Positive news from the war front

Here's a slightly dated post from Baghdad Burning, winner of a Bloggie for best Middle East and Africa Blog. Written by a 25-year-old Iraqi woman who goes by the name of Riverbend for obvious reasons of remaining anonymous, the blog offers up an unsanitized version of how swimmingly our little experiment in nation building is doing.

Three Years...

It has been three years since the beginning of the war that marked the end of Iraq’s independence. Three years of occupation and bloodshed.

Spring should be about renewal and rebirth. For Iraqis, spring has been about reliving painful memories and preparing for future disasters. In many ways, this year is like 2003 prior to the war when we were stocking up on fuel, water, food and first aid supplies and medications. We're doing it again this year but now we don't discuss what we're stocking up for. Bombs and B-52's are so much easier to face than other possibilities.

I don’t think anyone imagined three years ago that things could be quite this bad today. The last few weeks have been ridden with tension. I’m so tired of it all- we’re all tired.

Three years and the electricity is worse than ever. The security situation has gone from bad to worse. The country feels like it’s on the brink of chaos once more- but a pre-planned, pre-fabricated chaos being led by religious militias and zealots.

School, college and work have been on again, off again affairs. It seems for every two days of work/school, there are five days of sitting at home waiting for the situation to improve. Right now college and school are on hold because the “arba3eeniya” or the “40th Day” is coming up- more black and green flags, mobs of men in black and latmiyas. We were told the children should try going back to school next Wednesday. I say “try” because prior to the much-awaited parliamentary meeting a couple of days ago, schools were out. After the Samarra mosque bombing, schools were out. The children have been at home this year more than they’ve been in school.

I’m especially worried about the Arba3eeniya this year. I’m worried we’ll see more of what happened to the Askari mosque in Samarra. Most Iraqis seem to agree that the whole thing was set up by those who had most to gain by driving Iraqis apart.

I’m sitting here trying to think what makes this year, 2006, so much worse than 2005 or 2004. It’s not the outward differences- things such as electricity, water, dilapidated buildings, broken streets and ugly concrete security walls. Those things are disturbing, but they are fixable. Iraqis have proved again and again that countries can be rebuilt. No- it’s not the obvious that fills us with foreboding.

The real fear is the mentality of so many people lately- the rift that seems to have worked it’s way through the very heart of the country, dividing people. It’s disheartening to talk to acquaintances- sophisticated, civilized people- and hear how Sunnis are like this, and Shia are like that… To watch people pick up their things to move to “Sunni neighborhoods” or “Shia neighborhoods”. How did this happen?

I read constantly analyses mostly written by foreigners or Iraqis who’ve been abroad for decades talking about how there was always a divide between Sunnis and Shia in Iraq (which, ironically, only becomes apparent when you're not actually living amongst Iraqis they claim)… but how under a dictator, nobody saw it or nobody wanted to see it. That is simply not true- if there was a divide, it was between the fanatics on both ends. The extreme Shia and extreme Sunnis. Most people simply didn’t go around making friends or socializing with neighbors based on their sect. People didn't care- you could ask that question, but everyone would look at you like you were silly and rude.

I remember as a child, during a visit, I was playing outside with one of the neighbors children. Amal was exactly my age- we were even born in the same month, only three days apart. We were laughing at a silly joke and suddenly she turned and asked coyly, “Are you Sanafir or Shanakil?” I stood there, puzzled. ‘Sanafir’ is the Arabic word for “Smurfs” and ‘Shanakil” is the Arabic word for “Snorks”. I didn’t understand why she was asking me if I was a Smurf or a Snork. Apparently, it was an indirect way to ask whether I was Sunni (Sanafir) or Shia (Shanakil).

“What???” I asked, half smiling. She laughed and asked me whether I prayed with my hands to my sides or folded against my stomach. I shrugged, not very interested and a little bit ashamed to admit that I still didn’t really know how to pray properly, at the tender age of 10.

Later that evening, I sat at my aunt’s house and remember to ask my mother whether we were Smurfs or Snorks. She gave me the same blank look I had given Amal. “Mama- do we pray like THIS or like THIS?!” I got up and did both prayer positions. My mother’s eyes cleared and she shook her head and rolled her eyes at my aunt, “Why are you asking? Who wants to know?” I explained how Amal, our Shanakil neighbor, had asked me earlier that day. “Well tell Amal we’re not Shanakil and we’re not Sanafir- we’re Muslims- there’s no difference.”

It was years later before I learned that half the family were Sanafir, and the other half were Shanakil, but nobody cared. We didn’t sit around during family reunions or family dinners and argue Sunni Islam or Shia Islam. The family didn’t care about how this cousin prayed with his hands at his side and that one prayed with her hands folded across her stomach. Many Iraqis of my generation have that attitude. We were brought up to believe that people who discriminated in any way- positively or negatively- based on sect or ethnicity were backward, uneducated and uncivilized.

The thing most worrisome about the situation now, is that discrimination based on sect has become so commonplace. For the average educated Iraqi in Baghdad, there is still scorn for all the Sunni/Shia talk. Sadly though, people are being pushed into claiming to be this or that because political parties are promoting it with every speech and every newspaper- the whole ‘us’ / ‘them’. We read constantly about how ‘We Sunnis should unite with our Shia brothers…’ or how ‘We Shia should forgive our Sunni brothers…’ (note how us Sunni and Shia sisters don’t really fit into either equation at this point). Politicians and religious figures seem to forget at the end of the day that we’re all simply Iraqis.

And what role are the occupiers playing in all of this? It’s very convenient for them, I believe. It’s all very good if Iraqis are abducting and killing each other- then they can be the neutral foreign party trying to promote peace and understanding between people who, up until the occupation, were very peaceful and understanding.

Three years after the war, and we’ve managed to move backwards in a visible way, and in a not so visible way.

In the last weeks alone, thousands have died in senseless violence and the American and Iraqi army bomb Samarra as I write this. The sad thing isn’t the air raid, which is one of hundreds of air raids we’ve seen in three years- it’s the resignation in the people. They sit in their homes in Samarra because there’s no where to go. Before, we’d get refugees in Baghdad and surrounding areas… Now, Baghdadis themselves are looking for ways out of the city… out of the country. The typical Iraqi dream has become to find some safe haven abroad.

Three years later and the nightmares of bombings and of shock and awe have evolved into another sort of nightmare. The difference between now and then was that three years ago, we were still worrying about material things- possessions, houses, cars, electricity, water, fuel… It’s difficult to define what worries us most now. Even the most cynical war critics couldn't imagine the country being this bad three years after the war... Allah yistur min il rab3a (God protect us from the fourth year).

Security freaks love kiddie porn

Apparently spying on fellow U.S. citizens isn't time consuming enough, as the fourth-ranking official in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security had ample time to engage his predilections in kiddie porn.

In a twist with Foucaldian ramifications, an agency assigned the role of protecting Americans from terrorism, is staffed by individuals who don't see the harm in violating the sanctum of childhood.

Brian Doyle, Homeland Security's spokesperson, was put on administrative leave with pay, as investigations began into allegations that he solicited a minor on line. Authorities indicated that Doyle sent pornographic movie clips, as well as non-sexual photos of himself, to a 14-year-old female.

Apparently, one of the photos, released by the sheriff's office, shows Doyle in what appears to be DHS headquarters. He is wearing a Homeland Security pin on his lapel and a lanyard that says "
TSA".

We all should be asking hard questions of our rulers, particularly when they arrogantly assume they have some G-d-given right to rule over us. What human frailty are they lacking that makes them worthy to spy on us, confiscate civil liberties and run roughshod over us.

Obviously, men like Doyle are no better than you and I and I make the case that he and his fellow perverts and twisted lot fall far short of most of the citizens that they think they need to keep an eye on.

Can baseball saves us?

Some days, you've just got to forget about the war on terror, domestic spying, the Bush presidency, and falling SAT scores.

It's opening day across America and despite ESPN crashing the party with it's stupid Sunday night opener, baseball was meant to be played in the daytime, with Cincinnati usually doing the honors.

In honor of the special place that baseball holds in my life, I've weighed in on opening day, over at Write in Maine.

And yes, there is joy in Mudville, tonight (as well as Atlanta, Baltimore, Detroit, and a few other places)!

In honor of the day, here is some collected opening day highlights and interesting feats.

Who is George Mason and should anybody care?

I’ve always been a fan of the underdog, in my sports teams, music I listen to and companies I support. The “David vs. Goliath” scenario has always intrigued me. While sometimes these match-ups end up being more media hype than a legitimate mismatch, this year’s run by George Mason University, rising like cream, from the bottom of the pile of 64 basketball teams, to the NCAA Men’s Final Four, is the real deal and has captivated both the hard-core fan and jaded sports enthusiasts, alike.

To give you an idea of how my favorite teams usually fared, I’ll share one from my boyhood, that being about the 1972 Texas Rangers. I fell in love with this team due to my enjoyment of watching the underdog Washington Senators and huge Frank Howard (6'6", 250 pounds), who appeared larger than life, even on the primitive black and white TV that I first watched Red Sox games on. I also developed a fixation for a young Senators' player, Jeff Burroughs, a powerful right-handed slugger, who as an 18-year-old bonus baby, received his hitting instruction from a manager named Ted Williams, a pretty good hitter in his own right. The ’72 Rangers were a woeful team, hence, my fascination with them. With a woeful 54-100 record, they finished dead last in the American League West Division that summer. Burroughs showed his appreciation for my adulation by never answering the 15 or more requests I sent him for an autograph. Fucking asshole!! (Apparently still a sore spot)

Williams had been voted AL manager-of-the-year in 1969, for leading the Senators to a respectable 3rd place finish. If you know the Senators’ sordid past, you’ll know that winning 86 games as their skipper made Williams worthy of that honor. Williams followed up his successful 1969 campaign with season totals of 72 wins in 1970 and 69 wins in 1971. In 1972, Williams and his Senators found themselves in the Texas no-man’s-land of Arlington, midway between Dallas and Fort Worth. While the Splendid Splinter was a wonderful hitter and reputable hitting coach, he was never much of a manager. At the end of ’72, the late Red Sox slugger found himself out of a job.

Back to George Mason. This unlikely crew of college basketball players have captivated college basketball fans nationwide. Despite finishing the regular season with a 23-7 mark, they were a surprise selection for the NCAA tournament, mostly because the Colonial Athletic Conference (CAA), isn’t considered one of the elite conferences and there were doubts about their strength of schedule. They did win a key “bracket buster” game against perennial national power, Wichita State, back in February (and also beat them in the NCAA tournament). Still, the CAA hasn’t receive an at-large invitation to the big dance since 1986, when Richmond (now a member of the Atlantic-10) received an at-large invitation.

Despite the incredulity expressed by ESPN host, Billy Packer, at GMU’s at-large bid to the tourney, all GMU has done is march through the NCAA field, with four upset victories and now will face Florida (a great story in their own right) tomorrow, at 6:05 PM. Can this Hollywood movie in the making script give us one more (or the unthinkable, two) victory?

What I’ve been impressed with about GMU, is that unlike many other traditional basketball powers, who year-after-year end up in the Final Four, this university is actually a school where the emphasis has always been on academics. It’s ironic that a school like Mason, has to rely on college athletics to receive any national attention. As their president, Alan Merten (in an interview with C-Span’s Brian Lamb, this AM) expressed, this is a great opportunity for the school and sometimes, particularly for a school like his—only in existence since 1972—sports success is what it takes to get noticed. Obviously he understands America’s obsession with “bread and circuses.”

One interesting note about George Mason, since immigration policy has dominated the news of late, is the diversity of this Fairfax, Virginia-based school. There are 140 different nationalities on campus, as well as 85 languages represented. Merten mentioned that 30 to 35 percent of the student body are either foreign-born or first-generation Americans.

Will the Patriots be able to finish strong with their improbable Cinderella story? Obviously, it would be a Hollywood scenario, ala Hoosiers, if they did in fact beat the higher-seed, Florida. One thing is for certain, much of the country will be rooting for them.

The Washington Post does a nice article on the team’s coach, Jim Larranaga.

Liberals kill kids

I’m all for freedom of religion. While I no longer find much validity in practicing any organized form of spirituality, I don’t hold it against others who gain strength and solace from a belief in a higher being.

Then again, when I hear right-wing windbags like Rick Scarborough, blather his nonsense about how “liberals are killing kids,” I suddenly get defensive and think about reneging on my kindness and magnanimity towards religious folk.

What I have to tell myself is that right-leaning nut jobs like Rick Scarborough, are dyed-in-the-wool members of the American Taliban and that he doesn’t represent most religious practitioners in America, just a small, vocal minority. Oh, but an annoying minority they are.

This morning, one of my favorite progressive radio jocks, Rachel Maddow, of Air America, graciously extended an invitation to Scarborough, to talk about his book, Liberalism Kills Kids. With the book’s provocative title and more than enough experience with small-minded religious bigots, like Scarborough, I wasn’t feeling overly optimistic for Maddow’s chances of conducting an honest interview with Scarborough. My doubts had nothing to do with Maddow, who is a tough, but fair-minded interviewer. My concern was blowhards like Scarborough, who talk, talk, talk and never allow the host a word, edgewise.

Scarborough didn’t disappoint me. He rarely allowed Maddow any opportunity to conduct an interview. He ran his mouth, nonstop, during the entire segment. Maddow was only able to get an opportunity to talk by shaming Scarborough into giving up the mike for just a few seconds.

The best part of Scarborough’s playing the victim card, was his insistence that America persecutes Christians and prevents them from practicing their faith. What gives so-called followers of Jesus, like Scarborough, such a persecution complex? They continually assert that their rights are being violated, with little hard evidence to support that contention. In fact, I'd say that anti-intellectual bigots, like Scarborough, have had more than their fair share of face time given them, by the mainstream media. IMHO, I'd be more than happy to see them crawl back under the slippery rock they slithered from.