Joe Rosenthal Gone at 94

Joe Rosenthal Gone at 94

The man who gave us one of the most famous images in the history of photography has passed.

From the LA Times:

Joe Rosenthal, the Associated Press photographer whose dramatic picture of servicemen raising a giant, wind-whipped American flag atop Iwo Jima’s Mount Suribachi during World War II became an indelible image of valor and fortitude, has died. He was 94.

Rosenthal, who won a Pulitzer Prize in 1945 for his photograph, died Sunday morning at an assisted living facility in the Northern California community of Novato.

Taken on Feb. 23, 1945, the photo of five Marines and a Navy corpsman marked the Marines’ costliest battle of the war. In the fierce fighting on the small island 750 miles south of Tokyo, 5,931 Marines died, a third of all Marines killed during World War II. In all, more than 6,800 U.S. servicemen died on Iwo Jima.

This is fine moment for reflection. Consider that this tiny piece of land claimed nearly 7,000 in just about FOUR DAYS of fighting. This war was being fought to beat back a two-front totalitarian scourge that had designs on nothing less than world domination. Were all of these losses tragic? Yes. Were these losses acceptable? Through the prism of hindsight, I don’t think anyone would argue that they weren’t. This country had the will to win backed by a clear vision of reality, unobscured by the need to prop up Japanese, German or Italian “self-esteem,” cultural relativism or the search for “root causes” of “why they hate us.” We recognized that enemies of freedom, who were permitted the benefit of the doubt for too long had to be stopped and that blood, millions of gallons of it, must be shed to break the stride of the fascist dual-juggernaut that the “smart people” were so sure we could assuage with nice words and small pieces of land.

How will this generation answer to history? Boldly and victoriously, aware that to win we must sacrifice or “multi-culturally,” with our heads under the covers hoping that the monster under the bed would just go away? Though we have a Fifth Column media that feeds discontent with staged photos and shallow body-count reporting and an opposition party that sees President Bush as a greater threat than this worldwide network of Islamofascist mass killers, I think the American people are smart enough to see through the stage fog. Let’s hope that it doesn’t take another horrific and tragic day to shake us all awake again.

Jefferson said, “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” I prefer the Patton view of who should die for his country or his cause: “No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country.” The tree should be refreshed by the blood of tyrants and we know exactly where to find our Miracle Grow…but can we keep this generation’s attention for long enough to get the job done? It’s an uphill battle, but I think we can win, we will win and we will honor those great Marines who raised the colors on Mount Suribachi.