In The Name of Western Democracy - Ryan Harvey
Phillistinee children spread all over the region
The survivors of al-Nakba, uprooted and imprisoned
Groves of ancient olive trees plowed over in a moment
Refugees piling in to Lebanon and Jordan
And Iraq, who ain’t forgot about the Amiriyah massacre
Or the highways of death, that summarized the last war
Soldiers flying low in Bush’s helicopters
Firing missiles into soldiers surrendering in Basra
I don’t care or you’re a Muslim or a Jew
I care about what you do
You take my land, take my food
I’d fire rockets at you too
And that’s not to say that I’d like to live that way
Nobody wants to see their people dying everyday
Or having to bomb the border wall just to get medicine
Digging tunnels into Egypt to smuggle food and water in
Sewage spilling out into the blue shores of Palestine
The culture, the land, the people, a slow and brutal genocide
What’s the point of Memorial Day when no one wants to learn from history?
What’s the point of Memorial Day when more soldiers commit suicide then die in actual combat?
What’s the point of Memorial Day when no one cares about them when they get back?
What’s the point of Memorial Day when the army purposely underdiagnoses PTSD?
What’s the point of Memorial Day when your war vets end up homeless on the streets?
Americans who get all patriotic today, please enlighten me. What is the point of your badges and flag waving and what the fuck do any of your soldiers get out of it?
*This post purposely ignores the part where nobody was ‘fighting for freedom’ or ‘defending their country’ nor does it address the fact that Iraq and Afghanistan have been completely fucking devastated because patriotic pinheads seem to be allergic to any mention of that. I just want to know how your bullshit pride and a day of flag waving help your brave soldiers that you’re so proud of, if you care about them so much, why don’t you fucking do something substantial about a system that ignores them or maybe even once just listen to them?
I try to stay on-topic with this blog and just talk about music, but every now and then I shoot my mouth off about politics, and some of my followers have pointed out that I have a distinct Liberal bias. Which isn’t entirely accurate. I’m a redneck, grew up in the cornfields of Illinois—and Illinois, once you get south of Kankakee, is very much a Red State. I grew up reading the Conservative Chronicle and listening to Rush Limbaugh with my father. If I tend to lean to the Left, it’s because I served two deployments in Iraq and then spent some time living in poverty. I was homeless for a couple months. An experience like that will teach any reasonable American to ask some very serious questions about income inequality, about our foreign policy, about human rights, about the ways in which the country I love unfortunately favors the rich and completely disregards the rest of us, about the civil rights I assumed we had but aren’t really “rights” at all when some dipshit Senator can take them away on a whim.
So I got this idea. I’m volunteering to go back to Iraq, but on one condition: I want to take Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter, Rick Santorum, Rush Limbaugh, Eric Cantor, Dick Cheney, John Stossel, Bill O’Reilly, Donald Rumsfeld, Mike Savage, John Boehner, and Glenn Beck along for the ride. Let those fuckers spend a year with me in Iraq, and they’ll come home singing a different tune.
That’s right, folks: Doc Shoe just figured out how to fix America. You’re welcome. Now start writing some goddamn letters and let’s make this shit happen.
Keep on rockin’ in the Free World, folks—
Doc Shoe
PS: And don’t forget that draft-dodging shitbag Mitt Romney.
Perfection.
According to a diplomatic cable published by WikiLeaks, U.S. troops willfully massacred an Iraqi family in the town of Ishaqi in 2006, handcuffing and then shooting 11 people in the head including a woman in her 70′s and five children ages five and under.
McClatchy is reporting that the soldiers then called in an air strike on the house to cover up evidence of the killings.
This account differs sharply from an official version of the 2006 incident, which indicated that coalition forces captured an al Qaeda in Iraq operative in the house, which was destroyed in a firefight. The WikiLeaks cable, however, corroborates accounts by Ishaqi townspeople and includes questions about the incident by Philip Alston, the U.N.’s special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions.
The cable is dated twelve days after the incident, which took place March 15, 2006. In it, Alston says that autopsies performed in Tikrit on bodies pulled from the wreckage of the farmhouse indicated that all of the dead had been handcuffed and shot in the head.
If true, this action, although not as egregious as the My Lai massacre of March 16, 1968, wherein 347-504 unarmed civilians were shot to death by U.S. forces during the Vietnam conflict, still speaks volumes about war and the atrocities committed for war’s sake.
Read the original article (warning: graphic images)
New disturbing charges have emerged against XE, the infamous private security firm formerly known as Blackwater Worldwide, whose operations came under spotlight after its 2007 carnage in Baghdad.
According to a report by MSNBC and based on alleged sworn declarations by two Blackwater employees in federal court, the firm used child prostitutes at its compound in Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone.
The declarations added Iraqi minors got involved in sexual acts with Blackwater members in exchange for one dollar and Erik Prince, the firm’s owner, “failed to stop the ongoing use of prostitutes, including child prostitutes, by his men.”
Based on other statements, the firm was involved in another sex scandal; “Prince’s North Carolina operations had an ongoing wife-swapping and sex ring, which was participated in by many of Mr. Prince’s top executives.”
The two employees also alleged that Prince “views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe,” The Nation reported.
Prince also allegedly forced health professional to endorse the redeployment of those Blackwater members who had been mental problems, such as excessive drinking and drug abuse.
Other charges against the firm include arms smuggling, money laundering and tax evasion.
The criminal activities of the firm first came under scrutiny after a group of the firm’s members who were tasked to guard US diplomats in Iraq opened fire on civilians in Baghdad on September 2007, killing 17 people.
According to federal contract data obtained by The Nation, the Obama administration has recently extended a contract with Blackwater for more than $20 million for “security services” in Iraq.
You know what the funny thing is? I have repeatedly said that I do not conflate the actions of a government with the people, that should have been enough for you. Yet you decide to take personal offence at criticism of Britain’s widespread crimes like I should be apologizing to you for bringing up the inconvinient fact that the country you love so much spends a lot of its time fucking up the rest of the world. That your poor little patriotic feelings are somehow more important than the millions of people who have been killed or brutalized by the actions of your fucking country.
First of all: Iraq. Iraq. Iraq. Is not history.
Second of all: Don’t you fucking dare tell me to ‘get over it’- those historical events took people’s lives, they destroyed cultures, they continue to hurt people to this day. And they are never acknowledged let alone made up for. Did you know Britain recently destroyed thousands of records of colonial crimes?
I’m sure you’ve heard of the stupid KONY 2012 movement, did you know that the reason that countries like Uganda are in the state they are in today is a direct consequence of British colonization? (http://stay-human.tumblr.com/post/19667152692/newwavefeminism)
Just because Britain retreated does not mean that things are somehow okay. The “historical events” you refer to had consequences that have ruined the lives of millions of people and continue to do so today. Just ask the Palestinians.
Or let’s talk about all the natural resources Britain stole and then wonder why those stupid backward third-world countries can’t just hurry the fuck up and develop like the ‘West’ did.
Or let’s talk about Native Americans who’ve basically been written out of the history books. It’s funny how in school they taught me about the fur trade, mentioned the Native Americans, and totally forgot about the part where thousands of them died.
Or let’s talk about the way the British used to favour light skinned people over the others in the indigenous populations as a way of controlling regions and how that mindframe has little girls in India hating the colour of their skin, hiding from the sun, using a shit load of chemicals, and thinking that they’re somehow ‘less’ because of something they have no control over.
If I started listing all the shit that Britain has done and how that shit is hurting people today I would quite literally end up writing a book. My friend azzooz just made a list of the countries affected and that was long as hell, let alone a list of the actual crimes.
You know why things don’t change? Because idiots like you refuse to open a goddamn book and read. Because people rather ignore the horrible things than learn about them. Because nothing can be addressed until it is actually acknowledged but the type of mindframe that you have is the one that is prevalent. The one that tells people to ‘move on’ after hundreds of years of injustice. The one that pretends you can ignore history, that there are no consequences.
I cannot believe you have taken this to the point of brushing aside the brutalization and murder and pillaging of so many people with a ‘get over it’ because your blind patriotism couldn’t handle a comment on the internet which, by the way, was a reaction to learning about all the fuckery Britain was responsible for in Ireland (which brings us to a whole other story spreading over about 500 fucking years).
And to answer your previous question; yes, I have been to England and thank God I met some amazing British people far from the likes of you as possible.
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Which only underlines that what is called international law simply doesn’t apply to the big powers or their political leaders. In the 10 years of its existence, the International criminal court has indicted 28 people from seven countries for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Every single one of them is African – even though ICC signatories include war-wracked states such as Colombia and Afghanistan.
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…the International criminal court has indicted 28 people from seven countries for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Every single one of them is African.
Every single one of them is African.
*must not fail finals*
Get your news on Palestine from Gaza Solidarity. And follow these amazing blogs:
- mehreenkasana (South Asian politics, feminism)
- readyokaygo (American politics, Palestine/Israel)
- verbalresistance (Palestine/Israel)
- docshoesoapbox (Iraq war)
- theyellowcrayon (various Human Rights issues)
- palestinianrefugeerevolution (Palestine activism information)
- thepalestineyoudontknow (Palestinian history and culture)
- arielnietzsche (content regarding Palestine/Israel)
And now I’m going to stop because this list is getting long *too lazy to mention everyone* XP But yeah, these guys should keep you more than up to date ;)
For real this time :$
*must not fail finals*
Get your news on Palestine from Gaza Solidarity. And follow these amazing blogs:
- mehreenkasana (South Asian politics, feminism)
- readyokaygo (American politics, Palestine/Israel)
- verbalresistance (Palestine/Israel)
- docshoesoapbox (Iraq war)
-
leptiir (information about various conflict zones)
- theyellowcrayon (various Human Rights issues)
- palestinianrefugeerevolution (Palestine activism information)
- thepalestineyoudontknow (Palestinian history and culture)
-
israelfacts (documentation of Israeli crimes)
- arielnietzsche (content regarding Palestine/Israel)
And now I’m going to stop because this list is getting long *too lazy to mention everyone* XP But yeah, these guys should keep you more than up to date ;)
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I agree with him that much of what the US military has done in Iraq and Afghanistan can be characterized as terrorism, and I support Afghans and Iraqis who fight back against us. What I helped do to the city of Fallujah was terrorism, and I lost two dear friends in that operation, but I cannot hate or begrudge the resistance in Fallujah for killing them. They were only doing what I would have done had a foreign army been laying siege to my hometown. We were the aggressors and the terrorists, and I can see that now, eight years too late.
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I learned one more thing in history class: America has historically supported the most unjust policies against its minorities – practices that were even protected by the law – only to look back later and ask: ’what were we thinking?’ Slavery, Jim Crow, the internment of the Japanese during World War II – each was widely accepted by American society, each was defended by the Supreme Court. But as time passed and America changed, both people and courts looked back and asked ’What were we thinking?’ Nelson Mandela was considered a terrorist by the South African government, and given a life sentence. But time passed, the world changed, they realized how oppressive their policies were, that it was not he who was the terrorist, and they released him from prison. He even became president. So, everything is subjective - even this whole business of “terrorism” and who is a “terrorist.” It all depends on the time and place and who the superpower happens to be at the moment.
Mr. Mehanna has been sentenced to 17 years in prison for what seems to be yet another violation (by the state) of good ol’ America’s First Amendment: Freedom of speech. Too bad there’s very little for Muslim Americans.
(via mehreenkasana)
Question: Do you believe there has ever existed a country in which every single person—man, woman, and child—deserved to die?
Unless you’re a racist asshole, the answer should be: “No.”
And yet some people really do think that way. Just last Thanksgiving I had to sit and listen to my own father (who has never served in the military, by the way) shoot off at the mouth about how we “need to just kill all the Muslims.”
What’s worse is, a lot of people seem to feel that way. To my deep shame, I had to sit there with my girlfriend and listen while members of my own family agreed with this horseshit.
As the only person in the room who’d actually been to the Middle East, met a great many Muslims and befriended a few, and served in our botched War On Terror, I felt I had a responsibility to speak up. So I said a few things that should have been obvious. How genocide is wrong. How religious intolerance is wrong. That almost all the people I met Over There were good, decent people who just want to live their lives in peace without getting bombs dropped on them, and that really doesn’t seem like too much to ask for.
The men grumbled, mentioned again that I’m the token Hippie of the family, and I think my Dad muttered something about how I must have picked up these crazy ideas in college or during my time living in San Francisco. As if I’d said something utterly senseless and he had to find an excuse for my obvious wrongheadedness. At this point my aunts rushed in to change the subject.
They’re very good at changing the subject. To this day I haven’t been able to have an honest conversation about Iraq with my family. Haven’t been able, or perhaps haven’t been allowed to.
Getting back to the point: I may have picked an extreme example, but the problem is that most Americans—and probably most people throughout the world—are raised to think this way. When we send children to their history classes and teach them about past wars, we always describe those wars in terms of The Good Guys vs. The Bad Guys. Us vs. Them. But the world is far more complicated than that. Unless, of course, you believe that every single German soldier killed in World War Two was a mass-murdering Nazi with no respect for human life.
Which isn’t true. Your average German soldier was just another poor farm-boy, drafted into a madman’s war.
Those Soviet troops we were taught to fear during the Cold War? Again, I’d bet most of them were just poor draftees.
How about the Indian Wars? Remember cheering at the movies whenever John Wayne shot another red man? Those Native Americans were just some young men defending their homeland. Read Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee sometime. If anyone was the “bad guy” in that situation, it was John Wayne for fuck’s sake.
I believe I can speak with some experience of your average “terrorist.” He’s a guy living in the middle of nowhere. He’s poorer than you can imagine. He’s got kids to feed. And one day some asshole with a bomb offers to pay him twenty dollars to dig a hole in the road. Our “terrorist” knows the man who hired him will probably plant a bomb in that hole to kill Americans, but he needs the money, and he’s afraid what will happen to him if he says no, and he doesn’t like what these American soldiers have done to his country anyhow, so he takes the job. Next thing he knows, he’s being tortured in Guantanamo Bay.
Does that poor man really sound like a homicidal maniac to you? Do you think this “terrorist” deserves to die? Yes, I understand that there are some genuinely awful men in the world who do terrible, inhuman things. I’ve met a few of those guys, too. But most of the “terrorists” I met were just poor bastards stuck in the wrong place at the wrong time.
And if you can empathize with that “terrorist,” then what about your average law-abiding Iraqi citizen who just saw his home blown to pieces? Does it really make any difference to him if the bomber was American or Al Quaeda? Either way, his home is gone, and he’s got a right to be angry about that. You can see how he might not be very happy with us.
I spoke of “terrorists,” but I can speak even more confidently of your average American soldier. He’s a poor kid who’s been misled. He’s been taught since earliest childhood that war is noble, that war is romantic, that war is Right, especially when America goes to war. Your average American soldier is a child that has been brainwashed and handed a gun and turned loose in a hostile land. He’s a good kid tricked into doing terrible things.
God forbid he should learn the error of his ways. Soldiers who refuse orders have a way of disappearing. Just look at Private Bradley Manning. You can be sent to prison—military prison, where you’ll break big rocks into little rocks for the next few decades. Politicians and the media will vilify you. You’ll be ostracized by your fellow soldiers, your friends, even your own family. You’ll be dishonorably discharged, and not even McDonald’s will hire you. You’ll be branded a Traitor, the lowest form of human scum, and it would be better for you if you were born dead. And it goes without saying that the war you protested will go on, bloody as ever, with or without your cooperation.
So, yeah. I had my doubts about our War On Terror. But I continued to follow orders until I finally (finally!) got an opportunity to leave active duty and go back home. Perhaps some of you think that’s not enough, that I should have thrown down my rifle and my aid bag and martyred myself. That my failure to do so makes me the Bad Guy.
And if that’s the way you feel, you need to grow the hell up.
If you’re so immature that you think of war in terms of The Good Guys vs. The Bad Guys, you’re likely to think that all Iraqis are bloodthirsty terrorists, or that all American soldiers are inhuman baby-killers. And either way, you’re wrong.
We’re all adults here. We should know better.
But apparently we don’t. Just watch five minutes of Fox News and you’ll see highly paid pundits talking about war in terms of Us vs. Them. Good and Evil.
Our political leaders talk this way, too. Either they’re condescending to us, talking to us like we’re children, or they’re damn fool enough to think that way. And we’re damn fool enough to elect them.
People who talk like that are far guiltier than your average enemy soldier. It’s that sort of political language that dehumanizes people and allows us to kill thousands of people overseas and still sleep at night.
If you’re dumb enough to think that way, you need to shut the fuck up when grown folks are talking.
Everybody just needs to read every post on this blog.
I don’t know if you remember this but she was beaten to death in a hate crime. With a note left near her head saying something to the effect of ‘go back to your country, terrorist’. Found in a pool of her own blood by her 17 year old daughter. Ring a bell yet? Sudden collective amnesia’s a funny thing.
Public pressure needs to be ramped up and stay constant for justice here. Sad but true. Don’t forget her.
