News & Notes

To begin, I'd like to first point to these three articles--here, here, and here--Brian Thevenot authored them and Timshel provided the links. They're a very good series on the day to day reality faced by, in this case, Louisiana National Guard personnel assigned to Iraq. All I can add is that they're well worth the time invested in reading them.

As to investments of time, I'm still trying to decide if last nights episode of Nightline was worth watching. Steve Gilliard has a pretty good summary, with a link to this DailyKos diarist who attended the event. He added some details not presented to the television audience.

As for me, watching a Nightline "Town Meeting" is something I'll do only with the assistance of mood altering substances. The very name is enough to almost make me hurl. Between High Priest Koppel and the focus-group stench that all but breaches the television-living room barrier, I find them a lame exercise at best. At worst, there's almost an exponential degree of bad high school civics in the process.

Gilliard makes several good points, which I'll summarize: first, George Allen's ONLY saving grace was that he hogged time that otherwise might have been given to Queen Sow Richard Perle. Joe Wilson continues to push the Kerry plan, i.e., internationalization, which right now could well be the only possible way to turn shit into Shinola--but it's NOT gonna happen. Congressman Marty Meehan (D-MA) at least suggested defining an exit strategy, but Koppel himself nixed that idea (and later, Ted demonstrated a lack of empathy as only a well-fed, well-housed elite can: after giving a perfunctory listen to a young ex-solder who is now a triple amputee, he basically told him to "get over it." How nice).

Cindy Sheehan at least was given some time to mourn her son--which she did eloquently. Ted then cut her off.

A woman spoke about her husband, who was killed in the same ambush as Sheehan's son. She's taking the opposite point of view, that her husband's death means we can't cut and run, lest his death be in vain. On the face of it, it's hard to argue with that. Yet, I didn't see Koppel tell HER to "get over it." He should have. The war isn't some sort of college football contest, where the team needs to strive valiantly until the clock reads all zeros, whether or not they have a chance. It's war. And war, while being a bloody, gut-wrenching business, requires cold, calculated thinking. At a certain point, the old college try is an exercise in foolishness.

Gilliard notes that we're LOSING the war--but nobody wants to admit the obvious. Instead, we're regaled with stories about casualties in World War II or Vietnam or how we're "winning" the firefights and/or killing Iraqis at a feverish pace. Unfortunately, that's all bullshit. The war is a lost cause. Our actions in Iraq have turned the population against the US forces, and the US forces either cannot or will not (mostly cannot) offer anything most Iraqis want or need--like safe streets, electricity, water, jobs, decent schools, etc. Allawi, bottled up in the Green Zone, is akin to a pathetic shadow of Saddam--not even able to inspire fear, much less inspire hope.

But the pro-war crowd continues to promote the cause, desperately clinging to false hopes. The latest is the
"election," which is going surprisingly well--in Australia. Hey, maybe the wingnuts can suggest a mass exodus to the outback. It's a desert too, after all. As for the vote in-country...I'll wait and watch, but when leaflets are distributed in broad daylight, threatening death to those who vote (with no apparent consequences for those distributing the leaflets), it can't be considered a good sign. Besides, the vote itself consists of secret candidates, secret party platforms, secret polling places...things would have to get a hell of a lot better to even be considered Orwellian in the truest sense of the word.

And Bush's reaction? Any vote at all is a good vote. Jeez. They really should ship him over with the next troop deployment, so he can see first hand what sort of freedom he's brought to the region.