At first glance, this image may evoke an Impressionist painting. Yet it is nothing of the sort. It is a fragment of endless time—an instant suspended within the relentless bombing of Baghdad, as the United States sought to impose its political hegemony upon Iraq through military force.

What appears to be a composition of light and colour is, in truth, the glow of devastation. Beneath its deceptive beauty lie death, fear, and human suffering.

For many, that military intervention stands as an act of profound inhumanity, justified by claims later shown to be unfounded and accompanied by a rhetoric that exposed the contradictions, falsehoods, and hypocrisy often associated with the so-called Western democratic project. It was the civilian population that paid the highest price.

This image does not commemorate war. It bears witness to its failure—the failure of politics, of diplomacy, and, ultimately, of our common humanity.