WHAT WE ARE LEAVING BEHIND IN IRAQ

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What We Are Leaving Behind in Iraq
 
 
What We Are Leaving Behind in Iraq

What We Are Leaving Behind in Iraq
A Photo-Essay produced by Alice and Lincoln Day
Featuring the narration and photography of Michael Fitzpatrick

Michael Fitzpatrick is a former U.S. Army Sergeant, deployed in Iraq from March 2004 to March 2005 and then again from October 2006 to January 2008. Stationed about 12 miles northeast of Baghdad, his duties extended to several patrol bases that operated out of different cities. The 5-year stretch he was there gave him an unusual opportunity to view changes over time in the environment and activities of the American military in Iraq. Stationed about 12 miles northeast of Baghdad, his duties extended to several patrol bases that operated out of different cities. Fitzpatrick says that before he went to Iraq, he imagined it would look somewhat like the countryside of rural Northern California where he grew up. But news agencies had prepared him for neither the dire poverty of the people nor the toll that war had exacted on their houses, the infrastructure, the farms, and the land. Everywhere there were damaged buildings and trash littering public places. As he traveled around on patrols he says he kept looking for a place that was clean and well maintained, but never found one.

He was particularly dismayed by the scale of military equipment, ordnance, and dangerous munitions that were left lying around, a threat to the safety of American soldiers and to Iraqi children and adults alike. He strongly felt that Americans should be made aware of what was going on: that "they knew how to destroy, they didn't know how to restore.”

The some 3,000 photos that Fitzpatrick took during his two deployments became the inspiration and basis for this 19-minute photo essay. These provide visual testimony to what has happened and continues to happen to the environment in countries like Iraq and Afghanistan in consequence of sustained foreign military presence. He sums up his deep concerns about the environmental damage that we are leaving behind in this way: "And remind them that all this stuff is just sitting around out there, on everyday land, accessible to anyone. I just walked up on all this stuff and took pictures.”

Fitzpatrick is currently working on a PhD degree in philosophy at Stanford. When the Days first met him it was after a screening of their film, Scarred Lands and Wounded Lives --The Environmental Footprint of War, at the State University of California (Chico), where Michael was an undergraduate specializing in philosophy and English language and literature. Thinking that this film captured much of what he had experienced during his time in Iraq, Michael turned over his entire "photo library” to the Days to use as they chose. In June 2010, their production team interviewed him on film talking about his impressions of Iraq and then, over the next 6 months, the Days used a selection of his photos to produce this photo-essay.

What We Are Leaving Behind in Iraq