NY Times Frontpage Picture a Synecdoche for the War?

[markses]

The picture shows two towering GI's searching the pockets of a (10 year old?) Iraqi boy. he has his hands out: Nothing.

I am not questioning the GI's need to search the boy in this manner (although one wonders what he might be transporting in his tiny pockets), nor am I judging them negatively. Rather, I'd merely like to suggest that the image is a pars pro tota image of the war as a whole. It is an image of our foreign policy: the asymmetry of power, the fruitless search...

[pink_poodle]

1. And just think of all the American dollars that went into...............

training these soldiers so they can find sweeties in the pockets of little boys. sigh. And this is the way these "liberated" children have to live and this is how they will remember Americans.

[RebelOne]

2. Oh, and that boy looks so dangerous.

Maybe he's carrying a missile in his back pocket. :7

[maggrwaggr]

3. I think it's out of line to criticize the soldiers here

they're just doing what they're supposed to do. They appear to be doing it as gently as possible.

The soldiers shouldn't have to be there in the first place. That's the issue. It's the people who put those soldiers there who are to blame, not the soldiers themselves.

[markses]

4. Who criticized soldiers? In fact, I explicitly stated I would not

do so.

The post has nothing to do with criticizing soldiers, which, of course, makes one wonder why you decided that it did?

[Terwilliger]

7. Yes, they sdhouldn't be there

that doesn't make them blameless or any less brutal overseers

I suggest you watch the Frontline from several weeks ago, where the news that these servicemen had killed an innocent bystander seemed to roll off of them like they had no conscience at all.

[Brian Sweat]

13. The problem is not what the soldiers are doing.

It is the fact that they need to do it. It shows that we do not belong over there. The fact that young Iraqi children pose a potential threat to trained soldiers says that the Iraqis do not want us there.

[DrBB]

5. Dunno, but I like seeing "synecdoche" in a thread title. n/t

[markses]

6. I like putting it inthread titles

;-)

[DrBB]

8. How do you feel about litotes, or even, dare I say it

... occupatio??? Far be it from me to include such terms in a post header or body merely for their not inconsiderable snob appeal, yet I hope you are not unimpressed.

Dimsdale? Dimsdale? Dimsdale!!!!

[markses]

11. Snob appeal?

Don't get it. Should I have said "metaphor" because it has less snob appeal? A synecdoche is a synecdoche, seems to me. I didn't realize I was being snobby! Oh well. Now, if I had invoked the homoioteleuton with respect to the speeches of Al Sharpton, we might be in the realm of snobbiness, but synecdoche? Really?

[dreissig]

14. Pars Pro Tota

I love the term pars pro tota. Unfortunately I don't know anybody I can impress with it.

[RichM]

9. Go, synecdoche, go!

Yay, synecdoche!!

(Just wanted to see how it feels. :-) )

[BurtWorm]

10. I was about to write the same thing.

I like saying it too. Synecdoche. Isn't that near Albany?

[markses]

12. Ask Jack Welsch

;-)