Friday, April 30, 2004

From Riverbend: Friday, April 30, 2004 Those Pictures... The pictures are horrific. I felt a multitude of things as I saw them... the most prominent feeling was rage, of course. I had this incredible desire to break something- like that would make things somehow better or ease the anger and humiliation. We’ve been hearing terrible stories about Abu Ghraib Prison in Baghdad for a while now, but those pictures somehow spoke like no words could. Seeing those naked, helpless, hooded men was like being slapped in the face with an ice cold hand. I felt ashamed looking at them- like I was seeing something I shouldn’t be seeing and all I could think was, “I might know one of those faceless men...” I might have passed him in the street or worked with him. I might have bought groceries from one of them or sat through a lecture they gave in college... any of them might be a teacher, gas station attendant or engineer... any one of them might be a father or grandfather... each and every one of them is a son and possibly a brother. And people wonder at what happened in Falloojeh a few weeks ago when those Americans were killed and dragged through the streets... All anyone can talk about today are those pictures... those terrible pictures. There is so much rage and frustration. I know the dozens of emails I’m going to get claiming that this is an ‘isolated incident’ and that they are ‘ashamed of the people who did this’ but does it matter? What about those people in Abu Ghraib? What about their families and the lives that have been forever damaged by the experience in Abu Ghraib? I know the messages that I’m going to get- the ones that say, “But this happened under Saddam...” Like somehow, that makes what happens now OK... like whatever was suffered in the past should make any mass graves, detentions and torture only minor inconveniences now. I keep thinking of M. and how she was 'lucky' indeed. And you know what? You won't hear half of the atrocities and stories because Iraqis are proud, indignant people and sexual abuse is not a subject anyone is willing to come forward with. The atrocities in Abu Ghraib and other places will be hidden away and buried under all the other dirt the occupation brought with it... It’s beyond depressing and humiliating... my blood boils at the thought of what must be happening to the female prisoners. To see those smiling soldiers with the Iraqi prisoners is horrible. I hope they are made to suffer... somehow I know they won’t be punished. They’ll be discharged from the army, at best, and made to go back home and join families and cronies who will drink to the pictures and the way “America’s finest” treated those “Dumb I-raki terrorists”. That horrible excuse of a human, Janis Karpinski, will then write a book about how her father molested her as a child and her mother drank herself into an early death- that’s why she did what she did in Abu Ghraib. It makes me sick. Where is the Governing Council? Where are they hiding now? I want something done about it and I want it done publicly. I want those horrible soldiers who were responsible for this to be publicly punished and humiliated. I want them to be condemned and identified as the horrible people they are. I want their children and their children’s children to carry on the story of what was done for a long time- as long as those prisoners will carry along with them the humiliation and pain of what was done and as long as the memory of those pictures remains in Iraqi hearts and minds...   I fear for my planet.   4:50:41 PM    comment []

Monday, April 05, 2004

read the bill -- In the school arena, by the way, the Bush administration has already pulled a fast one. Buried deep in the 670 pages of the No Child Left Behind Act there is a provision which requires that public high schools give military recruiters access to facilities and also contact information for every student ? or else face a cutoff of federal aid. read the story -- ----------------------------- my letter to Jim McDermott Dear Mr. McDermott, While I support most of your politics, I feel compelled to write regarding the appalling H.R 163 Universal National Service Act of 2003. While I understand that you and your collegues feel that you are making a point with this bill, you seem to be overlooking the real-life effects it will have. In a recent speech, you seem to be taking the stance that if everyone's children had to go to war, this would be a deterrent to war and that war should not be fought only by the children of the poor.  I agree with this absolutely.  It makes for fine oratory.  But legislating the draft to make a point is the most boneheaded thing I've heard of in a long time. First, I think that you are overlooking the fact that most Americans did not want this war.  Declared loyalty aside when pressed, the American people were not the ones clamoring for war.  Quite the opposite -- we had peace demonstrations the likes of which have not been seen since Vietnam. It was our political and corporate leaders who pushed this war. Reinstating the draft does not send their children to the battlefields. Most of these current warmongers should have served in Vietnam but did not.  Let's face it, for the most part, these people's children will never have to worry about being turned into cannon fodder.  There will still be college deferrals, high-paid doctors willing to swear to a medical condition, or cushy placements such as the one that our current "President" obtained. I have one child, Mr. McDermott.  He is 17 and the most precious thing in this whole world to me.  If he ends up drafted and hurt or killed, I could not bear it.  We are opposed to all war and have raised our son the same.  If he survived a stint in the military, it would not be without some damage to his ideals or beliefs.  If such a scenario came about, I would not be able to forgive you or the other sponsers of this bill or anyone who supported it. By putting this bill out there "to make a point" you are ignoring the lessons that Vietnam taught us.  The children of powerful people survived.  The public opinion did not sway the leaders.  The war continued because of a huge supply of humans to send.  You've doubled this supply by including females. I am disappointed that you have sponsored such a dangerous and ill-thought-out bill that might send tens of thousands of our children to their deaths.  We have, after all, been told by the current administration that this is a war without boundaries.  It is a new war that will not have an end.  Your bill is serving their purposes quite nicely. If you really wanted to make your point, you should have introduced a bill merely requiring the service of the children of all those who vote for, or declare war. Sincerely, Tammy 5:04:19 PM    comment []

Sunday, February 22, 2004

Now the Pentagon tells Bush: climate change will destroy us So here I am just innocently laying in bed reading, and suddenly The Pentagon (!) is saying it's the end of the world as we know it !?!  What the hell is going on? Of course, I'm trying not to let this unhinge me.  These people, while well respected, were the same ones making predictions of nuclear apocolypse and coming up with the lovely Mutual Assured Destruction plan during the Cold War, so it is their job to scare the crap out of everybody under the guise of preparing for the worst, but it's the basic facts that they're basing the predictions on that I find more than a bit unsettling. If there's an upside, it seems to be the general consensus that Bush can't ignore global warming as an issue with this report having come from the Pentagon.  And maybe the Pentagon is just being dramatic to make a point before it's too late... do you think?  Maybe?   Okay, I'm off to lie under the covers and think of raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens for awhile.  -- Tammy 4:57:01 PM    comment []

Saturday, January 24, 2004

If this is real.. Name:(At the request of the individual below, I’ve redacted his name, hometown and any other identifying characteristics.) Dear Dr. E., I have been a soldier both on Active Duty and in the National Guard for fifteen years.  I am a lifelong Democrat, but I have voted for Republicans before, in the past when I thought he or she was the better person for the job.  I love my country and I’ll die before I’d do something against her interests.  I know this all sounds corny, but I’ve got tears running down my face as I type this. Many have heard about the reservists on medical hold at Fort Stewart, GA.  Medical Hold Soldiers of the National Guard and Army Reserve were kept in Barracks at Fort Carson, CO that were scheduled for demolition.  Many soldiers got sicker during our stay there.  The toilet facilities were mostly broken, and mold covered everything.  Soldiers that could not stand or walk had to live on the upper floors.  Nothing was done about the problem, regardless of who we complained to.  I, like others, simply left at the first opportunity to come home.  Many of us did not ever get our problems taken care of.  Although I am now healthy (relatively speaking) I know of several soldiers of my state who are still sick at home.  They cannot work, but have not been paid by the Army for their Active Duty Medical Extensions.  The paperwork has either not been done, or has been lost, or something.  There are stories like this from all over the country. My unit served in Iraq.  We were originally deployed to provide security in Kuwait.  We had trained for the security mission, essentially guard duty, for several months, without doing any offensive operations, convoy ops, or any other training.  Shortly after our forces secured Baghdad airport, my unit was put on planes to Baghdad, and we began convoy security operations.  We also undertook offensive operations against guerrillas in the Sunni Triangle.  Please understand that these are bread-and-butter operations for infantry like us, but you need to keep training to keep the edge.  We never had the Interceptor body armor, and at times we were low on ammunition, food, and water.  We had several contacts.  I am so proud of my soldiers.  You should’ve seen them.  They performed brilliantly, but God alone knows how we didn’t loose anybody.  I never will. Since returning to the States, many of the middle-career NCOs have decided they are getting out.  I tried to talk a couple of them into staying, because we need good leaders, especially those with combat experience.  Both of them said that they were getting out and the war had decided it for them.  “They almost got us all killed for no good reason,” said one.  Two of my junior enlisted soldiers refuse to come to drill anymore.  I haven’t been able to talk them into coming.  They will soon be referred for further action at higher levels.  That could mean their arrest and prosecution, or simply administrative discharge. This year, my unit’s only training objective is MOUT—Military Operations in Urbanized Terrain.  In other words, city warfare.  Where normally we would train to attack and defend in various environments, we are only doing urban ops this year.  No one will say it, but there’s only one place that leads, probably when the next troop rotation to Iraq takes place in the January-March, 2005 timeframe. Training for this probable deployment will be difficult without weapons, however.  We have one rifle, one machine gun and one pistol for our whole unit, for basic familiarization training ("This is a rifle—the bullets come out this end…").  This is for an Infantry company with over 100 men.  All the other weapons have been transferred to another state for their impending deployment to Iraq.  We have been told that we will get at least a few rifles and a couple of machine guns to train with by Annual Training in June.  Hopefully we will get new stuff before the end of the year, but the CO just gave me a blank stare when I asked about it.  It seems that we will only have enough weapons to train one platoon at a time at AT.  So that means that two thirds of the company will not be training at any given time during the only extended training period we will get all year.  May God help us all. I take no joy at all in what I have told you.  I fear for the future of the Army, this organization that gave me a home and fed me for so long, and that continues to be a huge part of my life.  Please know that for all of this, I love the Army, and the National Guard, and I cannot escape the nagging feeling that I have broken faith with my chain of command.  I would’ve volunteered to go to Afghanistan when one of our sister units from our state deployed (with proper equipment), if I’d been healthy in time to go.  Afghanistan is a justifiable mission.  There’s a good reason for U.S. forces to be there.  Iraq, on the other hand, felt wrong to me from the get-go.  Liberating an oppressed people is something I will always be proud of, but that’s not the reason Bush gave us for going to war, is it?  He and Cheney and Rumsfeld and Colin Powell, of all people, claimed that we were under some kind of Sword of Damocles with all of the chemical and bio weapons that were supposedly aimed at us.  That it was a matter of time until Al Queda used Saddam’s gas on us.  He lied to us, plain and simple.  He also did incalculable damage to the UN and our alliances with Europe, two international structures that have served my country so well for so long.  But I want to ask—with the Army either broken, or about to be broken, what the hell are we supposed to do if Korea goes up?  What if something happens in South America? The reason I contacted you is that you seem like a reasonable man.  I read Altercation, and I agree with most of what I see there.  I also know that Eric Alterman probably has resources that I do not have.  I need people to know just how bad things are, but if my career crashes into my idealism, then I won’t be able to take care of my soldiers the next time my unit deploys. Please do not use my name or state.  Other than that, use what you can.  It was reading those two articles on Early Bird, right after reading Altercation, that I decided I needed to say something.  For the record, I am a Clark supporter, having served under the General in the past.  I am also very comfortable with Senator Kerry and Senator Edwards.  In any event, I would vote for the rotting carcass of a dead rat before I vote for the Texas AWOL. I saw this on Eric Alterman's slacker friday and thought it was quite interesting.  When it comes down to it, a soldier has his buds to watch his back.  They know the law of SNAFU, really.  It's tradition.  But this goes a bit further than that.  And it worries me that urban fighting is the main focus. 8:03:00 PM    comment []

Sunday, December 21, 2003

Just a ramble on "gay marriage" or something like that: I started a comment at World o' Crap and ended up ranting on and on.  Haven't posted here in a while, work is finally looking hopeful.  Besides, o'Crappy is my new best friend, and I'm usually exhausted after reading the blog.  Anyhow, I was thinking about people saying they'd never met a gay person before and just started rambling: A girl in my Navy boot camp troop woke us up crying one of our first nights there in Orlando, and we finally got her to tell us what was wrong.  It turns out she'd never met a black person and was scared.  Ours was the first female troop to graduate ('78), and our troop leaders made sure this girl was assigned to the same units the black girls were in, forcing her to interact.  We all graduated very good friends.  Unfortunately, we can't send all the intolerant assholes to boot camp, because, as we know, most of them find a way to avoid service altogether.  Later the next year, one of our friends in an exclusive and accelerated Officer training program wanted out of the brutally academic unit and got a friend (irony epiphany: an Iranian) to beat him up and swear that he'd tried to climb into his bunk at night.  The guy was gone the next day, and he's friends with the Iranian to this day.  Both married high school sweethearts.  I don't know what my point is, other than the fact that two years later, I used my pregnancy to get discharged, having married another member of our clique, and became a wifey full time.  Not all it's cracked up to be, guys. The word marriage in CW connotes religion, so I say, get another word.  But shouldn't the focus be on the commitment to each other and future children rather than what's gonna happen on the honeymoon? I don't care what anyone does in the privacy of their own home, probably don't wanna know most of it. My disgust is for the people who are so concerned about what others do in their bedrooms. They seem kinda creepy in their obsessive interest.  Their righteous indignation gives them the cover to slaver over each prurient detail in public.  Do they realize that they're only making obvious their own depravity?  Santorum's wild foray into bestiality, for example; or Clinton's cock.  I'll bet to a man, every one of the moralizers on the Hill would pay (or have already paid) to ogle a pair of naked females going at it.  I think the whole country was wailing at Starr by the time the blue dress was trotted out: TMI, TMI, enough already!  Your pathology is showing and it's making me sick! 8:47:37 AM    comment []

Saturday, October 18, 2003

Stolen from the Guardian: Sea of troubles in a stormy month October 1 The justice department announces it has launched an inquiry into the White House leak identifying a CIA undercover agent October 2 The Iraq survey group, under weapons expert David Kay admits that six months after Baghdad's fall no weapons of mass destruction have been found October 4 The foundation run by the president's father announces it will bestow the George Bush Award for Excellence in Public Service to Senator Edward Kennedy, arguably the president's sternest critic, who denounced the Iraq war as "a fraud" October 6 The White House confirms that management of the Iraq occupation will be centralised in a new coordinating group run by the national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice October 7 The defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, says he was not told about the restructuring and insists there have been no real changes October 15 Senate votes against president and insists that half Iraq's $20bn reconstruction budget should be in the form of loans It's fun to imagine what a gloves-off American press might be like.  Lots of good snarkin' in the above article.  9:08:52 AM    comment []

Thursday, October 09, 2003

Syria Criticizes Proposed U.S. Sanctions Thu Oct 9, 7:42 AM ET By BASSEM MROUE, Associated Press Writer DAMASCUS, Syria - Syria through its official media Thursday criticized the United States' preliminary approval of a bill authorizing sanctions against it, saying the legislation was the work of "ultra-extremists." The House International Relations Committee approved the Syria Accountability and Lebanese Sovereignty Restoration Act on Wednesday, which would give the president the right to impose a variety of sanctions on Syria. Now let's see...they're thinking of bringing Turkish troops into Iraq, I've noticed that Slate's taken down the xx days to Kurd's betrayal page, they've praised Israel for striking near Damascus, NK is all but ignored, Afghanistan is heating up again, CIA agents can no longer feel safe.  I think they know that they'll never get public approval for another war, so they're gonna go in the back door. 7:46:51 PM    comment []

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