Re: Building a Movement That Outlasts the Occupation
If the media is actually willing to report this story, what good does it do for the left to say Ah, that's nothing, think about the prisons in the U.S., and the School of the Americas, etc.? The left has the responsibility to address and expose the long-range systemic ills. It's encouraging that the corporate press is interested in this story. But the hoopla will fade as quickly as the hoopla over the final episodes of Friends if the left doesn't hold the context. Frenzied exposure in the media of these kinds of horrors clouds other issues. I think a case can be made that the college turmoil over Nixon's bombing of Cambodia and the exposure of the Mi Lai slaughter didn't have as much to do with ending the Vietnam War as did the fact that US draftees were fragging their commanding officers, despite widespread media coverage of the first two and none of the last. The media still allows a faux-issue like the Vietnam Syndrome to be discussed as though it were meaningful because the left failed to address the larger, systemic issue, namely, the placing of one younger, poorer segment of the population in coerced jeopardy by another richer, older, whiter (but exclusive) segment. Fragging was a direct attack on that system by its very victims. The current media attention is really about getting caught and not about the fact that this kind of shit is what us Americans have built into our basic structure. Fragging made the draft (temporarily) obsolete. But the club of induction (Gen. Hershey's phrase for social engineering by the draft) was replaced by the club of economic betterment (my phrase for joining the military to get out of poverty). We've always got to give space for the corporate media to do the right thing. But we shouldn't let up on the long-range task of pushing for a more meaningful discussion (and correction) of the underlying systemic ill. The first step to recovery is, alas, admitting that we ain't who we pretend to be. Dan Scanlan
Re: Building a Movement That Outlasts the Occupation
Max wrote... At the risk of a round of raspberries I'll tell my Cambodia story. Raspberries are good for you. Thanks for the story. Dan Scanlan
Re: Building a Movement That Outlasts the Occupation
At the risk of a round of raspberries I'll tell my Cambodia story. I was a thoroughly cynical campus radical when Nixon did his television number on why he had to invade Cambodia, to protect American lives. I was in my dorm with none-too-radical dorm-mates. After it was over I said ho-hum and went back to my room. Can't remember what I was doing. An hour later I get a phone call from a friend at the Campus Center. The place was in an uproar. Hundreds of people had converged there to discuss what to do. Max, get over here! Oh, okay. Moral: you can get too far ahead of the masses. mbs - Original Message - From: Devine, James [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, May 10, 2004 7:02 PM Subject: Re: Building a Movement That Outlasts the Occupation Joanna writes: What's new is that somebody seems to care. Somehow, this seems to be turning out to be the final straw. It was about time. So, I understand that it is not really new as does most of the left, but this is an inadequate response. If the media is actually willing to report this story, what good does it do for the left to say Ah, that's nothing, think about the prisons in the U.S., and the School of the Americas, etc.? that's right. We have to be clear not only about what we think and know, but about what people outside of the left are thinking and knowing. That helps us bring them over to our side. Jim Devine
Building a Movement That Outlasts the Occupation
Max Sawicky, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute who keeps a very popular blog MaxSpeak, argues that right-wingers are forming a lynch mob to scapegoat the US soldiers in the Abu Ghraib torture photographs, trying to pass off what happened at Abu Ghraib as an isolated incident and to exonerate the power elite of the White House, the US military, and private security firms: So the correct line is straight-forward: investigate the brass, the CIA, the civilian DoD leadership, and the contractors. Any problems in those areas are much more important than the perverse behavior of some individuals on the front lines. Support the troops, or support the command. The right choice is clear. (Support the Troops, May 8, 2004) Indeed, activists ought to seize this moment of division in the right-wing ranks and exacerbate a legitimation crisis for the George W. Bush administration, rather than letting the right sacrifice individual soldiers -- victims turned victimizers on a small scale -- who are expendable in their eyes to protect the biggest war criminals of all: Inside the White House, several of Mr. Bush's aides have argued that he has little choice but to make them public. Sooner or later, they say, the images will leak out, prolonging the pain, fueling Iraqi and Arab suspicions of a Pentagon-orchestrated cover-up, and giving new life to calls for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's removal. Many in the Pentagon, though, are resisting. Pentagon officials warned that a public release could jeopardize its criminal inquiry. They theorized that defense lawyers could cite a governmental release in motions to dismiss charges, arguing that their clients could not get a fair hearing. So far, seven soldiers are facing charges related to abuse of Iraqi detainees. . . . That argument [about whether, when, and how to disclose hitherto unreleased images to the public] broke out in public on Sunday when the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, John W. Warner, Republican of Virginia, seemed to back keeping the images from public view, describing them as of a classified nature on the NBC News program Meet the Press. He was immediately challenged by a fellow Republican, Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who shot back: If there's a videotape out there, for God's sake let's talk about it, because men and women's lives are at stake, given how we handle this. So I want to get it all out on the table. (Thom Shanker, Officials Grapple With How and When to Release Images, New York Times, May 10, 2004) Activists also have a chance of making an anti-occupation movement become more than a movement of predominantly white activists who think that the best way to expand the movement is to focus on Iraq alone. . . . The rest of the posting is at http://montages.blogspot.com/2004/05/building-movement-that-outlasts.html. -- Yoshie * Critical Montages: http://montages.blogspot.com/ * Bring Them Home Now! http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/ * Calendars of Events in Columbus: http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/calendar.html, http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php, http://www.cpanews.org/ * Student International Forum: http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/ * Committee for Justice in Palestine: http://www.osudivest.org/ * Al-Awda-Ohio: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio * Solidarity: http://www.solidarity-us.org/
Re: Building a Movement That Outlasts the Occupation
I'd like to note that in my post, I acknowledged the obvious guilt of those in the pictures and those who took the pictures. I don't mean to patronize them as ignorant pawns. Pawns maybe, but not ignorant or free of responsibility for what their roles. mbs -Original Message- From: PEN-L list [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Yoshie Furuhashi Sent: Monday, May 10, 2004 4:59 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Building a Movement That Outlasts the Occupation Max Sawicky, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute who keeps a very popular blog MaxSpeak, argues that right-wingers are forming a lynch mob to scapegoat the US soldiers in the Abu Ghraib torture photographs, trying to pass off what happened at Abu Ghraib as an isolated incident and to exonerate the power elite of the White House, the US military, and private security firms: So the correct line is straight-forward: investigate the brass, the CIA, the civilian DoD leadership, and the contractors. Any problems in those areas are much more important than the perverse behavior of some individuals on the front lines. Support the troops, or support the command. The right choice is clear. (Support the Troops, May 8, 2004) Indeed, activists ought to seize this moment of division in the right-wing ranks and exacerbate a legitimation crisis for the George W. Bush administration, rather than letting the right sacrifice individual soldiers -- victims turned victimizers on a small scale -- who are expendable in their eyes to protect the biggest war criminals of all: Inside the White House, several of Mr. Bush's aides have argued that he has little choice but to make them public. Sooner or later, they say, the images will leak out, prolonging the pain, fueling Iraqi and Arab suspicions of a Pentagon-orchestrated cover-up, and giving new life to calls for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's removal. Many in the Pentagon, though, are resisting. Pentagon officials warned that a public release could jeopardize its criminal inquiry. They theorized that defense lawyers could cite a governmental release in motions to dismiss charges, arguing that their clients could not get a fair hearing. So far, seven soldiers are facing charges related to abuse of Iraqi detainees. . . . That argument [about whether, when, and how to disclose hitherto unreleased images to the public] broke out in public on Sunday when the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, John W. Warner, Republican of Virginia, seemed to back keeping the images from public view, describing them as of a classified nature on the NBC News program Meet the Press. He was immediately challenged by a fellow Republican, Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who shot back: If there's a videotape out there, for God's sake let's talk about it, because men and women's lives are at stake, given how we handle this. So I want to get it all out on the table. (Thom Shanker, Officials Grapple With How and When to Release Images, New York Times, May 10, 2004) Activists also have a chance of making an anti-occupation movement become more than a movement of predominantly white activists who think that the best way to expand the movement is to focus on Iraq alone. . . . The rest of the posting is at http://montages.blogspot.com/2004/05/building-movement-that-outlasts.html. -- Yoshie * Critical Montages: http://montages.blogspot.com/ * Bring Them Home Now! http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/ * Calendars of Events in Columbus: http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/calendar.html, http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php, http://www.cpanews.org/ * Student International Forum: http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/ * Committee for Justice in Palestine: http://www.osudivest.org/ * Al-Awda-Ohio: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio * Solidarity: http://www.solidarity-us.org/
Re: Building a Movement That Outlasts the Occupation
I'd like to note that in my post, I acknowledged the obvious guilt of those in the pictures and those who took the pictures. I don't mean to patronize them as ignorant pawns. Pawns maybe, but not ignorant or free of responsibility for what their roles. mbs Eventually, I hope that at least some of the soldiers who are at the center of the scandal will come to think that taking their own responsibility, regardless of what happens at courts-martial and beyond, will be good for themselves. I think that's part of the spirit in which veterans organized the Winter Soldiers investigation. -- Yoshie * Critical Montages: http://montages.blogspot.com/ * Bring Them Home Now! http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/ * Calendars of Events in Columbus: http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/calendar.html, http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php, http://www.cpanews.org/ * Student International Forum: http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/ * Committee for Justice in Palestine: http://www.osudivest.org/ * Al-Awda-Ohio: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio * Solidarity: http://www.solidarity-us.org/
Re: Building a Movement That Outlasts the Occupation
Yoshie posted... So the correct line is straight-forward: investigate the brass, the CIA, the civilian DoD leadership, and the contractors. Any problems in those areas are much more important than the perverse behavior of some individuals on the front lines. Indeed, activists ought to seize this moment of division in the right-wing ranks and exacerbate a legitimation crisis for the George W. Bush administration, rather than letting the right sacrifice individual soldiers -- victims turned victimizers on a small scale -- who are expendable in their eyes to protect the biggest war criminals of all: Inside the White House, several of Mr. Bush's aides have argued that he has little choice but to make them public. Sooner or later, they say, the images will leak out, prolonging the pain, fueling Iraqi and Arab suspicions of a Pentagon-orchestrated cover-up, and giving new life to calls for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's removal. Comment What's new? Shrub killed 152 folks on death row while governor of Texas, including the mentally retarded and those whose attorneys slept in court. His daddy bulldozed innocent bystanders into mass graves in Panama. His idea of heros -- NYPD -- jammed a toilet plunger up the ass of an arrestee. The Pentagon-orchestrated School of the Americas has taught torture techniques to third world salivators most of my adult life. The American Indian surely doesn't see anything new in the torture of home folks by Christian invaders. Personally, I'm looking for the connection between the exposure of American torture and the final installment of Friends. Dan Scanlan
Re: Building a Movement That Outlasts the Occupation
What's new is that somebody seems to care. Somehow, this seems to be turning out to be the final straw. It was about time. So, I understand that it is not really new as does most of the left, but this is an inadequate response. If the media is actually willing to report this story, what good does it do for the left to say Ah, that's nothing, think about the prisons in the U.S., and the School of the Americas, etc.? What we must be vocal about is that this is not the responsibility of the grunts who implemented the policy but of the superior cadre that created it. Obviously, the grunts just thought they were doing a bang-up job. The frat type pictures are clear indications that this was nothing to be ashamed of or to hide. Joanna Dan Scanlan wrote: Yoshie posted... So the correct line is straight-forward: investigate the brass, the CIA, the civilian DoD leadership, and the contractors. Any problems in those areas are much more important than the perverse behavior of some individuals on the front lines. Indeed, activists ought to seize this moment of division in the right-wing ranks and exacerbate a legitimation crisis for the George W. Bush administration, rather than letting the right sacrifice individual soldiers -- victims turned victimizers on a small scale -- who are expendable in their eyes to protect the biggest war criminals of all: Inside the White House, several of Mr. Bush's aides have argued that he has little choice but to make them public. Sooner or later, they say, the images will leak out, prolonging the pain, fueling Iraqi and Arab suspicions of a Pentagon-orchestrated cover-up, and giving new life to calls for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's removal. Comment What's new? Shrub killed 152 folks on death row while governor of Texas, including the mentally retarded and those whose attorneys slept in court. His daddy bulldozed innocent bystanders into mass graves in Panama. His idea of heros -- NYPD -- jammed a toilet plunger up the ass of an arrestee. The Pentagon-orchestrated School of the Americas has taught torture techniques to third world salivators most of my adult life. The American Indian surely doesn't see anything new in the torture of home folks by Christian invaders. Personally, I'm looking for the connection between the exposure of American torture and the final installment of Friends. Dan Scanlan .
Re: Building a Movement That Outlasts the Occupation
Joanna writes: What's new is that somebody seems to care. Somehow, this seems to be turning out to be the final straw. It was about time. So, I understand that it is not really new as does most of the left, but this is an inadequate response. If the media is actually willing to report this story, what good does it do for the left to say Ah, that's nothing, think about the prisons in the U.S., and the School of the Americas, etc.? that's right. We have to be clear not only about what we think and know, but about what people outside of the left are thinking and knowing. That helps us bring them over to our side. Jim Devine
