Iraq: Battle Scars

As the war against Iraqi insurgent forces raged in late 2006, a U.S. military scrapyard facility at Camp Al Asad in western Iraq doubled in size, hit with an onslaught of battle-damaged vehicles and equipment. In December 2006, I visited the scrapyard—known as the Defense Reutilization and Marketing Office (DRMO) and also the central collection point of scrap metal in Iraq’s in Al Anbar Province—to survey the damage. It was a brutally honest picture of the war at the time and I was surprised that access was granted to this scene. The photos are a rare and sobering look back at the immense destruction wrought by a war that turned out to be far more costly—in both blood and treasure—than anyone predicted.