My September 24th

The bus ride was tight. The bus ride was long. But it was worth every minute.
The mall was packed. The obelisk ringed with people. And the crowd was shoulder to shoulder all the way to the stage in back of the white house. There were 2 stages and a tightly controlled area for us to do our marching.
Cindy Sheehan, McKinney, Jesse Jackson, Galloway, and many others spoke for a few hours before the march. As the march was starting Nader took the mic.
The march was my favorite part(besides Barbara Lee and McKinney): There were SO MANY people marching. There was not actually a march. reader raises eyebrow.
The area for marching was a small square between 15th and 17th street. As everyone went to the streets to march….......THE ENTIRE SQUARE WAS FILLED. There was no room for marching, instead the entire procession kind of took baby steps around the ring because there were so many people.
As the march winded down the other stage opened up. Saw a couple bands that I am not familiar with, then Joan Baez took the stage.
Around the stages there was little or no violence. The violent segment (self-proclaimed anarchists[see: Young’uns]) did a good job of keeping away from the peaceful protest. I had heard they were gonna go fuck up the recruitment center.
This is exactly the kind of action that facilitates both aims. Keeping seperate from the peaceful protestors and fuckin’ with recruiters thats all good. This was the only violent altercations I had heard of. The spraypaint by the farragut north metro stop “Fuck Capitalism” it gave me a laugh, but seriously, did the person who painted this think that this was effective at doing anything, but making the media and populace reject the ideas of the protestors prima facie?
One other incident of violence I had actually heard of. The pro-war protestors(who should just put on a black bandanna and start throwin rocks at cops if they really wanted to protest the protest[but oh yah thy’re not that intelligent, after all they’re PRO WAR!]) One of the self-proclaimed anarchists snagged a sign from one of them and started beating them with it. This disgusts me, who is this kid think he is that he can enact violence on another who is peacefully expressing their opinion. His action is on the same level morally as the cops clubbing and gassing anti-war protestors. (and seriously is there ANYTHING you need to do to a pro-war protestor besides tell them: “join the fucking military if you like this war so much!”?)
There were a vast amount of factions in this rally. The central meme was stuck with though, which was the most important factor I thought going down. There was a little talk of Palestine and Haiti, but this rally focused (as it should have) on the occupation of Iraq. This IS the most pressing issue fothe day.
I do not believe in the feasibility of this action. I believe this action is 90% symbolic. I also have been asking everyone I come across(back in Chi) if they heard ANYTHING about anti-war protests in DC. The answer has so far ALWAYS been NO. The media didn’t cover it.
Public opinion is swinging though. We may get out sooner then 2008 like Wolfowitz said. I just wish people didn’t have to WORK to see the cost of war, that the media would actually explain the cost of war. Show the flag draped coffins, show the endless numbers of soldiers returning with PTSD, put another commercial after the recruitment commercial about how you’re gonna come home from Iraq and your wife will be pregnant with someone elses kid, because the white house wanted you there for 3 years straight.
So my freind and I took off during Joan Baez, we had to catch our bus and we missed Steve Earle :( . Not only that but we couldn’t go through my second home in Mt. Pleasant to roll through my favorite burrito shop(not even sure if its still in business).
22 hours on a bus, 6 hours at the rally. Well…...............................tiring to say the least…................................but again: worth every minute.
Favorite quote: Cynthia McKinney- ”...Criminal negligence on 911…”(reading a laundry list of evil and stupid things this white house has done).
Shout out to the Guy with “Al-CIAdah” poster board- Don’t look so depressed! more people then you think know that 911 was facilitated by elements within our federal government. All that ”’bout to put a bullet in my head” look, its not inspiring, just makes people think you’re a street preacher.
Anyway hopefully there will be no need for another rally, bit if there is another I hope to see you there. I’ll be the one with the cheesy american flag hat lookin’ like i’m ‘bout to go to a nascar race.

Jaded Cynic and Unwitting Imperialist Part Three

Setting: JC and UI are talking about the occupation (oh sorry zell miller i meant, Liberation snicker snicker)


Unwitting Imperialist: Did you hear we’re finally gonna put down the terrorists in Fallujah!?


Jaded Cynic: And by put down you mean kill them all right?


UI: No no, we’re spreading freedom to them.


JC: which is a great euphemism for killing everything that moves.


UI: well Fallujah is like the last part of the Iraq Liberation, kinda like space is the final frontier of Man’s voyages.


JC: So you think this means we’re coming to the end of the war?


UI: Hell yah, Iraq will have democracy our troops will be back, then we can start brow beating people I deem to be “liberals”.


JC: You realize of course that this is just another effort at “modulating distress”, right?


UI: I don’t know what you mean so I’ll prepare myself for the anti-american speech.


JC: Well despite that same slander you stick to any individual who questions the answers those in power give us, this is not anti-american. Everyone in power(we can refer to these as the “elites”) is in power because they are good at a few things. The most important being manipulation. One of the subsets of manipulation is modulation of stress.


UI: get to the point


JC:OK so remember how America used to honor its fallen?


UI: what do you mean used to? I see people saying numbers on the news all the time.


JC: exactly…numbers, because thats all they get. Our current vice president, back when he was defense secretary banned pictures of the fallen being honored. This is so the people do not make the complete psychological connection between soldiers dying and a flag draped coffin being soaked in the tears of their respective familes.


UI: I don’t buy it


JC: well its not some conspiracy its pretty simple, to get a democracy to do something you can wait until a movement boils up from the bottom and gets to the top OR you can use your influence at the top to create a want in other people. This is called marketing, for example that Quadra air thing you bought from Sharper Image, you remember that?


UI: yah it works wonders


JC: haha, yah exactly. Well they lost a lawsuit because they couldn’t prove it did ANYTHING they claimed in the commercials. So you bought a product that when in court cannot prove it does ANYTHING, but for some reason you believe it does all kinds of things. Don’t think i’m immune I do the same thing, its just an important psychological heuristic we should all know about, but lemme get back to my point-


UI: yah seriously


JC:- This fallujah offensive first of all proceeded a day after the election, which makes it blatantly obvious that this war is not being fought with our soldiers lives and morale in mind AND without a THOUGHT to the hearts and minds of Iraqis. Instead this war is fought and plans are changed, because of Political considerations.


UI: Bullshit, hes commander in chief, he wouldn’t risk our american soldiers like that.


JC: FIrst of all, that person he obstructed from getting in to the texas air nat’l gaurd probably died in Vietnam, so don’t tell me he is compassionate or not elitist. Think about it man: no pictures of coffins, “mission accomplished” banner, “transfer of sovereignty”, Interim government, and now “the final battle”.


UI: Well I believe my leader and I think that Fallujah will represent the end of the Iraqi occupation.


JC: Listen dude, how long would you let your children live without electricty or sewage? How long would you put up with military checkpoints in your neighborhood? How long would you put up with the bombs falling around the clock?

How long would you put up with foreign soldiers in your fucking backyard!?

How long would you put up with FAMILY MEMBERS AND FREINDS DYING FROM MISSILES THAT FALL ARBITRARLY WHETHER OR NOT YOU RESIST THE OCCUPATION!!!???


UI: See you are anti-american


JC: No, that is where you and your jingoist buddies are wrong. We are the real americans, the ones Bolivar was talking about. The ones that want to see true democracy not coporatism(what Mussolini said Facism should be called) spread to other countries. As our texas fuhrer proceeds to strip us of the rights gauranteed to us by the constitution, we will have to destroy the current institutions of power. You’ll be there UI with the rest of us, it’ll just take a little longer for you guys to come around.


UI: you fuckers will get crushed like the warsaw uprising, haha, stage a revolution in the era or terror and cointelpro, you truly are an idealist.


JC: i’m not the only one, my freind, i’m not the only one. LIke I said earlier though, “Fallujah is to shock and awe as Stalingrad was to the blitzkrieg”.


UI: We are starting to look more and more like nazis


JC: thats the spirit haha. Check it out ok 9/11 killed 3,000 civilians right?


UI: right.


JC: we have killed 100,000 civilians in Iraq so far, so we cannot complain about the next 32, 9/11s.


UI: Those were disgusting acts SPECIFICALLY targeting civilians


JC: well despite the fact that we target civilians as well, its based on an assumption that democracy is our system of government. The truth is the elites control the civilians, so killing civilians didn’t do anything. The terrorists should start fighting the people we’re all fighting against, instead of arbitrarly blowing up buildings because of supposed symbolic meaning.


UI: Not only that but the evidence of responsibility for 9/11 always goes back to two places: Saudi Arabia and Pakistan’s ISI.


JC: well years from now, we’ll see what they put in the children’s history books, and one thing I gaurantee is that it won’t be the truth.

Authority Without Leadership

Wrote this in March so it is somewhat postdated, I think its a decent analysis of Terrorism and Iraq.

The world did not change on September 11th in one way, it did not get more dangerous to live in the United States. Despite the color of the threat status we have been under the same amount of threat since before September 11th. People learned right away that small groups of people could kill large amounts of people, modern technology can give individuals great power. This is a Type III situation the solution and the problem are blurry. First of all the federal government has never come up with a cohesive definition for what “Terrorism” actually is, every agency has a different definition. A solution to try to stop terrorism is impossible, technology being inert will be used for good or evil, nothing can stop this, because the genie is out of the bottle. The way to fight Terrorism in my opinion is eradicate the perpetuation by helping countries develop so young people can work for food instead of joining barracks and being manipulated by older authority figures to do violent acts.
George W. Bush’s presidency has been the most divisive of presidencies recently. His “compassionate conservative” PR flood stated he would unite the country. Instead the president has done many things wrong in handling this threat to the United States. The first mistake was the “Phoenix Memo” to Robert Mueller which was not read or at least not paid attention to by the leaders of the FBI. The memo claims Moussaoui has been training in flight school practicing flying, but never landing or taking off. The memo was ignored and the previous strategy for preventing airplanes from becoming hijacked failed on September 11th.
The president then framed the problem a lanky cave dweller on dialysis had orchestrated an offensive on United States soil. The answer was of course, war. The war on terrorism began in a mindset that Bush created, that this was a type I problem. The terrorists are easy to spot in Bush’s mind they dislike freedom and they hate liberty with a passion. In fact there is very little to “terrorists” except that they are the “bad guys” they’re just plain evil. The idea of “terrorists” is now used to justify any policy. For instance the United States is currently occupying a country that we invaded, because Bush insinuated links between 9/11 and Saddam Hussein, even though this link is completely fictional and Bush as well as Rumsfeld have admitted that there is no link in press conferences.
This is important, because we as followers are not being asked to learn. Instead we are being inundated with false news reports and false war reports, all with one thing in mind to make us afraid. We are never asked by our leaders to remember the early 80s visit to Saddam Hussein where Donald Rumsfeld shook his hand and the US presented him with technology to test chemical weapons. To learn that we may share responsibility for the only viable reason in ousting this dictator, that he gassed his own citizens, this may cause learning our president does not want this. We are not asked to remember the Mujahedin or that Bin Laden was trained by the CIA, and that the United States abandoned Afghanistan after it served its purpose fighting off communists. In my opinion many of our modern threats can be traced to horrible foreign policy during the Cold War, this is because everyone was scared of Communism so they allied with Fascist leaders in other countries. I fear the same thing will happen with our treatment of “terrorists” we have not actually investigated our position. We do not truly know why someone would be motivated to give his life to destroy our country. I do know for a fact it is not because that person “hates liberty” or “our lifestyle” like the president says.
This is a type III problem but it is being framed by our leaders as a type I problem. Also the public is not being asked to learn, instead the public is asked by the media to duct tape the windows of their house in case of chemical weapons attack. The only learning our leaders want the public to do is learning where the closest Wal-Mart is and consuming. There is no outcome to this path, the only outcome is an endless “war on terrorism” or as Rumsfeld would call it “A long hard slog.” We need to understand that essentially this problem will never be fully stopped, this is a type III Problem. The answer does not lie in more bombing and ground troops, but through a period of learning and understanding the true motivations for terrorism. This is the most important facet of our war on terrorism, just like the war on drugs, this war is endless and pointless, because it will never stop terrorism.
A few key events since 9/11 have been the deployment of ground troops to Afghanistan, formation of Homeland Security department, invasion/occupation of Iraq, Guantanimo bay prison/internment camp, resisting the 9/11 commission, and the steady encroachment upon civil liberties beginning with the Patriot act.
The deployment of ground troops to Afghanistan was seen as an obvious response, basically a catch Osama task force. While we were deploying troops to catch a Bin Laden in Afghanistan the only flights to take off on 9/12 were those that flew Bin Laden relatives living in the United States to Washington, DC and then to Paris, France by the FBI, before they could be questioned. This story was not latched on to by the media, instead the media focused on our first kneejerk reaction which was the deployment to Afghanistan. These ground forces have been dying since they were deployed and Osama Bin Laden has still not been found. In this specific areas Bush failed to form any semblance of leadership. He framed the problem as finding the culprit, he regulated distress by assuring us that he would catch the criminal responsible, and focused our attention on the fact that we are under threat. The fact that simultaneously at this very moment and every moment since this paper was written, thousands of nuclear weapons have been pointed at you, your friends, and family. Although this threat is far more dangerous and real, our leaders have decided what they are focusing on. Bush has shifted responsibility, maybe not to stakeholders but to followers in the military. Bush has started a new PR blitz that claims the U.S. will find Osama Bin Laden soon. This is another example of regulating stress, people were starting to get tired of waiting for the person responsible for 9/11 so our leader held a press conference.
The formation of the Homeland Security department goes with the framing of the problem as a type I. The problem was lack of horizontal communication and in group/out group dynamics, so the simple answer is to combine all the agencies involved. This has now become the largest reorganization of the federal government in history. This action has given us a color coded threat level that is the mascot for the PR stupidity of our administration. Although the threat level was created to give comedians fodder during stand-up routines, it actually serves a purpose. It is very expensive to raise the threat level and puts things like the coast guard on a little higher alert. This is probably the closest to leadership George W. Bush gets. The homeland security department seems to increase communication and reduce the rivalry between group like the CIA and FBI. So it will help catch some attacks before they happen, like 9/11 should have been stopped because of the “Phoenix memo”.
The invasion of Iraq has also been a cornerstone of the Bush neo-conservative foreign policy. Since Bush’s election Paul Wolfowitz has been searching for a way to steer us in to war with Iraq. The opportunity presented itself in the form of thousands of Americans dying in the WTC and pentagon attacks. The problem was framed in a way that will seem so simply in hindsight in a few years idiotic. We brought up the usual suspects Saddam, Kim Jong Il, and Iran. This is where Bush’s foreign policy changes from not very smart, to catastrophically bad. The problem was framed that Iraq had chemical weapons that could not be found by the UN. Also the fact that Iraq had violated a UN code (in the opinion of the US) justified a pre-emptive invasion of Iraq, which itself violated two UN policies. The United States foreign policy has been led astray, the problem has been framed that “If you don’t get them first, they’ll get you.” If we follow Bush’s framing of the problem we can only win by destroying everything and everyone that isn’t American! The war’s justification changed as time has passed, we know there are no Weapons of Mass Destruction, we know that Saddam used technology from the US to build his chemical weapons in the first place, and now the only justification left is that Saddam is generally an evil person. Saddam is George W. Bush’s scapegoat, he is the proverbial deer strapped to the hood of the car, a trophy to show the public that he has done something.
The jailing of “enemy combatants” at Guantanimo bay Cuba is also another example of authority without leadership. Essentially Bush used a technicality in the Geneva convention and abused it on such a level to fill Gitmo detention center. As civil rights groups asked that the American citizens at least be able to contact a family member or attorney. Their families were not even allowed to know they were being held without trial by the United States government. To regulate distress the Bush administration assured America that these people were all terrorists, even though the only definition of terrorists Bush has given us is that they are people who “hate liberty”. This catch-22 worked out nicely and is even comical to read, because if terrorists hate liberty, we’re playing right in to their hands jailing them without trial. Recently the courts decided that Jose Padilla can see a lawyer and talk to his family, which opened the doors for other U.S. citizens being held at Gitmo to finally receive some sort of justice. The Bush administration focuses attention away from Guantanimo bay, because logically everyone makes mistakes many people in Gitmo are innocent and deserve a trial to determine their innocence.
Another example of the poor leadership being displayed is the encroachment on constitutional rights and resistance to the 9/11 commission. The Patriot act made it easier for law enforcement to do a lot of things, but the most important was invade privacy. There is a easier brightline to establish the need for a warrant to tap phones, although these rights have seen a slow encroachment as technology has advanced the mass fear has catalyzed this process.
The leadership President Bush is displaying is very weak. He refuses to deal with Terrorism as a type III problem. He instead will be fighting the symptoms of Terrorism for ever, because he does not frame the problem in the right way.
Terrorism will be here after Bush’s presidency no matter what. The things we will remember are the two wars we are simultaneously fighting overseas, while installing a non-elected leadership council in Iraq, and suspending habeas corpus for American prisoners. Framing the problem as a type I and using fear to build political capital is horrible leadership.
I hope that the United States comes to its senses and the wild rage that has taken hold after 9/11 turns in to a spirit of inquisition. Killing terrorists as we catch them or locking them up and throwing away the key in Cuba are not viable strategies. Only through investigation and understanding of how terrorists are created can we hope to reduce the threat of terrorist attack in the future. Until then I will be ever cognizant of the thousands of nuclear missiles pointed at my head and remember that terrorism is really nothing new.






Bibliography

Rowley, Colleen. “Coleen Rowley’s memo to FBI director Robert Mueller” http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101020603/memo.html May 21, 2002

Associated Press. “Pelosi pushes for new 9/11 deadline” New York Times Feb 26, 2004

Heifetz, Ronald. “Leadership without easy answers”

Real cool blog from Baghdad

Real News from Iraq:
http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/

What will you do when you are drafted?
A. Kill and Torture muslims in their sovereign nations, after enlistment and training
B. Canada
C. Conscientious Objector
D. Texas Air National Guard
E. Bring the war home

-Jimothy J. Jones

Think the Neo-Cons ever read about Algeria?

Jaded Cynic and Unwitting Imperialist Part Deux

A real quick post tonight was just thinking about taking a few points of logic, its kind of easier to portray it as my favorite two characters.

Setting: Two individuals sit in a living room, having their political agenda's set by the conditioning of the mass media. The report turns to the Iraq war...
(((((((((Curtain Opens)))))))))))))))))

Unwitting Imperialist: Did you hear? There are some people in Iraq who aren't welcoming us as liberators!

Jaded Cynic: You didn't know there are people who dislike America in the middle east?

UI: I just figured the people in Iraq would dislike Saddam more than American soldiers.

JC: You're serious?

UI: Yes, it makes sense i mean.....he gassed his own people!

JC: Kind of like the DDT we sprayed all the people that looked asian that the US government could round up and lock in "internment" camps during World War II? Or the Agent Orange and napalm that effected American soldiers in Vietnam? Or the mysterious Gulf War syndrome? America has used chemical weapons on its own people many times shit, during the RNC they used gas on most of the protestors whether it was tear gas grenades or mace in the eyes it was unmistakably chemical warfare.

UI: But he massacred the people of Halabjah!

JC: Of course Halabjah had been overrun by Iranian forces so this was an act of war in the Iran-Iraq war so Saddam would have liked to see them die. The US wasn't sure who to support: Iran or Iraq, so it supported both...hell, that's the most profitable solution and profit is the only thing more sacred than democracy right? And Saddam wanted to see kurds dead. It would make sense that the US would send someone over right away to chastise Saddam for using chemical weapons right?

UI: I know, I know, they sent Rumsfeld over and he didn't say shit about the chemical weapons. In fact they mostly talked about "normalizing" relations. So essentially what Saddam did *thoughtful pause* helped relations with the United States.

JC: So there yah go that's one reason they may hate us worse than Saddam, because we helped usher in his reign of terror.

UI: We were told that we would be welcomed as liberators and when the statue fell I thought we were well on our way to winning the hearts and minds of the people. Instead we have a buncha terrorists running around.

JC: Did you say terrorists? If that is true then I guess I am pro-terrorist. Check this reasoning. *ahem* Our founding fathers wanted to create a country where there was no country, correct?

UI: yes...

JC: They fought violently and killed many soldiers as well as civilians who supported the British, correct?

UI: Yes...

JC: One of their main contentions and the fundamental reason behind the revolution and subsequent creation of a democratic-republic was "taxation without representation" correct?

UI: Yes? What's your point?

JC: In Iraq Bremer instituted a Flat tax on all citizens not only does this disproportionately shift the burden of supplying resources for the state to the lower classes. This is coupled with the fact that "the butcher" who is infamous for his brutality as prime minster (Allawi) was not elected by anyone and will not be elected for a long period of time. Is this not taxation without representation? the exact same cause our revolution was fought for?

UI: I guess the causes are the same..So what?

JC: Well this is where it gets interesting alright...If you are a patriot you support the declaration of independence, the constitution, and our revolution. If you do not believe in the cause of the American revolution then you do not have a strong belief in representative democracy.

UI: ok...

JC: OK so basically it is assumed that everyone in the United States supports the ideas behind our own revolution. If this is true all Americans logically support the insurgents within Iraq fighting the civil war, because they are being taxed without representation by an occupying foreign power. So to say the people who protest the war are "unamerican" is essentially the opposite of what is true...If one is truly "American" then one supports the ideals of our revolution: the declaration of independence and the United States constitution; then therefore you wish the Iraqi people the same right to self-determination as we have.

UI: So the end result?

JC: If we do support these rights we must stop taxing them without representation, hold elections, and get the hell out of their country.

UI: You got a little long-winded there, but I get the point...You're a hippy.

JC: Well looks like you resurrected another old catchphrase. The funny thing is both were probably invented by Nixon for McCarthy's house committee on unamerican activity and Nixon's favorite term for protestors: "hippies". Now individuals who aren't pacifists, but still believe war should be only fought in certain situations are stuck in the tiny space the media lets them be broadcast in, still portraying them all as anarchists and communists...or flippantly referring to them as "hippies"

UI: Well at least we'll win the war soon.

JC: are you serious? You talkin' about the occupation?

UI: Yes, Bush said he'll bring democracy as soon as there is peace. I heard the words come out of his mouth.

JC: Yet there will be no peace without democracy, and there will never be democracy as long as the country is ruled by a foreign military and their Saddam Jr.: Allawi

UI: Well the job of spreading freedom is hard.

JC: On that point I will agree with you buddy, spreading freedom IS hard, especially with the United States always working so hard against freedom in the name of progress or profit.

UI: Well its like Bush always implies: We *ARE* god's chosen people [flashes baiting grin]

JC: Yah because of Bush we'll be *chosen* for torture whenever captured from here to eternity, because of the grotesque actions our government, military, and private corporations carried out in that prison and many others.

UI: Everybody knows that if we hadn't invaded Iraq then Saddam would have been supreme ruler of the United States by now at the helm of his massive and high-tech army rolling through the United States as all the people bowed at his feet.

JC: Sometimes I think we both get so sarcastic its hard to tell if we're actually disagreeing.

UI: Yah I know I was just fuckin around everyone knows Saddam didn't have any WMD and his army was eviscerated in the first gulf war.

JC: What are we supposed to do? The supreme court will appoint him if we vote him outta office. He taught us our votes don't count in 2000 almost as well as he taught arab leaders that surviving in a world run by the United States with only conventional weapons is suicide, one needs WMD if they don't want to get "shock and awed". In fact our tactics of terror like Abu Ghraib(rape,torture, sodomy); Dasht Delile(mass graves in Afghanistan); and the many missiles aimed at civilian targets, may provoke another 9/11. Would you be surprised if Governor Bush Jr.'s foreign policy was the cause of another massive terrorist attack?

**Before UI can respond, a Mushroom Cloud takes form in the distance through the window.***
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