Noted and apologies to the great people at FDL.

Powerful editorial.

Best, Terry

The right to rule ourselves

Faced with US torture, killing and collective punishment of civilians, support for the Iraqi resistance is growing

Haifa Zangana
Saturday November 19, 2005
The Guardian

The photograph of an elderly Iraqi carrying the burned body of a child at Falluja, widely shown during the chemical weapons controversy of recent days, is almost a copy of an earlier one that Iraqis remember – from Halabja in March 1988. Both children were victims of chemical weapons: the first killed by a dictator who had no respect for democracy and human rights, the second by US troops, assisted by the British, carrying the colourful banner of those principles while sprinkling Iraqis with white phosphorus and depleted uranium…

Read the entire article here.

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check out the writings of Haifa Zangana online dealing with this issue.
she is a Kurdish-Iraqui writer tortured under Saddam now living in exile in England who has written powerfully about the illegal American invasion/occupation of Iraq.

Yeah I did.

She offers terrible confusion along with horrors visited on Iraqi women, her sole focus in what I read.

The paradox starts here for me in your own posting, Mabel:

“she is a Kurdish-Iraqui writer tortured under Saddam now living in exile in England who has written powerfully about the illegal American invasion/occupation of Iraq.”

Illegal invasion of Iraq? How so? Under what law? Was our invasion of Germany in WWII also illegal? How did the two invasions differ under what law? Remember Saddam Hussein was shooting at American planes that were offering some partial relief for Kurds and marsh Arabs from the depradations of the monstrous former CIA asset in Baghdad.

Sure the invasion was not to save Kurds or marsh Arabs or American flyers being shot at or to stop crimes against the environment and humanity at the very apex of the birth of Western Civilization where the marsh Arabs lived. It was to grab some oil. The subsequent occupation says all that need be said about that.

It is extremely disheartening to read that womens’ rights have deteriorated under American occupation but I am not fully convinced by Zangana, though she knows vastly more than I, that it is the fault of American soldier/rapists. That combat soldiers are capable of atrocities far beyond what individuals might do on their own should not need proof but I offer The Rape of Nanking as the most horrendous example in all literature.

That “Kurdish-Iraqi” description of Zangana sticks in my craw. I would be willing to bet a hefty sum the vast majority of Kurds, female as well male, would be deliriously happy to be citizens of a Kurdistan rather than Iraq. It would appear Zangana has other desires.

I don’t mean to put Zangana down at all. She simply leaves me with vast confusion.

BTW, Mabel if you happen to be still around, thank you very much for an introduction to a most courageous lady in Haifa Zangana.

Best, Terry

I hope we can reach out to these poets; we must provide a forum for them. It is a way to try to reach through the void.

I would like to see an author slot given to these poets if they would do it. We could begin the necessary exchange of ideas and ideals to cut through the madness.

And if the architects of “The Clean Break, A New Strategy for Securing the Realm” finish implementing their plan. Iran is next on the list.

Weekly Standards William Kristol, Joseph Bottum, and National Review’s Charles Krauthammer, Rich Lowry, and Jonah Goldberg are all singing versions of the same song. President Bush you need to “Pardon Libby” just because you can.

I guess these guys need lies about a —-job to consider an issue serious enough for impeachment or jail time.

Would someone please give everyone in the Bush administration (including Libby) —-jobs so that the guys at National Review and the Weekly Standard would call for impeachment proceedings.

So much for our justice system. The whole world is watching and laughing!

only with blackest humor

but mainly

not laughing — horrified

shine a light in dark places
people

“The light will not be lit here again,”

i really pray this will not be the case. maybe barnes and nobles has plans for Mutanabi street.

:(