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Born at the Crest of the Empire

Thursday, January 19, 2006

Picture of the Day - 3 - The Missing Picture of Iraq

Those of you who have been around here awhile know that I am an absolute picture junkie. I search the news services for news pictures and collect them. I don't know why, I just do.

So, I wanted to take a moment to make a point about a picture that's not there right now.

Over the last couple of months, there have been a decreasing number of Iraq "action shots" in the western press. You know, the embedded photographer taking action shots of US or British forces in action.

Since the first of the year, I haven't seen any of these "action shots" off any of the wire services.

It's completely understandable, but I think that there's a powerful statement there about just how bad Iraq has become. What does it say if the "war correspondents" of the NYTimes, AP, AFP, UPI and Reuters who have worked in Liberia and the Ivory Coast, Rwanda and the Congo, Bosnia, Serbia, and Croatia, believe that Iraq is too dangerous for them to travel even within an escort of US forces?

Tell me again about the good news.

posted by mikevotes at 5:21 PM

4 Comments:

  • Oh quit you're belly achin'! We're turnin' the corner on these dead enders and Jee-hadist. Iraq is on it's way to be a prime tourism spot for Americans wanting to see the cradle of civilization. We can wait to see pictures of Iraqi flower gardens and monuments to George Bush when we vacation there next year.

    By Blogger Yukkione, at 5:47 PM  

  • did you ever get round to checking the photo's at robert fisks place?

    here they are

    By Blogger michael the tubthumper, at 5:45 AM  

  • No, Michael, I didn't. I bookmarked it meaning to go back later, but got busy and forgot about it. Thanks for the link and reminder.

    I'll go trolling through them today..

    Mike

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 11:12 AM  

  • Michael, those are some amazing pictures. They're a pretty good window of the level of violence inflicted on the civilians. I won't use alot of them because they're so bloody, I generally don't like to use bloody pictures, but there are alot there that are pretty amazing.

    It reminds me of crisispictures.org, well worth a visit. On the spot, compelling, but showing the true brutality of war.

    As an explanation, I use my impressions of my Aunt as my taste police. She comes by every few days, and I try not to put anything up that would alienate her and make her turn away. I've thought about starting a second blog for these "real" pictures of Iraq, but I'm always torn by not wanting to exploit these poor victims of violence for my political arguments. So, I haven't done it.

    Thanks for the link. it really is a good resource. I think I'm gonna put the question up as a post.

    Mike

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 2:05 PM  

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