I Ain’t Gonna Listen To You No More
Meet Army Sgt. Matthis Chiroux, who served in Japan, the Philippines and Afghanistan. He’d rather go to jail than Iraq.
Good afternoon. My name is Sgt. Matthis Chiroux, and I served in the Army as a Photojournalist until being honorably discharged last summer after over four years of service in Afghanistan, Japan, Europe and the Phillipines. As an Army journalist whose job it was to collect and filter servicemember’s stories, I heard many stomach-churning testimonies of the horrors and crimes taking place in Iraq. For fear of retaliation from the military, I failed to report these crimes, but never again will I allow fear to silence me. Never again will I fail to stand.
In February, I received a letter from the Army ordering my return to active duty, for the purpose of mobilization for Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Thanks in great part to the truths of war being fearlessly spoken by my fellow IVAW members, I stand before you today with the strength, clarity and resolve to declare to the military and the world that this Soldier will not be deploying to Iraq.
This occupation is unconstitutional and illegal and I hereby lawfully refuse to participate as I will surely be a party to war crimes. Furthermore, deployment in support of illegal war violates all of my core values as a human being, but in keeping with those values, I choose to remain in the United States to defend myself from charges brought by the Army if they so wish to pursue them. I refuse to participate in the occupation of Iraq.
Vengeance, From The Grave, Kills The People He Once Saved
As promised! The long-awaited Iron Man Doctrine piece, fresh from The American Prospect. It’s a meditation on Iron Man and imperialism. I know, I know, I’m so f*cking cliche.
The second way Marvel subtly readjusted Iron Man for America’s post-Vietnam sensibilities was to reveal that the reason Stark could control neither his company nor his relationships was that he couldn’t control himself. Stark’s booze-soaked, womanizing lifestyle was cleverly reinterpreted as rampant alcoholism and self-loathing. His drive to save the world was nothing more than a martyr complex born of a callow solipsism. It was a brilliant maneuver by the writers. Iron Man began to ask America: Would you trust such unfettered, unaccountable power to someone this messed up? The introduction of War Machine took the critique a step further, showing that the very act of donning the armor makes you messed up. Some exercises of power are too dangerous to be left in the hands of one man. The writers never turned Iron Man into a villain — that would have been the easy way out. Instead they presented a fascinating character study, a compelling Cold War critique, a subtle plea for liberal internationalism, and a defense of a series of theses presented to the world in America’s founding documents. It helps that Iron Man also blows stuff up.
Other recent updates to the Stark/Iron Man story have jettisoned the Cold War element but deepened the dynamic established in the 1970s. In Extremis, a reboot of the franchise during the current Bush era, Warren Ellis, one of the most talented comic-book writers currently working, has Stark unable to answer the question “What is the Iron Man armor for, Tony?” A left-wing filmmaker, dismissive of Stark’s protestations that he’s more than a weapons merchant, asks, “Do you think they have your painkilling drug pumps in Iraq? Do you think an Afghan kid with his arms blown off by a landmine is remotely impressed by an Iron Man suit?” Tony Stark is meant to be read as a tragic figure. He is one of the smartest men alive, yet he cannot think his way out of the traps his genius constructs for him. And so he blunders, again and again, into a hell of unintended consequences.
God can I not wait for the Ultimates/Avengers movie.
Update: Welcome, Metafilterers.
Wages Of Sin, We Keep Paying
Amazingly, the Bush administration can’t figure out just why the Arab governments it occasionally flirts with undermining/subverting/overthrowing — and whose citizens it reserves the right to abduct, imprison, kill and certainly demonize — won’t cooperate with its proxy Iraq government!
And look at the alibi. As a wise man once said, you want it to be one way –
But U.S. and Iraqi officials dismissed Arab security concerns as a smokescreen. “If I believed the issue were purely one of security, it would be one thing,” a senior Bush administration official said. The Iraqi government has offered the Arabs space inside the fortified Green Zone, where the U.S. embassy and much of the Iraqi government is located.
The real basis for Arab reluctance, the U.S. official said, “is political. It’s a choice, an acknowledgement that there is a new Iraq, of recognizing that its political structures, its constitution, its government, is in fact legitimate.”
– but it’s the other way.
The Arabs, unsurprisingly, say that is nonsense. “Iraq is an Arab country and we want the same things the Americans want,” an Arab official said. But beyond diplomatic security, he and others said they are not convinced that the Basra offensive proved that Maliki is ready to stand up to Tehran. They also note that Maliki’s government has so far failed to incorporate more than a fraction of the largely Sunni Awakening security forces backed by the U.S. military into the Iraqi police and military forces.
Several Arab officials questioned whether Iraq’s military offensives against Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army militia were staged to crack down on “criminals,” as Maliki has said, or to benefit Sadr’s Shiite rivals, who are allied with the prime minister. Administration officials raised that possibility themselves immediately after the Basra assault, one Arab noted, before they decided to hail it as evidence of Maliki’s willingness to go after his co-religionists.
Several Arab officials attributed their hesitation partly to what they describe as Iraqi government incompetence. Egypt has complained that it has yet to receive the body of its assassinated ambassador, and also that political factions in Baghdad have been unable to agree on Iraq’s envoy to Cairo. A Saudi official noted that while Iraq complains about Riyadh’s failure to forgive billions in debt, Baghdad has not provided the necessary paperwork and has paid no principal or interest for the past 20 years. Still, the Saudi official said, “nobody is taking them to the credit bureau.”
It’s almost as if telling the Arab world to snack on ‘em before you need it to support your imperial fantasies isn’t an effective strategy!
The Mask Has Cracked
Faiz captures the greatest moment in television history: a right-wing talk show host goes on Hardball to yell appeaserappeaserappeaser and has no idea what happened at Munich in 1938. Video via TPM:
Chris Matthews, that next eightball is on me.
And If I Get Aggression I Give It Two Times Back
Everyone’s rightfully up in arms over Bush calling 70 percent of the country the heirs of Nazi-appeasers. But look: let’s be productive. Give him back the bile he spews. For instance… Those who would look down from 30,000 feet in the air while African-Americans drown in New Orleans are the heirs of the White Citizens Councils, as are those who apologize for such a disregard for their fellow citizens. We have an obligation to call this what it is — the false virtue of racism, which has been repeatedly discredited by history.
See how this works? If this is Nixonland, let’s master its rules.
This Summer I Hear The Drumming
Iraq Veterans Against The War is up on the Hill this morning to tell the Congressional Progressive Caucus what the Winter Soldiers experienced and witnessed in Iraq and Afghanistan. If posting is light here today, it’s because I’m liveblogging the over at The Streak. You should check it out.
Roll With The Winners
I haven’t read Matt Bai’s new McCain piece yet, but I think when the New York Times Magazine starts playing off the Ackerglesias American Prospect Ultimate Flophouse Team-Up “doctrine” package, it means the world has spun off its axis.
My War, You’re One Of Them
The Windy’s Mike Lillis has a great story about how the blue-dog Democrats are standing in the way of Jim Webb’s new GI Bill.
But Democratic leaders face tough opposition from both sides of the aisle. Conservative Republicans oppose the policy, arguing that the benefits are too generous; while conservative-leaning House Democrats — the Blue Dogs — oppose the process, maintaining that the 10-year, $52-billion cost should be offset rather than borrowed, as party leaders have proposed.
House Democrats hope to score a political victory by voting separately to attach the education proposal to a must-pass emergency war spending bill — all but daring Republicans to vote against a veterans benefit just before Memorial Day in an election year. The bill would then move to the Senate, where the same scenario could force some Republican senators — including likely GOP presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) — into a similarly uncomfortable vote. To get the bill out of the House, however, will likely require cooperation from the 47-member-strong Blue Dogs, whose opposition to the off-budget GI Bill came as a surprise. The shakeup pushed House debate on the war spending package to later this week.
Among House Democrats, the conflict boils down to this: Do lawmakers have a greater responsibility to the returning troops or to future generations via smaller budget deficits? The saga underscores the difficulty of moving legislation in a high-stakes election year — when lawmakers want to be seen working hard in Washington, but political wrangling ensures the failure of most big ideas.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Cal.) has said that the Democratic differences would be ironed out this week. But Blue Dog Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.) said Tuesday that he has no intention of backing down. “The Blue Dogs still have plenty of fight,” Cooper said.
I’ll Never Kill Others Just To Live, My Heart Is Screaming, We Are Human Beings, My Head Is Held High In The Name Of Palestine
I’ll Never Kill Others Just To Live, My Heart Is Screaming, We Are Human Beings, My Head Is Held High In The Name Of Palestine
Where else but Park Slope would you find Palestinian hiphop? Seriously. Last night Dam performed at Southpaw and killed it. You saw Palestinian flags everywhere, angry raised fists, and a lot of ventilation of complicated feelings of frustration. You know what that’s called? Punk rock. Which is a synonym for liberation.
It helped that Dam consist of three seemingly talented rappers. Naturally, as a non-Arabic speaker, I can’t really tell, but their cadence and flow and rhythm were impressive. Arabic rhythms in the beats turn out to be tailor-made for rap music. Also impressive was their completely-punk-rock sense of joy and bewilderment over performing in Brooklyn. One rapper, Mahmoud, took out his phone and, with a massive grin, asked the audience to say something to the kids back home.
I’m not going to lie: I was uncomfortable with some of the stuff that they said. They ended their set by talking about the “sixtieth anniversary of the nakhba,” by which they mean the creation of Israel. That’s just too close to saying Jews don’t have the right to their ancient homeland, coexisting with Arabs in peace, freedom and solidarity. I can’t endorse that. But I understand very well that venting your frustration entails ripping old wounds open, so the infection can spill out and the healing can begin. Those guys weren’t rapping for my comfort. They were rapping for their dignity and their sanity. But I have the right to my own as well. Real talk.
Much better — and cathartic — is their insistance that they aren’t the terrorists. Occupation, they said, truthfully, is the terrorist. Real talk.