U.S. service men celebrate mass in Afghanistan. Just hope pictures like these don't hinder the hearts-and-minds campaign.
Continue ReadingGiven U.S. emphasis on counter-insurgency, a brilliant piece of Afghan war propaganda.
Continue ReadingThis shot by Tyler Hicks demonstrates the profound ambiguity of the much ballyhooed "new style" offensive in Marjah in Helmand province.
Continue ReadingIt's actually unusual to see a media picture of a soldier and his family going to pieces before shipping out.
Continue ReadingWith America's surge underway, BAG contributor Alan Chin's photo of Taliban prisoners in Afghanistan, taken in 2001, is not only a stunning image but documents the early days of a battle stretching out now almost a decade.
Continue ReadingYour Daily Moment of Spin: People Magazine lustily photographs a Marine before he gets gets swept up in the military's Afghan surge.
Continue ReadingCrotch bombers! scanner! underwear! Yemen! Yemen! Yemen! ...Oops sorry, what was I talking about? Oh yeah, America's got a serious problem with ADD.
Continue ReadingTouted at the time as the iconic photo of the Afghan war, this picture from early May -- of Spc. Zachary Boyd of Fort Worth, Texas fighting the Taliban in his pink "I love NY" boxer shorts -- now stands as a classic example of distraction and denial.
Continue Reading(The Best of the Bag Decade is our end of the year, end of the decade look at some of the best BAGnews posts and analysis.) The Iraq War has been (and still is) a frequent subject on BAGnews and, frankly, such a topic of government and media spin...
Continue ReadingOn first pass, the photo speaks to American gains in the battle for hearts and minds. Looking further, though, the enthusiasm of the locals could as much be that drill they go through when the Westerners hit the hamlet.
Continue ReadingDefense Secretary Gates -- finally home from a dismal "surge kick-off trip" to Afghanistan and Iraq -- made up for it yesterday with a huge testosterone blast, conducting the coin toss at the annual Army-Navy game.
Continue ReadingWith the surge now a fact, word is spreading fast about the Afghan police -- and how they're playing us for suckers.
Continue ReadingBefore Defense honcho Bob Gates had his first press conference with Karzai after the surge announcement, we see Gates kicking off his week "in country" with Today Show's smiley face Matt Lauer, surely a dose of comfort for the uncertain American audience.
Continue ReadingWith all the buzz lately about Obama caving in to the military, is this White House photo supposed to capture Obama with McChrystal's little head in a vice?
Continue ReadingDid Obama linger on this painting before giving his surge speech at West Point because he knows at some level, as a student of Lincoln and the Civil War, that his Generals don't have his back?
Continue ReadingAt this point, I can almost imagine "Rummy" becoming the trivia answer to "who was the Defense Secretary before Robert Gates?"
Continue ReadingIf you read through the discussion thread, you know I was guilty of assuming the photo shoot Platon did at the U.N. -- involving 110 world leaders taken in the Green Room just off the General Assembly hall over 5 days in September, the photographer working around the clock...
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