What do we do with the photographs of war?

2003 is not that far away, only twenty years ago. And yet, already, this idea of the photographer, embedded with the invading army in a foreign land feels so remote, even hard to imagine now. But that is not because photographers no longer accompany invading armies, or that foreign armies no longer invade countries.

This is not an image taken in the heart of action. Rather it is a photograph of waiting. A man waits in the front seat of a car, armed and ready for any potential threat. The photographer waits in the seat behind him, also armed and ready with his camera. What is he waiting for?

US President George W. Bush, during his ‘Mission Accomplished Speech, 1 May, 2003. Scott Applewhite, Associated Press

The Iraq War lasted a further eight years, until 2011 when US forces withdrew from the country. According to estimates, over a million people died in the conflict. Within two years of the departure of US forces, Iraq descended into a state of civil war, remaining in conflict with insurgent groups under the banner of The Islamic State for a further four years, from 2013-2017. Thousands more died, and many millions were displaced.

What do we do now, with the photographs of this war? I look at the three men on the cart, disappearing out of the picture, relieved that they were not killed, that day. There is no action in this photograph, the soldier waits eternally, as does the photographer, in the back of a hot car.

If you were the photographer, what would you rather happen – for the gun to go off, or to spend the rest of the day waiting?

They are most likely waiting in an Iraqi vehicle. The famous phrase, ‘objects in the mirror are closer than they appear’ is printed in Arabic on the mirror that makes the heart of this picture. So, the country had already been invaded; this photograph was made after March 20, 2003.

What is he waiting for?

The Iraq War officially began on the 20th of March 2003. By the 1st of May, some six weeks into the US-led invasion, the then-US president, George W. Bush declared the ‘end’ of major combat operations in Iraq, standing on the deck of an aircraft carrier with a giant ‘Mission Accomplished’ poster behind him.

So what is this man waiting for on a hot summer day in Baghdad? Is he a soldier? Why is he not in uniform if he is?

One of the most infamous lies of the 21st century was the claim made by the United States that Iraq held ‘Weapons of Mass Destruction’ or WMDs that could wreak havoc on the world, particularly under the hands of Saddam Hussein, the president of Iraq at the time.

No WMDs were ever found. In 2005, the United States Senate officially released a report stating that the original claims by the government on the presence of WMDs in Iraq were misleading and made without substantial underlying intelligence supporting them.

So, if this man was a soldier, particularly a United States or coalition soldier, then he was waiting for nothing. He was there simply to kill or to die, on a hot summer day in Baghdad.