WARNING: Take these pictures with a grain of salt. Dan Rather and the CBS News staff have not vouched for their authenticity.
Also, these few pictures do NOT tell the whole story in Iraq. Among 25,000,000 people, an average of at least a half dozen or more per day are being killed by insurgent terrorism, and American or Iraqi government countermeasures.
Do these pictures represent the experience and sentiments of 1% of Iraqis? 10%? 50%? 90%? How can we even judge?
Well, as a fair & balanced reporter, I won't even try. I report, YOU decide.
Also, consider the possibility that these photos are somehow faked, the subjects bribed or threatened. You wanna smile for the camera, or you wanna trip to Abu Gharib?
That said, here are the raw photos for your interpretation. Make of them what you will.
Article comments
1 - Hugh UPton
ten different people emailed me the same montage, all claiming friends mades it.
psych ops?
2 - 1MaNLan
Wow....You reported and I decided...Iraq is, like, Happyland!
3 - RJ
No, you don't understand Al. You're not being nuanced enough.
All Iraqis hate the American occupiers.
Our soldiers and marines are only there to plunder, kill, rape, and torture.
Bush cares nothing about the Iraqi people OR democracy. He merely has an insatiable thirst for oil.
Bush = Hitler.
NeoCons = Nazis.
The "terrorists" in Iraq are actually freedom fighters, who are doing what any brave patriot would do in their situation.
These photos are clearly faked. I know this because I also know that no Iraqi could ever possibly like the Americans in Iraq.
Now that I've talked some sense into you, will you finally admit to being a shill for a corrupt, imperialistic war-mongering administration, and stop pretending to have any shred of basic human decency?
4 - Al Barger
Yes Hugh, let me be clear: I did NOT personally take these photos. They are indeed in circulation on the internet.
This of course adds weight to the theory that these photos could be part of a conspiracy to falsely make people think that some Iraqis are happy about America overthrowing Saddam.
Which leads, of course, to the question everyone should be asking about these photos: What did the Bush administration know, and when did they know it?
5 - SFC Ski
IRaq is a large place, with some 25 million people, the true situation cannot be encapsulated by a few pictures; those photos are part of the story, and I too wish the media would show them as well as the pictures of battle.
I can only speak from my experiences in Iraq, in speaking with many people there I had the overall sense that first and foremost they were happy that Saddam was gone. Many wanted us to stay until those Iraqis who would resist the changes and use violence as a tool to control the Iraqis were defeated. THere were also those who wanted us to leave as soon as possible so men like Al-Sadr could build his Islamic Republic around the holy shrine of Najaf. THere were many who did not want us to allow that either. Many varied positions, but many more wanted to work hard to bring about a free Iraq, where it could be shaped by negotiation and compromise, not by force. To be successful in Iraq we have to first be resolute in out commitment to see this endeavor through to its peaceful democratic outcome; next we must use both the hard power of military force, and the equally hard powewr of economic and infrastructure development, as well as the softer powers of dealing with the Iraqi leadership at the government levels and individuals on the street level to bring lasting results.
I won't deny that there are places where the children wave and smile to the soldiers during the day, but their older relatives go out at night to plant explosives along the roadside. Once again I can only lament that the only stories the media will focus on are of the bloody, awful truth that war is not safe or pretty, a neutral fact, or those stories that show the situation in Iraq as failing, which is only telling one side of the story.
As a sidenote, to get to those supplies to the kids, those Soldiers likely had to button up in their armor and drive through areas where the threat was high, they had to alert and ready to react, but also had to discriminate hostile from non-hostile among the people along the roadsides, and then turn it all off and be all smiles when they accomplish their mission. THat they can do that is also a part of the story that should be told.
6 - Mark Saleski
al and rj look so cute with their pom-poms.
7 - Al Barger
Go, Team America! Rah, rah, rah!
8 - Shark
Sounds like RJ got most of it correct in comment #3.
But regardless of the happy photo 'nation-building' collage, Iraq is and will continue to be a disaster for America. Bush's Blunder. Viet Nam on steroids.
(But I am thrilled to see that our 1200+ dead GIs and our $200 BILLION is providing school supplies for the fundamentalist madrasas. Somebody has to compensate for the loss of our Saudi friends' financing.
Allah be praised!
9 - Temple Stark
I'd bet money "the media" took many of these pictures. Has everyone forgot all the images early on and those that continue now? I'm sorry, it's all important. I'm sorry death and destruction are happening. I'd be sorrier if "the media" was somehow cowed from presenting war as it is. There is great self-censorship going on even so, which in the case of bloody images isn't always a bad thing.
I'm going to be taking on the role of "the media" on my own blog more. Being a reporter and being around people - reporters, bosses - from all political pursuasians at all four of the newspapers where I have worked - this idea that "the media" is inherently biased really gets to me.
I have edited out bias in some stories - a very small amount; and there has been gung-ho conservatism and bleeding heart liberalism excised.
For one, there is rarely any differentiation between TV media (el crapo :) ) , national newspapers, state newspapers and more local dailies and weeklies. not too mention magazines, radio etc etc.
"The media" really is much too simplistic; shorthand though it may be, it's lazy - and wrong.
More on post topic, See also this page.
10 - Temple Stark
any differentiation given ...
11 - Dan
The second photo from the top is the best. I like that little goober in the lower right hand corner. He's got it goin'.
12 - joe
the 4th picture she seems very pleased to hold up the crinkled sheets she wrote. they wood have looked nicer if they had decent paper to write on.. next time have them hold them up before they crumple them.
13 - gerrard
Finally proof, everything is going swell in Iraq! I mean if there were any problems, there's now way that anyone would be able to smile. At last our rushing into war to rid Iraq of WMDs has been proven a good decision beyond all shadow of a doubt. At last I can sleep without thinking that the leadership of our country might have shown bad judgement.
14 - andy marsh
Al - I'm amazed at your photoshop talents!
I want to see the pics of RJ and Al with pom poms...please, no cheerleader outfits though!
15 - danielle
ok I happen to like those pictures...maybe some people are actually happen that there awful muderous dictator is out of power...but im sure that like most muslims they hate americans...
but to blame it all on bush and his administration give me a BREAK....this mess with the mid east has been going on forever....and the clinton administration sat on there ....doing nothing...but getting bj's in the white house...
back to the mid east....we are never going to change all there minds...but maybe we can change a few thinking minds to realize they must have freedom and democracy to be happy...not some terrorists and islamic crazies to run a society...it is not normal...
people said we could not change the former soviet union and we did...america can do anything...good always prevails......
16 - matt
I totally agree.....
17 - dan
oh come on this thing is so untrue,1stly america can only do this :kill with no sympathy,make people suffer,make 'em look good in media oh man good thing im not in iran cus i'll take a mp40 n shoot the lead flying near their ear