Neat graffiti

Via counterclockwise at Flickr, a neat bit of street art.

Filed under: Politics, activism/charity, war

Sometimes, sarcasm is the only possible response

This news headline – Iraq now ranked second among world’s failed states – seems to have left many in the blogosphere lost for words. But as Amanda Marcotte points out, if we don’t talk it up, it can be spun as people not really caring that the whole venture in Iraq is a clusterfuck.

The Shrub can’t do anything right, can he? As of today, we’ve spent $436,458,000,000 on this adventure war, and still Bush failed to make Iraq the #1 most fucked-up country on the planet. Sudan skidded into first, and I guarantee you, they did it at a fraction of the cost.

Harsh but fair.

Filed under: authoritarianism, middle east, war

What happened to women’s rights in Iraq?

There were some long involved threads on ozblogs last week about Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Kim at LP, and those of us who agreed with her, got piled upon (twice) for disagreeing with some of Hirsi Ali’s suggestions about how to best end the oppression of women in Islamic cultures. The offended were a whole bunch of WOT-hawks who seem to think that Hirsi Ali’s many undeniable strengths and talents mean that somehow her opinions, agenda and tactics are above criticism. Their argument seemed to be that because Hirsi Ali has suffered sexist oppression justified by reference to Islam and she speaks of how such oppression needs to end through curtailing the power of Islam, that therefore her calls to eradicate Islam are the only plans for ending sexist oppression that should be listened to.

I’m not going to flinch away from mentioning female genital mutilation (FGM) here, because that seemed to be a core of the outrage: how could we criticise a women who wanted to end the genital cutting and mutilation of little girls? Of course, we never criticised Hirsi Ali wanting to end FGM: who doesn’t want to see the end of harmful physical mutilations?

We merely argued that her particular emphases and tactics seemed counterproductive rather than genuinely helpful to the goal of eradicating such harmful practices as infibulation (and never even got a chance to mention that by far the bulk of genital cutting is simple ritual labial marking which leaves minimal scarring on a par with piercing an ear, or that excision of the top part of the clitoral hood actually enhances sexual pleasure rather than diminishing it).

So, not waving away FGM, but now it’s back to the larger picture of women’s oppression by traditionalist male hierarchies. We can all agree that sexist oppression justified by religious teachings needs to end. Where many people have a problem with Hirsi Ali’s speeches on this is that she singles Islam out as somehow uniquely prone to being distorted by male hierarchies seeking to rationalise and justify the systemic oppression of women.

Filed under: authoritarianism, blogging, interblog, islamophobia, middle east, religion, war

The invisible soldiers

Ginmar, a military veteran of the Iraq war wading through the twisty maze of Veteran’s Affairs forms (all looking alike), is not celebrating the Memorial Day holiday this US long weekend:

We are now engaged in two more wars, and yet to step out of one’s house is to search in vain for any evidence of them. There is pomp and circumstance when the dead come home, yet often when the wounded arrive they face only paperwork and frustration. What does it say about a nation that it honors the dead and not the wounded who live amongst its civilians? How do you honor a sacrifice that is made every day, with every living moment, with one or two weekends a year?

By Monday evening more soldiers will die, yet in the US people will be drinking beer and roasting things on barbecues. Maybe they’ll put a yellow magnetic ribbon on their car.

Maybe they’ll just have a hangover on Tuesday.

People will drive drunk this weekend and die. The mail will not be delivered on Monday, but in Iraq and Afghanistan, the fighting and the dying will go on, while here, people will grab the last opportunity to get drunk for the holiday. Ironically enough, drinking is forbidden in both theatres, out of respect for the customs of the countries in which those soldiers fight. So soldiers are the only ones not celebrating their day.

Ginmar sees many older people volunteering at the VA hospitals because they remember the big wars of last century, and sometimes they talk about how the last wars were very visible for the folks at home, with posters and newsreels and the constant sense of someone they knew being in danger as they served. She walks around outside VA hospitals, and the current war is all but invisible in daily life and the soldiers who return wounded are not honoured or even served by the government who sent them into danger.

I don’t blame her for not celebrating the day.

Filed under: Sociology, war

Grrrr.

A fine rant from Amanda: Subsidized day care is murder – inspired by yet more US “pro-life” legislation against contraception that will result in increased abortion rates, the exact opposite of the fewer abortions they say they want.

the notion that anti-choicers “believe” that birth control pills are abortion (regardless of the evidence, not that it ever slowed them down anyway) is working out so well for them that I don’t see why they don’t just classify everything they don’t want women to do as abortion. Jobs are abortion. Welfare payments are abortion. College diplomas are abortion. Feminist bookstores are abortion. Child support payments are abortion. They aren’t really thinking outside the box on how this little system could be expanded. I can see it all, five years from now, with Sanpete in the comments at Ezra’s defending the “belief” that voting causes abortion and that’s why he can’t really blame anyone for wanting to repeal the 19th amendment.

Edited to add: while you’re over at Pandagon, also read these two, please: -

Chris Clarke on the invisible atrocities in Haiti – death, rape, AIDS/HIV – that don’t make the mainstream media: In the land of Communist Trees

Ilyka on startling defacto racial segregation in a Louisiana high school and a double standard in charging students involved in resulting violence: Under the White Shade Tree

Filed under: Read 'ems, authoritarianism, law, moral panics, obstreperation, racism, reproductive freedoms, war

Iraq too dangerous for Harry (and his tank unit)

Shorter desperate Whitehall spin: but the rest of you will be just fine, honest, even if you’re not in a tank unit, and of course the COW is totally winning in Iraq. [news story]
———————————————————-

Chris Heyman, an ex-military editor of a book about the UK Armed Forces channels Sir Humphrey for Townhall.com

“Soldiers will say: ‘If it’s too dangerous for Prince Harry, then it’s too dangerous for me. Is his life worth more than mine?’ Well, from a political point of view, yes. But from a morale point of view the answer is no,” Heyman said.

Heyman goes on to point out that without combat experience in Iraq or Afghanistan, Harry will be one of the only soldiers of his generation who will not have served in this conflict, which will squelch his military credibility and hopes for future merit-based promotion and a genuine Army career. He’ll have to be prepared for seeing this picture from 1993 of him playing tank commander suddenly appear wherever he goes on (protected) duty.

Image Credit: CNN

Filed under: Sociology, middle east, war

River leaving Baghdad

I remember Baghdad before the war- one could live anywhere. We didn’t know what our neighbors were- we didn’t care. No one asked about religion or sect. No one bothered with what was considered a trivial topic: are you Sunni or Shia? You only asked something like that if you were uncouth and backward. Our lives revolve around it now. Our existence depends on hiding it or highlighting it- depending on the group of masked men who stop you or raid your home in the middle of the night.

On a personal note, we’ve finally decided to leave. I guess I’ve known we would be leaving for a while now. We discussed it as a family dozens of times. At first, someone would suggest it tentatively because, it was just a preposterous idea- leaving ones home and extended family- leaving ones country- and to what? To where?

[...] So we’ve been busy. Busy trying to decide what part of our lives to leave behind. Which memories are dispensable? We, like many Iraqis, are not the classic refugees- the ones with only the clothes on their backs and no choice. We are choosing to leave because the other option is simply a continuation of what has been one long nightmare- stay and wait and try to survive.

On the one hand, I know that leaving the country and starting a new life somewhere else- as yet unknown- is such a huge thing that it should dwarf every trivial concern. The funny thing is that it’s the trivial that seems to occupy our lives. We discuss whether to take photo albums or leave them behind. Can I bring along a stuffed animal I’ve had since the age of four? Is there room for E.’s guitar? What clothes do we take? Summer clothes? The winter clothes too? What about my books? What about the CDs, the baby pictures?

Read the whole post.

Filed under: war

At the going down of the sun, and in the morning

We will remember them.

Lest We Forget.

The Dawn Service observed on ANZAC Day has its origins in an operational routine which is still observed by the Australian Army today. The half-light of dawn plays tricks with soldiers’ eyes and from the earliest times the half-hour or so before dawn, with all its grey, misty shadows, became one of the most favored times for an attack. Soldiers in defensive positions were therefore woken up in the dark, before dawn, so that by the time the first dull grey light crept across the battlefield they were awake, alert and manning their weapons. This was, and still is, known as “Stand-to”. It was also repeated at sunset. After the First World War, returned soldiers sought the comradeship they felt in those quiet, peaceful moments before dawn. With symbolic links to the dawn landing at Gallipoli, a dawn stand-to or dawn ceremony became a common form of ANZAC Day remembrance during the 1920s; the first official dawn service was held at the Sydney Cenotaph in 1927. Dawn services were originally very simple and followed the operational ritual; in many cases they were restricted to veterans only. The daytime ceremony was for families and other well-wishers, the dawn service was for old soldiers to remember and reflect among the comrades with whom they shared a special bond. Before dawn the gathered veterans would be ordered to “stand to” and two minutes of silence would follow. At the end of this time a lone bugler would play the “Last Post” and then concluded the service with “Reveille”. In more recent times the families and young people have been encouraged to take part in dawn services, and services in Australian capital cities have seen some of the largest turnouts ever. Reflecting this change, the ceremonies have become more elaborate, incorporating hymns, readings, pipers and rifle volleys. Others, though, have retained the simple format of the dawn stand-to, familiar to so many soldiers. (from Wikipedia)

The sound of the bugle playing the Last Post at an Anzac Day Dawn Service is one of the most plaintive things I’ve ever heard, only a lone piper playing The Flowers O’ The Forest can match it. Perhaps for both it is because the music honours no victory, only the sacrifice made by those who serve, especially those who never come home again.

As regular readers know, I’m not religious. I nonetheless offer up my inchoate yearnings for the safety and peace of mind of all the military personnel, and the civilians, currently surrounded by hostilities around the world. May the politicking which has caused their situation be resolved by other means, for all our sakes.

Filed under: Life, history, war

How dare those Limeys not give us more martyrs?

Crossposted at Larvatus Prodeo
This is the frothing, eye-bulging reaction from some of the screeching warmonkeys pounding their keyboards in the US to the peaceful resolution of the British sailors’ hostage situation in Iran. Michelle Malkin, who has described the British personnel as “cringeworthy”, links approvingly to Townhall.com, where Dean Barnett commences the outrage:

A few weeks ago, 15 British seamen and marines, soldiers of the Royal Navy, found themselves in a similar quandary. Belligerent Iranians had surrounded them and threatened them with both words and actions. Just as the passengers on Flight 93 had a choice, so too did the British seamen who ultimately spent a couple of weeks as hostages of the Iranian regime. Why did these soldiers, the products of military training and representatives of Her Majesty’s flag, make the decision to surrender themselves? Because, according to their Captain at a Friday press conference, “Fighting back was simply not an option.”

What a strange and dismal trip it has been for the Western world, going from “Let’s Roll” to “Fighting Back Was Not An Option” in scarcely more than five years. One can only hope that when the history of our era is written, the former will turn out to be the immortal quote, not the latter.

Why yes, how absolutely awful for outnumbered military personnel who know their country is not at war with another country taking them into custody, to not open fire when that is explicitly against their own country’s Rules Of Engagement (ROE) and they know that it’s only their own lives at stake. A situation more exactly like the passengers on Flight 93 could hardly be imagined, could it?

Sticking to the ROE during and after capture, including conciliatory gestures, to keep a volatile situation down to a diplomatic incident rather than becoming an unplanned military venture is for sissies, obviously.

It gets worse in the comments:

Filed under: conservatism, ethics, law, moral panics, war

Hugh Thompson Day

Today is the anniversary of the heroism of Hugh Thompson and his helicopter crew as they saved noncombatant Vietnamese villagers of My Lai from murderous US soldiers engaged in a massacre.

I posted about Thompson last year: Are you a Thompson or a Calley?

My post for this year is over at Larvatus Prodeo: Lessons from My Lai

Filed under: Sociology, ethics, history, war