Reading The Pictures: Don't Leave Me, Daddy. (9/11, 9/11)

I can't help contrasting this shot from yesterday's WAPO Day in Photos with the White House photo gallery's endless wall paper of military spouses as loyal, brave and beaming.

Sure, it's just one shot. But the symbolism here conveys a fundamental erosion of the "stiff upper lip." As well, it speaks -- in the media sphere -- to the kind of unsustainable emotional strain on our troops that military officials have been warning of more urgently lately. (As a metaphor, perhaps the brick wall also has something to contribute on that point.)

According to the caption, we see a military wife comforting her twins this past Saturday as their father leaves home for his second deployment to Iraq. I don't know how old these children were when their father shipped out the first time. With the occupation entering its sixth year, however, these two are likely apprehending the reality of this mindless war in a deeper way that they were before.

Still, there's an aspect of the photo, and the boy, that troubles me far more than the tragic expressiveness -- the "come back; touch me; don't go" -- of the boy's hand.

What I'm referring to is the prominent emblem on the boy's shirt. After doing a little searching, I discovered it's a patch for F.D.N.Y. Hazardous Materials Company #1 (which I found on a site called fallenbrothers.com). I certainly feel for the moment. At the same time, however, this emblem on the boy, as part of a heart-tugging image offered for national consumption by the Washington Post, seems like a blasphemous display as both family and media further perpetuate the outlandish linkage between Iraq and 9/11.

... Oh, and did I mention that the day's WAPO gallery was sponsored by a web commercial for the U.S. Air Force, leading off with an image of the Pentagon and the line: "This building is going to be attacked 3 million times today?"

View the FDNY Hazardous Materials Patch -- actual size (BNN)
View the Air Force ad at: Air Force Cyber Command's New Weapon: DMCA Notices (Wired)
White House glorification of Iraq spouses at President Bush Commemorates Military Spouse Day (whitehouse.gov)
Washington Post Day in Photos April 14, 2008

(image: Joseph Kaczmarek/AP. April 12, 2008. Philadelphia. washingtonpost.com)

Comments

[navalflightofficer]

Wow. I don't know where to go with your comment. You are reaching pretty far to use this picture of an intense and what should be private moment of sadness.
Just because the Washington Post used it doesn't give you a pass.
FYI, this scene has been played out hundreds of thousands of times over decades of Navy and Marine Corps (and Army) families saying good bye to their loved ones. I'm sure Iraq makes it a more hellish, but the anguish in the children has been felt for decades by military children, with little or no comment from you, or your media friends.
Forgive me if I am not touched by your concern. G-d bless the family with the strength to see each day as one less their loved one will be deployed.

[BrickSykes]

Maybe GWB and Cheney will see this photo. Who wants to bet they won't be as speechless as I am at the moment? Who knows what's going on in those kid''s minds?

Have you noticed that neither the POTUS nor the VPOTUS has MALE children? Congress might want to consider putting that requirement on ANY Presidential candidate (yes, including Obama)! Why? If a President has a Son, he (or she) might think twice before sending troops "into Harm's Way". Sure, what I'm suggesting is sexist and all the other things wrong, but it seems odd that neither Bush, Cheney, hell, even Bill Clinton seem to be "unusually" blessed with Girls.

Let's see...FDR had Boys; Truman had Margaret; Ike had Boys; JFK had a Son; LBJ had two Girls; Ford had at least one Boy; Carter has sons; Reagan had ONE; Bush1 has Sons; Clinton has Chelsea; and, GWB has his two "Girls"; and, it looks like that trend might continue. Wait a minute: Doesn't Al Gore have at least One Son?

Yeah, kinda bored this morning...

Brick

[ljsfolly]

MSM and Bush have worked together to deny us the pictures that show the true cost of this war. How often is it the pictures of the soldiers coming home to open arms, not the leaving again and again? The not knowing if the soldier will come home is a daily/hourly/by the minutes struggle families face. But the one thing missung from this whole business is the hardships the families have beyond the soldier being gove from home and in harms way. Many of the soldiers are at such a low rank the family relies on food stamps and food banks. Often they either have a beater car or a huge car payment to go along with the soldier, mother or father, being gone.

[CharlesMac]

That badge was digitally enhanced. I didn't see the badge on first look. When you mentioned it, a closer inspection found it out of sync with lighting, exposure, and particularly white balance. Bringing it up in Photoshop finds the badge pixels impossibly uniform in color tone.

But that is why you caught the badge, it was out of place to your experienced eye.

[MaracaKabob]

My little two year girl cries when i go to the corner store, I can't image her grief if I were to die in a war for oil. Makes me so sad.

Hey, look over there, McCain is offering tax cuts, and Obama is a scary elitist black man.
Four more years of this war and we'll just about be ready to wrap up this America thing. We'll be history just like the USSR.

[UNCLEJOE]

WHY WASN'T THE PHOTOGRAPHER,: Joseph Kaczmarek/AP. NAMED UNDER THE PHOTO?

This the kind of photo that manifests the tragedy of those families left behind; definitely Nobel Prize nominee material.: Joseph Kaczmarek/AP.

[gonavy]

Her grief would be the same if you were killed in a car accident or died from cancer, the oil is irrelivant.

[aceholiday]

im glad you think dying for a lie is the same as getting tboned by someone. i hope you outlive your children for that bit of hatefulness.

[gonavy]

Are you suggesting that this moment was staged. Shame on you.

I have lived this moment and to see this picture brings me to tears all over again. One cannot fake anguish like this, you feel it in every part of your body, you want to crumble and die. But, you don't, you wipe your tears, pick up your babies, and make your way home. And then you fall apart all over again.

[toldyaso]

And thats why being a spouse is the toughest job in the military. They might not ever say it, and you might not ever know, how grateful a servicemember is when they know that while they're gone the bills are paid, the house is in order and the kids are healthy. Other people praise Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines. We praise the spouses we left behind. Thank YOU for YOUR service.

[gonavy]

Thank you.

[Jess27]

I hate to break this news to everybody but......
I completed 4 years enlisted in the USMC. I am currently trying to serve out the rest of my contract of Inactive Ready Reserves without going to Iraq but the letter for activation finally landed on my doorstep. I have been looking at every military order and presidential order to try to see exactly what my rights are. I came across a presidential order which stated that activation of the IRR to serve in Iraq is in response to the ATTACKS OF 9/11!!! So basically the DOD is telling me they have the right to activate me and send me to Iraq because of this presidential order for mobilizing troops in response to 9/11. And then Bush had the nerve to say he never claimed Iraq and 9/11 were ever linked. He's still using that 9/11 presidential order to send me to Iraq!!!!!
Nobody ever talks about the people who have honorably served their country, get discharged, settle into civilian life, and then over a year later get yanked back out again to go to Iraq in response to the attacks of 9/11. Yeah, Bush made the Army's tours shorter and they're giving them more of a break between tours, but all that means is more people like me who finished the active duty portion of their contract get sucked back in.
IMPEACH!

[Stomcey]

People don't understand or care about the IFF. My husband served 10 years in the USMC and I was a marine corps wife for 8.5 of those years and didn't even know about that until he got out of the military. I am sorry that you are getting sent to Iraq. I wish people cared more about it, but unfortunately people don't care as long as it isn't their son/daughter or spouse. People don't care or understand what it is like for a spouse and their children to stay behind while their loved one is fighting. You not only have the stress of worrying about them 24/7, but the toll it takes on the family that is left behind is huge. A lot of the women I met, and I am on of them, don't have family support and you are in a town where you don't know anyone. The whole situation sucks and nobody cares. They will probably vote McCain for president and continue this war that shouldn't of been fought in the first place. The spin they have put on this war and the ppl who believe it is astounding. The Army tours are just being put back to they way they were originally until Bush screwed them over and made them stay longer. He is the most incompetent, uncaring individual I have ever seen in my life.

[gonavy]

I'm sorry you got called up again. I know it must have been nice when your 4 years of active were up. I remember when mine were up and I assumed I was finished too. I didn't like to fill out those military status update forms every year. Back then the chance of me being recalled was next to 0, but I knew it was possible. If I understand correctly, they can continue to recall you until your 8 year obligation is up.

My husband was on IRR status and just finished the paperwork to go back into the drilling reserves. Now I just wait for the other shoe to drop.

I'm not complaining though, it's who we are and it's what we do.

[PeaceChristBwithU]

Mr. Shaw, have a little more compassion. I don't think the emblem on his shirt has any effect at all on the power of the photo, which is one of the most powerful I have seen on the war. Maybe the dad in question put the shirt on his son before going to the airfield in order to try to explain why he was going to Iraq. I know, the two events - 9/11 and the Iraq War - have nothing to do with one another. But what is this Dad going to say - "I'm going to Iraq to fight a senseless, illegal war which never should have been waged and I might die actually making America less safe?" If Dad feels he must tell his son that he is fighting those responsible for 9/11, maybe he has that right. God Bless those poor kids and their mom and dad. What are we doing to these folks so Bush and McBush don't have to take responsibility for getting us in a war we cannot win, and we can't seem to stop. For those out there that might be interested in military counter-recruitment, look at hooking up with your peace group. We do not need to send our children to fight this war and there are methods that arm our kids to "just say no" to recruitment ads like the one you reference.

[Donald Wolberg]

It is less than satisfactory to demean the service of the men and women of this nation when called upon. It is equally unsatisfactory to use images as political ploys for a perspective of someone who does not serve the nation, especially an image that does make a statement that has been made by generations of Americans who have served. One suspects that the same image would have been recorded in every struggle in which this nation has been involved for the last 300 years. By the same token I suspect there have been arm chair experts and contrarians contemplating the navel of the universe and expressing keen insights that only they have, while others take to the task at hand. One can read of tthe shortcomings of General Washington or President Lincoln or "that damn FDR" or Mr. Truman's view of the world, just about all by folks who allow other people's children to protect their right to complain and survive.

[bimplebean]

Mr. Wolberg:

Nothing here is demeaning of anyone's service. That being said, I take strong exception to your assertion that "It is equally unsatisfactory to use images as political ploys for a perspective of someone who does not serve the nation..." Your implication is that those who do not support this war do not serve this nation. As someone who has served this nation and opposes this war, where do I fit in your tidy little world view?

Whether or not a war is justified we need to fully appreciate the sacrifices made by our service people and their families so we can properly honor them. Such photographs are a vital in either case, for the edification of our populace.

If the war is unjustified, as I believe to be the case, then usage of this powerfully emotional material is a critical part of the discussion we as a nation should be having; it should not be suppressed. We must *always* keenly feel the costs of war; it informs our judgment and stays a rash and unthinking hand.

Regarding your keen dismissal of 'navel gazing,' remember that they also serve who sit and think. More of that would have prevented many of our problems today.

[wmfor]

"just about all by folks who allow other people's children to protect their right to complain and survive."

Nothing against the soldiers, Donald, they go where they are sent. But please tell me how invading Iraq, destroying its infrastructure, plunging it into economic chaos, turning its every town and street into a battlefield--tell me by what stretch of imagination has this protected anyone's right to complain and survive.

Sorry, but Saddam, awful as he was (on a par with some of some that Bush plays footsie with, certainly), was in no way a threat to my right to complain. The Patriot Act--now that was a threat to my rights.

[saami]

I don't care what symbol is on the boy's shirt, it is the pain on the faces of the children and their mother that tears my heart. This war is insane. We must stop this war and impeach Bush and Cheney. It is that simple. Will there be chaos in Iraq? of course, there is chaos now. We made a terrible mistake that is why impeachment for Bush and Cheney with convictions and punishment is so necessary.

[ProWarDem]

Hopefully this family won't see how you are trying to exploit them to draw some attention to your otherwise empty post.

[Jess27]

Well, I will then volunteer pictures from my own personal photo album to show how this unjustified war tears apart families. Why don't you look into my son's face and tell him that you don't care that his father missed his birth becaue he was in Iraq for a year. Look in his face now almost three years later and tell him that you don't care that his stay-at-home mother is getting recalled to go to Iraq for a year. I wish I could upload pictures onto this website so you could see the face of a child who has paid more to this war than most American's.

[habajebe]

If you're so pro war, why aren't you on the front, serving like a real warrior? Or at least pulling down the big bucks as a mercenary. Instead, you're sitting on your dead ass, typing away. How patriotic.

[GrandpaMcCain]

Well, Bush just had to start his little vendetta war, so he could constantly call himself "Commander-In-Chief" and be his very own "war president." To Bush, it's not about these average people. It's all about Junior.

[doug108]

I wouldn't accuse the family of blasphemy. Maybe the dad is a fireman assigned to that unit.

[JackG]

What's your definition of blasphemy? How about a President who says that he talks to God before he lies to the American people to start a war that has killed 4000 of our military.

[JBS]

TALKS to God. Might work better if he tried listening instead.

[fixbone]

i wish these kind of pictures are on the front page of every paper every day - we should feel the pain and understand clearly the cost of our choices

[hubbstan]

Yes people need to see more this like of pictures so the concept of Iraq war or any war is not so abstract. Many worry about how much more money they can make but some are losing their family. Millions spent in wars could have bought peace by building up economy and education at home and for other people.

[pgobrien]

Talk of people in Iraq "volunteering" for service is just silly. Yes, many in the army did just that. But also, many in the army joined for a fixed time and were stop-lossed when their contracts were up. I'm not sure that soldiers down through the ages knew that could happen to them.
But then, most people in the National Guard did not join to go to war. They joined to supplement their incomes, do something good for their communities, participate in the community of other guardsmen and their families, and perhaps earn money for college. There are people in the National Guard in Iraq today who are grandparents, for heaven's sake. They did not establish a lifelong association with the Guard to go off to war.
Does anyone truly doubt that George W. Bush himself joined the National Guard to establish military service without having to go to war? Because as anyone who lived at that time knew, the Guard was NOT going to Vietnam (my brother joined the reserves for the same reason, and guess what, my brother stayed HERE). Talk of so many of our people in Iraq having "volunteered" to go is so disingenuous.

[Donald Wolberg]

Unfortunately, your comments are simply largely less than accurate. Re-enlistment rates for our forces in combat in Iraq and elsewhere are higher than they have been in peacetime. There is a sense of duty and responsiblity to each other and to serve that appears to be lacking in arm chair observers. Secondly, Mr. Bush did serve and National Guard service as a pilot in one of the hottest and dangerous aircraft of its day, the delta-wing interceptor F-106, was no small accomplishment. Mr. Clinton seems to have begun his career of less than accurate statments, you will recall, by rejecting service after he agreed to serve and received a student defferment to a later date, only to renege. Mr.Cheney, "had other things to do," and was no less ready to let others serve. Mr. McCain of course did serve with honor and distinction, and unlike Ms Clinton, really did dodge bullets and rockets. To revisit the past or interpret the present is well and good, but to do so with less than an objective eye further compounds the problem. To claim that people of honor join the National Guard with less than a willingness to serve if called upon, demeans tht service and those individuals.

[muslimarabdude]

i'm willing to bet that no one here would believe you if you claimed that you or any other family member of yours is in the armed services ---- you sound like the chest beating chicken hawks that got this country to be in the mess its in, that have unleashed hell on the people of iraq, and that have USED US military families as fodder for your pro-israeli warmongering ---- go fight in the israeli IDF if you are inclined to be so militaristic - they certainly have their fair share

[pahpah25]

i don't know how old you are..but , during viet nam war............getting into the national guard was almost a guarantee that the person would 'serve' stateside....thats why the 'george bushs' of that time used every bit of influence or'pull' they had access to, to do just that......obviously. bush was successful..and he got to play with a jet! whoppeeeeeee

[bimplebean]

But..but CLINTON.

[Jess27]

Sorry, Don, but you are absolutely wrong. The only reason those re-enlistment numbers are up is because they increased the quotas, and the only reason those quotas are being filled is because they are shelling out HUGE bonuses for re-enlisting (tax free if you re-enlist in Iraq). Some of the bonuses are up to $20,000-$40,000. That's not so easy for some to turn down.

[JBS]

Bush got into the National Guard when there was a waiting list he skipped ahead of.
He was selected for pilot training despite failing the aptitude test.
During his stint in the Texas ANG, he was restricted from flying without an Instructor Pilot because of deteriorating performance before being grounded for failing to appear for a flight physical that included mandatory drug testing.

He was then AWOL for 18 months before being granted a discharge.

He would have received none of these considerable unearned benefits if his father hadn't been a rich congressman and chairman of the Republican National Committee.