United States using Biometrics in Afghanistan

This image shows U.S. Army Specialist. Brandon Tolbert as he scans the eye of an Afghan man using an Automated Biometric Identification system in Turkham Nangarhar, Afghanistan.

The Afgan man has a wide-eyed expression (though probably to aid in the recognition process) that makes him appear surprised, questioning and perhaps scared to the viewer of the image. His facial hair and face clearly identify him as Afghan, in stark contrast to the backpack, helmet and advanced technology the soldier. Spc. Tolbert is higher and larger in the photograph. Placing him in a clearly dominant position with respect to the Afghan. While I first identify the U.S. Army member as a soldier and member of the military, upon closer inspection I believe he is black man (though the lighting of the photograph makes it difficult to know for sure). The interesting part though is that I didn't read him as being black, I see him as U.S. Military personal in a powerful position relative to the man he is scanning.

Most of the color in the photograph is on the LCD screen of the biometric scanner the rest of the image is very desaturated. Along with the strange lighting, which seems to be coming from an artificial source, the fence or grating in the background makes the situation seem quite ominous. To me (and my culture), being required to submit to a biometric identification would seem invasive and disrespectful. However in this case it seems even worse given the examiner is a foreigner to this Afghan man. This image argues that the United States is in the powerful position of using electronics to scan and identify people as potential threats. The Automated Biometric scanning dehumanizes the scanee down to an object in war which must be classified as either being a threat or harmless.