Lindsay Beyerstein thinks its the picture of horrifically burned Marine veteran Ty Ziegel on his wedding day. Of course, that probably helps portray her personal take on the war. Yes, that is a terrible tragedy, a young man disfigured for life.
But there are millions of images that record the tragedy of war. War, however evil, can be the lesser of two evils. For all war’s suffering, war can help alleviate suffering and can help stop more pain by killing the evil doers who would victimize innocents.
I prefer an image that portrays the heroism of our troops, as they rescue and protect those who cannot protect themselves, a true image of America and her soldiers throughout our history.
I have no idea why bloggers hide their personal contact in some obscure hole instead of having a decent Nav menu with CONTACT in the top 5 at least, but I left her this comment on her own blog:
Well, on Tom Terrific they have no contact for you so I googled you and come here, once again you’ve hidden your contact somewhere, so I’ll post in the comments I guess. Sorry to derail.On this post:
http://thismodernworld.com/
you talk about
“the Iraq war’s most famous photo”.You are incorrect. Of course, to fit your agenda, a badly burned Marine would be your choice. But its not the choice of 70% of Time readers, and I suspect if you put it to a vote, the country at large.
Its a photo showing the hope and goodness of our mission against terrible people in defence of the defenceless:
On May 2, 2005, Yon took a picture of U.S. Army Major Mark Bieger cradling an Iraqi girl wounded by shrapnel from a car bomb. Major Bieger tried to bring the girl to an American hospital to receive treatment but she died on the helicopter ride. The photo was submitted to TIME magazine; it was subsequently selected by TIME website viewers as the top photo of 2005, receiving nearly 70% of the vote.It’s here if you would like to see it.
https://web.archive.org/web/20171119020037/https://www.michaelyon-online.com/
(I won’t post it out of respect for Yon, too many have pirated the pic without his permission already).Its heartbreaking, yet inspiring too. I love that Marine, and the one in the photo you mention as well, and all of them. But I like this photo better because it shows the people that the Marines, like the one in your pic, are sacrificing for. It gives context. I suspect you prefer to show only the horror of deformity and not the savagery of our enemies as Marines try to save their victims. In its, way Yon’s photo is a net positive. The car bombs would still go off, but there would be no Marine to save any of those children, nor punish their killers, were the US not there to intervene.
The war in Iraq is an absolute good, because it has the potential to improve the lives of 100’s of millions under tyranny in the Mid-East. Like the battle of Gettysburg or the invasion of Normandy, it comes with terrible cost, but its necessary, and has to be done to spare worse. Its an honorable war, it was won with efficiancy and relatively small cost, and the pacification continues. We have been in Korea, Japan, Germany, Kosovo, etc. for much longer after a war. These things take time and the only thing that can defeat us is giving in to the defeatist isolationist who would have us abandon people like this little girl.
God bless our Marines.
Good luck to you
-d