In a world full of perceptions and point of view, there are no clear delineations of good and evil, right and wrong. Lines may be drawn for taking sides but in war, there is no winning side or losing side. We all lose. We all suffer. We all believe in what we're fighting for and we all have reasons for believing the way we do. These are just people. We're all just people. People just trying to make it day by day, the only way we know how. It's too bad the effects of war aren't more tangible in our own waking lives. Maybe we'd think more about the ultimate costs of heavy artillery in countries far, far away in which the majority of our own tax paying (and war funding) populace can't find on a map. Or maybe we'd realize the fragility of life and appreciate the simple details within.
With that said, from my own standpoint, it doesn't mean I support the Taliban or accept their ultra-conservative and often violent traditions. Anything but. Their 12th century approach to religion and culture is mindblowing. Burqas and stoning, music is forbidden, girls cannot go to school, and yet they can assimilate technology enough to fly planes into buildings... Yes, it is backwards, hypocritical, and morally wrong. But how many things in our own culture can that be said about? Disagree? Argue with me. However, regardless of how you view anyone's culture, bombing it to smithereens doesn't teach them anyone about democracy or human rights. Instead, it reinforces their hatred and their misconceptions about the 'good' side of American culture. Without education and a little bit of compassion, there is no breaching the barrier of miscommunication, distrust, and a lot of bad history. There must be a new line drawn. We either continue to play these war games of avenging the cycle of atrocities, (to which our 21st century approach is no different than our own 12th century, now just revamped with titanium and computer chips), or we stop playing these ridiculous games (anyone ever realize the irony of the card game 'War'?) and take to a new level of existence.
Everyone knows the quote about 'An eye for an eye makes the whole world go blind' but how many of us actually believe in it? Pretty soon, we'll all just be stumbling around in the dark together, punching and screaming at each other, not realizing we just added yet another stark similarity between us. I don't know what the answer is. I know we've made promises, and we're breaking them. Seems like it's a losin' either way. We got ourselves in this mess and now we can't get out. Anyone notice the recent mile marker that this is the longest American war yet? I mean, I know the majority of us on Facebook weren't alive during Vietnam, but shit, we're going for the long haul in the Middle East and we aint even protesting anymore. No one cares so long as it doesn't interfere with our own precious pointless lives. Even with this massive federal deficit...
The DOD requires $708 billion dollars to operate in 2011. And I guess a job is a job, even when you're getting shot down and blown up. Does OSHA know about this? The Peace Corps got $400 million in 2010. The federal budget for our failing education system is $ 78 billion. The states are on their own. So how does our world work where America, the land of the free and the brave, spends more money on blowing up the world than it does fixing its own problems? Check out this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_military_expenditures Make your own conclusions. I find it odd that we can't find more constructive ways of spending tax dollars. You know, like... convincing people we're really not that bad.
I know we have schools and hospitals to rebuild in both Afghanistan and Iraq since we're the ones who tore em down. We have a new government to build (is that odd or is that just me?). We're training the new non-Taliban military. The women and children are taking back their lives. Villages of people enjoying music and dance again. But I also know we're not winning the 'war'. What does war mean anyway? There aint no front-lines anymore. There's drones and ambushes. Faceless no-name bodies, and its just another casualty of what? What are we fighting for again? Opium is at its highest level of production and usage in Afghanistan. New recruits and supplies are steadily flowing over the border from so-called allies. Bodybags with our sons and daughters are still being shipped back to our hometowns. We let the parents mourn while we send freshies back over. We throw tax money at GM to reward them for fucking up and yet we can't get decent armor shields to protect the Hummers from IEDs. We're compromising on the very things we told them we wouldn't, because it's exactly why we went to Afghanistan in the first place.
Time Magazine put out an article in mid August about what happens if we leave Afghanistan, putting the emphasis mostly on what happens to the women if we leave. Interesting article if you get a chance to read. It's one of the reasons I half-heartedly supported our efforts there when we began in 2001. I mean, you know you're going in, you try to make the best of a really bad situation. That was one of the few things. There's plenty of debate about the role of democracy and women's rights. Women and girls have made major strides in gaining freedoms otherwise never granted like girls going to school or women being seen in public. Or is that true? Does it work and how long will it last? Unfortunately, as we get distracted by other wars (Iraq? Iran? Pakistan? North Korea? Libya? Sudan? Who's next?) and (as expected) lose interest in things we started and don't want to finish, details are becoming obscured. The reasons not so clear. Read!! http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michelle-chen/emtimeem-pictures-afghan_b_669862.html Even if we stuck around to help the women out, I have to ask, are we actually doing more good than bad by being there? Can we force democracy on a people who are not ready for it yet? Certainly, can we force rather than teach? Can we make them see women as equals? Can we subject a culture to our ideals when we can't uphold them ourselves? Equality? Freedom? Democracy? I'm not sure we can say we truly value those yet either.
So with all that... I don't know what is left to be said. We're in a rut? I mean, as civilized as we'd like to call ourselves, conscious beings of religious basis (God's chosen species right?), we sure have a shit load of problems to deal with. Our egos, to say the least. With all our technological advances, our ability to communicate, all our cultures and moral doctrine, we've got the world falling in on our heads with nowhere to begin. What exactly is the root of our problems? Our very nature? America has been a world power for a couple centuries now, but it can't last unless we can change. We've simply lost focus. Maybe the change needs to come from within. Power in itself... why exactly do we need to dominate and crush? Neo-colonialism has gotten us nowhere but instability with a few wealthy folks in power. The rest of us weep and sow... It's time to stop putting things in little categories, to stop taking these ridiculous sides, to stop looking for enemies within ourselves. It's time to accept that we're all in this together on this tiny speck of nothing floating in space. This is all there is and this is all we have...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_Blue_Dot
Source: http://conceptualperception.blogspot.com/2010/08/your-war-is-next.html
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Your War Is Next
Monday, August 16, 2010
Film Shows How Bush Admin Lies Marred Legacy of Pat Tillman
The "Tillman story," tells the struggle his family went through to learn the truth about Tillman's death and how political leaders covered-up the real story
By Rory O'Connor, MediaChannel.org
Posted on August 16, 2010
Of the many lies George W. Bush told us about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, some were larger but none worse than that told about the death of Pat Tillman.
In 2004 – just after Bush’s invasion of Iraq, ostensibly in search of those non-existent weapons of mass destruction — Tillman became a military-and media-manufactured symbol of duty, sacrifice, patriotism and heroism. But the truth about Tillman’s life is much more complex, and his death ultimately far more heroic, than the convenient, self-serving lie served up by the military and then sent out by our ever-gullible media.
Tillman, a truly remarkable young man who walked away from a multi-million dollar contract as a professional football player to enlist as in the Army Rangers after the 9/11 attacks, is the subject of The Tillman Story, a moving documentary directed by Amir Bar-Lev that opens in theatres in New York and Los Angeles this week. Although the film rightly tells the story of Pat Tillman’s remarkable life, it also focuses on a parallel Tillman story, that of the struggle his family went through to learn the truth about Tillman’s death from “friendly fire” and the ongoing cover-up of how and why our military and political leaders lied in order to exploit his heroism for propaganda purposes.
Tillman was on his second tour of duty when he was killed in Afghanistan — a victim of “fratricide,” inadvertently killed by his own troops during an ill-fated expedition. Our leaders should have told the truth — namely, that Corporal Tillman’s death was a senseless accident coupled with incompetence. Instead they lied — to all of us, but most despicably to his family – rewrote the details of his death, awarding Tillman a posthumous Silver Star, America’s third-highest military decoration, and turned the tragedy into an opportunity to promote their endless and unpopular wars.
Why did they lie? No doubt it began because at the time of Tillman’s death, in April 2004, the Bush war machine was roiled by a number of negative images that threatened to adversely affect public perception of the war in Iraq. Remember those haunting photographs and videos of the bodies of American contractors strung up in Fallujah? Can you ever forget the searing images depicting abuse by U.S. soldiers working as guards in the Abu Ghraib prison? Adding the news that American soldiers had gunned down a celebrated NFL star certainly wouldn’t help the war effort… So Pat Tillman was recast, in death, as a war hero and lesson to us all.
The Tillman Story excels in teaching us other lessons, however — not only about Corporal Pat Tillman, but also about his remarkable family, led by his indefatigable mother Dannie. It shows the arduous journey his family undertook to find the truth about what happened and to have someone held accountable not only for their son’s death but also for the added insult of its use as a propaganda tool. Handed a massive, confusing box of intelligence records — thousands of pages of documents about her son’s death – Dannie Tillman patiently dug through the voluminous material to uncover the roots of a carefully coordinated cover-up. Her efforts, along with that of Tillman’s father and other family members and friends, eventually forced a Congressional hearing into the matter. As the film dramatically demonstrates in its stunning climax, however, the ultimate fix was in… and although the many obvious lies and cover-ups can be tracked up to and even well beyond such military brass as the recently fired general Stanley McChrystal, in the end no one among the higher-ups was ever found blameworthy or even responsible for lying to the Tillman family and the nation.
In lieu of presenting a hagiography, Director Bar-Lev does an excellent job of humanizing Tillman and offering a multi-dimensional look at his actual character. Scenes with Tillman’s family as they lovingly describe his character and his close, funny and frequently profane relationship with two brothers (the film is unfortunately and unfairly burdened with an “R” rating as a result) along with testimony from family friends and fellow soldiers paint a clear portrait of who Tillman really was — warts and all. As Bar-Lev points out, Pat Tillman was no “paragon of moral certitude; he was curious and tried to see things from every possible point of view.” That impulse is what the director attempts to give back to his subject, after he had been dehumanized and exploited for political gain by America’s leaders, aided and abetted as usual by the complicit cheerleaders of the national news media.
“I hope the story of Tillman tells us that heroism and humanity are not contradictory and heroism is complex,” Bar-Lev told Documentary magazine. “‘Hero’ is a problematic word that says a lot more about the people using it than the person they’re speaking about….
“I knew there were myths around his death,” Bar-Lev added, “but what began to intrigue me was when we found out there were equally as many myths about his life.”
“Ultimately, what I would want to have happen is just the truth,” Pat’s youngest brother Richard told ESPN.com. “At the end of the day, Pat deserves the truth. This isn’t about our family. This isn’t about the Tillmans. This is about Pat Tillman. And he deserves the truth, period. He sacrificed so much for his country, and then the government turns around and uses him for propaganda. That is totally unacceptable.”
Source: http://spiderlegsworld.blogspot.com/2010/08/film-shows-how-bush-admin-lies-marred.html