Been a while

OK- Well my blog is finally fixed. So, I’ll get back to a little bloggin’ now and then. After being sick as a dog last week, I loaded up on antibiotics and drove to Long Island to see my old friend Marc Fader get hitched on Sunday It was great to see so many friends from school. Jeff Zelevansky, Justin Lane and Kalama Lui-Kwan I also had the pleasure of sitting with Travis Fox throughout the reception. Although I am sure he is scared of me now, I had a great time shooting the shit with him. If anyone is wondering, I did see him dance at least one song with his wife.

Seeing Marc and Michelle up at the alter together looking so lovingly at each other was a great. I shot some photos for them (to the dismay of their hired wedding photographer) and I witnessed so many ‘moments’ of them falling into each others eyes that it was easy to shoot.

I set up my laptop with a slideshow of the ceremony that people could watch as they picked up their place cards at the reception. Michelle and Marc were thrilled to be able to see the ceremony so quickly. In fact a lot of folks, aside from the wedding photographer, loved having the photos there. I saw a lot of people’s positive reaction to the ‘photojournalist’ approach to weddings and wonder just how much money there is to be made if I ever get bored with the newspaper thing.

The drive both was was long, but pretty painless. I had the company of my BU classmate Christina Asquith for the ride up, and Tom Ricks read me all the way home with his new book about the Iraq war, “Fiasco.”

I am still listening to it and have to say that it’s quite a good book. It definitely pulls a bit to the left, but Rick’s has backed up his assertions about the senior political and military leadership’s mishandling of the campaign. Some friends make appearances in the text, like Joe Anderson and Dan Morgan from the 502nd. Also mentioned are a some folks I met from the 4th ID, like Fred Rudesheim, though I am not sure how Nate Sassman missed getting a mention, but I’ve still got a few chapters left.
It’s incredible to listen as Ricks lines up all the little facts, reports and quotes, and anecdotes like so many dominoes. Tipping the first one begins a cascade, exposing the glaring truth that hid in the patterns that I myself witnessed on the ground in Iraq, but failed to recognize as so many little events that can be viewed from a distance as the Fiasco that Iraq has become.

I remember standing in the Capitol and the Pentagon at press conferences and listening to people from the administration and the DOD bashing the media for being too negative about the war. I remember thinking to myself that there is some good news to report and feeling like maybe they had a point. Were we missing the ‘good news’ stories? We after listening to Ricks’ put the events and statements in context, I feel foolish for thinking for even a second I owed the the administration or senior military leadership any deference. The only people I owe are the men and women that serve the country in ways that I don’t. That’s who I work for, and shame on me for forgetting it for even a second. I thank Tom Ricks for reminding me of that.