GQ: Iraq Edition

very interesting for me – a european- to see how the war in iraq is treated in the media in the usa.
waow, the differences of point of view remain (but how could it be different ?) on the justification of this war and one can notice it on the way it is treated in the medias.
In the GQ slideshow I was struck by the picture of this soldier sleeping in front of all these nude women pictures and the comment : “shoot first ask questions later” and the “all the 512 soldiers of this unit returned safe”. I found that pretty shocking to be honest. And I guess it would be interesting to analyse it the same way you analyse the pictures…
Peace

Twenty years ago I surveyed Fort Drum, NY for archaeology, for the relocation of the US Army 10th Mountain Division, the one, former Senator Dole and Presidential candidate, was wounded in in Italy. It was moving from the Rocky Mountains, Camp Hale (he regretted he had only one live to lose for his country, though many say “give”) to the former active fire ranges in NY, where A-10 “Warthogs” tank-killers, practiced while we dug holes nearby. What a transformation? We went from Huey’s to Blackhawks, Jeeps to Humvees, various tanks (Fort Knox “yanks in tanks” practiced there before meeting the “faux” Russian “phantom menace” at Fort Erwin in the California desert, who always won its said) to the Abrams M-1, Bradley vehicles (NYer Tim McVeigh, executed for the murder of six Federal agents in the Oklahoma City bombing, was a commander of one in “Desert Storm, the prequel to the war) laser practice shots, etc.
I completed the survey under the field direction of a Delaware resident whose grandfather she said invented “Kevlar” used to “bulletproof” things and people and used to sew welders gloves. The company Envirosphere, a division of Ebasco, a Texas power plant builder, was then occupying five upper floors of the World Trade Center, taken down on 9/11/01, though they had relocated to South Orange, NJ for what it’s worth.
These GQ and other photos of the war show, that although we as an invading force (still I think over the Kuwaiti sucking Iraqi oil out from under their border, a line drawn in the sand by the British in the 1920’s) appear bizarre even to me, are the same people often asked to fight for Presidential policies, often obscure, and in this case, perhaps, family held (among the Bushes).

This is what came to me in response to GQ story/pics -
“Contempt and Entitlement”
“GQ presents the latest in fashionable expressions of self, for the well heeled, bible carrying, American Patriot…”
Peace. Johanna

The mood of the photos & the dates they were taken reflect three stages of the war.
(1) the “heroic”– March 2003
(2) triumph/our enemy was a fool/war is over — summer of 2003
(3) the slog of war — Fall 2003 to present-day

I can’t speak to the context of finding this picture in GQ, but what I see is an American soldier who has asked a friend to photograph him so people at home can see just how bizarre the world is into which we have transported him–barren desert, dessicated, palm trees, barb wire and walls, danger, death, guns…and this 18th century European gilded repro-bauble. Kings and Queens might ride in a carriage like this.
I could go one step further and see the soldier and the carriage as existing in one historical plane–the old colonial European nation-state. The alien, dusty war zone exists on a different plane–a background world that we can’t “see” because our attention and sympathies are focused on the gaudy European carriage and the American soldier. The only thing missing is oil.

I was re-reading the comments for this picture again today. And when I came to my own, I was aware of the anger that came through my posting. And I wondered to myself why I posted such an angry comment. And I realized that as the viewer of this picture that I was not only seeing the picture of the soldier in a carriage on an Iraqi street.
I was seeing and feeling the intense pain my heart has felt since the occupation of this country. I was seeing and feeling the leveling of Fallujah; the fear of ordinary Iraqi’s as they try to feed their families; I was revisiting in my consciousness the picture of an American gun with a rosary hanging off it. I was seeing and feeling the fear of Iraqi families as American soldiers barge into their homes and defile their mosques. I was feeling the immense hopelessness and anger I felt as “shock and awe” was perpetrated on innocent men, women, and children. I was feeling my hearts horror after watching a film where American soldiers shot at Iraqi civilians in their cars, at checkpoints, on the streets with impudence and reckless fear. I was feeling the horror of my heart at the beheadings and the pleas of the victims. I was feeling the grief of my heart at the viewing of the pictures of the prisoners of Abu Gahrib and Guantanemo. The grief I feel each time that I hear of the Iraqi men who stand in lines to be slaughtered as they wait to be processed as policemen or at their stations or on buses, an so on and so on, until I am filled with tears.
I could continue with these expressions of the pain that resides in me as a result of this illegal occupation of a sovereign country by another sovereign country, a country that was once proud of its history as a free, and righteous, and democratic country, with all its warts, but I will not. This pain can not be diffused with a few words and perhaps that was what I was doing yesterday. I stopped containing the pain and grief that I feel for those who are and have suffered and I became angry. And for a moment it felt good, I felt I had power, but it was temporary and today I recognize that all I can do at this time is what I have been doing all along, be as present as possible with those who are suffering, to continue to be a witness to their pain. To not forget them, which I do when I become angry, as it then becomes not about their suffering, but about me.
Peace. Johanna

Johanna, your comments come from a kind heart, as always.
OTOH, the Web, with its electrons, algorithms, and devices, can blindly deliver an unsettling mix of humor and tragedy (screenshots of GQ’s Soldier’s Portfolio with randomly served ads):

• #4 — Local Favorites
• #7 — Known Each Other
• #11 — Top-Ranked Places
• #13 — Return of Cool
• #24 — Skin Supplies

Frames within frames…

aethorian, when I was first looking through the GQ slide show, I actually remember being distracted by the ads. As an almost visceral memory, I actually remember outputting some energy to screen them off. These screen shots are all interesting, but “Return of Cool” really disturbs.

None of you have any idea what it’s like in Iraq.

Thank you aethorian for your comments.
Ever since I went and viewed the pictures you linked, I have found my mind, especially in the first waking moments of my day, being drawn to the images. I wondered why. And to tell you the truth, I am still not clear. But once again this morning as I was becomming conscious, I found my mind reviewing the photos of the soldiers with the ads beside them.
Perhaps in time I will understand what it is about the compostions with the soldiers, the war, and the glamourization of the advertising next to the photos that disturbs me. Thanks for the links.
Peace. Johanna
P.S. Extra Peace out to red2alpha.

red2alpha said:

None of you have any idea what it’s like in Iraq.

True for me, anyway. Unlike you, I’m not there. All I have here are secondhand images, not eyes on the ground. It’s a world removed from what you see at This is Your War, but it’s basically the same perceptual problem that you posted today:

I couldn’t believe we were lost, actually I could. With this until anything can happen.
“Typical.” I said to myself, adjusting my NODs so I could see better through them. Driving around with out headlights through an area C for Charlie Company had never been in before tonight didn’t help either. I had only seen this neighborhood in grainy black and white aerial photographs. Seeing something from the air is totally different than seeing it from the inside of a moving HUMMVEE.

Seeing things from here is totally different from seeing things there, but don’t we all need more than one POV to get a better picture of what’s going on?

None of you have any idea what it’s like in Iraq.
Heh.
How many photos of corpses do I have to see to realize it stinks?
How many casualty stats do I have to read to understand another generation of PTSD?
How many lies do I have to hear to realize it is just about the most sordid enterprise ever embarked upon by a formerly free people?
If you can describe what it is like in Iraq you should. Not many Americans–and I have been reading them–have the ability to observe what is around them or to go beyond their own notions. Can you do that?

hey why the fuk are you going threw all this sadamn is already captured why dont you save the life of that guy there and just leave them alone . ur killing people and u dont even care how many corpeses do u need to see befor u can end this. if youv’e seen black hawk down how many of them die and how many of us die its just a matter of saying u dont give a shit about how many Iraqs u kill as long as u get it you’re way. to me this is just another war for land.