TigerHawk

TigerHawk (ti*ger*hawk): n. 1. The title of this blog and the nom de plume of its founding blogger; 2. A deep bow to the Princeton Tigers and the Iowa Hawkeyes; 3. The nickname for Iowa's Hawkeye logo. Posts include thoughts of the day on international affairs, politics, things that strike us as hilarious and personal observations. The opinions we express are our own, and not those of each other, our employers, our relatives, our dead ancestors, or unrelated people of similar ethnicity.

Thursday, September 15, 2005

Photographing jihad

By TigerHawk at 9/15/2005 09:32:00 PM

Don't you wonder how photographers get pictures like this? It seems that the insurgents would only allow themselves to be photographed if they believe that the publication of the pictures will serve the purposes of the insurgency. So either the person who took the picture was helping the insurgents at their behest, or they were unaware that their picture was being taken because the photographer was hiding from them at great risk to life and limb. Call me a bonehead, but I don't see a third scenario. What am I missing?

Any semioticians out there who want to explain what these soldiers are doing? The kneeling guy seems poised for combat, ready to fire behind protective cover. The other guys don't seemed too concerned. Who didn't ~~follow the photographer's direction~~ get the memo?

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7 Comments:

By Papa Ray, at Thu Sep 15, 11:54:00 PM:

Well, I can translate it into a western view.

They are supposed to be on the lookout for an American patrol. They have been there all day and are tired, half cooked and pissed because no one has brought them any food or drink.

The one guy with the RPG that is kneeling is one of those guys who can sleep and maintain posture.

The guy with the blue shirt has to piss so bad his eyeballs are floating.

The others are thinking about just leaving and going home. The guy on the front left is just so pissed, he would just like to shoot the crap out of anyone or anything.

After seeing the situation thru his telescopic lens, the photojournalist decided to call it a day.

Papa Ray
West Texas
USA

By TigerHawk, at Fri Sep 16, 06:12:00 AM:

Hey, that's pretty good! Of all the regular commenters on this blog, Papa Ray, I had no idea that you were the semiotician! Excellent.

By Catchy Pseudonym, at Fri Sep 16, 08:51:00 AM:

I believe this was a photoshoot for the first ever Insurgent version of The Backstreet Boys. What the picture didn't show was them breaking out dancing to their number one pop hit "Death to American Pig Dogs." Complete with various groin grabs and car bombs exploding to the beat.

By Gordon Smith, at Fri Sep 16, 08:59:00 AM:

Seems fairly simple to me. It's journalism. The insurgents can think what they want ("Oh Mom is going to love this shot of me with the RPG, and wait'll the infidels get a load of my dishcloth"), but the photographers are just taking pictures of what is actually happening. To fault journalists for recording the facts is to support censorship and limitations on our first amendment rights.

I know that war supporters like to say that anyone who isn't running around with W's face tattooed on his head is somehow supporting the insurgency or terrorists or communists, but journalism is just journalism.

By Josh, at Fri Sep 16, 12:00:00 PM:

Someone should buy that photographer a beer for choreographing this.

If they see a target: The guy kneeling with the RPG is going to cook the two behind with his backblast, causing BlueShirt to clamp down on the trigger and kill kneeling RPGBoy as he burns up. Standing RPGBoy is going to discharge his rocket into the building next to them, thereby killing BrownPants, causing him to reflexively shoot the other 3 again.

It's GENIUS!!

By Anonymous, at Fri Sep 16, 05:02:00 PM: