but mostly because I don’t think it offers us a coherent plot or deep character development, the stuff all great movies are made of.

The Hurt Locker tells the story of an Army bomb-defusing trio based out of Camp Victory in Baghdad on the last month of their deployment. The team is (reluctantly) led by a reckless a staff sergeant explosives expert named William James (played with indisputable talent by Jeremy Renner). His support duo is a risk-averse sergeant named J.T. Sanborn (Anthony Mackie) and a young specialist, Owen Eldridge (Brian Geraghty).

The movie gets off to a good start--the opening scene is appropriately tense, and the superficial details about the Iraq environment look just right, more so than any Iraq movie previously. The Army uniforms and Iraqi style of dress, for instance, are perfect, and the Humvees look just like they did in 2004, when the movie is set. Camp Victory, Baghdad's largest base, looks in the movie just like it really does: a bleak gravel plain covered in soulless white barracks trailers. The physical look is fantastic.

But it isn’t long before the movie gets mired down in absurd and seemingly pointless misadventures.

Hands of Victory

A telling image as the U.S. military withdraws from Iraqi cities in favor of large and discrete operating bases.

The symmetry between human and sculpted hands draws a (historical) parallel between America and BushCo., with its imperial aims, and the hands and designs of the dictator -- the monument actually conceived by Saddam Hussein.

(image: Karim Kadim/A.P. caption: A U.S. Army soldier from the 37th Engineer Company is seen at the Crossed Swords monument in the Green Zone in Baghdad, Iraq, Wednesday, June 24, 2009)

Fireworks Over Baghdad

People watching fireworks above Baghdad in celebration of Tuesday's withdrawal of U.S. troops from all Iraqi cities. (Click for larger size.)

The Colbert/Newsweek Iraq Cover (or, Someone We Admire Yelling It At Us)

To appreciate this cover image, you need to consider it alongside Colbert's admonition in signing off his explanation for editing the current Newsweek issue:

“Now go read my magazine. Although to get the full effect, you should have someone you admire yell it at you.”

Best known for wearing a persona, Stephen Colbert (from the neck up) turns himself into a grunt -- and a national billboard -- not just to illuminate, but to shout at us (through the language of parody, of course) about the men and women who have been forsaken for carrying out a forsaken war.

If the tendency is to summarize Colbert's message, in big capital letters, as "Don't forget Iraq," the image (emphasizing that amazing "are you getting this?" eye, and that "we're so miserable and disappointed" frown) is as much about the boots -- or, specifically, the heads (with those vulnerable skulls) -- on the ground.

American Graft

Most definitely, read the BLDGBLOG interview with Richard Mosse on his photo-documentation of Saddam's palaces (and see his slideshow here).

In recording the fate of the palaces, Mosse's images largely relate how these structures have turned into crash pads by and for the U.S. occupation. While the contrast between our touches and Saddam's are curious, however, what interests me more is how the American occupation -- by way of the Pottery Barn rule -- has grafted America onto Iraq, embedding our fingerprints in a more psychic way.

For example, I like how this royal blue U.S. office is encased inside Al-Faw Palace like a tumor. With that metal framing and the dark blue horizontal line, the box creates its own strange, parallel and assertive dialogue with the marble lines in the floor and the swirling geometry of the ceiling. And then, notice how Saddam's chandelier echoes the circular emblem of American mission and corp.

The space is neither "ours" nor "theirs" anymore, but some new mutation.

(image: Richard Mosse, Al-Faw Palace, Camp Victory, Baghdad, Iraq 2009)

Pink skivvies: Whitewashing The Afghan Campaign

click for full size

"Any soldier who goes into battle against the Taliban in pink boxers and flip-flops has a special kind of courage ... I can only wonder about the impact on the Taliban. Just imagine seeing that: a guy in pink boxers and flip-flops has you in his cross-hairs. What an incredible innovation in psychological warfare."

--Defense Secretary Gates   

So this May 11 image of Spc. Zachary Boyd of Fort Worth, Texas, fighting the Taliban in his pink "I love NY" boxer shorts, has "gone iconic."
Lauded by Secretary Gates himself, I don't think I could provide an analysis any better than Daryl Lang's at the Photo District News blog:

Reparations

Just to get this out of the way, I find the title of this NYT slide show "Recovering From the Airstrikes" almost cruel, at least where the photos involving reparation payments come into play. Otherwise, I found this photo just devastating, and far more searing than the photos of children -- with their prominent crayon packages -- in their hospital beds.

The relevant part of the caption reads:

Bibi Ghul, left, who lost a husband and two children during the air strike, received compensation from Afghan officials.

I just have a few thoughts. First, I wish I knew how to appreciate this photo given the gender roles in the country as well as the Granai village, and the fact Bibi Ghul is the only woman in the photo. Second, that baby's got a lot to absorb. Third, could you ever imagine her looking at that money?

(Actually, I'm assuming we're footing it.)

from: Villagers in Afghanistan Describe Chaos of U.S. Strikes (NYT)

(image: Joao Silva for The New York Times)

Your Turn: Tuesday Would Have Been His 21st Birthday

Are these Dover images just getting more creative now that many bodies have returned, or is there more being said here? How do you read Chip Somodevilla's photo?

(image: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images. caption: Soldiers carried a flag-draped transfer case containing the remains of United States Army Specialist Omar M. Albrak of Chicago from a C-17 in Dover, Del. Specialist Albrak was killed while serving in Iraq. Tuesday would have been his 21st birthday. From NYT Pictures of the Day, May 12)

McKiernan: It Was Great Knowing You... Whatever You Said

This DOD photo shows Defense Secretary Gates taking leave of Afghanistan and shaking hands with U.S. Commander McKiernan having informed him of his firing three days before. In retrospect -- the announcement of the General's fate still several days off -- the photo seems like overkill, the two men offering quite a show of solidarity, the clasp reinforced by the shadow clasp and even the visual sense of the men connected by way of the powerful aircraft engine.

On the contrary however, the outright firing of McKiernan sends a blatant and unceremonious message. According to the NYT: "Pentagon officials said it appeared that General McKiernan was the first general to be dismissed from command of a theater of combat since Douglas MacArthur during the Korean War." It certainly seems McKiernan is taking a very public hit from Team Obama/Gates/Petraeus for a war that has been suffering conflicts with NATO, bad PR over civilian casualties and, now apparently, a strategy acknowledged as going nowhere.

Looking at the picture again, however, division is as much a theme. What is probably the attempt to speak over the engine noise offers us a strained-looking McKiernan trying to have some truly parting words while split from the Secretary by the groove running through the tarmac, and the handshake.

(image: U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Jerry Morrison/DOD. caption: U.S. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates thanks U.S. Army Gen. David McKiernan, commander, U.S. Forces Afghanistan and NATO's International Security Assistance Force, after visiting Field Operating Base Airborne in the Wardak province, Afghanistan, May 8, 2009. photo essay: Gates Visits Field Operating Base Airborne, Afghanistan )