ramble through the bronx

Tuesday, September 16, 2003

Girl Blog From Iraq

Check out this blog by riverbend, specifically her post on Bush's Sept 7 speech. But just read it in general. At one point she also links to turning tables, the blog of an American soldier in Iraq (he's going home soon).

Here's the last little bit of her Sept 9 post. :

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Everyone is asking, ‘What should be done?’. Pull out the American troops. Take them home. Bring in UN peace-keeping troops under the Security Council- not led by America.

Let real Iraqis be involved in governing Iraq. Let Iraqis who actually have *families* living in Iraq be involved in governing their country. Let Iraqis who have something to lose govern the country. They aren’t being given a chance. As long as any Iraqi isn’t affiliated with one of the political groups on the Governing Council, no one bothers to listen.

We have thousands of competent, intelligent, innovative people who are eager to move forward but it’s impossible under these circumstances. There’s no security, there’s no work and there’s no incentive. AND THERE’S NO ONE WHO WILL LISTEN. If you’re not a part of the CPA or one of Ahmad Al-Chalabi’s thugs, then you’re worthless. You can’t be trusted.

I read Bush’s speech… just like I’ve read/heard what feels like a thousand different speeches these last few months. Empty words, meaningless phrases.

The abridged version of the speech…

“Friends, Americans, Countrymen, lend me your ears… lend me your sons and daughters, lend me your tax dollars… so we can wage war in the name of American national security (people worldwide are willing to die for it)… so I can cover up my incompetence in failing to protect you… so I can add to the Bush and Cheney family coffers at your expense and the expense of the Iraqi people. I don’t know what I’m doing, but if you spend enough money, you’ll want to believe that I do."

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And an excerpt from riverbend's post from the previous day ---

"As the tanks and Apaches invaded the city, they shot left and right at any vehicle in their path. The areas that got it worst were Al-Dawra and Al-A’adhamia. People in residential areas didn’t know what to do with the corpses in the burnt vehicles that had come from other parts of the city. They were the corpses of people and families who were trying to get away from the heavy fighting in their own areas, some of them had been officially evacuated.

The corpses sat decomposing in the heat, beyond identification. Some people tried asking the troops to help deal with them, but the reaction was mainly, “That’s not my job.” Of course not, how silly… your job is to burn the cars, we bury the corpses.

Finally, the people began to bury the corpses along the roadside- near the burnt vehicles so that family members looking for the car would find their loved ones not very far off."

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Oh, and the previous day, about Rumsfeld is good too.

just read her bloody blog. :)

and on a personal note

things are going well with me; Eric came to visit this weekend, which was fantastic, and then after he left I talked to Jennifer, Preetom, Annie, Melanie, and Kathleen on the phone as they were all at a party at Jennifer's house in Riverdale (the Riverdale area of Toronto, not the Riverdale area of the Bronx). They passed the phone around; I felt like I was mingling, it was fun.

and I've been running twice in the last week, with Holly. Here's hoping this is a new leaf, instead of a momentary abberation.

but I'm in desperate need of doing laundry, and having coffee this morning.

and of course I've put off doing anything useful, other than reading online news, blogs, and other fun things. Oh, just for the hell of it -- Paul Kendal told me about the Dalton McGuinty eating kittens thing, and I laughed, but then I saw that Neil Gaiman (the picture of me with him, by the way, has now been developed and is sitting in a frame on the bookshelf holding all my Sandmans, my copy of American Gods, Smoke and Mirrors, Good Omens, and Sandman: Book of Dreams) mentioned the story on his journal, so I thought I should include a link to the globe and mail version of the events too, in order to perpetuate the pointless mayhem.

I thought the most salient part of the globe and mail article was its demonstration of Eves's true evil -- cutting down on coffee for his staffers!

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Conservative Leader Ernie Eves blamed the release on a staffer who apparently "had too much coffee this morning ... too much time."

But he refused to retract the statement.

"I'm not apologizing, but I am acknowledging that it certainly went over the top," he said. "Somebody had a weird sense of humour and we will try to ensure that it doesn't happen again. We'll give the [staff] less coffee."
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yes. speaking of coffee. I should go make some.

jane 10:31 AM [+]