Saturday
Petroleum Bonaparte
Saturday Sonata IV, with LT.Oh dang, I was working yesterday and forgot to do my post. So sorry, gang. I am unfortunately at work also today - I'll probably be in some kind of deadline hell all year - so I'm putting up a post that I did some months back at my place. Sorry again for being late.
March 16, 2008: Got a great treat last Sunday when legendary Seattle singer/songwriter Jim Page showed up and did an extended set at the Open Mike I run at a great little dive here in small town, Oregon. I first saw Page either here or in Portland some twenty years ago. If you haven't heard of him, do yourself a favor.
Here's a video of him playing a song at the Northwest Folklife Festival in Seattle last year, a song he also played at the Open Mike, and which got the room roaring. In the video he's with Artis the Spoonman, another Northwest legend, who I saw on the street several times in the '80s.
It's a very modern anti-war song, and it's called Petroleum Bonaparte.
Jim's latest album is Folk Punch. It's a perfect day for a listen.
Peace
Mind Your Head....
So today the Cable Gods were so unkind, they took away my News Junkie channels....ALL of them at Once...Actually most of the Day I lost Cable and Internet. And so began the day getting to Know my Cable Provider in a very intimate way, through six different Service people. And one lucky repairman who got to come and climb through the ancient caverns of my basement, and that Meeting would give me much to think about....
So as we stumbled around my yard, and basement in search of Missing Cables, he came across my Obama sign and we ended up having a very straight forward political discussion about the past 8 Hellish years. And he admitted that he never ever thought he would see Our Country So Broken, and So Quickly, from FEMA to the War to The Lost Constitution. We talked about Candidates and What they have offered, but how damaged we are and how much we have Lost.
Then we talked about the Scotty McClellan situation and he said that he thought it was very odd about the Media Bashing him. He asked " So where was the media when the President said that Iraq posed nuclear risks ? Why didn't they investigate ? Any of it ? They didn't investigate 911, and then they did not investigate the Lead Up to the War. The Press rips him to shreds but when he was the Press Secretary I don't remember THEM sitting there Asking the Hard Questions, that we all wanted . Like WHERE are the WMD's?? I mean WHOSE side were they on ? Yours ? Mine? I don't know who the hell they were on....The Freedom of the Press was the First Amendment that we lost, and it made the rest Easy, because there was Nobody to Report the Loss."
I was struck what he said was so true, Our Media, Our Press abandoned us, and squandered Our Trust, pretending that "patriotism" was more important than The Truth. WHOSE Side were they on these past 8 years ? Not yours, not mine.They are supposed to speak Truth To Power and ask the hardest Questions, Lives were at stake. Instead they let this Regime choreograph the Truth, and Manipulate it. They Even took the time to Play Music to accompany "Shock and Awe". They peddled Lies and Inaccurate information, and yet shouldn't they have some remorse for their enabling role ?
So I pointed out that many Americans Read More and use the Internet more than 2000 or 2004.He laughed and said," Well, we kind of all had to...didn't we ? We got to feed our minds, look for the Truth, because we KNOW What doesn't sound right. You Gotta Mind Your Head, Mind Your Head".
{The song is "Which Side Are You On" by Natalie Merchant....Workers' Song from Mining Strikes 1930's....}
Threads of Humanity....
The Human Condition is so fragile on many levels.... So many people have been denied Basic Care and Respect.... I am stirred by it...worried by it....and moved by it. There are pieces of each of us that at this point are tattered, battered and worn to shreds.Some people are more tattered than others...and some have pieces that need more care and more mending . I have seen it in people's eyes, and the lines etched on their faces. I have heard it in their voices. I have seen hands shaking tremously as groceries or meds are purchased ....And in other folks I have seen something else in their eyes. Eyes that are dim, like a painful emptiness and yet others it is painfully sharp with heavyladen angst......As Long as we all still reach out to each other...and touch each other....with words...eye contact and some piece of kindness....then just maybe the Threads of Humanity will hold us together....just maybe....And we can find a way to make sure no one hurts alone, and that no one is denied healing....or care.
************************
The Video below is about a man waiting for a train and a chance meeting with a Homeless Man....and how their lives touched each other for A Moment in Time.
{{ Art by Ansel Adams. }}
Friday
Mad Pride...yes...but I suspect we can all define as "Mad"...
I just wanted to thank The Poetry Man again for opening up this pace. You completely rock.
I also want to thank Pagan Sphinx for the post about The Mad Pride Movement. I wrote this comment. But I wanted to foreground it so as hopefully offer more space to the topic of "madness".
Who is mad?
I'm fairly certain that the people who make the decisions for us in various government houses all over the world are mad. Yet they will never have to be worried about being discredited or found out as fucking completely insane.
What is mad?
I'm also fairly certain that mad people are among the most sane people on the planet and that they are less insane and more oppressed because what is commonly defined as sane is so fucking over the top constrictive and merciless.
Who gets to decide if I'm mad?
I've been called crazy or insane by people who were taught to live in a dissassociative state since they were children. When they here my thoughts so completely grounded in my intuitions, perceptions, reality, core, they are confronted with a choice of defining me as in/sane or themselves as having been profoundly fucked over. Guess which one they usually prefer to choose. (laughter of the damned.)
Why does the concept of madness exist?
In a world where human beings have been taught to only believe what they've been taught or what they've been told, binaries abound. This or that. Me or them. Here or there. Out and in. Top and bottom. We've been taught to rely on the existence of binaries rather than continuums. It's how we code and categorize what we know of the world, of ourselves and of each other. From this place it becomes pretty easy to construct any experience or set of perceptions that presents on one extreme of a binary or completely outside a binary as in/sane.
Most people who experience oppression, who rebel or resist or who just roll up in a ball and wait for the psychic beatings to stop are considered in/sane. Wimmin, queers, sexual deviants, people of colour, poly people, trans and intersexed people, youth, old people. All in/sane.
If they openly display evidence of this in/sanity for all to see they risk medication, incarceration, violence, death...for their own good. It's all for their own good.
This doesn't sit well with me. It hurts my head, my spirit and my heart. The hurt shows on my face, bends my back and slows my stride. My eyes are wild with the hurt. My face can frown more than considered womanly. I worry about being caught showing too much hurt, confusion, rage, disgust with the way things are.
I worry they'll come for me. I wonder why they haven't yet come to medicate me. I sometimes pray they'll hurry up and medicate me. Feeling this much sucks. Feeling nothing, being comfortably numb seems so seductive on some days. Biting the inside of my cheek numb. Twitching and drooling numb. Able to function robot like as a contributing member of the hell also known as society would seem like an endearing thought...if I didn't have recurring dreams of burning the whole thing down.
anyhoo...
here's the comment I wrote about the Mad Pride post...
I also want to thank Pagan Sphinx for the post about The Mad Pride Movement. I wrote this comment. But I wanted to foreground it so as hopefully offer more space to the topic of "madness".
Who is mad?
I'm fairly certain that the people who make the decisions for us in various government houses all over the world are mad. Yet they will never have to be worried about being discredited or found out as fucking completely insane.
What is mad?
I'm also fairly certain that mad people are among the most sane people on the planet and that they are less insane and more oppressed because what is commonly defined as sane is so fucking over the top constrictive and merciless.
Who gets to decide if I'm mad?
I've been called crazy or insane by people who were taught to live in a dissassociative state since they were children. When they here my thoughts so completely grounded in my intuitions, perceptions, reality, core, they are confronted with a choice of defining me as in/sane or themselves as having been profoundly fucked over. Guess which one they usually prefer to choose. (laughter of the damned.)
Why does the concept of madness exist?
In a world where human beings have been taught to only believe what they've been taught or what they've been told, binaries abound. This or that. Me or them. Here or there. Out and in. Top and bottom. We've been taught to rely on the existence of binaries rather than continuums. It's how we code and categorize what we know of the world, of ourselves and of each other. From this place it becomes pretty easy to construct any experience or set of perceptions that presents on one extreme of a binary or completely outside a binary as in/sane.
Most people who experience oppression, who rebel or resist or who just roll up in a ball and wait for the psychic beatings to stop are considered in/sane. Wimmin, queers, sexual deviants, people of colour, poly people, trans and intersexed people, youth, old people. All in/sane.
If they openly display evidence of this in/sanity for all to see they risk medication, incarceration, violence, death...for their own good. It's all for their own good.
This doesn't sit well with me. It hurts my head, my spirit and my heart. The hurt shows on my face, bends my back and slows my stride. My eyes are wild with the hurt. My face can frown more than considered womanly. I worry about being caught showing too much hurt, confusion, rage, disgust with the way things are.
I worry they'll come for me. I wonder why they haven't yet come to medicate me. I sometimes pray they'll hurry up and medicate me. Feeling this much sucks. Feeling nothing, being comfortably numb seems so seductive on some days. Biting the inside of my cheek numb. Twitching and drooling numb. Able to function robot like as a contributing member of the hell also known as society would seem like an endearing thought...if I didn't have recurring dreams of burning the whole thing down.
anyhoo...
here's the comment I wrote about the Mad Pride post...
Dark Daughta said...
Hi,
Thanks for this. As someone who usually defines as insane, not jokingly, but seriously, I realize that the society is so profoundly diseased and disassociative that it's almost impossible for those who live in it, maintain it and rely on it for sustenance and a sense of validation to be anything but mad.
Madness is ubiquitous, not rare. Because the society is hierarchical and power based it becomes necessary to single out some people and label their perceptions and reactions and ways of being as "mad". But in truth they're the sane ones in that they have, whether by accident or through design, to get a grasp of how profoundly fucked this place actually is. There is no way to look around at who we are as a species, what we've done to the planet, how our families function and how we lie, lie, lie about every aspect of our lives without going irrevocably mad. It's the only truly sane response. I'm still learning to live with what I see and understand. On good days I feel crazed and defiant. On bad days I participate. Mad Pride for us all. Long live Mad Pride.
Thursday
The Mad Pride Movement: PART I
A shift is taking place among the mental health population and society is beginning to take notice. In the Sunday Times May 11 edition, an article by Gabriella Glasser discusses the Mad Pride movement; an attempt by those who feel stigmatized by mental illness to reclaim the concept of madness, very much the same way that the Gay Pride movement has reclaimed the concept of queerness.
Madness has historically been a reason for isolation, cruelty and even death for those who suffered from unknown or misunderstood conditions we now know as psychiatrically based, such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder (manic-depression).
We’ve come a long way in understanding these conditions, rendering once medically accepted procedures such as lobotomy and antiquated electro-shock therapies (EST) illegal. Pharmaceutical companies have developed increasingly effective medications to treat even the most stubborn forms of psychiatric illness.
If I may be allowed to do a bit of reclaiming of my own, where we still have a long way to go is in the misinformation, attitudes and prejudices of society toward those who are mad. Further and more importantly, mad people should be but are not often protected by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Discrimination is alive and well in the workplace, on college campuses and in the mental health delivery system itself.
According to the National Institute of Mental Health, 5.7 million Americans over the age of 18 have the mood disorder called bipolar illness. Another 2.4 million are classified as schizophrenia, which is considered a thought disorder. A few; a very few, are beginning to come out of the closet, as gays have done in record numbers in recent years. In so doing, they hope to tell the world that their disability is a part of who they are and that despite it, they can lead productive and even inspiring lives.
The idea of madness and living an inspiring life is not a new idea. Those of us who have been inspired by the likes of Beethoven and Van Gogh (bipolar “guesses”), or Jack Kerouac (schizophrenic), probably have learned or guessed that their madness contributed to their genius.
The mad pride movement is exciting in that it attempts to demystify mental illness, not just among the talented and gifted but among regular people who are living among us productively, creatively and now, just beginning to do so with pride and dignity as well.
One such person is Elyn Saks, a University of Southern California law professor who has learned to live with and accept her schizophrenic illness and psychosis. Her memoir The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness was only published after Ms. Saks received tenure at USC. Even in an academic setting, where one could assume people are better educated about mental illness, Dr. Saks felt she had to keep quiet until she was guaranteed a place in academia.
Mad pride parades and events are a good start toward embracing the uniqueness and fundamental humanness of people with mental illness, certainly, but additionally society must face the facts. The sheer numbers of people diagnosed with mental illness means that we encounter many people throughout our lives who may not be “normal” psychologically.
As a society, we have to begin to understand mental illness as a medical situation with psychological and social manifestations. Even cancer has those implications. The fear that accompanies perceptions of mental illness are thus ingrained because we fail to see that the mind, as creative and essential to human survival as it may be, can fail us in very much the same way as a kidney or a heart; except that it cannot be replaced. It must be maintained, nurtured and respected. For some, drugs do wonders in achieving this aim. For others, as the mad pride movement illustrates, seeking normalization through drug therapy feels intrusive if not altogether invasive. Just as some people choose not to treat a tumor with radiation, some people with mental illness choose alternatives to chemicals through a balanced and conscious life, exercise, diet and talk therapy.
Reclaiming one’s madness is a form of taking control. Ironically, taking control of one’s life is perhaps the sanest thing anyone can do.
how to get at peace
I, personally, am trying to working my way around this question, "how to get at peace?" What would be some of the first steps to even coming to a table to talk about peace?
We hear on the news about all the conflict in the world, which is why I don't watch the news, but we rarely hear about how people are solving their conflicts. Like this one that made it to TIME but Amerika has decided to poo-poo.
So, in a Mediation class I took last week, we learned about different conflict styles. We also learned that in knowing your own conflict style, you could better communicate with others around you and their conflict styles. This maybe one of the reasons why we get along with some people, first off and why we can't stand others.
Take this short, online test to find out your conflict style!
I guess all I wanted to say in this post was, if we could figure out how to get-a-long in our own homes and communities ~~ how to sit around a table and communicate with each other resolving our conflicts in an alternative way ~~ that peace building could then trickle out to our townships, counties and states. Maybe even as far as Washington DC ~ eh?
peace my friend peace!
We hear on the news about all the conflict in the world, which is why I don't watch the news, but we rarely hear about how people are solving their conflicts. Like this one that made it to TIME but Amerika has decided to poo-poo.
So, in a Mediation class I took last week, we learned about different conflict styles. We also learned that in knowing your own conflict style, you could better communicate with others around you and their conflict styles. This maybe one of the reasons why we get along with some people, first off and why we can't stand others.
Take this short, online test to find out your conflict style!
I guess all I wanted to say in this post was, if we could figure out how to get-a-long in our own homes and communities ~~ how to sit around a table and communicate with each other resolving our conflicts in an alternative way ~~ that peace building could then trickle out to our townships, counties and states. Maybe even as far as Washington DC ~ eh?
peace my friend peace!
Wednesday
Afghanistan: All For Absolutely Nothing
(Note: I thought it would be very à propos to repost this older post of mine here, at The Peace Tree.)
**********
It is now official: every single justification behind the Afghanistan War and its seeming never ending occupation have been disavowed - by the very politicos that have been not only responsible for the lauching and conduct of this war, but likewise by those who have been staunchly supporting this conflict.
In other words: the Afghanistan war was absolutely for nothing.
Let us re-visit the main justifications/objectives for the Afghanistan war, which began in October 2001:
Defeat the Taliban? Whether fueled by drug trade or corrupted misappropriations of U.S.A. funds to Pakistan (!), the Taliban insurgency shows no signs of wavering - not only in the South of Afghanistan where it has been most active but slowly spreading to the North of the country as well - all the while profiting from Pakistan's ineptitude (or incompetence, or fear?) to deal with them on their own side of the border. Just recently, Pakistan released a senior Taliban leader on his pledge to cease attacks in Pakistan - proving once again that Pakistan looks out for itself first and foremost, despite being a much touted "ally against terrorism". In the meantime, there have been repeated calls to negociate with the Taliban, going as far as to promise them a significant presence in the Afghanistan government - with the tacit approval of the U.S.A., Canada (for which the Afghanistan war has pretty much become its war) and other N.A.T.O. allies. Why, even after a much publicized recent attack by the Taliban on Afghani officials and foreign dignitaries (of which the Afghani government had been warned about), Afghani President Hamid Karzai went as far as to demand that N.A.T.O. "leave the Taliban alone" in order to stop "undermining negociations" with them! And guess what? N.A.T.O. forces are apparently following suit by putting the word out to Taliban fighters that they want to talk!
"If we don't succeed in Afghanistan, the Taliban will return" indeed. Interestingly, many Afghanis are not unhappy to see the Taliban returning!
Yes siree, the Taliban has lost - definitely.
(To learn more about the Taliban and "how much" they know about us and hate our freedoms and whatnot, I strongly suggest that you to read/watch the series Talking to the Taliban, via Red Tory: part I, II, III, IV, V, VI and VII - but I digress).
Defeat al-Qaeda? Osama bin Laden got away and is still in hiding, along with most of the al-Qaeda leadership, quite alive and well - thank you very much. In the meantime, Pakistan is once again of little help here - not only are bin Laden and al-Qaeda hiding in Pakistan, Pakistan freed suspected al-Qaeda members in 2006, whereas al-Qaeda funding keeps going through Pakistan. At one point, Pakistan even "lost" the trail of bin Laden - and recently, Pakistani President Musharraf declared that Pakistan was "not particularly looking" for him. All well and good, considering that al-Qaeda presumably assassinated opposition leader and staunch al-Qaeda opponent Benazir Bhutto, while continuing to cause much chaos in Pakistan alongside Taliban fighters. And through it all, the now-infamous "on and off" hunt for bin Laden by the U.S.A., Canada and other N.A.T.O. allies still goes on (or not) ... in Afghanistan! No wonder such a wild goose chase will be a very long one ...
Meanwhile, al-Qaeda keeps fighting alongside the Taliban in the continuing insurgency in Afghanistan, and is poised to launch more terrorist attacks around the world ... from Pakistan. That, in addition to the fact that al-Qaeda continues to be a source of inspiration for would-be extremists - especially in Iraq.
Yes siree, al-Qaeda is on the run - definitely.
Bring freedom and democracy to Afghanistan? Yes, there have been some positive steps towards democracy in Afghanistan - but such gains are far from being faits accomplis. Rampant corruption and the booming drug trafficking (and the Drug Lords behind it) are but two of the prevailing problems which keep undermining said gains. The biggest problem of them all lies with the remaining powerful, brutish Warlords. Although having been elected in 2004, President Karzai holds power in Kabul only ... with the consent of said Warlords who hold power practically everywhere else in the country, thanks to more short-sighted, expedient incompetence on the part of the Bush administration. It doesn't help either when one of the Warlords declares allegiance to Osama bin Laden. And Karzai's government remains hardly stable, thanks to the ongoing insurgency. Last, but not least, what of the Afghani women? Little has changed since 2001 and things are in fact worsening in this respect, while laws are slowly but surely returning to the "old style" Taliban ones. On a related note, freedom of the press is not that free just yet and is likewise worsening - all of this thanks to seven years after Afghanistan's liberation from the "Taliban Regime".
Yes siree, the Afghanis have freedom and democracy - definitely.
So all in all, after looking closely at the main justifications/objectives for the war in Afghanistan and how "successfully" they have been achieved, it is safe to conclude that for all the boasts from the Bush administration, as well as those coming from Canada's Harper government (and from the British, and the Australians, and the French, and so on and so forth), soldiers and civilians have been dying in Afghanistan over the last seven years for absolutely nothing.
But we know all too well why we've arrived to this point, which is more or less right back where the Afghanistan war began on all accounts, despite all the empty rhetoric of touting all the progress achieved "over there": botched pre-war planning, botched post-war planning and the disastrous diversion of the Iraq war.
This war is indeed a veritable catalogue of errors.
No wonder Afghanistan is a quagmire. No wonder it's damn hard work. No wonder the situation is grim. No wonder the Afghanistan "mission" is in trouble, if not actually in crisis. No wonder Afghanistan has been assessed as a 30-years long marathon "mission" while we keep running in circles.
For indeed, each one of the prime justifications/objectives for the Afghanistan war have now been either completely disavowed ("defeat the taliban"), more or less abandoned ("defeat al-Qaeda"), or outrightly dismissed/ignored ("bring freedom and democracy"), by the very same people who have been pushing and supporting said justifications and this war.
In essence, the core-reasons for going into Afghanistan are being put aside in lieu of political salvage operations of appearances - with the price continuing to be exacted with the lives of N.A.T.O. soldiers and Afghan civilians in the meantime.
To put it in other words: people and soldiers have been dying over the last seven years for nothing more than what in the end has amounted to a needless and ludicrous political exercize on the part of incompetent "deciders" as their response to 9/11.
The idea of military intervention as the crux of the strategy behind the Global War on Terror(TM) was wrong-headed to begin with and has proven itself to be wrong-headed ever since - if only because one does not wage war on a method/technique of fighting. In this respect, it is now safe to say that the Global War on Terror(TM) has been a colossal failure so far, in addition to fostering more terrorism and extremism than prior to its implementation.
And Afghanistan will forever constitute grave testimony to that effect.
Hip, hip, hooray.
(Posted originally at APOV)
In other words: the Afghanistan war was absolutely for nothing.
Let us re-visit the main justifications/objectives for the Afghanistan war, which began in October 2001:
Over the span of seven years since this war began, major combat operations have kept on going and going in Afghanistan - despite the proclamation in May 2002 that major combat operations were over and in the face of repeated claims that this war has been a big success.1) Defeat the Taliban;
2) Defeat al-Qaeda;
3) Bring freedom and democracy to Afghanistan.
Defeat the Taliban? Whether fueled by drug trade or corrupted misappropriations of U.S.A. funds to Pakistan (!), the Taliban insurgency shows no signs of wavering - not only in the South of Afghanistan where it has been most active but slowly spreading to the North of the country as well - all the while profiting from Pakistan's ineptitude (or incompetence, or fear?) to deal with them on their own side of the border. Just recently, Pakistan released a senior Taliban leader on his pledge to cease attacks in Pakistan - proving once again that Pakistan looks out for itself first and foremost, despite being a much touted "ally against terrorism". In the meantime, there have been repeated calls to negociate with the Taliban, going as far as to promise them a significant presence in the Afghanistan government - with the tacit approval of the U.S.A., Canada (for which the Afghanistan war has pretty much become its war) and other N.A.T.O. allies. Why, even after a much publicized recent attack by the Taliban on Afghani officials and foreign dignitaries (of which the Afghani government had been warned about), Afghani President Hamid Karzai went as far as to demand that N.A.T.O. "leave the Taliban alone" in order to stop "undermining negociations" with them! And guess what? N.A.T.O. forces are apparently following suit by putting the word out to Taliban fighters that they want to talk!
"If we don't succeed in Afghanistan, the Taliban will return" indeed. Interestingly, many Afghanis are not unhappy to see the Taliban returning!
Yes siree, the Taliban has lost - definitely.
(To learn more about the Taliban and "how much" they know about us and hate our freedoms and whatnot, I strongly suggest that you to read/watch the series Talking to the Taliban, via Red Tory: part I, II, III, IV, V, VI and VII - but I digress).
Defeat al-Qaeda? Osama bin Laden got away and is still in hiding, along with most of the al-Qaeda leadership, quite alive and well - thank you very much. In the meantime, Pakistan is once again of little help here - not only are bin Laden and al-Qaeda hiding in Pakistan, Pakistan freed suspected al-Qaeda members in 2006, whereas al-Qaeda funding keeps going through Pakistan. At one point, Pakistan even "lost" the trail of bin Laden - and recently, Pakistani President Musharraf declared that Pakistan was "not particularly looking" for him. All well and good, considering that al-Qaeda presumably assassinated opposition leader and staunch al-Qaeda opponent Benazir Bhutto, while continuing to cause much chaos in Pakistan alongside Taliban fighters. And through it all, the now-infamous "on and off" hunt for bin Laden by the U.S.A., Canada and other N.A.T.O. allies still goes on (or not) ... in Afghanistan! No wonder such a wild goose chase will be a very long one ...
Meanwhile, al-Qaeda keeps fighting alongside the Taliban in the continuing insurgency in Afghanistan, and is poised to launch more terrorist attacks around the world ... from Pakistan. That, in addition to the fact that al-Qaeda continues to be a source of inspiration for would-be extremists - especially in Iraq.
Yes siree, al-Qaeda is on the run - definitely.
Bring freedom and democracy to Afghanistan? Yes, there have been some positive steps towards democracy in Afghanistan - but such gains are far from being faits accomplis. Rampant corruption and the booming drug trafficking (and the Drug Lords behind it) are but two of the prevailing problems which keep undermining said gains. The biggest problem of them all lies with the remaining powerful, brutish Warlords. Although having been elected in 2004, President Karzai holds power in Kabul only ... with the consent of said Warlords who hold power practically everywhere else in the country, thanks to more short-sighted, expedient incompetence on the part of the Bush administration. It doesn't help either when one of the Warlords declares allegiance to Osama bin Laden. And Karzai's government remains hardly stable, thanks to the ongoing insurgency. Last, but not least, what of the Afghani women? Little has changed since 2001 and things are in fact worsening in this respect, while laws are slowly but surely returning to the "old style" Taliban ones. On a related note, freedom of the press is not that free just yet and is likewise worsening - all of this thanks to seven years after Afghanistan's liberation from the "Taliban Regime".
Yes siree, the Afghanis have freedom and democracy - definitely.
So all in all, after looking closely at the main justifications/objectives for the war in Afghanistan and how "successfully" they have been achieved, it is safe to conclude that for all the boasts from the Bush administration, as well as those coming from Canada's Harper government (and from the British, and the Australians, and the French, and so on and so forth), soldiers and civilians have been dying in Afghanistan over the last seven years for absolutely nothing.
But we know all too well why we've arrived to this point, which is more or less right back where the Afghanistan war began on all accounts, despite all the empty rhetoric of touting all the progress achieved "over there": botched pre-war planning, botched post-war planning and the disastrous diversion of the Iraq war.
This war is indeed a veritable catalogue of errors.
No wonder Afghanistan is a quagmire. No wonder it's damn hard work. No wonder the situation is grim. No wonder the Afghanistan "mission" is in trouble, if not actually in crisis. No wonder Afghanistan has been assessed as a 30-years long marathon "mission" while we keep running in circles.
For indeed, each one of the prime justifications/objectives for the Afghanistan war have now been either completely disavowed ("defeat the taliban"), more or less abandoned ("defeat al-Qaeda"), or outrightly dismissed/ignored ("bring freedom and democracy"), by the very same people who have been pushing and supporting said justifications and this war.
In essence, the core-reasons for going into Afghanistan are being put aside in lieu of political salvage operations of appearances - with the price continuing to be exacted with the lives of N.A.T.O. soldiers and Afghan civilians in the meantime.
To put it in other words: people and soldiers have been dying over the last seven years for nothing more than what in the end has amounted to a needless and ludicrous political exercize on the part of incompetent "deciders" as their response to 9/11.
The idea of military intervention as the crux of the strategy behind the Global War on Terror(TM) was wrong-headed to begin with and has proven itself to be wrong-headed ever since - if only because one does not wage war on a method/technique of fighting. In this respect, it is now safe to say that the Global War on Terror(TM) has been a colossal failure so far, in addition to fostering more terrorism and extremism than prior to its implementation.
And Afghanistan will forever constitute grave testimony to that effect.
Hip, hip, hooray.
(Posted originally at APOV)
Tuesday
the fairytale of the american dream
once upon a time, in a time far gone, there was a dream. tyranny and oppression would be a thing of the past and the common man was equal with a king. i am guessing that we have awakened from that dream because the country we live in today is more like a nightmare. i call my country 'new america' these days because what we have here isn't what we started out as. at least- not the ideal. i am fully aware of our sordid history with imperialism and genocide. but this post isn't about the past- it's about the now and now- is indescribable.
we could talk politics and politicians in this primary season leading to the general in november- but that is being done ad nauseum and it isn't the point of my post (which i am getting to :) much talk has been in the msm about 'the people'- white, working class people, black people, hispanics people, racist people, misogynistic people- you get the idea- but what about us as a people? it started me wondering. i chuckle ironically at the notion that we are 'one nation under god' because we aren't. we have never been. there have always been divisions and splits and the only thing we agree on is our right to vote- or not. and i found it interesting that americans protested recently- to free tibetans from chinese oppression and yet many won't vote for a black man in the 21st century- or a woman- or a liberal. we get our panties in a wad about how horribly women are treated in the middle east- i mean really- honor killings and burkas! and yet, there are americans working everyday to keep women in this country out of the workforce and away from contraception.
i think we have to take a hard look at who we are; who our neighbors are; what is being done in our name; and what we are going to do about it. folks preach tolerance! folks demonstrate for peace! but it isn't taking a hard look at the issues we are facing. we hear the word 'unprecedented' quite a bit these days and i think that there is good reason. we have many issues facing us that are going to impact our daily lives- food shortages, drought, energy crises- and test our mettle as human beings. but we also have issues that are going to effect the peace and stability in this country- and they are going on right now.
few people realize the steps that have been- and continue to be taken- towards martial law and militarization in this country. in the grander scheme of things, whoever takes the white house will have to contend with a stronger pentagon- and stronger corporate military. our police forces in this country have become militarized- and i don't think it is an accident that so very many people are being tazed and beaten first- and questions asked later. why are we having so many 'round ups' in america? legal immigrants and citizens alike are being rounded up along with folks decreed 'illegal' and none are being treated in accordance with the constitution. we have people in this country detained indefinitely and without recourse. that is reality.
another ugly reality- one that we all have to live with- hundreds of thousands of military personnel have been wounded physically and mentally- and many are being denied medical and mental health treatment. memorial day is a joke in america. how many take the time to honor the fallen? how many simply use it as an excuse for a long weekend and a bbq? we have read about the horrors befalling our veterans and active duty troops coming home- but few stop to realize that these folks are coming home to families and friends who expect them to be the people they were before they left the first time- or the second- or the fifth. they aren't and can't be. not living through and seeing- and doing- what they have.
americans seem to be waking up from a dream of what they thought that reality was- only to discover that our entire country is being outsourced- from our government to our jobs. if it isn't outsourced- it's contracted out and we howl because our 'way of life' is suffering. we have decided that the easiest way to change things is to purge the republican party- the neocons especially. we are angry and look at them with distaste. that's all well and good but we need to take a good hard look at who voted for them in the first place because it was our co-workers, our neighbors, our family members..... fellow americans who believe whole heartedly in that way of thinking. that way of thinking that hillary clinton has used so effectively in stirring up the racist bigotry in appalachia. so, while the neo con movement and conservatism is being moved to the back burner, it isn't going away. it is simply being given a new look with the blue dog democratic movement of nancy pelosi and hillary clinton and evan bayh- newer, and shinier but nevertheless still there.
because- we, the people, have become obsolete. they don't really need us anymore- the globalized world is their oyster- and they intend to exploit it as fully as they can. because that is the american way. peace in our time? not likely.
Monday
Remember Pat Tillman?
The topic below was originally posted in my blog, the Intrepid Liberal Journal.As we finish digesting our Memorial Day barbeques and close out the holiday weekend, we should remember Pat Tillman. Tillman, an NFL football player opted to give up the glamor and wealth of professional sports and serve his country following 9/11.
Many of us on the left, including myself, never trusted the Bush Administration to prosecute the war against al quaida judiciously. However, the patriotic sacrifice offered by soldiers such as Tillman deserve reverence. They've made the ultimate sacrifice while the rest of us complain about gas prices on Memorial Day weekend and barely acknowledge that we're currently occupying two countries.
As for Pat Tillman, his high profile was exploited by the Bush Administration and the circumstances surrounding his death covered up. As we know by now, Tillman's death was officially caused by "friendly fire" in Afghanistan and did not result from engaging the enemy as the Pentagon originally reported. Below is a video clip of an interview that Tillman's, mother Mary, gave to Katie Couric of CBS News on May 4th. It was MayTillman who vigorously demanded the truth and forced the Pentagon to acknowledge their egregious errors. What disappoints me about this interview is that Couric doesn't ask Mary Tillman if she suspects her son was murdered because of his opposition to the Iraq war.
Tillman had signed up to fight al quaida in Afghanistan and was a poster boy for the war on terror. What if Tillman's opposition to the Iraq war had become public during the 2004 presidential campaign? There was much speculation last year that the Pentagon was really covering up an execution. Perhaps Tillman's mother, who also opposes the Iraq war, would have refuted that theory if Couric had asked. Nevertheless, the question should have been asked.
One wonders how many Pat Tillman's are there who signed up out of a sense of patriotic duty, made the ultimate sacrifice only for the U.S. government to dishonor their memories with falsehoods about their deaths. It seems the public has largely forgotten that our fellow citizens are risking their lives as we occupy two nations.
We're all consumed by rising gas prices and the struggles of our own lives. It shouldn't require a holiday called "Memorial Day" to remember that the men and women in uniform are flesh and blood people and not disposable units. Too many lives have been discarded at the whims of immoral and inept politicians as well as an apathetic public that has tuned out the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. But hey, I hear the reality TV show Survivor is now accepting applicants as young as eighteen. And American Idol is always fun to watch.
Saturday
Peace Child Israel: The Peace-Child Anthem
Saturday Sonata III, with LT.I'm working today so I've had to be a bit quick putting this one together, but it is at least a wonderful song and purpose.
"Volunteers for Peace" is exactly what it says: individuals and corporations volunteering for peace, at a time when a majority of the populations, inside the Green Line and beyond, were committed to attack and revenge. 20 Arab and Jewish professional vocal and instrumental artists, together with Arab and Jewish teenagers from the Peace Child Israel workshops and elementary school children from Qalansua and Tel Aviv, set personal agendas aside and answered the call at a moment's notice, to share their talents in an effort to make a small contribution to healing in the community. The anthem was heard on radio and seen on television screens throughout the country.
The song has that quality that music from that part of the world so often has: when all of a sudden the vocals rise and fill with such painful yearning and do something akin to jumping up a few quantum levels and your hair almost stands on end - just beautiful moments. I've listened to the song four times in a row now and I think I'm getting a bit wasted, to tell you the truth. I may never get this post up.
[From the text at YouTube] The song, commissioned by the organization Peace Child Israel, was arranged by Israeli composer and singer Shlomo Gronich (the one with the goatee). Ehud Manor and Magid Abu-Rokun composed the lyrics. Sung in both Hebrew and Arabic, this beautiful, Middle-Eastern song the power to heal and transform Arab and Jewish communities. It's high time to tell our leaders: End the siege on Gaza, negotiate in good faith with all Palestinian parties, and demand that both people teach coexistence, mutual respect and human dignity - as this song does!
Jewish singers (in order of appearance):
Leah Shabat
Shlomo Gronich
Zehavah Ben
Eli Luzon
Palestinian singers (in order of appearance):
Sahmir Shukri
Nivine Jaabri
Elias Julianos
Lubna Salame
Much more to read and look at at Peace Child Israel. And if you click on the image in the upper left you can view a large version with the lyrics to the song in Hebrew, Arabic, and English.
Peace, dang it.
P.S. A postscript I had no intention of adding must be. I've just received word that the great American folksinger U. Utah Phillips has passed away. Good journeys, sir. You will be missed.
Remembering 1968....
I am a child of the Sixties, I may have been young but I remember watching all of it. The Excitement, The Hope on people's faces, and how it all shifted in the Spring of 1968. I used to go visit my Great Aunt May in Downtown Baltimore and I was at her big Old Brownstone when Martin Luther King was assassinated, and we listened to Bobby Kennedy on the radio that night.And my great Aunt, a child of the Civil War lit candles and sang Amazing Grace and cried. And I rode home with my grandmother and we shared Kleenex and the Peppermint lifesavers were salty from the tears. My Aunt May was in her Nineties, she had lived in her Brownstone since the 1930's. She paid for it herself. She was a retired Opera Singer, dancer, model and performer. She lived in that house and that Neighborhood was her neighborhood, and her people. She knew everybody and they knew her, she was Missy May. She said when Martin was killed " There will be Trouble, This should not have happened".
And that Spring it started to feel tense when we would go see Aunt May on Thursdays to pick up laundry and bring the groceries. There were less smiles and less singing on the street and less jumping rope. Something had changed. "The Hope has Shifted" My Aunt May said.
By June the Hope would indeed Shift. Bobby Kennedy was Killed the first week of June , 1968 on a night that should have brought Hope and Optimism.He was brutally murdered on a Night of Victory in front of those who loved him. We went down to see my Aunt May, she lived in the Middle of Downtown Baltimore, she knew there would be riots. She would not leave her house. She yelled at My Grandmother" These are my people, my neighbors, I will stay here, I will share their pain. I will share their Loss , their Grief. " And she did. She rode out the riots, sitting in her livingroom with her neighbors, they shared Bourbon and she sang to them and they guarded her house with baseball bats on those explosive nights. ( Which when found behind the door led to quite a row with my grandmother). Her neighborhood was mostly destroyed during the Riots that summer, yet she did not even have a broken window.She did not care about her house, she was heartbroken and as devastated as her neighbors. "They didn't just kill Bobby, they Killed Any and All Hope " she said.
I still remember those trips downtown that Steamy Hot summer. I can still smell the burnt candles, and the burnt buildings and the crumbled piles of debris on the Street and the broken glass everywhere.The rage and angst was palpable, the anguish of Broken People and Broken Dreams. I can still smell the rotted garbage that was everywhere in the heat, and I can still hear the crying and see the tears.....I was small, but the Images were Big as we would drive slow and my grandmother would try to figure out where to park.
That Spring and Summer as a little Girl , I did not just learn "History" I learned about Hope, Courage, and Dreams of Something better.....and then I learned About Pain and Devastating Grief...I learned it from my Aunt May and her Neighbors. That being One People and being Unified with Neighbors is Powerful even when there is a Tragic Loss of a Person Of Greatness. That the Moment may be Lost, or Stolen, but it lives on in Hearts , even for 40 years.
******************************************
So Here we are 40 years later....and Again the Ripples of Hope have been embraced and Felt by Millions. We stand together on a Precipice for Change after 8 years of Pure Hell, and we can feel that Hope, that Excitement. Yet we know in This Country, Our Country that such Moments can be Shattered, Broken...It can Happen. We all Carry That in our hearts, not far from our minds eye.I like many others spent many years studying and embracing the Lessons of What we had lost. I wanted to be able recognize Greatness when it came again, I wanted to be able to share it with my child and the next generation. That Moment has come upon us again....A Moment to share History and Greatness, and even Hope.
So Yesterday I watched as Mrs Clinton mentioned how she should stay in the Race , because Her Opportunity Could still arise and she brought up That Summer, and That Assassination. But for her it was just casually mentioning "History", there was no agony in the mention. She mentioned it in terms of her own Presidential Future, exploiting Our Traumatic Past and shading it with her Opportunistic Aspirations. I felt ill , I kept picturing THAT summer, and what was lost, and the devastation and I kept wondering about it. Didn't SHE Remember that Pain , that fiery misery ? Didn't she remember the Loss, the Soul wrenching stench of it ? When did she lose a piece of her heart ? What Happened that she could not even feel the Agony of the Words that she said ? And later in the day AFTER the Obama campaign issued a statement , she admitted "regret that her comment might have offended anyone" . There was No Apology to ALL of us, or the Obamas, or even really the Kennedys. And All I could think was WHERE were you Hillary when the buildings burned and The Hearts of Millions Broke that awful summer when Bobby was brutally murdered ? Why don't you remember ?? ....It was never "just History". It was Our History, Our Pain....It was that Pain that kept so many of us searching and working so hard. It was That Pain that brought us Wisdom.
**************************************
"Even in our sleep,
which can not forget,
Pain falls drop by drop
on the heart.
In our own despair,
against our will,
Comes Wisdom,
by the awful Grace of God."
Aesyclus
Spoken by Robert F.Kennedy the night that Martin Luther King was killed, to comfort the crowd in Indianapolis.
Friday
Winter Soldier Rules of Engagement
On March 14 President George W. Bush spoke from the White House to U.S. soldiers during a video conference about their deployment in Afghanistan. "I'm a little envious. If I were slightly younger and not employed here, I think it would be a fantastic experience to be on the front lines of helping this young democracy succeed. It must be exciting for you...in some ways, romantic...you know, confronting danger."
Romantic was not the picture painted just a few miles away in Silver Spring, Maryland, during the second day of testimony by U.S. veterans during "Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan," organized by Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW). "For those of you who don't know, those are brains," said Jon Turner, a former Marine, while showing a slide of the inside of a man's head who had been killed by one his friends in his platoon.
Turner and other soldiers on the "Rules of Engagement" panel depicted their tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan as horrifying events in which soldiers indiscriminately killed civilians, wantonly destroyed property, conducted house raids, planted weapons on civilians (in order to be able to classify their deaths as insurgents), and mutilated the dead.
"I want to apologize to all the people in Iraq," said Sergio Kochergin, abruptly breaking off the end of a story about a friend who had shot himself in the shower four days after arriving in Iraq. "I'm sorry and I hope this war is going to be over as soon as possible."
Kochergin's testimony helped establish how the rules of engagement used by soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan lead to many of the atrocities described by the soldiers. The rules define when and how soldiers can fire their weapons or engage in combat. Kochergin described how initially his platoon, which patrolled an Iraqi town on the Syrian border, had to radio to the command post and "If they're doing some sort of illegal activity, we were allowed to take them out."
After a while, though, these rules were abandoned by commanders, who, at one point, told soldiers to fire at any Iraqis carrying bags and shovels, assuming that they were planting explosive devices. Finally, the soldiers were given no rules of engagement at all. "It was up to us to make the decision," said Korchergin, who called that policy "inappropriate."
For many soldiers, the rules of engagement in Iraq were "broadly defined and loosely enforced. Anyone who tells you different is a liar and a fool," said Jason Lemieux, who served three tours in the Marines. While he was initially given rules of engagement that corresponded to the Geneva Conventions, "By the time we got to Baghdad, I could shoot at anyone who came close enough to make me uncomfortable," said Lemieux, who described being so traumatized by the shooting of an unarmed Iraqi man, by a commanding officer shooting "two old ladies carrying groceries," and by fellow soldiers taking potshots at unarmed civilians, that he blocked it all out.
Garrett Reppenhagen, who served in Baquba, Iraq, described a firefight in which U.S. soldiers began spraying bullets into several vehicles of what they thought were armed insurgents. After killing seven Iraqis, the soldiers discovered, to their dismay, that the men were actually bodyguards to the deputy governor. "All these men were not only innocent, they were our allies," said Reppenhagen. "This is the kind of confusion that goes on every day in Iraq."
Jason Washburn described members of his unit shooting an Iraqi woman carrying a large shopping bag, only to find out that, "She had been trying to bring us food," said Washburn. "And we blew her to pieces for it."
for the rest of this piece go here...
or check free speech tv for footage...
Romantic was not the picture painted just a few miles away in Silver Spring, Maryland, during the second day of testimony by U.S. veterans during "Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan," organized by Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW). "For those of you who don't know, those are brains," said Jon Turner, a former Marine, while showing a slide of the inside of a man's head who had been killed by one his friends in his platoon.
Turner and other soldiers on the "Rules of Engagement" panel depicted their tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan as horrifying events in which soldiers indiscriminately killed civilians, wantonly destroyed property, conducted house raids, planted weapons on civilians (in order to be able to classify their deaths as insurgents), and mutilated the dead.
"I want to apologize to all the people in Iraq," said Sergio Kochergin, abruptly breaking off the end of a story about a friend who had shot himself in the shower four days after arriving in Iraq. "I'm sorry and I hope this war is going to be over as soon as possible."
Kochergin's testimony helped establish how the rules of engagement used by soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan lead to many of the atrocities described by the soldiers. The rules define when and how soldiers can fire their weapons or engage in combat. Kochergin described how initially his platoon, which patrolled an Iraqi town on the Syrian border, had to radio to the command post and "If they're doing some sort of illegal activity, we were allowed to take them out."
After a while, though, these rules were abandoned by commanders, who, at one point, told soldiers to fire at any Iraqis carrying bags and shovels, assuming that they were planting explosive devices. Finally, the soldiers were given no rules of engagement at all. "It was up to us to make the decision," said Korchergin, who called that policy "inappropriate."
For many soldiers, the rules of engagement in Iraq were "broadly defined and loosely enforced. Anyone who tells you different is a liar and a fool," said Jason Lemieux, who served three tours in the Marines. While he was initially given rules of engagement that corresponded to the Geneva Conventions, "By the time we got to Baghdad, I could shoot at anyone who came close enough to make me uncomfortable," said Lemieux, who described being so traumatized by the shooting of an unarmed Iraqi man, by a commanding officer shooting "two old ladies carrying groceries," and by fellow soldiers taking potshots at unarmed civilians, that he blocked it all out.
Garrett Reppenhagen, who served in Baquba, Iraq, described a firefight in which U.S. soldiers began spraying bullets into several vehicles of what they thought were armed insurgents. After killing seven Iraqis, the soldiers discovered, to their dismay, that the men were actually bodyguards to the deputy governor. "All these men were not only innocent, they were our allies," said Reppenhagen. "This is the kind of confusion that goes on every day in Iraq."
Jason Washburn described members of his unit shooting an Iraqi woman carrying a large shopping bag, only to find out that, "She had been trying to bring us food," said Washburn. "And we blew her to pieces for it."
for the rest of this piece go here...
or check free speech tv for footage...
From War Resisters Support Campaign...
War Resister Corey Glass Faces Deportation
U.S. Iraq war resister Corey Glass was told on May 21, 2008, that his application to stay in Canada has been rejected and he now faces deportation. Glass would be the first Iraq war resister to be deported from Canada. Last December the House of Commons' Standing Committee on Citizenship & Immigration passed a motion calling on the Canadian government to "immediately implement a program to allow conscientious objectors and their immediate family members […] to apply for permanent resident status and remain in Canada; and … the government should immediately cease any removal or deportation actions … against such individuals".
For more information about the fight to stop his deportation and for other war resisters news please check here...
U.S. Iraq war resister Corey Glass was told on May 21, 2008, that his application to stay in Canada has been rejected and he now faces deportation. Glass would be the first Iraq war resister to be deported from Canada. Last December the House of Commons' Standing Committee on Citizenship & Immigration passed a motion calling on the Canadian government to "immediately implement a program to allow conscientious objectors and their immediate family members […] to apply for permanent resident status and remain in Canada; and … the government should immediately cease any removal or deportation actions … against such individuals".
For more information about the fight to stop his deportation and for other war resisters news please check here...
Pentagon forced to release information to School of the Americas Watch...
We Won the Vote in Congress!Pentagon Forced to Release Information to SOA Watch - On to the Senate!
Thanks to your efforts and hard work in defense of human rights, the culture of secrecy and lack of accountability surrounding Defense Department policies suffered a severe blow today when the U.S. House of Representatives approved the McGovern-Sestak-Bishop (GA) amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2009. The amendment forces the public release of names, rank, country of origin, courses and dates of attendance of WHINSEC's graduates and instructors to the public.
The amendment was approved with a 220 to 189 vote!
This is a major victory for the international human rights community!You spoke up and now we are one step closer to transparency and closing the SOA/WHINSEC!
In recent years, WHINSEC has denied information that in the past has been vital in identifying the perpetrators of massacres, targeted assassinations, and human rights abuses committed in Latin America. In response to WHINSEC's lack of transparency and its willingness to undermine public attempts of exercising oversight of the institution, human rights advocates and constituents have taken a stand for justice and demanded Congress to hold WHINSEC accountable.
The access to information regarding students and instructors attending WHINSEC will allow human rights organizations to continue to monitor the school and identify those graduates and instructors who have violated human rights or taken part in criminal activities in their home countries.
Information is power, and the more information we have, the closer we are to closing the SOA/WHINSEC once and for all!
We Won the House, Now Comes the Senate.
The approval of this amendment will now lead us to face a new challenge to insure that WHINSEC also be held accountable by the U.S. Senate, in the coming weeks we will continue to keep you updated so we can work together towards another victory.
- Please consider making a contribution to SOA Watch to support our legislative campaign in the U.S. Senate.
- Visit the SOA Watch website for more information and keep your eyes open for an upcoming mass email with an analysis of the vote and what will be our next steps in the campaign.
Thanks to your efforts and hard work in defense of human rights, the culture of secrecy and lack of accountability surrounding Defense Department policies suffered a severe blow today when the U.S. House of Representatives approved the McGovern-Sestak-Bishop (GA) amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2009. The amendment forces the public release of names, rank, country of origin, courses and dates of attendance of WHINSEC's graduates and instructors to the public.
The amendment was approved with a 220 to 189 vote!
This is a major victory for the international human rights community!You spoke up and now we are one step closer to transparency and closing the SOA/WHINSEC!
In recent years, WHINSEC has denied information that in the past has been vital in identifying the perpetrators of massacres, targeted assassinations, and human rights abuses committed in Latin America. In response to WHINSEC's lack of transparency and its willingness to undermine public attempts of exercising oversight of the institution, human rights advocates and constituents have taken a stand for justice and demanded Congress to hold WHINSEC accountable.
The access to information regarding students and instructors attending WHINSEC will allow human rights organizations to continue to monitor the school and identify those graduates and instructors who have violated human rights or taken part in criminal activities in their home countries.
Information is power, and the more information we have, the closer we are to closing the SOA/WHINSEC once and for all!
We Won the House, Now Comes the Senate.
The approval of this amendment will now lead us to face a new challenge to insure that WHINSEC also be held accountable by the U.S. Senate, in the coming weeks we will continue to keep you updated so we can work together towards another victory.
- Please consider making a contribution to SOA Watch to support our legislative campaign in the U.S. Senate.
- Visit the SOA Watch website for more information and keep your eyes open for an upcoming mass email with an analysis of the vote and what will be our next steps in the campaign.
It's only deep denial that allows so many amerikkkans to sleep now in the fire...
The world is my expense
The cost of my desire
Jesus blessed me with its future
And I protect it with fire
So raise your fists
And march around
Just dont take what you need
Ill jail and bury those committed
And smother the rest in greed
Crawl with me into tomorrow
Or Ill drag you to your grave
Im deep inside your children
Theyll betray you in my name
Sleep now in the fire
The lie is my expense
The scope of my desire
The party blessed me with its future
And I protect it with fire
I am the Nina The Pinta The Santa Maria
The noose and the rapist
The fields overseer
The agents of orange
The priests of Hiroshima
The cost of my desire
Sleep now in the fire
Sleep now in the fire
For its the end of history
Its caged and frozen still
There is no other pill to take
So swallow the one
That made you ill
The Nina The Pinta The Santa Maria
The noose and the rapist
The fields overseer
The agents of orange
The priests of Hiroshima
The cost of my desire
Sleep now in the fire
New Template Waiting On Approval
A Poetic Justice
The Art of Peace
What do you think of the new design? (If you approve, I will implement the template on all of the pages with their own particular montage in the header. I have implemented it on the two blogs above- click on the picture(s) for the links.)
I know. I know... I change templates like one changes socks, but I do really like this design and I'll stay with it if you approve. That's right. I'm leaving it up to you. I have worked on it all day and will likely fine tune it as I go. I know how it loads rather fast with my computer and my high speed connection, but it would be nice to hear some feedback on it. I tested it on Mozilla and they were rather friendly to one another, so much so that I yelled, "Get a room!". ..
Please visit and let me know your thoughts. My muse threw a fit until she saw the finished product. I think she sighed a sigh that read, "Let's get a room". I might not have heard her correctly, my ears are still a bit muted due to her latest outrage at nimrod in chief, so it could well have been a sigh of exasperation. I truly need and desire your input.
Base template via ParaNovoBlogger
Peace,
thepoetryman
Thursday
Planet in Peril – the documentary
I happened to rent this documentary, as I do not watch mainstream television and wanted to see what they had to say about climate change. I like to watch these kinds of documentaries, to get tips and hints on what I can to do in my small way to help.
Well, wouldn’t you know it – I come away from this documentary with something completely different.
And now I’m wondering if it’s our plant in peril or us?
Mother Earth seems to be very a very resilient and resourceful plant. I find that she has had no less than 5 mass extinctions since her creation mostly due to cyclical ice ages and just her volcanic rumblings and tectonic plate moves. According to some experts in the field, what we are experiencing with sunspots and earth changes now ~ might actually be a readily predictable ice age ~ one that has repeated itself every 10,000 years on her surface.
I digress though, what I wanted to talk about was plastic. You know, that stuff we use to store just about everything in including water.
At the end of the documentary, they took a family; mother, father and two small children and did blood work on them to assess their chemical exposure. What they found was surprising; the children, most especially the one year old, had the highest level of chemicals in his body. Huh? Now, that doesn’t make much sense until you do an Internet search of ‘bad plastics’. And we are not just talking about recycling plastics here; we are talking about our everyday, use in all kinds of products including baby bottles and children’s toys plastics that are toxic to the human body. Most especially toxic in small minute amounts.
Here are a few articles to get you started reading; Care2 and Bisphenol
Simply said,
Plastics disrupt hormones
Hormones create the human race
If we can’t reproduce
Then we have successfully killed off the human race
without Mother Nature having to do
one single thing.
peace my friend, peace
Well, wouldn’t you know it – I come away from this documentary with something completely different.
And now I’m wondering if it’s our plant in peril or us?
Mother Earth seems to be very a very resilient and resourceful plant. I find that she has had no less than 5 mass extinctions since her creation mostly due to cyclical ice ages and just her volcanic rumblings and tectonic plate moves. According to some experts in the field, what we are experiencing with sunspots and earth changes now ~ might actually be a readily predictable ice age ~ one that has repeated itself every 10,000 years on her surface.
I digress though, what I wanted to talk about was plastic. You know, that stuff we use to store just about everything in including water.
At the end of the documentary, they took a family; mother, father and two small children and did blood work on them to assess their chemical exposure. What they found was surprising; the children, most especially the one year old, had the highest level of chemicals in his body. Huh? Now, that doesn’t make much sense until you do an Internet search of ‘bad plastics’. And we are not just talking about recycling plastics here; we are talking about our everyday, use in all kinds of products including baby bottles and children’s toys plastics that are toxic to the human body. Most especially toxic in small minute amounts.
Here are a few articles to get you started reading; Care2 and Bisphenol
Simply said,
Plastics disrupt hormones
Hormones create the human race
If we can’t reproduce
Then we have successfully killed off the human race
without Mother Nature having to do
one single thing.
peace my friend, peace
Wednesday
Suffer The Forgotten And Faceless
(Updated below)
The following constitutes mainly a repost of something I've written last year, along with new commentary added. The reason for this is simple: there has been zero development on the matter since last year.
The following constitutes mainly a repost of something I've written last year, along with new commentary added. The reason for this is simple: there has been zero development on the matter since last year.
**********
The No Land's Men
August 16, 2007
No - the title is not a mistake, nor a typographical error of the term "No man's land". This is about real human beings who find themselves without a land to call their own for the sole crime of having been wrongly imprisoned at Gitmo.
As of the month of August, 2007, some 80 Guatanamo Bay detainees have been cleared of all charges with regards to terrorism, as well as having been definitely established as constituting no threat whatsoever to the security of the U.S.A.
Yet they remain Gitmo detainees.
Furthermore, Army officials expect about 70 more of the remaining other 360 detainees to be likewise cleared.
Yet, most of them will also remain Gitmo detainees.
Why? Because no one wants them.
You see, once detainees are cleared of charges and whatnot, then the U.S.A. has the responsibility of transferring them to a terre d'acceuil (welcoming country) where they will not be tortured, mistreated or executed. This is in fact a matter of stated policy:
August 16, 2007
No - the title is not a mistake, nor a typographical error of the term "No man's land". This is about real human beings who find themselves without a land to call their own for the sole crime of having been wrongly imprisoned at Gitmo.
As of the month of August, 2007, some 80 Guatanamo Bay detainees have been cleared of all charges with regards to terrorism, as well as having been definitely established as constituting no threat whatsoever to the security of the U.S.A.
Yet they remain Gitmo detainees.
Furthermore, Army officials expect about 70 more of the remaining other 360 detainees to be likewise cleared.
Yet, most of them will also remain Gitmo detainees.
Why? Because no one wants them.
You see, once detainees are cleared of charges and whatnot, then the U.S.A. has the responsibility of transferring them to a terre d'acceuil (welcoming country) where they will not be tortured, mistreated or executed. This is in fact a matter of stated policy:
"Before it puts detainees on a plane, the U.S. must find a country to accept them. It also must obtain assurances the prisoners will be prevented from attacking the United States or its allies, and will not be tortured or face other treatment that violates international law."
Now, try to put aside the outrageously mendacious irony of these "righteous" proclamations for a moment, especially when considering what actually goes on at Gitmo or the Maher Arar affair (as one example among others), and allow me nonetheless the opportunity to illustrate to you as best as I can the real underlying reason why "no one wants them", thus condemning these fully, unquestionably innocent men to remain stuck in Gitmo.
Take the example of those 22 ethnic Uyghurs from China's Xinjiang region - Muslims one and all. They were transferred to U.S. custody by Pakistani bounty hunters after the terrorist attacks of 9/11, thereafter branded by the U.S. military as enemy combatants and consequently shipped to Gitmo. All the while, they maintained that they were en route to Iran and Turkey in order to seek refugee status in these Muslim countries - because Uyghurs are harshly persecuted in China. It was not until early 2005 that they were finally given a chance to defend themselves, whereby a (secret) military tribunal determined that they posed no threat to the U.S.A.
The problem came when U.S. officials sought to transfer them to another country - after all, they could not be sent back to China where they would be most certainly persecuted. Western countries were approached to grant these innocent men asylum, but all so approached refused - including Canada. Albania accepted to welcome five of the twenty-two back in 2006 - and those five are currently living in squalid conditions. The remaining 17 still languish to this day in Gitmo. There is no information available on whether the U.S. approached Turkey or (gasp!) Iran as well, two of the countries the detainees were seeking to reach initially, or whether the thought of doing so even crossed the obtuse minds of the officials involved in this apparently extraordinarily challenging repatriation process. Then again, perhaps these two countries have indeed been approached, but could not provide "satisfactory" assurances that "the prisoners will be prevented from attacking the United States or its allies".
(Oh-Hum)
Indeed - Heaven forbid that innocent Muslims be repatriated to welcoming Muslim countries - after all, virtually every single one of these countries is complicit in one way or another with radical Muslim terrorists, right? And forget about welcoming such people in the U.S.A. proper - if only as a small gesture of reparation for the horrific and brutal injustice perpetrated upon them - because, apparently, more Muslims are not wanted.
Another example of such utter injustice provides further evidence to support my suspicions that the whole "challenging" aspect of repatriating innocent Muslim Gitmo detainees lies primarily with intellectual sloth-driven fear, mistrust and/or outright bigotry: about ten days ago, Britain's new Prime Minister Gordon Brown asked for the transfer of five (innocent/cleared) Muslim British residents held at Gitmo, whereas his predecessor, Tony Blair, would not accept the detainees because they were not citizens proper.
Good on Prime Minister Brown, but bully on Tony Blair.
I also call bully on my own Canadian government for still mendaciously disassembling on the decision to take any of these poor, innocent men who have been ravaged by barbarity.
So, in short: Muslims come to be wrongly detained at Gitmo. Said Muslims are thereafter cleared of any charges and established as being of no threat to the U.S.A. Same said Muslims will not be granted asylum by Western countries (and U.S. allies), while Muslim countries are not likewise approached - apparently. End result: same said innocent Muslims remain incarcerated nevertheless.
Moral of the story: go to Gitmo and become a no land's man.
Oh, sure - innocent residents of Gitmo get to be moved to an "upgraded" part of the prison called Camp Iguana, where they live nine to a hut. They have a recreation room and a view of the Caribbean (oh, goody!). But they are still surrounded by barbed wire and are rarely able to communicate with their families. They still remain in utter limbo.
That. Is. Justice. For. You.
All in the sacro-sanct name of Security.
Doesn't it make you feel so proud and patriotic?
God bless America and God bless Canada, f***ing indeed.
But the ugly truth is that all of us are guilty for our silence and absence of outrage. All of us have been irremediably stained for such a sociopathic lack of basic human decency, empathy, compassion and contrition.
Period.
How's that working out for you?
(Update: 08/16/2007 - While writing this article, news came out that former Gitmo detainee/enemy combatant Jose Padilla has been found guilty-by-jury of terror charges in a Miami court. This clearly illustrates the merits and requirement of a judicial system which provides due process, justice and due punishment (if warranted) - as if we ever needed to be reminded of such a truism in the first place. The whole of my present article remains nonetheless.)
Take the example of those 22 ethnic Uyghurs from China's Xinjiang region - Muslims one and all. They were transferred to U.S. custody by Pakistani bounty hunters after the terrorist attacks of 9/11, thereafter branded by the U.S. military as enemy combatants and consequently shipped to Gitmo. All the while, they maintained that they were en route to Iran and Turkey in order to seek refugee status in these Muslim countries - because Uyghurs are harshly persecuted in China. It was not until early 2005 that they were finally given a chance to defend themselves, whereby a (secret) military tribunal determined that they posed no threat to the U.S.A.
The problem came when U.S. officials sought to transfer them to another country - after all, they could not be sent back to China where they would be most certainly persecuted. Western countries were approached to grant these innocent men asylum, but all so approached refused - including Canada. Albania accepted to welcome five of the twenty-two back in 2006 - and those five are currently living in squalid conditions. The remaining 17 still languish to this day in Gitmo. There is no information available on whether the U.S. approached Turkey or (gasp!) Iran as well, two of the countries the detainees were seeking to reach initially, or whether the thought of doing so even crossed the obtuse minds of the officials involved in this apparently extraordinarily challenging repatriation process. Then again, perhaps these two countries have indeed been approached, but could not provide "satisfactory" assurances that "the prisoners will be prevented from attacking the United States or its allies".
(Oh-Hum)
Indeed - Heaven forbid that innocent Muslims be repatriated to welcoming Muslim countries - after all, virtually every single one of these countries is complicit in one way or another with radical Muslim terrorists, right? And forget about welcoming such people in the U.S.A. proper - if only as a small gesture of reparation for the horrific and brutal injustice perpetrated upon them - because, apparently, more Muslims are not wanted.
Another example of such utter injustice provides further evidence to support my suspicions that the whole "challenging" aspect of repatriating innocent Muslim Gitmo detainees lies primarily with intellectual sloth-driven fear, mistrust and/or outright bigotry: about ten days ago, Britain's new Prime Minister Gordon Brown asked for the transfer of five (innocent/cleared) Muslim British residents held at Gitmo, whereas his predecessor, Tony Blair, would not accept the detainees because they were not citizens proper.
Good on Prime Minister Brown, but bully on Tony Blair.
I also call bully on my own Canadian government for still mendaciously disassembling on the decision to take any of these poor, innocent men who have been ravaged by barbarity.
So, in short: Muslims come to be wrongly detained at Gitmo. Said Muslims are thereafter cleared of any charges and established as being of no threat to the U.S.A. Same said Muslims will not be granted asylum by Western countries (and U.S. allies), while Muslim countries are not likewise approached - apparently. End result: same said innocent Muslims remain incarcerated nevertheless.
Moral of the story: go to Gitmo and become a no land's man.
Oh, sure - innocent residents of Gitmo get to be moved to an "upgraded" part of the prison called Camp Iguana, where they live nine to a hut. They have a recreation room and a view of the Caribbean (oh, goody!). But they are still surrounded by barbed wire and are rarely able to communicate with their families. They still remain in utter limbo.
That. Is. Justice. For. You.
All in the sacro-sanct name of Security.
Doesn't it make you feel so proud and patriotic?
God bless America and God bless Canada, f***ing indeed.
But the ugly truth is that all of us are guilty for our silence and absence of outrage. All of us have been irremediably stained for such a sociopathic lack of basic human decency, empathy, compassion and contrition.
Period.
How's that working out for you?
(Update: 08/16/2007 - While writing this article, news came out that former Gitmo detainee/enemy combatant Jose Padilla has been found guilty-by-jury of terror charges in a Miami court. This clearly illustrates the merits and requirement of a judicial system which provides due process, justice and due punishment (if warranted) - as if we ever needed to be reminded of such a truism in the first place. The whole of my present article remains nonetheless.)
**********
So here we are, some one year later - and those poor, stranded souls remain at Gitmo ... still forgotten and faceless.
As I think of them, I also think of those dozens (hundreds?) who have been tortured over the years, thanks to the Bush administration's policy which has ever been supported - if not encouraged and staunchly defended - by pundits, lawyers, justices, politicians, warhawks, chickenhawks and all assorted fear- and hate-driven neocon enablers, supporters and apologists - including all those ostriches who would rather bury their heads in the sand rather than face the awful, ugly truth:
The U.S.A. has become a rogue state which practices indefinite detention and torture.
And who cares if some of those "evil Muslims" die in the process, right? After all, indefinite detentions, secret tribunals andenhanced interrogation techniques torture are valuable means and tools for the defense of freedom, liberty and democracy ...
Thus I ask again: how's that working out for you?
I humbly assume that I will be forgiven if I do not appreciate the "courageous" work done over the last seven years by the Bush administration and its cheerleading supporters - because from where I stand, they have spat upon and irreversibly sullied every precept of human dignity, of human respect, of Humanity, which used to be held as unassaillable and uncompromising, sacrosaint values.
And it doesn't matter however much they try to justify/legalize/spin their actions - for indeed, nothing justifies indefinite detention, secret tribunals and torture.
Nothing.
Period.
Every single one of these fear- and hate-driven incompetents have pushed us from the moral high ground of justice, freedom and human rights into the bottomless precipice of barbarous and savage injustice.
In other words - I have naught but utter contempt for those uncivilized, primitive non-human beings.
And that is how it has been working out for me.
Update (05/15/2008): From Raw Story ... read it and weep. Really. My contempt meter just blew up.
(Originally posted APOV)
As I think of them, I also think of those dozens (hundreds?) who have been tortured over the years, thanks to the Bush administration's policy which has ever been supported - if not encouraged and staunchly defended - by pundits, lawyers, justices, politicians, warhawks, chickenhawks and all assorted fear- and hate-driven neocon enablers, supporters and apologists - including all those ostriches who would rather bury their heads in the sand rather than face the awful, ugly truth:
The U.S.A. has become a rogue state which practices indefinite detention and torture.
And who cares if some of those "evil Muslims" die in the process, right? After all, indefinite detentions, secret tribunals and
Thus I ask again: how's that working out for you?
I humbly assume that I will be forgiven if I do not appreciate the "courageous" work done over the last seven years by the Bush administration and its cheerleading supporters - because from where I stand, they have spat upon and irreversibly sullied every precept of human dignity, of human respect, of Humanity, which used to be held as unassaillable and uncompromising, sacrosaint values.
And it doesn't matter however much they try to justify/legalize/spin their actions - for indeed, nothing justifies indefinite detention, secret tribunals and torture.
Nothing.
Period.
Every single one of these fear- and hate-driven incompetents have pushed us from the moral high ground of justice, freedom and human rights into the bottomless precipice of barbarous and savage injustice.
In other words - I have naught but utter contempt for those uncivilized, primitive non-human beings.
And that is how it has been working out for me.
Update (05/15/2008): From Raw Story ... read it and weep. Really. My contempt meter just blew up.
(Originally posted APOV)
The Slug
I sat there for over an hour just staring at the screen, or three hundred and seven thousand weightless pixels. Imagine that, I was weighing up weightlessness. (It’s a hell of a lot harder than it sounds…) As I stared fruitlessly at the monitor, contemplating the fate of yet another dying minute, it smothered me like a ton of bones, a load of bleached, human bone tumbling down upon me at the pace of a fading day, slower than that even; measured, like the pace of this massive, evolutionary slug that edged along our back porch sucking up all kinds of shit along its way. Slug! That was it. That was what I was to write about. A miserable, ugly, slimy, seemingly useless slug. It’s not like a slug is going to give a rat’s ass what my blog post is about anyway, right? I mean he’s got more pressing things to tend to than some halfcocked poet with writer’s block; he’s got shit to gather, filth to collect, inches to go. I imagine if my wife had been there she’d have begged me put it out of its misery. To which I’d probably have replied, “You mean out of our misery, right?”I’m tired. Tired of our killing things because we find them unsightly, or alien, or darker… Wouldn’t it be better if we were to look the other way and wrangle with our own unsightly sliminess? I’m so drained. So goddamned drained of all the fear and ignorance and hate that bring men to kill the best of things and wallow in the least. Sick and tired at the ease with which we’ll turn our back on our heads for absurd profit and frivolous pacification of useless, greedy goddamned habits. I’m physically and mentally fatigued by man’s sluggishness, by his failings, by my own shortcomings. Mine.
All this from a miserable, ugly, slimy slug edging along the porch. Today, and I regretfully imagine tomorrow, man will not have traveled as far.
Tuesday
a new world order
commentary is going to be short on this one. i try to write posts that give folks information that they may not get from msm sources and i don't fancy myself a conspiracy theorist. i look at human nature and history as my guides- and i don't get caught up in histrionic, nationalistic, jingoistic patriotism- i look at my country and it's people with a critical eye. and with good reason. bushco has been proven time and again to have lied to america and gone against her best interests. this article puts forth a theory as to why- from an investigator. please take the time to read it- it is a bit long- and think about it and put the pieces together. you have the news bites and the images to go with the theory- they just don't all always come in neat packages.the battle for america has begun- richard c. cook
http:// www.richardccook.com
Copyright 2008 Richard C. Cook
Richard C. Cook is a former federal government analyst who was one of the key figures in the investigation of the space shuttle Challenger disaster. He is author of the book - Challenger Revealed: An Insider's Account of How the Reagan Administration Caused the Greatest Tragedy of the Space Age is Richard C. Cook's personal story of how he disrupted the cover-ups surrounding the Challenger disaster.
cross posted at sirens chronicles and life's journey
Monday
Check it Out!
Here's the teaser:
"He [James Howard Kunstler] calls the new Depression ' The Long Emergency.' It is, he says, the logical end result of a society that has squadered all of its oil, torn down its factories and outsourced jobs, leveled family farms as well as 'Main Street' shopping areas and 'trained its populatin to become overfed diabetic TV zombie 'consumers' of other peoples' productivity, paid for by 'money' they haven't earned.'"
Check out Kunstler's blog, Clusterfuck Nation at:
http://www.kunstler.com/index.html.
"He [James Howard Kunstler] calls the new Depression ' The Long Emergency.' It is, he says, the logical end result of a society that has squadered all of its oil, torn down its factories and outsourced jobs, leveled family farms as well as 'Main Street' shopping areas and 'trained its populatin to become overfed diabetic TV zombie 'consumers' of other peoples' productivity, paid for by 'money' they haven't earned.'"
Check out Kunstler's blog, Clusterfuck Nation at:
http://www.kunstler.com/index.html.
Sunday
Ted Kennedy: The Liberal Lion
The recent news about Senator Kennedy's seizure has me reflecting on the "liberal lion." The first political speech I can recall leaving an impression upon me was Senator Kennedy's concession speech to Jimmy Carter at the 1980 Democratic National Convention. I was eleven at the time and quite stirred by it. Many recall Senator Kennedy's inability to be gracious to President Carter on the podium. For me though, this speech by Kennedy stands the test of time. It was a defiant clarion call against the growing tide of callous predatory conservatism.
Unable to restore Camelot's throne, Kennedy resumed his Senate career and became an indispendable progressive advocate within the legislative branch. While the center of political gravity shifted to the right, Kennedy was a powerful counterweight. In 2002, unlike too many of his cowardly colleagues, Kennedy voiced dissent against President Bush's march towards war with Iraq.
Yes, I acknowledge Kennedy's personal failings. They've been well documented. The death of Mary Jo Kopechne at Chappaquiddick Island when Kennedy left the scene of the accident and failed to immediately report it to authorities was despicable. Unquestionably, he got off far easier than the average person would have. If I were a member of Mary Jo Kopechne's family I likely could never forgive him. That said, this country is far better off for Kennedy's service in the Senate.
Below are four YouTube audio recordings of Kennedy's memorable speech. It's words still echo today.
VIEW 2, 3 & 4 +/-
Unable to restore Camelot's throne, Kennedy resumed his Senate career and became an indispendable progressive advocate within the legislative branch. While the center of political gravity shifted to the right, Kennedy was a powerful counterweight. In 2002, unlike too many of his cowardly colleagues, Kennedy voiced dissent against President Bush's march towards war with Iraq.
Yes, I acknowledge Kennedy's personal failings. They've been well documented. The death of Mary Jo Kopechne at Chappaquiddick Island when Kennedy left the scene of the accident and failed to immediately report it to authorities was despicable. Unquestionably, he got off far easier than the average person would have. If I were a member of Mary Jo Kopechne's family I likely could never forgive him. That said, this country is far better off for Kennedy's service in the Senate.
Below are four YouTube audio recordings of Kennedy's memorable speech. It's words still echo today.
Saturday
Saturday Sonata: The Band Played Waltzing Matilda
Saturday Sonata II, with LT.“The Band Played Waltzing Matilda” by the great Scottish/Australian songwriter Eric Bogle is the most powerful anti-war song I’ve come across. It’s well enough known that it needs little introduction, but to get a fuller appreciation of the story, and to offer Bogle more complete windups for the succession of blows the song offers, I’d like to give just a bit of background.
First, the song inside the song is of course the Australian classic, “Waltzing Matilda.” That gem was written by poet Banjo Paterson in 1895, and first put to music a handful of years later. Here are the original lyrics (they’ve evolved over the years), with explanations for the Aussie slang, here and here. And here’s Slim Dusty with a real nice version of the song:
In 1972 Bogle took that simple and joyful piece of Australia's character and wove it with one of it’s most tragic, the story of the slaughter of Australian forces at Gallipoli, Turkey, during World War One, into a haunting and gutwrenching masterpiece. From the liner notes from the 1977 album, “Eric Bogle – LIVE”:
50.000 soldiers of Australia died at Gallipoli in a stupid and pointless campaign, which was a lot for a small country like Australia. About the only thing the achieved was a belated recognition that Australia was "growing up", she was becoming a nation in her own right....
Every April, a march is held on ANZAC DAY to commemorate the Gallipoli landings during the first World War, and the dead of the other wars. Australia takes it so seriously that the pubs are closed, the only day in the year this happens. Like all memorial parades it is both moving and yet somewhat pointless and pathetic. This song was written after observing one such parade.
Eric Bogle singing “The Band Played Waltzing Matilda,” with a montage of images from 1915, and later, and later, and later:
Now when I was a young man I carried me pack
And I lived the free life of the rover.
From the Murray's green basin to the dusty outback
Well, I waltzed my Matilda all over.
Then in 1915, my country said, Son
It's time you stop ramblin', there's work to be done.
So they gave me a tin hat, and they gave me a gun
And they marched me away to the war.
And the band played "Waltzing Matilda,"
As the ship pulled away from the quay,
And amidst all the cheers, the flag waving, and tears,
We sailed off for Gallipoli.
And how well I remember that terrible day,
How our blood stained the sand and the water;
And of how in that hell that they call Suvla Bay
We were butchered like lambs at the slaughter.
Johnny Turk, he was waitin', he primed himself well;
He showered us with bullets, and he rained us with shell --
And in five minutes flat, he'd blown us all to hell,
Nearly blew us right back to Australia.
But the band played "Waltzing Matilda,"
When we stopped to bury our slain,
Well, we buried ours, and the Turks buried theirs,
Then we started all over again.
And those that were left, well, we tried to survive
In that mad world of blood, death and fire.
And for ten weary weeks I kept myself alive
Though around me the corpses piled higher.
Then a big Turkish shell knocked me arse over head,
And when I woke up in me hospital bed
And saw what it had done, well, I wished I was dead --
Never knew there was worse things than dying.
For I'll go no more "Waltzing Matilda,"
All around the green bush far and free --
To hump tents and pegs, a man needs both legs,
No more "Waltzing Matilda" for me.
So they gathered the crippled, the wounded, the maimed,
And they shipped us back home to Australia.
The armless, the legless, the blind, the insane,
Those proud wounded heroes of Suvla.
And as our ship sailed into Circular Quay,
I looked at the place where me legs used to be,
And thanked Christ there was nobody waiting for me,
To grieve, to mourn and to pity.
But the band played "Waltzing Matilda,"
As they carried us down the gangway,
But nobody cheered, they just stood and stared,
Then they turned all their faces away.
And so now every April, I sit on my porch
And I watch the parade pass before me.
And I see my old comrades, how proudly they march,
Reviving old dreams of past glory,
And the old men march slowly, all bones stiff and sore,
They're tired old heroes from a forgotten war
And the young people ask "What are they marching for?"
And I ask meself the same question.
But the band plays "Waltzing Matilda,"
And the old men still answer the call,
But as year follows year, more old men disappear
Someday, no one will march there at all.
Waltzing Matilda, waltzing Matilda.
Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?
And their ghosts may be heard as they march by the billabong,
Who'll come a-Waltzing Matilda with me?
And their ghosts may be heard...
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