Credit: Jim Morin, Miami Herald
“Sight Gags” is our weekly nod to the ironic and carnivalesque in a vibrant democratic public culture. We typically will not comment beyond offering an identifying label, leaving the images to “speak” for themselves as much as possible. Of course, we invite you to comment … and to send us images that you think capture the carnival of contemporary democratic public culture.
Another one for your “iterations of Iwo Jima Photo” collection. Time to create a new blog category?
When I first looked at this image, I saw how similar this image was to the famous photo of the American flag being raised on Iwo Jima. The famous image of the American flag being raised represented the triumph of America over Japan in WWII. Now, this current image parodies that original image. Here we have soldiers raising President Karzai of Afghanistan who is the leader of a corrupt government. By gazing at this image, we are forced to question whether our continued troop involvement in Afghanistan is really making America and the world safer. This image tells us that America, instead of supporting democracy, is in fact supporting corruption.