Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2007/07/20

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Subject: [Leica] reality according to the soldier's
From: photo.forrest at earthlink.net (Philip Forrest)
Date: Fri Jul 20 12:59:59 2007
References: <30579BAB-6500-4277-8CAE-103DFD899EDE@mac.com> <200707201534.44406.photo.forrest@earthlink.net> <36307631-A0F3-4A8C-95F0-F0459EDDB0AE@mac.com>

It is horrible and it's put me off journalism forever.  The career I loved & 
made my life's pursuit only lasted a few years.  Now I just want to take 
landscapes with my 6x12, or some street photography of old women shopping at 
fruit stands and the like with my M4.  Candid portraiture.  
The war in Iraq ended for me in January of 2005, but still is with me every 
moment.  I smell & taste the burning city of Fallujah once in a while & call 
my mother to tell the family that I love them all dearly.  The psychological 
toll of veterans must be incredible because I got to see only a little bit 
of 
the war.  I never killed anyone, I never fired a shot in anger or defense.  
I 
documented the destruction that the Marines caused & my Seabee battalion's 
efforts to reconstruct the infrastructure of Fallujah.  I was in the city 
for 
only 6 months during the "liberation" from insurgent control.  Here we are 
several years later & it's still going on with no progress made so to speak. 
 
I'm curious to think what my generation will do in the world (I'm 30 years 
old) after this war has ended, if it ends.  I like to think that we're 
creating a society of "peacenik" veterans by sending the hundreds of 
thousands of troops over there.  If that's the "silver lining" of this war, 
then perhaps there's hope for the future.
Apologies to the LUG for my political posting.
I took the photos with my Leica, does that count?  :)

Philip



On Friday 20 July 2007 15:41, Lottermoser George wrote:
> Philip, what can I say? My heart goes out to you for what you saw and
> felt in that place. I cried all the way through the reading of the 12
> page Nation article. We are not only alienating the Iraqi people we
> are destroying the mental health of our military folks. And for what?
> It is such a horrible inhumane mess.
>
> Regards,
> George Lottermoser
> george@imagist.com
>
> On Jul 20, 2007, at 2:34 PM, Philip Forrest wrote:
> > Thanks George, for posting the article.
> > I took this photo in December, 2004 of a mass grave that my unit
> > dug to bury
> > the bodies of several thousand Iraqis who were classified as
> > collateral
> > casualties.  This was the "nicest" photo of death that I took out
> > there.
> >
> > http://tinyurl.com/33mvgf
> >
> > Leica M2, Kobalux 28
>
> _______________________________________________
> Leica Users Group.
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Replies: Reply from don.dory at gmail.com (Don Dory) ([Leica] reality according to the soldier's)
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