Recently in War Category

I haven't written much about George W. Bush in a while.  It's a testament to his irrelevancy.  He's been doing interviews looking back on his presidency as of late, and I was surprised to find this in an interview Bush did with ABC's Charlie Gibson:

Bush said that one of his biggest disappointments was the failure to pass a comprehensive bill on immigration reform.

"I firmly believe that the immigration debate really didn't show the true nature of America as a welcoming society," he said. "I fully understand we need to enforce law and enforce borders. But the debate took on a tone that undermined the true greatness of America, which is that we welcome people who want to work hard and support their families."

Lauren Sher - ABC News (1 December 2008)

I've often been criticized for caring so much about migrant rights and allowing that passion to cloud my perception of other battles that need to be fought.  If that were true, I could very easily say that George W. Bush got it right on U.S. migration policy.   

My thoughts go out tonight to the victims of the terror attacks in Mumbai.  One upsetting aspect of these crimes is the selection of targets by nationality. 

When I see evidence of the dedication and resourcefulness of these young bombers brought to bear to kill other human beings, I think "what a fucking waste." 

You could have used your gifts, your energy, your life to bring life to others, to make other lives richer.  Instead, you brought death.  You stole life. 

Times like this call for personal and public affirmation of the principles of nonviolence to which Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. gave their lives.  Violence begets violence unless a conscious choice is made to break that cycle.

[Image: AFP]

From the NY Times today:

KABUL, Afghanistan -- An airstrike by United States-led forces killed 40 civilians and wounded 28 others at a wedding party in Kandahar Province in southern Afghanistan, Afghan officials said Wednesday. The casualties included women and children, the officials said.

The United States military and Afghan authorities were investigating the reports about the latest attack, the American military said in a statement, but it gave no confirmation of the strikes or any death toll.

By now, this is a familiar pattern.

The outlines of a cynical strategy emerge: deny, deny, deny for the first week or two until the story recedes from the front pages, then concede in bits and pieces until the story is broken up and defused over time and new distractions materialize. 

But this strategy only works if you stop blowing up wedding parties or villages every other month.

Today was a day for remembering, and for asking hard questions.

El Loco at Latinopundit remembers 9/11/01 and 9/11/73, and the tragedies that occurred on the U.S. Eastern Seaboard and in Allende's Chile on those dates.

Karima Bennoune at IntLawGrrls says that

both our contemporary human rights and security discourses on terrorism need to be broadened and renewed. This renewal should be informed by the understanding that international human rights law protects the individual both from terrorism and the excesses of counterterrorism, like torture.

She reminds us that

Counterterrorist policies that violate international law clearly undermine the endeavors of people like Sifaoui and Kheddar. But a human rights response that focuses solely on the impact of counterterrorism, and not of terrorism itself, hinders their work as well. Instead, international lawyers need to develop what Gita Sahgal has called a "human rights account" of terrorism. Perhaps that could be our best contribution to commemorating the terrible events of September 11, 2001.

Duke at Migra Matters recounts the tragic events of 9/11 and then the tragic two weeks that followed during which the Bush administration began preparations for the war in Iraq.  This war has led to the death and displacement of a far greater number of people than the 9/11 attacks.

Nezua provides a very personal look into his world on 9/11 and the subsequent days and weeks. Tracing his ideological and emotional trajectory will hit close to home to many readers, myself included.

And here are my scattered recollections of that day in lower Manhattan, recorded two years ago. I've probably grown even more skeptical since then of those who claim to lead us and of U.S. claims of the efficacy and good faith of its actions abroad. It is a strange experience--I feel at once more cynical and more hopeful than I have felt before.

Cynical when I think of our upcoming election and the ways I feel the U.S. will be stuck in the status quo regardless of who wins the presidency. Hopeful in the potential I see for transnational organizing and a youth movement that knows no borders.

(Picture from the Boston Globe / Michele McDonald)

For someone like myself, who spends far too much time thinking about injustice, I fear sometimes that I'll get used to it.  I fear that my heart will encase itself in steel to protect itself from the pain.  I don't know if I'm fortunate or not, but it looks as if my heart hasn't grown cold yet.  My heart wasn't able to insulate itself from the story of Rakan Hassan.

If you read one newspaper article today, let it be the story of Hassan in the Boston Globe today.  When the author, Kevin Cullen, tells of breaking the news about Hassan to his son, I bawled.

Sombrero Tip to Blue Mass. Group.