Pointing and Shooting

Some recent photos from markets in Basra, Iraq:

The two above are from the London Times, and are captioned "Now the tide of fundamentalism which swept in when the Shia militias enforced their brand of Islam appears to have been turned back. Citizens report that music stores are reopening, fashionable clothes are being worn again, and people are holding parties."

But this one is from the New York Times:

Its caption reads "A young boy slept on his mother`s shoulder as she shopped in the Jaezeri market in downtown Basra. The government`s success in Basra may not have been so much a victory as heavy fighting followed by a truce that allowed militias to melt away with their weapons."

You can tell by the grim looks and by the photographer's use of black and white that such must be the case.

Its from a park, not a market, but here's another baby photo from Basra

This one came from the Washington Post. "Families picnic on the weekend at a small neighborhood amusement park in Basra." The caption reads. "The park was closed for weeks in April amid violence in Basra."

Someone had best get them a subscription to the New York Times soon - then they could see dark and grainy photos like this one:

"Iraqi soldiers," the caption reads, "inside a warehouse compound, repelled several attacks by the Mahdi Army, the militia of the anti-American Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr, on the site."

Is that good news, or bad?

The answer depends on you. Point your camera in another direction, switch to color, and you'll capture images of Iraqi soldiers like this one from the Washington Post:

Here's a close up, along with a similar photo from the London Times

There's something for everyone in Basra (and Baghdad, London, Detroit and DC, too). You can get photos that show stark reality, and others that are suitable for viewing by readers of the NY Times. Gloomy grim and black and white or in vibrant living color - unless you're actually there how you see Iraq depends on lenses and filters. Not necessarily those used by photographers - some are selected for you by helpful editors or political leaders - while others might be of your own choosing.

This applies:

"...a doomsayer is a person with a serious point of view, someone who is to be respected. And ...a doomslayer is a crackpot who needs to be taken down a peg.

In the end, it isn't just the optimists who need to be taken down a peg, it is all of humanity.

I attempted to explain that in a different context myself, from Baghdad last year.

I suppose there could be another sub-genre of science fiction: the bleak future that didn't happen. Watch almost any pre-Star Wars sci-fi films of the 70's - Silent Running, Soylent Green, Logan's Run, et al - and you'll see examples what I mean.

Of course, one can't consign such stories into that category ahead of time, right?

And anyhow, perhaps the authors were just off by a few years in timing. We still have a future in which any number of things can happen.

For instance, did you know the Earth was getting hotter?
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No matter how many works of science fiction prove faulty at predicting a disastrous future, people will eagerly consume the next pronouncement of doom. There's a market for such things. There are people who thrive on imagining a future hell.

In the 70's it was nuclear war, overpopulation, pollution, and numerous other threats to all mankind that distracted our attention from that which was truly important. By the early 90's it was the economy, stupid, that was going to bring us down.

But surely this is cause for hope: "The New York Times has made a startling discovery: things are much improved in Iraq."

Just ignore the photos above. And Frank Rich's New York Times opinion piece:

THE Iraq war’s defenders like to bash the press for pushing the bad news and ignoring the good. Maybe they’ll be happy to hear that the bad news doesn’t rate anymore. When a bomb killed at least 51 Iraqis at a Baghdad market on Tuesday, ending an extended run of relative calm, only one of the three network newscasts (NBC’s) even bothered to mention it.

The G.O.P.’s badgering of Mr. Obama about the war is also backfiring. In sync with Mr. McCain, the Republican National Committee unveiled an online clock — “Track How Long Since Obama Was in Iraq!” — only to have Mr. Obama call the bluff by announcing that he will go to both Afghanistan and Iraq before the election. Unless he takes along his own Lieberman-like Jiminy Cricket to whisper factual corrections into his ear, this trip is likely to enhance his stature as a potential commander in chief.

"What I hope we don’t hear from General Petraeus next week is any glorification of what has just happened in Basra..."
Nancy Pelosi fires a warning shot at General David Petraeus, April 3, 2008

She could perhaps be excused if she only gets her news from American sources. Media outlets in countries that aren't having presidential elections this year continued to cover the Basra story long after her declaration of failure.

But then Nancy Pelosi went to Iraq.

BAGHDAD (AP) — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a top Democratic critic of the U.S.-led war in Iraq, expressed confidence during a visit to Iraq Saturday that expected provincial elections will promote national reconciliation.

Pelosi, who led a bipartisan congressional delegation to Baghdad, spoke after the group met with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker and Gen. David Petraeus, the top American commander in Iraq.

She welcomed Iraq's progress in passing a budget as well as oil legislation and a bill paving the way for provincial elections in the fall that are expected to more equitably redistribute power among local officials.

She said the visit was to "pay our respects to our troops and at the same time learn more about what the situation is on the ground here."

Pelosi also was hopeful about the upcoming elections after meeting with Iraq's Sunni parliamentary speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani.

"We're assured sure the elections will happen here, they will be transparent, they will be inclusive and they will take Iraq closer to the reconciliation we all want it to have," she said.

In an interview yesterday with the San Francisco Chronicle, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi claimed the U.S. troop surge failed to accomplish its goal. She then partially credited the success of the troop surge to “the goodwill of the Iranians,” claiming that they were responsible for ending violence in the southern city of Basra.

Asked if she saw any evidence of the surge’s positive impact on her May 17 trip to Iraq she responded:

Well, the purpose of the surge was to provide a secure space, a time for the political change to occur to accomplish the reconciliation. That didn’t happen. Whatever the military success, and progress that may have been made, the surge didn’t accomplish its goal. And some of the success of the surge is that the goodwill of the Iranians-they decided in Basra when the fighting would end, they negotiated that cessation of hostilities-the Iranians.

Then, last week, as the House passed a bill funding the war in Iraq (268-155, 19 not voting), Pelosi voted against it, and declared:

Mr. Speaker, I’m sorry I cannot fully participate in all of the camaraderie that is accompanying this legislation because of the huge amount of money that is in this bill to fund the war in Iraq without any conditions, without any limitation on time spent there.
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President Bush started a war based on a false premise. He sent our troops into a situation that he didn’t know what he was getting into. The philosopher Hannah Arendt once observed that nations are driven by the endless flywheel of violence believing that one last, one final violent gesture will bring peace. But, each time they sow the seeds for more violence. Five years later we are still engaged in the war in Iraq. Two years longer than we were in World War II. And that has come at a very great cost. The costs are clear, of course, and we all mourn: 4,100 of our troops have lost their lives in battle; tens of thousands of our troops injured, many of them permanently.

Because Nancy went to Iraq, and came back:

“Over Memorial Day, I visited our troops in Iraq with some of our colleagues and it was my sixth trip into the theatre. And what they asked me was what they always asked: ‘What’s going to happen to us when we go home?’ And for a long time on those visits, I didn’t have an answer that I could be pleased to tell them.

And Barack Hussein Obama says he's going to follow in her footsteps.

Part two here.