Observations from the Coffee Shop 9.9

Over the weekend I tried very hard to not pay any attention to the news. Let's just say it's been all too depressing lately, primarily the Syria debate. Cable news and politics in America has gotten to the point that Syria itself isn't the news, not chemical weapons, not the tens of thousands dead, or the millions of refugees. No the news about Syria is primarily about the debate about Syria. Much like Edward Snowden himself became the story and overshadowed the NSA spying the Syria debate is about the debaters themselves. Who is for or against an attack, who was for or against the Iraq war, one big round of look at us because we matter. Another way of putting it is I always found politics entertaining but now, at least at times, it seems politics has become just another form of entertainment. But don't worry, I still love Rachel.

Last Thursday Rachel Maddow finished her show with a commentary. She did it after Donald Rumsfeld appeared on Fox News and called President Obama a "so-called commander in chief" and it should be required watching for every American. The transcript hasn't been posted yet so below is my own attempt at transcribing the finish of it. I should note that in this case I don't guarantee my work. You can watch the full commentary here.

"If you're an architect or a conspirator or one of the primary actors in the Iraq war. In arguably the grandest and most craven foreign policy disaster in american history. Your opinion is no longer required on matters of war and peace. Please enjoy painting portraits of dogs or something. Painting portraits of yourself in the bathroom trying to get clean. Please enjoy the forgiving company of your family, your loved ones, and your god. But we as a country never, ever, need to hear from you about war ever again. You can go now."

You can go now, if only.

Observations 9.3

Some quick thoughts on Syria with the assumption you already know the background. Syria, the debate on Syria, and any attack on Syria is just a classic damned if you do and damned if you don't situation. I say classic because really both sides are right and both sides are wrong. The Middle East is now a tragedy even by standards of the Middle East with the hopes and dreams of a year ago turned to dust and blown away.

Any comparisons between Syria and the lead up to Iraq are overblown as the excuse of Iraq's WMD was a lie from the beginning. Syria has, and always had, those weapons and now has used them. Still the same arguments are being used today as were used than and they all sound so hollow. Also I don't trust any of the talking heads who ten years ago pushed for total war and now are totally against even a limited attack as if it somehow wipes their war slate clean.

After two arguably failed Middle Eastern wars an attack, even a limited attack, on Syria is the last thing this country needs to debate. At the same time Assad's using the world's deadliest weapons against his most defenseless citizens is a horror on a scale all it's own. Is it more of a horror than a war that has  killed 100,000 and created 2 million refugees created in two years? I have no idea.

I also have no idea what the correct answer is. As I alluded to at the start, in all likelihood there isn't one.

Observations

During the early morning hours of March 11^th , two weeks ago today, United States Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales killed, no murdered, seventeen civilians in the Kandahar Province of Afghanistan. Bales has been described as deranged or insane, three tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan had taken an awful toll. If Bales had been an Afghan who had known nothing but war his entire life only one word would have been used to describe him. Terrorist.

It is long past time to end America's longest war.

An anonymous footnote to all the talk of what the murders have done to American relations in the region is the fact that these were living breathing innocent people. Four men, four women,
two boys, and seven girls.

Mohamed Dawood son of Abdullah
Khudaydad son of Mohamed Juma
Nazar Mohamed
Payendo
Robeena
Shatarina daughter of Sultan Mohamed
Zahra daughter of Abdul Hamid
Nazia daughter of Dost Mohamed
Masooma daughter of Mohamed Wazir
Farida daughter of Mohamed Wazir
Palwasha daughter of Mohamed Wazir
Nabia daughter of Mohamed Wazir
Esmatullah daughter of Mohamed Wazir
Faizullah son of Mohamed Wazir
Essa Mohamed son of Mohamed Hussain
Akhtar Mohamed son of Murrad Ali
(one name has yet to be released)

May they all rest in peace and be remembered.

yes Virginia, we are still at war

Sunday morning after 9 years, $800 billion, and 4,474 American lives the last US troops drove out of Iraq and the war came to an end. There is a video that was taken by a drone flying over the last convoy as it drives into Kuwait at dawn. If you watch till the end the camera zooms in as the Kuwaiti border guards close the gate behind the convoy and close a tragic chapter in our history (l). Very few people know who David Emanuel Hickman was, probably fewer still will remember him for long, but he has his place in history. He was the last to die in the senseless war. 

When asked if we had won the war President Obama answered, "I would describe our troops as having succeeded in the mission of giving to the Iraqis their country in a way that gives them a chance for a successful future."

I'll let you decide what that means but before you get too celebratory let we remind you, as Mother Jones tweets each day, we are still at war. With that reminder comes a sad update. Back in July I wrote about a photo of an unknown woman who was one of the first female commandos in the US military and a member of a team of women deployed to Afghanistan (l). I'm not going to repeat what I said than but I was simply proud because, even though I might not agree with what she was doing, there she was proving that a woman can do any so called man's job and do it just as well.

On October 22^nd Army 1^st Lieutenant Ashley White was killed along with two other soldiers in southern Afghanistan by a roadside bomb while serving with this Cultural Support Team. She was 24 years old and is survived by a husband, both parents, a bother, and a twin sister. Lieutenant White was the first member of this special team to be killed.

I don't know if the photo I wrote about is of her, I like to think that it's not, but yes we are still at war and too many people seem to forget that fact.