Susannah Breslin interviews Staff Sergeant Jason Deckman about Graffiti Of War, a project to collect the art and messages left behind by troops:
It's not a drawing that someone made in their sketchbook. It's not a painting on canvas. It's spray paint and Sharpie markers on blast walls, inside of the Porta Potties, on the backs of vehicles, graffiti that are tagged everywhere, on enemy vehicles, memorials that people have put together to remember the guys that didn't come back. It's all that, kind of created in the heat of the moment – of pride, or anger, or sadness. … It's a way of, when they were there, saying, "Here I am. We were here. After we're gone, this will still be here."
(Image: by Richard Kelly, Camp Anaconda, Balad, Iraq)
The Dish 