Invasion: D-Day
The Invasion Begins. As surgical strikes hammer our cities, the sounds of assault rifles crackle through the billowing smoke. Platoons sweep into neighborhoods searching for ex-military and weapon caches. The country falls into darkness as the electricity and infrastructure collapses in less than 48 hours. What now?
I am excited to announce the series continues and is the subject of an upcoming podcast with Dieste Harmel and Partners. However, as my brother prepares to redeploy with the U.S. Armed Forces, these images have more importantly helped me redefine my personal judgments and preconceptions of our conflicts and the people so deeply entrenched in them.
Invasion: America’s Martyrs
This is the latest shot in the Invasion: America series and is an exploration into the factors it would take to create a culture where the suicide bombers or, as many call it, the martyr is American. The mention of suicide bombers manifests in me such a rage and hatred, where in my mind races down that road where condemnation and righteous indignation is so perfect. “Those fucking people! What sort of barbarism would drive people to resort to such base disgusting theaters of gore? Cavemen, they can’t be much more than that to value life so cheaply.” So on and so on my mind will go as I read another article on a car bomb or man strapped in C4 explosives walking into a public space.
I find myself wondering if this weapon could ever find it’s way into the American arsenal. Iran was the home of the suicide bomber and yet that is not the name they go by. In Iran and many other cultures where this weapon is deployed they are an integral part of cultural lore, political rally points, religious calls to prayer, and ultimately martyrs. Their posters line busy streets as if they were election candidates. Children know the names of all the famous ones and the community honors the families for their sacrifice and donation to the cause. The largest cemetery in the world is in Iran, dedicated solely to the graves of martyrs and those who laid down their lives in the blood of others. Thinking beyond the guerilla weapon a person fearless of death becomes, the historical trend, and the Cultural Revolution, could it become American?
This shot is based on the continuing fiction of America invaded by an occupying Islamic military force. A high school or college aged young man strapped in explosives kneeling at a shrine in preparation of his final sacrifice to the cause. Could it happen? How hard would it be for this reality to find manifestation in our culture? 9/11 was unthinkable and Katrina and its horrors were unfathomable. Is the unacceptable capable of being part of our psyche? If so, does this make it incumbent upon us to remove the judgments we place on those currently engaged in the utilization of this weapon, terrorism, or faith? What would it take to drive us to this level of desperation, dedication? How do we understand it, challenge it, or change it rather than watch it spread and evolve from a grenade-toting 12 year old Iranian charging an Iraqi tank (arguably the first suicide bomber), into embassy and car bombs as political exclamation?
P.S. Which do you prefer the Right or Left