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July 19, 2006
Question for Those Smarter Than I
I'm trolling through the internet, trying to find out things the lazy way. (Although I suppose the television is the laziest way; at least my fingers are moving.) There are sites where people post, where people have long discussions; one of whom is famous and hosting by a fabulous Greek who used to sleep with Al Franken. I saw it on the aforementioned "television" ten years ago.
This is my question: why would you post on a site where you know nobody will agree with you? Are people hankering that much for "conflict"? (And is it really conflict?) 'Cause they can go to Iraq or Lebanon, with their extra time.
And a follow-up: Do we lefties go to, I don't know, The Ann Coulter Crap-a-torium.com and do the same thing to them? Or do right-wingies just love conflict that much that the war in Iraq isn't enough for them?
Posted by emily at 1:49 AM | Comments (1)
July 17, 2006
Fawaz Gerges: Postcard from Lebanon
Sarah Lawrence Professor Fawaz Gerges (Professor of Middle-East studies) was just on Anderson Cooper. He and his family were in Lebanon on vacation.
Most everyone knows I went to Sarah Lawrence and I hope he and his family stay safe. This is his column from the Washington Post on Monday, July 17, 2006.
This is a sad city. The smell of war fills the air. There is no talk except war talk. Life has come to a standstill in this vibrant and lively city, built layer upon layer on top of vanished civilizations.
I came from northern New Jersey, where I live in a hamlet called Succasunna, to a suburb 20 minutes from the Beirut city center with my three children three weeks ago. My visit had a dual purpose.
First, I wanted the children to spend the summer with their grandparents, learning Arabic and enjoying themselves. Lebanon is great in the summer: beautiful beaches, spectacular mountains, delicious food.
Hundreds of thousands of tourists, mostly from Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, fill its hotels, restaurants, and shopping and entertainment centers. Beirut is the shopping destination of the Arab world, and Lebanon is the most liberal society in the region, with free media, nightclubs, arts and music festivals, and a rowdy political class.
Second, I wanted to interview activists and Islamists for two books I am writing on the making of the Arab world and the jihadist movement. Beirut was my first stop on a 15-month research journey through the region. I never expected to find war in Beirut this summer. I thought that the turmoil was confined to Iraq and Palestine.
The latest round of fighting erupted when Hezbollah, or Party of God, a Shiite resistance group (the United States considers Hezbollah a terrorist organization), infiltrated the Lebanese-Israeli border and attacked an Israeli military post. Hezbollah fighters killed three Israeli soldiers and captured two.
Israel retaliated by attacking Lebanon's civilian infrastructure, including airports, bridges, seaports, electrical and water plants, communications centers, highways and other targets. It also imposed a full blockade on Lebanon by air, land and sea and sealed it from the rest of the world. More than 100 Lebanese civilians have died, and the numbers are increasing by the hour. Hezbollah struck back by firing rockets deep into northern Israel, hitting the port of Haifa and killing and wounding dozens of civilians and soldiers.
My children have had difficulties sleeping because of the constant presence of warplanes. I assured them that we're safe -- just 20 minutes away from Beirut's international airport, the country's only civil airport, which was shut down by bombing.
The bombing and blockade have sowed fears among Lebanese citizens who have experienced war before and dread its ghosts. Lebanon witnessed a crippling internal conflict that lasted from 1975 until 1990 and nearly tore the country apart. More than 100,000 people died and 200,000 were injured.
Israel became embroiled in Lebanon's affairs and invaded the country in 1982. It occupied a small strip of territories in the south until 2000. The current round of hostilities has its roots in that bloody chapter, which gave birth to Hezbollah and turned it into the most powerful paramilitary non-state actor in the Middle East. Armed and financed by Iran and Syria, Hezbollah's military and organizational prowess dwarfs that of Palestinian Hamas.
As the fighting escalated, Beirutis flocked to supermarkets and gas stations to stock up on necessities such as bread and butter and fuel. Food disappeared from the shelves, and gas stations ran out of gas. The supermarkets, usually well stocked, are almost empty.
A neighbor in her seventies, Um Toni, complained to me that she did not find bread, an essential commodity here, in the market."What is going to happen to us?" she asked wearily. There is a real danger that food and fuel shortages, coupled with the blockade, could easily turn into a humanitarian crisis.
People are anxious and fear the worst. With no way in or out of the country, a sense of panic is taking hold. The streets of Beirut, often congested, are deserted. How to survive if the hostilities last longer than a few days? Tens of thousands of tourists find themselves stranded in what appears to be a war zone. Thousands of Lebanese and foreigners fled along one of the few routes left -- through Syria -- before the roads and bridges were destroyed.
Children and the elderly are particularly vulnerable in urban warfare. Like other fathers, I am worried about my own children and what to do with them. I cannot afford to take risks with their lives.
The only way out of this predicament is for the international community to resolve the deadlock between Israel and Hezbollah. A U.N. delegation was dispatched to try to broker a cease-fire or at least to prevent further escalation. I hope that the United States and the European Union exert pressure on both sides, particularly Israel, to exercise restraint and refrain from punishing the civilian population.
I feel an extreme sense of urgency, not just as a concerned human being but also as a father. What was supposed to be a vacation has turned into a nightmare.
Fawaz A. Gerges is the author of the recently published "Journey of the Jihadist: Inside Muslim Militancy." He holds the Christian A. Johnson chair in Middle East and international affairs at Sarah Lawrence College. His e-mail address isfgerges@slc.edu.
Posted by emily at 11:56 PM | Comments (0)
July 14, 2006
The Cowboy is Replaced by the Shadow
Jon Stewart's opening bit last night was poignent; waking up to Israel bombing Lebanon is really a "Holy Fuck" moment that our generation perhaps hasn't seen since our childhood. Watching the Mainstream Media for awhile, it wasn't until I got the Dulcet Network and Jim Lehrer that Lebanese casualties were actually, you know, talked about. Or the words "humanitarian crisis" and "Gaza" in the same sentance.
And Bush was talking about a pig. So we've gone from reading about a pet goat when the planes hit the towers, strumming a guitar while New Orleans drowned to talking about a roasted pig as the Mideast burned. A roasted pig that is against both Judaism and Islam to eat. I haven't quite put my finger on what irony that is, but there is irony there, for sure.
We are the defanged tiger in all sorts of hot spots, from North Korea to the Mideast. Not only do we not have any leftover military, we don't practice diplomacy at all anymore. The "Cowboy" showed the world an embarrasing amount of swagger; the "Shadow" uses cautious words, but doesn't sit down at any table to talk this shit out. We sent an envoy to Israel 17 DAYS! after the captured soldier in Gaza!! We send the undersecretary to China to talk about North Korea!!
At the very least, we should be sending Condi. (Not that I like her, but she does have a job and I believe sitting down at the fucking table is exactly it.) But nothing really gets done in this world until POTUS makes a phone call or goes into the room and shows the power that presidents have been wielding from Truman to Clinton. It's unfortunate that Bush is the President for so many reasons, one of which being he can't wield properly.
You know who we need right now? Jimmy Carter. Put down the hammer, Jimmy, and get to work. Who cares if the State Dept. deplores you; you actually get stuff done. You actually sit down at the table and talk/
Posted by emily at 3:39 PM | Comments (2)
July 12, 2006
Davey Brooks is "selective"
David Brooks has been recently attacking the Daily Kos and other leftie websites, comparing the attempted ouster of Joe Lieberman to the Spanish civil war, or something like that. I've compared all sorts of things to the Spanish civil war in my lifetime, including the lines at my grocery store, so I'm not going to accuse Mr. Brooks of hyperbole. And I don't read the Daily Kos or Huffington Post regularly, so I'm not about to say that they're not out to get Lieberman.
But to not acknowledge the angry, frothing boogeymen in the right's closet when you accuse the left of being mean and nasty, Davey, is selective at best. Maybe you missed the memo: the right has been accusing your boss, your paper, your dead trees, ye old Grey Lady of treason. Someone said Bill Keller should be sent to the gas chamber. I'm aware of no leftie that has advocated gassing Lieberman. They're just in favor of replacing him on the Democratic ticket. Wise, unwise, fair, not fair... that's democracy in action. Conn. is a blue state, an anti-war state and Lamont has the right to voice the population's objection to Lieberman's stance.
Davey, I watch you on PBS and I must say, it's hard to stir any grand anger towards you personally because you seem genial. Of course, I've only seen you on the Dulcet Network (the best network on the dial, in my opinion) and not on Fox News. Maybe you can spit and foam at the mouth with the best of the Hannitys and O'Reillys.
Perhaps you choose not to defend Keller in a column, or bring some silver to save him from the gallows pole, because he's definetely not going to the gas chamber and Lamont may win the nomination. I understand the difference between a right-winger's wet dream and the electorial process. But to say we lack civility when those on the far right, with alarming regularity, threatenen to kill, or deport, or charge with treason any number of left-wing, middle-wing or no-wing figures they happen to disagree with (G. G. Liddy's target practice, I recall) is selective.
There's plenty of meanness on the right, but perhaps this does not bother you. Frequently, I hear the non-frothing right defend the frothers on the grounds that the frothers are joking. Gas chambers being the high point of all political hilarity, I assume.
Davey, it boils down to this. If you want civility, ask it from all sides. Call out your fellow right-wingers when they hope people get killed, San Francisco gets attacked (Bill O'Reilly) or any number of "jokes" which "civil" people don't usually make.
Posted by emily at 5:26 PM | Comments (0)
July 1, 2006
Quandary #553
Thought: I want to see the Al Gore flick. The closest place it's showing: Brighton. So I could drive there and see it but then I have to get in my car and drive home AFTER SEEING A FILM ABOUT THE DANGERS OF BURNING FOSSIL FUELS!
Should I just go see it and feel guilt later? Or should I wait and not be a hypocrite?
Posted by emily at 1:49 AM | Comments (1)