Marine's Photo Reminds Us of War that Will Not End

There
was a certain ironic and painful symmetry at work last month. As one
iconic image of war was called into doubt, another was being created, a
new photograph of combat's grim reality that already has generated
controversy and anger.

When it was first published in 1936, during the Spanish Civil War,
Robert Capa's photo was captioned "Loyalist Militiaman at the Moment of
Death." Better known today as "The Falling Soldier," the picture
purportedly captures the gunning down of a Republican anarchist named
Federico Borrell Garcia who was fighting against the forces of General
Francisco Franco. Dressed in what look like civilian clothes, wearing a
cartridge belt, he is thrown backwards in an almost balletic swoon, his
rifle falling from his right hand.

The picture quickly came to symbolize the merciless and random snuffing
out of life in wartime -- that murder committed in the name of God or
country can strike unexpectedly, from a distance, like lightning from a
cloudless sky.

Last month, the veracity of Capa's most famous picture was cast in
doubt when Jose Manuel Susperregui, a Spanish academic, published a
book in which he alleges that the photo was not taken where Capa
claimed, but 35 miles away at a location where no fighting had yet
taken place; that the picture was posed, a fake. Others disagree, but
his evidence is compelling.

Just as that controversy was being reported in the news, in Afghanistan
another man lay dying, another victim of war. His photo created a
sensation, too. But no one is questioning its veracity. In this case,
the image is all too real.

During an ambush on August 14th, Marine Lance Corporal Joshua Bernard
was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade in Afghanistan's Helmand
province, where the Marines have been engaged in a major offensive,
fighting to take territory back from the Taliban. Associated Press
photojournalist Julie Jacobson took a picture of comrades trying to
save his life. But it was too late.

Over the objections of Bernard's family and Defense Secretary Robert
Gates, the AP published the photo as part of a series of articles and
photographs about Bernard's platoon. Gates protested to AP that the
wire service's "lack of compassion and common sense... is appalling..."
AP replied that it had made a tough decision to "make public an image
that conveys the grimness of war and the sacrifice of young men and
women fighting it."

AtBill Moyers Journal,
our production team wrestled with the dilemma over whether to show the
photo on this week's PBS broadcast. We finally decided to do so, but
carefully placed it within the context of other pictures AP's Jacobson
took earlier that day of Lance Corporal Bernard and his fellow Marines
on patrol.

However your own conscience comes down on this issue,
there can be no denying the story the photo tells. It forces us to
confront through a young man's violent death the ugly, bloody reality
of a war that America has been fighting longer than we fought in the
First and Second World Wars combined.

August was the deadliest month for our troops in Afghanistan since we
first invaded the country shortly after 9/11. It has been a gruesome
summer -- 51 Americans died in August; 45 in July.

And to what end? The Taliban is resurgent. Almost two-thirds of the
country is deemed too dangerous for aid agencies to deliver much needed
help. Civilian casualties this year have reached more than a thousand,
including the victims of suicide bombings and so-called collateral
damage from American air strikes. The credibility of recent so-called
"free" elections has been shattered with charges of widespread fraud
and corruption.

As The Economist
magazine noted last month, resentment against the Karzai government,
NATO forces and Westerners in general is growing. "It seems clear," the
magazine reported, "that the international effort to bring stability to
Afghanistan, in which a strong somewhat liberal and democratic state
can take root, is failing."

And yet, consider this open letter to President Obama from some of the
very same neo-cons who used falsehoods, propaganda and manipulation to
throw us into Iraq -- arguing for invasion of that country even before
the 9/11 attacks occurred. "We remain convinced that the fight against
the Taliban is winnable," they write, "and it is in the vital national
security interest of the United States to win it."

The letter lands just as several European countries have called for a
conference to assess the current situation and the commander of our
forces in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, delivers a review to
the White House, a report many believe sets the stage for an even
greater expansion of the war. But on Monday, the McClatchy news service
reported that some top Pentagon officials worry that without a clear
definition of our mission there, further escalation may be useless.

According to the article, "Some even fear that deploying more U.S.
troops, especially in the wake of a U.S. airstrike last week that
killed and wounded scores of Afghan civilians, would convince more
Afghans that the Americans are occupiers rather than allies and relieve
the pressure on the Afghan government to improve its own security
forces."

One of that story's reporters, McClatchy's chief Pentagon correspondent
Nancy Youssef, recently returned from Afghanistan and was interviewed
by my colleague Bill Moyers for this week's Journal.
Youssef said, "I can't tell you how many Afghans said to me, 'I don't
want the Americans. I don't want the Taliban. I just want to be left
alone.'"

Nonetheless, "Either the United States commits to this and really
commits to it, or it walks away. But this middle ground of sort of
holding on isn't going to work anymore...

"We're at least coming to that decision point... And to me, that's good
news, because at least it gives everybody involved some sense of where
this is going. I think that's something worth looking forward to.
Because what's been going on up until now is unacceptable."

What no one understands for sure yet, she said, is President Obama's
position: "That's the big mystery in Washington... Because it will
ultimately be his decision."

We should have a better idea of where he stands on September 24th, when
the White House is supposed to present a list of metrics by which
progress in Afghanistan will be measured, a condition that was set by
Congress for the approval of further war funding.

In addition to the theories of generals and diplomats, the President
and Congress may wish to pay careful attention to the words of an
Afghan villager named Ghafoor. He told a correspondent for The Economist, "We need security. But the Americans are just making trouble for us. They cannot bring peace, not if they stay for 50 years."

Not a pretty picture.