Since the end of July, there have been two massive bombings in Iraq. On July 31st, 29 were killed when a several bombs exploded outside Shiite mosques. On Friday, a truck bomb in another Shiite mosque detonated, killing another 37.
Regular days are also violent affairs. Take August 3rd. In the restive city of Mosul, five Iraqis were killed by separate attacks. Two bombs in Baghdad exploded, killing up to six Iraqis and wounding 26. Near Falluja, another bomb killed two and wounded seven.
In fact, according to the Associated Press, there have been 27 major bombings this year alone, the worst of which led to 82 deaths. The two months with the least number of major bombings were January and February. Since then there have been an average of four to five major bombings per month.
Politically, things look even worse. On important political issues ranging from the fate of Kurdistan to a new oil law, Iraqi politicians have failed to make progress. Worryingly, the current Shia-dominated government seems increasingly hostile to the Sunni-led Awakening movement that was a major factor in reducing insurgent violence.
I have been meaning to write about this topic for several days now, in part because of Cheney and the right-wing movement’s proud defense of torture, and in part because of having finally finished (after much delay because of my book tour) Rick Perlstein’s masterful book Nixonland. I got started yesterday morning, and then got the terrible news about Dr. Tiller, and had to stop for awhile. I hesitated to keep writing because I want to be careful with tying this terrible event to the conservative movement, and indeed I want to start with some caveats. But there are some things that just have to be said on this dark day.
A few hysterics have been trying to peddle the line that an unnamed leftists are just as biased against Israel as the M$M is biased against Palestinians. It is not enough, in their view, that people like myself denounce violence on both sides. We must denounce it with equal vigor. And they will be the judges of whether our vigor is sufficient. Otherwise, we are but a mirror image of the warmonger "pro-Israeli" M$M, and no better than they are.
There are so many things wrong with this sort of "holier-than thou" false equivilency stance, that we could talk of nothing else for days on end. But the bottom line is really pretty simple.
You see, I think it's pretty obvious, and quite rational why a progressive blog, particularly one with a significant Jewish presence, would focus much more attention on Isreali state violence rather than Palestinian violence--reasons in addtion to the obvious fact that Israeli state violence is so vastly more extensive than Palestinian violence, however indiscriminate violence on both sides may be.
The reason we focus more on Isreali state violence is that we are morally, legally and politically responsible for that violence in ways that we are not responsible for the Palestinian violence. And if we truly wish to end the violence on both sides, then the way to do that is to work strenuously to end the violence on our side--and that will give us moral standing and credibility to call for ending violence on the Palestinian side as well.
Hate does not emerge in a vacuum writes the editorial staff of El Diario/La Prensa [translated by New America Media]. Nor could it thrive there, we might add. While many collude to bring about positive change, they face opposition from others who have coalesced to propagate negativity on a large scale. As of late, it is the Latino community catching the hate that has been unleashed upon the immigrant community. El Diaro/La Prensa gives the gruesome details:
I was vacillating about whether or not to go to an anti-Bush demonstration today at 5 p.m., but I think this tipped me over the line:
Paul Rogers writes in opendemocracy.net that the Bush Administration is still considering a strike on Iran in the last months of its administration. The idea would be to bind the next administration into a war.
Not only is this scary, but it seems almost probable. What else would this bunch of psychos do? Like Jim Lobe, cited in the article, I've been skeptical of the prospects of war with Iran given how overstretched the U.S. military is and the disastrous political consequences it could potentially have, but as the time wanes in the presidency, the administration transforms even more from stationary bandits to roving bandits. So, Cheney et al. may actually make a calculation to plunge all of us even closer to a level of violence and warfare that I don't even want to imagine.
Amnesty International reported yesterday that China is the world's top executioner. From ITN News in the UK:
But as with everything else in life, there are unseen ties that link China's use of the death penalty with the United States' use of torture in conducting the "war on terror".
"We want to say to China, 'We thought that the Olympic Games would help you improve your human rights record," Tutu said. "We still hope... But what we are saying to the heads of state, to President George Bush, is, 'For goodness sake, don't go to the Beijing games... for the sake of our children, for the beautiful people of Tibet. Don't go!'"
In any militant cause the leaders and activists are usually better educated and better off financially then the mass of people they claim to represent.
Revolutionaries like to call them the vanguard.
The words are from an insightful, and therefore quite troubling, op ed in today's Boston Globe. Written by H. D. S. Greenway, he entitled it Professional terrorists because three men arrested in the recent car bombs in Britain were doctors. And he reminds us why we should not be surprised by this in any movement that sees itself as revolutionary or addressing oppression.
