Nation & World

<< Previous   of   Next >> Associated Press  (click to enlarge) Marine Lance Cpl. James Blake Miller of Kentucky smokes a cigarette in Fallujah, Iraq, in November 2004. Associated Press  (click to enlarge) President Bush declares the end of major combat in Iraq as he speaks aboard the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln off the California coast on May 1, 2003. Associated Press  (click to enlarge) Saddam Hussein undergoes medical examinations in Baghdad after his capture in December 2003. Associated Press  (click to enlarge) Cpl. Edward Chin of New York places a U.S. flag on the face of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's statue before tearing down it in downtown Baghdad in April 2003. (click to enlarge) Aan unidentified detainee stands on a box with a bag on his head and wires attached to him in this late 2003 file photo at the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad, Iraq.   ADVERTISEMENT   Related Stories • Will Iraq war last another five years? 3/16/08 • Witnessing friend's death drives home true cost of Iraq war 3/16/08 • For some, war has changed little; for some it's changed everything 3/16/08 • Many Iraqis remain exiled from their homes 3/16/08 • Timeline of key events in Iraq 3/16/08 • Al-Qaida in Iraq still deadly 3/15/08 • Iraqi refugees' dreams of home begin to fade 3/19/08 • Everett Iraq war demonstrators never waver 3/19/08 • The war at home: How a faraway fight in Iraq is shaping the people of Snohomish County 3/19/08 • Witnessing friend's death drives home true cost of Iraq war 3/16/08 • Will Iraq war last another five years? 3/16/08 • For some, war has changed little; for some it's changed everything 3/16/08 • Many Iraqis remain exiled from their homes 3/16/08   CONTACT THE HERALD Do you have a news tip? newstips@heraldnet.com | 425.339.3400   Published: Sunday, March 16, 2008 What images will sum up this war? By Jerry Schwartz Associated Press When you close your eyes and think of Iraq, what do you see in your mind's eye? Is it a picture of charred bodies hanging from a bridge over the Euphrates River in Fallujah? Is it a picture of a Marine climbing a massive statue of Saddam Hussein to place an American flag on its face, hours after the fall of Baghdad? Or is it a picture of an Iraqi prisoner standing on a box, arms outstretched with wires attached, a fabric bag covering his head? The images of Iraq are piling up. The pictures are everywhere -- in newspapers, on television, on the Web and, most prominently, in our collective psyche. As much as the body counts and the sad tales of the wounded, as much as the successes and failures in battle, these photographs form the narrative of the past five years. Photography has documented America's wars since Matthew Brady roamed the Civil War battlefields. The tragedy and exaltation of warfare are prime material for the camera, and war itself trumps all other stories. In Iraq, "we've just been flooded with images," says David Perlmutter, associate dean of journalism at the University of Kansas and author of "Visions of War: Picturing Warfare from the Stone Age to the Cyberage." Every war has its pictorial icons, Perlmutter says. The ones that remain fixed in our culture usually reflect the outcome of the war. World War II, a triumph, has Joe Rosenthal's epic picture of Marines raising the flag at Iwo Jima; Vietnam, a disaster, has Eddie Adams' series of pictures of a general executing a Viet Cong prisoner, and Nick Ut's photo of a napalm-drenched, naked young girl running screaming down the road. So what will be the icons of Iraq? Perhaps the tight portrait of a helmeted Marine, his face coated with grime and creased with fatigue, a cigarette dangling from his lips. James Blake Miller came to be known as the "Marlboro Man"; the public followed his story home, to hard times and post-traumatic stress disorder. Perhaps the Abu Ghraib pictures -- snapshots with a chilling immediacy. Or President Bush speaking on the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier, a banner with the premature boast "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED" stretched behind him. Or Saddam Hussein, bleary and bearded after his stay in a hole. And then there are the coffins. In the early days of the war, authorities forbade photographs of transports loaded with flag-draped coffins. But the conflict continued, and photos of caskets have become commonplace as the funerals go on and on.

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