The Life of Brian

When it rains it pours...

2004-08-07T13:56:00.000-04:00

So my grandmother passed away this morning while i was at work. The nursing home called as I was on my way out the door to work and told my mother that my grandmother was passing on. As I had to open the store, I was unable to go to the nursing to be with her, but the rest of my family went as was with her as she passed on. Anyway, to make a long story short, another chapter is ended in my life, although, it was for the better for my grandmother. Two losses so close together is difficult to deal with, but time heals all wounds. Anyway, my analysis will be a bit delayed, I may get to it later today, I may not. But I'll get to it soon. I want to thank those people that have left kind comments for me in the last couple days, I appreciate them. I'll be writing you all soon, take care.

Be in peace,

Brian

You aren't gonna believe this racist bullshit....

2004-08-06T23:46:00.000-04:00

So I’ve been on a bit of a hiatus… I probably don’t have much readership left… sorry, my mind has obiviously been else where. The death of a close friend hasn’t helped the depression and certianlly not the writers block. So, like everyday, I took some time to do my daily blog reading which brought me to the My War blog (which I have mentioned repeatedly to you). For the most part I read this blog because I appreciate the authors account and view of the world, even when I disagree with it. For the most part I just skim the comments because 1) they all say the same thing, 2) there are a freakin’ boat load of them for ever entry, and 3) they tend to be people with different politics than my own that don’t like to engage in friendly/logical debate (as far as I’ve seen). But tonight, I decided to skim the comments because there were so many (I realize how illogical this is) so I’m skimming through and I stumble upon the comment that follows… I was amazed… this is some super racist, patiarchal (I’ll explain), holier than fucking thou shit…. I mean bigoted shit…. And I have no qualms saying that, cause it is. As I sit to write this and think back on Sarah’s recent death, I’m ammused and saddened to image her reaction… she was always shy about politics, but this is the shit we could both get freaking ramped up on… damn how I miss that….

Its late, I have to work at 8 am tomorrow morning and its almost midnight. So here is what I’m going to do. I’ll leave this for you all to read, as it was written, feel free to leave comments… tomorrow night, after work, I’ll take this apart line by line … it may read choppy but it’s the best way to keep myself from 1) missing anything, 2) being more long winded than I need to be, and 3) sane as possible…. So here it goes, phenderson… I hope you read this, cause I just can’t believe you… For all of you who are coming here from CBFTW’s comments section expecint some analysis… I’m sorry, but there just isn’t the time to do this justice right now, check back tomorrow evening…

B

phenderson said...
I
would say that the reason why the reporting on the whole issue has been sparse
is because of publicity. Increased numbers of deaths and casualties of American
Soldiers and Iraq\Insurgents, being reported will lead to a serious rise of
anger and discontentment with our current president. Either he, or some General,
or a group of policy makers below him, are either hiding the truth about the
war, from either Bush and the public, or just the public, to furthur accomplish
some type of agenda. Someone does not want negative publicity to get out about
the War in IRAQ. This would lead to Bush's complete and utter downfall in the
upcoming elections. We have 3 months before the elections... and I hate to say
it, but that is one of the major draw backs to our democratic system. Guys in
power holding things back from the general public just to get ahead or just to
stay where they are.I cannot stand John Kerry because, even though I have always
been a life long democrat, he just don't represent me in any way form or
fashion. He is a ultra rich clown from the up echelons of rich society and he
just does not represent the common man, because to me, he has never been a
common man...I can almost say that I would convert (yeah I used the word
Convert) to a republican, because I believe Bush has better christian (not
zionist or muslim) values than Kerry. But this whole war on terrosim, and the
GI's fighting over in Iraq while Average Joe's are sitting on the couch munchin
chips and dip, like myself, are all left in the dark, is just unagreeable...The
American people need to know what is going over in Iraq. The American people
also need to know whether or not what we are doing is helping the Iraqi's or
hendering them. I firmly believe that the overal Islamic religion and the Arabic
people are just not suited for freedom and democracy. Even if 60-90% of the
Iraqi's want democracy, their mindset and thought process and every day life
demands that they reside under some type of totalitarian, non-democratic,
dictatorship. To me, they are not unlike abused children who grow up to be
battered wives or abussive husbands, there is an almost irreparrable cycle
turning round and round. To them it is better that they rape and maim their own
people as opposed to allowing the average white, black, hispanic, asian soldier
do it. They don't see the fact that there should be no raping or maiming of
people by anyone.sorry folks, but I am through with my ranting and raving.My
final thought is that we should not allow other Non-democratic Muslim nations to
take over the occupation while the Democratic Americans and Britains leave.
Those nations will only do their best, like they are doing now via sending
armies and weapons over the border (Jordan, Yemen, Iran, Syria, etc)to defeat
and unsettle the democratic process. What we should do is see about finding a
democratic muslim nation to take over the occupation...oh, I see there are none.
Then perhaps we should see about finding a non-western Democratic nation or
group of nations to take over the occupation and to help bring democracy to
Iraq...hmmm lets see, Japan, Korea, China, and any of the nations of Africa? Any
takers? Nope... none... looks like the only nations powerful enough help quell
the savage yet intellectual Muslim Sharia Islamist extremists trying to create
another completely Taliban-like country, against the wills of her inhabitants,
would be the US and the Britains of the real worlds...Lets see a show of hands,
how man of us want a democratic nation and how many of us want a Sharia Islamic
nation?
7:47
PM

Gonna be gone for a little while longer...

2004-07-30T10:15:00.000-04:00

To all of you out there who don't read this blog, since i'm pretty sure no one does, I will be back next week with some new writing. I am currently in Syracuse for my friend Sarah's funeral. Actually I'm about to leave for the funeral.... the wake yesterday was nice, tons of people there, but a total shocker at the same time. I still can't believe its true, its so sureal and yet real at the same time. So I'll be back soon, hope you all can wait.

A prayer I alway remember at times of death....

2004-07-27T03:55:00.000-04:00

When I die if you need to weep
Cry for your brother or sister
Walking the Street beside you
And when you need me put your arms around anyone
And give them what you need to give me

I want to leave you something
Something better than words or sounds.

Look for me in people I've known or loved
And if you cannot give me away
At least let me live in your eyes and not on your mind.

You can love me most by letting hands touch hands
By letting bodies touch bodies
And by letting go of children that need to be free.

Love doesn't die, people do
So when all that's lef of me is love
Give me away.

-- Anon. From Life Prayers

Sarah Webster: in my memory

2004-07-27T03:24:00.000-04:00

Sarah Webster, Graduating from St. Lawrence University, Canton, NY - May 2004.

Sarah Webster died in her sleep, on Monday, July 26th. A long time friend, close compatriot, her lose, rips me apart as it brings tears to my eyes… Whiskey and listlessness, bring these words to the page…

How I Remember Sarah Webster:

a journal in the shock and awe of death….

What I’ll miss most about Sarah is how much she cared. She cared deeply about the world she lived in, people everywhere, friends and family alike. She would rant about the idiocies of society and individuals with inflamed passion. She’d debate politics to the end and then go to dinner with you and tell stupid jokes. She cared for her friends and her family as if each person was more important than herself. She held a sense of altruism that does not exist amongst many and achieved great depth in a shallow, shallow world. She was there for me when I needed her like few ever were. She knew when to poke fun, when to tell me to get over myself, when to be as supportive and caring, like others could not be. Sarah and I shared everything, lives most mundane details and deepest secrets. Sarah will lie to rest with many secrets that no one else in this world knows about me, while that might relieve some, it saddens me greatly. My greatest confidant is gone.

Sarah and I met freshman year, she was my neighbor, and the only person I was truly close with my freshman year. Of all my college friends, all who I love dearly, Sarah and I were the closest; I held trust and confidence in her that I have with no one else in the world. At the beginning of freshman year Sarah had a crush on me. But I was dating someone else and only saw her as a close friend. Then I had a crush on her but she only saw me as a close friend. In reality we had grown to close to share physical intimacy. We shared a few astranged kisses that always felt a little weird but never changed a thing between us.

Sarah and I have always talked a great deal, always serious, even when joking around. Never in my entire college experience have I met a person like Sarah that can get into a heated debate over politics, and then go to dinner, and tell jokes like we never disagreed on a thing. Sometimes I would intentionally try to get mad at her, pick a fight over some issue, debate it as stubbornly or as meanly as I could, and still when it was done, we’d be friends again. Even when I found that annoying, I secretly loved that aspect of our friendship to death.

Sarah would never admit to being a very political person, but she was, she was just shy about it. She held opinions on local, national and international issues. She was a strong believer. And she always wanted to learn more. She would ask me the simplest and most complex questions about world events, she would read, and attend lectures, sometimes alone, or with others. Of all my friends she was the only one to come see me speak on my experiences in Palestine, and she came because she was truly interested in what I had done, passionately so, Sarah was simply, a passionate person.

Sarah was a true outdoors person and environmentalist, caring deeply about the world we live in experiencing it both recreationally and educationally in ways that many of us never did. I remember when I first met Sarah I thought she was a sort of wanna be outdoors enthusiast. But I remember last year remembering how wrong I was to hear about her early morning biology work and hiking experiences put me to shame. While we never took that back packing trip we always talked about taking, something I’d hoped we could do this summer, we always shared a common interest in each others outdoor stories and experiences. I will always regret not sharing more of that with her.

She wrote me a note after that event, thanking me in a way friends should not have to thank each other. Somewhere, in this bomb crater of a room I have that note. When I read it I cried, because it was one of the sweetest things anyone did for me my final semester of college, but not as I cry now.

I cry a multitude of different tears now. Tears of happiness at the experiences I had with Sarah and the beautiful memories I will always cherish. I cry bitter tears at a life so well lived and with so much potential to change this world cut short. I cry tears of self pity for not getting to say good bye, wishing this past weekend I’d left her a little note when I saw her on IM like I usually do, but didn’t, for some odd reason. I cry tears of love because Sarah is one of only a few friends I have ever loved so deeply and cherished so closely. I cry tears of shock because I simply cannot believe she is gone. She was too vibrant to pass so quickly. And selfishly I cry because she will not be there for me, in the same way she always was, anymore.

Sarah was the greatest friend in that way. She understood how I ticked, she was compassionate to all the things that hurt me or irritated me, even when they were quite silly. She was there for me freshman year when I broke up with my girlfriend, she was there for on bad days when things got too stressful, and she was there for me when I was down and out. She was even there for me, recently, after we graduated when I was going through a tough bout of depression. She was the first person I admitted to that I was feeling horribly depressed. Always, she held a sense of compassion and understanding, being supportive where needed and suggesting improvements where accepted; I never remember her rubbing me the wrong way when I was feeling dejected. And I always tried to be there for her too. She often worried about many things, and I always tried to reassure her. I have always felt, as selfish as it may be that our understanding of each others most inner workings is what defined our friendship. We could communicate in many ways with out talking, we could be there for each other no matter how drastic or silly our issues where. She was a giant foundation in my life, and nothing will fit the space she leaves in my heart and in my mind.

Often times when people pass, we say “they wouldn’t have wanted us to cry for them, but to be happy instead.” Sarah was the kind of person who understood the value of tears; I think she would want us all to cry, to share our grief. But at the same time, she would be annoyed, ashamed, and potentially angry if we did not remember her for what she was to all of us, if we did not cherish and share the memories and stories that we all shared, that make us smile when remember her.

And while many of my secrets die with Sarah, let this secret not die, she was one of the most wonderful people I have ever known, I loved her with all my heart, and will always miss what she brought to me and this world.

Half-assed update

2004-07-22T23:04:00.000-04:00

While I have been brewing over some new concepts to explore on my blog, but while I haven't gotten around to the process of writing yet, I've a new way to procrastinate: I started a new blog. Before you all get your jockeys/panties in a knot, let me assure you that my new blog, The Peaceful Militants Leftist Repost, is not an attempt to replace this but an attempt to do something different. Before all this silly depression stuff (which as left me highly unmotivated) I used to read several news papers everyday. Lately, well I haven't been reading shit. So, I've started this new blog to force myself to get back into reading the paper so that I can find those articles that I feel everyone should read and in a self righteous act, publish them on the internet with the grand delusion that people will actually read it, be enlightened, and support a political platform that stops fucking over the world (to put it nicely). So check it out, that's The Peaceful Militants Leftist Repost. Oh and for all of you techno junkies out there that get html, I have several questions for you about that blog and this:

In regards to TPMLR,

- Is there a way to have the first paragraph of the post show on the main page and have the rest be in the archived version, cause news articles are lengthy as you can see....

- Also, I know people aren't going to get the humor in my title, so post the flack in the comments section about how come I use the phrase peaceful militant if I'm a pacifist, blah blah blah.... well if that is your reaction, you need to lighten the fuck up (if you ask me, which you didn't) it seemed like a fun title at the time, if you have a better suggestion go ahead and make it...

In regards to this page,

- Who wants to fool with my template for me (is this even possible) I really want to make this center column wider and add another side column (like the one on the right) on the left. I also want to replace the banner image with one of my own.... is this doable or am I being over ambitious for someone who knows next to nothing of html?

A Writers Resolution

2004-07-17T17:53:00.000-04:00

Photo by Dick Doughty
From: Gaza: Legacy of Occupation
By: Dick Doughty and Mohammed El Aydi

From a rooftop, Tel el Sultan, near Rafah, Gaza Strip.What are the relations among those who write and those who are written about?

Posted by Hello

So after spending the other day writing a lengthy three page, single spaced essay on how we linguistically use “terrorist” to describe the “other,” in Iraq and through the “war on terror,” I’ve decided that I need to write shorter blog pieces. Seriously, who am I kidding to think you all (which very well may be nobody at all) would actually take the time to read an in-depth essay that belongs in a cultural studies class for fun. Ok, maybe the few professors who read my blog, read the whole thing… but I didn’t design this blog to continue academic writing, I began this blog to continue my editorial work. So while disgruntled ex writing center staff may wish that I make a resolution to improve my grasp over the English language, I’ll appeal to you all by promising to write shorter analyses of 800 words or less. Now granted this is slightly longer than the columns I wrote for The Hill News, but I always hated the 700 word limit because I always had to cut out a paragraph I really liked (plus it’s my blog and I do what I want!) So from now on my rants, essays, and say nothings will be limited to 800 words or less. They will however continue to include pictures I steal from random places on the internet, which I hopefully will become better citing.

Ha 242 words!!!! SUCKAS!!

A Post(b)log: Iraq, the "other," - understanding resistance

2004-07-15T16:34:00.000-04:00

Resistance Is Not Terrorism (Graffiti in Palestine)
Posted by Hello

After reading back through my last post (read that one first) I realized that for those who don’t know me, I may come off as supporting terrorism. I often get accused of supporting terrorism because I maintain that terrorism is resistance, however misguided. I however don’t support violence at all. Not by the state or the masses. I’m a pacifist; I refuse to lose faith that nonviolence is the most effective method of resistance. However, this is a matter of faith, and I understand I stand in amongst a minority (although I would contend any Christian that is not a pacifist does not truly live in the way Jesus taught us).

But to some extent my post and position does, I suppose in a way support “terrorism,” in that, I legitimize the fact that people have the right to resist. Terrorism is a label we throw at resistance that we refuse to legitimize. Guerilla resistance, like that seen in both Iraq and Palestine, is not conducted by a unified force, but by numerous groups working autonomously toward common goals via different methods. As a pacifist, I argue that it is important to realize the reasons people turn to violence, while at the same time believing that nonviolence is the only effective method for change. In recognizing resistance, and understanding what drives people to both resist and turn to violence, there becomes an obvious spectrum. You cannot compare an RPG/IED/small arms ambush on a U.S. military convoy with a suicide bombing of a market. CBTFW’s response to the original question is below:

CBFTW said...

In responce [sic] to dponce80 question of why do we call them terrorists. My answer is this: they are terrorists. Terrorists instill terror and use terrorists tactics to achieve their political agenda. These people are killing their own fuckin people. Using terrorist tactics. On 24June 04, I saw that up close and personal, the remains of innocent iraqi people on their way to work blown to fuckin bits from a god damn car bomb, by terrorists.

Now, I do not understand how resistance forces feel targeting an attack on innocent Iraqi people furthers their agenda toward goals of independence from the oppression of occupation, toward their own self rule. My guess is these pure terror tactics are being used by ex-Saddam loyalists, taking out their frustrations via wanton violence, but I really do not know enough about purely civilian targeted attacks.

Occupation is conducted through oppression. Oppression always breeds resistance. We are misguided to label attacks against U.S. troops/coalition troops/Iraqi police/Iraqi military forces/Iraqi interim government members as terrorism. All of these bodies, even those that are Iraqi, are aiding in the unjust U.S. occupation of Iraq, an occupation that stands in the way of the freedom and independence we promised Iraqi’s when we started this war. To label those who launch attacks against these bodies as terrorists is to misunderstand the want of the people, demonstrated through grassroots, popular supported resistance. If we fail to recognize this popular sentiment two things will happen, we will either continue to maintain a violent and unjust occupation of Iraq (just as Israel does in Palestine) or we will have to cut our losses and admit defeat to the masses (a lesson that should have been learned by every colonial power).

I will admit that there are probably some amongst the Iraqi resistance fighting to instill pure fear and chaos. But most Iraqi resistance is aimed at ridding Iraq of the occupying power and all that it brings with it. Occupying another country is never just, the sooner we learn that the better.

Iraq and the "Other"

2004-07-15T14:43:00.001-04:00

Arrests in Iraq
Posted by Hello

I was reading through my new favorite blog, My War, today and saw this comment on one of the posts. I began to respond there, and then realized I was working my way towards a six page essay and decided I'd better write in my own blog instead. Below you'll find the comment and then my analysis of Iraq and the "other"

dponce80 said—

Hey... I think your blog is great; perspective from soldiers in Iraq and all that. I want to ask you something, but I'd really like it if you didn't get all defensive about it. This kind of question has gotten a lot of people to sling crap at me, and I just want to keep this civil.

Why do you guys refer to "the other side" as terrorists? Why not just "the enemy". Or, "fighters", or something. Is it because of the targets they chose? Is it because they don't wear uniforms? It is because they dont have a structured chain of command?

I mean, you guys... as much as history will probably see you as a freeing force, right now, you're also an occupying force, right? And these people want you out, and are fighting for that... the way they know how. Why is it, then, that their tactics, because they're different than yours, and seemingly unethical in your eyes, merit them the label "terrorists"... as opposed to militants, or fighters or something else which doesn't carry with it a devaluing, belittleling connotation?

Or is it like a "Kleenex" instead of "facial tissue" thing? Like the way north vietnamese fighters were collectively labeled "Vietcongs", or USSR soldiers "Commies" and the like?

I don't know if you've ever wondered about that yourself. Really, I don't. You sound smart, so maybe you have. I'd like your take on that. That of a soldier. Do you call them terrorists because you see them as such? Or because your superiors call them that?

Nways, that's it. Awaiting your answer.

dponce80--

I like this question, its good, people sling crap at you because you give humanity to the "other" and that is precisely what the term "terrorist" strips away. Now you didn't ask for my answer, but I'm going to give it anyway, because this is something I've thought long and hard about.

What makes the "war on terror" and "terrorists" so easy to fight is that terrorism is constructed to be totally unjustified (that may be the only solid part of any definition of terrorism). Terrorist, works, as a label, just like commie, Charlie/Vietcong, nigger, dyke, fag, ect. The titles delegitimize the existence of the humanity of the “other” and label their actions as forbidden. Resistance fighters are terrorists whether they attack U.S. soldiers, Iraqi National forces, or civilians. We label the “other” this way precisely because it allows us to view them as lesser people, and I would argue to see them as not human. To label the enemy as resistance fighters, militants, or anything of the like allows for the “other” to exist as human.

There is an element to which I understand why the soldier must rob the other of their humanity. To face the enemy day in and day out as a worthy human opponent with moral aims just like yours, would be maddening. To acknowledge the humanity of every person you killed or kill as the same as yours would drive anyone to drop their weapons where they stand. In many ways to see the “other” as a nonhuman terrorist is a mental survival tactic. Without it militaries/wars wouldn’t exist due to a realization of how the horrors of war were being waged on those just like us.

In much the same way to view the “other” as nonhuman, as terrorist, allows collective society to stomach the horrors of war. And that is also what makes the “war on terror” so palatable, the enemy, the “other,” is so vaguely defined it allows us to kill virtually anyone in the spirit of the “war on terror” and legitimize their deaths.

In many ways (regardless of what our president says) we see the whole Arab world and community as the “other” and largely as terrorist. This view allows us to imprison Arab Americans, deport Arab immigrants, breach civil liberties, go to war, kill civilians, and occupy nations. This modern day witch hunt, like all witch hunts, justifies and legitimizes more bad than good. This view of the Arab world as both terrorist and sub/nonhuman is what justifies U.S. blind support of Israel and her occupation of Palestine as well as our own occupation of Iraq. It condones the murder, rape, and torture of civilians.

When we kill civilians it is acceptable collateral damage, when terrorists (read: resistance fighters) kill civilians it is terrorism. Now, I’m not justifying targeting civilian targets, suicide bombing, or any other “terrorist” action. But we cannot justify state terrorism via collateral damage and vilify the same/similar actions of resistance groups. We legitimize state terror through “collateral damage” most often through two explanations: 1.) Those people aid terrorists (read: resistance fighters) in some ways (usually through silence) and thus they are the enemy. 2.) There were terrorists in the midst of civilians so killing civilians is a justified price to pay for eliminating terrorists (this holds true even when the number of civilians greatly out numbers the number of suspected terrorists).

In both cases we rob civilians of their humanity with the term “collateral damage.” We justify their deaths. We remove humanity so far from the picture that this “war no terror” has legitimized horrific actions target against civilians. Iraq and Palestine serve as excellent examples for the justification of military action against any target. In both Palestine and Iraq occupying forces (the IDF and US Military) have both plowed agricultural fields to punish local populations for the existence of terrorist (read: resistance fighters) in their communities and have blown up and bulldozed the houses (often apartment buildings) of innocent people claiming that the buildings have served as the firing posts for terrorists (read: resistance fighters). The vagueness and anti-humanity of “terrorism” has also justified the death of innocent people (women, children, elderly, developmentally disabled, and physically handicapped) by claiming that these people either aided “terrorists” (read: resistance fighters) or that there were “terrorists” (read resistance fighters) in their midst.

A wonderful example of how we have robbed the humanity of the “other” is seen in the new documentary film on Iraq, “Control Room.” “Control Room,” a film about Al-Jazeera news reporting, news spin, and the creation of news in Iraq in general follows the war through the press room. There is a great scene where a U.S. military media liaison, who we see the documentary producers and Al Jazeera reports talking and debating with through out the movie, has some what of an epiphany. After seeing Al-Jazeera news footage of U.S. collateral damage he realizes that it does not affect him emotionally the same way seeing the bodies of dead U.S. soldiers the day before. There is a great monologue where he explains this realization and his positionality and the positionality of the Arab world and Iraqi’s in how they view, understand, and emotionally respond to these news reports, news reports he had been referring to as propaganda. In realizing why many people have similar responses to collateral damage the way he responds to U.S. deaths shows a realization of the anti-humanity we are taught to have toward the “other,” that at least for a minute, he gains back in some respect.

We often hear from our government and military (who don’t keep track of civilian causalities because it just isn’t cool any more… mainly because people like you and me say what the fuck are we doing!!) say, “we regret these deaths but they are necessary, if the terrorist (read: resistance fighters) wouldn’t hide amongst civilian populations and if civilians did not aid terrorists this collateral damage would be less.” But the military must not have gotten the memo; conventional warfare went out of style with the end of the cold war. Guerilla tactics are the only useful tactics against a technologically superior force. With a highly undefined enemy, in conventional terms, (resistance fighters that aren’t professional soldier and don’t wear uniforms) fear drives us to see the collective “other” in its entirety as the enemy, terrorist, and thus sub/nonhuman.

To view the other as such is just the newest incarnation of acceptable racism. Occupation, with all its similarities to colonialism, is based on the racist connotation that people cannot rule themselves and thus we must oversee them or at least their transition to the “civilized” world. In the Middle East the reasoning is “look if we didn’t rule over these people they’d go around killing people and each other.” This view of course denies the oppression that occupation uses and the resistance it creates a legitimate. Whether it be Iraq, Palestine, Chechnya, Tibet, or nay other occupied land, racism is the legitimizing factor where the “other” is viewed as less than ourselves.

One of our biggest mistakes in engaging in this war was failing to have a definitive and quick exit plan to avoid occupation. Mainly we lacked this for three reasons; our reasoning has never been altruistic, our government had no idea what it was getting itself into, and we did not realize that short of freeing Iraq from Saddam Iraqi’s wanted nothing to do with us. Now we conduct an occupation that is one and the same to Israel’s occupation of Palestine. For Iraqi’s and the for much of the Arab world, these occupations are one in the same. Israel’s strongest ally, provider of military hardware, now has its own occupation with no end in sight. We have extended the grave injustice of the Israeli occupation to Iraq, and when we did that we lost. In the face of occupation there will always be resistance. The end of colonialism taught us that lesson, but apparently most of our world leaders skipped history class.

Now this was originally a question to an individual soldier about their personal views on this question. This is my unasked for, nosey, just-graduated-from-college-think-I-know-everything response. But I want to note that my interpretation is of our larger society and social structure. CBFTW will have his own response and view. I am not trying to delegitimize that. I cannot begin to understand his reality or positionality, and cannot and will not judge it. Yet from where I stand in the middle of this social system, trying to figure it all out and escape it at the same time, this is how I read the world.

We all fit into this social structure, this method of viewing the “other” is ingrained in all of us. Even in admitting to it I cannot free myself from its grasp. What is important is recognizing it not only as a method of our social system but realizing the harm and injustice it performs so that we can collectively evolve to a place where we gain a better perspective on humanity as a whole.

Arrest in Palestine
Posted by Hello

We are sorry your President is an idiot....

2004-07-14T20:15:00.000-04:00

Someone emailed this to me today, I got a chuckle out of it and figured why not do a half assed post while i procrastinate more on writing a real one and just publish this. Plus who read this blog anyway?? Anyone?!?

If you can't read the text of the picture it reads as follows:
This is a clothing label from a small American company that sells their product in France.

Here's the translation of the French part of the label.

Wash with warm water
Use mild soap
Dry flat
Do not use bleach
Do not dry in the dryer
Do not iron
We are sorry that our President is an idiot
We did not vote for him

Classic

Posted by Hello

Endless Writers Block

2004-07-10T23:49:00.000-04:00

Well fuck me I haven’t posted in forever and a day. I’m sure no one actually reads this damn blog anymore, I’m quite pathetic. Honestly I stopped writing originally because I just couldn’t find the creativity while adjusting to life out of college (I’ll spare you the details of all of that, enough of you know them anyway). And then I continued to not write. Why? I’m not really sure, I still am not quite adjusted, I still lack a creativity that used to come so naturally, and I’ve been damn lazy. My latest procrastination trick is to tell myself I’m going to write the next great blog entry and the debate over what to write it on. This has been going on for a few weeks now, its quite pathetic. So be forewarned, this entry won’t say much of anything, and will probably suck, but sometimes writers just have to write, just to get started.

So let’s start with a list of things I’ve been wanting to write on in no particular order:

1.) International Court of Justice decision on the Israel Apartheid Barrier
2.) Fahrenheit 9-11 and Control Room: The Middle East in perspective
3.) “My War” blog review (a soldiers blog)
4.) Several responses to blog entries on the “My War” blog
5.) “Why Do They Hate Us?” The Iraqi model

I honestly feel like I’ve had more ideas, but they all escape me at the moment. My goal over the next week or so is to write some blog entries on these topics. And I’ve allowed myself the perfect segwey to introducing my new favorite blog read: My War. Why might you add am I reading a blog kept by a U.S. soldier? Before you all start screaming hypocritical peacenik and burning me at the stake (come on, folks do have a tendency to do that to me) let me explain. For one, this isn’t your blind patriot soldier. That isn’t to say our politics are on the same page by any means either. So there are really several reasons. The first (often forgotten these days) is that if you listen and understand the position of your opponents its easier to engage in debate. I also see this soldier as a bit of an intellectual that takes the creative space his blog allows him to explore and explain the perspective he has on the world, albeit, different than mine. Personally, I strongly recommend reading it. It is a unique an interesting perspective on the world and he seems very open to critique and discussion of topics. I will warn you though to avoid reading the comments, there is a lot of blind patriotism, hurrahing of the troops/country going on. Anyway, see for yourself, and let me know what you think.

Other than that, let’s do the bio of what has been going on. A lot of jack shit mostly, all of which is my own fault, but the highlights include: Seeing friends, finishing my senior thesis (3.5, yay!!), buying lots of woodworking tools online, carving three canoe paddles (ongoing), a little sailing, some canoeing, job searching, sending cover letters into the abyss, numerous doctors appointments, one esophogram (I recommend keeping away from these they make you drink cup after cup of liquid barium (read: radioactive sludge) that has the consistency of a milkshake but is no where nearly as good, it made me feel like shit and made me so constipated (yes you needed to know that) I felt like I was shitting depleted uranium), I also had plastic surgery on my leg to remove a birthmark, I’ve got the ugliest bruise ever, dark purple and the size of a cantaloupe. Ok so ending on a visually distasteful note I’m going to go to bed. Oh I also saw Fahrenheit 9-11 and Control Room, I liked Control Room more, I felt like I learned more from it, but go see both of them.

The New Anti-Semitism

2004-05-29T11:49:00.000-04:00

"This is the American Weapon, This is the Israeli Peace" (Source Unknown).
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Surprisingly you won't find "Anti-Semitism" defined in Websters as bigoted hate towards Semitic peoples, as linguistics suggests. Instead it will refer to bigoted hate towards one particular Semitic people, the Jewish people. This is not to say that the Jewish people have not suffered bigoted hate, oppression, subjugation, or systematic destruction. It is simply to say that they are not the only Semitic people suffering this bigoted and racist hate. Arabs are Semitic (Which include many Semitic Muslims and Christians) Semitism is an ethnicity not a religious qualifier and thus many Semitic people suffer from Anti-Semitism; Jews, Christians, and Muslims as well as Israelis, Iraqi's, and other Arab peoples; and they suffer at the hands of each other as well as at the hands of the West. Below are two very interesting articles about what I call the "New" Anti-Semitism, or the systematic bigoted and institutionalized hatred of Arabs and Muslims. Both these articles, from "Muslims Wake Up" show interesting perspectives on the injustices of Semitic people:

"The Replacement Negroes: Abu Ghraib and the New Generation Plantation" By: Lamont Slater

"Why I Burned My Israeli Military Papers" By Josh Ruebner

Israeli Agents and Iraqi Torture: some thoughts

2004-05-26T16:40:00.000-04:00

Photo courtesy of Counter Punch
"Israelis have been to Abu Ghraib and other prisons [in Iraq]," says one
source familiar with the U.S. operations.
It was explained that the Israelis involved have been assigned as "civilian
contractors" to work with Coalition forces in interrogating Iraqi POWs.
The "contractors" are said to be veterans of Israel's domestic intelligence
unit, Shin Bet, as well as the more famous international intelligence
agency, the Mossad.
"Israeli Agents Believed Involved in Abu Ghraib" - News Max.

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Since the war began in Iraq there have been rumors of Israeli troops operating there, both in U.S. uniform and Israeli uniform. There were rumors of the Israeli Air Force conducting bombing runs and of Israeli commando units conducting raids. But they have just been rumors that is to say neither proved nor disproved. I never gave much thought to these rumors as there was no evidence to back them up and I feared that often times they were probably the creation of people who were targeting Israel unfairly, trying to tie them close to their closest ally in the war against the Arab world.

Now I have never just taken these rumors as lies, because it wouldn’t surprise me if they were true. Not just because Israel has always kept a loaded gun pointed at her Arab neighbors but because Israel has an unfriendly history with Iraq. In 1981 to keep Iraq from becoming a nuclear opponent in the Middle East the Israeli Air Force took out the Iraqi reactor claiming it could produce weapons grade plutonium. During the 1st gulf war the U.S. had to beg Israel not to enter the Gulf War after Iraq launched 39 scud missiles at Israel. Israel prepared for the worst this time around call up reservists improving its missile defense systems and issuing gasmasks to all Israeli citizens. There were also rumors that if Israel was attacked during this war they would retaliate.

But orchestrating and covering up large scale military involvement (especially where Israeli aircraft, vehicles, and uniforms were used) would be quite the feat in this day in age. If people saw Israeli uniforms and they weren’t dead, they were going to talk. And in the Middle East they would make a huge stink. The Arab world would love to indict Israel of involvement in the Iraq debauchery for terrorizing and imprisoning their Palestinian brothers and sisters under an oppressive occupation and apartheid.

So when I first saw the news headline “Israeli Agents Believed Involved in Abu Ghraib,” I figured it would be another typical and unsubstantiated rumor. But I read it anyway, and at the end I’m not so sure Israel has stayed out of Iraq. This isn’t to say I believe all the rumors of IDF troops operating in Iraq. But the cluster fuck of privatized armies of security contractors and advisors happens to be a much easier place for Israeli agents to hid, and apparently they did. It is already “hush-hush” public knowledge that the IDF trained/trains U.S. forces in how to conduct their Iraqi occupation; rat-holing walls, conducting checkpoints, and killing lots of civilians with good excuses for why they are dead… I mean civilian identification, ect. So to find out that we have gained some of our torture techniques from Israel isn’t all that surprising.

I’m extremely critical when it comes to news sources and news reports. Had this come from an obscure left wing source I would be a little more hesitant about it. However, this article comes from a right wing news source, News Max and cites diplomatic sources both in DC and NY. The article claims and provides evidence for the possible presence of ex-Mossad and Shin Bet agents operating as contractors in Iraqi prisons, including Abu Ghraib, “advising” U.S. troops on “inTERRORgation” techniques.

Israeli Defense Forces torture Palestinians by blindfolding, binding, and burying them alive. (Source unknown).
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After reading countless accounts of how the Mossad and Shin Bet have treated Palestinians it scares me to see them in Iraq as “private contractors.” To see one “democracy” (albeit an apartheid democracy) teaching another “democracy” (albeit a dressed up quasi-dictatorship these days) torture techniques (that we say we are above) that work on Arabs distresses me to no end. It is the potential of torture by Mossad and Shin Bet “contractors” that scares me about their presence in Iraq. And according to this article these potentials have been achieved in Iraq.

"Who has better experience in dealing with the Arabs than Israel?" one source asked.
It was explained that several of the "interrogation" techniques used by U.S. forces in Iraq have in fact been used by Israel "for years."
The technique of stripping Arab prisoners naked, to embarrass and humiliate them, has been used by Israelis, according to Arab diplomats at the U.N.
It should be noted, however, that torture and mutilation are common techniques used by Arab countries on their prisoners.

What shocks me about these realizations is not the admittance of Israeli intelligence agents operating in Iraq, but the admittance of being involved in the use of torture. News Max attempts to justify the torture techniques used by U.S. troops and Israeli contractors by comparing it to the torture and mutilation used by Arab countries. It as if they are saying its ok because this is the sort of treatment that has to be used on “these people” that it is all that they know. Israeli presence in Iraq does not phase me, but the implementation of such racist policies an techniques (as used in Palestine by Israel and now in Iraq by the U.S.) disgust me. The shear racism of such comparisons astounds me.

Racist Israeli settler graffiti from Hebron, written across the street from the Christian Peacemaker Team apartment. (CPT).

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One cannot compare human suffering. One abuse cannot be used to justify or condone a “lesser” abuse. Injustice is injustice, abuse is abuse. Torture in Abu Ghraib is torture whether committed by Saddam’s henchmen or U.S. Troops. Human suffering is human suffering.
Yet around America people are saying, “What’s the big deal” about all this prison abuse stuff. The reasoning lies in as it does in the News Watch article,

It should be noted, however, that torture and mutilation are common techniques used by Arab countries on their prisoners.

WE aren’t as bad as THEM, so what’s the big deal? The big deal is that we told the world and (more importantly) Iraqis that we were there to free Iraq from oppression, from the use of torture and rape. We promised democracy. WE claimed to be of higher moral character and leadership. Yet we have become what we demised. We occupy and rule Iraq by military dictatorship not democracy. We have not deliver any freedom only more oppression and fear now at the hands of U.S. soldiers instead of Iraqi soldiers. And we are torturing and raping Iraqi prisoners in the same prison that Saddam’s forces were famous for abusing Iraqi’s in. We have become what we opposed in many senses our moral standards have crumbled. Does this make Bush equal to Saddam? No. Does it make U.S. soldiers equal to Iraqi henchmen? No. We have not committed the same sort of torture or with the same frequency. But we have committed torture. And committing torture is what pus us in the same mud puddle as Saddam and his henchmen at the very least.
And why should we care? We should care because4 we are all human. Iraqis and Americans all bleed the same shade of red. We share the same emotions; shame, humiliation, and pain. We should care because universal justice must apply to everyone equally. If we profess democracy, freedom, and equality it must be for all, even our worse enemies. If we cannot respect all humanity and uphold true justice then what is it that separates us from the despots and abusive dictators of the world? Nothing.

Where Will All the Children Go?

2004-05-24T15:39:00.000-04:00

> A Palestinian youth holds a badly injured racoon after pulling it from the rubble of the destroyed zoo in the Brazil section of the Rafah refugee camp, southern Gaza Strip , Friday, May 21, 2004. Many of the animals at the small zoo either escaped or died in the destruction, the owner said. Israeli troops pulled back from two neighborhoods in this sprawling Palestinian refugee camp Friday, leaving behind dozens of demolished and damaged homes, torn up roads and flattened cars. (AP Photo/Kevin Frayer)

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>I actually never knew there was a zoo in Rafah until it disappeared under the treads of Israeli tanks. I searched Google for evidence of happier times at the Zoo in Rafah, but I find none. I get 1,380 sites most which refer to “The Day the Tanks Arrived at the Rafah Zoo,” the title of the Guardian article that first brought my attention to the zoon in Rafah. I have resisted reading the news on the latest invasion of Rafah due to a growing sense of hopelessness that things will ever change. I have been telling myself, “same old story, same old pictures, same violent cycle.” But like I said I did not know there was a zoo I Rafah. To realize it was now gone caught my attention as it wretched my heart.

Last fall, after spending the summer in Palestine experiencing occupation first hand, I sat with my host family in Amman, Jordan holding my host brothers nephew, Mustafa. Mustafa was visiting with his mother and grandparents from Bethlehem. I still remember sitting and watching the incursions into Bethlehem while holding Mustafa on my lap. I held him tight, as I watched the gunshots, explosions, jeeps and tanks on the television. I remember thinking, “a war zone is no place for a child to grow up.” As I gaze at the photos of a destroyed zoo I cannot help to reaffirm the same notion; a war zone is no place to for a child to grow up.

“People are more important than animals," said the zoo's co-owner Mohammed Ahmed Juma, whose house was also demolished. "But the zoo is the only place in Rafah that children could escape the tense atmosphere. There were slides and games for children. We had a small swimming pool. I know it's hard to believe, looking at it now, but it was beautiful. Why would they destroy that? Because they want to destroy everything about us."

As I read and reread this article and others on the destruction of the Rafah Zoo I keep wondering; where will all the children go? I don’t know what the occupation is like in Rafah as I have never been there. But I know it was entirely different than the occupation I experienced in the West Bank. Rafah is a land of rubble, of poverty, of death. Soldiers are not human but simply machines in Rafah, never leaving their heavily armored tanks, bulldozers, and APC’s. Firing from behind think steel and tall towers with tank cannons, machine guns, sniper rifles, and remotely operated guns. Rockets and bombs fall from above and the killers never have faces. Even as I recount the little I know of reality in Rafah, it seems like the most bone chilling nightmare, the kind where you simply await your death. But it is not a nightmare; it is reality to the children of Rafah. And the only scrap of normalcy, of childhood, has been crushed under the boot heel of occupation.

But as I read, what bothers me the most is that it took the death of a tortoise and the trauma of a kangaroo to get me to write about Palestine again. This past week when an IDF helicopter fired missiles at 1,000 peaceful protesters in Rafah killing ten, six of them between the ages of 11 and 18, I did not write, I was not phased. The images of fathers carrying away injured children did not phase me, but the image of an injure raccoon did. As Martin Huckerby contemplates in his blog GuardianSCRUTINY,

Why do we react so strongly to the destruction of Rafah zoo? It says something about news values that we probably show more interest in dead and dying animals, than in the deaths of people in this part of the Gaza Strip.

But what I think I find most reprehensible about the destruction of the Rafah Zoo is not the actual death of the animals but the death of the concept of sanctuary. Zoos are sanctuaries (ok some might see them as prisons, but only to the animals) for humans. They provide a connection to nature, a withdrawal from the reality of life. And the Rafah Zoo appears to have done just that with slides and a pool and other methods of enjoyment for the children of Rafah. The Rafah Zoo, I imagine, was some what of a sanctuary for children in Rafah. A place where they could escape, momentarily the war that raged around them, a place where they had to look of their shoulder a little less often, and a place where they could be a little more like “normal” children in the world.

And when I think of Palestinian children, I think of the end of naivety. About the factors of life that force children to grow up to fast; that rob them of their childhood. I grew up without having to watch my father beaten or arrested. I never saw my brother gunned down for throwing stones, or lost my house to a giant bulldozer. I never saw a tank or had a gun pointed at me until I was 21. I played in the woods as a kid. I disappeared for hours without a care in the world. Children in Rafah do not get that luxury. And now that one place where they were afforded that “normalcy,” has been robbed from them by soldiers and machines, all tools of the occupation.

New Beginnings...

2004-05-22T15:01:00.000-04:00

Titles are always misleading. And as I finally enter the electronic world of blogging, I should note that this blog isn’t for me to keep you all up-to-date on my whereabouts or mundane life happenings. I have a silly listserv for that! This space is different, how I’m not quite sure yet, but different.

I’ve wanted to create a web journal or a blog for a long time now. Ever since my friend Dave started keeping me up-to-date with his web journal and cooking blog. What Dave does is update us all on the mundane happenings of his life (don’t get me wrong I love reading it) my goal is to do something slightly different with this space, while on occasion dabbling in the “mundane-ness” of my life.

My main goal is to create a space to keep my brain intellectually engaged, continue writing, and keep learning. So welcome to the smorgasbord of my brain, here you will see some wackiness, some purely boring ho-ha’s, and hopefully a lot of political commentary. That’s it at least for now… happy reading!

Brian