It just got hit with all kinds of ordinance. Amazing. Technology is even worse now in it’s ability to neuter reality. I’m watching it live on M’s dad’s home theater system, and I swear it sounds just like scene’s from movies, and you don’t even get the nice hollywood touch of people being injured. Crazy stuff. Interesting though.

Ol’ Rummy pointed out that references to this attack on Baghdad to those of WW2 (I heard somebody mention Dresden) were off base. He went overboard in mentioning the care and humanity of our targeting, but I suppose he can’t suggest that if you’re a war reporter you should at least know something about the details of the history of it…

Also, I thought that they we’re misquoting the munitions used, especially on the first night. The 2000lb bombs that they say were dropped were Paveway LGB’s, and they are not the famed “bunker busters” as they said (they, Paveways’, were known before for their use in ruining air fields by penatrating the runway to some degree before exploding). Thw ‘Bunker Buster’ is a 4000lb special purpose weapon that was initially fashioned from spent 8in artillery tubes. I went about confirming what I already knew just a sec ago… I find it amazing that the people trusted to inform the uninformed are allowed not to know with certainty themselves.

This in a round about way ties into what Mark already knows about the media… Here’s something I came across (cut and paste)…

NBC’s Saturday Night Live (SNL) [recently] opened with a skit making fun
of the stupidity of questions posed by reporters at Pentagon briefings.
The skit featured a parody of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld….
With C-SPAN graphics on screen, the fake reporters posed these
questions:

“If only the real Rumsfeld was that tough.”

Yeah, i’m not sure if isuru is monitoring this site. I do know that he’s got a connection at home.

This STP thing is kind of a huge goal right now. My brother and i will be trying to do it in one day. That’s at least 14hrs in the saddle baby!! I’ll be sure to make a donation to the sperm bank before heading off…haha. Fortunately, unlike bball, cycling endurance actually increases as you get older..you can actual get peak performance when you’re 30+. since the guys who i ride with are 35+ and usually kick my ass, i think its true!

is there an easier way to update this blog? i keep on having to enter my own html.

-colin

In a weird twist of fate, I was unable to learn anything about the “war” last night on TV since every channel (or at least the 4 that I get with my crappy TV next to my computer where I was diligently playing a game) was covering the protests downtown. They lasted from 5pm or so to 2:15am this morning, effectively halting traffic on Burnside, and at times halting traffic through-out downtown *including* I-5!

The local anchorpeople, at least on channel 2 where I eventually ended up, all seemed really pissed at the protestors and flaberghasted that they would take to the streets to show their support for the anti-war movement. I suspect the anchors just wanted to go home rather than cover the protests; how dare they make me work overtime!?! One reporter who they went to once in a while was cool about it and kept saying that these protestors for the most part were peaceful and exercising their right to free speech and that he’d stay out there as long as they were out there, but the anchors kept dismissing what he was saying and kept talking about tha audacity of the protestors and how their demonstration was killing their argument.

Is it just me or is the general media completely naive, never really going further than superficial observations? No, don’t answer that; I know the answer.

The one good thing: a McDonald’s had its windows smashed by one guy while others were saying “no! we want this to be peaceful!” It’s good on so many levels. It shows that only a few minority were just there to cause trouble and that the majority were peaceful citizens trying to accomplish a goal. It also fulfills secret fantasies of many Americans to destroy McDonald’s property. 🙂

Sup Schrag. I had confusion about that STP thing myself. Evidently, some people that haven’t heard of cars, buses, or trains get together and ride a bike from Seattle to Portland. Young Colin, when you get older you’ll figure the differnce between ‘can’ and ‘should.’ Heck, I’m only 27 and have glory days of athletic ability, and I can tell you that they’re better then actually breaking a sweat. Good luck though, and that will be an accomplishment. I am of course playing around.

As for that blog from Iraq, I came upon that the other day too (a ‘slater’ myself). That guy is referenced all over the web. Imagine if WE said something of substance eh? To spring from obscurity, capture the attention of the world… Heh!

Schrag, keeping current with the affair is the concern, not really the medium used. The cable news orgs have 24 hours to cover, and it is hard to stick with them as they rehash every change in wind direction. That one is aware and keeps abreast of developments, even if they are neither a champion of the cause, or particularly drawn to the mechanics of such affairs, should not be considered such a high bar.

The web is full of interesting assertions of facts (have to say that as we know they’re not all facts, at least not all of ours) and opionons. Impossible to keep up with them all.

I agree with you as to what makes us ‘great,’ and I too fear that it may be slipping. The rest of the world will only value our ‘values’ when we remember to do so ourselves.

Hi all. Colin what is this you’re training for? Sounds like you are in better shape than I am…hehe…but we all knew that already. Anyway, it’s good to hear from you. How is OHSU? I can’t decide if George hitchhiking is really out of character or in character for him. Is Isuru monitoring the blog? What’s up Isuru?? Where you at?

Brandon, I was thinking about what you were saying about the American public and war. I completely agree with the huge double standards about “American soldiers” versus “everyone else”. I think the first quote that Mark posted is hilarious, have already sent it on to a lot of people. It’s a very good summary of what I feel but can’t verbalize. It all goes back to the same double standard I guess. I must say, though, that I am steering clear of war coverage. I had the tube on for a few short intervals today when I ate, took a break from writing, etc, but I think watching the war coverage on there is really bad for you, like UV rays or radon. So I guess I “distract” myself with the sports things you mentioned, and try to keep in touch with the war on the web, which is marginally better in my view for getting a real picture, if you choose where you go.

I think the sites that Kate found are very powerful, in fact I had to stop myself from reading too much. I felt my resolve to do my work fading and right now I need to be a little selfish so I can just finish this damn thesis… it seems so irrelevant at time that I have to ignore world events to stay motivated.

I was talking to a bunch of grad students, all not American, at lunch today and kind of came upon a thought, and that is that this country would be a lot better off if people realized the reason why we are where we are…the reason, to my view, is that all the best and brightest, most creative and hard-working people come here from wherever they were in disproportionate numbers. Now, the reason they come here is because of the freedoms we have and the quality of life…(fun stat: of my 250 thesis references, how many papers were authored by people with traditional “american names”: less than 50…how many were written by people WORKING IN AMERICA and for american companies/universities? about 160 or so…)so I think it’s a chicken or egg thing…which came first? the talented people? or the freedom/quality of life? that’s for another day. but anyway, the whole point is that america is only america if the world looks up to us. and i fear that may be in trouble for the first time in our lives.

peace and love, ben.

Hey guys, here’s a quick update. i saw gwu last during march madness at reed. my team (house husband’s) lost by a point to gwu’s reed team. anyway, he had hitched hiked from the ski cabin down to play. crazy huh? he said he was going to email about details, phone no., etc, but has failed to do so. i’m kinda worried since i haven’t heard from him in about 2 weeks. i might call ann casey to get the number. the last i talked to isuru was about 2 weeks and he just seemed incredibly busy. he was trying to come by portland but couldn’t quite afford it yet. anyway, i have his number if any of you are interested. as for my STP training…i met a guy a few weeks ago on a ride and now i ride with him and his group. we do about 40+ miles on saturday mornings and they all seem really nice. a few of them race so i can learn cool tips from them. although descending at 55mph just requires nerves and i don’t really have that right now. i ride about 100+ miles a week so i think i’m doing well. okay, i gotta get back to work. take it easy. -colin

Nice post Mark.

The war is of course on, and it’s possible to see everything in downtown Baghdad. Kinda freaky to imagine what it is to have to change your route to work or the store because you’d be passinig a likely target. I suppose that the advancements in weapons tech are good in that we no longer raze entire cities, but it almost makes for an almost surreal situation where the war is just down the street at the intertsection of x and y. I feel for the Iraq troops on the front lines, and feel for a population that must be terrified out of their minds.

In ’94 after we launched into Iraq (cruise missles to support somethign or other), almost the entirety of out battle group could be seen on the same horizon, an event that never happens as we’re normaly spead over tens of miles. We fired off at like 4 or 5 am, and the next day, as we were realatively huddled, was an odd one. We obviously took a defensive type posture, and then just waited. Reality was for us that our battle group could readily handle anything, so, it’s not waiting with concrete fear for your life. But waiting for action of that nature is odd. I cannot imagine what it is to know that it is without a doubt comming, you wont see it, and if your in the wrong place, you will simply die.

It is an unfortunate day.

A final thought. Two nations are at war, one is being bombed and the lives of it’s citizens are disrupted to the point that things effectively cease. The other has the oscars, tournaments, and reunions of the batchelor to watch and doesn’t care to me mired in the details of the war they are involved with. I might have an unusual degree of intrest in these kinds of things, but I can’t say if I find it discouraging to the point of offense that we are so fucking nonchalant about this. When we loose people here we get whipped into an irrational frenzy, and when we get what we want, and are actually involved in the taking of lives, we can’t be bothered to pay attention. Fucking pathetic.

Another observation: We strike Iraq, immediately there’s a report that 600 US troops are huning Al Qeida in southern Afghanistan, then Bush makes his speech and mentions in passing that this might not go as fast as some have figured (though I thought they were the only ones assuring anything…), and now we have a senior Al Qeida operative that *may* be involved in a huge plot against us here and *may* already be in the US. Does this strike anyone else as fishy? First go to war in a ‘resolute’ fashion, then say “oh, well we’re doing great on that other issue too,” then remind everone ‘why’ we’re doing this by mentioning somthing of no timely value or substance? My god…

My source is slashdot; I’m trusting the users’ references…

On NPR:

PETER FREUNDLICH:

All right, let me see if I understand the logic of this correctly. We are going to ignore the United Nations in order to make clear to Saddam Hussein that the United Nations cannot be ignored. We’re going to wage war to preserve the UN’s ability to avert war. The paramount principle is that the UN’s word must be taken seriously, and if we have to subvert its word to guarantee that it is, then by gum, we will. Peace is too important not to take up arms to defend. Am I getting this right?

Further, if the only way to bring democracy to Iraq is to vitiate the democracy of the Security Council, then we are honor-bound to do that too, because democracy, as we define it, is too important to be stopped by a little thing like democracy as they define it.

Also, in dealing with a man who brooks no dissension at home, we cannot afford dissension among ourselves. We must speak with one voice against Saddam Hussein’s failure to allow opposing voices to be heard. We are sending our gathered might to the Persian Gulf to make the point that might does not make right, as Saddam Hussein seems to think it does. And we are twisting the arms of the opposition until it agrees to let us oust a regime that twists the arms of the opposition. We cannot leave in power a dictator who ignores his own people. And if our people, and people elsewhere in the world, fail to understand that, then we have no choice but to ignore them.

Listen. Don’t misunderstand. I think it is a good thing that the members of the Bush administration seem to have been reading Lewis Carroll. I only wish someone had pointed out that “Alice in Wonderland” and “Through the Looking Glass” are meditations on paradox and puzzle and illogic and on the strangeness of things, not templates for foreign policy. It is amusing for the Mad Hatter to say something like, `We must make war on him because he is a threat to peace,’ but not amusing for someone who actually commands an army to say that.

As a collector of laughable arguments, I’d be enjoying all this were it not for the fact that I know–we all know–that lives are going to be lost in what amounts to a freak, circular reasoning accident.

Bill Maher:

“As of this writing, the most depressing thing about war in Iraq was how easy it was to sell. Shouldn’t it be a little harder than this to sell people a war? … [and]how amazed I was that, of all the lies told by presidents in my lifetime, the one so many people couldn’t get over, and which the media treats as the standard for mendacity, was: ‘I did not have sexual relations with that woman.’

astounding lies that affected each and every one of us in very real ways: that we were winning the war in Vietnam; that we weren’t trading arms for hostages, and if we were it was a soldier’s duty to lie about it; that global warming and marijuana needed more study before we could consider policy changes about them; that there’d be no new taxes; that Clarence Thomas was the most qualified person a nation of 250 million could find to sit on the Supreme Court…

“All these lies, all these giant, steaming-turd whoppers, and the one that broke the bank was ‘Blow jobs aren’t sex.’ Wow, that’s a stupid country.”

From /. user SatanicPuppy:

I think that if this country was going about it in any way other than as the big bully on the playground, the international community would not be so opposed.

Iraq sucks. No way to pretend otherwise. It would be nice to see someone go in there, oust the facists, and put some sort of populist government in place. Not that that will happen this time; even if we oust the government, we’re just going to put another facist in charge. We’re the US, that’s what we do.

The thing that really bothers me is our attitude about the whole thing, like we have a right to move in there because we “know” he has weapons of mass destruction. This is the most utterly flimsy excuse. We’re not invading India, Pakistan, or N. Korea, are we? We don’t care about anyone else’s weapons. No, its all about the #$^@^#$ oil. The senate wouldn’t let him drill in the arctic national wildlife refuge, and so he’s got to invade something in the middle east.

And the whole terrorism excuse? Dear god! We should be invading the Saudi’s if that was really our point. But, of course it isn’t.

No no, this is W’s war, his chance to get his jollies by acting like his dad. I’d rather have a hunk of spam in the oval office. At least then there would be a chance of ONE good descision coming out of the white house.

If there is any justice in the world this will come back and kick him in the nuts.

Diplomacy is the art of saying, “Nice Doggy” until you can find a rock.

/. user matman:

I think that most people will acknowledge that the removal of Saddam (and other unstable leaders/organizations) is something to be strived for. The decision to take military action towards that goal is not what concerns me. My concern lays in the fact that the current US administration has shown contempt and arrogence when dealing with other nations and has not exhausted oportunities for a non-lethal solution to their problems. Diplomacy was attempted only as a PR mechanism – not as a genuine attempt to involve the rest of the population of the world in important decisions. In this war, the United States is choosing to sacrifice Iraqis towards the goal of liberation/stability; the noble thing to do would be to sacrifice Americans or willing allies, including some Iraqis (lets look at Iraqis killed VS Americans killed).

The United States, being a proponent of democracy, should promote democracy for the world – not just for nations. The United States is a citizen of the world; money and power shouldn’t give it a stronger voice than anyone else. The actions of the United States reminds me of the recent elections in Iraq – a ballot with only one option. The rest of the world shouldn’t be ignored; the rest of the world wants to be involved and respected as citizens of the world. Refusing to acknowledge the value offered by the rest of the world is insulting and alienating. Please, hear us, United States.

For more check out http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/03/20/038213&mode=thread&tid=99

Hey everyone, I haven’t been on here in a while. Chris reminded me the other day but then I forgot again. I appreciate everyone’s posts on the war, I can’t seem to get it out of my mind right now. I’m not feeling particularly insightful at the moment but I thought I’d mention a blog from < ?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Baghdad. I don’t know if you guys ever look at Slate.com but it seems to be an endless source of ( sometimes ) interesting and unusual information. That’s were I found these links. I’m fascinated/heartened by the idea that it might be possible to gain an unfiltered (as much as an individual’s thoughts can be I guess) perspective on the events in Iraq. Anyway, this guy’s blog is worth checking out – if you explore a little you can find =”Times New Roman” size=3>pictures and interesting commentary. I can’t figure out who he is or where he’s coming from but it’s interesting none-the-less. (He scanned a picture of the new 10,000 dinar bill

so there you have it: the dapper man’s on the 10,000 dinar bill.)

Also interesting is www.kevinsites.net. He’s a CNN correspondent stationed in Northern Iraq and he’s updating a blog that is not CNN-sanctioned.

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ace=”Times New Roman” size=3>

I’m actually feeling down about this whole business but I’ll pass on a couple of things on the humorous side anyway. This is where my evening filled with reading commentary about the war/policy/world eventually took me: the Bush-Blair rendition of “Endless Love” at http://politicalhumor.about.com/cs/bushmultimedia/v/blendlesslove.htm. It’s well done; I laughed aloud although I’m not in the mood to laugh. And I have to caveat the fact that I’m going to report a signs I saw at a protest today with the comment that I don’t believe that anti-Bushisms are the way through this but:

“Hey Bush, pull out! We wish your dad had.”

(Carried by a group of college students)

and

“I listen to my dad why doesn’t Bush?”

(carried by a small 8-10 year old girl)

stand out in my mind. I find the latter just plain absurd, I mean who came up with that anyway? Who does her dad think he is? yeah his daughter may brush her teeth and go to bed when told but I’m not sure he should extrapolate that authority as a personal entitlement to advise the president, even if it is Bush. I can just hear the little girl as she catches on, “why do I have to listen to Dad? Dad said Bush shouldn’t go to war and he did anyway.” Now that’s not an arguement I want my kid to be able to make. Oh wait, is the sign inferring that G.W. should listen to G.B. I? Does that little girl even understand her own sign? eh? Anyway, goodnight. Kate

Funniest site of the week: Government terrorism warning signs and interpretations. Hope you have a good time in Hawaii Chris…and don’t give me that “I’m busy” schtick. My thesis has to be done the Friday of that week…so I trump yo busy ass…if I can get out and hook up for some noodles, so can you. hehehehe….

Hey Mark, what’s the deal with George? Is he up on Mount Hood all the time now? Does he have email/web up there? What’s his whole schedule like? Just wondering if he is ignoring us or what…it seems all the females (cept B_Diddy) are incognito…where have I experienced that before?? hmm….

P.S. Page count: 102. Woo me!