Bob Herbert had some choice words to utter yesterday:
As if there is not enough that has gone tragically wrong in this era of endless warfare, the military is facing an epidemic of suicides. In the year that ended Sept. 30, 2009, 160 active duty soldiers took their own lives — a record for the Army. The Marines set their own tragic record in 2009 with 52 suicides. And this past June, another record was set — 32 military suicides in just one month.
War is a meat grinder for service members and their families. It grinds people up without mercy, killing them and inflicting the worst kinds of wounds imaginable, physical and psychological. The Pentagon is trying to cope with the surge in suicides, but it is holding a bad hand: the desperate shortage of troops has forced military officials to lower the bar for enlistment, thus letting in people whose drug and alcohol abuse or other behavioral problems would previously have kept them out. And the multiple deployments (four, five and six tours in the war zones) have jacked up stress levels to the point where many just can’t take it.
The G.I.’s have fought valiantly in Iraq and Afghanistan. Thousands have died and many, many more have suffered. But the wars have been conducted as if their leaders had been reading from a lunatic’s manual. This is not Germany or Japan or the old Soviet Union that we’re fighting. But after nearly a decade, neither war has been won and there is no prospect of winning.
As [the sun] sank at last behind Mount V., conflict halted and all sides took stock of the day, noted their dead, wounded, and lost, and turned to the tasks of evening. Singers hailed the evening star, bodies were tossed upon pyres, healers moved about bringing such help and comfort as they could, meals were prepared, and mortals longed for rest.
The next day there will be more fighting. And the day after that. And after that.
In the annual procession through the heavens the zodiac sign of Grandmother W., goddess of wisdom, shifts to the season when the Veiled One, goddess of death, is prominent. The people embroiled in this civil war and those affected by it all know this for the constellations are their deities, the sundry manifestations of The One.
The countenance of the Veiled Queen is said to be loving and gracious but none can see it until the moment of death. Her lullaby, the song at time of death, begins with the words "Come my children, and do not fear...."
Indeed, as one sets out on the star path, the anxieties and terrors of life are laid aside. It is time for feasting and rest.
Sweet dreams, my oleaginous owls!
--the BB
This site does not speculate on the relationship between wise birds and Wesson parties. There are places the mind need not go.
I followed the comment thread at YouTube and am adding notes to enrich this for y'all.
From what I have gathered, it is a generic story - a couple sitting on a peaceful park bench, the war starts, the song in the background tells of a woman waiting for her husband at home with a baby in a crib holding a candle, more bombs fall, she gets the envelope letting her know her husband has died, she visits the graveyard, then looks out the window with her son and sees her husband's ghost before writing "you are always near".
It's about the Nazi invasion of Ukraine, and a love story of a young couple. At the end she writes "I am waiting for you", to the Ukrainian/soviet sailor. That's why people in the audience cry, as Ukraine/Russia suffered such horrendous loss of life during WWII. It's one of the most original things I've ever seen, and she's brilliant.
I am not sure if you know the history of Ukraine, but I do. Women cut off their own breasts and fried and fed them to their children because the famine was so bad.
These children are now parents to most Ukrainians, and the stories are only a generation removed. If you were starving, would you watch your mother cut off her breast to feed you? Would you eat it? If you want to know why these people cried, submerse yourself in the history of Ukraine!
Yes, it's depicting Ukraine during WWII. Ukraine was one of the countries hardest hit by the war. One of every four Ukrainians died, I believe.
There were also some very stupid and racist comments in that thread so I am not linking it. The hostility between Ukraine and Russia is strong and the artist is Russian.
Which does not diminish the skill in telling this graphic story.
The breeze sweeping the F. Valley that day caused the pennons of D. to flap and flutter at full extension, the golden roses dancing on the violet cloth as if to taunt M. who viewed the scene from below with narrowed eyes. Other cities had sworn not to oppose him and he had passed them by. D. was in open defiance and too close to [the capital] to permit its populace to attack him from the rear. At his order the trebuchets began to hurl boulders against D’s walls. Their impact spread through the massive stone and shook the earth below the feet of the trapped populace, rising up their bodies and touching their hearts. Dread, perhaps the greatest weapon of war, was doing its work.
I do not look forward to writing the battle scenes. My preference is scenes describing physical settings or portraying emotional undertones.
Right now there is no escaping the need to narrate the course of this civil war. I try to do so with rapid vignettes, shifting from scene to scene and keeping the reader apprised of the progress of the several armies without dwelling on the horrors. Yet I must share enough of the horrors for the reader to experience the story.
I note, slightly startled but not surprised, that writing the war scenes quickens my own pulse. I feel energized in writing. This - even at such an intellectualized and fictionalized level so far removed from actual warfare - speaks of the seductive power of war, its lies, its combination of heroism and brutality, the way it cloaks destruction with alleged nobility.
As a writer I try to imagine the motives and emotions of the characters. What drives them to do what they do? Why do they respond to events in this manner or that?
I get caught up.
And my president reminds the people of his father's natal continent and the rest of us around the world of the bitter price paid for war.
Now let me be clear: Africa is not the crude caricature of a continent at war. But for far too many Africans, conflict is a part of life, as constant as the sun. There are wars over land and wars over resources. And it is still far too easy for those without conscience to manipulate whole communities into fighting among faiths and tribes.
These conflicts are a millstone around Africa's neck. We all have many identities - of tribe and ethnicity; of religion and nationality. But defining oneself in opposition to someone who belongs to a different tribe, or who worships a different prophet, has no place in the 21st Century. Africa's diversity should be a source of strength, not a cause for division.
And on how many levels may we apply this: "diversity should be a source of strength, not a cause for division"? --the BB
As the [Southerners] marched forward, however, their combined weight collapsed the tunnels that ran beneath the roads and wayside, falling into chaos and leaving a trench that made for a difficult advance. Beyond the fresh, raw gashes in the earth lay tainted spikes. Progress would be slow and M. swore by half the stars of heaven as he recalculated his journey toward [the capital].
A common piece of wisdom is that any construction or remodeling one plans for one's home will take AT LEAST 50% longer and cost 50% more than originally estimated. War is much, much worse.
Iraqi forces officially assumed control of Baghdad and other cites across the country early Tuesday, following the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from urban areas. Celebrations in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, include music, dance and poetry.
Remember this (Dana Bash, writing for CNN on January 2, 2003)?:
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The White House is downplaying published reports of an estimated $50 billion to $60 billion price tag for a war with Iraq, saying it is "impossible" to estimate the cost at this time.
White House Office of Management and Budget Director Mitch Daniels told The New York Times in an interview published Tuesday that such a conflict could cost $50 billion to $60 billion -- the price tag of the 1991 Persian Gulf War.
But Trent Duffy, an OMB spokesman, said Daniels did not intend to imply in the Times interview that $50 billion to $60 billion was a hard White House estimate.
"He said it could -- could -- be $60 billion," Duffy said. "It is impossible to know what any military campaign would ultimately cost. The only cost estimate we know of in this arena is the Persian Gulf War, and that was a $60 billion event."
Duffy also was careful to caution that President Bush had not made a decision to use military force against Saddam's regime.
I plot my stories and tell my tales strictly within their own context and framework. Exceedingly rare are the moments when I try to work something from now into my fictional world.
It is usually only later, as I look back on a scene or section, that I notice the parallels with "real life." In hindsight, it is easy to see how contemporary events or issues influence my thinking as I write - it's just part of what is floating around in my brain at the time. Sometimes it is more startling - a major theme of my life that is clearly (in retrospect and for those who know me very well) woven into the tale. In those moments it is evident how much writing is a form of self-therapy. I doubt that aspect would come into play without someone who knows me intimately reading the stories and sayin, "You know...."
During my morning commute i often hear recruiting ads for the armed services with someone talking about how he guides drones from somewhere outside Las Vegas. It's pretty amazing to think of directing a flying object 7,000 miles away. It could certainly inspire some youngster to sign up.
Then I read something like this.
' Of the 60 cross-border predator strikes carried out by the Afghanistan-based American drones in Pakistan between January 14, 2006 and April 8, 2009, only 10 were able to hit their actual targets, killing 14 wanted al-Qaeda leaders, besides [killing] 687 innocent Pakistani civilians. The success percentage of the US predator strikes thus comes to not more than six per cent.'
Late last month the Army released data showing the highest suicide rate among soldiers in three decades. At least 128 soldiers committed suicide in 2008. Another 15 deaths are still under investigation as potential suicides. ... On Feb. 5, the Army announced it suspects 24 soldiers killed themselves last month, more than died in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan combined.
Let us not only pray for the peace of these souls and comfort for their loved ones but also strive to make our nation do right by our military men and women and veterans.
JohnieB has a moving post titled "Invasion and Occupation," some serious reflection for us all as we move into the anniversary of the invasion and occupation of Iraq.
While you're there, scroll on down and read "Aunt Myrt." Here's to dancing naked (and the freedom of not being so self-conscious we won't allow ourselves to do it). --the BB
When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified. --The Gospel according to Luke
Here we have another encouraging phrase lifted from the lessons for today. Much apocalyptic imagery operates within the metaphor or birth pangs of the new age. Any mother will tell you we don't get from conception to birth without a difficult transition. Mothers go through birth pangs for the sake of the new life that emerges. When we read that Jesus went to the cross for the joy that was set before him there is an echo of this.
The reality of human history is that wars and insurrections have been going on every moment throughout history. Although I don't recall the specifics or the source, I seem to have read once that the historians Will and Ariel Durant looked at recorded history and the number of years when the whole world seemed to be at peace numbered in the forties. I suspect that if they had more records it would drop to zero. This suggests to me that we are always living in the transition to the coming age, always in the process of the arrival of God's reign.
Having spent many hours and read many books on apocalyptic, I have no patience with folks who try to pin down the various "signs" with specific happenings in their own day in order to manage their anxiety about "the end" and/or the parousia. Jesus told us that was the Father's matter and even he didn't know when, so what in God's Name are people doing trying to know more than Jesus? Well, I just named it: managing their anxiety. To that extent I can feel some compassion but so much hysteria arises around the process that it only increases anxiety among some and produces deadly false certainties in others. Those who would hasten the return of Christ by fomenting events they consider prerequisites are trying to force God's hand and alter God's timing for their own purposes, and this strikes me as seriously blasphemous. To promote Armageddon, heedless of the destruction one unleashes, is a serious sin and there are many people, some in high places, who appear hellbent on doing it. I might add that "hellbent" is a very apt word in this instance.
"Beware that you are not led astray; for many will come in my name and say, 'I am he!' and, 'The time is near!' Do not go after them."
Jesus has a tendency to speak to the fearsome storms of our lives and say, Peace, be still. In today's Gospel he addresses all the scary stuff and even promises that his followers will be persecuted, hated, and betrayed by their own. He also promises that we will be given words to say when the time comes and we will be all right.
Knowing that you are God's beloved and that nothing in life or death can separate you from that love does make a difference. It is like the equanimity of the Buddhist facing someone who threatened to slay him. "Don't you know that I can kill you?" the attacker said. "Don't you know that death holds no fear?" was the response. [If you know the story, you know I just oversimplified it.] Whether we live or die, we are the Lord's.
In a comment on my previous post JN1034 wrote something so wonderful I want to promote it into this post:
"We've the grace to loosen and bind. Let's use the former on ourselves and the world, and the latter on none."
What a wonderful statement! We are indeed all called to join God in setting the world free. We don't need to go around binding; there is more than enough of that. Trying to bind is a sign of fear and love casts out fear. To live in God's love is not to be fearful. Christ has already bound the enemy. As our evangelical sisters and brothers would say, Claim it! Now, let's get busy helping to liberate. All of God's people have the power to speak words of truth, love, grace, and power. You don't need to be a priest to absolve someone (I know, here I go on my Protestant side), at least for the sins and follies committed against you. If you speak the word of forgiveness it will not only set them free for restored relationship, it will set you free.
Have you ever had someone speak a word of encouragement to you and found yourself putting aside a burden, letting go of a fear, shedding a resentment, and stepping out once more in faith? Pass this kindness on. We are part of something wonderful.
Writing of the wide range of our emotions and the need to feel them, I responded in the same comments thread: "We are graced with the gamut of the psalms--we not only recite them and pray them, we live them. That means we end with Hallelujahs." And so, some music:
Rufus Wainwright singing Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" from Summer Stage at a Central Park music concert.
"Reflections" by Lee Teter via this site You may visit the Virtual Wall here.
On this Armistice Day (yes, I'm old enough to remember when that's what we called it), I honor and give thanks for every man and woman who has served this country in the military. I thank them for their patriotism, their courage, and their sacrifice. I pray for them in danger, terror, injured bodies, and haunted dreams. I vote for their pay, their arming, their care, and their veteran benefits. I offer prayers for their safety and their healing, their peace of mind and soul, their safe return, their joy in reuniting with family and loved ones. I am proud of them for all their virtues and their sense of duty.
None of this makes war any less than hell. And so I grieve. In an e-mail today to my ex I wrote this:
Well, here we are: Armistice Day, Veterans Day, X's birthday.
This means I am something of a weepy mess again.
Happens regularly this time of year and Decoration Day (Memorial Day), and sometimes in between. I want to salute them all as heroes and I want to hold them all and rock them in my arms, knowing that if they went into battle they will never be the same. And I mist up. Sometimes I break down into great sobs.
If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace Behind the wagon that we flung him in, And watch the white eyes writhing in his face, His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin, If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, Bitter as the cud Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,--- My friend, you would not tell with such high zest To children ardent for some desperate glory, The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori. ---Wilfrid Owen
The Great Oz notwithstanding, it's hardly a matter of peeking behind the curtain anymore. A thousand Totos have pulled the curtain down and everyone with eyes to see can behold the mendacity involved in fomenting and executing the invasion and occupation of Iraq. Those who led this nation into such an immoral fiasco KNEW their alleged reasons and rationales were all bullshit and they did it anyway. And the media enabled them. And we followed them. And here we are.
I want to thank Crooks and Liars for this video of Dick "Darth" Cheney speaking back in 1992. He explains why it was a good idea NOT to pursue the Gulf War into Baghdad. All the reasons why it would be a nightmare (perhaps even a quagmire?) are eloquently set forth.
In other words, Dick Cheney (at the very least) KNEW that invading and occupying Iraq would be a huge mess long before Commander Codpiece went for it.
So, the question is this: What sort of person, knowing what Dick Cheney had every reason to know, would support this fiasco?
[I've read about this response by Cheney to why Pres. George H. W. Bush didn't pursue Saddam back then, but tonight was the first time I'd seen and heard it. Just wow.]
Not to mention W's conversation with then-Prime Minister José Maria Aznar of Spain (you can read about it here and here and here).
These are the minutes of a Feb. 22, 2003 meeting between Bush and Spanish Prime Minister Aznar, which El Pais has just published. In this meeting, Bush declares that he would try to get a second UN vote condemning Hussein in order to satisfy his allies, but he doesn't really care what the resolution says and in any case with or without it he intends to invade Iraq shortly after March 15 (as soon as US forces were ready to invade). Bush also shows that he has no interest in what the UN weapons inspectors are finding, and indeed he treats the UN as a cat's paw. [Source]
Note the passage "he doesn't really care what the resolution says and in any case with or without it he intends to invade Iraq shortly after March 15...." Do you recall your civics lessons from way back when? How the Constitution and treaties ratified by the United States are the supreme law of the land? That part? Yeah. OK. Now you might have forgotten that according to treaties we have ratified, it is unlawful for any country to attack another except if they are attacked by that county or threat is imminent.
Now, let's rewind to 2003. Iraq posed no imminent threat to the United States. It is debatable whether it might have posed a longer-term threat but certainly no imminent one. Inspectors were on the ground, finally allowed to be present and inspect anywhere and anytime they wanted. Saddam did not kick them out; Bush pulled them out so he could attack.
I won't even go into the just war doctrine and the various criteria, which this preemptive invasion DID NOT MEET.
So, to sum up, we have an unlawful and immoral preemptive military action. Bush did not even fulfill the terms in the AUMF, so it didn't even fit within our own law supposedly authorizing it.
If you are reading this blog, you probably already know all this, but it doesn't hurt to remind ourselves now and again what a bunch of crooks and liars are running this country (and running a great nation, the one I love, into the ground).
As the drumbeats of war thrummed in the background back in early 2003 I said, to those within earshot, that Bush wanted his war and he was going to have it. Facts made no difference. Whatever might unfold would make no difference. It was going to happen because George [multiple expletives deleted] Bush wanted it to.
Now he and Cheney are trying to whip up a war with Iran. How stupid do you have to be to believe a single word that comes out of their lying mouths? They have repeatedly lied to the American people and the world. They have repeatedly been wrong about damn near everything.
OK. Deep breath.
People, we need to take our government back. --the BB
The views expressed on this blog are solely those of the blogger and do not represent the positions of any group or organization with which he may be affiliated. As one who spent decades stuffing down his opinions and emotions, I am inclined to cut loose here, which I believe is healthy, honest, and part of the process of sanctification in the long run. Politics and spirituality mingle freely here, along with theatre reviews, photography, and passionate talk about food, literature, and the human journey. If anything written here offends you, please find other blogs to read. I am here to share, not to do battle.
