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United States vs. Iraq
(round 2)

  Seconds: 84919009
  Minutes: 1415316
  Hours: 23588
  Days: 982
  Months: 32
  Years: 2

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The waves of violence continue to crash. After many months, the United States Army suspends a general that has abused prisoners on her watch. The story on news.bbc.co.uk.

It seems that during this whole intervention that the United States has been on, many of the atrocities reported have been swept under the carpet. In many instances, the armed forces state "there will be an investigation," and then there is nothing remaining stated about the incident. Like that's the way to say, "sorry, my bad."

It is interesting to note that this kind of accountability only comes after a United States media company (CBS) uncovers the "evidence." I wonder if the same kind of punishment would fall upon a General if it was reported by Aljazeera. Very curious, indeed.

I'm also apalled by the apparent innocence of one of the soldiers charged: "We had no training whatsoever." So what does that mean? Disrespect and humiliate is your job description? Where does on person think that they are doing the "right thing" by maltreating prisoners of war?

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An article today in the New York Times goes into detail about how the facts are difficult to discern in the middle of the war in Iraq. Who attacked who, who was drinking when what happened, who lit who's humvee on fire, who shot the children, etc.

It seems that those who were there can't really get the details straight. At least it makes it sound as confusing as hell when one reporter recounts all the stories, and they all conflict with one another in some way.

Which makes me think: what the hell is really going on over there? I bet I don't even have a clue as to the environment or the emotion that is boiling to the surface every day. Of course not. Me, in cubeland, reaching out. I have to gleam truth from these nuggets that are transmitted to me thousands of miles away, millions of lifetimes away from any experience in that torn country. Yet I feel and know the whole things sucks.

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Looking at the latest numbers from the BBC and New York Times, it appears that there are 135,000 troops in Iraq today. Also, there have been 698 casualties. Working out the math:

135,000 / 698 = 193.4

So your chances of getting killed, in the armed forces, in Iraq, is 1 in 193.4. Checking out the Odds of Dying, there doesn't appear to be anything lower that that. Or even close, for that matter. The most common way of dying is by "intentional self-harm by firearm," which comes in at 1 in 219. This is the LIFETIME probability, though. So, considering that the stats for the armed forces are for one year, the one-year probability is 1 in 16,900 for "intentional self-harm by firearm."

I do believe this qualifies "soldier" as a dangerous profession.

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"It has always seemed strange to me," said Doc. "The things we admire in men, kindness and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding and feeling are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits we detest, sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism and sel-interest are the traits of success. And while men admire the quality of the first they love the produce of the second."

- John Steinbeck, "Cannery Row", 1945

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This little entry caught my eye on the bbc's web site. Although, I do think that the caption may have not been written along with this image. I mean, if I was a hungry, growling dinosaur, and I saw fireballs shooting out of the sky, pummeling the earth, and tearing the planet asunder, I can't say for sure I would or would not be concerned with the difficulty of finding a mate.

Sure, I might be anxious, but nothing an interplanetary collision wouldn't resolve.

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An article in Pravda, a Russian online news source, has pretty much denounced the behavior of the United States leadership and globalization policies. One thing I noticed was the observation that if businessmen want globalization to occur in order to spread their business, customer base, production facilities, and so forth, then basic human rights and equality must ALSO be globalized.

It makes sense, since the only reason that wealthy people want to globalize is to be able to produce something abroad at an extremely low price, be able to ship it back to the United States, and save money, which charging the same price for the item. They make bank, while the people living next to the factories get fucked over because of perhaps looser labor laws or environmental policies. It makes sense to me.

If things like human rights, environmental protection, and labor laws were also globalized, I don't know if there would be an incentive to exploit a group of people in that manner.

Which brings me to my point: if people were actually compensated the real value of the goods extracted from them (be it labor or natural resources), then there wouldn't be such a huge disparity between the poor farmer or oil-ruch (not money rich) country, and the wealthy business or country that consumes their goods.

<-- begin hypothesis here -->
If the US actually compensated Iraq for the value of it's crude, and the oil companies did not undercut the value of crude, in order to make United States investor's dividends higher, would there be a higher quality of life in Iraq, and would this war have been unnecessary in this utopia?
<-- end hypothesis here -->

Who will ever know? How do we get to that place, and get there as soon as possible?

Oh, right. The article is here.

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Quoting from Baghdad Burning:

I would hope than any human with knowledge of the fierce cycle of hatred that continues in this world today would agree with the above statement.

Sometimes, I have a hard time thinking that this place I call home is such a wonderful place at all. You have school shootings, massive deaths per capita from guns, the murder capital of the world, and a government and military that is occupying another country under false pretenses, and growing to be more false every day. Is this the 'American Dream'? This is what we hope for, and what we teach out children?

I for one do not accept that. I do not believe that foreign policy that involves 'preemtive war' is sane. I do not believe that a government which turns its back on the international community is sane. I do not think that these institutions are things that represent what we as a people want to represent.

This is coarse, unwhole and raw. The things that are great in this world are not being presented by the politics of the leaders of this country. I have many more feelings that fit into these poor bytes.

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The great minds at work have allowed us all a small moment of mirthful pleasure, thanks to Terry Jones. You know that wacky guy from Monte Python? Yeah, that's the one. He writes in the UK Guardian that "... the removal of those parts of the brain associated with understanding the outcome of one's actions has enabled the president to function fully and without hesitation." Oh man, this article makes me laugh. Even if it is at stupidity and arrogance of the leadership of my country.

In a related note, I don't know if it was supposed to be funny or not, but I found this image: Making the Rules to Play By on the nytimes.com website. I realize that this is stuff actually included in heinous government contracts, but PLEASE, for the LOVE OF <insert name of diety here>'s NAME, don't make it sounds so damn silly!

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The uprising, the ceasefire, the violated ceasefire, the kidnappings, the PAIN. All is convoluted and distorted. It seems you can't get a straight answer or story from any outlet.

First, you have the US Government pointing fingers at Aljazeera, blasting them for not being truthful in their reporting. Now, keep in mind, there are no other major news organizations reporting on the conditions in Falluja. Now, I know they all say "uprising, violence, blah, blah..." but Aljazeera seems to be the one that I have found that actually has someone reporting from the town itself. Well, how are you supposed to know what's going on from a reporter outside the military blockade of the city?

Then it's propaganda and "al Qaeda" and all that shit. Well, if that just doesn't motivate the US layman, I don't know what will. 'Get them "al Qaeda" sons-a-bitches for me, why don't ya?' And suddenly US citizens are sympathetic, and all "oh, it's such a sad thing happening there," when really, it's more like "oh, fuck, what the hell does our leadership think they're doing?!"

ergh.

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The concept that the entirety of human existance is a wonderful miracle is something that is often overlooked. It seems that it comes to light in the hypocritical methods we use to reign in 'bad eggs' and 'disturbed' individuals. Shackling the mind to traverse on only happy thoughts is most likely just as destructive and wallowing in sad ones. In order to grow and learn, one must experience the entire gamut of emotions. It has been said before that if you have never really be sad (I mean, really fucking sad), then you do not know what true happiness is. There is a grain of truth there, and it really irks me when children are sheilded from the sad parts, and are told that they must be happy.

I would fucking hate it if someone told me how to feel. The article "Solitude and the Fortress of Youth" on nytimes.com triggered this outburst.

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Former prisoner's of war, rejoice. Today is your day. But only if you're a citizen of the United States. All others, well, suck it up, because apparently, National Former Prisoner of War Recognition Day doesn't include foreign citizens.

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A friend recently piqued my interest in the way we run things around here. All this talk of direct democracy, and implementing elections and stuff like that. So the topic of the electoral college came up. I was forced to admit that I had no idea how the system worked.

So I looked it up.

Very interesting stuff, I found a good document here (pdf). Very informative, actually. It outlines how and why the system was created, the pros and cons, and enumerates elections in which the electoral system had been tested.

I guess I feel better, knowing how the system works. I had a few moments there where I was feeling like our 'democratic' country was being taken for a ride by some abusive hoodlums. But no. They're just sleazy politicians. Ah, refreshing.

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I paid my taxes today. This is a copy of the check I sent them:

I want you to notice the memo. I don't know anyone who reads these things. I hope they will follow instructions, like good beurocrats...

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