images of war

Take a good look. A good, long, look. The images I posted below are rare, and yet this happens nearly every week. So far, over 4,000 American soldiers have died in Bush's preemptive, illegal, unconstitutional, unprovoked, and unwarranted attack and occupation of Iraq. Not even the Iraqis want the US to be there (they've asked several times for total withdrawal, and have even set a timetable - by the year 2010). The odd thing is that since the invention of the camera and photographs, the US has not been in the business of displaying its images of war in any big way. The following photographs were reluctantly released. The images are gruesome, but I think they serve the war time effort very well, and have a rightful place here at the Home Plate.

I decided to post them so that that number - 4,000 - finally kicked me in the ass once I saw these photographs. I suppose it conjures up more emotion from me knowing that an innocent potato farmer's son from Idaho, or a young girl who needed help paying for college to earn an education degree, or the son of a Midwestern mechanic who wanted to serve his country all met their end in Iraq, and all because a president lied to his country, duped the Congress into backing it, and despite all the revelations that have come to light showing us that indeed he did lie about starting this terrible act of war, he continues to remain stubborn and obdurate in his resolve to keep the damn thing going. How many more Americans will die at the hands of the neo-conservatives' quest for empire?

Click on each image to see high-resolution versions. The second image is of the American attack on Al Tafar; this young boys' parents were killed by American soldiers.