+ 12 - 5 | § ¶3001: An Iraqi Odyssey
The past few days has brought us a pair of milestones in Iraq, or at least that's what the media likes to refer to them as. The reality of course is that the situation is the same as ever, but now at least there's a different talking point to address. The saddest element to me of the 3000 US troops having died is the very fact that these deaths are simply ignored unless they happen to hit a nice round number. And of course, as always, nevermind the many non-Americans who have died, and the numerous who have suffered injuries as well (the only reason American casualties are as low as they are is because of our miraculous medical technology, but many more troops are injured, often seriously, for every one who is killed).The "1" of the 3001 is of course Saddam himself. His execution, intended to bring about closure, will almost undoubtedly do the opposite. The fact that we haven't recognized the value of martyrdom to an insurgency is truly absurd. And in any case, glorifying his death truly makes western society as dirty and culpable as the fundamentalist Islamists who wish to kill us. An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth should be reserved for the bible and not reality.
But as I said above, really neither of these "milestones" are significant, aside from the noise that they generate. Iraq will continue as it is, with tendencies towards more and more violence and more and more deaths (the trend lines are not looking good for US troops or anybody else for that matter). Bush will fumble through it for another two years until it is somebody else's problem, and will not implement anything terribly radical or solve anything. Of course, the problem itself is intractable enough that even competent or dynamic leadership would have difficulty with confronting it, but still something different must be done if we want to at least reverse some of the trends.
I suppose that is all for now, I don't have any grand solution, as there is none. I mostly wished to register my disgust with the subjective and inadequate coverage of this war, as is highlighted at times like this when it actually is covered, sort of. These "milestones" grab attention, but everything else, the things that actually matter, are ignored. We cannot expect to fix anything if we don't even know and acknowledge what is going on. That is the first step towards progress, for both Iraq and America.
+ 8 - 9 | § ¶This site is not dead!
I'm so glad this site is not dead! (warning, link will play music).Anyway, it has been awhile since this site has received any attention other than spambots. So, I figured it was hightime for me to update it with some sort of semblance of content.
Truth be told, I'm still not intending to do much personally with this site - my hope is still that other folks will step up to the plate. I mainly want to focus on my new project (Polisci Applied, which I also haven't gotten around to updating until just now), but I will still post occasional tidbits on this site that don't belong on my other (more specialized) site.
For now though, I just wanted to insure any readers who may be left (doubtful but possible) that I have not forgotten about this site, and that there is a future here. Or something.