CROSSPOSTED @ NEVER IN OUR NAMES....please join us there in our fight for human rights.
TURN ON YOUR SPEAKERS, OPEN YOUR EYES, WATCH, AND LISTEN: NOV 7th: THE WORLD IS WATCHING...."Let America Be America Again!" -----(casualty figures drastically skyrocketed since this video was made years ago)
edited to add some more context and more Riverbend.
I always choke up a bit, or if reading in private...the tears usually come, just reading the header at Baghdad Burning......
Baghdad Burning
... I'll meet you 'round the bend my friend, where hearts can heal and souls can mend...
I don't doubt that this has been posted already. If it's been done so in the last few hours then I'll delete but otherwise I'm going to let it remain as I know many here seek out Riverbend's blogpostings and they've been quite infrequent lately so I want everyone that can to be informed that she has posted again...and just as usual...it's not better, it's worse....
I don't have much to add to this and I won't be around to comment much but please, if you have just a couple of minutes, take the time to go read Riverbend's new post from yesterday at Baghdad Burning.
Here's the link:
"When All Else Fails...
... Execute the dictator. It's that simple."
- Baghdad Burning
Here are a few excerpts...
When All Else Fails...
... Execute the dictator. It's that simple. When American troops are being killed by the dozen, when the country you are occupying is threatening to break up into smaller countries, when you have militias and death squads roaming the streets and you've put a group of Mullahs in power- execute the dictator.
Everyone expected this verdict from the very first day of the trial. There was a brief interlude when, with the first judge, it was thought that it might actually be a coherent trial where Iraqis could hear explanations and see what happened. That was soon over with the prosecution's first false witness. Events that followed were so ridiculous; it's difficult to believe them even now.
So we all knew the outcome upfront (Maliki was on television 24 hours before the verdict telling people not to `rejoice too much'). I think what surprises me right now is the utter stupidity of the current Iraqi government. The timing is ridiculous- immediately before the congressional elections? How very convenient for Bush. Iraq, today, is at its very worst since the invasion and the beginning occupation. April 2003 is looking like a honeymoon month today. Is it really the time to execute Saddam?
Reconstruction is an aspiration from another lifetime: I swear we no longer want buildings and bridges, security and an undivided Iraq are more than enough. Things must be deteriorating beyond imagination if Bush needs to use the `Execute the Dictator' card.
Iraq has not been this bad in decades. The occupation is a failure. The various pro-American, pro-Iranian Iraqi governments are failures. The new Iraqi army is a deadly joke. Is it really time to turn Saddam into a martyr? Things are so bad that even pro-occupation Iraqis are going back on their initial `WE LOVE AMERICA' frenzy.
Just go read the whole thing. Seriously. I know this isn't the kind of downer anyone wants to read as we're all amped as hell for election day.... but read the whole thing. This is one of the main reasons that we're fighting so hard to take back our country. Her words, especially if you've been reading her for a couple of years now and know the context, bring a heartwringing reality to it that even I have to stop and breathe deep while reading, from anger, pain, and sadness all. This is why we are fighting so hard, at least the top reason for me and many of us here. We destroyed this nation of Iraq. We not only have made things worse for most of them than under Saddam... we have brought about the deaths of about as many Americans there, if not more, than Osama had any hand in on 9/11. Count the tens of thousands of wounded and we've made a farce of Osama's dreams while, on the other hand, bringing his dream to life of a war of the civilizations.
Numbers are numbers.... but people there are not numbers. They're just like your best friend you had a beer with tonight after work. They're just like your boyfriend or girlfriend that you missed for a few days because they had a conference somewhere. They're just like your son or daughter who it pained you to send off to some camp or sleepover for the first time and missed for a night or 5. They're people and there's hardly a person in Iraq who does not know someone affected or has not had someone they know die in a pool of blood due to our invasion.
Riverbend is the human face (or heart and emotion) behind the numbers and I hope there's not a person here who is not following her reporting of the reality of life in Baghdad and beyond.
Iraq saw demonstrations against and for the verdict. The pro-Saddam demonstrators were attacked by the Iraqi army. This is how free our media is today: the channels that were showing the pro-Saddam demonstrations have been shut down. Iraqi security forces promptly raided them.
Oh yeah....those reporting the demonstrations against the Saddam verdict? Simply for reporting them....those networks are now SHUT THE FUCK DOWN.
Ain't freedom grand?
Zawra channel. The subtitle says: Baghdad: Zawra satellite channel has stopped broadcasting by order of the government.
It's not about the man- presidents come and go, governments come and go. It's the frustration of feeling like the whole country and every single Iraqi inside and outside of Iraq is at the mercy of American politics. It is the rage of feeling like a mere chess piece to be moved back and forth at will. It is the aggravation of having a government so blind and uncaring about their peoples needs that they don't even feel like it's necessary to go through the motions or put up an act. And it's the deaths. The thousands of dead and dying, with Bush sitting there smirking and lying about progress and winning in a country where every single Iraqi outside of the Green Zone is losing.
The conclusion is damning beyond words.
Once again... The timing of all of this is impeccable- two days before congressional elections. And if you don't see it, then I'm sorry, you're stupid. Let's see how many times Bush milks this as a `success' in his coming speeches.
A final note. I just read somewhere that some of the families of dead American soldiers are visiting the Iraqi north to see `what their sons and daughters died for'. If that's the goal of the visit, then, "Ladies and gentlemen- to your right is the Iraqi Ministry of Oil, to your left is the Dawry refinery... Each of you get this, a gift bag containing a 3 by 3 color poster of Al Sayid Muqtada Al Sadr (Long May He Live And Prosper), an Ayatollah Sistani t-shirt and a map of Iran, to scale, redrawn with the Islamic Republic of South Iraq. Also... Hey you! You- the female in the back- is that a lock of hair I see? Cover it up or stay home."
And that is what they died for.
And THAT is what they CONTINUE dying for.
This isn't from an American anti-war advocate. This is from someone in the safest part of Iraq, outside of Kurdistan.
THIS. IS. REALITY. IN. IRAQ.
Please take the time, if you have not already, to read the post in its entirety.
Also, if you've missed Baghdad Burning lately or have simply let Riverbend escape your mind.... do not miss her last two posts either.
The Lancet Study...
and....another heartbreaking punch to the face with reality....a must-read.....
Summer of Goodbyes...
I've said goodbye this last month to more people than I can count. Some of the `goodbyes' were hurried and furtive- the sort you say at night to the neighbor who got a death threat and is leaving at the break of dawn, quietly.
Some of the `goodbyes' were emotional and long-drawn, to the relatives and friends who can no longer bear to live in a country coming apart at the seams.
Many of the `goodbyes' were said stoically- almost casually- with a fake smile plastered on the face and the words, "See you soon"... Only to walk out the door and want to collapse with the burden of parting with yet another loved one.
During times like these I remember a speech Bush made in 2003: One of the big achievements he claimed was the return of jubilant `exiled' Iraqis to their country after the fall of Saddam. I'd like to see some numbers about the Iraqis currently outside of the country you are occupying... Not to mention internally displaced Iraqis abandoning their homes and cities.
I sometimes wonder if we'll ever know just how many hundreds of thousands of Iraqis left the country this bleak summer. I wonder how many of them will actually return. Where will they go? What will they do with themselves? Is it time to follow? Is it time to wash our hands of the country and try to find a stable life somewhere else?
Let's remember that tomorrow is not just about us. There are hundreds of thousands of people that you and I will never meet or speak to, for the most part, whose lives have been utterly destroyed and put into a pool of blood, chaos, disorder, and sadness by those who we are opposing as progressive Democrats. Tomorrow is as much for them as it is for us, and actually more so when it comes right down to it.
We have a long ways to go before America will be America again.... but tomorrow can be a start...and if we win....then we can finally start beginning to start becoming America again.
Peace.
Langston Hughes - Let America Be America Again
Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.
(America never was America to me.)
Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed--
Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That any man be crushed by one above.
(It never was America to me.)
O, let my land be a land where Liberty
Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
But opportunity is real, and life is free,
Equality is in the air we breathe.
(There's never been equality for me,
Nor freedom in this "homeland of the free.")
Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?
And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?
I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars.
I am the red man driven from the land,
I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek--
And finding only the same old stupid plan
Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.
I am the young man, full of strength and hope,
Tangled in that ancient endless chain
Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!
Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!
Of work the men! Of take the pay!
Of owning everything for one's own greed!
I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.
I am the worker sold to the machine.
I am the Negro, servant to you all.
I am the people, humble, hungry, mean--
Hungry yet today despite the dream.
Beaten yet today--O, Pioneers!
I am the man who never got ahead,
The poorest worker bartered through the years.
Yet I'm the one who dreamt our basic dream
In the Old World while still a serf of kings,
Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true,
That even yet its mighty daring sings
In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned
That's made America the land it has become.
O, I'm the man who sailed those early seas
In search of what I meant to be my home--
For I'm the one who left dark Ireland's shore,
And Poland's plain, and England's grassy lea,
And torn from Black Africa's strand I came
To build a "homeland of the free."
The free?
Who said the free? Not me?
Surely not me? The millions on relief today?
The millions shot down when we strike?
The millions who have nothing for our pay?
For all the dreams we've dreamed
And all the songs we've sung
And all the hopes we've held
And all the flags we've hung,
The millions who have nothing for our pay--
Except the dream that's almost dead today.
O, let America be America again--
The land that never has been yet--
And yet must be--the land where every man is free.
The land that's mine--the poor man's, Indian's, Negro's, ME--
Who made America,
Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
Must bring back our mighty dream again.
Sure, call me any ugly name you choose--
The steel of freedom does not stain.
From those who live like leeches on the people's lives,
We must take back our land again,
America!
O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath--
America will be!
Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,
The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,
We, the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the endless plain--
All, all the stretch of these great green states--
And make America again!
Tomorrow is only the beginning
THE FIGHT CONTINUES
THE FIGHT CONTINUES