brutalities inflicted by US troops

rom promptly bringing the occupa

gton Post has published an articl

nt of Haditha Last week images o

sein were beamed around the wo

ly in June 1867, when a political

ferent circumstances: the idealisti

exico, who had been installed thr

ention, faced a firing squad of res

news, Edouard Manet made som

intings. In January 1862 - exactly

he day was that over 10,000 Briti

s were disembarking at the port

e aim of forcing Mexico to pay it

ecame clear that France had som

nge. Britain and Spain had the sen

hat was turning into an ugly impe

II's part, in search of mineral wea

ome. The news, then, of what hap

utterly unexpected: the most ren

liated by the ferocious resistance

ut this, of course, was only the be

visit the National Gallery in Londo

from my native Yorkshire. An ar

interest in military things, I was p

opped painting by Manet that I e

ldier holding a gun - a sergeant

work was said to be a fragment o

execution in 1867 of the empero

ad never heard of this incident -

being largely about countries tha

ce I had just the one soldier to go

had taken place. Perhaps that wa

have spent a lot of time looking a

red London painting that now co

s, and in the other works that Ma

een 1867 and 1869. Since Novem

nging together in an exhibition at

New York that I organised, learn

as about the art, in the process.

itors to the exhibition, I learned t

wn up with a sketchy knowledge

hough Juárez had sent his family

ce, finally victorious, persuaded

but naive archduke of Austria, to

one I spoke to said: the exhibitio

ot an anarchist university in the

hes Marxism; we were not trying

onnor, a Trent University professo

its birth to write a book on punk

d on anarchist principles" -- con

ralized organizing and a non-hier

meetings, according to the school

The balloon was attached to a we

he balloon with magic marker; no

e argued strongly that he should

ge and refunded the postal fees,

uld actually be lighter as a result

easoning merely received a laugh

fused; reasons given: transportati

r classes have a fair amount of st

s. "This tends to give a higher qua

es the facilitator to seriously cons

ching, it gives people at an Anarc

view and make suggestions, and

ss to know what they are going to

ture is the dismantling of the trad

her and student. There's less of

ert and other people are there to

with the boundless knowledge of

probable Research's report on po

JIR experimented by sending all

er packages through the US mail

objects were delivered, and in wh

s, human teeth in clear plastic bo

t of here!", a hammer, a ski, a fe

and many others. The USPS score

sometimes they added snippy n

ooth: "Please be advised that hum

ported through the mail, but we

value, and made an exception in

ary is not only the obvious parall

e baleful consequences of a milit

change, exacerbated by ignorance

untry. Just as contemporary is wh

nce, learned of the progress of t

ave known for certain that, by ins

1864, Napoleon III was trying to

ready become a risky business. N

n that Napoleon told two lies to F

y 1866, when he said that France

ian was strong enough to stand a

rom journalistic reports and, later

nto France - of the consequences

he collapse of Maximilian's remain

uerétaro, just north of Mexico Ci

n execution there, by firing squad

ejía, on June 19 1867. The elegy

ve came early this year -- on Dec

of Patti Smith's traditional Christm

ry Ballroom. The first hour of the

performance of Smith's 1988 al

cord she ever made with her late

ho co-wrote and co-produced all

he guitars. Dream of Life is best k

m, "People Have the Power," whic

of every Patti Smith show I've see

in 1995. But the entire album --

f fighting spirit, grieving memori

discovery, and this show was an e

der of Dream of Life's obscured g

not know for certain what, precis

As the reports filtered in from abr

y, unreliable, censored - as the

o Napoleon's government. We mu

er a succession of newspaper sto

hoping for clarification and defin

either not finding it or disbelievin

imagine him piecing together fra

ey did not realistically or complet

ned, but offered, rather, the mea

very to create truly political art.

to as political art is really polem

rcing a belief, or often a blame.

does not reduce human affairs to

simplifies. Indeed, many of the

en performed live before, and Sm

ack pains earlier in the week, she

premiere. But she recovered quic

she blanked on a lyric, and her

,representing his father on guita

album's original sheen. It was str

wer," which opened the record, at

f Life, made during Smith's full-t

with her daughter Jesse during th

nty of rock to go around, and tha

or every pause to reflect on loss

Cross," the title song, "Going Und

end-off of "Up There Down There

Warhol died), the prescient firefi

s references to Lebanon, Iran and

e of "Looking for You." In his firs

collection of the Museum of Fine

ignoring most of the early, contr

ent. He did not trouble himself o

been three firing squads for the t

or whether or not there had been

tead, he borrowed freely from Go

nting of 1814 that depicts the ex

invading French soldiers under t

apoleon I. Manet was imagining a

most the opposite: Mexican natio

tive of a French invasion. He dres

pants and sombreros, which con

at ordinary Mexican soldiers look

suggests that he was beginning

aying the album's final lullabye, "

utumnal outtake "Wild Leaves" --

e Power" -- Smith continued to s

mportant to the record and passe

(for Fred) and "Beneath the South

(for friend and photographer Rob

o made sober note of the news th

cution, warning that this was not

aceable Kingdom" from Trampin'

m, peace and dignity for an Iraq d

ondon painting, Manet made this

port in Le Figaro that the soldiers

h uniform, and he had probably s

tion squad and the bullet-riddle

. He brought into his studio a sq

or the picture, and - in sheer prov

ted the facial features of the serg

at they resembled those of Napol

anet could, then, have received p

ndeed, a photography dealer had

possession of some of the photo

hen in clandestine circulation. Th

dio and the artist eventually bega

ing, now in the collection of the

hortly after Manet's own death, th

ran into the painter Edgar Degas

wheeling one of Manet's painting

ith a gun. "It's an outrage!" Degas

one's daring to cut up a picture li

family did it. All I can say is, nev

gment, but the rest of it was gon

eces are." In fact, Degas also fou

gments and glued the four in the

and that was how the National G

ale of Degas's collection in 1918.

ds the pieces that Degas had ass

separated, and not until 1992 c

n a single support, in the first ex

ogether at the National Gallery. N

exhibition, the painting will be b

his last work, Manet again looked

ullfight scenes - to make the spac

ce devoted to the ritual killing of

e of the object that had been the

illing, namely the raised sword th

hich can be seen in the backgrou

know from x-rays that, originally

esented in the Mannheim work. P

xecution without a cause, implac

spectators looking on, as we look

med for the killing. While, standin

ned, the sergeant at the right is s

Then, as if she'd finally had enoug

tic U-turn into a closing Bo Diddl

g the departed Godfather with a

of "Living in America") and returni

ing Stones' "Gimme Shelter" -- a

h Smith's Dream of Life finally ca

ning in the Mannheim work? At fi

the instant of execution. Yet only

ht, seems to have been hit; acros

uskets is compacted in an ugly,

bullets. Maximilian himself still l

to be fading into another realm, w

remains alert and curious. Beside

in time, transparent in places to t

poral as well as spatial relationshi

nstantaneous moment, but also t

w motion. And we - the viewers -

er we look. In the London paintin

is calm, distanced, waiting for th

ontemporary viewers knew had a

ce charged for his indifference, fo

gical interiority. However, the lon

more I am convinced that he has

First, he is the medium through w

, officially sanctioned cruelty tha

And, second, the manner of his pa

dy does, an attachment to reality

destroy it. For these reasons, Ma

of a very ordinary soldier continu

ss. There were very few contemp

was prohibited from exhibiting thi

who did see it must have felt horr

e terrible ineptness of the executi

it, what had happened after the

sergeant is readying his gun is b

e coup de grâce if the squad had

emned men. They hadn't. We noti

alls into the Mannheim painting a

h him as he waits, apart in his ha

e squad fires silently. But we are t

d later, starting at the deafening

d been killed instantly, but Mejía

g, until a shot in the ear delivered

nished him. Maximilian, however,

viously not dead. So the sergeant

the shot, hitting Maximilian in th

to kill him, but also, according t

musket ignited Maximilian's ves

ater on him to extinguish them. C

he ground, and all was in confusi

s tried in turn to end his sufferin

ne after the other. The sergeant

ed the cleaning rod of his muske

en, he shot at point-blank range.