A stupid quarrell

This photo raised strong criticism in the mainstream media. A soldier deployed in an operational theater (war, in other words) wears a balaclava with the image of his all-day companion: the death. Apart the fact that the image is a skull and not the Death (whose iconography is fairly more articulated and complex) the question is: why should this photo matters?

All the combatants, of all times, of all places in the world know best the value of inducing fear into the enemies’ minds by way of “icons” (armors, masks) and sounds (shouts, drums.) And, in parallel, every soldier must find his own way to handle the unbearable fear of the Death.

So, the picture in itself is not very interesting like the related quarrels.

War is a dirty business. That’s all.

N.B. This photo is copyright Foto AFP / Issouf Sanogo – ALL RIGHTS RESERVED – used under Italian Copyright Law (L. 633/41)  for educational and informative purposes.