The birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.

A lot to learn.

Agreement regarding the activities and presence of U.S. forces,
and its withdrawal from Iraq
August, 6th, 2008 4:00pm
Foreword
Iraq and the U.S., referred to here as “both sides”, affirm the importance of:
supporting their joint security, participating in global peace and stability,
fighting terrorism, cooperation in the fields of security and defense, and
deterring threats against Iraq’s sovereignty, security, and territorial integrity.
Both sides affirm that this cooperation is based on mutual respect of both
sides’ sovereignty in accordance with the United Nations’ goals and
principles.
Both sides want to achieve mutual understanding to support their
collaboration, without jeopardizing Iraq’s sovereignty over its land, water,
and sky, and based on the mutual guarantees given as equal and
independent sovereign partners.

We're eight years into the 21st century. I was going to wait until advanced old age to compare this century with the 20th century, thus annoying the bejeebers out of my poor grandkids, but I have some free time this afternoon, and I'm not the most patient woman in the world. In this new millennium we have made several great advances--several laudable improvements in the human condition--but darned if I could think of one. Let's start off with the big changes; the really salient and vexing issues.

In the New Millennium, we have fewer crackers in a box. Last century, to save on packaging, there were boxes full of crackers. I'm old enough to remember these. I swear to God: you opened the box and reached about half an inch down and took hold of a cracker. Now, to save on crackers, and to fool consumers and fill landfills quicker, a box a foot tall might contain 15 crackers. Soon it will contain 6 1/2 crackers, and we will be expected to believe that this is due to "product settling during shipment." Price: $4.99 plus tax.

You, you're not aware
That we're aware
Of your despair
Don't show your tears
To your oppressor
Don't show your tears

CHORUS:
Try not to cry little one
You're not alone
I'll stand by you
Try not to cry little one
My heart is your stone
I'll throw with you

Isam:
'Ayn Jalut where David slew Goliath
This very same place that we be at
Passing through the sands of times
This land's been the victim of countless crimes
From Crusaders and Mongols
to the present aggression
Then the Franks, now even a crueller oppression
If these walls could speak,
imagine what would they say

For me in this path that I walk on
there's only one way
Bullets may kill, bones may break
Still I throw stones like David before me and I say

I was born in the early days of World War II. My father came home from the Pacific 6' 1" tall and 109 pounds. His brother came home from too many missions over Germany and never quite became whole. My wife's father did not return from France. One of my neighbors left his jaw in Europe.

I do not believe in the utility of force nor a just war. I do believe that we must remain connected to those deployed so far from home for they are a part of us and we must make every effort to remain "whole".

I will spend Memorial Day with friends, friends on the path to understanding, and reread the words of a high school student from Sierra Leone, Amanda Bradley, who knows the horror of war and the yearning for peace more intimately than I.

Explaining subtlety is an admission of failure. My blog on Jimmy Carter contained nine references, eight of which were examples of newspeak. One, AlJazeera, was an appeal to understanding and a rejection of categorical imperatives. The fault lies not in Jimmy Carter, but in the way we talk about and understand the "War on Terror".

I am going to make it easy this time, Osama bin Laden is the quintessential example of a "terrorist". The call to kill civilians in the fatwas of 1996 and 1999 fit the definition of terrorism. And so what does that imply?

In the current mindset, the solution is simple - kill him. And if you can't do that,  kill everyone who espouses him, kill everyone who shelters him, and if all else fails kill everything he says.

Arise, then, women of this day!
Arise, all women who have hearts,
Whether our baptism be of water or of tears!

Say firmly:
"We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies,
Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.
We, the women of one country, will be too tender of those of another country
To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs."

Mortimer Zuckerman writing in the US News and World Report said "Former President Jimmy Carter, acting out his stubborn, self-righteous moralism and his stunning vanity, persists in legitimizing terrorism." Aljazeera says "Give Peace and Jimmy Carter a Chance". Michael Craft, a former senior adviser in the State Department added "Mr. Carter's well-publicized meeting plans amount to rewarding terrorists..." Congressman Eric Cantor said "It is shocking that a former president of the United States would sit down and speak with a terrorist kingpin like Khaled Mashal.This type of meeting will only be misconstrued in the region as a sign of legitimacy for Hamas terrorism,".

It is important to put a face on the terrorists. If we are going to spend $3,000,000,000,000, potentially destroying the US Economy, making us safe from these individuals we ought to get to know a few.

One of them is a guest of the State of Virginia in the Northern Neck Regional Jail - Sami Al Arian. Upon his arrest in 2003, Attorney General John Ashcroft announced a major victory in the "war against terrorism". After a prosecution costing $50,000,000 resulting in zero convictions, the Department of Justice secured a plea bargain agreement which would result in Sami's deportation.

He is still here.

Palestinian activist

Today would have been Martin's 79th birthday. It will be celebrated on the third Monday in January - January 21st.

b. January 15, 1929 d. April 4, 1968

Pain and suffering often smack you in the face, joy and happiness sneak up on you from the side.

This year Christmas Eve at home with friends was truly marvelous. Among the carols we sang was "It came upon the midnight clear". We didn't sing the third verse, it wasn't in the hymnal. It's missing from a lot of hymnals.

It wasn't until I stumbled upon "The Gospel in Hymns" by Albert Edward Bailey at Books 'n Friends in Sparta and read his commentary on James Russell Lowell's "The Present Crisis" and then, by inertia, continued to read the section on Edwin Hamilton Spears, that I awoke to the poetic prophecy of that Christmas Carol.

Actually, I didn't stumble, I soaked in a warm bath, a blessed sacrament in itself. I often take two, three, four books or more with me. Wintertime is especially conducive to this sacrament where one gets to rest beside the road and listen for inspiration.

In abandoning a read of Philip Hensher's "The Mulberry Empire" (the larger premise is intriguing but much or the detail is not worth repeating), I poked a bit into the history of Afghanistan.

In an attempt to install a government friendly to their interests, the British sent 50,000 people into Afghanistan. Although a few were rescued later, only one escaped a massacre during the withdrawal - William Brydon. The Brits repeated this excellent adventure twice more and the US twice again.

The second to last US adventure in Afghanistan was to install the Taliban to displace the Soviet client Najibullah and the last was to install Hamid Karzai to replace the Taliban.

I've been reading "Seeking Peace" by Johann Cristoph Arnold which prompted me to search for background on the web. The author is a member of the Bruderhof, a 20th century creation in the Anabaptist family (Amish, Mennonites, Quaker ...). The history of the Bruderhof is an intriguing story in itself. Their publishing house - Plough - has placed over 40 of their books online as PDFs. A link has been added to the "Books" page.

Few today have seen war and violence on such a broad scale and intimate perspective. Anti-war but not exactly pacifist. A Harvard Divinity School graduate with an evolved view of Christianity. Fundamentalists of any persuasion should avoid reading anything by or about Chris.

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