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Wednesday, May. 12, 2004on the state of things elsewhere
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�Once in his life, every man is entitled to fall madly in love with a gorgeous redhead�
-Lucille Ball
"To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public."
--Theodore Roosevelt, 1918
REGISTER TO VOTE
"The time is always right to do what is right"
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
"The "seven social sins": Knowledge without character,
Science without humanity,
Wealth without work,
Commerce without morality,
Politics without principles,
Pleasure without conscience,
Worship without self-sacrifice."
--Gandhi
"We have not inherited the world from our forfathers -
We have borrowed it from our children."
--Kashmiri, proverb
Yesterday, an internet web page tied to al Qaeda showed the beheading of a civilian United States citizen trying to find work in Iraq. He was murdered by an Islamic group with links to al Qaeda. His name was Nick Berg, he was from Pennsylvania and his family had last heard from him ten days prior. His captors said they were doing this in retaliation for the abuses enacted upon Iraqi POWs by the United States before killing him in this most gruesome, tortuous manner (this was no guillotine; there was not one, quick swipe with a sharpened sword). Nick Berg�s body was found earlier this week.
I am just as horrified as all of you out there.
If Bush has any brains whatsoever (OK, maybe that�s too much to ask, but hopefully someone on his cabinet will talk to him. Is anyone even listening to Colin Powell anymore?) we will pursue those responsible for our own war crimes just as vigorously as we pursue the maniacs who did this most horrible, dreadful thing to this poor man and his family and friends. I say that because it is CRUCIAL that we make the world know that we are better than those we are fighting. We claim moral superiority at every chance we get. It�s time we stepped up to the plate and proved it.
And I would just like to point out again that al Qaeda had no interest in Iraq before we started this war. They have now jumped at the opportunity to get in there and turn even more people against us. They are taking an unsettled situation and profiting from it. When innocent people are killed or things like the abuse of Iraqi prisoners is brought to light, they feed on the resulting anger to further their own war against us. THEY are our enemy and by invading Iraq we basically gave them strength where they had none before.
And yet somehow we�re all supposed to feel safer now?
Someone emailed me, asking about my entry yesterday. I was of course accused of not supporting our military.
Well, I�ll tell ya...I DON�T support members of our military who decide we should be exempt from the laws of the Geneva Convention. I do not support terror in any form, nor do I support civil rights abuses in any form, nor do I support the humiliation and torture of human beings, no matter what their torturers may think them guilty of.
However, I fully recognize that my non-support does not then extend to most members of our military. Let us not forget that it was one brave soldier who brought all of the abuse going on in Iraq to real light in the first place. And that�s what makes me sick when I hear someone like this gal, Pfc. Lynndie England, saying she was just �following orders� when she participated in the photographed events. Um�isn�t that the same thing a lot of Nazis said some sixty years ago? We didn�t let them get away with it, now did we? I mean, even if she didn�t actually participate in any abuse and just stood there for the pictures � did it never occur to her to say, �Hey�this ain�t right. Perhaps I should tell someone about this�?
Correct me if I�m wrong, as I�ve never been in the military, but isn�t it the law that if you are asked by your Superior Officer to perform illegal or morally reprehensible acts that you decline to do so? Obviously the soldier who finally spoke up about these events listened to his own conscience � why wouldn�t you do the same, Pfc. Lynndie England? Besides, even if I�m wrong and the law is that you must obey orders, regardless � what�s gonna happen if you don�t - Court Martial? A dishonorable discharge? Maybe even a few years in jail? Sorry, but I think those far more honorable options than participating in torture and I�ll bet you�d sleep better in jail knowing you did the right thing. I don�t know how anyone could live with themselves after participating in these events.
Plus, some of the people involved in these abuses aren�t even members of the military, so of course they have no excuse whatsoever � not even this feeble one.
I totally think that the soldiers in those pictures were doing all of this not only with the knowledge of their superiors, but also with a green light from them. I hope we do the right thing and hold their superiors responsible�as far up the chain of command as it goes. And I think those that knew it was going on and did nothing to rectify the situation should be held almost as responsible. Sadly, I think that the ones who will pay will be the ones in the pictures and probably nobody else, but I hope I�m wrong about that.
While I believe in personal responsibility, though, there is something I�ve been wanting to write about since these pictures first came to light. I just haven�t been able to figure out how to say it right, but here goes�
War is hell, people. Gulf War I aside, it�s not always like a fucking video game where you point at some nameless, faceless target showing on a computer screen, push a button and the world is saved.
The people fighting in this or any war have to be ready to do two things � kill other people and stay alive. Think about it�what would it take to make you truly ready to kill another human being? To look at them and shoot them dead and be able to wake up the next morning and do it all over again? To take away that person�s future, their hopes and dreams; to take that person away from their families, their friends � kids who will now grow up without their parent?
I would say that most of us probably couldn�t even personally kill a person we know in our hearts �deserves� it � like someone who molested our kids or whatever. It�s not an easy thing to do and unless you�re a psychopath I would think you have to sort of remove yourself from the situation, emotionally. You have to focus on something other than what is actually happening, which is that you are taking a human life.
You get these guys and gals out there in a war situation, with all of that �rah-rah� spirit going on and everyone pumping themselves up with righteousness and supporting each other. You get these people out there where they are exhausted, probably hungry, sweating in 115 degree heat, walking for miles; they�re being attacked by a bunch of people they thought they were there to assist. In this particular war, where they now know they aren�t truly looking for weapons of mass destruction, I would think they really have to convince themselves that they are in Iraq for a different purpose - to rid the Iraqis of what are/were an inhuman dictator supported by inhuman terrorists (plus, let�s face it � half of them probably think they�re doing this in retaliation for Sept. 11). Throw all of this into one big soup and what are you left with? Emotionally empty robots who think the people they are killing and/or holding captive and/or raping are sub-human anyway and therefore none of this matters. They are, after all, The Enemy.
This is why shit like what went on in Viet Nam goes on. This is why shit like what is happening in Iraqi prisons happens. In both situations, some of the people attacking them are children and women so they�re not just killing other men with guns. We send these guys out there to do this dirty work and then wonder why they have a hard time drawing a line between what is �acceptable� killing of the enemy and what is not.
I am by no means making excuses, of course. I�m just talking, as I am prone to do.
Further, this is why it is so hard for vets to return home and to a �normal� life. You�ve been trained to do these barbaric things and have turned off certain parts of your psyche in order that you can do them�then you come home to your wife and kids and are supposed to take out the garbage and walk the dog and talk to your wife about your feelings and remember her birthday.
Pandi wrote a while back about how different WWII and those who fought it were from our present-day soldiers and war. She had a point. While I know there were soldiers who suffered what was then called �shell shock� after WWII and wars prior, I find it interesting that as the moral ambiguity of our �involvements� or �conflicts� or �operations� (we haven�t liked to call it war since the fifties) became more questionable, so did the emotional and mental stability of our military personnel.
We tell these guys to invade another country for uncertain or unknown reasons. They have to kill not only other soldiers but sometimes women and children and almost always civilians of all ages and sexes who get caught in the way. They may not have a clear understanding as to why they are doing any of this, but they have to � it�s their job and they are US citizens and we�re always in the right. So they do what it takes to get it done.
We make these people what they are. We turn them in to monsters and then are shocked that they do this stuff or, like, kill their wives when they return home (as so many have done at the Ft. Benning, GA base � �member?).
Um�In true Libra form, I think I just argued both sides of an issue. Do I think military personnel should be held individually responsible for their acts? Yes, I do. But I also think there is a much larger, murkier picture here. And my opinion is that our entire military training and infrastructure needs to be reviewed and overhauled.
Or, you know � we could stop getting ourselves into morally murky wars, but apparently that�s not gonna happen any time soon.
~~~
PLEASE SIGN ANY OR ALL OF THE PETITIONS LINKED BELOW ASAP AND FORWARD THIS MESSAGE WIDELY - MID-MAY DEADLINE
(You do not have to be 18, a registered voter nor a Democrat to sign.)
"Politics is not about left, right and center. It is about speaking to the concerns and circumstances of people's lives."- Paul Wellstone
Let us move away from partisanship. We are all at the point where we seriously need to address the issues of public interest vs. (corporate controlled, regulated & consolidated) corporate interest.
Here is a page which contains online petitions to the Democratic Party on a number of issues reflecting our most urgent national priorities, to help align the party platform with the values of most Democratic voters.
Sending petitions with a massive number of signatures is a powerful way to demonstrate how many of us want the Democratic Party to stand for issues. Making such a statement also will help to convince the Party's nominee for President how important it is to be responsive on these issues, to help inspire and attract enough voters to beat George W. Bush.
Go to http://www.kucincich.us/petitions/
Please pass this along to others. The goal is to present a million signatures to the DEMOCRATIC PARTY PLATFORM COMMITTEE when they meet in June, as a complement to our efforts on the ground at the Democratic National Convention in Boston in July. With your help, these important issues will not be lost this election year.
We want to make sure that Bush is defeated this year. But a weak Democratic Party that fails to meet today's challenges will not guarantee a win in the election.
Go to http://www.kucincich.us/petitions/
When you get to the site, simply check the boxes on the master petition for the following issues which you wish to support.
1. Aiding Iraqi Liberation & Self-Determination VS. U.S. Occupation, Bases & Corporate-Privatization
(Detailed plan for UN in and U.S. out of Iraq)
2. Canadian-Style Single Payer Universal Health Care
(We are the only major industrialized country still without.)
3. Jobs and Trade
(Withdrawal from NAFTA & the WTO in favor of fair trade, jobs and workers' rights.)
4. Repeal the Patriot Act
(Preserve our Bill of Rights and Civil Liberties)
5. Create a Department of Peace
(We can conceive of peace as, in the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., "not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal," where peace is not simply the absence of violence, but the presence of justice, where peace and nonviolence reflect the active presence of the capacity for a higher evolution of humanity, trust, respect, and integrity. Whereas nonviolent methods of resistance have been successful and have created longer term and more solid resolutions to conflicts where violence did not succeed.)
FAQ
Q. How will signing this petition help achieve the stated goal?
A. The Democratic Party needs help formulating an agenda that meets the needs of our country. This petition will become part of the proceedings of the Platform Committee of the Democratic National Convention. We believe that they will listen - if enough likely democratic voters speak up about their concerns.
Q. Why is the Kucinich Campaign working on these petitions?
A. (Dennis Kucinich is committed to standing behind the Democratic Party Nominee. He is still in the race through the Convention to be a voice for these issues.) This campaign has always been about bringing the true needs of this country to the forefront of the national agenda. Congressman Kucinich has spoken about all of these issues while on the campaign trail and he will continue to advocate for them within the Democratic Party. This petition campaign strengthens the people's voice in building a Democratic Party more responsive to the needs of the people and the public-interest.
Q. Why are there five petitions?
A. Different communities have their own priorities, and working together, we can represent them all. These five issues represent the broadest platform we can unite behind.
~~~
�I just got paid today and am already poor.�
- - from
~~~
Word of the Day for Wednesday May 12, 2004
bromide BROH-myd, noun:
1. A compound of bromine and another element or a positive organic radical.
2. A dose of potassium bromide taken as a sedative.
3. A dull person with conventional thoughts.
4. A commonplace or conventional saying.
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~~~~~~~~~~~peace, love and smooches~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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Copyright 2002-2005, Howl-at-the-Moon Words
***DISCLAIMER: These are my thoughts and my thoughts alone. If you know me in my "real life" off the net and have come across this page purely by accident, please keep in mind that you were not invited here and I would suggest you leave this page now. However, should you choose not to do so, please be warned that reading my thoughts here is not an invitation to discuss them off-line. You may discover things you do not know about me and may not like very much. Such is life. Again, this is MY space and I will use it as I see fit. If you are offended by anything here, well that's pretty much your own fault at this point.
I say all of this with love, of course, but there it is.
