Don't Fence Me In

In Qubah, Iraq U.S. soldiers have begun using permanent markers to keep track of residents during curfew hours. They have written numbers on the back of men's necks and on the top of the hands of women and each number corresponds to where that resident lives so that after curfew hours U.S. soldiers can tell whether or not they are where they should be. I don't know about you but this parallels eerily close to what the Nazis did to Jews in concentration camps during WWII. We are the liberators? This illegal occupation of Iraq has taken a new and unsettling turn in tactics used for maintaining control of the local populace.

Also, in today's Florida Today, there was an article subtitled, "U.S. soldier, baby among 15 casualties". Within that article there was a section about a girl who had just finished taking a test at school when a gate fell on her breaking her leg due to an explosion. This article by the way was printed on page 8. I suppose the Gators winning their third national championship this year was a more emotional story.

And just a day after John McCain visited Baghdad reveling in how safe it had become and how the number of terrorist-led executions had dropped, this was said in the same article above: "Baghdad police said they found the bodies of 14 people, most tortured and killed execution-style..." I hope John McCain is getting the full picture now.

And in the continuing news about the president vowing to veto the bill that will fund his war but set a timetable for exiting Iraq, George W. said, "That is unacceptable to me, and I believe it's unacceptable to the American people."

The truth is that this war is unacceptable to the American people and what else is unacceptable to the American people is the president allowing his own personal agenda on the war to interfere with passing the bill into law that would support our troops. I also find that our troops having to use markers to brand Iraqi civilians in a Naziesque manner to be unacceptable. Maybe if the president listened to his people he would know how we felt. But I am sure that he wouldn't like what he'd hear. So while the leader of the free world covers his ears to the screams of human rights violations the world is not becoming a safer place and America is not becoming more secure. Heil Bush and screw peace. This administration is turning the whole world into a new Auschwitz and don't think that we are necessarily on the free side of the fence.

The White House Of The Apocalypse

Seeing The Full Picture Behind Bullet-Proof Glass

Under heavy guard and in armored vehicles, presidential candidate John McCain traveled with U.S. commander General David Petraeus to Baghdad's largest marketplace. Afterward, John McCain criticized the American media for not portraying Iraq's successes accurately citing that the security crackdown was working and claiming the American people did not have the "full picture". He also reminded people that execution style killings have dropped in Iraq and that Sunni tribes were fighting against al-Qaida in the Anbar province.
Now, to give all you Americans the "full picture": John McCain's trip cannot be considered consistent with everyday life in Iraq seeing as he spent little time there and traveled under very heavy guard on a scheduled visit. I doubt the security in the marketplace was ever as high as when an American presidential candidate traveled there with the U.S. top commander. In addition, that same day six American soldiers were killed in roadside bombings outside of Baghdad.
Which brings us to our next point. While Baghdad is becoming slightly more safe (remembering that despite security checkpoints last week was the bloodiest since the war began) the rest of Iraq is seeing an increase in violence as the insurgents are merely pushed elsewhere. And wow, "execution-style sectarian killings"(Florida Today) are dropping? Recently nearly 70 people were executed in the streets by a shot in the back of the head by off-duty Iraqi policemen and others were kidnapped.
And if I have to hear about John McCain being a prisoner of war in Vietnam one more time I am going to vomit. For Christ's sake, give the man a medal and move on. Nobody likes a bleeding heart. Being a prisoner of war is not such a great accomplishment and while it is great that he survived, it is a shame for him to work it to death getting him votes. And how can anyone in his position still be loyal to an administration that was responsible for the torture scandals at Abu Ghraib? Why would a former prisoner of war support war? And Rudy Giuliani, don't dig too deeply into the 9/11 trench either.
Great obstacles have been overcome but new ones face us just ahead. John McCain needs to stop pretending that this war is working and focus on what needs to change for Iraqi success. Maybe if he had gone on a non-scheduled visit to the marketplace and been out from his bullet-proof armor and guards he might have seen the real Iraq and not the Bush Iraq. To see the full picture, Mr. McCain, you need to open your eyes.

War Victims Exit Stage Right...Permanently

In a recent article by the associated press, statistics were released that showed the U.S. military death toll was nearly twice as high for the month of March as the death toll of the Iraqi military proving yet again this administration's views that the Iraqi military is taking back control of the country (yeah, right). There were about 44 Iraqi military deaths and 80 U.S. military deaths related to combat. But there was good news buried within the grim statistics of March: only 1,872 Iraqi civilians were killed. Despite that number being about 300 more deaths than last month, this shows how the security crackdown in Iraq is really working: not so good. Nearly 1/3 of the deaths in March were from the last week in the most deadly string of bomb attacks since the war began. Hey, Bush...mission accomplished asshole.
While the British begin considering diplomatic talks with Iran to recover the 15 Britons captured in disputed Iranian/Iraqi waters, Transport Minister Douglas Alexander revealed why diplomacy has taken the sideline for so long in foreign policy. "The responsible way forward is to continue the often unglamorous, but important and quiet diplomatic work to get our personnel home.” To say that the diplomatic way is unglamorous shows how the films of John Wayne and Clint Eastwood have glorified war. While war tactics and maneuvers appeal to the masses as clever and exciting, peaceful negotiations are seen as boring and "unglamorous". This just makes me sick. Peaceful diplomacy is glamorous in that there are no body counts attached to it and no mothers crying because their sons or daughters never came home.
And then on top of that, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accused the world powers of being "arrogant" for not apologizing for Britain's trespassing. First of all, the accusation of trespassing is dubious at best and second of all if anyone should not be throwing around the word arrogant it would be President Ahmadinejad. Between hosting Holocaust denial conventions to continually defying the UN in neither stopping their uranium enrichment programs or allowing inspectors full access to those plants, Ahmadinejad has become the poster boy of political arrogance.
We need to militarily pull out of Iraq, quit pretending that war is glamorous and stop throwing playground insults at each other in order to begin progressing in the right direction. To our politicians: wake up and grow up! Your people want progressive results not body bags.

Beauty Is Skin Deep...Emotion Is Not

photo obtained from xinhuanet: "An Iraqi man cries outside a hospital following a suicide attack."

September 4, 2005

They say that a photo can speak a thousand words. How many does this one say to you? On Saturday a truck bombing in the Iraqi town of Tal Afar killed around 152 people. About 500 people were killed in Iraq this week. On Tuesday's attack around 347 people were injured and 100 homes destroyed in the blast of another attack. Also on Saturday, car bombs killed 9 people. And then 70 people were killed earlier this week by revenge killings led by off-duty police officers. Meanwhile, U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker said, "We've seen encouraging signals of progress but we have to keep moving forward." I don't know what Ryan Crocker has been looking at but progress is something rarely mentioned in the Iraqi marketplaces by fearful citizens and the move forward is without foresight nor is it with concern for the lives of the Iraqi people.

There is a neurological condition known as synesthesia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synesthesia) in which some people are tuned for cross-sensory relationships between everyday things involuntarily. From seeing colored letters to hearing a work of art to words with certain tastes, people with synesthesia perceive their world differently than most other people. Now, I understand that most of the people (if any) reading this article do not have synesthesia but I want you to look at that picture posted at the top of this article and "feel" that photograph. I don't want you to "look" at it..."feel" it. This is what many people throughout Iraq feel everyday and it is a good exercise to feel that with them. By stepping out of your comfort zone and diving beneath social and cultural layers we can be on the same level--the human level. This person in the photo may or may not be from Iraq. This person may or may not be black or white or Hispanic or Asian. This person may or may not be a man or woman. This person may or may not be republican or democrat. But what this person is feeling is real and that is what this is all about. That is what ending this war...this conflict...is all about.

P.R.

Driving Ms. Lazy To Walter Reed

Ah, the president took a break from the White House rose gardens and decided to stroll through the Walter Reed Army Medical Center today. Although he bypassed areas where there was mold in the walls, rat infestations and the scene of long lines of soldiers waiting to be processed (sounds like the DMV), the president still had a heart-warming visit to those soldiers he sent to be injured in Iraq. Although, not everyone felt that he was as sincere as he was hoping to come off.
Retired Major General Paul Eaton said of the president, "I'm convinced he would honor them more if he would refrain from using soldiers as props in political theater." Ooh, that was the taste of words thrown right back at the president after he accused democrats of political theater when they made up a bill to bring our troops home.
Despite the president's visit being cut an hour shorter than scheduled, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino had some noble things to say about the president in an article by the associated press. "She said it took some time to clear enough room on the president's schedule to spend an afternoon with patients and staff at Walter Reed." Gosh, I can imagine it would be tough penciling that in seeing as they're only our brave troops he so often publicly "supports". It's a real shame that after giving all they had to the president's war, it is still difficult for him to bear the grim realities his administration is responsible for.
But for all those democrats out there claiming that Bush doesn't support our troops in Iraq, don't sell yourself short...he doesn't care about them here too.

Problem...What Problem?

Yesterday at least 125 people were killed in Baghdad by suicide bombers and about 181 people were killed throughout Iraq by similar suicide bombers. An Iraqi man named Salam Hussein was nearby when two of the suicide bombers detonated themselves in a crowded marketplace killing two of his relatives and injuring others.

“I saw headless children and body parts everywhere. I brought four wounded to the hospital. But resources there are very limited. The refrigerators at the morgue are full. It’s a disaster,” he said.

Meanwhile, on his first day on the job, new ambassador Ryan Crocker said that "President Bush's policy is the right one." Great...another loyal minion of Bush in Iraq. In addition, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki told his citizens that he was determined to bring the bombers to justice. Hello! They're suicide bombers! They're already dead! And according to their faith, they are already having intimate relations with seventy-something virgins.

I am sick to death of high officials in this government and Iraq's being incredibly stupid. This is a serious problem and these people keep on thinking that the path they're taking is the right one. Iraq has plunged into a bottomless pit and while it falls, republicans and other morons continue to say, "Hey, support the troops...stay the course...security forces are succeeding." Wake the hell up and pull us out of this mess. That's you're job isn't it? Nearly 200 people were killed yesterday and it seems like no one in this administration or the one it forged in Iraq thinks that we need to make any changes other than add more wood to the fire...I mean more troops to Iraq.

When are things going to improve in Iraq? My best guess is when politicians start addressing the real problem with real solutions. But what the hell do I know? I voted democrat and all I got was this stinking war.