Times like this I'm glad I don't have a rifle handy, 24/7

[pecunium]

Despite my opinions of the overall effect of our the Mess-in-potamia, I happen to think most of the soldiers are doing their best (I may have some bias in that view) and that not all which happens is bad. I'm of a mixed mind on how to cover it, because, on the whole, I think we're fucked and covering all the good, might make it worse, because it will eclipse the bad.

I know the counter-argument... covering the bad without giving the good, at least, equal weight, makes it less likely we'll manage to save this goat-rope. Without a crystal ball, allowing me to see which has more merit (the good, or the ill) I'd have to say I want us out sooner rather than later, because I see no good end.

But I'll grant the right, even the duty of those who hold the opposite view to score what points they can with the good (just don't talk to me about building schools. I will come and scream at you... no I won't detail that, but it's a sore point).

But that does not give anyone the right to twist facts, for any purpose.

Which brings me to this.



This is obviously photoshopped. I suspect I could do better. It's disturbing, in this version, because of the nitrile gloves. Most people are only familiar with them from shots of Abu Ghraib.

So, noodling around a bit I found this version... still photoshopped, but less bothersome (and lacking the propagandistic message)



Then we get a link to the original



That's a good picture, One might even run it with the propagandistic slogans and while I'd find it heavy handed, it isn't bothersome, until one reads the cutline.

Photo by Hayne Palmour/North County Times
Navy Corpsman Richard Barnett of Camarilo, Calif. checks the heart of a young Iraqi boy as other Navy medics treat the boy's older sister, right, after the two children and their family were caught in a crossfire between US Marines and Iraqi soldiers just outside of a Marine encampment in central Iraq on Saturday, March 29, 2003. The boy was not injured. His sister, who received gunshot wounds, was expected to survive. The father was wounded and the mother was killed in the gun battle. "If anything good comes from this nonsense, I haven't seen it yet," said Barnett after the two children and their father were taken away for a medivac helicopter.

So, how glad do you think she is that we're there? And how would Barnett feel if he knew how his picture of this event was being used?

I know how I'd feel, were it me.

Comments

There was a long thing on dKos about this

[bellatrys.livejournal.com]

several diary entries a couple days ago, where some of the commenters mixed it up with the artist and had posted her defenses of the changes, and were trying to get her to see why it was ... problematic ... to do this. I've been tied up at work lately, and then my computer was not working right, so I never saw the end of that, though.

I've been following the career of retired Marine Sgt. Jimmy Massey, who was one of the first to speak out publically against the random shooting of civilians. (I left him and his family an encouraging message early on, fearful of the retaliation of Freepers against him and his.) He's now an active anti-recruiter - far from being cowed by opposition (or depression), he's getting louder.

Re: There was a long thing on dKos about this

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

The end of it seems to be her pulling the item altogether.

But the problem is, of course, that others have grabbed it, and now it lives beyond her.

TK