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Followup on news story from Iraq
A comment on the previous entry noted that the "bullets" the Iraqi lady is holding appear to be, not only unfired ammo, but civilian unfired ammo. To get a better look, I enlarged their image 400% in Photoshop, then scanned in some military ammo (too lazy to take a good photo just now) beside it.
When a cartridge is manufactured, the neck and shoulder are annealed (heat treated). It leaves a visible discoloration, ranging from a lighter yellow to a silver shade, with bands of purple. (The neck of the military round isn't clearly visible, due to using a scanner, but it has the effect, too). Civilian ammo manufacturers don't like the look and polish it away. The military doesn't care and lets it be. The rounds she is holding certainly look like civilian ammo to me. But where would she get it and why? Possibly there's civilian 5.56/.223 floating around Iraq. The other possibility is that the "stringer" who took the picture picked some up as a stage prop.
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The media is clearly on the Jihadist side.
This is classic MO for the jihadists. There are so many other proven examples of faked photos on the web, that I could never believe this propaganda was unintentional/innocent.
Just one example: One website collected many images of elderly women grieving with their arms up in the air at various buildings that were hit. Problem is, the pictures were all of the SAME WOMAN. She was just being posed at various sites in the war zone.
If I was a betting man I'd bet the cartidge on the left is a Winchester soft point. Notice the slight change in color at the tip to gray. I've shot Winchester .308 and its all real shiney
Military Ammo also is all color coded to ease the identification when issuing, You wouldn't want to issue someone 300 rounds of tracers now would you?
M855 Ball which is the standard issue has a green tip, tracers have a red or orange tip like the round scanned.
For a better example of military rounds and discoloration, try doing a Google search for "M2 ball ammo".
I have also Photoshack'd a copy, as well. Click my name.
Those look like M855 rounds in profile, but no green tip. Look at the area just above the neck of the case on the bullet. Its a different color from the rest of the bullet. Darker jacket indicating tarnish which was probably wiped off the rest of the cartridge by polish or steel wool which also removed the green paint on the bullet tip and the annealing discoloration on the case neck. My guess is that these were just picked up off the ground after being there quite some time, and polished up for the photo(shop)-op.
M193 bullets (55gr) have a longer ogive (more rounded appearance) and a longer bearing surface in front of the cannalure than M855 (SS109) bullets. These look like M855.
I vote for .308.
From what I've heard, Black Hills is sending ammo off to Iraq, pretty much the same 77gr SMK loads that they sell on the commercial market. These look like your standard polished brass cases, rather than military ones. (Although the blue-box remanufactured stuff starts life as military cases)
Or, if the military is getting ammo from other commercial suppliers, it could be our ammo. But, of course, that doesn't make it any less absurd.
Random thought... remember a while back there were pictures running around purporting to be something or other, that had white winchester ammo boxes in it? I don't remember the story around it, but I do remember some controversy, and the blown up (as in zoomed in) winchester boxes.
Of course, it's possible that the photo wasn't even taken in Iraq and the woman doesn't live where she was reported to live.
I think it is rather hilarious that a lot of the people in the press think they are out-smarting us common dullards, doing something like this. Simply amazing.
They think its clever double-use propaganda. Part of long term cultural shift for here at home. Making legitimate civilian arms and ammunition appear to be as illegal and illegitimate. Hollywood reverse 'brand placement'.
Its intended audience is the elite liberal ninnies that appear to be winning the culture wars. For now.
Another possibility is that her house actually was hit with bullets during a firefight, and afterwards when she went outside there was unfired ammo on the ground (hasty re-load?) and mistakenly thought those were the bullets that hit her house.
It's clear that even if she made the whole story up, she doesn't know anything about firearms or how they work or she wouldn't have held up unfired ammo, so to me it's just as plausible that as a civilian granny, she thought the unfired rounds had been fired at her house.