Bookworm

Remembering. . .

My posts from 2006 #1 and #2. I wasn't on TypePad in 2001 (it didn't exist yet).

President Bush regrets his legacy as man who wanted war - Times Online

"President Bush has admitted to The Times that his gun-slinging rhetoric made the world believe that he was a “guy really anxious for war” in Iraq. He said that his aim now was to leave his successor a legacy of international diplomacy for tackling Iran. In an exclusive interview, he expressed regret at the bitter divisions over the war and said that he was troubled about how his country had been misunderstood. “I think that in retrospect I could have used a different tone, a different rhetoric.” Phrases such as “bring them on” or “dead or alive”, he said, “indicated to people that I was, you know, not a man of peace”. [Times Online (UK)]

Avert your eyes, the President is attempting to shape his legacy. 

Too Little, Too Late

Why I Believe Bush Must Go
in The Washington Post 'Outlook' by George McGovern, 6 January 2008

In this scathing and lengthy editorial, former senator George McGovern calls on Congress to impeach President Bush and Vice President Cheney, believing that the case against them is stronger than that against President Nixon and Vice President Agnew. He excoriates the administration for waging a "murderous, illegal, nonsensical war" in Iraq and egregiously mishandling the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. McGovern admits that his call for impeachment is made belatedly and has little chance of being acted upon. This begs the question of whether party politics and his endorsement of Hillary Clinton for President partially motivated him to write this piece.

Are We the Thought Police?

In this Salon piece we, the American people, are under indictment for self-censoring what we know about the Iraq war. Although the Bush administration and the press don't always make it easy for us to be informed, Michael Massing asserts that we don't need their interventions to keep us from the full truth. We simply choose not to read the military blogs and books, among other sources, that detail some of the more horrific aspects of this war: the number of civilian deaths, the proliferation of pornography, and drug use by the troops, among others.

A Death in the Family: Politics & Power: vanityfair.com

Link: A Death in the Family: Politics & Power: vanityfair.com.

was having an oppressively normal morning a few months ago, flicking through the banality of quotidian e-mail traffic, when I idly clicked on a message from a friend headed "Seen This?" The attached item turned out to be a very well-written story by Teresa Watanabe of the Los Angeles Times. It described the death, in Mosul, Iraq, of a young soldier from Irvine, California, named Mark Jennings Daily, and the unusual degree of emotion that his community was undergoing as a consequence. The emotion derived from a very moving statement that the boy had left behind, stating his reasons for having become a volunteer and bravely facing the prospect that his words might have to be read posthumously. In a way, the story was almost too perfect: this handsome lad had been born on the Fourth of July, was a registered Democrat and self-described agnostic, a U.C.L.A. honors graduate, and during his college days had fairly decided reservations about the war in Iraq. I read on, and actually printed the story out, and was turning a page when I saw the following:

"Somewhere along the way, he changed his mind. His family says there was no epiphany. Writings by author and columnist Christopher Hitchens on the moral case for war deeply influenced him … "

I don't exaggerate by much when I say that I froze. I certainly felt a very deep pang of cold dismay. I had just returned from a visit to Iraq with my own son (who is 23, as was young Mr. Daily) and had found myself in a deeply pessimistic frame of mind about the war. Was it possible that I had helped persuade someone I had never met to place himself in the path of an I.E.D.? Over-dramatizing myself a bit in the angst of the moment, I found I was thinking of William Butler Yeats, who was chilled to discover that the Irish rebels of 1916 had gone to their deaths quoting his play Cathleen ni Houlihan. He tried to cope with the disturbing idea in his poem "Man and the Echo":

Did that play of mine send out
Certain men the English shot? …
Could my spoken words have checked
That whereby a house lay wrecked?

Abruptly dismissing any comparison between myself and one of the greatest poets of the 20th century, I feverishly clicked on all the links from the article and found myself on Lieutenant Daily's MySpace site, where his statement "Why I Joined" was posted. The site also immediately kicked into a skirling noise of Irish revolutionary pugnacity: a song from the Dropkick Murphys album Warrior's Code. And there, at the top of the page, was a link to a passage from one of my articles, in which I poured scorn on those who were neutral about the battle for Iraq … I don't remember ever feeling, in every allowable sense of the word, quite so hollow.

Good grief, CNN, who makes these decisions?

I received three Breaking News emails from CNN today.  Two of the three I would consider to be important news and one I would not.  Can you identify the "Gee, I could've waited 'til later for this one" story?

• Three major earthquakes strike Peru -- a magnitude 7.7 and two magnitude 7.5, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. There is no word on casualties but Reuters reports buildings shaking in the capital, Lima.
• President Bush's daughter, Jenna, is engaged to be married, the White House says.
• Jose Padilla is found guilty on charges he conspired to kill people in an overseas jihad and to fund and support overseas terrorism.
  

Study of Iraq War and Terror Stirs Strong Political Response

"The intelligence estimate, an assessment by America’s 16 intelligence agencies, found that the war in Iraq, rather than stemming the growth of terrorism, had helped fuel its spread across the globe. The estimate was completed in April, and is the first formal review of global terrorism by the United States since the Iraq war began. . . In public comments on Sunday, Republican Congressional leaders did not dispute the accuracy of the reports about the intelligence estimate, although they continued to defend the American presence in Iraq. ”I think it’s obvious that the difficulties we’ve experienced in Iraq have certainly emboldened” terrorist groups, Senator John McCain, an Arizona Republican, said on the CBS News program “Face the Nation.”  “But I would also argue that these people didn’t need any motivation to attack us on Sept. 11,” he said." [NY Times; emphasis mine]

President Bush’s Reality

"Mr. Bush. . . described a world where Iraq is a young but hopeful democracy with a “unity government” that represents its diverse population. Al Qaeda-trained terrorists who are terrified by “the sight of an old man pulling the election lever” are trying to stop the march of progress. The United States and its friends are holding firm in a battle that will decide whether freedom or terror will rule the 21st century.  If that were actual reality, the president’s call to “put aside our differences and work together to meet the test that history has given us” would be inspiring, instead of frustrating and depressing. Iraq had nothing to do with the war on terror until the Bush administration decided to invade it. . . Where Mr. Bush sees an infant secular Iraqi government, most of the world sees a collection of ethnic and religious factional leaders, armed with private militias, presiding over growing strife between Shiites and Sunnis. . . .Fending off the chaos that would almost certainly come with civil war would be a reason to stay the course, although it does not inspire the full-throated rhetoric about freedom that Mr. Bush offered last night. But the nation needs to hear a workable plan to stabilize a fractured, disintegrating country and end the violence. . . It’s hard to figure out how to build consensus when the men in charge embrace a series of myths. Vice President Dick Cheney suggested last weekend that the White House is even more delusional than Mr. Bush’s rhetoric suggests. The vice president volunteered to NBC’s Tim Russert that not only was the Iraq invasion the right thing to do, “if we had it to do over again, we’d do exactly the same thing.” It is a breathtaking thought. If we could return to Sept. 12, 2001, knowing all we have seen since, Mr. Cheney and the president would march right out and “do exactly the same thing” all over again. It will be hard to hear the phrase “lessons of Sept. 11” again without contemplating that statement." [NY Times; emphasis mine]

9/11 post by another blogger

Alex Belth of Bronx Banter: Some Bright News on a Somber Occasion (you've simply got to link to a post that remembers 9/11, shows some of the loveliest food pictures I've ever seen, and provides a sweet love story as well.)

In Memoriam: 9/11/01 | Five Years Later

The only time I ever visited the World Trade Center was in 1986.  I have a picture of myself sitting on a bench by a window on the observation desk writing a postcard.  This is a scan of my ticket from that day.  It's sad to think this relatively fragile paper souvenir has survived when the towers have not.

I will never forget that day, where I was when I heard about the first plane (in my car on my way to work, when I assumed it was a small propeller plane -- and an accident).  Sitting at my computer at work worrying about a relative who flew that day (he was fine, but phones weren't working well and it took some time for him to get an email to my sister).  Going upstairs to look at the television screen in utter shock and disbelief.  Instant messaging with a dear friend (from whom I found out about the towers collapsing -- most of the news sites were inaccessible and I didn't find out until later that Google was caching the information).  Trying to find the work address for another dear friend and trying to determine via online maps how close he worked to the trade centers.  Wondering what else would happen, as we heard about the Pentagon being hit and the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania. 

My thoughts and prayers are with those who continue to mourn the loss of their loved ones. I pray for peace, for a future worth living in for us all.  Inadequate words to express deeply felt emotions.