As an unintentionally hilarious sidebar, read this LA Times article. They seem genuinely perplexed that someone could actually “take sides” in the war, scratching their pointy heads over a photographer – a woman, no less – who refers to “bad guys”. Go figure.

Funnier is their description of this photo:

SAN DIEGO-based Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Michael Watkins captured the spooky terror of the war in 2007, with a nighttime shot of heavily armed U.S. special forces standing by a door, with a barking German shepherd straining at its leash. Their high-beamed nightscopes cut into the darkness. Their faces are masked with night goggles that tint the photograph in ghoulish green desperation.

Would anyone willingly open the door to these scary trick-or-treaters?

I’m not sure what a “high-beamed nightscope” is supposed to be, but those green lines are infrared laser beams. They can only be seen with night vision devices, such as the one through which the photo was taken. That’s what tints the photograph green, dummies. It is assumed, or at least dearly hoped, that the bad guys inside aren’t wearing NVGs. In any case, if you’re someone who would “willingly open the door” you won’t find Special Forces all armored up on the front porch. Duh.

The LAT has to begrudgingly give the photographers their due – there’s some very nice work here. The contortions they go through are just indicative of how disconnected from reality so-called journalists are.