Your Turn: Keepers Of The Palace

re-upyours

Wow blinky, eermm bluinky, whatever, that was brilliant, no really it was….
BTW, I got to wonder, what music did they use for this ceremony? Did they go with a classic, like the Imperial March?

That’s what people don’t understand about Leni Riefenstahl (Triumph des Willens,1935) and fascist aesthetics. (Star Wars’ final throne room scene owed a lot to Reifenstahl…)
Fascist aesthetics just LOOK really, really good.
Too good.
Powerful. Manly. Well-ordered. Laden with symbolism. (notice the “shoulder-to-shoulder” theme). Awe-inspiring.
Irresistible, really.
This particular scene, though, reminded me most of Verhoeven’s Starship Troopers. (“Do You Want to Learn More?”)

No matter where in Iraq, the photo of soldiers would be taken, it would still be nauseous and have nazi like atmosphere.
The flag has again served to stress the Empire’s attempt to keep an oil colony and to rule the Middle East, no matter how many die.
It is a fitting picture for the posterity and a warning to the present generations.

(that’s it,D,…”the fantasy is death.”) wooda bin relevant/confirming/appropriate if ANY of our poli/ce/lebees’r'wannabees had joined/shared/communed, whatever, with a grieving military family this notional holoday, instead. (hmm…sounds lack,’The Grand Stand’, from Aida-The Whole Thing(?))

Nameless, faceless bodies.
At our Unite for Change event recently, we met several marines who had done a few tours of Iraq, one getting out on disability after finding out he has MS. Great, polite, wonderful young men, who we really enjoyed talking with. We thanked them for their service and cooked them some burgers.
This kind of photo might do it for the uber patriots who think the U.S.A. is teh awesome. For me, it just makes me sad.

What this picture reminded me of was the army of clay soldiers in the Chinese emperor’s tomb — totally impersonal, totally dispensable, already one of the dead.

it does, cyranetta.
~
instead of a flag patch stitched on the top of their sleeve, this is what should replace it:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/8/88/Exxon_logo.svg/250px-Exxon_logo.svg.png

And a censored peek outside: a dead man in a lawn chair that’ll remind you of New Orleans.
http://www.zoriah.net/blog/suicide-bombing-in-anbar-.html

How many would re-up if there were better job opportunities at home?
Who wouldn’t want to earn better money, actually be with their families in their off hours, and most likely not risk getting blown up or shot at (at least as much).
How may would stay in the service if Halliburton/KBR/Blackwater offered them work at 10x the pay (certainly less legal liability in terms of the Code of Military Justice)?

The dominant color is gray. Not a joyous or even optimistic light.

I keep seeing this referred to as “the 1200″ – a reference to 300, the homoerotic graphic novel/movie about some scantily clad greeks with kicking the Persians arses around. This is supposed to be part of that meme – the only ones who dare to stand against the hordes.

How many people are in this photo? I did a rough count and came to about 1100, but looked it up and it’s 1215. Now, imagine 4x that many people and you’ve got the soldiers who have been KILLED – the American Soldiers, that is.
Picture 25 of these rooms and you have the number of American casualties. Each one of those people in 25 of these rooms is permanently harmed – missing arms and legs and suffering head wounds and PTSD.
Now imagine 1000 of these rooms and you’re closer to the number of Iraqis that have been killed during this misadventure. How many wounded?? Many many more. It’s staggering.
Think about how sorrowful the heart of a man who willfully started a war which brought death to SO MANY people. How could he ever sleep or eat or smile again knowing that ALL OF THOSE DEATHS are forever on his shoulders? What kind of madman could do this and claim he’s doing god’s work? That, my friends, is blasphemy.

Gasho, your descriptive- image is a really strong one. It would make a fantastic Youtube video. (start with this photo, then splice in dupes of it to “expand” it as the caption relates Gasho’s numbers.) Add music: start out with some upbeat aggressive techno (favorite of the troops in Afghanistan, as related by a friend of mine who did two tours there), wind up with sometime more sober and respectful.
wish I knew how to use iMovie.

The Nazi imagery is unmistakable. And the funny thing is, I don’t think it’s at all deliberate. I’m not saying they want to look like nazis, but I’m certain they wanted to portray what they think is pride and strength, and by accident, portrayed something else entirely. That means that reality, not progaganda, peaked through. As the soldiers stand shoulder-to-shoulder, wall to wall, with columns rising, chandelier spilling down, and the oversized flag looming behind, they illustrate for us exactly what a warlike regime looks like.
To be sure, images like this are not on any recruiting poster, or exciting “be all you can be” commercial. Those messages mostly contain the myth of the few, the proud, etc. They evoke the rugged individualist, an army of one, who fights alongside his buddies. Wisely, none of those kinds of ads evoke images of The State, or of being just one of a thousand faceless (and expendable) soldiers fighting and dying at the whim of a political machine.
That’s not what young 18 year old men are looking for. There is not even any sunlight in this photo, it’s stuffy and closed up. The only light allowed is from the chandelier. In contrast, recruiting commercials are shot outside, or partially outside, with natural light gleaming through onto brave warriors. The commercials usually evoke sport (and sport in return evokes the military). This motionless photo represents none of that. It evokes anonymity, it promises only death.
The more I look at the visuals in this photo, I realize that the chandelier actually makes the shot. Light falls only on certain areas, highlighting the ridiculously excessive marble walls, mirrors and columns, the flag, and the heads and shoulders of the soldiers. All else is eerily in darkness – their torsos, their legs, part of the floor, the rows between them. This could make an excellent horror movie.

I can’t help but feeling like it’s a mosque and at any moment they are going to bend down on their knees and kiss their prayer mats. It’s quite a stunning image for this holy war to end all holy wars. unbelievable.