Hilariously or Just Sincerely Tragic: Closing Scenes from America’s Afghan War

[rug]

A soldier from 1st Platoon, Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 36th Infantry leaves a room while checking the inventory of weapons at Strong Point DeMaiwand, Maywand District, Kandahar Province, Afghanistan, January 20, 2013. (Andrew Burton/Reuters)

February 10, 2013
By Michael Shaw

Reflecting the illogic and futility of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, the best photography from both campaigns has been journalistic on one level and deeply ironic on the other. We saw that early on with the work of Christoph Bangert and Ashley Gilbertson (1, 2). We can see it also in past few weeks in the work of the fine young newswire photographer, Andrew Burton.

Macho, playful or just cinematic, Burton’s photos from this Reuters embed are just too innocent, too uncomplicated to be taken at face value. And that’s what makes them so smart.

In the most obvious example, a photo dearly tempting parody, we see an American soldier bench pressing an Afghan counterpart. With our impending departure, what’s laughable, if it wasn’t tragic and disastrous, is the fact that the Afghan military is only viable to the extent we lift them up. Did anyone say “dead weight”?

In a variation, the message here is that Afghan policemen can’t compare in strength to the potent American soldiers but we’re sorta making it look like they are, like they could maybe win.

http://www.bagnewsnotes.com/2013/02/hilariously-or-just-unpresumably-tragic-closing-scenes-from-americas-afghan-war/