Gertrude Bell

George Santayana: Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

Anyone who is interested in how Iraq became Iraq might like to pick up a new book that sheds light on the creation of the country as well as providing a biography of a fascinating woman: Gertrude Bell

Gertrude Bell: Queen of the Desert, Shaper of Nations
by Georgina Howell

An excellent review of the book written by Christopher Hitchens appears in this month's Atlantic Monthly:

The Woman Who Made Iraq
A Review by Christopher Hitchens

To give you a feel for this review, it opens with:

"On the cover of this book is an arresting photograph taken in front of the Sphinx in March 1921, on the last day of the Cairo conference on the Middle East. It shows Gertrude Bell astride a camel, flanked by Winston Churchill and T. E. Lawrence. She wears a look of some assurance and satisfaction, perhaps because -- apart from having spent far more time on camelback than either man -- she has just assisted at the birth of a new country, which is to be called Iraq."


The British thought that Sunnis should lead the Iraqi nation, because the Shi'ite majority was regarded as too volatile to govern due to its largely tribal and nomadic base in Iraq, and hard to assimilate because of an unyielding religious bias for the "Ali" faction of the Muslim schism.

Bell said, "I don't for a moment doubt that the final authority must be in the hands of the Sunnis, in spite of their numerical inferiority, otherwise you will have a ... Theocratic state, which is the very devil."

Welcome To Iraq

A ragged urchin, aimless and alone,
Loitered about that vacancy, a bird
Flew up to safety from his well-aimed stone'
That girls are raped, that
two boys knife a third,
Were axioms to him who'd never heard
Of any world where promises were kept
Or one could weep because another wept.

W. H. Auden

Save the Children reported this month that Iraq’s child-survival rate is falling faster than any other nation’s. One Iraqi in eight is killed by illness or violence by the age of 5. Yet for all the words President Bush has lavished on Darfur and AIDS in Africa, there has been a deadly silence from him about what’s happening in the country he gave “God’s gift of freedom.”

Dance Me To The End of Love

I've been staying away from the political for awhile simply because it's bad for my blood pressure and I don't want to get into a firefight with any of the regular readers. For those who support the current administration, know that I don't think less of you for having an opposing opinion, and I hope you will take the time to read to the end.

To know where I'm coming from, you should know that my principal obsession is genealogy. At least one male member of my family has served this country since before it was a country. There were men in the French/Indian wars with George Washington. There were men with those "well ordered militias" in the 1700s. There were men among the Revolutionary soldiers and yes I could join the DAR if I wanted to do so. There were men on the U.S. side in 1812 when the British wanted to take us back.

Both of my great grandfathers were in the Civil War/War Between the States (take your pick as there was one on each side). There was family with Teddy Roosevelt on San Juan Hill. Even the Scottish branch got into things with WWI.

My father was career Army and served in WWII, I never met my father-in-law because he died at Chosen Reservoir during Korea. Various cousins were in Viet Nam. My son was career Army just like his grandfather. He served in Gulf War I and he still works overseeing the delivery of the Strykers to units in Iraq to keep those men and women as safe as possible. So whether the country was right or wrong, my family has either volunteered or answered when called. They have followed civilian leaders into fire simply because that is what military families do.

This is only to explain why if some right wing idealogue who has never served a day in their life wants to accuse anyone in my family of "Cut and Run" or being a "Defeatocrat", they have a fight on their hands. Having said that, if you wanted to express my attitudes toward this President, you would have to set your keyboard on "Caps Lock" and use the whole top row at least twice: !@@##$$%%^^&^&&***(*()_)_++_))(**&^^%$%$##@! simply because he is a total obscenity and the sooner he and his totally inept, criminal cohorts are out of office, the better off this nation will be. I've been aware of Presidents since Harry Truman. Some I liked and some I found lacking from both the D & R columns, but this one is simply the worst. He has no business being in that office. He has cost this nation both lives and treasure for the sake of his own ego.

Now I happen to be upset with all the Democrats who voted for entry into Iraq as well. Way back when I was saying that anyone who knew anything about the Middle East, who knew even a small piece of the history of Iraq, who had even a grain of common sense would have known that this invasion was a truly bad idea. Following 9/11, I had been for the invasion of Afghanistan and told everyone I could tell that Iraq was not the next logical step. It is one time when I wish to hell I could not say, "I told you so!".

The result of that lack of research, failure to investigate, and total bullheadedness in pursuit of a failed policy is shown below. There are families out there. They have folded flags of men and women who have done their duty simply because it was their job to do it. They get up every day and assist those with missing limbs and fight a bureaucracy that forgets them when they can no longer be thrown to the wolves. They deal with divorce and mental illness caused by family members who have seen too much death and destruction and bring those problems home.

American Military Casualties in Iraq and Counting:

Since war began (3/19/03): 3,334
Since "Mission Accomplished" (5/1/03) 3,195
Since Capture of Saddam (12/13/03): 2,873
Since Handover (6/29/04): 2,475
Since Iraqi Election (1/31/05): 1,897

American Estimated Wounded: 24,764

Just turn on your TV. The numbers of U. S. dead are growing at the rate of over 200 a month while George Bush refuses to even set the most minimal of "guidelines" for bringing them home. The numbers of iraqi dead and wounded are horrifically higher. How much hatred can we stand to create?

A commenter on a recent post below suggested that I listen to a song I had never heard simply because it's title was the same as a painting I love: Dance Me To The End of Love. It is a beautiful video and a wonderful song. It is not specifically anti-war. It is just about endings. Iraq needs to come to an end before too many more brave families are required to say Goodbye.

DANCE ME TO THE END OF LOVE