Iraq as Holiday Destination
The Mirror:
Having a fantastic time, scorching weather and friendly locals… wish you were here in sunny Basra? It might sound like the sort of postcard you would only find in a joke shop but holidaying in Iraq’s second largest city might not be as ridiculous as you think.
Absurd. (Via Lenin’s Tomb.)
Believing is Seeing
Errol Morris in the New York Times’ photo-op:
I have asked myself how this controversy over a photograph became international news. Clearly, there are many reasons. But at the center of them all is this question: Are we on the brink of another war? I remind myself that the war in Iraq started with bellicose posturing and photographs. At the United Nations, Colin Powell displayed several photographs of Iraqi sites showing incontrovertible evidence of weapons of mass destruction. Of course, we now know that this incontrovertible visual evidence was false. We don’t need advanced digital tools to mislead, to misdirect or to confuse. All we need is a willingness to uncritically believe.