<jats:p> The Iraq war has generated an abundance of documentary films, supplemented by a small but growing number of Hollywood features. Yet American audiences for imagery from, of, or about the US enterprise in Iraq are remarkably scant. This article ponders the implications of this collective aversion to inspecting the war and its consequences. Setting popular `reluctance to see' in historical context, the author suggests that the current moment is sui generis: a challenge to media scholars to re-examine prevailing paradigms and to historicize the specificities of anemic contemporary `anti-war' sentiment. </jats:p>