Counterflow

Part One

Counterflow: So Love May Find Us. This is a long song/short film cut into two parts. Youtube and every other site I've looked at have a 15 minute time limit. The song is almost 20, so here's 10 and 8 in two parts. The footage and photos are mine, the music - Australian band extraordinaire ,"The Church."

Part Two

Flagged: The New Iraq's First American Tourist

A collection of shots from a few days ago. When I get back to Camp Echo unintentional themes surface when I sit at my computer and review the contents of my camera. In this case flags, Iraqi and US. This first one, on a wall within the walls of another central south eastern IP station, is a sub-artistic depiction of this country's recent maladjustments to huge and hasty change.

Recently I started a Facebook account and mentioned that I felt like a tourist at times amidst a discussion with other soldiers on how hard or easy it is to be deployed in Iraq at this point in time. It's true, I had more difficult times in my life for various reasons as a civilian in the states. As well, I know '04 thru '07 was a near constant Hell for coalition soldiers deployed here, but I understand the pain of separation from loved ones, and the anxiety of boredom that these young soldiers deal with daily. Being older and having developed ways to cope with such things as a civilian, I hope I can as a soldier and a medic, help other soldiers do the same here and now.

In this photo, IPs load up for a patrol, share water in the heat, and wait within walls for another policeman to open the gate. Taken while we waited in our trucks.

An Iraqi Army gunner's post near dusk at a check point in Diwaniya. The spring season heats into summer and the violence level in Iraq follows the same pattern, heating up in varying degrees of bloodshed each year. IPs and IA are currently the most common targets outside tribal clashes.

The American flag and soldiers, focused and imposed on the setting, as a woman visits the police station.

Another shot from the ride home. I never know how shots are gonna take. The weighty armored truck jack hammers the mixed terrain surface of rural roads at high speed and I delete two thirds of what I take right after I get it. Often I get frustrated with missing the fly-by sights just out of frame and ready for the next chance. I could for moments at a time forget that I'm an army medic "...just waiting for the worst day of a soldier's life..." as I recall a sergeant saying to me one morning before mission. But I never forget this. I just keep myself occupied in the meantime pretending to be the new Iraq's first American tourist, embedded with the troops.

Another shot of our flag with the blurred faceless IP, not unlike the policemen that become daily statistics and world headlines.

These workers in a garden grove, just off the road, taking a break in the shade.

He almost blends into the background against the t-walls with the truck, naturally. Almost invisible at first glance.

Drive-By Media

Back in the city of Diwaniya today. Done for now with the long trips out to the furthest reaches of our AO (area of operation). It was overcast this morning and on the verge of raining. I was unusually sleepy for having had a good night's sleep and was dozing off during the ride into town. Later on the weather began to break and I came out of my fog. I didn't feel like taking any pictures at first, overcome with a laziness, volunteering to stay with the trucks rather than go into the first station we stopped at. But with the first half-conscious shot out the window of a mother and daughter walking along the curbscape I was inspired, sat up, and started seeing people and things to shoot everywhere. I am the drive-by media.


The phrase "Drive-by Media" is used by Rush Limbaugh and other conservative radio talk show hosts. It's used in reference to news media outlets that package and deliver over-simplified news without digging deeper into the story for the truth, and typically have a bias. Ironic that Rush, although often as entertaining as he is irritating, is the king of shallow half-truth political news. The drive-by phrase itself is rather drive-by in itself, a short-cut sound-bite. The culprits per Rush and his peers, is the liberal media, but all the mainstream media is corporate controlled and at least manipulated by marketing to one degree or another. So, as I literally drive by taking pictures and blogging my opinions and observations on the Internet it occurs to me that I am now perhaps partly a member of this notable group identified by Rush.


Sometimes I think about what a perfect position I'm in to be able to take pictures. I'm always a passenger (so not actually driving) and on stand-by till an emergency medical situation arises. I can get out or stay in and move independently compared to the other fixed duty positions in the squad. Iraq is still a mess, but it's a far better place for people and their children, just trying to live normal lives, than what it was under Saddam, and under Bush. I don't want to get too "Op-Ed" With my blog. I want to retain an observational tone. But a little steam letting here and there can help to avoid a boil over, and that's the same medicinal good that writing has always done for me.


There has only been one emergency situation while on mission so far, a boy who was hit by a car some number of weeks ago. I get a knot in my stomach when I imagine the recent years gone by, the sacrifices made, and how lucky my unit and I are to be here during this far more peaceful period. To be a line medic deployed here before, in '04 to '07, at the height of the violence directed toward Americans, would no doubt have been a fully exhausting experience, mentally, physically, and emotionally. Although away from loved ones, luxuries taken for granted, and stop-lossed, I bite my tongue whenever I feel any sort of complaint near my lips.

South East Montage 4

The last two weeks have been very busy. I haven't had a lot of blog time. As well I've been accumulating a huge number of photographs. Most don't have a distinct story line but have value.

Gunner's Wave

Auto-matic Weapon

Widescreen Windscreen

Wheelbarrow Blues

Bus and a Billboard

Bricks

Street Comber

Moto-truck

Kids

Nefr Kids Pt. 3

On the most recent day of going out to Nefr the whole group came out and really got into it. I would take a shot, then turn the camera around and show the kids. This resulted in shrieks of joy and amazement.


Ali initialy pulled his sister's hat down over her eyes, when I took the first picture of her. But from there he was a good customer. I was glad to see her and all the kids smiling this time without being corrected for doing so.


Notice the road improvement material in the background. There are several piles of bricks and curbing along the dirt road and half finished sidewalk. Of the 5 times we've been to Nefr, I've yet to see any actual "work" taking place. Construction has begun on this main road through town, but recently the only workers have been sitting and smoking while we were there. Clearly somebody bought the supplies and somewhere near the top of the hand off/out chain, our American tax dollars. Be assured that the monies put into police infrastructure are being observed. Our unit, as do others elsewhere, take note of such things and training as well.

Nefr Kids 2: The Sisters

On the second day we parked and waited while soldiers went into the IP station. I made friends with three girls that are sisters in situation if not by blood.

Initially, at a distance the smaller one was showing me the bottom of her feet. An older girl scolded her for this. Once they saw the camera they smiled and crept forward over time. I imagine that to them, living in the middle of nowhere in the middle of an even bigger nowhere, it must have been really something to have someone finding them interesting enough to take their photograph.




After a while, one of the boys from the previous day, still wearing an "Iraq" t-shirt, sat between the truck and the girls, and scolded them, apparently telling them to hide their faces. He even stood defiant in front of the truck at one point.



Eventually a woman came out and shewed them away. I have to remind myself sometimes that I'm sitting in an up-armored Humvee with a huge gun on top. A member of an invading force, in a war torn country where western influence is not exactly welcome, and tyranny is a fresh memory. As an American, who sometimes forgets he's not a tourist and takes lots of pictures, I should remember that females, of any age in southern Iraq typically do not have the freedom to wave back, and carrying a camera is sometimes more offensive than carrying a weapon.

Nefr Kids 1: Ali's Sister

We've been going out to several different small towns east of Diwaniya recently. On repeat visits you encounter the same characters. These pictures are from our first visit to the town. Ali's the one with the stick. That's his sister in pink. With the weather warming up the kids ask for bottled water more than "chocolata" or "halloween." "Andek May?" he asks raising his thumb to his lips. Ali was the boss. He told the kids to move, he pushed, and they moved without a shove.

I got out my camera. It got pretty interesting. "La!" he said. He covered his sister and pulled her away. There were kids all around, making faces and goofing off for the lens but when when it came to her, it was apparently taboo. Maybe just a protective big brother, more likely a pushy personality raised in a not-so-free female culture that, like a lot of things here, you have to see to understand...so I take pictures.

A Trip to Afeq

We took a trip east to Afeq today.





At first an optical illusion. I wasn't sure what I was looking at. This little girl looking comfortable while being carried on her mother's shoulder perhaps looks so strange to the eye because of the contrast in clothing.