Sunday, January 2, 2005

They're our boys

The Under Mars website contains almost 1,000 photos sent in by military personnel in Iraq. It provides a completely unfiltered view of life on the ground, with neither the Pentagon nor the press getting to decide what is shown.

The photos include soldiers posing, horsing around, taking leaks, catching some Z's, attending religious service, and on maneuvers. Others capture sunsets, weapons caches, sandstorms, tanks, blown-up tanks, locals, palace interiors, and found jewelry. One very striking photo shows a soldier with Psalm 21 23 written on his helmet.

The most controversial photos start in Gallery 52 and run for several pages. We see the broken, bloodied bodies - and body parts - of Iraqis. This photo and this one show that someone has stuck a glow-stick in the skull of one dead man.

The thumbnail versions of most images contain a caption written by the person who sent the picture (the front page of Under Mars asks personnel to send photos "along with any note you'd like included with them."), such as "plastic surgery needed," "ok ok, i got it, you a dead iraqi, i love shardes [charades]," "damer [Jeffrey Dahmer] buffet," and "does this death make me look fat."

That's from MemoryBlog. The link is here. Each of the photos described in this blog are provided with an embedded link. (The link for Under Mars is also provided.) There are a few of the photos offered directly in the MemoryBlog post. Gruesome and cold-hearted.

Support our troops.

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