Sub Ubi

Pictures like the one at right have recently made the rounds of the net; apparently, an AP reporter dug them up via a filesharing client or some similar mechanism. I’m not so interested in the story of where the photos came from, per se, but I am interested in how people respond to these pictures, and the kind of questions/debate they raise.

For example, following a thread at signonsandiego.com:

From:   simon   (Dec 04, 2004 14:35 PST)
Imagine that's your father with the bag on his head.

To which we get the response

From:   Belle   (Dec 04, 2004 14:37 PST)
Imagine that was your husband in uniform...

But this response, by far, is the most interesting:

From:   Belle   (Dec 04, 2004 14:40 PST)
Or imagine those were your sons...why are you sympathizing with the enemy that killed innocent people at will?

The reason this response is wonderful is because, if you take the collection of photos as a whole, you cannot tell whether Belle is referring to the US or Iraqi combatants.

Granted, from the context of other comments, we know that Belle is referring to the US troops. However, I doubt that Belle has considered what choices she might have made in the last three years were she a woman who grew up and lived in Baghdad, facing the invasion (and continued occupation) of her homeland by a foreign nation. I don’t believe she has a context in which to even begin considering the question.

Then again, she may know something I do not.