Veterans of Foreigner's War

Is it just me, or was it dicey for Saturday’s LAT to run a front page shot of soldiers being sworn in as citizens?

Combine a controversial and thankless war, questions about coercive military recruiting practices, problems regarding skewed demographics in the armed services, as well simmering tensions surrounding the ethics and application of immigration policy, and you get one complex choice for a Veterans Day photo.

I usually don’t try to get into the head of the photo editor.  In this case, however, I’m really curious whether some irony was intended here.  (I really hope so.  Otherwise, to consume this photo at face value feels  a bit like collusion with the compromise of the American dream.)

For a look at the NYT Veteran’s Day coverage, and the continuing tonal shift in the MSM’s treatment of the war, see my latest piece “Snapshot Of Veterans Day” at HuffPo.)

(Caption: Now Serving As Citizens: U.S. sailors and Marines say the Pledge of Allegiance during a military naturalization ceremony aboard the aircraft carrier Midway, now a naval museum, in San Diego.  More than 100 military personnel from 48 countries became citizens during the Veterans Day event.)

(image: Sandy Huffaker/Getty Images.  November 12, 2005. (Veterans Day.) San Diego. Los Angeles Times, p. A1.)