Jack (Mitchell) in my Classics Department here at Stanford came out with a great point about all the imagery of abuse coming out of Iraq. [Link]

The digital image has a material force – the image itself, maybe borrowing its authority from the materiality of analogue photography, affects.

The image is pre-discursive – that is, it appeals through something other than explanation and gloss. It simply is and attests.

And the image is not worth a thousand words – of Rumsfeld’s or anyone else’s rationalizations – quite the reverse. It is. Faith and trust.