Soldiers photos / Iraq

[hankg]

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These are great - thank you for sharing. The distorted abstracts help set he mood in this photo essay.

 

In some odd way I envy your available subject matter, however weird that may sound. I don't misunderstand the circumstances in which these were taken.

 

Just to be clear. These are not my photographs. They are the photos of an American serviceman in Iraq.

 

As to 'liberal politics'. I'd like to be spared the politicians who use 'support the troops' as a campaign slogan for their personal gain. The politicians who got us into this war claim it's WWIII and the war on terror is the defining challenge of our generation. Well I know how we won WWII. We drafted every military age male, converted the car factories to producing tanks, rationed gasoline and sent everything we had, armed with everything we could produce. That's how you win a war.

 

Do these guys believe their own BS? Not based on the way they have run this war, no one could be this incompetent. Can you imagine a presidential candidate in WWII with five draft age sons and not one serving on the front? I can't believe they have gotten away with it for as long they have. But it looks like the public has discovered the emperor has no clothes -now if the so called opposition politicians would find there spines maybe we can bring this monumental screw-up to an end.

[carstenw]

Even Ghandi was no saint.

 

I tried once to read his autobiography, and was hugely disappointed. He did not appear particularly intelligent and made most of his decisions based on simple pedanticism, according to the book. This was one of the few books in my life I have not read to the end. I have always intended to try once more, to see if he got better later on, but I really have little desire. I respect what he accomplished, and his method of getting there, but that is where it ends. I have way more respect for other leaders, such as the Dalai Lama.

[carstenw]

Jezzz...You guys are good photographers but spare me the liberal politics.

 

I love the way republicans speak of liberals as a disease, and not just an alternative viewpoint, and stay loyal to the party even when an unnatural disaster like Bush gets "elected". I will never understand why honest republicans support a dishonest president, and even deny that he is dishonest.

 

If Bush hadn't exported his ridiculous opinions, I am sure no one would care about him. It is the fact that he treats the world as his playground, and the heavy-handed and simplistic way his foreign policy runs which has made sure that he has no friends anywhere. Even the British are fed up with him.

 

You are aware that he is in actual fact a war criminal right? Does this mean nothing to you?

 

I can feel this thread locking up as we speak, like the onset of rigour mortis.

[mwalker649]

I love the way republicans speak of liberals as a disease, and not just an alternative viewpoint, and stay loyal to the party even when an unnatural disaster like Bush gets "elected". I will never understand why honest republicans support a dishonest president, and even deny that he is dishonest.

 

If Bush hadn't exported his ridiculous opinions, I am sure no one would care about him. It is the fact that he treats the world as his playground, and the heavy-handed and simplistic way his foreign policy runs which has made sure that he has no friends anywhere. Even the British are fed up with him.

 

You are aware that he is in actual fact a war criminal right? Does this mean nothing to you?

 

I can feel this thread locking up as we speak, like the onset of rigour mortis.

 

 

I have a son thats been in Iraq and will probably be deployed again soon. I understand why he is there. I would rather discuss photography with you and remain Internet friends. I disagree with you politically. Lets leave it there.

[hankg]

I have a son thats been in Iraq and will probably be deployed again soon. I understand why he is there. I would rather discuss photography with you and remain Internet friends. I disagree with you politically. Lets leave it there.

 

Well Mike I hope your son gets through this safely and I hope the same for all the others deployed. I also hope that the Iraqis can be left to sort this out sooner rather then later as they are the only ones who can resolve the problems in their own country. That's why when they poll Iraqis a large majority want us gone. They have watched the situation get worse each month for more then 4 years of occupation and they know they won't be able to sort this out as long as we are there.

 

On the politics we can agree to disagree and get back to photography.

[carstenw]

I have a son thats been in Iraq and will probably be deployed again soon. I understand why he is there. I would rather discuss photography with you and remain Internet friends. I disagree with you politically. Lets leave it there.

Okay, deal. I am used to having different opinions about politics with various friends. It was the "liberal politics" comment which set me off. I don't understand why politics is such a vicious thing in the States, to be honest. My friends and I vote for three or four different parties, parties which are more different than the Republicans and the Democrats, yet we can discuss politics and remain civil (most of the time).

[hankg]

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For anyone interested in the photographer/soldier behind the photos he is participating in a thread about his images over at Lightstalkers:

 

A soldier's pictures of Iraq | Lightstalkers

[Guest sirvine]

It's extremely important to remember that the Bush administration does not represent most Americans -- even those of us who support military action in the Middle East. It is equally important to remember that politics is necessarily geared to the lowest common denominator, while the business of governance is often a matter of careful consideration by highly experienced and intelligent people, and that there is a very large gap between the two. It is a major (I cannot emphasize enough--major) mistake to associate America's Middle East policy with the bozo figurehead who attends photo opportunities in the guise of President.

 

I would encourage anyone with an open mind to read this Wikipedia entry (as just one convenient source) and draw their own conclusions about whether the issues faced in the Near and Middle East today are anything different from the issues that nascent America faced in the region in the late 18th century: First Barbary War - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

And setting foreign policy of nations aside, this soldier's flickr account is an excellent example of how individual men cope with the pressures imposed by mankind's collective will, both from his perspective, that of his colleagues, and that of the local community in Iraq.

[guywalder]

Sol,

I beg to differ, Bush Does repreasent All Americans (or rather all citizens of the US). That is, after all, the whole point of a democratically elected leader. Similarly Blair was representing all Britons when he trotted along with the illconcieved, if not downright illegal war, despite there being a clear majority of Britons opposed to the war.

He may not represent your views, but he most certainly does represent you.

Guy

[larry]

Considering that Bush routinely employs the phrase "my government," it could be argued that we've been excluded from any sort of representation. It could also be argued that he was never legally elected -- but I suppose that's another wound that doesn't need more salt poured on it.

 

Larry

[Guest sirvine]

Guy:

 

United States Electoral College - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

'Nuff said.

[hankg]

Getting back to this guy's photography. He has ambitions to be a photojournalist when he get's out. I think he did some news work before signing up. Based on his writing and photo's I'd say he has a future. His most recent entry was worth reading.

[grober]

While we hunch over our keyboards in air-conditioned splendor, sucking in the many benefits of FREEDOM, don't ever forget that all this was provided to us at a very great price.

 

Thank you for reminding me how much I personally owe to the young men and women now standing on the front lines of freedom in Irag and Afganistan. FREEDOM isn't -- and never was -- FREE!

 

Let's help these folks every way we can when they return to the States and seek their fortunes after they finish their respective tours with the military.

 

Semper Fi, Brother and Sister Marines; Semper Fi.

 

-g

[carstenw]

Freedom is a great thing, but I feel somewhat jaded when ruminating over the choice of countries to attack, since these were not the worst countries in the world (look anywhere in central Africa for much worse places which the States has no interest in helping out), but they may well have been the countries with the best (oil/gas * lack of freedom) / (military power) ratios.

 

Anyway, I thought we were leaving the politics on the sidelines?

[S. Wong]

While I was in college, one of my friends in the USMC reserves was called to war, and he has been to both Afghanistan and Iraq, for three deployments.

Another guy in an accounting class has been over once, and was planning on going to OCS after graduation.

 

Both looked forward to returning, with a bit of fear, but proud. The second guy showed me a bunch of pictures he had taken, and everyone was smiling, or smoking

 

I did not go to a conservative school, but there were those willing to go to war to keep these Islamic nuts dying in the desert vs killing us on campus

I have looked into joining the USMC as an officer, but have been discouraged by the USMC due to a possible food allergy

 

I realize that I have just profiled the entirety of the war, against the wishes of my President, whom I've voted for 2x. I'm not proud of many decisions that he has made, but that is for a different forum.

 

I am humbled by the sacrifices of the US Military, and all those who fight for the security of the civilized world. Semper Fi, my friends

-Steven

[charlesphoto99]

"I did not go to a conservative school, but there were those willing to go to war to keep these Islamic nuts dying in the desert vs killing us on campus"

 

Ha! Who needs Islamic nuts when we have stupidly lax gun control and a jaded sick society that no one is taking care of because we're too busy fighting dumb wars overseas. Fear of the other is so much easier than looking at the rot inside. Heaven help us....

[carstenw]

Steven, these wars are not going to stop an "islamic nut" from boarding an airplane and travelling to the States. There is no way to stop that.

 

I would guess that obesity is still killing more Americans than terrorists do. How about bombing McDonald's?

[guywalder]

the problem is not the military, although they seem to create problems of their own once deployed!! The problem is the political decision to deploy troops, ie us the force of arms, when it was neither appropriate or (probably) even legal.

This is not, and never was, about freedom. God knows the US were happy to sell weapons to Hussain a few years ago, go look for the picture of a grinning Rumsfeld greeting Hussain in Bagdad in 1983, he was there to sell weapons, weapons to be used by Hussain against Iran, and later against Iraqi kurds. They were also happy to walk away from the kurds having excited them to revolt after the war in 1991.

The US were, along with others and in particular the UK, complicit in breaking international law during the decade and more that Iraq was under sanctions. Sanctions that brought the country and the Iraqi people to their knees, but not of course the Iraqi leadership. Despite the devastating effect of a decade of stringent sanctions (no pens allowed to be imported, as one of the constituents of ink could be used in chemical weapons) since 2003 most measures show that Iraq is worse off, worse for infant mortality, for educations, healthcare etc etc, and for goodness sake dont mention Guantanamo or Abu Ghraib!

Oh and by the way, there never was ANY connection between Iraq and the attack in new york.

By the way, if terrorism is such a problem, why were the IRA able to collect cash on US city streets in order to fund terrorist attacks in ireland and the UK?? Having been in oxford street the day it was bombed all those years ago, I'm curious...

[carstenw]

What bothers me the most about attacking Iraq is that this was the one Arab country (perhaps apart from Dubai, and some other tiny countries, I simply don't know) where women had equal rights, where education was promoted for everyone, where modern values were in place, and where apart from the occasional disappearing/tortured person, everything seemed like a relatively normal country.

 

If one must really attack some country in the middle east for violation of human rights, or for connections to terrorists, then almost any other middle eastern country would have been a better target, including Syria and Iran, but probably not including Jordan. The whole story was just a sham, from beginning to end, and it was always clear that oil played a major part in the choice. Seeing the way the oil professionals moved in after the war was won was sickening. It wasn't even being hidden. Iraq's sending rockets into Israel probably also helped singling it out for war, even though as far as I am aware, Iran was always considered *the* enemy in Israel, not Iraq.

 

Yes, Saddam Hussein was a monster, but there were lots of bigger fishes to be fried, and Saddam's near total lack of terrorist connections was so obvious to anyone with access to a relatively unbiased news system.

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Hallo,

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