03.30.03 - 4:16 p.m.

Oh, yeah. Shout out to anyone who believes the slogan of Fox News - that whole balanced/fair thing. I mean, there ARE people who believe that, but christ.

Link courtesy of agonist.org, the best website for all you war-info-geeks. Which, considering my three readers, is probably only me. ::smirks::

http://www.sierratimes.com/03/02/28/arpubmg022803.htm

And this short story by Jonathan Franzen - published in the Guardian - is f'ing funny. Georgina and her family and her lawyers.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,921240,00.html

For the record, I was ambivalently in favor of the war, on principle, but I'm adding the usual liberal caveat: Dubya f'ed the whole thing up by building up to the war for a year and a half, ignoring our allies, and yadda yadda yadda. The ways in which Dubya f'ed up the whole foreign policy aspect (and the fact that allies of the administration already have contracts for rebuilding Iraq?) are quite troublesome, and will probably mean that we win the war and lose the peace.

During the Gulf War, I was in high school (see? I'm OLD) and I was virulently opposed to the war. I think... I was wrong about that one, now. I'm pretty certain I was. Invading another country... yeah. Anyway, in the years since we have done some worthwhile things with our military (see: the Balkans) and ignored some things we probably should have tried to do something about (see: you know, that whole million people dying in genocidal slaughter in Rwanda), but that's helped me come to terms with the actual use of the military. I can't say I'm a Pacifist, entirely. Civil disobedience only really works to create change in a society where the civil rights of people are protected to some degree, and the government is responsive to pressure the press and its citizens. I'm not talking majority rule here, either, or democracy, but some level of protection for civil rights. Bleh. On some level, I think that would be more beneficial in the middle east than, say, out and out democracy.

Er... further explanation of the whole civil disobedience requires a civil society thing: check out Ghandi and Martin Luther King, Jr. Ghandi was leading a movement against British imperialism in the 1940s, when the UK had a free press and a parlaimentary democracy. He was not leading a movement against Saddam Hussein or Josef Stalin. Same thing with Martin Luther King, Jr. Yes, in both movements there was the constant threat of violence against participants, and they struggled against a great deal, risked their necks and behaved with astonishing bravery in the face of brutal repression, but there are levels of brutal repression, of course, and press coverage of the repression in the south and in india charged the movement and sent it forward. In Iraq, there's only Iraqi state TV. Only party aparatchiks have access to sateillite television, and so on.

Now, all that said, (particularly that I now question my wisdom in opposing the first Gulf War, when opposition was much more muted in this country, when the reasons for going to war were much more obvious, and when, now, there are a NUMBER of reasons to oppose this war, and that maybe I sort of regret not being able, intellectually, to go out and protest the war for any number of reasons, top among them being that I think it's mostly the right thing to do), what the hell are the so-called human shields thinking?

There's something admirable to be said for independent journalists, for the desire to bond with the Iraqis, and let them know they're not in it alone, that Americans - ordinary Americans - care about them, and I have vague secret fantasies of being some intrepid reporter infiltrated into Northern Iraq, hiding beneath a hijab and recording whatever for a documentary (er. yeah: I'd be convincing as an Iraqi, since I don't speak Arabic and am about as pale as Wonder Bread), occasionally sneaking a call to some news organization and chatting with the blow-dried host back in Washington, "yes, Peter. There have been a number of explosions around Kirkul, but the mood of the people cannot be described as one of anticipation, but rather fear. The Fedayeen Saddam are everywhere, and a number of Kurds were executed in the marketplace today. I can't give particular details, because I don't want to jeopardize the safety of the family that is sheltering me, but..."

Okay, weird fantasy, but whatever. I've always wanted to be a martyr. I just lack the fortitude, and in this case, the appearance and language skills. The whole point of this is what the HELL are the human shields thinking? Well, one website has some insight into the problem: http://www.bobfromaccounting.com/3_12/humanshield.html .

And just in case it needs to be said, that's a satire, people. Or person. :smirks: Or whomever.