BLAD AL_ARAB AUTANI: I Hate The War

Monday, 6 July 2015

I Hate The War

The Common Ills
Oh, my goodness! Oh, my gosh!
Women and children sold as sex slaves in Falluja!

ARA News reports!

Or 'reports' the laughable Iraqi Ministry of Human Rights says is happening.

Is it happening?

That Ministry is a propaganda ministry existing in a climate in which Iraq's Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi repeatedly laments in public that the Iraqi government is losing the propaganda war to the Islamic State.

When beheading people, the Islamic State has no qualms about videotaping the event and releasing it to the public.

So it's hard to believe that were they carrying out a slave auction in Falluja, they wouldn't be releasing video.

Equally true, where's the money coming from to buy sex slaves?

There are Islamic State fighters in Falluja. There are also civilians there in the residential area.

Falluja's been occupied for how long now by the Islamic State?

Longer than Mosul.

So where's the money coming from?

Are the slaves that cheap or is the Islamic State paying their fighters six figure salaries?

It feels like propaganda.

And it probably is.

But if it is true -- so what?

I'm getting really tired of watching the leaders of the failed state of Iraq point fingers at others when the actions of the Islamic State -- as horrible as they are -- aren't that different from what the government of exiles has imposed on Iraq.

Nouri al-Maliki was prime minster until August of last year. His second term was known for the Baghdad prostitutes he 'visited.' (Actually, there were two he was rumored to have set up in apartments which he covered the cost of.)

Equally true, when you're supporting a law -- as he and State of Law did -- along with other Shi'ite fundamentalist politicians -- allowing girls under the age of ten to be forced into marriage, you really have no high horse to ride through the town square so just stop pretending otherwise.

Haider is a new prime minister!

Yes and he's a member of State of Law and he supported the bill that would have lowered the age at which young girls could be sold into what passed for marriage.

It's like the non-stop hand wringing over the destruction of cultural artifacts.

When the world wants to pay as much attention to the killing and wounding of the Iraqi people as they do to the destruction of some cultural artifact, we might be able to pretend that our global priorities aren't screwed up.

Until then, try to avoid mounting the high horse.

Here come the priests, each one wailing and bemoaning
Lordy, they got their heads bowed down
Here come the madmen, they're too excited for atoning:
"Burn the mosque," they're shouting, "Burn it down!"

Save me a place, surrounded with friendly faces
All of us have gathered here to share the end
To watch the world go up in flames
-- "Share The End," written by Carly Simon and Jacob Brackman, first appears on Carly'sAnticipation

The Islamic State is defined as a terrorist group.

That they do appalling things is a given.

But that the government of Iraq cannot freely point fingers due to their own actions is outrageous.

Last month, the idiot Joel Wing was gas bagging with a US War Hawk about how they believed that the Islamic State -- if you limited them to just a few years -- had killed and harmed more civilians than had the Iraqi government.

I'm sorry, in what f**ked up world is it acceptable for a government to have a death toll of its own civilians? To rake up kills over their own people?

In what f**ked up world?

When you grade on a curve, you're letting certain people pass when they definitely need to be held back.

It's outrageous and it's outrageous that the world is appalled by the Islamic State allegedly killing 4 males suspected of being gay but the same world was more than happy to look the other way when Nouri al-Maliki used the Ministry of the Interior to launch a witch hunt on Iraq's LGBTQ community, when he encouraged Iraqi school students to kill gay people.

There should have been an international outcry.

The brave UN?

I've had it with Ban Ki-moon and his useless nonsense.

They insisted they were monitoring the situation and would have a report on it.

But they never did, did they?

Iraq is a failed state.

It is also a state that the United Nations clearly failed.

It's over, I'm done writing songs about love
There's a war going on
So I'm holding my gun with a strap and a glove
And I'm writing a song about war
And it goes
Na na na na na na na
I hate the war
Na na na na na na na
I hate the war
Na na na na na na na
I hate the war
Oh oh oh oh
-- "I Hate The War" (written by Greg Goldberg, on The Ballet's Mattachine!)

The number of US service members the Dept of Defense states died in the Iraq War is [PDF format warning] 4497.

This week saw a theme post in the community where people selected their favorite cover song: Betty went with "Chaka's "Hejira"," Trina went with the Mamas and the Papas' "Do You Want To Dance," Stan with Diana Ross' "Ain't No Mountain High Enough," Kat with Ben Taylor's "By Your Side," Isaiah with Herbie Hancock's "River," Rebecca went with "en vogue" and their covers of two songs from the film Sparkle, Elaine went with Aretha's "Rolling In The Deep," Marcia went with "Anita Baker "You Belong To Me"," Ruth went with the Afghan Whigs' "Mr. Super Love," Ann went with Tori Amos' "Angie" and Mike went with Carly Simon's ""Blackbird," "Devoted To You" and "All I Have To Do Is Dream"."

That should have been noted in a snapshot, we usually do note the community theme posts.

I bring it up because X e-mails that his thing didn't get noted or that this didn't get noted or that . . .

I work in what I can.

Sometimes, I don't even have time to note things in the community.

If I don't even have time for that, strangers really need to chill about what they think has to go up here.

The following community sites -- plus Jody Watley, Jane Fonda and Susan's On the Edge -- updated: