...This Emptiness...

...a few months ago I photographed the last combat Brigade Leaving Iraq. I watched as plenty of other news agencies photographed and video-taped the event; later I saw what they photographed in papers, magazines and brief clips for prime-time television. I watched in disgust seeing the staged footage and the media preaching how all combat units have left Iraq, which wasn't exactly a lie, but stretching the truth. The cookie-cutter bullshit journalism made my jaw drop as I saw photos get published of convoys and bases that I have been covering almost half a year prior, and currently still doing, then hear, "The war is over, it's time for Operation New Dawn"...a day or two later after the last combat brigade left Iraq I woke up and was given the news that a couple friends of mine just got hit by an EFP and a soldier I know quite well took shrapnel to the neck and arm. The rest of the day was spent waiting to hear the news on how he was, luckily it wasn't bad enough to send him home.

The media has grown bored of Iraq and has completely shifted it's attention to Afghanistan, which years before was the other way around. So to the few of you who actually read this blog, there is still a lot going on here and lots of work to still be done in Iraq. The war may have a fancy new name and the gunfights and massive IED's of yesterday are few and far between, but don't believe the hype when you hear, "We've pulled out of Iraq". If that was the case I'd be at home sipping on a Scotch and not riding in a vehicle listening to all the bloody reports of IEDs and small arms fire that went off in the last 24 hours while supplies are still being dragged in and out of Iraq.

More photos from my last mission below. I just got back from another one and will post them shortly.

- The Exodus