Somethings are black and white

I remember seeing this photo on the front page of the Washington Post. It is especially disturbing because it puts the ongoing war in Iraq in stark terms. On the one hand, you have insurgent elements that are showing their true colors as the Iraqi government forms. On the other hand, the photo shows what we all want to believe--that the vast majority of U.S. soldiers are not barbarians but the best our country has to offer.

Anyway, I recently came across the blog of the photographer that took this photo. He is embedded with an army unit in Mosul. He wrote this about the above photo:

Major Mark Bieger found this little girl after the car bomb that attacked our guys while kids were crowding around. The soldiers here have been angry and sad for two days. They are angry because the terrorists could just as easily have waited a block or two and attacked the patrol away from the kids. Instead, the suicide bomber drove his car and hit the Stryker when about twenty children were jumping up and down and waving at the soldiers. Major Bieger, I had seen him help rescue some of our guys a week earlier during another big attack, took some of our soldiers and rushed this little girl to our hospital. He wanted her to have American surgeons and not to go to the Iraqi hospital. She didn't make it. I snapped this picture when Major Bieger ran to take her away. He kept stopping to talk with her and hug her.

It's worthwhile to read what he has to say about journalism and the situation in Iraq.