Monday, June 18, 2007

THIS JUST IN! FUN WITH THE D.C. PRESS CORPS!

 
"IT WAS LIKE A FIRE DRILL," ELLEN RATNER EXPLAINED. 
 
SHE WAS SPEAKING OF THIS AFTERNOON WHEN THE ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER'S MINI-VAN SET OFF THE BOMB SNIFFING DOGS CAUSING THE PRESS, INCLUDING THESE TWO REPORTERS, TO BE EVACUATED FROM THE WHITE HOUSE CONFERENCE CENTER WHICH HAS BEEN THE TEMPORARY HOME FOR THE PRESS CORPS.
 
THE MOOD WAS HIGH AND EXHILARATING. 
 
"IT'S LIKE A SNOW DAY!" SQUEALED CARL M. CANNON AS HE SPUN MADLY IN CIRCLES.
 
MEANWHILE JAMES ROSEN GOT INTO A NASTY BIT OF NAME CALLING WITH NEDRA PICKLER WHEN SHE REFUSED TO "LOAN" HIM A CIG.
 
"IT'S NOT A LOAN!  IT'S PANHANDLING, YOU BUM!" SHE SHOUTED LEADING ROSEN TO EXCLAIM SHE WAS "STINGY" AND BEGIN SCREAMING OBSCENITIES IN A HIGH PITCHED VOICE UNTIL PICKLER USED HER LIT CIGARETTE TO SHUT HIM UP.
 
MEANWHILE, OTHERS LOOKED ON AS MARTHA RADDATZ CONTINUED HER LONG TERM CRUSH ON OLIVER KNOX BY LAUGHING UPROAROUSLY AT EVERYTHING HE SAID.  SINCE HE WAS MAINLY ASKING, "DO YOU THINK THIS IS A DRILL OR IS THERE REALLY A BOMB?", RADDATZ HIGH PITCHED GIGGLES LEFT HIM CONFUSED AND EVERYONE ELSE ROLLING THEIR EYES.
 
MOST ATTENTION FOCUSED ON MELISSA CHARBONNEAU WHO STAYED TO HERSELF WHILE PRAYING LOUDLY, "DEAR GOD, REMEMBER I'M THE ONE YOU LIKE.  SMITE EVERYONE HERE, THEY ALL DESERVE IT, BUT REMEMBER YOU LOVE ME."
 
AND MOST TRIED TO AVOID THE SOBBING BYRON YORK WHO BLUBBERED TO HIMSELF THAT HE WAS TOO PRETTY TO DIE IN AN EXPLOSION.  "MY FACE, MY BEAUTIFUL FACE," HE SOBBED.
 
THE LAST HONEST JOURNALIST IN D.C., HELEN THOMAS, SURVEYED HER COLLEAGUES AND CAUTIONED US THERE WAS "NO STORY HERE" BUT DEB RIECHMAN RUSHED OVER INSISTING, "WE ARE THE STORY!  WE ARE ALWAYS THE STORY!  IN THE MOVIE, I WANT SHELLY LONG TO PLAY ME!"
 
 
 
Starting with war resistance, Pulitzer Prize winning columnist  Anna Quindlen (Newsweek) examines the resistance in the ranks noting Iraq war resister Ehren Watada, Iraq Veterans Against the War, noting that "[w]hat was once underground is now-in-your-face," and Scott Pelley's 60 Minutes piece (May 27, 2007) on  a soldier whose experiences in Iraq changed his opinion of it and destroyed any notions that the illegal was about 'freedom.'  Quindlen concludes, "So, of course, have many Americans.  The difference is that they don't have to pick up a gun and climb into an armored vehicle on a mission they've concluded is senseless, endless and just plain wrong.  There are those who argue that such a conclusion is above the pay grade of anyone but the commander in chief, and that discipline overrides dissent.  But it's the guys in the field who are best able to judge whether the mission is right and just and is working on the ground.  They are the ultimate embeds.  As one man said on a posting to the IVAW Web site, 'when the people who fought the war are speaking out against it . . . maybe you should listen'." 
 
 
The movement of resistance within the US military grows and includes Joshua Key, Ehren Watada, Terri Johnson, Luke Kamunen, Leif Kamunen, Leo Kamunen, Camilo Mejia, Kimberly Rivera, Dean Walcott, Linjamin Mull, Augstin Aguayo, Justin Colby, Marc Train, Robert Zabala, Darrell Anderson, Kyle Snyder , Corey Glass, Jeremy Hinzman, Kevin Lee, Joshua Key, Mark Wilkerson, Patrick Hart, Ricky Clousing, Ivan Brobeck, Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Jeremy Hinzman, Stephen Funk, Clifton Hicks, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Joshua Casteel, Katherine Jashinski, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell, Jimmy Massey, Chris Capps, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake, Christopher Mogwai, Christian Care, Kyle Huwer, Vincent La Volpa, DeShawn Reed and Kevin Benderman. In total, forty US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum.
 
 
 
Information on war resistance within the military can be found at Center on Conscience & War, The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline, Iraq Veterans Against the War and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters.
 
Iraq Veterans Against the War's Adam Kokesh appeared today on Mark Levine's Inside Scoop where he and the host discussed the street theater and the actions behind Operation First Casualty, the attempts by the military to silence Kokesh (resulting in the so-called hearing), his service in Iraq and the process of his speaking out publicly against the illegal war.  On what needs to be done, Kokesh stated, "I think if we immediately withdraw all our occupying forces we can continue to honor our obligations to the people by paying reparations and hope that someday they'll find their own way to a proper democracy."
 
Today, Iraq Veterans Against the War took Operation First Casualty to Chicago: "In an effort to illuminate the true reality of the conflict in Iraq, members of Iraq Veterans Against the War will engage in a series of street theater actions around the Chicago area on Monday, June 18.  The street theatre action is entitled, 'Operation First Casualty' (OFC) because the first casualty of war is truth.  Members will carry out reenactments which highlight various aspects of life in combat in Iraq.  The event will be treated like a military operation with participants in full military uniform, however, there will be no weapons used at any time.  This will be IVAW's fourth OFC."
 
In Iraq, a war rages . . . for control of the message.  War Pornographer Michael Gordon weighed in Sunday (New York Times) with some heavy breathing about a 'major offensive.'  As Gordo threw his pompoms in the air (possibly his legs as well), truths began emerging.  Karen DeYoung (Washington Post) reports David Petraus ("top commander in Iraq") spoke Sunday of how "Conditions in Iraq will not improve sufficiently by September to justify a drawdown of U.S. military forces" and quotes him answering a question as to whether or not the escalation would be over by then with "I do not, no.  I think that we have a lot of heavy lifting to do."  This as Alissa J. Rubin (New York Times) notes that only 40% of Baghdad -- home of the year long 'crackdown' -- is "under the control of security forces" according to Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno.  The escalation took place over the objections of American people, if not over the objections of Congress ('symbolic' measures are only 'symbolic' objections).  The American people have been told the escalation would be short term, was temporary, but the reality appears to be -- like everything with this illegal war -- Bully Boy lied to get what he wanted and a do-nothing Congress (regardless of which party's been in charge since 2003) didn't prevent him and won't punish him.  But Editor & Publisher notes that the escalation, according to a report released by the Iraqi Red Crescent, has 'accomplished' displacing even more Iraqis, creating more Iraqi refugees.
 
The big talking point of the 'New Iraq' is that new 'plans' and 'strategies' are emerging when the reality is that a fire is blazing and someone says, "No, not two gallons, let's try four gallons of gasoline this time."  But a 'development' that was supposed to prove promising was the arming on non-Shi'ites.  As with every other Bully Boy non-plan, didn't work out quite the way they sold it.  Nancy A. Youssef and Leila Fadel (McClatchy Newspapers) report that "some U.S. military officials in Washington and foreign policy experts" say arming the Sunni population "undercuts the Iraqi government and years of U.S. policy, and is a tacit acknowledgement that the country's violence is really a civil war" and military "officers also say it abandons the long-stated U.S. goal of disarming militias and reinforces the idea that U.S.-trained Iraqi forces cannot control their country."  Joshua Partlow (Washington Post) quotes an unnamed "senior Iraqi government" stating, "Every three months they have a new strategy.  This is not only a distracting way to conduct policy, it is creating insecurity for all.  I don't think these strategies have been thought through deeply.  It is all about convenience."  Meanwhile Patrick Wintour (Guardian of London) reports that Jay Garner, kicked out by the US administration for wanting to hold elections in Iraq, states that "the country is on the brink of a genocidal civil war and its government will fall apart unless the US changes course" -- Garner is advocating the same 'solution' as US Senator and 2008 presidential hopeful Joe Biden: divide Iraq into three parts.  Tom Baldwin (Times of London) reports that US ambassador to Baghdad Ryan Crocker speaks of a "clear absence of progress" -- but he's blaming the victims (Iraqis) and not taking accountability so we'll move right along.
 
Which brings us back to the non-plan built around the so-called success of the al-Anbar 'model' which, the lie tells you, was a huge success when the US military decided to arm militias in al-Anbar province.  Ali al-Fadhily (IPS) reports that the so-called success has been a failure that has "won it more enemies instead," that there were "short-term victories" but, long-term results were to turn "people more and more strongly against the occupation," that the US backing (cash payouts -- that's me, not al-Fadhily) criminals and 'leaders' installed by the British during the 1920 occupation who long ago left Iraq but, historian Mohammad al-Dulaimy states, "They then found a chance to return under the American flag."
 
 
 

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