"If all that Americans want is security, they can go to prison. They’ll have enough to eat, a bed and a roof over their heads. But if an American wants to preserve his dignity and his equality as a human being, he must not bow his neck to any dictatorial government."
--Dwight Eisenhower, 1949
The Bush administration has long claimed that the war in Iraq is the epic struggle of our times. A year ago George Bush declared, "Every element of national power is being marshaled in the decisive ideological struggle of the 21st century." He also said, "The battles in Iraq will one day rank alongside those at Omaha Beach and Guadalcanal as mileposts on the path to liberty." In the same speech he declared, "the United States must stay the course in Iraq because it is a battleground in an epic struggle between democracy and tyranny." In a similar speech a few months ago Karl Rove was quoted as saying the war in Iraq is, "the defining issue in our generation."
If everything they say is true, then why hasn't the administration asked more of America to help us win this epic struggle? If they really believed everything they say, then how can they think it is fair to ask our Armed Forces (that roughly make up less than 1% of the total population) to be the only ones to help us win the war that is the defining moment of our generation?
These are the questions that I have been asking myself for the last few years. If this is actually the defining moment of our generation, and we are going to continue keeping troop levels at where they are at now, then I feel we need to start asking the rest of our country to pull their weight.
Members of both political parties have stood up in favor of a draft. Republican Senator Chuck Hagel claimed, "Why shouldn't we ask all of our citizens to bear some responsibility and pay some price?" Hagel argued that restoring the draft would force "our citizens to understand the intensity and depth of challenges we face." Democratic Congressman Charles Rangel has repeatedly called for a draft because he believes that it would force Americans to be more outgoing in their resentment for the current war in Iraq. In 2006 Rangel declared,
"There's no question in my mind that this president and this administration would never have invaded Iraq, especially on the flimsy evidence that was presented to the Congress, if indeed we had a draft and members of Congress and the administration thought that their kids from their communities would be placed in harm's way."
Both of these men have very opposite but very good reasons for reinstating a draft. However, if you are skeptical of anything that comes out of a politician's mouth, like many of us are...then maybe you might take the word of our war czar, Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute, more serious. In an interview with NPR this week, Lt. Gen. Lute made the following comment regarding the draft, "I think it makes sense to certainly consider it."
The administration quickly dismissed their own czar's comments by saying, "The president believes an all-volunteer military serves the country well, and there is no discussion of returning to a draft."
So, to summarize: The administration believes we are involved in the epic struggle of our generation but they don't plan on demanding that more than 1% of our population do anything about it. They would rather the other 99% of the people stay in America where they can debate the merits of Barry Bonds and the latest gossip on Lindsay Lohan. Oh well, I guess I should be more positive about this. On the bright side of things...if we fail in Iraq at least we have 99% of the people on guard ready to "fight the terrorists over here."
*Here are the numbers: 1,426,713 people in active duty military 858,500 in the reserves
2,285,213 people in the military in the US. The total population is roughly 300,000,000.
2,285,213/300,000,000 = .772% serving in the US military
"Net Neutrality" is a movement that looks to keep a free and open internet. Basically, it is preserving free speech online.
Who wants net neutrality? The people. Who doesn't want net neutrality? The communications companies.
The major communications companies believe that net neutrality isn't really necessary written into law form. They believe that they can be trusted to protect our online interests by themselves.
I have now found out these companies cannot be trusted. AT&T signed on to sponsor the online webcast of the Lollapalooza weekend. After the concert, fans of Pearl Jam informed the band that a portion of their song "Daughter" was censored from the online show. Pearl Jam didn't think it was a coincidence that the very portion of their show that was cut featured ad-libbed lyrics to their famous song "Daughter." In this version of the song Eddie Vedder sang: "George Bush, leave this world alone." and "George Bush find yourself another home."
Pearl Jam immediately contacted AT&T to ask them why they censored their performance. They were given a bogus answer along the lines of, "it was a terrible mistake made by our content editor." I bet the content editor was given a promotion.
I now realize why people are so up in arms about net neutrality. Here is the link to the version of the song that was butchered by AT&T and how it should have sounded:
My people of the week are Pearl Jam and Dennis Kucinich. Let me explain:
I was 12 years old when I attended my first concert. Lollapalooza '92 came rolling into Montage Mountain in Scranton, PA bringing together some of the most popular and influential bands of the last two decades. Among the bands that performed that day were: Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Ministry, and Ice Cube.
Over the last 15 years the Lollapalooza festival has had an interesting history. It exploded with the popularity of the grunge scene and then died in the late 90's as boy bands began to take over the air waves. Well, I'm happy to say that Lollapalooza is back and better than ever. Unfortunately the festival no longer tours the country because they must find it easier to consolidate all the bands in one place for a killer weekend. This years addition just wrapped up on Sunday night with Pearl Jam ending the weekend with a 2 hour set. I couldn't make it to the show because I am an unemployed grad student but that didn't stop me from legally downloading their whole set online.
It was awesome to see Pearl Jam bring up on stage an Iraq war veteran named Tomas Young, who was paralyzed from the waist down. Mr. Young is the subject of a new Phil Donohue documentary named Body of War. Eddie Vedder heard about the Tomas, was touched by the story, and wrote the music for the movie.
What does this have to do with Dennis Kucinich? Well, like Eddie Vedder, Dennis also wants our soldiers out of Iraq. Yesterday, MSNBC hosted another debate with the Democratic hopefuls and I believe that Dennis was once again the most honest, sincere person on the stage. Again, he reiterated the fact that if Democrats really wanted to end the war all they have to do is cut off the funding, "We need to get out of Iraq, and get out of Iraq now. I'm the only one on stage who has had the vision and the foresight to have voted against authorizing the war and voted against funding the war."
In honor of Pearl Jam's performance this weekend I will leave a youtube clip of the band in Seattle back in 1991. Who would have thought that in 2007 this basketball dribbling, long haired singer of a grunge band would know more about foreign policy than Bush and Cheney.
In Lipstick Jihad, the author/journalist Azadeh Moaveni, writes about her life as an Iranian-American, who after being born in northern California moves to Iran in 1999 to work as journalist for Time magazine. In the first few chapters Azadeh’s depictions of growing up Iranian in America really hit home. Mentions of her grandma making jam and being the master of the kitchen, her mother’s insistence that Madonna was a “jendeh” (whore), the culture’s fondness of BMWs, her American friends being considered rude when they didn’t say hello upon entering the house all were very familiar to my own experience. References to gathering around tea, eating pomegranate and akbar-mashti bastani (ice cream), and hearing the word Jaan (dear) at the end of everyone’s name also warmed my heart.
Azadeh’s parents, like mine, had moved to America to attended college in the 70’s and the revolution in ‘79 made returning to Iran an undesirable alternative, so they stayed. The Islamic revolution of ‘79 changed everything in Iran. The religious fanatics who were threatened by the West’s encroachment upon their culture wanted to take their country back. (And back they did, unfortunately they took it 200 years back!) Women who used to be able to wear bikinis were forced to cover themselves from head to toe. Listening to the Beatles was now out of the question since music was no longer allowed. Men and women were separated, alcohol was banned, and lipstick was forbidden. Many of the best and brightest left the country. To this day, the country remains under religious rule. But little by little, women regained some rights and with the “reformist” President Khatami elected in 1997, women could even wear sandals (how shocking)! Sandals must be accompanied by the long veil/jacket, of course.
Azadeh, more profoundly, writes about her own transformation. She went from living in America, speaking “kitchen” Persian, having no ties to Iran other than through her mother, and hiding from embarrassing associations with her Iranian background to living in Iran where she found herself more at home than ever.
A line in the book really resonated with me. Azadeh revealed her fear of losing the Iranian side of herself. When she was a little girl, listening to Persian music in the car with her mother, she told her mom, “Mom, it’ll be sad when you die, because no one will listen to his music anymore!”
I wonder the same thing. I don’t want my generation to be the one that cuts ties to our Iranian background. I’m not ready to move to Iran, marry an Iranian and make a life there for myself as Azadeh did. Luckily I have a wonderful husband who embraces the culture and is even learning the Persian language himself. But I do want to hold on to the language, the music, and the richness of the culture. So this summer, one of my goals is to learn write the language, improve my “kitchen” Persian, and keep the tradition alive so I can pass it on to our children.
At least once a day I ask myself, "What are we doing in Iraq?" If you've never asked yourself that simple question, take a few minutes to read this story from the Washington Post.
The Government Accountability Office is reporting that the Pentagon has lost track of 190,000 AK-47s and pistols. This should be front page news in every paper from the Marshall Islands to Maine. Not only is our military facing insurgents using Iranian supplied weapons but now we must also deal with insurgents using American supplied weapons. A senior analyst at the Center for Defense Information said, "They really have no idea where they are...It likely means that the United States is unintentionally providing weapons to bad actors." The Pentagon is not disputing the claim and a senior official from the Pentagon admitted to the Washington Post that it is possible our own weapons are used against us.
The next time somebody tells you that they vote Republican because they are "fiscally conservative" please cite this article to point out the ridiculousness of that statement. Since 2003 we have spent $19.2 billion trying to equip and train the Iraqi Army yet 30% of the weapons we supplied between 2004 and 2005 are unaccounted for.
Here is an AP article that explains what life is like for residents of Baghdad this summer. If you don't want to believe the AP article, here is another one by Reuters. There are many things in these articles worth quoting, but I'll try to just pick a few:
"I live with five brothers. When the water comes in we stand in a queue waiting to take a shower," said Ali Musa, a security guard from the al-Hurriya district in western Baghdad. The number of Iraqis without access to adequate water supplies has risen from 50 per cent to 70 percent since 2003, while 80 per cent lack effective sanitation, British charity Oxfam said in a report last month. Baghdad has about one or two hours of electricity a day and most residents rely on neighborhood generators and smaller diesel-powered machines to supplement the supply.
Stories like these might not be as shocking and interesting to Americans (or Fox Noise) as car bombs in markets that kills dozens of people. However, power shortages and lack of water stories are equally as important to report because they seem to effect everyone in Iraq. Well, everyone except people living in the Green Zone and the other numerous US Army bases across the country. Here is an interesting quote:
Noah Miller, spokesman for reconstruction at the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, said the water shortages were due to a nationwide power cut on Wednesday and possible leakages in water pipes due to old equipment or illegal tapping.
He is obviously talking about the parts of Iraq that aren't occupied by a military base. Here is a quote from the owner of the al-Rasheed hotel in the Green Zone:
"Living here is like living in Europe," says Haider Hassan, a store clerk at the $280-a-night al-Rasheed Hotel inside the Green Zone. "You miss nothing, starting with electricity, power, water and security. Outside the gates is hell."
Although my experience living on a military base in Iraq wasn't exactly like "living in Europe." I will tell you that as temperatures rose to 118 degrees during the Iraqi summer, my air conditioner dropped to a cool 65 degrees. I also managed to watch Ken Jennings' Jeopardy streak on my satellite TV while sipping on ice cold Fanta from my refrigerator. The only time I didn't have power was when a numbnut private forgot to fill up the generator with Turkish pumped oil. I guess that explains the frustration and why Iraqi insurgents that aren't fortunate enough to live on a US military base in Iraq feel the need to mortar them on a daily basis. That really used to piss me off. There is nothing worse than a mortar landing in your compound while you are trying to concentrate on Final Jeopardy.
I still like Dennis Kucinich but I have begun to realize that I am taking Dennis' presidential run more serious than he is. I went to his website the other day and it wasn't even fully up and running. C'mon Dennis, all it takes is a Craigslist ad for "webmaster needed" and about $2,000 to pry some high school nerd away from his Harry Potter book to run a website for you. So, now that I realize that Kucinich is basically a non-player I have had to shift my focus. This leads me to Bill Richardson.
Bill Richardson has made some recent gains in Iowa. He is now up to 13% in a recent poll. Unfortunately that only puts him in fourth place. However, an interesting thing to note about the Iowa poll is that Richardson leads the independent vote, 25% to Obama's 21%. I think the people of Iowa are finally starting to realize what the rest of America hasn't yet. Bill Richardson is a really good candidate for President. He has a long career of government service (state department, US Ambassador, Sec. of Energy) and good ideas to back up his experience. I like many of his ideas, including:
Removal of troops from Iraq
National minimum wage for teachers
Scrapping No Child Left Behind
Gym class in elementary school to help combat childhood obesity
"Heroes Health Card" that would allow veterans to receive medical care whenever and wherever they need it.
I realize that either Obama, Edwards, or Clinton will probably win the nomination of the Democratic party. My hope is that whoever does receive the nomination gives Bill Richardson a serious look as their Vice Presidential running mate. I think Richardson is the type of person that Republicans won't necessarily hate as much as Democrats loathe Cheney. After all, Richardson was endorsed by the NRA as a Governor and he has said that he would accept their endorsement again. That is something all Republicans can like about the man. Am I the only one who thinks it would be nice to get past all the hatred, at least for a few years?
Oh yea, speaking of Cheney...I am sorry to say that I have to finally change my quote at the top of my webpage. Since I started this website my quote has always been the wise words of Dick Cheney who claimed in 2005, "the insurgency in Iraq is in the last throes." You didn't have to be Douglas MacArthur to realize this statement was absolutely ridiculous from he moment the words left his mouth. Yesterday, over two years later, Mr. Cheney finally admitted that he was wrong about the insurgency:
"My estimate at the time - and it was wrong, it turned out to be incorrect... I thought there were a series of these milestones that would in fact undermine the insurgency and make it less than it was at that point. That clearly didn't happen. I think the insurgency turned out to be more robust.''
Maybe someday he'll admit the invasion was a mistake too.
