Reading The Pictures: 4,000 U.S. Combat Deaths, and Just a Handful of Images

Why do I think this image from Thursday's NYT is so profound?

It's because the military has been so overwhelmingly effective in muting the war, and the war photographer, that -- practically without notice -- many of our best shooters have found themselves turning, in a disproportionate way, to the technique of irony.

For example, Cristoph Bangert has been masterful in articulating the surreal nature of a long incoherent strategy in an alien land. And now, photographer Ashley Gilbertson -- whose work I've shown and discussed a number of times at BAGnewsNotes -- is back "in country," and again "firing wit-tipped darts" attempting to wake us up.

Of course, if we weren't so anesthetized, we might actually sit forward and wonder about the outlandish contrast in this photo, or more particularly, to consider what an all-too-stealth-like picture might have to do with still one more headline confirming the latest non-development concerning Iraq's Babel-ish, seemingly permanent stalemate-for-a-government.

The agrarian scene, confounding associations of Iraq as a mostly arid, desert-like place, uses the really hilarious device of cows grazing to mirror how we in the U.S. have become so thoroughly pacified (or, dare I saw, "cowed?") by the pictorial censorship and fundamental lack of context in the war reporting as to basically reduce the whole subject -- despite the shadowy war machine still silently screaming overhead -- to the significance of, well, grazing.

If you've been following my site and this "Reading The Pictures" series, you're aware of a few humble efforts here to poke pin holes in the blackout.

Although I'm still not certain of the claim, I believe the Nov 09, 2005 post "Beyond Dover: MSM's First Published U.S. War Fatality?" ("thirty-two months and 2,000+ American deaths into the campaign," as I wrote at the time), shows one of the first (and only) published U.S. fatalities of the war in the traditional media. And then the post "Have We Just Seen The Last Combat Injury In Iraq?," co-authored with the incomparable war photographer Michael Kamber a year ago June, calls out the military for a procedural power play, effectively precluding any more pictures of injured U.S. service people from hitting the presses.

However, the visual blackout and all the ironic carom shots were punctured two days ago -- at least for one day -- by a story in the New York Times. In a courageous piece, Kamber penned a concise exposé not only outlining the pervasive, hypocritical and ever-more manipulative visual censorship being practiced by the U.S. military, but also specifically detailed the castigation and persecution of embedded photographer Zoriah Miller for documenting -- without any blinders -- a June 26th suicide attack outside of Fallujah.

(Iraqi and American victims of the June 26th suicide attack in a slum area of Fallujah)

If Zoriah captured and, ultimately, posted the images of U.S. and Iraqi fatalities on his website, incurred the terrifying wrath of the military for it, it wasn't for any lack of professionalism and commitment to journalistic practices, or subjugation of military rules of embedding, or any disregard or disrespect for the soldiers and their families. No, it was merely in service of truth and of seeing.

If I have earned any credit at all as an advocate of visual politics, I urge you to read these two piece, first Michael Kamber's story, "4,000 U.S. Combat Deaths, and Just a Handful of Images." (As mentioned, I pay respect to The Times for running the feature, although I think it's slightly chickenshit they chose to land it on a Saturday.) And, as soon as you've finished, go immediately to Zoriah's blog and read/look at Suicide Bombing in Anbar - Eye Witness Account, the post graphically documenting the suicide bombing that put Zoriah at odds with the man. (You might also be interested in his July 3rd and July 7th follow up.)

To the extent this war has been about what hasn't and can't be seen -- including the casualties on all sides; the caskets; the literally millions of Iraqi refugees; the intense American bombing; the permanent U.S. bases; and most recently, the U.S. military running invisible interference for the Iraqi government assaults on the Mahdi -- thank God for Zoriah. Because, as much as Ashley's "cattle prod" calls out our myopia, more than a handful would likely take it for Iowa.

For more of the visual, visit BAGnewsNotes.com.

(image 1: Ashley Gilbertson for the New York Times. July 2008, Diyala Province, Iraq. image 2 & 3: © Zoriah/Zoriah.com. All rights reserved. June 26, 2008. Anbar Province)

Follow Michael Shaw on Twitter: www.twitter.com/bagnewsnotes

Comments

[Graciela]

Mr. Shaw, I don't understand why only the U.S. military death statistic (now 4,000+) is always used, and NEVER the casualty statistic of close to 35,000!

If journalists want to distinguish the deaths from wounded, fine, but in my opinion, the American public should be hearing the casualty figures, over and over.

The wounded are not men and women with scabbed knees. I believe to use only the statistics for the dead is misleading. It also fails to honor the wounded. It would appear our military in Iraq only have value if they are dead.

[indy100]

So true! The wounded, almost 40,000 and counting, are not a small number and many of their injuries (both seen and unseen-can you say PTSD?) are lifelong conditions. The cost of what we as a country are paying for this war now is only the tip of the iceberg when you consider the decades of future medical costs for vets. Not to mention the costs to society, as well as the costs to employers. It's so easy for the war supporters to continue in their ignorant support because they are not forced to see the true costs and trauma of the war!

[vipersdad]

I heard something on the TV news the other night that gave me chills. The reporter (I don't recall who it was) referred to injured American Soldiers' wounds as "injuries."

Then I heard it again on C-Span
Then I heard it again on another news show.

The wordsmiths are at it again - pay attention. The subtle difference between battle casualties and 'injuries' is powerful.

A football player sustains an "injury" We expect him to get better and perhaps play again. The "injury" may end his career at worst.

Soldiers become casualties - they become wounded, or they are killed - they have done so for time in memorium. The reason that the language is shifting is the same reason that photo-journalists are being censored.... because this war is still being "marketed" to the American people.

And our Congress is still buying it.

[brainuser]

Seems to be a growing international trend. At first I thought it was newsreaders' ignorance.

[BlueZoo]

How easy it has been to turn on our televisions and see everyone talking about this war but not seeing the war itself! This mindset of "not seeing means it's not happening" leads to so much more. Our kids "play" war on their Xboxes and Wiis but don't understand that when they kill someone in real life that person cannot get up again - ever! Is this what we really want? I, for one, hope not! I lived through the Vietnam War and the nightly film of the carnage. I saw the coffins being taken off the planes at Dover AFB and one contained a family member. While these events did not, in themselves, account for the clamor to end that war, they were certainly instrumental! We may have started this war with "shock and awe" but it's horror is soaked in the blood of our kids over there - the ones we aren't allowed to see dead!

[Onefamily]

Rest in Peace Justin Norton: You are missed!

http://www.komonews.com/news/archive/4190041.html

[BlueZoo]

God bless you and give you peace! While Pat Tillman's family justly grieves over their loss, so do over 4000 other families we never see or hear of.

[ehemingway]

Against the advice of their State Department Diplomats, the arrogant advisers to both John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson led those presidents and America into the Vietnam morass. In sharp contrast to the Iraq/Afghan Wars, the naked and the dead were in our living rooms every evening; newspapers and magazines ran extensive visual coverage until Americans finally took to the streets. The country had had “enough.”

Under the shameful guise of Democracy, this Administration, this Military Establishment has gone to great lengths to keep our generation of citizens from the truth. It’s called censorship, the kind that is practiced by the very totalitarian regimes we criticize.

“The Best and the Brightest” (1972) is a book by recently deceased journalist David Halberstam that describes the genesis of the Vietnam War. In the edition I own, John McCain writes the following forward:

"It was a shameful thing to ask men to suffer and die, to persevere through god-awful afflictions and heartache, to endure the dehumanizing experiences that are unavoidable in combat, for a cause that the country wouldn't support over time and that our leaders so wrongly believed could be achieved at a smaller cost than our enemy was prepared to make us pay."

[nobillary1]

Another Constitutional Right that bit the dust when Bush came into POWER. I thought there was a "Freedom of the Press" in there somewhere. Oh but wait; in judging much of what he's done over the last 7+ years, it's very apparent that he and his staff don''t know what the Constitution is!

[nobillary1]

This was the FIRST Constitutional Right that bit the dust when Bush came to "power".

Whatever happened to "Freedom of the Press"?? I didn't understand the "no pictures" mandate when it was instituted, and I STILL don't understand it!

[darthdarcy]

The Pentagon and The White House don't want Americans to see the real outcome and price of War...

Did you think we were a free and open society...?

Think again...

[FOXYLADY]

PLEASE READ!! HAS IT BEEN BECAUSE PRESIDENT BUSH'S MOM MADE A CONCEITED COMMENT WHEN ASKED ABOUT OUR LOVED ONES COMING HOME? SHE SAID, IN ESSENCE, "....WHY SHOULD I SULLY MY BEAUTIFUL MIND BY SEEING THESE COFFINS, OR WONDERING WHEN AND HOW THEY WILL DIE...." THIS IS NOT AN EXACT QUOTE BUT I CAN'T FIND MY COPY OF HER "EXACT WORDS"....­.........S­UCH CALLOUS WORDS AND SO HURTFUL TO THE FAMILIES OF OUR DEAD AND MAIMED. WE SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO SEE IT ALL AND MOARN WITH THE FAMILIES. AFTER THEY ARE ALL OUR SONS AND DAUGHTERS IN AMERICA. SENT TO A WAR STARTED WITH LIES , ARROGANCE AND MACHINATIO­NS........­.........

[Wistful]

I remember that! Mrs. Bush made that stunningly heartless crack on a Larry King show.
Laura Bush said much the same thing but I don't remember when or where, I think on Larry King too.

Can anyone imagine what the media would do if ANY Democrat talked that way about our troops?
And, they'd never let a Dems forget it, they'd destroy the person's career.

Look how McCain outrageously, brazenly lies about Obama and visiting the troops right now and gets completely away with it in the MSMedia .... NOT on the internet, lol

[Ramirez]

The "beautiful mind" statement was directed at the media, not at the troops.

Barbara Bush was speaking dismissively of the pre-war news coverage and its endless discussion­/speculati­on over how many body bags, bombs, etc would be involved. Snopes has a good info page on this Bush quote:

http://www.snopes.com/politics/quotes/barbara.asp

[Garvagh]

Nice piece! Why are there no photographs in newspapers of most of the dozens of permanent and semi-permanent US military bases that have been under construction in Iraq since the Americans arrived in 2003?

[Mabo]

Headline: "Liberals demand more pictures of dead soldiers" story on page 2

[Rule Of Law]

Headline: "Conservatives Claim Reality has a Well Known Liberal Bias!"

[vipersdad]

Ahh.... another "terrible simplification...." how sad.

If everything we are doing over there is so righteous and glorious
If everything we are doing over there is for the good of America
If every sacrifice makes us stronger...

Then why hide the realities from us?

Why is it ok to show me graphic "fake" violence every day and night on TV but when the real thing is happening, ostensibly in the best interests of America and it's people, why is it censored?

What have the Bush Administration to hide? Is it perhaps that they fear the backlash of public opinion? Is their belief in the "goodness" of this mission so tenuous as to require they adopt the tactics of Mao or Castro?

Media censorship has no place in America - we may not like the truth but we always have a right to it.

A Right...

A first-ammendment right.

Without the 1st ammendment, no other ammendment is worth the paper it's printed on.

[athenasword]

Great post.

As a photographer I know that images evoke powerful emotion. The administration wants no one to have the slightest emotional response to the war, knowing that sadness and empathy are followed quickly by anger and outrage.

And, I loved the word you used to describe our current state: anesthetized.

[Candyx]

exactly, the world would be outraged if you continued to show the images. but we should be. this is not the America I know and love...plan and simple it's just not.

[demfriend]

Just as the pentagon has gone to such great lengths to make sure caskets are never shown and we have seen so few actual pictures of what is real in Iraq including video it feels as if they have sevely limited our "involvement" in the war there. It's like it's scrubbed and the few pictures seen are almost like when the former burma refused to let reporters in to take pictures there. In a nation who prides itself on the military and who we are this war has denied us the emotional connection we need to engage so that the war is one of "ours" an not something like a movie no one is able to see but many die and are seriously injured there and no one comes out undamaged. This administration also did the same when 9/11 happened to keep us in check so that emotions didn't overwhelm us (?) according to them. I think another huge disservice to all of the military has been done by the decisions made to keep us away from the war including articles and news reports daily. Angry? Damn right I am!

[AzRealProgressive]

So much is published on the war daily that you can find more news stories about units in Iraq than most people find on their own local section in the newspaper.

The military soldiers have inordinate amounts of blogging and doxens and dozens of correspondents are with the service people everywhere. All you have to do is look.

However, most of the news is good news. That is about 90% of the news.

[DallasMike]

I for one do not need to see the bodies of our dead men and women plastered on the TV or in the newspaper

[saami]

Seeing dead and dying GI's on TV night after night and the injuries inflicted on the Vietnamese sure made a difference in the war at home during Vietnam. This war is fought with your money (oops I should say debt) and in your name; you should see what your dollars have purchased. War is death, dismemberment, fear and destruction. That is what you pay for. You need to see if you are getting your money's worth. It should be shoved in the faces of everyone in this country until we are so disgusted that we stop this war.

[FOXYLADY]

SO TRUE SAAMI....I REMEMBER!!! MAYBE SOME OF THE PEOPLE WHO STILL SUPPORT BUSH AND HIS TRAVESTY OF A WAR WOULD CHANGE THEIR MINDS IF THEY SAW THE CARNAGE AND PAIN IT HAS BROUGHT TO SO MANY AMERICAN FAMILIES AND ALSO IRAQI FAMILIES. I DO BELIEVE THAT THIS BUSH WAR HAS BEEN MORE RESPONSIBLE FOR INNOCENT IRAQI'S DEATHS THAN SADDAM EVER WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR. AND LET'S NOT FORGET, AT ONE POINT IN HISTORY, WE SUPPORTED THAT MONSTER SADDAM AND HELPED HIM COME TO POWER.

[BluzySuzy]

I have just this weekend viewed the film depicting Charlie Wilson's struggle to properly arm the Afghani people against the Soviet troops. It was not until he went to the front and saw the vast multitudes of people and the horrendous conditions of the refugees that he became so committed to the campaign. The American people need that kind of access to what is going on in the Middle East now.

You are so right when you say that we need to see what our dollar has purchased. It would be just the small beginnings of some kind of accountability. The public would not be able to continue justification for this.

[tadpoles]

As a previous poster said it was seeing footage from Vietnam on the evening news that finally ended that war and so the propaganda machine of our current administration has learned that out of sight out of mind certainly works well to keep the US public 'anesthetized' on other kinds of "Reality TV".

If your post Mike was from MinneapolisMike I would take it as satire a la the New Yorker cover but I fear you were serious and therefore I say to you "Yes you do need to see these horrors on your TV...it might wake you up!"

Where is MinneapolisMike when we need him?

[AzRealProgressive]

This musy be satire. I lost my brother in law. He was a naval aviator. Before you make such a repugnant, partisan statement you might care to ask the families of service members how they would feel.

It is their family members on the screen. In your liberal compassion you could cae less about those you hurt. All you care about is cheap political theatre.

[Rule Of Law]

Keep watchin' FOX news Mike, you'll be safe from the facts there.

[AzRealProgressive]

It seems 80% or more of the posters here are more in tune to FOX than any other news station. It is a constant in threads about what was on Fox at any given time,

[Cosatjockomo]

God forbid the truth gets in the way of your self-deceptive mindless unquestioning evil-facilitating nationalism (NOT patriotism - in America patriots don't trust the government they call it to task)

[joanndarc]

The answer is simple: not enough Combat Deaths yet.

[jqcitizen]

Many of the casualties in this "War on Terror" are not combat deaths.

Too many of the dead (including the military personnel of our country and others) are victims of criminal acts.

It does not take years and Trillions of dollars to hunt down criminals.

Remember the Korean War was once referred as a simple 'Police Action' not a war.

[AzRealProgressive]

You are saying that combat deaths by US soldiers in another country facing armed fighters is a criminal act? Not an act of war? And these people should be treated as criminals, and mirandized as well I presume.

How do you base this assumption ?