The Perfect Spy by Larry Berman, a political science professor at the University of California's Davis campus, is a fascinating account of An's life during the Vietnamese war with the US. Like Singer's biography of Debs, Berman's work presents the reader with a man whose life is more than the sum of its parts. An, who died a hero of the Vietnamese struggle for independence in 2006, lived two lives as a spy and a journalist. Berman's many interviews with An help him provide a picture of how An managed this while simultaneously keeping his allegiance to Americans he befriended and to the Vietnamese revolution. It's not 007 stuff that is related here, but intrigue exists, especially in the recounting of An's work prior to the Tet offensive in 1968 and in his efforts to get friends from the losing side out of Vietnam during the final days of the southern Vietnamese government in 1975.
Equally interesting to today's reader is the contextual information Berman provides throughout the book. As the United States edges closer to the fifth year of its war in Iraq, the descriptions of US tactics during the war in Vietnam make it clear that not only was the US involvement in Vietnam a combination of imperial hubris and human pride, it was very much a policy and not a mistake. As one analyzes US actions in that war forty years ago in light of the current one, it's quite apparent that many of the strategies that failed in Vietnam are being attempted again in Iraq and Afghanistan with minimal variation. Likewise, it becomes ever more apparent that , like the Vietnamese war, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are not mistakes or blunders (as today's Democrats are so fond of saying),but essential parts of US geopolitical strategy. Even though it is clear by now that there are several differences between the US war on Vietnam and its current adventure in Iraq, there are similarities that can not be denied. One example came to me as I read Berman's description of the various factions in southern Vietnam and Washington's attempts to sort them out through bribery, political chicanery and murder. The description of these manipulations are reminiscent of the ongoing situation in Iraq, where multiple factions are struggling for control and US intelligence and other forces seem to shift their alliances every few months, seemingly without reason.
In the same manner that the US reader will see similarities between the way the war in Vietnam was waged in Vietnam and in the US media and political arena, so might the Iraqi or Afghani reader. Indeed, if I were a member of the resistance in those countries, I might even draw some useful lessons from An's insights and analysis as it was applied to the situation of the Vietnamese national liberation struggle by its fighters. Likewise, the astute reader of An's biography can not help but see how many of today's arguments used to justify the continued US presence in Iraq and Afghanistan are nothing but rehashed rationales from its debacle in Vietnam.

The above, noted by Mia, is from Ron Jacobs' "The Virtues of Resistance" (CounterPunch). An is Pham Xuan An and Jacobs is also reviewing Ray Singer's The Bending Cross, a biography on Eugene V. Debs. Meanwhile, the US military announces it is extended to the max and "nearly exhausted" while the country with the second largets number of troops on the ground in Iraq also notes that is extended to the max. And seven US service members ("Buddhika Jayamaha is a U.S. Army specialist. Wesley D. Smith is a sergeant. Jeremy Roebuck is a sergeant. Omar Mora is a sergeant. Edward Sandmeier is a sergeant. Yance T. Gray is a staff sergeant. Jeremy A. Murphy is a staff sergeant.") share their opinion in "Iraq As We See It" (click here for Common Dreams, click here for International Herald Tribune -- available in full at both without registration):

The most important front in the counterinsurgency, improving basic social and economic conditions, is the one on which we have failed most miserably. Two million Iraqis are in refugee camps in bordering countries. Close to two million more are internally displaced and now fill many urban slums. Cities lack regular electricity, telephone services and sanitation. "Lucky" Iraqis live in communities barricaded with concrete walls that provide them with a sense of communal claustrophobia rather than any sense of security we would consider normal. In an environment where men with guns rule the streets, engaging in the banalities of life has become a death-defying act.
Four years into our occupation, we have failed on every promise, while we have substituted Baath Party tyranny with a tyranny of Islamist, militia and criminal violence. When the primary preoccupation of average Iraqis is when and how they are likely to be killed, we can hardly feel smug as we hand out care packages. As an Iraqi man told us a few days ago with deep resignation, "We need security, not free food."
In the end, we need to recognize that our presence may have released Iraqis from the grip of a tyrant, but that it has also robbed them of their self-respect. They will soon realize that the best way to regain dignity is to call us what we are - an army of occupation -- and force our withdrawal.

Until then . . .


They're just there to try and make the people free,
But the way that they're doing it, it don't seem like that to me.
Just more blood-letting and misery and tears
That this poor country's known for the last twenty years,
And the war drags on.
-- words and lyrics by Mick Softly (available on Donovan's Fairytale)

Last Sunday, ICCC's number of US troops killed in Iraq since the start of the illegal war was 3689. Tonight? 3703. This as the US attempts to pull back from patrols in an attempt to lower fatalities in the lead up to Gen. David Petraues' September 15th report to Congress. While, as Tim Shipman (Telegraph of London) notes, also criticizing British forces for their own pull back:

A senior US officer familiar with Gen Petraeus's thinking said: "The short version is that the Brits have lost Basra, if indeed they ever had it. Britain is in a difficult spot because of the lack of political support at home, but for a long time - more than a year - they have not been engaged in Basra and have tried to avoid casualties.
"They did not have enough troops there even before they started cutting back. The situation is beyond their control.
"Quite frankly what they're doing right now is not any value-added. They're just sitting there. They're not involved. The situation there gets worse by the day.["]

Just Foreign Policy's count for the number of Iraqis killed since the start of the illegal war stands at 1,012,979. In some of the violence today . . . Mohammed Al Dulaimy (McClatchy Newspapers) reports a Baghdad motorcycle bombing that claimed 1 life, a Baghdad mortar attack that claimed 7 lives (forty-one wounded), a Baghdad roadside bombing that claimed 1 life, fifteen people kidnapped off a Baghdad bus, a 12-year-old boy (Hakam Falah Khalaf) kidnapped "in front of his family's house in Kirkuk (and, on Saturday, Raad Abdul was kidnapped in Al Hawija -- a truck driver) and 14 corpses discovered in Baghdad with another one discovered in Kirkuk ("Al Rashad area"). Reuters notes the Baghdad mortar attack death toll rose by 3 to ten, 1 person dead from a Baghdad bombing "in a garbage dump" and 3 people ("suspected insurgents") killed by US forces.

The illegal war has resulted in over four million Iraqis being turned into refugees internally and externally. A little over two million are external refugees. Dina Aboul Hson (Gulf News) reports on Sonia Azad, a twelve-year-old peace activist, who went to Jordan to film "a documentary about Iraqi children who are suffering in Jordan and make their voices heard in the United Kingdom and the United States. We will show the film at the House of Commons." China's People's Daily Online observes that "Jordanian Eductation ministry estimated taht at least 50,000 Iraqi students [children] were expected to flood scholl system on Sunday across Jordan" as a result of "a decision finalized by the Jordanian Ministry of Education last Monday, which allows all Iraqi students, with or without a residency permit, to study in public schools as of the beginning of this scholastic year." The bulk of the external refugees have gone to either Jordan or Syria. Martin Patience (BBC) notes that puppet of the occupation Nouri al-Maliki will spend three days in Syria starting Monday and "The issue of Iraqi refugees is also expected to be raised as there are almost two million refugees in Syria." If that number is correct, then the number of external refugees has risen dramatically. In the spring, the estimate was 2.1 million external refugees with the bulk of them going to Jordan and Syria. Last month, Amnesty International estimated there were 1.5 million Iraqi refugees in Syria:


Syria is the only country that has so far kept its border open to refugees fleeing the sectarian violence in Iraq. It is estimated that there are now some 1.5 million Iraqis living in Syria, with around 30, 000 more arriving each month. The majority have arrived during the last 17 months following the bombing of al-'Askari Shi'a holy shrine in Samarra on 22 February 2006. This attack, apparently carried out by members of al-Qa'eeda in Iraq, severely damaged the shrine and also triggered a widespread intensification in the level of sectarian violence between Shi’a and Sunni armed groups.
Amnesty International sent a three-person fact-finding delegation to Syria between 13 and 30 June 2007 in order to investigate the situation of Iraqi refugees and asylum seekers. In particular, Amnesty International looked into their legal status, their access to services such as health, education and housing, the impact that the presence of Iraqi refugees is having on the local community and on the Syrian economy, and how the Syrian authorities have been responding to continuing influx of Iraqis. Amnesty International also sought to find out whether the pledges of economic and other assistance to Syria, and Jordan, the other main country of refuge for Iraqis, by governments that attended an international conference held on 17-18 April 2007 in Geneva, have been honoured or not. At that conference, convened by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) specifically to address the potential humanitarian crisis arising from the flight of refugees from Iraq, governments were invited to assist Syria, Jordan and other countries affected in their efforts to afford protection and meet the other needs of the refugees. In the course of the visit, Amnesty International's delegates met with several senior Syrian government officials, including the Deputy Ministers for Foreign Affairs, Health, Education, Higher Education, and the Minister for Cooperation with the Red Crescent Society. They also met with representatives of some national and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs), United Nations (UN) agencies, such as UNHCR, the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and some European Union (EU) diplomats.
Amnesty International's delegates interviewed dozens of Iraqis of diverse backgrounds who had been forced to leave Iraq and had gone to Syria in search of safety. Most of them had personally suffered serious human rights abuses, including rape and other forms of torture, and were traumatized as a result but with no possibility to receive appropriate treatment.

Turning to the internally displaced in Iraq, last Tuesday the Yazidi sect was targeted with multiple bombings in northern Iraq and the death toll climbed to over 300 (the BBC counts 344 dead from the bombings, four-hundred wounded, in their most recent report). With more on the region, this is from Corey Levine's "Baghdad Diary: Gripped by tragedy" (Kalinga Times):

Although the Yazidis, who are found onlin in northern Iraq, speak Kurmanji (a northern Kurdish language) and many of their cultural practices are observably Kurdish, they are not ethnologically considered Kurds. However, in the sectarian maelstrom that defines current day Iraq, Kurds are arguing for the Yazidis, whose numbers reach approximately a half million, to be recognized ethnically as Kurds, particularly as many Yazidis reside in communities near Mosul, the oil-rich city close to the border of Iraqi Kurdistan.
In a kind of tit-for-tat situaion, in the contested city of Kirkuk, on which a referendum will be held next year, the government of the autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan has been quietly encouraging the migration of Arabs from the oil-rich city through generous relocation allowances and offers of exchanges of land with Kurds living in the south. Although benign compared to what Saddam enforced on the city's Kurdish population in the 1980's of murder, mayhem and forced expulsion in an attempt to 'Arabize' the city; an exodus is an exodus, is an exodus, particularly when the potentials spoils offers as great a reward as one of the prime oil fields in the world's second largest oil producing country.
In other places in Iraq, particularly Baghdad, the sectarian violence is also leaving its mark on the demographics of the country in terms of shifting populations. I am reminded of Bosnia at the height of the war there when previously ethnically mixed communites became mono-ethnic entities either due to forced expulsion or the sense that it was much safer to be with 'your own kind'.
With similar patterns of 'ethnic cleansing', Iraq is quickly becoming the country with the largest number of internally displaced. According to the UN agency responsible for refugees, the total number of internally displaced people in the country is inching towards the two million mark.

Internal and external refugees, well over a million Iraqis dead from the illegal war, basic services still not met (electricity, potable water, security, etc.), the US and the UK militaries both stating they are "stretched," the death count for foreign (non-Iraqi) forces rising constantly, the five year mark of the illegal war six months away and no 'progress' to show for the illegal war. (No surprise there.) Tell Congress, as Iraq Veterans Against the War, Tina Richards and Military Families Speak Out are, Fuding the war is killing the troops. It's not saving them, it's not saving Iraqis.

Pru gets the last highlight, from Great Britain's The Socialist Worker, "Get the troops out now: not one more day, not one more life:"

Why is Gordon Brown sending troops to kill and die in a war that is lost?
Another week, and another six young British soldiers lie dead in the mire of Iraq and Afghanistan.
These wars have been lost. They could never have been "won".
Yet Gordon Brown is prepared to throw away the lives of more soldiers, and countless Iraqi and Afghan civilians, so that George Bush can say that Britain is still on board in his "war on terror".
One such soldier was 20 year old private Craig Barber. He was killed last week trying to stop the constant barrage of mortars that are falling on the last remaining British outpost in Iraq.
British troops have little influence over the south of the country. They are under daily attack by a resistance movement that is growing more confident.
In September last year British commanders launched "Operation Sinbad". They hoped the operation would check the growing influence of the resistance.
It was the last roll of the dice by the occupation in the south in an attempt to win the war.
But far from bringing security, it accelerated the collapse of the Iraqi authorities installed by the British in 2003.
Shortly afterward British troops abandoned their headquarters in Basra and ­withdrew to the airport on the outskirts of the city.
Their presence at the airport serves no ­function beyond saving the reputation of George Bush.
The US fear that if the British withdraw fully then the pressure will mount on the US to do the same.
So British soldiers remain under siege, hunkered behind sand bags, occasionally sending out patrols. It was during one of these missions that private Craig Barber was killed.
The pointless death of Barber, and the 238 other servicemen and women before him, is the bloody price that British soliders pay for Gordon Brown's "special relationship" with the US.
The following should be read alongside this article: » Chaos in Iraq as occupation fails» Civilian casualties accelerate in Afghanistan
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The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.


iraq
and the war drags on
donovan
ron jacobs
iraq veterans against the war
tina richards
the socialist worker

Isaiah's latest The World Today Just Nuts "Bully Boy Meets Jenna's Fiance." Bully Boy, in wedding drag, asks, "So do you do drugs? Do you like killing people? Do you believe in screwing over the average citizens? Are you a professional liar?" The fiance responds, "No sir." Bully Boy then asks, "Then how the hell do you expect to fit into this family?"

the world today just nuts
bully boy
bully boy meets jeannas fiance
comic
the common ills

In a flip, Damien Cave has the best piece (a "news analysis") in this morning's New York Times and Richard A. Oppel Jr. has the worst.

Oppel's piece runs on the front page and is entitled "Falluja’s Calm Is Seen as Fragile if US Leaves." It opens with what should have required a remark but apparently didn't: Falluja's chief of police (Faisal Ismail Hussein) waving around a photo of bucket containing a severed head. If anyone doesn't grasp it, that's not how you sell yourself to the press. (But Oppel appears not to notice.) If you're supposedly restoring order to a region, you shouldn't come off like a nut job who would keep a photo like that let alone wave it around to the press.

Falluja's always been a difficult region for the Times because they did so much to lie about what happened there. Actually, a few did attempt to get bits and pieces of truth out there. But there was Dexy with his 'award winning' rah-rah that took hold. (He will hopefully be stripped of the prize at a later date.) There's a vehicle ban, Oppel tells you. He even tells you about the concrete barriers that divide the destroyed city in 10 sections. He neglects to tell you about the retina scans. Maybe he feels that informing the US public the city has been divided (by the US) into ten sections gets the point across that there is no freedom in Falluja, only punishment? If so, opening with a nut case put in charge of the city waving around a photo of a severed head was the way to go.

But elsewhere he's repeating the myths that if US forces leave Falluja the city will fall apart. The city fell appart (and was largely reduced to rubble) because the US destroyed in November 2004. Men and boys were slaughtered. Those lucky enough to survive (many of whom fled before the slaughter) often now live in 'tent cities' -- well outside Falluja -- in abject poverty.

The 'success' has to do with Falluja being destroyed, with Falluja being turned from a city (even a destroyed one) into a nightmare vision of a police state.

It doesn't matter what the US does or what al-Maliki does. Falluja's going to pop. And when that time comes, if the US is still on ground there, it won't matter that they're present.

That's reality.

Foreign forces can't destroy a city and enforce their ideas of order and expect it to last. (In the US, apparently a hurricane can do the first part and the White House can get away with it.) (Can and still has.)

The walls will come down. Not by US choice but by the decisions of the citizens of Falluja.

Turning to Damien Cave who, again, offers the best thing he's done all week (I'm referring to last week, but I haven't been to sleep yet so it's still last week). It's entited "Iraqi Premier Stirs Discontent, Yet Hangs On" and, repeating, it's Cave best writing. He deserves praise for it.

Martha notes this from Megan Greenwell's "Iraqi Leaders' Talks Yield Scant Results" (Washington Post):

Iraq's top five government leaders began a review of the country's de-Baathification law Saturday but appeared not to have reached an agreement on that topic or any of the other critical issues that have plunged the country into a political crisis.
[. . .]
The lack of concrete results from meetings this week diminishes hopes of creating a unified government by Sept. 15, when President Bush and Congress are to receive a report about conditions in Iraq.

Gareth notes the BBC's "UK troops 'stretched but winning'" where General Sir Richard Dannatt says the UK troops are stretched (but 'winning'! -- he must have missed the Times of London today):

His comments came as Defence Secretary Des Browne denied claims the government is failing in its duty to UK troops who put their lives on the line for their country.
The Royal British Legion had said the Military Covenant - guaranteeing troops fair treatment in return for forgoing other rights - is not being upheld.
Shadow Defence Secretary Dr Liam Fox said: "We face the problem that in Britain the government has overstretched our armed forces without giving them sufficient resources to do the job they're being asked to do."
He went on to criticise the level of commitment from Britain's allies.
Dr Fox said: "Our international allies, particularly some of our European allies and Nato, simply have not been stepping up to the plate in an international operation of this nature."

From Sarah Baxter and Michael Smith's "Britain faces Iraq rout says US" (Times of London):

A MILITARY adviser to President George W Bush has warned that British forces will have to fight their way out of Iraq in an “ugly and embarrassing” retreat.
Stephen Biddle, who also advises the US commander in Iraq, said Iranian-backed Shi’ite militias in the south would try to create the impression they were forcing a retreat. “They want to make it clear they have forced the British out. That means they’ll use car bombs, ambushes, RPGs [rocket-propelled grenades] . . . and there will be a number of British casualties.”
The comments coincide with British military estimates that withdrawal could cost the lives of 10 to 15 soldiers.

New content at The Third Estate Sunday Review:

Truest statement of the week
A Note to Our Readers
Editorial: The death toll from the illegal war mou...
TV: Another cesspool trying to pass for news
Getting to know . . . Pelosi
17 US service members announced dead last week
The boom goes bust
Once up a time . . . A scary tale
Timothy J. Learn arrested for being AWOL in Ithaca...
Highlights


The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.

megan greenwell
the washington post
the new york times
damien cave
the third estate sunday review

Kat: The Cowboy Junkies appeared on my radar, and on the radars of many who know them, with their second album, 1988's The Trinity Session. The stand out tracks for me were their covers of "Blue Moon" and "Sweet Jane" but the entire album was listenable and seemed to fit together and set a mood in the way that Sade's done on her best albums. After that, they honestly fell of my radar and might have stayed off were it not for an appearance on Laura Flanders' radio program where they discussed a number of topics including their new CD Early 21st Century Blues (2005).

For someone who hadn't listened to them in some time, that was a huge surprise and one of the best CDs of 2005. Since then they've put out a live set (CD and DVD) that I didn't really grab me. Their new studio CD came out last spring and is entitled at the end of paths taken. It's amazing.

The Cowboy Junkies are three Timmins siblings: Margo on vocals, Peter on drums and Michael on guitar. Non-relative Alan Anton rounds out the group and mainly with his bass playing. He also co-wrote three songs with Michael Timmins who is the group's primary songwriter and responsible (solo) for all the other songs on the CD.

The album hangs together wonderfully. If you loved what they did with Bruce Springsteen's "You're Missing" in 2005, you'll love what they're doing here which is going even deeper into meditations on life and loss. Those are the songs that work best for Margo's voice because she can sing a lament like few others.

When paired with Michael, as on "Someday Soon" where they take part in some vocal interplay, the voice can be playful, but, on most on the tracks, it's the haunted quality that Margo's staking out and she's digging deeper than you'd expect.

A lot is made of the second album being recorded in a church as though that accounted the purity in Margo's tones. She always had that ability to grab you and pull you in, whether she was recording in a church or a concert hall. Early 21st Century Blues shocked me because I had checked out and was surprised to find out how much she'd grown. That's not with vocal gymnastics but with her ability to shade and interpret. That album was so good it made my picks of the best of 2005.

I was expecting the next studio CD to coast -- and more than happy with that expectation based on the level reached. She has shaped up to be everything so many wanted from Annie Lennox's solo career. But she's growing by leaps and bounds these days and to listen at the end of paths taken is to feel as if she's been holding out on you. There are moments she grabs in the repeated phrase "And the rain comes down" ("Follower 2") that are completely unexpected and 100% thrilling.

This isn't a Margo Timmins solo album and after the you get over still more vocal growth, the thing that will probably hit you next is what a band the group's become. They're in there supporting the vocals and driving the songs. I just mentioned "Follower 2" and it would be a huge diservice to move on to any other song without noting the amazing drum work going on in that song. It is so inspired and pushes the song to another level without overtaking it. The Timmins and Anton have to be the best music combo today.

The keyboard work on "It Doesn't Really Matter Anyway" is perfection and everyone has their moments over and over in each song.

Two lyrical passages may best sum up the album. Both were written by Michael Timmins. From the amazing "Still Lost:"

Here we stand at the end of paths taken
(Guiding Light Inspiration)
The slow decline
The crumbling foundation, the stations, and now the cross
but we're still lost.

And from my personal favorite track on the entire CD, "Spiral Down:"

Now it all begins
or continues to
spiral down,
spiral down.

I've laid it out on paper
instructions of what to do
as my mind begins to waver
losing contact with you.

If all you know by the Cowboy Junkies is "Sweet Jane," you'll probably be eager to hear either of those tracks but, let me warn you, they aren't the band they were in 1988. They've matured well beyond their years. If I still voted in those Rolling Stone readers poll (I stopped the year 'readers' gave Backstreet Boys the prize for best band -- that was also the first year they allowed people who didn't purchase the issue with the ballots to vote so a lot of embarrassing crap made the list as various fan sites steered people to online voting), they'd have my vote for Band of the Year.

If we had anything resembling real diversity in radio, everyone would know this CD. It would be blaring from car radios and received like the musical equivalent of needed rain. at the end of paths not taken may be the biggest surprise of 2007 for me because I was expecting to enjoy it but to enjoy it because I assumed they'd remain at the level of their last studio album. Instead, they've yet again kicked it up another notch.

Check it out and you'll see what I mean. Miss out and keep confusing bombastic with what a band can do. You can find the CD in stores and online and more information at Rounder Records and at the Cowboy Junkies' website. But to really experience the beauty of at the end of paths not taken, you'll have to listen.

the cowboy junkies
at the end of paths not taken
laura flanders
the third estate sunday review
kats korner
the common ills

Ruth: I am still doing my reports. I am a little stunned because I thought I would go through the e-mails in the public account to help out everyone. I saw repeated e-mails from one man and thought, "What does he want?"

I have never seen such filth in my life and not only am I no shrinking violent, all of my children were boys. I had honestly assumed there was little I had not heard. I called C.I. to inform about the e-mails and C.I. had been ignoring them and instructed everyone working the public account to do so as well. I was out of the loop which is how I ended up being the first one to read them.

But that was over three hours ago and my hands are still shaking from the threats and the filth. To use the term of my day, I was "freaking out" when I read them. When I told C.I. about them, C.I. was cool as a cucumber so I will assume those sort of things come in frequently.

If someone was threatening me with talk of 'come Monday,' I would be freaking out. C.I. pointed out, "There's no reason for anyone to be nervous. He's just another crackpot making threats and getting angry when the response isn't 'I'm scared! I'm so scared! Please don't hurt me!' Don't worry about it."

That does explain the sexism at you know what site since the stalker, and I will use that word, is a friend of the man who makes it a point to tear into any female reporter but always sees a new day dawning when it comes to male reporters.

I had not planned to write about this. For one thing, when I sat down at the computer this evening, I did not even know about it. I knew it had a problem in 2005 for Rebecca. She avoided him and left the country for a summer vacation. I called Rebecca to ask, "Was he this obsessive with you?" She told me that he finally went away. She also feels bad because she never responded to him. He wrote her and she did not respond. Then he started writing C.I. and Rebecca asked C.I. to respond saying she was out of the country. Then he pops back up a few months ago and apparently has been writing these strange e-mails ever since. I may have missed one earlier, but I believe I read seven e-mails.

When I phoned C.I. my hands were shaking and they still are. C.I. juggled the phones to get several people over to look at the e-mails and one person to do a security check on the home but mainly stayed on the line with me repeating, "Ruth, don't worry." I honestly am worried.

The man sounds nuts. Hannibal Lecter nuts.

I just really cannot get beyond the abuse in those e-mails.

My chest feels tight and my arms are stiff and numb while my hands shake.

I called my oldest son and he came right over because he was afraid I was having a heart attack. I am not having a heart attack, I am just stunned and, even though the e-mails were not to me, really frightened.

The smartest thing to do would be not to do a report; however, if I do that I will have missed two weeks in a row.

I had planned to note some radio programs I enjoyed during the week but I cannot concentrate when I look at the notes I made. So maybe there is some value in just sharing about this?

As a feminist from way back, I do believe in the value of sharing. Consciousness Raising helped us realize that these "personal" events were not happening just to one woman but to many. It really helped us re imagine the world and change it. I certainly do not think enough change has taken place but the feminist movement has transformed the world.

That did not come about because we asked for things, not even nicely, that came about because we refused to be sidelined or turned into doormats.

In sharing our stories, we realized it was not just one of us suffering, it was all of us. We realized that the so-called "personal problem" was very much a societal problem. For some of us, that meant realizing that we might get by on a pass as an exception but the pass could be revoked at any moment, whether it was based on our position, our skin color, our sexuality, our attractiveness, or what have you. At the core, we were all judged as "less than" based on our gender.

We learned about respecting ourselves as much as anything else. The movement's accomplishments are rarely noted in the mainstream press, unless they are ridiculed, but for any woman living in that period, the changes have been immense.

My best friend in high school, to offer an example, had the highest G.P.A. She was named salutatorian, not valedictorian. A number of us were angry but we did accept, back then, the explanation that the man who was named valedictorian needed the title because he would someday be supporting a family.

That was bunk then and it is bunk now. But we rolled over on it because we were taught and socialized to believe that we were "less than." Our gender made us "less than" on the scale of humanity. This lie was based on another, that biology was "destiny."

Now if biology truly were destiny, they would not have needed to game the awarding of valedictorian. But that happened repeatedly in various scenarios. A man was all better and, when he was not, the system was gamed so that he would still be recognized as if he were. That really drove home the lie when we took the time to think about. The system was set up to reward males by their very gender but when a woman could win on the unlevel playing field, the system had to be gamed.

Certainly, during WWII, women demonstrated they could work in large numbers. The war ended and the women were told to go home. These were "male jobs" and "male destiny." So how did women ever manage to hold them down in the first place?

We were told a number of lies, our mothers, and their mothers were told a number of lies. Every step forward, every challenge that a woman who came before made eased the road for all of us. It gave us the foundation to build a movement on.

When we shared, we realized crimes were not "personal problems." A woman being beat up, a woman being raped, those were not "personal problems." But the system certainly allowed them to be judged that way.

Systematic abuses and discrimination were supposed to be just "natural." That was the way things were, we were told. The Civil Rights Movement and the peace movement laid the groundwork for the challenges we would make as well. Women were part of those movements and we saw the power that we had. Some of us owned our power immediately, some needed to learn it was okay to own it.

But we really did change the world and are still changing it.

So that a man from that period is a woman hater is not surprising. That he attacks a woman and threatens her is not surprising. With equality, not full because we still are not there, making strides, he obviously has felt under attack for some time. So he probably feels very powerful sending threatening e-mails. He probably expected C.I. to cower. When C.I. noted them here, the man was enraged because no abuser likes to be exposed. Ike Turner still attempts to pass off his physical and mental abuse of Tina Turner as something minor and pin the problems on her.

That is how it is when a woman tells the truth. When abusive men are exposed, they are even angrier because it was all supposed to be "personal" and remain unknown. It always the public shame they face for their actions that enrages them, the sunlight of day shining on their behaviors.

Which, when you think of it, demonstrates that, despite claims otherwise, even they know their behaviors are not the "norm" or acceptable.

The Washington Post, a few months ago, explored the abuse of women online. So hopefully this somehow contributes to that discussion.

I am an old woman now with grandchildren and, no doubt, great grandchildren on the way in the near future. My generation and ones that came after have fought for a better and more equal world. Younger generations take up the challenge today and we see, fortunately, that many males are willing to join in the struggle. The feminist movement has never stopped or ceased. The accomplishments have been immense and more will be done. We should probably see the attacks on women online as a the last struggles of sexists who think they have a "right" to bully women, to threaten them, and to silence them. Hopefully, those final gasps will have died out when my granddaughter Tracey is a grandmother.

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Your threatening e-mails are not private. I can and will quote from any I see fit.

Cease and desist writing them.

Your name was here in two entries and it's been removed and replaced with "Dumb Ass" because a friend with the FBI suggests you have "issues." He now has copies of all your e-mails.

Your name is no longer up here. You will have to find some other way to get a little fame.

Quit harassing me.

Stop threatening me.

And don't contact me again.

It has been repeatedly noted that the privacy policy does not cover your kind.

Continued attempts to contact me will be seen as continued harassment.

You're sick.

You've written repeatedly this week. Your harassments and your threats need to stop immediately.


Get help.

Finally, I am not your "buddy," The Common Ills is not a "blog" and your offensive e-mails would be offensive to any woman. Save your tough guy act for your male friends (if you have any) and quit harassing women via your e-mails. This one is sick of it.

If the Bush administration does not change strategy, the elevated U.S. troop levels in Iraq will continue until this time next year, the second highest ranking American commander in Iraq said Friday.
As the White House and Congress gear up to renew the debate over U.S. strategy in Iraq next month, Army Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno outlined current military plans, saying the first of the extra "surge" forces would begin returning home in April. The last of the units that are part of the buildup would leave next August as the U.S. force in Iraq returns to its previous level of about 132,000.

The above is from Julian E. Barnes and Carol J. Williams' "Troop buildup could last year, general says" (Los Angeles Times). Odierno held the press confrence and he has a strained relationship with the truth so take it for it's worth. In addition, the drawbacks being tossed around would leave US ground forces at approximately 140,000 which means there would be more in Iraq than pre-escalation (if a reduction comes). Also remember this myth of 'improvements' has been disproven by McClatchy Newspapers figures. (And McClatchy -- then Knight-Ridder -- got it right when the New York Times was willfully getting it so wrong.)

Speaking of the Times, remember when War Pornographer Michael Gordon's 'reported' on the prison tents? Waleed Ibrahim and Peter Graff (Reuters) offer a reality based report of "hundreds of inmates packed into tented wire-mesh cages" and this is from their article:

The U.S. military says it is now holding 23,000 Iraqis, 19,000 of them at Camp Bucca, a giant prison camp in southern Iraq. Washington says its own prisoners are covered by U.N. Security Council resolutions which allow its forces to hold them without charge as long as they are deemed a threat.
Although U.S. forces are not responsible for prisoners held by Iraqi authorities, "we encourage them to treat their prisoners with as much respect as is seen in the West," said U.S. military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Christopher Garver.
The Shi'ite-run Interior Ministry was criticised over the treatment of detainees in 2005 after U.S. forces said they discovered secret cells in which detainees had been tortured.

The prisoners can be held by some coverage from the UN? And the occupying power (the US) thinks they also have no responsibilities for the treatment of prisoners "held by Iraqi authorities". Well what Bully Boy hasn't rewritten, he's trashed. Apparently the new system is a form of "responsibilitization" or however he might mangle the word.

The AP reports a Baghdad mortar attack today that has thus far claimed at least seven lives including an infant and that at least four people are dead and thirty-eight wounded from ongoing bombings in Kirkuk that began Friday night.

The August 7th snapshot noted the following:

Today, Prensa Latina reports: "Sectors from the Puerto Rican society will start a campaign next week against military recruitment in schools to enter the US Army, said activists from the Independentista Party of Puerto Rico (PIP) Monday." You can't vote in the presidential elections, the US won't allow you your independence but your children can die in an illegal war started by the US."

With more on those and other efforts, Martha notes this from Paul Lewis' "Recruiting For Iraq War Undercut in Puerto Rico" (Washington Post):

The scene outside the Ramon Vila Mayo high school unfolded at schools throughout Puerto Rico this week as the academic year opened. On this island with a long tradition of military service, pro-independence advocates are tapping the territory's growing anti-Iraq war sentiment to revitalize their cause. As a result, 57 percent of Puerto Rico's 10th-, 11th- and 12th-graders, or their parents, have signed forms over the past year withholding contact information from the Pentagon -- effectively barring U.S. recruiters from reaching out to an estimated 65,000 high school students.
"If the death of a Puerto Rican soldier is tragic, it's more tragic if that soldier has no say in that war," said Juan Dalmau, secretary general of the Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP). His efforts are saving the island's children from becoming "colonial cannon meat," he said.
Under the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, all schools receiving U.S. federal funding must provide their students' names, addresses and phone numbers to the military unless the child or parents sign an opt-out form. Puerto Rico received $1.88 billion in U.S. education funds this year. For five years, PIP has issued opt-out forms to about 120,000 students in Puerto Rico and encouraged them to sign -- and independista activists expect this year to mark their most successful effort yet.

In the New York Times, Mark Lander provides comic relief by noting Maj. Gen. Mark P. Hertling's concern that spouses remain at the base in Germany. The punch line being, they had no concern about getting Steph Teske there when her husband Chris Teske was being stationed there. The headline writer also provides a chuckle, "At German Base, Troops and Kin Gird for New Iraq Tour." Kin? Who knew Ma and Pa Kettle were on the paper's payroll?

Steven Lee Myers and Thom Shanker's "White House to Offer Gradual Cuts as Iraq Plan" runs on the front page and

One administration official made it clear that the goal of the planned announcement was to counter public pressure for a more rapid reduction and to try to win support for a plan that could keep American involvement in Iraq on "a sustainable footing" as least through the end of the Bush presidency."

Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts "You Are Staying" below:



Rachel notes two upcoming programs on WBAI (broadcasting out of NYC and available to online listeners as well)

Sunday, August 19, 11am-noon EST
THE NEXT HOUR
Poet Hugh Seidman interviews poet Harvey Shapiro upon publication of Shapiro's "The Sights Along The Harbor: New and Collected Poems." (Re-broadcast of a program that originally aired April 16, 2006.)
Monday, August 20, 2-3pm EST
CAT RADIO CAFE
Political satirist Will Durst, just opened to rave reviews in "The All-American Sport of Bi-Partisan Bashing"; actor/musicians Preston Clark and Grant Vargas on their play "33 to Nothing," about an aging rock band; and author Leslie Garis on "House of Happy Endings," a family memoir involving her grandparents, the authors of The Bobbsey Twins, Tom Swift and Uncle Wiggily. Hosted by Janet Coleman and David Dozer.

The following community sites have updated since yesterday morning:

Rebecca's Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude;
Cedric's Cedric's Big Mix;
Kat's Kat's Korner;
Betty's Thomas Friedman is a Great Man;
Mike's Mikey Likes It!;
Elaine's Like Maria Said Paz;
Wally's The Daily Jot;
and Trina's Trina's Kitchen

The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.


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Just replies to e-mails as I go through the public account (common_ills@yahoo.com).

A) If the members are sick of something, there's no point in e-mailing about it. I'm one member. If the community says "No more," then it's no more.

B) If you're someone who's e-mailed and felt you should have had a response, by all means e-mail again. But there are too many e-mails in the public account which is why you need to be specific in your titles. Most working the public account (Martha, Shirley, Eli, Jess, Ava and myself) will delete it without reading if it looks like spam. There's not enough time. Four people were apparently deleted without being read for that reason. You need to be clear in your e-mail heading what you're writing and titles like "Can I trust you?" (if you have to ask, then, no, you can't), "Urgent" or "Repond please" will be seen as spam (to cite only a few popular titles by spammers).

C) If you're Dumb Ass, it was made clear that you wouldn't be read. Stop e-mailing. I'll also assume those unread e-mails deal with things other at websites so, I'll repeat, the public address does not exist for you to whine about something someone posted at another site.

D) Members e-mail to the private accounts. Those get worked more often. When others go through the public account, they move any e-mail that they think I need to read into another folder. I check that as often as possible. Otherwise, I get a report on the e-mails. If you're moved to the "Must Read" folder, you are read by me (you're also read by me if you're on the top four pages when I check the public account -- that's 100 e-mails and that's generally all the time I have in one sitting to read). If a reply's needed, I do reply when I read. (Actually, I reply and it goes to the "Draft" folder. Ron long ago explained the need for that to me. I send out no e-mails myself. So you've got another delay on top of the ones listed.)

E) Ruth plans a report for later today. She had one planned last weekend but pulled it. This was addressed at The Third Estate Sunday Review last Sunday. I haven't made a point to link to the piece with a "Here's why Ruth has no report" because it was feared by others involved in that piece that if I did so, ____ would see it as an opening to avoid writing Jess (at thirdestatesundayreview@yahoo.com) to offer the apology he needs to give Jess. Ruth won't be addressing it specifically for the same reason (I just got off the phone with her). She did have a report planned, she'd made notes on it and, for reasons explained at The Third Estate Sunday Review, suddenly was without a report. This has been addressed in community newsletters but a number of visitors have e-mailed about it this morning. She did not have a family emergency, she was not "blowing off" her report, and she's not sick. She's fine and plans a report for later today.

F) A vistitor was "thrilled" that Isaiah did two comics this week: Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts "The Casual Lunch" and Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts "Karl Rove Leaves the Administration". The visitor wondered why Isaiah can't do a comic every day? Because he has life. He is also doing comics for Maria, Miguel and Francisco's newsletter and for Hilda's. Visitors may only see one comic a week (or none if he's taking the weekend off) but he's doing three already. The visitor offers a list of suggested comics. That e-mail's not going to get to Isaiah. I've trashed it because Isaiah has explained that's not helpful. He has to visualize the comic himself. He's been doing illustrations for the community over two years. If you need to see more of his illustrations, you should use the link provided in each comic to look at past work. Going to Flickr will not help you. We used to use Hello! until it ended its arrangement with Blogger/Blogspot December 31, 2006 (with no notice that it was ending the partnership, no heads up to users). We then switched to Flickr. However, not all of his comics are up at Flickr because there have been Sundays when Flickr either wouldn't take it or took hours and hours. He has considered creating an archived site and actually planned to do so before he started doing illustrations for two community newsletters. Time for him, like everyone else, is limited. What happens to the originals? Some he's held on to, some he's passed on to members. ("The Peace Resister" is framed and hung in Rebecca's mother-in-law's house so it's not "available." Nor are any to visitors. I know Elaine has several framed throughout her place as well. He usually sends the hard copy original onto her if it's a movie parody.) Isaiah and I are working together on something else that will hopefully be done here next month. For more on Isaiah, you can see the May 2005 piece at The Third Estate Sunday Review "Talking With Isaiah, The Common Ills cartoonist" (there's at least one other interview but I'm forgetting the title and the last template switch by The Third Estate Sunday Review screwed up the archives. I'm not remembering the title of it and don't feel like playing with Google for twenty to thirty minutes to find it.)

G) Kat has had a stomach virus as well as many other things going on in her life. She has a draft she's editing of her latest CD review. It should post on Sunday morning. If she or I remember, it will post no later than 8:00 am EST. She is now holding them for Sundays so that there's something up Sunday mornings due to the fact that I'm usually very late here on that day due to the all night writing edition (which stretch into all morning) at The Third Estate Sunday Review. Her review that should post tomorrow is on the latest Cowboy Junkies' CD.

H) Folding Star ran A Winding Road (at Blogger/Blogspot and at Blogdrive). FS remains a member but got sick of blogging for several reasons. The current websites of that name (at Blogger/Blogspot and Blogdrive) are not run by FS (though someone's made a real attempt to make it look as though they are). FS deleted both sites after deciding to stop blogging. That was either the fourth community website started (after this one, after Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude and after Third Estate Sunday Review). Some of Folding Star's posts are quoted in The Third Estate Sunday Review's archives, some are re-posted in full there.
You can see The Third Estate Sunday Review's "Folding Star interviewed by C.I." for more of FS.

I) The Beatitudes is a new book by Lyn LeJeune and the royalties go to "directly to the New Orleans Public Library Foundation as part of The Beatitudes Network Campaign, dedicated to rebuilding the public libraries of New Orleans." Libraries are one of our most important physical resources and, certainly, the libraries in New Orleans need assistance because so much was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. The book:

portrays New Orleans as Dante's purgatory, a place where the sins of men are exposed for all to see, where redemption is close at hand but most often lost.
This world is revealed by the lives of two social workers, Hannah Dubois (white and nicknamed Scrimp) and Earlene Washington (African-American and nicknamed Pinch), who start their own business, Social Investigations, in order to solve the murders of ten foster children in New Orleans, Louisiana. The NOPD, the Catholic Church, and politicians have sidestepped clues that point to those who hold great power. As Hannah and Earlene find more and more evidence, they also know that they are dealing with a force that crosses into the realm of the paranormal. The murderers are part of a secret organization called the White Army (la Armee Blanc), centered in New Orleans, but rooted in Medieval Europe and the Children’s Crusades. Each clue leads to a beatitude and each chapter defines the novel: The Pure of Heart, The Persecuted, The Merciful, The Sorrowful, The Peacemakers, The Meek, The Poor in Spirit, and Those Who Hunger and Thirst for Justice. The Beatitudes is thus a study of good and evil, and that act, the murder of innocent children, which encompasses all of the seven deadly sins. The Beatitudes is Book I in The New Orleans Trilogy.

You can find out more information by visiting The Beatitudes website. As funds are steered elsewhere, all public libraries need support and if the book is interesting to you, a purchase would help out the New Orleans public library system.


That's a reply to some of the e-mails I'm coming across this morning. After Jess got burned, less and less people will receive personal replies when they write the public account which is common_ills@yahoo.com.

The total number of foreign (non-Iraqi) military who have died in the illegal war now stands at 3,999. That's US, British and "Other" (i.e. Poland, Italy . . .). This the number of military members ordered to fight in the illegal war who have died in it. One away from the 4,000 mark. And scratch everything I just said, ICCC's reporting that the 4,000 mark has now been passed.

Today the US military announced: "Thursday, a MNC-I Soldier died of non-battle related cause in Baghdad. An investigation into the cause of death will be conducted." And they announced: "A Task Force Lightning Soldier died of wounds sustained from enemy gunfire in Baghdad Province, Thursday." ICCC's total for the number of US service members who've died in the illegal war thus far this month is 46 and the total number who have died since the start of the illegal war stands at 3704. The two deaths bring the total number of all foreign military service members (official, we're not counting mercenaries) who have died in the illegal war since it started to 4001.

As the deaths mount, US opposition (public, not government) remains strong. Zachary Coile's
"California voters want troops to begin pulling out of Iraq in spring, poll says Most California voters want to pull U.S. troops out of Iraq, Field Poll shows" (San Francisco Chronicle) notes a new survey by Field Poll which finds that six out of every ten registered voters in California want the US Congress to impose a deadline for troop withdrawal from Iraq. Coile reports:


Voter anger over Iraq is the main reason Bush's approval ratings in the state have stayed at rock bottom: 26 percent of voters approve of his job performance, compared with 65 percent who disapprove. Only President Richard Nixon dipped to lower levels -- a 24 percent approval rating -- and that was at the height of the Watergate scandal.
Bush's approval rating also was 26 percent in March, the last time the Field Poll conducted its survey.

Mike's father, who would also be Trina's husband, notes this from AP about Alicia Birchett who was from Massachusetts (and the second woman from the state to die in the illegal war):

She was an engineer mechanic who joined the military immediately after graduating from Falmouth High School in 1995. She also served tours of duty in Germany and Korea.

And we'll also note this from Ryan Haggerty and Megan Tench's "Franklin Soldier is slain in Iraq" (Boston Globe):

News of Staff Sergeant Robert Pirelli's death in Iraq spread quickly through town yesterday, touching Franklin officials who never knew the 29-yearold Green Beret.
"It's a terrible tragedy," said Jeffrey D. Nutting, Franklin's town administrator, as he and other town employees answered calls from residents about Pirelli's death, including one from a local church member asking whether it was proper to lower the church's US flag to half-staff in the soldier's honor. Nutting said it was.
"You never think it's going to hit home" Nutting said. "You see it on TV and in the papers, but it's always somebody else."

Turning to the topic of sucides among active duty service members, Pauline Jelinek (AP) notes
this on the US army's study:

Announcing a new report on suicides, officials said nearly a third of 99 committed in 2006 were among soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan at the time of their deaths. Iraq accounted for the overwhelming number of those _ 27 of the 30.
About half the Army suicides last year, the most since the first Iraq war, in 1991, were soldiers who hadn't reached their 25th birthdays.

On most PBS stations, Bill Moyers Journal begins airing tonight (check local listings). Tonight Moyers addresses the impending departure (August 31st) of Karl Rove. The commentary has also been posted on YouTube. Also in most PBS markets, NOW with David Brancaccio begins airing tonight:

In the fall of 2003, one of the largest recorded wildfires in California's history destroyed over 2,200 houses and killed fifteen people. Soon after, many who'd lost their homes had a rude awakening: their insurance did not nearly cover their losses as expected. The insurance industry, which claims to cover "more property, more lives, more liability-related risks than any time at history," is busy fighting allegations that customers are receiving smaller payouts than what they were promised. On Friday, August 17 (check your local listings), NOW collaborates with Bloomberg Markets magazine to investigate tactics some insurance companies may be using to reduce, avoid, or stall homeowners' claims in an effort to boost their own earnings.
"The insurance industry...is purposely misleading customers," California Lieutenant Governor and former Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi tells NOW. "The first commandment of the insurance industry is, 'Thou shalt pay as little, as late, as possible.'...You go to financial heaven if you can carry out that commandment."
The insurance industry is enjoying record-breaking profits, but who's paying the price? Next time on NOW
The NOW website at www.pbs.org/now will offer more insight into these claims of impropriety and reaction from insurance companies


The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.


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