12 April 2003


She's ok...!

Thankfully, Kathy Kelly and other Iraqi Peace Team members have survived unharmed (so far) the siege and fall of Baghdad. In this post dated 4/10, she gives a poignant, personal glimpse of the arrival of American soldiers in Baghdad. Here's an excerpt:
At least a dozen soldiers have stopped to talk with us since we began the vigil at 3:00 this afternoon. "OK, can you tell us your side of the story?" asked one young man. "Can I sit there with you for awhile?" asked another. Each of them has assured us that they didn't want to kill anyone. One young man said he was desperate for financial aid to care for his wife and child while struggling to complete college studies and work full time. He felt he could gain some respect in this world and also help his family by joining the Marines. He's relieved that he was stationed at the rear of a line coming up from the south. His role was to guard prisoners. He didn't shoot anyone. But he saw US soldiers shoot at a civilian car with three passengers as it approached. The child in the car survived - both of his parents were immediately killed. "They could have shot the tires," said the soldier. "Some just want to kill."

11 April 2003


Digby hits the nail on the head again!

Excerpt from a longer post worth reading:
The problem for Democrats isn't our cultural nonconformists who embarrass and disconcert the bourgeoisie. Our problem is the GOP extremists who are now directing the government and buying up the media while dishonestly presenting themselves as moderate middle of the roaders. The Republicans have successfully convinced a lot of people that kooky gay guys "shocking" the straights or removing the word God from the pledge of allegiance are more of a threat to them than a series of expensive unilateral wars while bankrupting the government and discarding the safety net and all consumer protections.

Right on.


And the foreign death toll mounts in Palestine....

A 21-year-old Briton was pronounced clinically dead after being hit in the head and critically wounded by Israeli sniper fire in Rafah refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip, eyewitnesses and Palestinian medical sources told AFP.

Thomas Hurndall was volunteering with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), a group of pro-Palestinian activists who engage in non-violent action to protect civilians in the West Bank and Gaza, they said.

A colleague who witnessed the incident said he was trying to pull two children out of danger with a group of other foreign activists and Palestinian civilians when shots were fired from an army watchtower some 100 metres away.

[....]

It was the third such incident in the past four weeks in which a foreign peace activist was injured or killed during Israeli military operations.

Last Saturday, two foreign ISM activists were wounded by Israeli gunfire, one of them seriously, during clashes between Palestinian stone-throwers and Israeli soldiers in the northern West Bank city of Jenin.

A 24-year-old American, Barry Avery, suffered a serious gunshot wound to the face, while a Danish man, Lasse Schmidt, 35, was wounded in the leg by shrapnel, medics said.

And last month, Rachel Corrie, a 23-year-old US national also volunteering with the ISM, was crushed to death by an Israeli bulldozer in Rafah as she was trying to prevent the demolition of a Palestinian house.

The Israeli army said it was an "accident" and has yet to reveal the result of its investigation into her death.
Full story.

And I'm sure it's a priority of the Bush administration to get to the bottom of her death....

Why the media and government hoopla over the rescue of Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch--who, presumably following heartfelt convictions put herself in harm's way and, fortunately, came out alive--and so little coverage of Corrie's brutal murder by bulldozer? To the point that most Americans draw a blank stare at the mere mention of her name?

Of course, it's a rhetorical question.

And my sentiments exactly...!

From FAIR (Fairness & Accuracry in
Reporting):
Whether the U.S. is deliberately targeting independent media[in Iraq], or is simply not taking care to avoid attacking obvious media targets, the failure to respect the protection afforded journalists under the Geneva Conventions is deeply troubling. Unfettered reporting from the battlefield is essential to bear witness to the realities of war.
More


I couldn't have said it better...

Excerpt from MoveOn.org suggestions for letters to the editor, mailed out to their Media Corps listserve:
If this war was about ensuring that Iraqis are fed, clothed, healthy, and secure, hundreds of thousands are still in serious jeopardy. If this war was about bringing democracy to the Iraqi people, we haven't even begun that project. If it was about removing Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, we haven't found any. If it was about reducing the threat of terrorism, we've done nothing -- except perhaps to fan the flames of Muslim fundamentalism. If it was about stabilizing the region, right now there is increased instability. And if it was about bringing the world together to address threats to our security, we've clearly done the opposite. Only if the war was about taking Saddam out of power -- and literally nothing else -- did this week's events signal victory.

Absolutely.

Just one question...

Tom Tomorrow, my all-time role-model for blogging (and wish I could cartoon like him!) ends a post on the Iraq war today by saying:
Which is exactly why it's important to demand that our leaders fulfill their promises of liberation and democracy in the days ahead.

My question is, how do we demand that they fulfill their promises? This administration has proven its intention to do whatever it wants, whenever and to whomever, in defiance of more than half the electorate and hundreds of thousands of citizens who take to the streets to express their opposition. And don't forget, for every one protestor, how many supporters never make it out the door?

So, unless we approach with bags of $$$ in our hands, how do we influence them?

Excuse me, President Bush? Secretary Rumsfeld...?

Just what about those Geneva Convention articles relative to the treatment of prisoners of war?

We sure our selective in our outrage, aren't we? Or why wouldn't this photograph represent a violation just a tad more serious than the infamous Al Jazeera TV footage of American POWs?

Also, a friend brought up an interesting question. Exactly who is violating the convention? The U.S. soldiers and officers in charge of the prisoners? The photographer? The photographer's employers? The news agency posting the photo. Everyone? No one?

Stupid media question of the day Award ...

Ann Garrels of NPR sounded shaken this morning as she described an "utter collapse of authority" in Baghdad, with widespread looting (even hospitals tageted), burning, "score-settling" and revenge killings. The NPR anchor asked her if American soldiers were just standing by in order to allow Iraqis to "burn off a little steam?"

Yeah. How would he describe, say, the Rodney King riots in 1992 that resulted in 53 deaths, some 10,000 arrests, 2,300 injuries and more than 1,000 buildings lost to fire? South Central LA residents "picnicking in the streets?"

Law-abiding Iraqis are cowering in their homes--if they still have homes standing--hoping to come through this bitter nightmare alive. I wish them the utmost of luck.

Haunted by war...

Last night, I dreamed I was a passenger on a streetcar when it collided with another train....Both cars were badly damaged and, as happens in dreams, I was suddenly one of the victims on the pavement, looking up into the shocked faces of concerned bystanders. And I knew I was dying.

Almost instantaneously, my focus shifted and I was an onlooker, staring down at my girlfriend and another passenger, horribly injured on the roadway. I knelt down beside them and held her and was trying to comfort her, ineffectually, because I knew it was hopeless.

I awoke, heart pounding, utterly shaken.

All morning, I’ve been haunted by the dream. In part, because I realize that many Iraqis are enduring real-life variations on such scenes --not due to an accident, but rather as the direct result of our government’s invasion of their country. Yesterday, I read a report of an American in a convoy that had been mistakenly taken out by a U.S. air strike. He described his Iraqi driver, whose legs had been blown off, bleeding to death in his arms along the roadside.

That story, I believe, engendered my nightmare. That, and photos like this and this...

10 April 2003


And a true victory...

After four years of hearings, studies and legal battles, California has established a huge ``no-fishing zone'' along the West Coast of the United States in an effort to restore dozens of depleted ocean species -- from abalone to rockfish.

Score one for the fishies in the deep blue sea!!

The new rules took effect yesterday morning, declaring 175 square miles of state waters around the Channel Islands off Santa Barbara as a protected network of marine reserves.

The action is being hailed as a test case for future environmental ocean preserves.

Full story here.

A true hero...

The men of war get all the attention. Whereas people like this deserve it.

A former head of Médecins Sans Frontières, or Doctors Without Borders, Dr. Carlo Urbani's idea of a vacation before he died on March 29, at age 46, was hiking Africa with a backpack full of medicines.

Working in Hanoi as director of infectious diseases for the Western Pacific Region of the World Health Organization, Urbani's rapid instigation of strict quarantine procedures among healthcare workers is being credited with saving many lives and shutting down Vietnam's first outbreak of SARS.

When chided by his worried wife for working with such high-risk patients, Urbani is said to have replied, "If I can't work in such situations, what am I here for? Answering e-mails, going to cocktail parties and pushing paper?"

The patient who infected Urbani with SARS is said to have infected 80 people, including more than half of the health workers who cared for him. Tragically, Dr. Urbani died of SARS roughly one month after first treating the man.
Bechtel, Take 2

Excellent op-ed in the NY Times today by Bob Herbert, on war-profiteering at the highest levels of the Bush administration. (Do you call it something different when the profiteers are the ones actually running the war?)
Follow the money.

Former Secretary of State George Shultz is on the board of directors of the Bechtel Group, the largest contractor in the U.S. and one of the finalists in the competition to land a fat contract to help in the rebuilding of Iraq.

He is also the chairman of the advisory board of the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq, a fiercely pro-war group with close ties to the White House. The committee, formed last year, made it clear from the beginning that it sought more than the ouster of Saddam's regime. It was committed, among other things, "to work beyond the liberation of Iraq to the reconstruction of its economy."

Jack Sheehan, a retired Marine Corps general, is a senior vice president at Bechtel. He's also a member of the Defense Policy Board, a government-appointed group that advises the Pentagon on major defense issues. Its members are selected by the under secretary of defense for policy, currently Douglas Feith, and approved by the secretary of defense, Donald Rumsfeld.

Herbert ends with a great quote from Brent Scowcroft, national security adviser to Bush I.
What's going to happen the first time we hold an election in Iraq and it turns out the radicals win? What do you do? We're surely not going to let them take over.

Anybody have a snorkel?
Sounds like the U.S. is in a teeny bit over our heads.
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. forces in Iraq grappled with looting and civil disorder, scattered gun fights, the brutal murder of a Shi'ite religious leader in a holy shrine and a suicide bomb attack on Thursday, which shattered much of the euphoria that had marked the end of Saddam Hussein's rule.

As reality set in following Wednesday's wild celebrations, the United States also faced political complications with Turkey after Kurdish fighters took the northern city of Kirkuk in a bloodless rout of Iraqi forces.
[More.]

The details of the murder of the two (not one) clerics recounted in other articles are particularly gruesome. They were "hacked" to death, at what was expected to be a peaceful reconciliation. Not pretty. According to some accounts, at least one journalist was invited to the mosque to bear witness to the get-together. The reporter had to flee to safety when the "reconciliation" erupted into violence.

Say what you will about Clinton's quick-and-easy zipper action (a private concern between him, Hillary and whomever, as far as I'm concerned), he was an unusually intelligent man. Not a charge you can level at Bush. Clinton and his administration recognized their limitations when it came to understanding the Middle East. Bush, Rumsfeld, Cheney, Wolfowitz, et al. suffer from a severe case of hubris. Unfortunately, it's the little people who will suffer the blowback.
Must see.
Courtesy Tom Tomorrow.

09 April 2003

What next? Offer Iraqis bandages, sutures, antibiotics and other desperately needed medical supplies if they'll consent to baptism?
WASHINGTON - April 9 - U.S. military officials should order a chaplain in Iraq to stop offering food and fresh water for bathing to soldiers in exchange for being baptized and listening to his sermons, Americans United for Separation of Church and State told the Army today.

Americans United has asked the Army to rein in the activities of Chaplain Josh Llano at Camp Bushmaster in Iraq. On April 4, the Miami Herald reported that Llano bragged about enticing soldiers to become baptized by offering them clean water in his baptismal font.

“It’s simple,” Llano said. “They want water. I have it, as long as they agree to get baptized.”

Full story here thanks to Common Dreams.
Grrrrrrrr....
Try though I may, I can't delete the draft posting of my 4/9 9:19p.m. entry. Please ignore it.
Obviously, I'm still learning the ins and outs of this whole blog thing.

Apropos, is anyone out there? If so, say hello by clicking the link "Krieg9" above and to the left of the "BLOGGER" logo.
Palestine Hotel update....
Well, thankfully Jon Lee Anderson was not listed among the journalists killed in the American strike on the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad on Monday. (Condolences to the loved ones of the journalists who were killed.) I'm not certain even that Anderson remains in Baghdad, although the upcoming New Yorker has his byline from Baghdad.This is the story that made me care. Something touching about how he and Paul McGeough, of the Sydney Morning Herald, "bomb-proofed" their room with pink masking tape.

As for the Iraq Peace Team, from what I can gather, no members were killed in the strike on the Palestine Hotel. Thanks be.
Palestine Hotel update....
Well, thankfully Jon Lee Anderson was not listed among the journalists killed in the American strike on the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad on Monday. (Not to downplay the grief and outrage over the journalists who were killed.) I'm not certain even that he remains in Baghdad, although the upcoming New Yorker has his byline from Baghdad. This is the story that made me care. Something really touching about the details of how he and Paul McGeough, of the Sydney Morning Herald, "bomb-proofed" their room with pink masking tape.

As for the Iraq Peace Team members, from what I can gather, no member was killed in the strike on the Palestine Hotel. For recent news on their mission, go No comments:
Victory?
So, Bush achieved (at least part) of what he's been lusting for. But at such a price.
Don't worry....I just talk....this way because....I want to flatter our....fear....less leader.

At least, I guess that's why so many government officials, spokespersons and military leaders are adopting the stilted, mechanical diction President Bush has made so famous. I don't know about you, but it grates on my nerves.

08 April 2003

I can't believe what the government is doing in my name...

An Australian journalist bears witness to the effects of four U.S. "bunker-busters" - 2000-pound JDAM bombs - that were dropped on the "restaurant," which turned out to be a house, in which the US "believes" Saddam, his sons and other top officials "might" have been meeting.
...But that is nothing compared with the real damage a block away.

Four or five houses have disappeared and in their place is a crater maybe 30-40 meters wide and 15-20 meters deep.

Some of the photographers use a chilling term they picked up from the US military in Afghanistan to describe what might have happened to a dozen or more people thought to have died in this missile attack. They have become "pink mist".

The smoldering crater is littered with the artifacts of ordinary middle-class life in Baghdad - a crunched Passat sedan, a wrought-iron front gate, the armrest of a chair upholstered in green brocade and a broken bedhead.

The top floors of surrounding buildings are sheared off. Mud thrown by the force of the blast cakes what is left of them, and the nearby date palms are decapitated. Bulldozers and rescue crews work frantically, peeling back the rubble in the hope of finding survivors.

Neighbors and relatives of the home-owners weep openly in the street, some embracing to ease the pain and all of them wondering why such a powerful missile was dumped on them after the US has stated its heavy bombing campaign is over.

Whole story here, thanks to Common Dreams.

No s--t!
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and I finally agree on something....here's Rummy:
We have to recognize that almost all first reports that we get turn out to be wrong. There tend to be changes in them. And as a result, we have to take our time and look at it. I don't know, Dick, how many of these things we've seen in the last couple of years, but literally dozens and dozens and dozens of instances where the first report comes in and, perfectly good reporting, but it's wrong....

Although he was responding to a reporter's question concerning alleged chemical W'sMD uncovered in Iraq (which other preliminary reports have identified as pesticides), the quote could pertain to this administration's overall reporting on and presentation of the "War on Terrorism."
Whole story here (on page 3).

An old story, I know, but...

And, am I the only one out there bothered by the muted reaction to the piece in the New York Times of almost two weeks ago, in which a U.S. Marine Corps sniper is quoted, sorry, but "the chick got in the way," after he hit an Iraqi woman while trying to shoot a legitimate target?

When the story broke, I expected a widespread outcry, and at least the semblance of some sort of military back-pedalling. ("Ah, umm, yes, we''ve spoken to the soldier in question and he assures us that the quote was taken out of context. What he reallymeant was Sorry. I didn't mean to hit her, but she suddenly got in the way; there was nothing I could do. We train our soldiers to avoid civilian casualties blah blah blah.")

Instead, though, the quote has dropped into the ripple-less pond of media and public indifference. What gives?

I remember thinking at the time, "Morally, we've already lost the war: we've turned a generation of our young men into cold-blooded killers."

We are supreme....
Am I the only one tired of seeing a version of this story trotted out, say, every other day?
WASHINGTON (AP) - The United States declared air supremacy over all of Iraq on Tuesday, asserting its warplanes can fly anywhere with impunity, even though an Air Force attack plane was shot down near Baghdad.

What I'd like to know is, when since Gulf War I has the U.S. not been in control of the skies over Iraq? I mean, considering an attack plane was just shot down near Baghdad, are we less in control now than during the 12+ years since the last war? Or were the planes shot down then simply not reported?

Whole story here.

Godfather of the Globe...
Why hire a hit-man when you can take out the entire restaurant?
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- U.S. forces said Tuesday it may take some time to determine whether Saddam Hussein was killed in a bombing raid on a building where he was believed to be meeting with his sons.

The site remained in Iraqi hands Tuesday, a day after a U.S. warplane dropped four bombs. The blast left a smoking crater 60 feet deep, destroyed at least three houses and damaged 20 others, some badly.

U.S. officials said the bombs used are designed to destroy underground bunkers.

Earlier, one U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the target of Monday afternoon's attack was a restaurant. He did not name the restaurant. But the well-to-do neighborhood's only known restaurant, al-Sa'aa, some 100 yards away from the demolished homes, appeared intact Tuesday except for smashed windows and doors.

Except that we missed the restaurant. And…
...``As to who was inside and what their conditions are, it will take some time before we can make that full determination,'' Brooks said at a news briefing Tuesday. ``At this point in time, I'm not aware of anyone from coalition forces that have walked the site.''

Brooks said it will take some time and perhaps detailed forensic work to establish who was killed....

Our nation has reached a new low.

Errant bomb? Or deliberate strike?

Woke up this morning to news that the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad, temporary home to many foreign journalists and peace activists, has been hit, allegedly by an American tank shell. I hope Jon Lee Anderson of The New Yorker, any team members from Iraq Peace Team, and many others whose posts I've been following are alright. More later...

07 April 2003


T-Day minus 8

This is an interesting idea...I haven't checked out the folks to see if they really use the $ the way they say they will. But wouldn't it be cool if everyone who has taken to the streets to protest this war, deducted $10.40 from their income taxes and donated it to fund conflict resolution programs?

06 April 2003


War Madness


It’s the cars.

Have you noticed them? Blasted, blackened hulks, sometimes still flaming, in the backgrounds of many photos from the Iraqi war front. They’re new cars—much newer than I can afford—and my first thought is always, What a fucking waste! as I realize how bad I’d feel if that were my car crisped to cruise-missile black.

And what if that were my brother? My father? My lover? My son? Reduced to clumps of carbonized atoms on the roadside half-in/half-out of those cars….

Shit, I am so cozy in my U.S. of A.-feathered nest, the mere thought of missing a meal—one meal—say, ‘cause my favorite taco-stand gets torched by an errant HARM missile, is enough to send me off to Trader Joe’s tout de suite to stockpile more frozen taquitos.

Then I imagine…Trader Joe’s hit during the weekend rush, when lines of shoppers and carts stretch far down the aisles. Or Peet’s Coffee, on a Sunday morning, customers in shorts and sandals sipping their lattes, chatting, reading the paper. Or, the towering, top-heavy ziggurat that houses the main library on the local campus of the University of California. Imagine, that elegant, whimsical structure pancacked into a mountain of shattered glass, crumpled concrete, twisted rebar, fluttering pages of books carried away in the wind.

Waging our conflicts far off as we Americans prefer to do, our biggest war-related concerns revolve around the economy. Not a small matter, but a luxury compared to what Iraqis must confront. A caller to NPR several days ago asked "Where can I invest my money safely during war?" While Iraqis fight tooth-and-nail over bottled water, we are spared worrying about our favorite landmarks being reduced in an instant to human-remains-laced rubble.

Yes, I know it already happened. In lower Manhattan, Washington D.C., and let’s not forget, Oklahoma City. The former two tragedies provide the royal rationale for bombing the crap out of Basra, Baghdad, Tikrit, Karbala, Aziziya and other towns and villages with quaint-sounding Iraqi names. Naturally, we’re not bombing Pendleton, New York, birthplace of Timothy McVeigh. Which would make about as much moral sense, considering the utter lack of evidence linking Iraq or Saddam Hussein to 9-11. The very idea that a secular, quasi-socialist regime would be in bed with Islamic fundamentalists is ludicrous and insulting to the memories of the thousands of persons who perished on 9-11.

Although, now that we’ve bombed Iraq back to the Stone-Age, a truce may well be in the works between Al Qaeda and Iraq.

Back to the Stone-Age. Remember that phrase from Gulf War I? Along with descriptions of university professors, doctors and artists joining rank-and-file Iraqis trekking with buckets down to the Tigris and Euphrates rivers to fetch drinking water?

And now, King George and his court are heating up the rhetoric against Syria and Iran. Have you noticed? Ah, ya jest can’t keep them Bush boys down on the ranch!

A consistent theme runs through their madness. Three letters, beginning with "O" and ending with—you guessed it!— "L."

Yes, extending the war to Syria and Iran makes sense when you realize that plans are being resurrected to build an oil pipeline from Iraq to Israel. (Thanks, Digby, for the link to Ha’Aretz.)

[Israeli] National Infrastructures Minister Joseph Paritzky has requested an assessment of the condition of the old oil pipeline from Mosul to Haifa, with an eye toward renewing the flow of oil in the event of friendly post-war regime in Iraq.

[...]

Hanan Bar-On, then the deputy director-general of the Foreign Ministry, confirmed Sunday that Israel was involved in talks during the mid-1980s on a plan for an Iraq-Jordanian pipeline to the Red Sea port of Aqaba. Among the participants in these talks was Donald Rumsfeld, then an adviser to U.S. president Ronald Reagan and currently secretary of defense. The American corporation Bechtel was slated to build the pipeline. According to the deal, which eventually fell through, Israel was to receive about $100 million a year via former Israeli businessman Bruce Rappaport in return for a commitment not to oppose the construction or operation of the new pipeline. [Emphasis mine.]

More here…


A person I knew who worked at Bechtel in the days before Gulf War I, let slip at a party back then that the privately-owned financing, engineering and construction giant had plans already in place to rebuild Kuwait before the U.S. had gone in and destroyed it while kicking Hussein’s troops back to Baghdad.

I guess Bechtel had its finger in many pies in that era. Wonder what they’re up to now….