This Goat Died for Iraq or Something
A war photo a day #5
Eight years. Seven wars. More death and destruction than I care to recount. I’ve been covering armed conflict since 2005. Every battlefield has its stories … and its unforgettable images. Follow me through my career at war, one jarring, haunting or sublime photo a day until I run out.
The summer of 2005 was a hot one for U.K. troops occupying southern Iraq, with blazing heat and constant riots and mortar attacks. But there was some progress in the trillion-dollar job of rebuilding Iraq’s ruined infrastructure. With British help the Iraqis reopened Basra’s airport to commercial traffic — and, as I watched, sacrificed this goat on the tarmac to celebrate the arrival of the first Iraqi Airways flight.
Email me when War Is Boring publishes stories