by Trish Nelson


Des
Moines Register columnist David Yepsen devoted his Sunday column to the
“powerful images” in the media lasf week surrounding the Iraqi
election.  Gushing with patriotic fervor, Mr. Yepsen bloviates
that the week in pictures demonstrates once and for all how the
suffering is SO worth it!  Finding “solace” in images of hugs and
ink-dipped fingers, Mr. Yepsen suggests that those who have lost loved
ones in the war can find comfort in these images as well.  

 

I have
to agree with David Yepsen on one point.  Last week was indeed a
week of images.  In fact, it's been almost two long years of images, starting
with a staged public relations event, the toppling of the Saddam
Hussein statue (remember that?) which was orchestrated by a
U.S. public relations firm (The Rendon Group) in order to sell the war
to the American people.  Great pre-fab photo op that was. Utterly
inspiring it would have been, had it been real.

 

And what
about that doctored picture of the little girl on the American
soldier's lap, looking adoringly up into his face, (found on a website
owned by the chair of the Republican party in Hamilton County,
Iowa)?  In order to conceal the fact that this little girl
had just been wounded (her father was also wounded and her mother was killed), the image of her real
facial expression was erased and a happier expression
superimposed.  What the soldier in the picture actually said about
this incident was, “If anything good comes from this nonsense, I
haven't seen it yet.”  Everybody happy?  Not so much. 

And of course, the most ironic photo op of all, the “Mission
Accomplished” hoax, designed to make it look like the war was over,
supposedly marking the end of major combat operations, but in reality
it was the opening ceremonies for the rest of the war.