It Was Written on the Latrine Wall

I dug up this photo because it seemed fitting. It was taken by photojournalist Zoriah Miller, who was embedded with the Marines. Most of Zoriah's photos are heartbreaking.

Terrorism is the Military of Countries That Cannot Afford a Military

That's a potent observation.
Today, 77 palestinians were wiped off the map, many children. I wonder if the Israelis and Palestinians, and the U.S. for that matter, will ever realize that no one ever wins a war.
More from Zoriah Miller, a photojournalist who specializes in showing how war affects people:

Palestinians and Hamas leaders living in the Gaza Strip believe it is their right to defend themselves from Israel, who they see as agressors. Many Palestinians see no difference between a Palestinian suicide bomber detonating themselves on bus and a high-tech Israeli rocket landing in one of their schools. Both result in the loss of human life, many being civilians. On my first trip to Gaza a man told me something that has stuck with me, "Terrorism is the military of countries that cannot afford a military." There are always two sides to every story. With both sides labeling each other the agressor, vowing to cease fire only after the other side does, it seems to be a desperate situation that will, as usual, make innocent individuals pay the highest price.

This is horrifying:

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McCain's Listless Campaign

Latrine graffiti by Iraq war photojournalist Zoriah Miller

WaPo: But now, seemingly all of a sudden, conservatives are the ones who are tongue-tied, as demonstrated by Sen. John McCain's limping, message-free presidential campaign. McCain's ongoing difficulties in exciting voters aren't just a tactical problem; his woes stem largely from his long-standing adherence to a set of ideas that simply haven't worked in practice. The belief system and finely crafted policy pitches that enabled the right to dominate the war of ideas for the past 30 years have produced a relentless succession of governing failures, from Iraq to Katrina to the economy to the environment.
....

One can see the results in recent headlines: a Justice Department where non-conservatives need not apply; tainted spinach, jalapeño peppers and pet food; dangerous imported toys; poorly enforced environmental laws and a warming planet; the regulatory failures that led to the subprime mortgage fiasco. Meanwhile, large tax cuts (as under Reagan) have weakened the country's fiscal health without significantly improving the lot of the vast majority of citizens. And the right's enthusiasm for Bush's brand of "benevolent hegemony" in foreign policy, which insists on the U.S. right to wage preventive war and dismisses the United Nations as a band of meddlesome bureaucrats, has weakened our security -- most notably through the unnecessary calamity in Iraq -- by diluting our military capabilities and diverting their focus from genuine threats from al-Qaeda.

Why McCain can't rally his base.
McCain in Florida. Huh? Watch the eyebrows of Florida Gov. Charlie Crist

Now, a not so funny look at the Iraq carnage, a war that should've never been fought. These photos are by Zoriah Miller, who was Un-embedded with the Marines. These are NOT the worst of the photos. It's my contention that if we are going to be fighting a war, we should know the realities. Then we might not be so hasty next time. 

Bush Sanitized War By Censoring Photos

NYT: While the Bush administration faced criticism for overt political manipulation in not permitting photos of flag-draped coffins, the issue is more emotional on the battlefield: local military commanders worry about security in publishing images of the American dead as well as an affront to the dignity of fallen comrades. Most newspapers refuse to publish such pictures as a matter of policy.

But opponents of the war, civil liberties advocates and journalists argue that the public portrayal of the war is being sanitized and that Americans who choose to do so have the right to see — in whatever medium — the human cost of a war that polls consistently show is unpopular with Americans.

Journalists say it is now harder, or harder than in the earlier years, to accompany troops in Iraq on combat missions. Even memorial services for killed soldiers, once routinely open, are increasingly off limits. Detainees were widely photographed in the early years of the war, but the Department of Defense, citing prisoners’ rights, has recently stopped that practice as well.

4,000 soldiers dead, 90,000 Iraqis dead.
Independent photog Zoriah Miller's photos will break your heart. Zoriah's blog.

The military eventually tossed Zoriah out of a Marine unit for documenting the war.

These photos are graphic and hard to look at but maybe we should all see them and wonder what the hell? 

Why did we let Bush and his war mongers drag us into a war that didn't need to be fought. No wonder soldiers are coming back with PTSD.

We ought to be outraged. But ultimately, it isn't Bush's fault. It's ours. We elected him. We let it happen.