Saddam’s Crumbling Palaces

Some may praise the U.S. for repurposing Saddam Hussein’s ornate palaces into temporary housing for the military, but photographer Richard Mosse, who has published images of the extravagant buildings for the first time, asks why the U.S. would want to sit in the throne of someone they have overthrown? “A savvier place to station the garrison would have been a place free from associations with Saddam, and the terror and injustices that the occupying forces were convinced they'd done away with. Instead, they made the mistake of repeating history,” said Mosse. The series of photographs, entitled Breach, shows weight sets and flags of soldiers decorating the columned marble halls. While most of the palaces have been turned back to the Iraqis, some soldiers still live there in cramped conditions on the front line.