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January 25, 2007
What is this "this"?
There is an illuminating story in today's NYT about American soldiers going through Haifa street... It's well worth reading in full. At one point, one of the American soldiers exclaims that it might be better to "do this" without the Iraqis. I kept reading and rereading the article to try to understand what "this" they thought they were trying to do was.
They were supposed to clear the street but it wasn't clear from whom. They were being shot at but they weren't sure who the shooters were, or even if they weren't the Iraqi soldiers they were with that were shooting at them. The Iraqi soldiers with them were absolutely not on board with whatever "this" was and the problem clearly isn't "lack of training" as the punditocracy, Republicands and Democrats keeps parroting. They simply do not want to do "this", whatever it may actually be, in cooperation with the Americans.
Meanwhile, Iraq plunges further into secterian mass murder. Who knows how many we kill? So it goes on.
Posted by zeynep at 11:37 AM | Comments (1)
January 16, 2007
As the blood flows
At least a hundred people were killed violently today in Iraq.
The U.N. reports that this is merely an average day, with 34,000 killed the previous year. So flows the blood.
Posted by zeynep at 06:01 PM | Comments (0)
January 07, 2007
This isn't about selling toothpaste
Newsweek has a piece titled "How the U.S. Is Losing the PR War in Iraq.
The P.R.War?
And here's some of the problems they highlight:
Most large-scale attacks on U.S. forces are now filmed, often from multiple camera angles, and with high-resolution cameras. The footage is slickly edited into dramatic narratives: quick-cut images of Humvees exploding or U.S. soldiers being felled by snipers are set to inspiring religious soundtracks or chanting, which lends them a triumphal feel.....
The U.S. military's response, on the other hand, usually sticks to traditional channels like press releases. These can take hours to prepare and are often outdated by the time they're issued.
So is that what we are supposed to think it comes down to? We need better-edited footage? Faster turn-around time with press releases?
The article would be very, very funny if it weren't all very tragic.
Posted by zeynep at 12:42 PM | Comments (1)
January 02, 2007
Hagiographs and Repressed Guilt
I presume that most decent men and women have already had it with the Ford hagiographies that just don't seem to stop. The men pardoned his buddy who gave him the presidency, proceeded to close the Vietnam chapter as far as we were concerned as if a great wrong had not been done to a people, and let war loose on East Timor. So he's as bad as most and not as bad as some of them. Why this non-stop flow of tears of adoration and tales of decency? At least that was the thought in my head as I rolled my eyes and clicked my mouse on the latest by Time, "Gerald Ford refused to take his private faith public" (I head he was good to puppies too, although surely not as good as Nixon was to Checkers.)
Then I got it, I think. The press corps is playing out its guilt. Most of the articles I read are barbs at the Bush administration, disguised as admiration of Ford. At this point in history an article, of all things, about not flaunting one's born again status can only be a barb against the W administration. Who would ever think about dragging that out from that era unless you were specifically looking for things one could use as comparisons?
I think the press corps is fuming at the W gang for exposing them as spineless lackeys who went along with power until it didn't matter. I think there is strong, real hatred mixed in with strong, real self-hatred and guilt... Will this mean that they will behave better the next time around? Don't hold your breath. Repressed, unresolved, unconfronted guilt is rarely the path towards decency or integrity.
(P.S. I believe I deserve credit for the repeated use of the word decent. I think it was very decent of me in this decent week of decent Ford's and not so decent Saddam's death.)
Posted by zeynep at 04:01 PM | Comments (2)