US Army Vet, Joseph Dwyer, Seen in Iconic Photo of Iraq War Dies of Overdose

dublin | anti-war / imperialism | other press

Tuesday July 08, 2008 17:01

by Maureen

"He wasn’t Joseph anymore. Joseph never came home.”

US Army medic, Joseph Dwyer, famous for the photo that was ruthlessly employed for propaganda, feelgood, purposes has died at the age of thirty-one after overdosing on a computer cleaner aerosol. The Army Specialist had been struggling with post-traumatic stress syndrome. After his return from Iraq, his marriage fell apart, and he spiraled into substance abuse and depression.

4-year-old Ali Sattar and Joseph Dwyer

In 2005, he shot up his El Paso, Texas apartment and held police at bay for three hours with a 9-mm handgun, believing Iraqis were trying to get in. The March 2003 photo showing Dwyer carrying an Iraqi child to safety was published world-wide and has been described as one of the most "iconic" images of the US invasion. His mother Maureen Dwyer said, “He loved the picture, don’t get me wrong, but he just couldn’t get over the war. He wasn’t Joseph anymore. Joseph never came home.”

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Comments (3 of 3)

And?

by Yuri

Wed Jul 09, 2008 13:06

Many of the rebels who fought for Irish Independence between 1916-1923 were scarred for life by their horrific experiences and many of them became drunks and suicides.
One of the six men who raised the flag on Iwo Jima, Ira Hayes drank himself to death.
Audie Murphy, the most decorated US soldier in World War 2 was traumatised by his experiences.
War is hell.

But wars have to be fought even though people die or are forever damaged.

Feelgood propaganda

by Michael C.

Wed Jul 09, 2008 13:56

Through synchronicity, whatever, directly below the Democracy Now story on the death of Joseph Dwyer is the following: "Photographer Accuses US Military of Censorship. A US photographer has accused the US military of censorship after the Marines kicked him out of its embed program for publishing a photo of a Marine who died in a suicide bombing in Fallujah. The photographer, Zoriah Miller, said, “I just feel this war has become so sanitized that it was important to show.” The military claimed the publication of the photo violated embed rules. The Marines also claimed that Miller had “provided the enemy with specific information on the effectiveness of the attack.”

As if it weren't self-evident: the Masters-of -War and their fellow travellers in the mainstream media only want sanitized, feelgood photos, for propaganda purposes?.

Link to thread...

by Michael Gallagher

Wed Jul 09, 2008 20:29

...this will take you to a thread and onto the accounts leading up to the censorship of this photographer Zoriah Miller.

ttp://www.indymedia.ie/article/88259

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US Army Vet, Joseph Dwyer, Seen in Iconic Photo of Iraq War Dies of Overdose

Comments (3 of 3)