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20030331
Also:"Supreme Court Justice Scalia did not discuss what rights he believed are constitutionally protected, but said that in wartime, one can expect "the protections will be ratcheted right down to the constitutional minimum. I won't let it go beyond the constitutional minimum.'"
British news
Three British soldiers in Iraq have been ordered home after objecting to the conduct of the war. It is understood they have been sent home for protesting that the war is killing innocent civilians.
"Combat is what I've been trained for. I can command my vehicle. I can keep it from being attacked. What I have not been trained to do is look over my shoulder to see whether an American is shooting at me."
No, certainly not; the media is not the message.
"I received a call from a producer of a major network's prime time news program. He said they wanted to interview me for a piece on how the public's expectation of a quick victory somehow was too high. "But," he hastened to add, "we don't want to focus on the media."
20030329
10:23 pm Friday, Al Jazeera back online
There is no such thing as a true story.
"Anyone who claims the US media didn't censor itself is kidding you."
"What they are doing is not humanitarian aid but a 'hearts and mind' operation..."
"Tony Blair and President Bush yesterday resolved in a display of wartime steel that they ("they" -- they won't be the ones risking their lives, or ending and damaging the lives of others; they've passed that heavy burden onto tens of thousands of others) will 'fight for as long as it takes' to remove Saddam Hussein from power and liberate the brutalised Iraqi people."
What in the hell is "wartime steel?" Is that some impressive step beyond "resolve"... another word for firmness, which itself could stand in for rigidity or being hard? Is that what hundreds of people have died over, and hundreds more have been dismembered, bombed, shot and lacerated over... two middle-aged men walking in political lock-step for the teevee, proclaiming that they (represented by their amassed missiles and tanks and infantry) have gotten it up and they're going to keep it up "as long as it takes?"
At this point in human history, and at this particular time of economic deflation, is it really necessary -- acceptable, evolved, wise -- to rely upon such crude, contrived notions about "us" needing to show "power" to defeat "them" (I'm sorry: "him") in order to make "the world" (beyond the physical borders of America) safe and to preserve "our" (corporation-conceived, unsustainable, impoverishing, corrupting, reductive, divisive, patriarchal) way of life?
How will organized lethal violence (by this government, or individuals who might seek to deliver vengeance upon it) help, secure, or justify anyone's cause or country? These men are following a path toward ruin and pain... and unknown numbers of lives and minds will be ravaged as a result of their commands.
Here I will assert -- as I've been taught, as I've seen through my own thoughts and actions, as I regard in the culture around me -- that so much trouble in the world is a cause of the exclusion and suppression of the feminine. And here I don't just mean women, though that should be obvious. I am thinking of archetypes; aspects of holism, logic and natural order; qualities of character and compassion and consciousness that exist within each person on earth... but that are denied or devalued through so many acts and ideals and institutions.
So much of the discourse in this situation -- and others where nations or cultures are in conflict -- is focused on domination, isolation, menace, elimination, assets, authority, control and (instilling) fear. The language and ideas are weighed too heavily on male culture and patterns of response. Now and in the future there needs to be work done to bring the other side of human intelligence and consciousness to bear... because to allow this paradigm, this type of discourse, to continue would be a woeful tragedy for humanity and this planet.
20030327
"We're not like the terrorists... and we appreciate your business."
As I sat here drinking coriander, cumin and fennel seed tea, I thought of how I bought the seeds from a small Indian grocery near the University of Washington. Some months back, I'd been on a quest to find an importer/grocer that carried ingredients I needed for an Indian meal. I was directed to the place that I've since returned to on University and 54/55th -- R&M? K&M?
Anyhow, I'd been told by the woman at the Buddhist import shop in Greenwood that the grocery owner was incredibly kind and gentle... and I found this to be an accurate description, even if my most of my dialogue with him was related to the question of using fennel seeds or powder in this recipe.
What brought all of this to mind was the (sort of prideful) thought that I had, drinking my tea, of how I will continue to support such establishments because I want to establish some sort of (personal, indirect) solidarity, provide some kind of indication that I welcome the presence of that culture and that person in this community.
India has nothing to do with and is nowhere near Iraq... it's slightly closer to Afghanistan... yet I know that many people in this country might easily cast all olive- and darker-skinned people into the class of the suspicious, the unfamiliar, the potential threat. I think that the non-Caucasian owners of businesses are aware of this, and thus in the last two years have I noticed the small but directly displayed American flags in ethnic establishments across the country. Or the large, white-on-red cardboard signs that plainly read "We Appreciate Your Business." To memory, I've only seen those on the premises of businesses that had a Pakistani, a Lebanese, an Indian or a Somali behind the counter... and I only began to notice them in 2002.
Such a sign is affixed with duct tape inside the bottom half of the glass door at the Indian grocery. A newsprint American flag is taped inside the top half. I wince or frown to myself when I see such a display. Perhaps my ideas about the motivation, the allegiances of these owners are completely off. But I tend to read into it, "Don't be leery or suspicious of us, we're on your side. Amid the evidence of our culture, ethnicity and history, we'll display your flag."
10:58 EST Pentagon defends setting up Camps Exxon and Shell saying they literally are 'gas stations'.
20030326
"What is happening now is that we are starting a war of liberation against the Americans and the British.�
Popular BBC search topics are:
health
football
wallpaper
world service
basra
iraq war
mr damon 16:41
So, I've had a discussion with a roommate about the mad dash that the Marines and the infantry have made for Baghdad, leaving any number of cities and towns unsecured behind them. The military and the press are rolling out their scenarios and graphics for "The Battle for Baghdad," _yet_ the deep-water port that will allow steady flow of supplies and the largest city near it are still out of control...
"Fierce fighting was still erupting in southern Iraq. British troops were engaged in artillery exchanges with Iraqi forces on the outskirts of Basra, some of it heavy, British military officials said. British troops have remained outside the city, the second-largest in Iraq, unable to move through it because of pockets of resistance."
So between the Kuwaiti border and Baghdad is about 800 miles of desert, oil fields, farms, and Bedouins... and any number of ex-soldiers and civilians who might or might not feel obliged to let the Yankees be.
"We saw some black berets hanging up in a tree, and we went to investigate and we saw all these uniforms hanging there. I figure half these guys you see walking around are soldiers. They've discarded their uniforms," the Marine said. "They're out there, they're watching us and they're planning small counterattacks."
One long report I read went into how the Shiite soldiers in the south surrendered so quickly that they abandoned their weapons... which the American troops have been moving too fast to collect. So the British are coming into these areas finding everything from tanks to artillery to rocket-propelled grenades that have been sitting out and getting looted by civilians, some of whom are beginning to use the weapons (out of anger or fear) against the invading forces.
Clinton's drug czar, Barry McCaffrey, who commanded the 12th regiment in Desert Storm, said that Rumsfeld has underestimated both the resistance that would come up and the number of soldiers needed to try to make this overthrow work. While I don't think anyone would've claimed to know how long (or short) a time this invasion would take, I have this feeling that the made-for-TV (not too taxing on attention spans) campaign many invasion boosters might have anticipated will become a morass. And the decisions that desperate people might make -- either to end a siege decisively or to exact vengeance for their people -- could be the cause for a larger or longer-lasting disaster.
20030325
The Fear
I talked to my mother yesterday, and she expressed a concern about our planned trip to New York around Memorial Day... mentioning that while we have to go on with our lives, cities like that will be targeted, and what if they tell us to head to the bomb shelters?
It sort of sounded like the TV was talking through her. I wanted to ask, "How many terrorists do you see stalking around Dayton?" The TV fear factor seems to be so heavy, and I think that probably suits some just fine.
"You should be afraid of what these people might do, and in order to defeat that fear, we need to attack. If we attack, then they're likely to terrorize, so be afraid and stay at home watching Larry King chortle along with Col. Hackworth and Gen. Funk."
Free Chocolate City!
Believe it or not, there exists in America a maligned peole who desperately need freedom. The descendants of slaves, this group is in the majority in their region, but loopholes and confounding political processes have kept them from receiving their full rights. For almost two centuries, they have lived without representation in Congress. Poverty and violence have beset their community from years of corruption and neglected social structure. America should rally its resources to give these people freedom and their due!
Now more than ever, it's time to liberate the District of Columbia!
"The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact, non-Westerners never do."
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This is a quote attached to the beginning of one man's blog that was still coming out of Baghdad
20030324
20030323
20030322
"Flags are bits of colored cloth that governments use first to shrink-wrap people's brains and then as ceremonial shrouds to bury the dead."
A recorded version is available here.
Disaster
I've read that the massive bombing has begun. "Shock and awe." They're saying this with _pride_... and the media is duly reporting it. I can't even say it's sad, because I find the idea of promoting -- giving a THEME -- to an act of attrition... bizarre. Repugnant. Truly tragic.
I've wondered what entity or ideal that Bush and Rumsfeld and these generals seek to serve by eliciting awe -- "an emotion variously combining dread, veneration and wonder that is inspired by authority or by the sacred or sublime; (archaic) dread, terror; the power to inspire dread."
I'm asking myself if they seek to emulate or project righteous, heavenly retribution and power. In doing so, are they not in fact increasing the power and serving the interests of a darker, destructive force that none of their bombs and guns and ships can defeat, and which could ravage the lives and land that they claim to be protecting?
To be honest, I've wondered if this is the time of the emergence of the Antichrist. Or, a dangerous approach to a time of tremendous global suffering. And I wonder if that's what some of these politicians and military men want, in order to justify the funding and control that they seek.
20030321
This isn't about religion, this is politics and power.
mr damon 18:00
A global citizens' declaration to make clear that there are people who cherish other values and methods
Dialogue on a day in March
So Brandon asked:
> Yes what is happening is sad, disgusting...
> But what can I do right now that would change
> a mind, slow it down?
If you're talking about a mind other than your own: nothing.
And this was something I meant to mention two messages back, because you'd shared an experience that my friend Ramesh had back in '01. "You don't love America, you're taking the terrorists' side." There was nothing he could do to get those people out of the narrow, angry, fearful place in ther minds that brought them to say that, and to which they fixed their views about what had to be done. There's nothing you can do about that now.
You have to focus your calming and contemplative energy on yourself -- go inside -- and be consciously detached from what is going on around, what people say, and being concerned about how they think. People will have to come to the awareness of how this "really is" on their own. I've gone through this... on my own, and in trying to elucidate things for other people. Until that other mind can accept the frame, the elements of the picture won't make any sense, and the reaction can be strong.
Continue to change and work with your own mind. That's where you concern needs to be. See how the generating calm and some degree of openness actually draws support and curiosity and questions to you.
>>where the dust settles, and how, will kind of tell me how best to act.
Well, using your own assertion, if everything is falling apart, then the dust won't be able to settle anywhere. I could even say there is no dust, but many, many small seeds of exhortation or possibilty that can be sown into situations around me at whatever time I choose. Yes, there's nothing you can physically do to stop the bombs from falling. There's little chance that individually you can change someone's mind or get Bush to take up the olive branch. The effects and consequences of what's going on are completely uncertain and seemingly ominous. But what you can do is remember that you have (like anyone else) intelligence, you have a voice, and you have the ability and the freedom to use them whenever and however you choose. And to do so out of concern and horror for the death and pain that is being practiced by others, understanding that that pain and death will return to them in some fashion, and hoping for the poetic or altruistic or hippie ideal that NO ONE need endure that, then you can act now in whatever small way -- and that concern and love will explode and resonate with greater force than any bomb that these other human minds can devise.
20030320
And so it begins
I came home from school and NBC's heads were talking. Tom Brokaw and the Admiral and the General, talking about the good pictures that the young men and young women pilots get (up to 20 angles!) from different satellite assets, and how the laptop field command system has evolved over the past few years, and, yes, certainly, those bombs are laser-guided.
In response to some question that Brokaw put forth, the Admiral and the General started to laugh. They started to laugh. I didn't see any of this -- I was standing in the kitchen, listening. I made a concentrated effort to stop watching television four years ago, but I knew that A) they were probably sitting behind some specially designed broadcast desk in grey and blue suits, talking about assets and insertions and "the best pictures we can give 'em" like it was College Game Day on ESPN... and B) the networks have become part of the military's asset structure, along with the satellites and the flying drones.
Patrolling the skies
I think that I just saw a military jet flying south over the city. It's 11:30 at night, and it was a couple miles away. Its profile was small for being so low, there was no jetliner reverberation, it was on an atypical flight path, and it was moving faster than anything I usually see...
This would be the second military sighting I've had this week. The other took place on Saturday while I waited for a bus. I saw the flat body and sharp tail (just like a shark, I thought) of an F-18 moving along the western horizon, protecting Walgreens and Safeway and the Chai House.
Just a few moments ago, the quiet caught my attention.
The hard disk had spun down, I wasn't typing, and there was no sound from upstairs. No traffic nearby. And then I heard the approach of a siren, which brought my focus onto the lack of noise or motion.
I remarked to myself how this was very different from what was being experienced in Baghdad... and that stillness seemed a bit unsettling.
20030319
Today I awoke from a dream in which I was searching...
At first, it seemed I was searching for a leeward spot in a large hill into which I could burrow and shield myself from a nuclear explosion. Then I was passing through an industrial or rundown commercial building (like a movie theater or dry cleaner), scrounging for materials and looking for something. I was in a blue jumpsuit, and I had a flashlight (although the lights seemed to be on).
No one was in these dreams, until I was in some back room and I heard a door chime ring. Then I quickly exited through a small door and hurried along through a parking lot under a cloudy sky.
I spent most of the morning feeling a weird, electric tension in my left side. I was on edge. I washed my face and shaved, and then came back downstairs to pour water in the shrine bowl. I stared through the window for several minutes before I did that task. I silently talked myself down from getting absorbed in dread, and I repeated my hope that people -- the leaders, the citizens, the soldiers -- would come into higher awareness, contemplation, wisdom, pace and protection. I tried to remind myself that there's so much more going on in the world then this crisis -- it was eloquently asserted by the Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh -- and that the loss that I feared -- my own life, the security and normalcy I've been used to, injury and attack in this city or country, martial actions by the gov't against the population -- is my mind trying to hold onto something. That these changes and threats have been at work -- are at work -- the whole time I've been alive. And what's changed is that I don't have a sense of control in what happens, certainly in regard to what an angry homicidal person might choose to do, but also in regard to what pressured, self-righteous men might choose to do against them.
I have more concern and distress about the violence -- and other acts of attrition -- that the president and the agencies and armies under his command could undertake than I have for (the imagined) acts of violence that could be committed in response. And I try to tell myself that it's all in my imagination, but it seems so pressing...
Eventually -- probably after I read through the latest news stories and watched the video of Robin Cook's resignation announcement -- I prepared to leave, but not before I made a few phone calls. That had an effect in lifting my mood, by getting out of my internal focus. I walked to the Chai House, picked up flyers for upcoming vigils and the local microradio station. At some point I told myself that all i can do is focus on what I'm doing right now, on what's benefitting myself or the people around me, and to not be cornered into my mind by anticipation of death or pain.
I spoke with my friend Michele about this at length when I arrived at school. Then the kids showed up and the preoccupation melted away. It was like any other day, and I made note of that to myself. I'm glad that I went to work because I might've spent the whole afternoon hunched over this iMac reading more and more about weapons systems, Hussein's sons' threats, Freemasonry, the lethal pneumonia strain (SARS) that's broken out, and all the other things that would have narrowed my focus down to impending Gotterdammerung.
The end is not nigh. As I myself said, honestly, when I was told that Bush had "given" Hussein 48 hours: "There can still be a miracle." Even if these troops invade and lives are destroyed, I still will hope for a miracle, either in people's reaction to the conflict, or some other emergence of awareness among the leaders of these nations. I think that intense energies of compassion and positive change have been set loose over the last year and a half, and they will rise and carry through the many months and years to come, as this country, and the world, face the latest challenges to existence and stability.
It won't be anything like what I've expected.
20030318
"No, you must be talking about some other country."
"The United States and other nations did nothing to deserve or invite [the threat of terrorism], but we will do everything to defeat it."
So Bush has asserted the United States' role in the world as this: "The government of this country has committed no act of malfeasance, subversion, assassination, invasion, isolation, bombardment, embargo, or act of economic or political destabilization -- or engaged in, coordinated, supplied or funded such acts -- in or against Zaire, Libya, Vietnam, El Salvador, Iran, Iraq, Yemen, Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Philippines, Lebanon, Israel, Nicaragua, Cuba, Sudan, Somalia, Turkey, Indonesia, Guatemala, Honduras, Egypt, Syria, Colombia, Panama, Chile, Nigeria or Peru..."
This being the list that I came up with after a few minutes' consideration, using my lifespan on Earth as the reference.
As unfortunate, harmful and lethal as the actions taken against US civilians and military personnel have been, it is untrue to say that "we ain't did nothin'." That is a gross lie. It's simple ignorance of the nature of cause and effect.
And one of the things that the president, the administration (today, tomorrow or 10 years from now) will have to do -- in its effort to "do everything" -- is admit to the harm, death and pain that its actions, or those of its predecessors, have visited upon countless inhabitants of this world.
There is no guarantee, of course, that such an undertaking (at its inception) would deter all those who might choose to redress their losses, to threaten a perceived enemy, or to assert their ideologies/egos through violence. But to take such a step would be a necessary shift toward true cooperation and community among nations, which so many decades (centuries) of American history has not born out. It would be way to establish, or a least embark upon, a path of reconciliation and communication with nations and cultures that might only regard the United States as arrogant and abusive, consumptive and conspiring. This would also be a way to acknowledge that this country is a part of the world, not the self-appointed leader, arbiter and enforcer of all nations.
To _not_ take (or even consider!) such an action, to deny any culpability in history, to maintain a misplaced sense of superiority or destiny, to make broad pronouncements against foreign "evil," to ridicule and ignore the concerns and processes of political allies, peers and one's own citizens... all the while, rallying to battle with themes of righteousness and protection through destruction... This looks and sounds like intense ignorance. Obsession. Crusading. And I hope and I will pray that it does not lead to disaster... at least, a disaster greater than any kind in which lies are used to justify the willful and methodic ending of life.
If these sentiments and actions like these are what Americans are meant to support, then it's time to support action to reorient America.
20030317
I was out around Green Lake with my friend Emily and a couple thousand other folks who encircled the lake, bannering, waving, honking for and talkin' about peace. The lake has a circumference of three miles. Many dogs in sweaters and sandwich-board signs ("let loose the dogs of peace," "barks: yes, war: no"). Saw a few people I'd met just the night before at my housemate's surprise party. And at one point, I stood in one the franchise coffee shops across the street, waiting for Em among a lot of nose-buried students and other customers who quietly watched the goings-on across the busy road...
One of the first interactions we had was with a young man who knew the woman who was killed in the Gaza Strip on Sunday. She was 23 year old, a student at Evergreen College in Olympia. The text of the leaflet reads as follows:
"Israeli soldiers this evening killed an American peace activist from the Grassroots International Protection for Palestinians in the Al-Salam neighbourhood of Rafah City, in the south of the Gaza Strip.
The woman, Rachel Corrie, 23 years old from the state of Washington, was killed while she was trying to prevent Israeli army bulldozers from destroying a Palestinian home. Other foreigners who were with her said the driver of the bulldozer was aware that Rachel was there, and continued to destroy the house. Initially he dropped sand and other heavy debris on her. Then the bulldozer pushed her to the ground, where it proceeded to drive over her, fracturing both of her arms, legs and skull. She was transferred to hospital, where she later died. Another foreigner was also injured in the attack and has been hospitalized -- at this stage his nationality is unknown...
It is an extremely dangerous precedent as it means the Israeli army is ready to kill international peace activists in order to frighten them away, so that the army can carry out its crimes against Palestinians without witnesses and with impunity..."
20030316
"August 6, 1990: Following the invasion of Kowe�t by Saddam Hussein, Irak does not suspect the dramatic consequences by which an obstinate dictator will worsen the economic, cultural and social situation of the country.
The end of the war of the gulf and the ongoing US and British military attacks will plunge more than 20 million Iraqis into a crisis without precedent, thus weakening l?infrastructure of the country. The civil and military losses are severe.
A total embargo is quickly set up thus paralysing all the aspects of the everyday life: social health, education, economy, bonds, access to the knowledge.
Thus Irak, a country of histoire and of culture which was affirmed as one of most modern of the Middle East, will be for a long time completely locked, diabolized, subjected to l?embargo. The hope of youth is from now on dark.
But the drama of the war does not end there. The use of arms constitued with depleted uranium, the gases from chemical and biological weapons stocks bombarded by the coalition, the toxic fume due to the combustion of the oil wells on fire, entail serious and long-term medical consequences. In all, 940,000 depleted uranium ammunitions were used, that is to say approximately 320 tons released in the nature, which still has not recovered.
The Syndrome of the war of the Gulf is indicated among the population by pathologies associated with excessive use of chemical weapons and it has resulted in leukemias, cancers, malformations and skin diseases. Such is the fate of the majority of the children who are born today in Iraq.
Projected into neglect by an embargo which has not ended, the Iraqi population tries today to survive as it can.
Lahc�ne ABIB - February 2003
For information: I have carried out two reports in Iraq. The first a little guided by the government in place, therefore more capable to convey images of propaganda by the suffering of the Iraqi people (visits in the hospitals, obligatory accompaniment by un guide, etc). The second, with the exp�rience acquired at the time of the first, allowed me embark from the official program to discover more freely the daily circumstances of the population and to utilise a perspective that was less directed (by others).
The Iraqi people are in deferrment, they have no hand in their future. In this day when people discuss military intervention, the Iraqi people do not know what will be done tomorrow; as it has been for 11 years, they have not been able to be projected their minds into the future.
Neverthless, I desired to provide some images that gave a positive glance on a population, oppressed by its dictator and threatened by a military intervention, and to which no one has given a choice."
...friendly neighbor of the world
20030314
Mark Morford, among the Sunbeams in the March issue of The Sun
"Stop thinking this is all there is... Realize that for every ongoing war and religious outrage and environmental devastation and bogus Iraqi attack plan, there are a thousand counterbalancing acts of staggering generosity and humanity and art and beauty happening all over the world, right now, on a breathtaking scale, from flower box to cathedral...
Resist the temptation to drown in fatalism, to shake your head and sigh and just throw in the karmic towel... Realize that this is the perfect moment to change* the energy of the world, to step right up and crank your personal volume; right when it all seems dark and bitter and offensive and acrimonious and conflictied and bilious... there's your opening. Remember magic.
And, finally, believe you are part of a groundswell, a resistance, a seemingly small but actually very, very large impending karmic overhaul, a great shift, the beginning of something important and potent and unstoppable."
20030312
How are nations ruled and led into war?
"Politicians lie to journalists and then believe those lies when they see them in print."
A most excellent and thorough overview of the use of propaganda by the Bush administration.
20030311
Various headlines
I have to say I was a bit surprised (but pleased) to see a feature on Amy Goodman by the Washington Post. An acknowledgment, perhaps?, that there are people who aren't falling in behind the flag and affirming the aspirations of the El Presidente.
This comes at the end of a day that began with me browsing through Russ Kick's pointed and painful representation of military violence, particularly against civilians.
In a little bit of other news, one of the women with whom I work was charged (several months after the event) with ... I don't know what exactly, that never came up.. but the charge was in relation to a banner that she and a handful of others hung over Hwy 520 betwixt Seattle and Bellevue in October.
Oh, wow, I've got the story completely wrong. Now I understand what another co-worker was talking about when we talked about making tripods from poles.
20030307
Astronomical alliteration
Spy plane snags stardust
Productive probe to plummet into planet
20030305
20030303
Requiem for a Dream
I finally came across a copy of the director's cut on DVD. I had not seen the film before, and I'm glad that I was able to see this version the first time. Not as depressing as I'd been told (warned). It was brilliantly executed and designed. And it certainly doesn't out-depress "Happiness."
20030302
I've seen this before...
"Ah...Iraq and Bush...how things have changed since those wonderful days in Taylor Tower."
[What's interesting, Paul, is that I work with a woman who is a sophomore). When I talk about what I was thinking and fearing and reacting to back then ('91)... she'll chime in, "I was 8."]
20030301
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"Don't tread on me, either."
HST 1937-2005
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