Iraq

Risking their lives, intrepid journalists and photographers have labored in often desperate conditions to bring images of war-torn Iraq to the rest of the world. Since no war in US history has had more carefully managed press coverage than this one, their more controversial and moving efforts have gone largely unreported in the US. Now, here are the pictures Americans have not seen: An Iraqi boy trying to study with a bandaged eye; the bullet-riddled tail of a Red Crescent vehicle; American soldiers and Iraqi citizens alike praying; mass graves; brothers kneeling over dead brothers; babies in coffins; bloody body parts kept on Ice. Each picture suggests the world and lives beyond the edges of the frame; together they show the true face of the US occupation of Iraq. The Associated Press staff was recognized by the 2005 Pulitzer Prize "for its stunning series of photographs of the bloody yearlong combat inside Iraqi cities." Whether they set their sights on triumphant US soldiers relaxing in one of Saddam Hussein's palaces or on the injured Iraqi woman whose ambulance they shared, these photographers have brought home the horror and fear of war, and the reminder that we are all flesh and blood.