10 years later, "Despair of Humanity: Iraq War"

Despair of Humanity: Iraq War

Colored Pencil

13" x 18"

2007

It's been ten years since the Iraq War began. It's terrible legacy will impact survivors for generations to come. I made this piece to show the faces of war. The media played a role in legitimizing the Iraq war, by telling lies and using distorted facts to champion the war and militarism in general. Media showed a sanitized version, not the actual affects of war - the human cost - so  I wanted to make an image that showed a reality of this war. I researched and found many images, mostly on independent and foreign news websites. The work is a product of my own outrage, fear and anger, since I, and many in my community, actively organized and demonstrated against the war, and the so-called war on terror.

Here is Arundhati Roy speaking on the war, reported by Democracy Now two days ago:

The use of depleted uranium has been devastating and genocidal. Democracy Now, one of best independent news sources, just did a piece on the epidemic of birth defects from the U.S. military's use of depleted uranium in Fallujah, Iraq, which is a weapon that is supposed to be banned from use. Reporter Dahr Jamail explains the situation - please be aware that the images in the video are disturbing, but what they depict is real, and has been paid for with U.S. tax dollars. People should know about this - since, even in some small way, we are all complicit.

Democracy Now: Ten Years Later, U.S. Has Left Iraq with Mass Displacement & Epidemic of Birth Defects, Cancers, interview with Dahr Jamail 

I just read  and want to share an open letter written by a soldier who fought in the Iraq war to then-president Bush and then-vice president Cheney that has been recently published. Tomas Young's "Last Letter," is an extremely powerful statement. While, I do not support the U.S. attacking Afghanistan, or our current occupation there, this man's perspective is very important:

Last Letter by Tomas Young