kaloogian's latest excuse for posting the picture of istanbul and labeling it a baghdad street:
The candidate said he hadn't recognized the error because "the military asked us to use our discretion and put things on the Internet that were nondescriptive ... (because) if we posted something that was easily identifiable, it could be a target."josh cites the same quote and claims it means that kaloogian is blaming the military for his screw up. with all due respect to josh, i don't think you could possibly read it that way.
but the explanation is still seeped in irony. let's review: kaloogian's original purpose for posting the photo was to demonstrate that coverage of the iraq war exaggerated the violence and to illustrate the fact that baghdad was mostly a peaceful place not portrayed in the media.
his explanation completely undermines his purpose for the photo. if it's dangerous to just post an identifiable photo of baghdad, then that means that baghdad is not peaceful after all. his excuse for the photo gaffe also suggests that this was not a simple mistake, this was a lie. if the military authorities were telling him baghdad was dangerous, then telling the public that it's a safe normal place is wrong and even irresponsible. (josh makes a similar point in a follow-up post)
on top of that, the explanation makes absolutely no sense. if kaloogian is saying that he didn't look at the picture carefully enough to recognize the error because the military told him to take care in not posting an identifiable picture. but if the military told him to take extra care, that's a reason to pay more attention, not less, to the contents of the photo.
we now return you to your regularly scheduled non-kaloogian lives.
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* not an actual promise. i reserve the right to change my mind if i feel like it later.
