The American Society of Magazine editors created a video called Covering the Decade: The Story of the Century's First 10 Years as Told Through Magazine Covers. It's a bit of a disappointment. The magazines chosen to tell the story of the decade are mostly the kind of glossy fare you find in airport newsstands. Mostly, the alternative press is left out of the mix (there are a few exceptions, most notably the inclusion of an Utne Reader cover).

What is more frustrating is their handling of the Iraq war. There are two covers chosen to tell the story of Iraq. First, there's the Tales of the Tyrant cover from the Atlantic Monthly.  You ought to have an easy time divining which tyrant is on display. Next is Time's "We got him!" cover. It's Saddam Hussein again, fresh from his hole. The story of the Iraq war, it would seem, is a simple one: There was a tyrant and we got him.

The story is a bit more complicated than that—and less tidy. So I made my own video. I ravaged the Utne Reader library looking for covers from the alternative press that helped to tell the complex and terrible story of our war in Iraq. Utne Reader librarian Danielle Maestretti and art director Stephanie Glaros helped me. Here's what we came up with:

The covers create a powerful narrative, but there is still something missing. We struggled to come up with covers that represented civilian suffering in Iraq, which has prompted a second library hunt. I'm looking through the archives of every notable political magazine in our library for cover stories on civilian suffering in Iraq. I'll let you know what I find. If you can remember a cover, tell me about it in the comments section!

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