In The Spotlight

Until recently, it’s been even money which issue — the Iraq war, pushed hard by the Dems, or national security, the focus of Repub scare tactics — would take precedence in framing the mid-term elections.

As evidence, I was drawn to this “Spotlight” feature, titled “The Vet Offensive,” in the just released Vanity Fair. 

Given that Iraq proper long ago disappeared from the domestic media space, and these “Fighting Dems” are now fully deployed on the Congressional battlefield, this stark image, and the prominence of the tank, signifies the war is looming large on the home soil.

These four (of five) Democratic vets of the latest Iraq war convey a confidence and assertiveness that wouldn’t have fit the pose even a couple weeks ago.  Just as significantly, the image challenges the Republicans and this terminally-civilian Administration over the use of war imagery.  Imagine the return to a day in which even spinmeisters would be constrained by reality to proffer weapons as a weapon, as much as props.

(image: Mark Seliger/Vanity Fair.  October 2006.  p. 134)