BAGnewsNotes

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

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"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 )

The Texas Pioneer Adventure Is Closed

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The Iraqi refugee dips her head. Her child -- in the Winnie the Pooh hat -- clutches to her. The trees block a wide marine vista. The Texas flag doubles back on itself. The wagon ride is that way. The sign on the chain reads: "The Texas Pioneer Adventure is closed."

This photo, taken by contributer Nina Berman, shows an Iraqi immigrant on a group visit, with other Iraqi women, to a park and arboretum in Texas. It does not specifically show discouragement or exclusion. It does not specifically demonstrate Iraqi refugees coming to the U.S. in a pioneering spirit and being effectively denied access to our culture, history and pastimes.

Still, given the dire circumstances Iraqi immigrants are facing here in the U.S., this is effectively true -- the image, in fact, juxtaposing this hokey monument to the pioneer spirit with an Iraqi struggling with the recession, local indifference and limited if any support from the U.S. to help establish herself "in the homeland."

I recommend you go over Alternet to read Nina's report on Iraqi refugees in Dallas, and to see her accompanying slide show.

(image: Nina Berman, Dallas, TX. 2009)

Our Friend Maliki

In light of the recent increase in violence in Baghdad, and now some backpedaling by the Administration regarding pullout commitments, this image -- as part of Callie Shell's 77-photo Obama "100 Days" slide show -- offers an interesting window.

In the photo, taken at Camp Victory during Obama's recent trip to Iraq, we see "44" greeting Iraqi diplomatics while Maliki shakes hands with NSC head General Jones. The most telling feature here involves Obama and Maliki with their backs to each other. With Maliki fueling tension with the Sunnis through his rejection of the Baathists, and more significantly, his failure to accommodate the U.S.-designed Awakening movement, Maliki is showing Obama exactly why we need to depart Iraq as soon as possible.

If Obama and Maliki offer the picture of balance, it's not hard to imagine Rahm and U.S. Commander General in Iraq, Ordieno, over there in the corner, representing a more unguarded impression of the Iraqi leadership.

(Note: link fixed)

(image: Callie Shell/Aurora for TIME)