IRAQ. Baghdad. 2010. Discarded blast walls outside Forward Operating Base (FOB) Falcon, a large American base
south of Baghdad. For years, the area around Falcon, dubbed the “Triangle of Death,” was one
of the most violent in Iraq. Small units from the base were assigned to outposts on narrow dirt
roads that crossed the farmland. The posts were frequently attacked, the soldiers on edge.
I visited an outpost in late summer 2006. The soldiers had just shot up a car full of civilians that
was too slow to stop at their checkpoint. They thought the car might be a suicide bomb and had
killed a teenage boy. When I arrived with a medevac crew, a small crowd was gathered around
the body lying on a stretcher. The blanket was too small to cover the boy, and his bare feet and
thin legs stuck out. The medic lifted the blanket at the head and quickly lowered it. The soldiers
stood listlessly over the huddled family and covered body. The temperature was 120 degrees
and the sun so bright the sky was nearly white. As I began photographing, the soldiers took off
their identifying unit patches.