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United States vs. Iraq
(round 2)

  Seconds: 84918999
  Minutes: 1415316
  Hours: 23588
  Days: 982
  Months: 32
  Years: 2

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An evening of outspoken spoken word has inspired me. To listen for yourself, you'll have to do some digging, but the words of Kamau "Pitch-Black" Abayomi are powerful and mentally rocking.

At the end of the performance, the notebook was whipped out, and the raw, dripping thoughts burdened with coarse emotional charge were unleashed on the house. The clarity and passion of his writing seared through my senses as the thought of revolution was invoked and inverted. The revolution starts here. And ends here. An internal revolution will change more of the world than just one person. A universal revolution therefore will have all the more impact.

The poison of bling-bling is killing everyone's brother.

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Flowers bloom, war breezes blow, people walk hand in hand, laughter eminates from coffee houses. The smell of the air is sweetened by pollen and the sunlight is softened to that perfect summer glow. The water reflects the sun as if configured in the middle of a Hollywood soundstage. The blue sky is deepened, and richly colored, even before the digital effects.

It makes me want to scream, shake each person I see, and yell into their dense, self-absorbed lives, "WAR IS ON." How quickly average American Joe and American Jane decided that the 'end of major conflict' equated to the end of the war. This devestation is continuing, and the continuing policy of this state is negatively affecting any route towards true peace or progress.

End it now, please.

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The United States, the regime-changing fuck up in the political arena. Out of the latest attempts to change regimes, Afghanistan and Iraq now appear to be just adding to a long list of failures. When you consider Haiti, Nicaragua, Iran, South Korea, Vietnam and the Phillipines (or is it Indonesia?), the United States doesn't look so competent. Some might even call them inept.

Yet the game goes on. How do these people summon the arrogance to think that they know how to do such huge things? Impossible tasks in our own country do not all of a sudden become possible outside of our borders.

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My childhood was great. I have memories of endless summer days, the baking heat tanning my body, and the carefree air of no responsibility. Basically, I am lucky.

I am among a lucky few to be born into the middle-class of America. Where suburbs offer security and quiet, and gracefully ignore 'all those bad things'. Versus those less fortunate, I had it pretty well off.

But what about those people who know nothing of comfort, or happiness? Loneliness, abuse, violence and fear rule their lives. Intellectual pursuits suddenly don't seem so noble, amazing, or useful. How could I survive?

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http://money.cnn.com/2003/05/05/news/companies/war_bechtel/index.htm

It might come as a surprise that a construction company in the United States was funded by Bin Laden. A wealthy Saudi Arabian family, the name Bin Laden is quite common. And it's also known that Osama Bin Laden's income was mostly from construction. Interesting. And now that there is a country needing rebuilding and construction services, it is not surprising that there are going to be many contractors and sub-contractors.

It all quite a circular reference, isn't it? I mean, the government starts war. It pays it's soldiers. It pays for the munitions. It pays for the equipment. It blows everything up. Then the government pays companies to rebuild what they had blown up. And the taxpayers pay the government, and fund this whole mess. And the government pays its employees, who are taxpayers, by the way.

I want to know how I can opt-out of this war. Isn't there some link I can click on?

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http://www.caii-dc.com/News/Iraq_news.htm

So it looks like Iraq is going to get some assistance in their rebuilding. An organization called Creative Associates has been awarded a contract to rebuild the education sector in Iraq.

I wonder if they'll be responsible for installing larger anti-aircraft weapons on the roofs of the schools, or plowing up those useless playgrounds to make them into bunkers. Or, at the going rate, those open spaces will be great locations for mass graves. I think this definitely should have been investigated while Saddam was still in power. Or at least they could have charged him a huge consulting fee.

How exactly does one rebuild an entire SECTOR of a nation? A contract to rebuild an educational sector is like consignment on ocean water. How does that work, exactly? And how do you put some kind of price tag on it as well? It's not like there exists a price sheet or going rate for "Educational Sector Rebuilding." It sounds like something in SimCity.

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3026821.stm

One thing I have a hard time understanding, is how one human being can conceive of the idea of murdering huge numbers of people. To me, the idea of extinguishing the life out of another person is apalling. Not just because I don't want to become a nice piece of prison ass, either. The impossible amount of disregard for another person would be, well, impossible to summon.

And the fact that Hussein himself probably had this act done by some subordinate is just as appalling. What kind of hatred and maliciousness has been pervading the whole control structure of Iraq, in order for this to be Standard Operating Procedure, or even just another order to follow? At what point did the subordinating officer or gruntsurrender any faculty for reason or compassion, and coldly execute?

What a twisted motherfucker.

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/correspondent/3028585.stm

It appears that we've all been duped again, folks. That world-class private that had been taken as a POW in the beginning of the war ends up being a little more than a traffic accident. The funny thing is, how can you confuse bullet wounds for scratches?

I think it's a hilarious description of the rescue operation, and I love the references to Hollywood. I can almost imagine the calls now, "go-go-go," as troops come storming down the hallway.

Coming up next: my documentation of my rescue mission in Tibet. As soon as it's cleared by the CIA, of course...

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So it appears as though the CNN.com coverage of the war in Iraq, dubbed 'War Tracker' is no longer current. A discovery on their website states that they have documented everything up until May 1. "A day-by-day look at the war in Iraq, archived after President Bush delcared on May 1 that "major combat operations in Iraq have ended." ( http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2003/iraq/war.tracker/index.html ).

What a convenient thing. The president thinks that the major combat is over, and so it the war. And the suckers at a premier (at least well-funded) news source buy it, hook, line and sinker. Well, that wasn't difficult to convince anybody of.

When does it end? When do the occupied people truly become free? I have my suspicions that it has yet to come to fruition, and will be a while coming.

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The Yoga pose of our social services. Debate continues in San Francisco about funding of homeless support services. Amazing that so many things that weigh so much more in the light of humankind are in front of everyone's face, and this is what they think about.

How do you check yourself and realize that the whole big picture of everything is so much larger than anything any one person could ever hope to be. That utility bill being late is NOT GOING TO MATTER next week, or even tomorrow.

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It turns out that what we've been doing all along is occupying our new-found friend's country. Silly us. I mean how could we have known? We installed a huge military presence in their country in order to dispose of a terrible leader (didn't they know that already?), and well, we just rolled over one day, and woke up with the silk sheets bunched up our butt crack. Then we realized that well, shucks, I guess you could call it a military occupation.

Can you blame us? I mean, we've got to help the little guy distribute his natural resources across the globe. I mean, don't you want to keep driving those fifty miles to work? I thought so.

It comes down to this: you gotta win some to lose some.

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So the story starts out with a group of children and teenagers living in a group home. This home is for troubled teens, those who may not be able to live 'normal' lives. The administrators and guards at this home are wicked, abusing and even torturing the children.

And then war comes. The gates are flung open, and kids run out into the poorest neighborhood in the city, getting assaulted and raped by the residents. In addition to the kids leaving, people come in to the home to loot and vandalize. Things have now progressed from bad to worse.

When this happens in war-torn country, it makes me wonder. What kind of condition are kids in who live in my city? Are conditions here just as atrocious? The level of funding for safe environments for teens in this country is pretty minimal, and I'm nearly positive that in a poorer country, these services must not exist. Children raised in a living hell, and never know of anything better.

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Now that America is going back to carelessness, the popular sentiment in our newly acquired territory ... I mean liberated international trade partner, seems to be falling. The people of Iraq can be heard quoted on National Public Radio saying, "Please leave us alone." "We can take care of ourselves." One is inclined to believe that if the people knew they were being led by a despot, there would have been revolution, and not liberation. Maybe they were just in the planning phase. Maybe they're too proud to ask for help. Maybe he was on his way out anyway. Maybe I don't know the first thing about this subject.

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After tragedy, everything takes on new seriousness, import, weight, and things actually mean something. After 9/11, everything that was spoken was real, except for the bullshit, which wasn't. But the outstanding volume of conversations I carried with friends and family didn't have any unecessary syllables. Everything was crisp and trim.

Now, after blind victory, military valour on paper and print, moving images and sound bites, words have turned empty again. Their hollow shells dancing on the sidewalks as the gatling gun-mouthed poser talks loudly about international relations to whomever listens. Trying to burn the sun, and claiming success at the inferno.

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This dark diatribe against my own countrymen shoult not be seen as a demonizing account of our brave soldiers. Their voluntary contribution to donate their lives, so that others may live is a very noble act. Theirs is of bravery, selflessness, which I doubt I could summon if circumstances warranted so.

These men and women are used as fodder for egotistical and political means. Apalling use of force resorted to in a game of international hardball. And these people cannot claim victory over anything, only the desert. Nothing has been conquered, claimed, or awarded. A war of altruism, is what they want us to believe. I maintain a useless war, fraught with worthlessness.

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The fighting is over, we are told. The American military is slowly returning home, we are told. The Iraqi people are free, we are told. But we are still at war. A blank check, still in our pocket.

Under International law, once war is over, all parties must return Prisoners Of War to their respective states. I don't see our government returning anybody to any state. Keeping prisoner around 6,000 Iraqi people. For what reason? To find the Weapons of Mass Destruction and Chemical Weapons? I doubt that's the only reason. Massive interrogation and pervasive harassment is most likely occurring as I write this, and as you read this.

So how long until the innocent cannon fodder can be free? Don't speak to me about how the people are free, and you keep the trouble makers detained. Forced enrollment into the military most likely is the cause for all those POWs, and they just changed masters, and freedom is still a dim light for them.

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No, it's not an action figure (though it could be), it's a statement by Bush that the "Major Combat" in Iraq is over. But not the war, oh no. Definitely not. Our nation should hold that bill open as long as possible, right? I mean, what if we want to declare war on Iraq again in 6 months? Why bother declaring again? Just keep them always down, you wouldn't want them to be independent, now would you? Just imagine where that could lead. Iraqi tourists, Iraqi students, and Iraqi scholars. All coming to our contry, to make your life miserable.

I have a very hard time trying to figure out why it's all so god damn hard to just treat another human being as exactly that. Another breathing, beautiful creation that leads its own wonderful existence. Not something to be trampled under the sole of your shoe as you try to live your life regardless of your fellow man. Each time I see it, I have the emotional "AAAGGGHHH," which would be akin to the primal scream that I hear while playing any number of violent video games.

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