Day four and we're in North Texas! :D First, an apology to Fort Worth because I was sleeping on the way there. I know it's got a lot of concrete. :D Seems like a lot of building were glass and concrete. That may be about all I noticed. I can tell you more about Denton because I was wide awake by then. Denton? It's too the north of Dallas. It's a college town and their colleges are Texas Womens University and North Texas University which is where Mean Joe Green played. We had a lot of fun on that campus. That's a pretty cool campus and, like Texas, spread out!!!! Okay, there's the football field and I'll start from there. I'm going to call it South West but I don't know if it was. I'm just doing that to give you an idea of what it's like. So it's in this extreme south west corner. Then further up you had a gym/auditorium thing that, the prof told us, Pearl Jam played at in the 90s. Rockin! :D The tennis courts are across from that. And you're still not at the heart of the university. I think the center is the library. They've got two or three, but I'm talking about the main library. And you've got all these campus buildings all over. We were there for a long time because we spoke to three groups and Dona had scheduled a fourth where it was more waves (we weren't all in that group at the same time) so we really got to see the campus. It is really cool. But it was hot today and I bet it gets really hot there. There's a lot of glass and brick and if something's a color, it seemed like it was usually white. So I bet the sun just reflects like crazy. They have dorms but I guess everyone drives or most of them because they had parking lot after parking lot after parking lot after . . .
What else? Some of us grabbed something to eat at . . . Hold on. Let me talk about this first because we were with three community members and they really liked this part about their campus so let me give it credit and all. You can live on campus without a car and still eat. They've got all these places you can walk to that are on the edge of campus (you can also eat on campus). They had fast food and other stuff too. We went to a place, if I got the name right, that was called The Flying Tomato. That was pretty cool. The food was really good and no asking for coke refills, they were on your table constantly. So if you're ever in Denton, check out The Flying Tomato. Especially on a hot day because it was hot to me and as soon as you go inside the Tomato, it's like you can feel the temperature drop. If I remember right, it's by the Science building. Like diagonal from it. Or if you use the football stadium as being on the south west, The Flying Tomato is on the north east corner of the university, or just off the university. You're on the curb of the campus and it's right across the street.
There's also at least one club that's close by. There's a grocery store on the south side of campus, if I heard that right, but otherwise, you need to use the car to go the store or you can take the Trolley. Their public transportation includes buses but it also includes these old wooden trolleys. And I'm not trying to insult them by calling them "old." They look really nice. They're big and wide and the first time I saw one, I was pointing and going, "What is that?" :D
So it's a really cool campus but, like a lot of things in Texas, it's really, really spread out. I'd hate to have a class on one end and be due for another class right after that was on the opposite end of campus. And that could happen real easy.
Like I said, it was hot again today. Maybe it was because of where we were and all. But it was really hot. And I kept thinking, "This is just March!" How do people survive the summer heat?
There are lots of lakes out in that area. We passed one on the way to Lewisville which was our last stop. (C.I.'s doing another thing this evening which usually happens. The rest of us stick to the day schedule and look around during that and then go have exploring and stuff after. That's what we're doing tonight.)
We're in Dallas tonight and everything tomorrow is in Dallas so this should be easier. But Dallas may be bigger than I know in which case it may be a lot of rushing and stuff tomorrow too. My big thing here is I want to see where JFK was shot. I've heard about that, we all have, so I really do want to see that and all. I'm sure there are lots of things worth seeing. The Dallas Cowboys aren't one of them because they are not in Dallas! Either they are in Irving, Texas right now or they just left. I can't follow the story. But they are not in Dallas. The Mavericks are. Marc Cuban's basketball team is in Dallas. So, like I said, we're headed out to catch some sights and all. Eddie and some other members are going to show us around.
Okay this is from Ira Chernus' "The 'Support our Troops' Myths:"
Are you hoping those spineless Democrats in Congress will cut off the money for the war? Well don't hold your breath. Even a stalwart liberal like Barney Frank demurs, explaining that "it's a high-risk thing" -- a high risk to the Dems’ chances of winning next year's election, because most voters clearly do not want war funds cut now. That includes a surprisingly big chunk of voters who oppose the war. They say openly that it's a disastrous mistake, but they don't want Congress to best thing it can do to end the war.
Though the Bush administration can't figure out how to win in Iraq, it is scoring a big victory on the public relations battlefield with its favorite myth: If you cut funding for the war you are not "supporting our troops." If you support the troops you have to keep on paying billions for a failed war.
To believe that one, you've got to believe several other myths.
Myth one: The Bush administration does support the troops. In fact, of course, they've shorted the troops on everything from body armor to medical care for four years now.
Myth two: The only way to support the troops is to put them at risk of death or grievous injury and leave them there, for no good reason. If that's "support," then I'm glad I'm not being supported.
Myth three: Either we keep war funding at its present astronomical level or we won't be supporting the troops at all. In fact, there is plenty of room to find a middle ground, to cut the funding by some amount yet still give the troops what they need to stay safe.
These are myths that are out and out falsehoods. Why would so many people buy into them? As a historian of religions, I suspect that it has a lot to do with other powerful myths that have always been woven around soldiers and the military.
Here I don't use the word "myth" to mean a lie, but rather the way we use it in my field of study: A myth is a story that is widely believed because it expresses people's basic worldview and values . People who live by a myth don't care whether it is factually true or logically consistent, as long as it gives them a way to make sense out of their world and find meaning in their lives.
In an age when it’s hard to believe in heroes, the mythic "GI" of the American media is someone people want to identify with and emulate. When you can imagine yourself as the main character in the myth, that’s when the myth really grabs hold of you.
I suspect that is what's happening to a lot of people who oppose the war but insist on "supporting our troops." They see their soldiers as uniquely admirable role models. In the popular imagination, these soldiers are ordinary youngsters (thus easy to identify with) who have extraordinary character. They are "just plain kids" who have the kind of heroic virtues that most kids don’t seem to have anymore -- unless they go into uniform.
The mythic soldier's virtues are all about caring for others -- buddies, the outfit, the service, the nation -- more than self. After all, no one forces them to serve. They volunteered. (The myth conveniently ignores the economic pressures that drive people into the military.) And the news media give us an endless parade of these uniformed heroes, all looking noble and handsome, telling us that it doesn’t matter whether or not they approve of the war. "I made a commitment. I have an obligation to serve. I have to do my duty," is their constant refrain.
I think the whole thing is worth quoting, so check it out. This is a really strong article that's getting to a lot of things and not just the lies of war but the lies (or myths) that continue it.
Here's C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"
Thursday, March 15, 2007. Chaos and violence continue, the US military announces the deaths of more US service members, Hillary Clinton gives bad press, and the Senate says "no" and the House says "yes."
Starting with news of war resistance. Dean Kuipers (LA City Beat) examines the war resistance within the military and notes AWOL figures (8,000 since the start of the illegal war according the US Defense Department), desertion figures (40,000 since 2000) and that: "Several hundred of those soldiers have fled to Canada, according to unconfirmed reports, but only a few have identified themselves and thus face prosecution." On the issue of the sentencing of war resisters who go public, attorney Jim Feldman, who represents Agustin Aguayo among others, sees the sentencing as encouraging, noting that, "People who really are sincere, the Army judges are not going to come down hard on 'em. The judges seem to recognize that as a mitigating circumstance." Agustin Aguayo's recent court-martial in Germany found him sentenced to eight months and the time he had been in custory already (since turning himself in at the end of September 2006) was credited to his sentence. Iraq Veterans Against the War's Kelly Dougherty shares her view with Kupier, "At the same time, I think they are taking a tough stand because eight months in prison is still a long time in prison, especially for refusing to serve in a war because your conscience says it's wrong to kill people, or because you reel that this particular war is illegal. They could certainly be prosecuting people more. But the sentences that they are giving are being handed down as a message to others serving in the military not to apply for CO status and not to refuse to go to Iraq."
Ehren Watada, the first commissoned officer to publicy refuse to deploy to Iraq, is but one example of the attempt to "send a message." His second court-martial is scheduled to begin July 16th. The double jeopardy issue (a Constitutional issue) is something the military seems determined to ignore. Courage to Resist is asking that a mail campaign (snail mail) be used to demonstrate to Lt. Gen. James M. Dubik how much support there is for Watada. Dubik "has the power to drop all charges and let Lt. Watada out of the army". You can write to Lt. Gen. Dubik at: Bldg 2025 Stop 1, Fort Lewis, WA 98433.
In other news, Vue Weekly reports: "Toronto hip-hop artist Mohammad Ali is about to release his new album at an event here in Edmonton for the War Resisters Support Campaign, a coalition of indivduals supporting US soldiers seeking asylum in Canada because they refuse to fight in Iraq. The self-proclaimed in-your-face activist ('I write about names, events and dates -- specifics.') is highlighting some of the controversial politics behind the war in Iraq, drawing some examples from the experiences of Darrell Anderson, an Iraq combat veteran." Darrell Anderson is the US war resister who served in Iraq, was awarded a Purple Heart and then self-checked out in January 2005 and moved to Canada. In September of last year, Anderson announced that he was returning to the US to turn himself in. On October 3rd, he turned himself in at Fort Knox. He was released by the military on October 6th and, as expected, he was not charged and was given an other-than-honorable discharge.
Darrell Anderson, Agustin Aguayo and Ehren Watada are part of a movement of resistance within the military that includes Joshua Key*, Kyle Snyder, Mark Wilkerson, Camilo Mejia, Patrick Hart, Ivan Brobeck, Ricky Clousing, Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Jeremy Hinzman, Stephen Funk, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Corey Glass, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Katherine Jashinski, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell, Jimmy Massey, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake and Kevin Benderman. In total, thirty-eight US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum.Information on war resistance within the military can be found at Center on Conscience & War, The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline, and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters.
[*Yesterday, the third time I mentioned Joshua Key, I wrongly called him Josh Wolf. Wolf is a reporter who has been imprisoned for refusing to roll over on the First Amendment -- imprisoned "longer than any other reporter in U.S. history for refusing a federal grand jury subpoena" as Howard Vicini notes.]
Turning to the selling of the illegal war, a wave of Operation Happy Talk hit big media and they suited up, grabbed the Sticky Bumps and rushed to ride that wave. The talking point was that the ongoing crackdown in Baghdad (which began in June of last year and has been beefed up and juiced up ever since) had achieved real results! It was a success! This was true because they were told it was true! One of the few who remembered he was a reporter and that the occupation entails more than mere stenography was Damien Cave (New York Times) who noted problems with the announcement that violence had declined: "But the degree of improvement was unclear, partly because of the continued confusion over casualty counts here, and an American general cautioned against reading too much into optimistic reports, given that January and February were two of the worst months for car bombings since the invasion. The Iraqi review came from Brig. Qassim al-Moussawi, a military spokesman, who said at a news conference that civilian deaths since the start of the plan on Feb. 14 were counted at 265 in Baghdad, down from 1,440 in the four weeks before. He said 36 car bombings struck the capital over the past four weeks, down from 56. [. . .] It was not clear what his statistics were based on, though, and they may not have taken into account the bodies found strewn around the capital each day. An analysis by The New York Times found more than 450 Iraqi civilians killed or found dead during the same 28-day period, based on initial daily reports from Interior Ministry and hospital officials." While Cave reported, many of his cohorts were at the beach (mentally, if not physically).
The wave came rolling in despite a new report from the Pentagon. (Or maybe because of a new report from the Pentagon. Operation Happy Talk has always attempted to counter reality.) Ann Scott Tyson (Washington Post) reported on the Pentagon's "bleakest assessment of Iraq yet" which found: "record levels of violence and hardening sectarian divisions in the last quarter of 2006 as rival Sunni and Shiite militiias waged campaigns of 'sectarian cleansing' that forced as many as 9,000 civilians to flee the country each month. Weekly attacks in Iraq rose to more than 1,000 during the period and average daily casualties increased to more than 140, with Iraqi civilians bearing the brunt of the violence". Also noted was that the assement acknowledged "Those figures may represent as little as half of the true casualties because they include only violence observed by or reported to the U.S.-led military coalition". That obvious fact was ignored by those pushing the wave of "violence is down" due to the latest version of the crackdown (this version was 'released' in February of this year). Of the Pentagon assessment, Reuters noted, "There was an average of 1,047 attacks per week on U.S.-led forces and Iraqi soldiers, police and civilians in January and early February, according to statistics released with the report." The report also notes the civil war aspect raging in Iraq. This as the AFP notes Mister Tony's denials of civil war: "British Prime Minister Tony Blair insisted that despite the raging violence four years after the invasion, Iraq is not in a state of civil war. 'not a country at civil war'."
And the violence continues today.
Bombings?
BBC reports that a bombing in the Karrada district of Baghdad has killed a least eight Iraq police officers and left 25 civilians wounded. Kim Gamel (AP) reports the death of a man (unnamed) in Baghdad who was "vegetable seller" who discovered a package which contained a bomb that "exploded as he was trying to carry it away from a populated area in Sadr City." Tina Susman (Los Angeles Times) identifies the man as "Ahmed Draiwel, 18" an dnotes that he "was able to hurl it [the package containing the bomb] into a distant trash pile. His brother, who was trying to help him, lost his arm, witnesses said." Reuters notes a bombing in "the western Yarmouk district of Baghdad" which killed an Iraqi soldier and left two people wounded, while a car bombing in Mosul wounded a police officer.
CNN reports: "At least five people were killed and 21 wounded when a parked car packed with explosives detonated Thursday morning next ot a minibus in Iskandiriya, south of Baghdad, police said. The vehicle was carrying employees of the state-run National Car Industry Co. Police also said the manager of the company was shot dead this past week, while driving to work." The BBC notes this blast took place "outside one of the few factories still operating in Iraq."
Shootings?
AFP reports five shooting deaths in Baquba "by gunmen who attacked a string of gas stations and set them on fire". They also note that, in Baghdad, Rakim al-Darraji's car was attacked and he was wounded while a police officer traveling with al-Darraji was killed -- "Darraji had helped the US military in setting up a security centre in the district [Sadr City] as part of the crackdown in Baghdad". AP notes two deaths ("bodyguards") in the attack. Reuters notes a police officer and a cook were shot dead in Mosul while, also in Mosul, "U.S. forces targeting al Qaeda militants in the northern city of Mosul killed one Iraqi soldier and wounded three after thinking they were insurgent".
Corpses?
Kim Gamel (AP) reports: "Twenty bullet-riddled bodies also were found, most of them in Baghdad". The corpse count in Iraq for Thursday will, no doubt, be reported by others (and a higher number) on Friday. (Reuters is currently reporting corpses from yesterday.)
Today, the US military announced: "A Marine assigned to Multi National Force-West died Mar. 14 in a noncombat related incident in Al Anbar Province." And they announced: "A Soldier assigned to Multi National Force-West was killed Mar. 14 while conducting combat operations in Al Anbar Province." ICCC puts the total number of US service members who have died in Iraq since the start of the illegal war at 3203. And, most recently, the US military has announced: "Four Multi-National Division - Baghdad Soldiers died when two roadside bombs targeted their vehicles in an eastern section of the Iraqi captial, March 15."
What? In Baghdad? But the Happy Talkers couldn't stop bragging about the crackdown!
Kim Gamel (AP) notes that 2 US service members were wounded. The number of US service member deaths announced toay now stands at six.
In the United States, news from both house of Congress. Reuters reports the Senate plan (withdrawal of US troops by March 31st of 2008) did not pass. AP reports that the vote was 50 to 48 (50 voting against the measure).
Meanwhile, in the lower house, a bill passed a committee vote and will now go to the full house. Al Jazeera reports that the "Democratic party plan to withdraw US combat troops from Iraq by September 2008 has been approved by a House of Representatives committee. The House approriations committe approved a $124.1 bn emergency spending bill, including around $100bn to continue fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan by 36 votes to 28." David Espo (AP) notes US Rep Jose Serrano stating: "I want this war to end. I don't want to go to any more funerals." This led to a rejoinder from US Rep C. W. Bill Young who claimed he wanted troops out more than anyone. C.W. Bill Young is most infamous for refusing to call out the scandals at Walter Reed Army Medical Center (which he admitted last month he'd seen himself months prior). His "support" of anyone is curiously exhibited. Espo notes that US Rep Barbara Lee voted against the plan and stated, "I believe the American people sent a mandate to us to bring home our men and women before the end of the year" which Lee (and many others) do not believe the bill honors.
In other political news, Michael Gordon and Patrick Healy (New York Times via Common Dreams) report on their sit down with US Senator and 2008 presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton who told them that leaving out Iraq was out of the question -- "It is right in the heart of the oil region." Well you go, gas guzzling War Hawk. Her sit down position of some US will remain in Iraq if she's elected president is, as the writers note, in contrast to her campaign stop speech where she claims, "If we in Congress don't end this war before January 2009, as president, I will."
Turning to Iraq, Yes! magazine has the second part of a three part feature. It's worth noting for a number of reasons but, chiefly, due to the overly praised Rolling Stone roundtable which was all male and nothing you really couldn't have seen by turning on cable TV. In the second part, Lisa Farino and Dal LaMagna discuss their meeting with Iraqi parliamentarians and "ambassadors and leaders from other Middle East cocuntires." Also interested in listening, Ali al-Fadhily (IPS) who reports on what Iraqis are saying they want from leaders and, bad news for exiles, "Iraqis have little faith in people who fled and left them to face the situation." Yesterday on KPFA's Flashpoints, Robert Knight noted that Ayad Allawi was in Saudi Arabia attempting to drum up support for his challenge to Nouri al-Maliki as prime minister/puppet of the occupation.
mikey likes it
the common ills
iraqagustin aguayo
the new york timesdamien cave
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the washington post
