The Face of Fallujah - US Propaganda
POSTED BY: Ghoulman
UPDATED: Tuesday, December 7, 2004 16:45
VIEWED: 4861
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Smoking while Iraq burns
Its idolisation of 'the face of Falluja' shows how numb the US is to everyone's pain but its own
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1359871,00.html
Naomi Klein
Friday November 26, 2004
The Guardian
Iconic images inspire love and hate, and so it is with the photograph of James Blake Miller, the 20-year-old marine from Appalachia, who has been christened "the face of Falluja" by pro-war pundits, and the "the Marlboro man" by pretty much everyone else. Reprinted in more than a hundred newspapers, the Los Angeles Times photograph shows Miller "after more than 12 hours of nearly non-stop, deadly combat" in Falluja, his face coated in war paint, a bloody scratch on his nose, and a freshly lit cigarette hanging from his lips.
Gazing lovingly at Miller, the CBS News anchor Dan Rather informed his viewers: "For me, this one's personal. This is a warrior with his eyes on the far horizon, scanning for danger. See it. Study it. Absorb it. Think about it. Then take a deep breath of pride. And if your eyes don't dampen, you're a better man or woman than I."
A few days later, the LA Times declared that its photo had "moved into the realm of the iconic". In truth, the image just feels iconic because it is so laughably derivative: it's a straight-up rip-off of the most powerful icon in American advertising (the Marlboro man), which in turn imitated the brightest star ever created by Hollywood - John Wayne - who was himself channelling America's most powerful founding myth, the cowboy on the rugged frontier. It's like a song you feel you've heard a thousand times before - because you have.
But never mind that. For a country that just elected a wannabe Marlboro man as its president, Miller is an icon and, as if to prove it, he has ignited his very own controversy. "Lots of children, particularly boys, play army, and like to imitate this young man. The clear message of the photo is that the way to relax after a battle is with a cigarette," wrote Daniel Maloney in a scolding letter to the Houston Chronicle. Linda Ortman made the same point to the editors of the Dallas Morning News: "Are there no photos of non-smoking soldiers?" A reader of the New York Post helpfully suggested more politically correct propaganda imagery: "Maybe showing a marine in a tank, helping another GI or drinking water would have a more positive impact on your readers."
Yes, that's right: letter writers from across the nation are united in their outrage - not that the steely-eyed, smoking soldier makes mass killing look cool, but that the laudable act of mass killing makes the grave crime of smoking look cool. Better to protect impressionable youngsters by showing soldiers taking a break from deadly combat by drinking water or, perhaps, since there is a severe potable water shortage in Iraq, Coke. (It reminds me of the joke about the Hassidic rabbi who says all sexual positions are acceptable except for one: standing up "because that could lead to dancing".)
On second thoughts, perhaps Miller does deserve to be elevated to the status of icon - not of the war in Iraq, but of the new era of supercharged American impunity. Because outside US borders, it is, of course, a different marine who has been awarded the prize as "the face of Falluja": the soldier captured on tape executing a wounded, unarmed prisoner in a mosque. Runners-up are a photograph of a two-year-old Fallujan in a hospital bed with one of his tiny legs blown off; a dead child lying in the street, clutching the headless body of an adult; and an emergency health clinic blasted to rubble.
Inside the US, these snapshots of a lawless occupation appeared only briefly, if they appeared at all. Yet Miller's icon status has endured, kept alive with human interest stories about fans sending cartons of Marlboros to Falluja, interviews with the marine's proud mother, and earnest discussions about whether smoking might reduce Miller's effectiveness as a fighting machine.
Impunity - the perception of being outside the law - has long been
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I found this (Florida, naturally)... can't believe it really.
Translation - Der Fuhrer
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Quote:
Originally posted by Ghoulman:
I found this (Florida, naturally)... can't believe it really.
well ... why the hell can't you believe it?
currently he is and furthermore they voted for him. My big deal is how Americans can get so caught up in one single picture and not see around it..... it's like not seeing the forest for the trees. and that's just sad.
and what's with the german translation?(just curious)
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Do you know what the chain of command is? It's the chain I go get and beat you with till you
understand who's in rutting command here.
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You don't get that? I'll try to explain. 
I can't believe the Bush/Cheney election people, or Gov. Bush of Florida, would promote thier candidate with a phrase used exclusively in association with Hitler.
No one uses that term because it directly translates into Der Fuhrer.
Dong ma?
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ooh, ok. I get now.
But these people probably aren't thinking about the German connection. they just want to make it clear what Bush is. at least i think so
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Do you know what the chain of command is? It's the chain I go get and beat you with till you
understand who's in rutting command here.
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Translated to German this is "Unser Fuhrer" not "Der Fuhrer".
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Screw Naomi Klein.
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I see that billboard as more Orwellian than Nazi-esque. Not that that reduces the absurdity....
MAL "You only gotta scare him."
JAYNE "Pain is scary..."
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Quote:
Originally posted by sgtgump:
Screw Naomi Klein.
Quote:
Naomi Klein now totally unavoidable
By Jeremy Nelson
Published: Thursday, December 6, 2001
Naomi Klein sighting have increased twenty-fold in the last two weeks, sparking fears that the globalization pundit may have become airborne. If that is the case, she may be ubiquitous within a week, and despite increased production of the anti-Klein drug "Friedman," the epidemic may not be stopped in time.
http://www.thevarsity.ca/news/2001/12/06/fontColor880088bnewsbfont/Nao
mi.Klein.Now.Totally.Unavoidable-157527.shtml
"Keep the Shiny side up"
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Well, Mr. Miller didn't even know that the photo was taken until it was distributed. This really is a ploy to try to make the US soldier out to be the "everyday man" that the they are. BUT, it really does hurt what you are trying to do when that video of the soldier shooting the unarmed man on the news. The thing that does NOT get on the news and get that much are those same insurgents that go and blow a bomb up in a market in Iraq and kill a bunch of women and children. The worst part about this is, who is to blame for all of it? The US? Iraq? The rest of the world? Christianity? Islam? That's really hard to say. Yes, there is some element of all of those in it. If September 11th wouldn't have happened, Bush would not have been re-elected and we wouldn't have gone into Iraq, he wouldn't have had ANY support to do anything of the sort. But Bush is still to blame for the invasion of Iraq, so let's just say that the guilt lies on both sides. Basically we played right into the hands of the radical fundamentalists by invading Iraq. They now have a steady flow of recruits who don't see all of the good things that the US has done for the downtrodden (we have THE largest charity base in the world). They don't see the help we send to the AIDS victims in Africa, nor the aid that we send to a country when a natural disaster happens, they see the news where another Iraqi is killed (doesn't matter to them if they were innocent or not). There are a lot of wonderful, loving people in the US, but are overshadowed by the greedy, hateful bigots that have control (and believe me, you, it's not just the President, nor Republicans in general, the Demi-crats fall under that umbrella too). We seem to have this foreign policy that seems to alienate people. This is the WHOLE reason that the Presidency AND congress should be volunteer, and they should receive NO compensation for thier time serving the country. That way we get rid of the doofs trying to get richer AND more power. If you are forced to make 7 dollars an hour doing jury duty (which is mandatory), they shouldn't be able to make more money for their croneys.
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