Today it's your birthday, it's my birthday too, yeah. . .
Today is my birthday, and I really don't see anything to celebrate. President Bush is ignoring congress, going cowboy, and saber-rattling against Iran. This madness is unfathomable. Sometimes I think, when I am in the depths of despair, because he is super devote evangelical Christian, that he is trying to effect "the end days." Not that I think all evangelical Christians are praying for this, but there is a certain "nut factor" in their camp (as well as any other religion's--I read a couple of months ago about Buddhist monks having a rumble in the streets), and I think Bush may have "drank the Koolaid." (For people not familiar with this reference, this phrase refers to Jim Jones and his cult which, in the 1970s, committed mass suicide by drinking Koolaid spiked with cyanide--900 souls died). Even Arlen Spector (R) admonished the president by stating "you are not the sole decision maker." I hope congress develops a spine. Especially after seeing CNN's interview with Dick Cheney, in which he stated that things were great in Iraq--that the media hypes the "bad stories." Well, around 50 people dying a day from bombs decidedly is a "bad story," but it is reality, something Cheney seems to be disconnected from. He, unfortunately, reminded me of Hitler in his bunker during the fall of Berlin telling his staff that the German war effort was going great as the Russians overan the city, and old men and young boys were put on the front line, basically as cannon fodder.
Let's go, you and I, into the PowerPoint sty. . .
It is reported in the U.S. Press that PM Maliki gave a PowerPoint presentation to U.S. President Bush, which asked for more support for the Iraqi forces, and for the Americans to leave. This presentation was given while Maliki and Bush met in Jordan--obviously the democracy is too dangerous of a place for Mr. Bush.
I find this ironic and a sad comment of our times. I wrote earlier in this blog that Thomas Rick, in his wonderful and terrifying book, Fiasco: the American Adventure in Iraq, reported that the DoD was sending orders in PowerPoint, much to the military's consternation because they were huge files, and one really can't write/read coherent military orders in PowerPoint. The military was told to "get with the technology" by Rumsfeld.
There is this prevailing teleological group-think in the U.S. administration that all new technology is good technology, with design and purpose to improve the world, so surely one should use it.
Sorry, remember Beta? Eight Track tapes? Just because it is there, doesn't mean that it serves the purpose at hand. It really frightens me that very, very important world decisions and theories are reduced to Powerpoint Presentations (I wonder if anyone has use the "clapping hands" sound to punctuate some particularly salient point). It's a kind of Foreign Policy for Dummies. Mr. Maliki surely noted at some time that Mr. Bush is not an avid reader (although he claimed to be reading Camus' The Stranger over the summer: if he finished it, Camus obviously made no lasting impression). So the Iraqi administration concocted a PowerPoint presentation for Mr. Bush--little text and lots of graphics, I'm sure. Unfortunately, it didn't work. More Americans, not less, are going into the seventh circle of Hell, and the Iraqi forces are ill-equipped and poorly-trained as usual; not to mention that they are barely eating and are living, in some cases, horrible conditions.
If Americans do go in, the GIs need to live and work with the Iraqi troops. That means LIVE with them. Don't go back to the Forward Operating Bases, with the Burger Kings and Taco Bells. This seems painfully obvious. It would be rough for the Americans initially, but it would be a far more successful strategy.
Perhaps someone will compose a PowerPoint presentation asserting this very idea. Yikes.
Ghazal
Today, because I'm a bit tired of expository writing, and I believe, like Horace who wrote in his Ars Poetica Writers! Write what you can, and/Think: can you really? really?", I am posting a Ghazal. Poetry is the moral compass of the world and this Ghazal, written in English by Agha Shahid Ali, is dead on.
Ghazal
The only language of loss left in the world is Arabic—
These words were said to me in a language not Arabic.
Ancestors, you've left me a plot in the family graveyard—
Why must I look, in your eyes, for prayers in Arabic?
Majnoon, his clothes ripped, still weeps for Laila
Oh, this is the madness of the desert, his crazy Arabic.
Who listens to Ishmael? Even now he cries out:
Abraham, throw away your knives, recite a psalm in Arabic.
From exile Mahmoud Darwish writes to the world:
You'll all pass between the fleeting words of Arabic.
The sky is stunned, it's become a ceiling of stone.
I tell you it must weep. So kneel, pray for rain in Arabic.
At an exhibition of Mughal miniatures, such delicate calligraphy:
Kashmiri paisleys tied into the golden hair of Arabic!
The Koran prophesied a fire of men and stones.
Well, it's all now come true, as it was said in the Arabic.
When Lorca died, they left the balconies open and saw:
his qasidas braided, on the horizon, into knots of Arabic.
Memory is no longer confused, it has a homeland—
Says Shammas: Territorialize each confusion into graceful Arabic.
Where there were homes in Deir Yassein, you'll see dense forests—
The village was razed. There's no sign of Arabic.
I too, Oh Amichai, saw the dresses of beautiful women.
And everything else, just like you, in Death, Hebrew, and Arabic.
They ask me to tell them what "Shahid" means—
Listen: it means "The Beloved" in Persian, "Witness" in Arabic.
DilemmaI saw Joe Biden (D) and Lindsey Graham (R) on "Meet the Press" this past Sunday. They both made compelling arguments for (Graham) the surge of troops and against (Biden). I understand the need to bring the horrific violence under control in Baghdad, but I just don't think this can be done with the widely reported 20,000 troops (and neither does Graham--he agrees with McCain that at least 50,000 would be needed). I also think unless the military, along with the Iraqi military (and this is very important as there is some sentiment that the Iraqi government wouldn't supply the troops needed), can go into Sadr city, it is all for naught. Sadr is calling the shots, and Maliki doesn't even want to govern anymore (not a good sign). Iraq is steadily evolving from a secular dictatorship to a theocracy run by a radical. (Hmmm, I don't think this is progress.) The Iraqi blogs state how men wearing western garb are being shot by militias, and women not wearing the habib are having their heads shaved. This is complete madness and not a positive sign as far as fostering a "democracy" is concerned. I hope someone in the Pentagon is reading the English language Iraqi blogs because they are heart-breaking, and really demonstrate what is happening to the educated; there is a "brain-drain" as the professionals and educated Iraqis are leaving in droves because they are targeted by the militas, regardless of sect. The intellectuals are always the first killed in any coup or civil strife.
I tend to think Biden's idea of talking to all the neighboring countries, and yes this means Iran and Syria, is feasible and worth doing. It is not in even Iran's interest if Iraq descends into complete chaos--it will have hoards of poor Shiites flooding the border, trying to escape Sunni insurgents and mercanaries from the surrounding Sunni countries. Iran's border villages are already problematic--a vast surge of immigrants would destablize the Iranian regime by fostering conflicts between the various ethnic groups in Iran. And it would not be a good destablization as Sadr's huge flock is even more radical than the ayatollahs in Iran, and far more radical than the Iranian populace.
We can't go at this alone, and Britain is not going to send anymore troops. I'm interested in what others have to say about this. . .please post your responses!
Making a Dictator Look Good
The hanging of Saddam turns out to be an absolutely sordid event. Even the Nazis, who were responsible for the deaths of millions, were given respectful hangings after the Nuremberg trials. They were not hanged by militia thugs chanting the name of a religious leader, and taunting the condemned men. Saddam comes off as heroic, even in many westerners' eyes, by challenging his tormenters' motives and national/ethnic identity--"You call yourself Arabs?" "This is your idea of unifying the country? You have torn it apart." The fact that the U.S. handed Saddam over to the goverment of Iraq without any oversight of how he was going to be treated is outrageous. We have dictated so many other aspects of the Iraqi government's actions, we can't plead "well, it's their country." Saddam should have gone to the Hague, like all other deposed leaders accused of genocide. But instead, he was hanged without the respect you would give a rabid dog. He was terrible man who committed terrible crimes against his people, but he went to the gallows as a martyr for many, and a stark warning of what is to come. The devil you know is always better than the one you don't know. We met the one we didn't know in the shaky cellphone video of an execution.
