Lake to Bush: ‘Stay the course’

PHOENIX — Dawn Lake chose the Army over the Peace Corps as a way to see the world.

In 26 years, Lake has been to Korea, around the Pacific, Germany, and the Middle East. Her career as a colonel spanned the Gulf War, the Drug War, and the war on terror.

But after returning from Afghanistan in 2004, Lake was astounded by two things: how poorly women were treated in Afghanistan and how misguided America’s war on terror had become.

“I wish we had not gone into Iraq when we did,” she said. “It’s not to say though that I don’t support it. I really think that Saddam Hussein had to be taken out…I think that guy was absolutely evil, and I feel the same way about the Taliban.

“There’s a special place in hell for people like (the Taliban) for what they have done to the country — especially the women,” she added. “I mean women being executed for nothing more than being seen outside without a burkha on.”

She said the U.S. should have stayed in Afghanistan longer before shifting its attention to Iraq.

“I would have liked to have seen it be a more focused application of firepower and also to build a stronger coalition,” she said.

Any advice for President Bush?

“Stay the course,” she said.

Lake was born in Quincy, Mass., but raised in Boston with her three brothers. She was into literature, all sports and poetry — a self-described “Renaissance woman.”

She was a trained paratrooper from Fort Bragg, N.C., who moonlighted as a photographer on some missions. It was Lake’s trip to Afghanistan that inspired a collection of photos at the Tree of Life Gallery in Phoenix.

Lake snapped the shots with a beat-up digital camera while traveling 70 mph in ground convoys. Others were taken over the shoulder of gunners aboard Chinook and Apache helicopters. There are 10 cities in all, including scenes from Kabul and Jalalabad.

She used Adobe Photoshop software to make the pictures look like paintings. They were on display Nov. 16.

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