Photos from Iraq

This gallery shows many faces of the Iraq conflict. It's safe for most viewers. I found these images profound and moving. How will we be remembered there? What are these people really like? What has been lost? What has been gained? (Has anything really been gained?)

View the Iraq Gallery

I hate this, yet I look because I don't understand. I look because I know I am not getting the whole story otherwise and I need to know more. I look because those brave people who captured the images for me deserve my attention as do the dead on all sides.

I look because war is ugly and something deep down wants to see ugly. I don't know why, but accept it's true. Denial is false.

It's like a sore that you pick at, knowing it only gets worse that way. We pick at sores because a part of us wants to understand while another part wants to feel. This war is like one of those sores. We fight, we heal, we fight again, we try to heal again.

The damage is real, but the feeling is both pain and relief at the same time. In the end, things will heal. It heals faster if we leave it alone, yet we pick at our sores anyway, knowing the healing will be less than perfect but our need to feel and understand wins out.

This war is like that sore, these images are like the scab. My understanding is no greater today, but my empathy grows for both sides. Did I already say I hate this?