Can't Give This War Away

Book Review: "City of Scoundrels," by Gary Krist.

Obviously not Iraq related, but "City of Scoundrels: The 12 Days of Disaster that Gave Birth to Modern Chicago" presents an always-relevant story of early-1900s US history.

It describes a 1919 race riot that, while not "worse" than other riots of the era should depress readers all the same.

For all our 2012 confusion about why Sunni and Shia tribal groups in Iraq can't "get along," it's worth noting that the US has been no stranger to ethnic cleansing and massacres - forget the discrimination, it was often much worse than that. It may not be happening in 2012, but the fact that the African-American community was kept down so long from 1870-1960, and was often unable to put down roots in neighborhoods, towns and cities (except for the slums), is what has required affirmative action in more modern times. 

Krist's narrative deals only with Chicago's "present" of 1919, not the future results. But to appreciate where the US has arrived as of 2012, readers should spend some time with these past accounts.

It's a good job. It doesn't always have the storytelling panache of Erik Larson's well-known "Devil in the White City," but fits into the timeline all the same.

From The Guardian: "The Shot That Nearly Killed Me: War Photographers"

From the UK's Guardian newspaper comes this powerful, graphic and harsh retrospective on the moments that, for a series of top-flight war photographers, almost went the wrong way.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jun/18/war-photographers-special-report?fb=native

It includes the work of Ashley Gilbertson, Joao Silva, and my too-brief friend at Ali Al Salem in Kuwait, John D. McHugh. As well as many others.

The last couple weeks have seen the tragic deaths of journalists Marie Colvin, Remi Ochlik, and Anthony Shadid in Syria. Chris Hondros and Tim Hetherington died in Libya before that. 

Joao Silva lost his legs in a mine explosion, McHugh was shot, and a mission organized so Gilbertson could take pictures of a dead insurgent directly led to the death of a soldier he was accompanying. Death waits everywhere.

There was no shot that nearly killed me, but a mortar shell landed a T-Wall's distance away, the difference between putting the firing plate here, instead of there. But everything's all a little bit of this, or a little bit of that.

Like one of the soldiers laughed to me afterwards, "It's good to have a close call. It will make your stories more interesting."

Coming Soon - "Fobbit" by David Abrams...the truest war stories are the ones they call 'fiction'

"Naked and the Dead" by Normal Mailer appeared in 1948, and is regarded as one of the classic works of World War II fiction, maybe the top book of all. Tim O'Brien's "Going After Cacciato" was published in 1979, and while it's not a classic on everyone's tongue, it's certainly a well-regarded, award-winning fictional take on Vietnam.

Who knows where David Abrams' upcoming "Fobbit" will fit in. Time will tell. It's scheduled for a September, 2012 release, and I can't wait. 

From just short excerpts and some personal perspective of the topic and writer's background, I have high hopes.

Conflict Zone in New York City - a gallery of a gallery of images

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j48b25xeT2A&feature=youtu.be

This video presents a compelling gallery of the gallery of images that made up the recent Conflict Zone exhibition in New York City at the NY Fire Department Museum.

There is one image of me looking especially bald/absurd at the 1:10 mark, which can probably be avoided...but also a good shot of my image of Sgt. Kent Dell at the 1:22 mark that brings out the color and the setting.

All in all, a great event and a proud home for my image of Iraq, circa 2009. The soldier in the image is currently in his second 4.0 year at Michigan State, where he is an undergrad research assistant, president of two student orgs, and reads to blind students in his off-time.

So keep that story in mind, and many others just like it, hidden among the media-driven "support the troops = pity/fear the troops" narratives that seem to be the 2012 media mindset.