Death Toll Grows as The Page Is Turned on Iraq by President Obama

August 31, 2010, Obama declared it is "time to turn the page" on Iraq, yet he didn't declare the war is over. The page may be turned but the story is not over. A visit to Arlington West illustrates the open book as more causalities are added to the records, and more markers are added in the sand.

Week ending August 22, the week the last combat troops were pulled out of Iraq, more soldiers were killed in Iraq.The war in Iraq is over for some, but not for the remaining 50,000 troops still deployed in Iraq. Or the first soldier killed after the last combat troops were pulled out.

Arlington West: Every Sunday in Santa Monica a group of volunteers organized by Veterans For Peace puts out markers to memorialize American soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Each white marker represents one dead soldier; each red one, ten. The blue markers signify soldiers killed the in the last week. Visitors add messages and mementoes to the markers. Symbolic coffins for each of the weeks dead are carried out onto the beach. The week ending August 22, 16 coffins repressing the three soldiers killed in Iraq and 13 killed in Afghanistan were placed among the markers. Members of Veterans for Peace are on hand to help veterans and family members memorialize the dead and educate people passing by about the cost of the wars.

Click here to see a slide show: photo essay on Arlington West

19 dead American soldiers the week ending today in Iraq

This last week was the bloodiest week for US soldiers in Iraq to date this year, the headlines read this morning. I started thinking of Arlington West in Santa Monica where crosses for each of the dead are set up in the sand.  It has been almost a year since I last took photos there. 19 symbolic coffins would have been carried out this morning and taken away again at sunset. The number of dead "19" would have been written on the sign that changes weekly with the weekly death count. I looked through some of my old shots and found one that would match the sign on the beach today, and decided to post it. I shot these two images at Arlington West on the week ending on Christmas day 2006. More of my work from Arlington west can be seen on my website www.jsdart.com  Hasn't Bush claiming that the surge is going well? I guess well is a relative term.