Gambling with Human Chips
No
matter whether the war ends easy or in horror
One
thing is certain: It
was launched with lies
by a president looking drugged into the TV
cameras
"Should
Saddam choose confrontation," Bush noted,
"the American people can know that every measure
has been taken to avoid war," plainly
lying
about who it is choosing the military option
and
who has been narrowly intent on war despite
a rainbow
of alternatives offered from every corner
of Earth
Bush
says "the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal
some of the most lethal weapons ever devised,"
forgetting
those thousands of US nukes & our own biochem weapons
Although
Bush has pulled the U.S. out of the International
Criminal
Court, he is now announcing which Iraqis
when captured will face war crimes trials
No
U.S. reporter asks the question of how many
Iraqis
can be killed before Bush is eligible for a
seat
in the defendant's chair for initiating this
illegal war
Because
Bush cannot explain his policies, William Bennett
appears on every cable news station reciting the
triumphs
of America in Europe West and East
Bennett claims democracy, not imperialism, has always
been
the result of American militarism, but he leaves
out El
Salvador,
Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras, Chile, Angola's UNITA
Vietnam's 3.6 million dead, decades of South African
apartheid
unknown millions dying middle passage slave ships
early American blankets mixed w/ smallpox &
holy wars
Every
nation has its progressive and regressive traditions
The
question now is how will bombs affect
5 million in Baghdad
&
will the dead applaud the U.S. as liberty's troops
If
the Iraqi death toll exceeds the WTC, will the war still be
considered moral victory? How many Iraqi civilians
does the Bush gang think add up to one American
life
Even
if the war is short and the death toll low, even if
concerns of millions marching across Earth were
overblown
will it have been right to have taken such a
gamble
NYC,
3/03
Shock TV, Day One
After
a night of embedded TV reporters
riding atop U.S. military trucks
modeling ziptight chemical jumpsuits
after a slow night of videotaped tank races
running Iraqi deserts toward Basra & Baghdad
a mid-east version of the televised OJ chase
a night of illusion making it seem this would
be an easy war
requiring little of the bombing
that had been threatened & feared
today the "shock and awe" operation
was launched
and it was truly shocking
watching fireworks & shooting stars
moving thru Iraqi night skies
watching smoke & mushroom-shaped fires rising
o'er the city's ancient skyline
but not a single report or picture showing
effects
on city's 5 million residents or asking whether
this sort of unsanctioned awe is illegal terror.
On
ABC News, a young reporter named Richard Engel
is perched atop Palestine Hotel's 14th floor
his personal shock evident: "I am watching
half of Baghdad being destroyed" as 300+ cruise missiles
flyinto buildings a few miles away
Pentagon has confirmed this is "A-Day"
Engel
is stunned and stumbling, he has never seen
anything like this before, he hopes his colleagues
in the Al Rashid hotel across Tigris River okay
Peter
Jennings back home assures him generals
say 90% of missiles falling are smart bombs
& Engels in a line of
journalistic poesy
expresses hope the other 10% are a bit clever as
well
Jennings once again reassures the Pentagon
is committed to keeping this modern city intact
even though the dropping of cruise missiles
& bunker bombs
the burning of offices & archaeological ruins
is a strange way to create urban glue.
Peter
Arnett, vilified twelve years earlier
for reporting Gulf War I on CNN from Baghdad
is back in town working for NBC
Watching
the fireworks of Gulf War II, Arnett notes
this is bigger than the last one
"they are taking out whole buildings
with these explosions." Arnett estimates
25 buildings
have been destroyed in last 10 minutes
I wonder whether these buildings waited
for civilians & young draftees to leave
before exploding in flames
before they crumbled to ground
crushing their inhabitants
After
the WTC, isn't this kind of attack even the least bit
worrisome to America's press--can we hear
what concerned New Yorkers are saying?
CNN
stays with pictures of Baghdad smoldering
in flames and rolling black smoke
Would it be possible to turn cameras
to the ground and see whether any bodies are
visible
running from falling ash and leaping heat
or perhaps lying peacefully in the street
We
are told operating electricity and open phone lines are signs
of U.S. accuracy--so doesn't anyone on CNN have
the number
of an Iraqi family or peace witness to dial up
When
a new bomb falls, Wolf Blitzer indeed seems awed
"Look at that explosion!"
Even on right-wing Fox News
a young correspondent in Baghad is
unnerved
says he felt shock waves running across Tigris River
to where he's standing. He has counted
about 30 missiles fallen
As
his phone line is going dead, the guy notes
he has no reason to believe his situation is
worse than __________
an unfinished, postmodern line just waiting
for viewers
to fill in the blank--what do you think dear reader
about this beautiful spring day of shock and awe?
Flipping
channels, I notice one reporter get carried away
saying the pictures & explosions from Baghdad
"really did look like Dresden"
a comment which Donald Rumsfeld
apparently saw as well
and disputed during his press conference, noting
the vast difference between dumb & educated bombs
According
to Rumsfeld, carried in the opposite direction
the hundreds of cruise missiles dropped this afternoon
exhibited "the humanity that goes into the targeting"
today
The
mass bombing and depleted uranium-tipped missiles
are thus part of a "humane effort" that was begun
after every single other option had been tried
Why
do American reporters accept Pentagon war logic
that once battles have begun
it is too late to ask root questions any longer
Why
doesn't a single American reporter ask when such options
as these were tried: flood of human rights observers,
continued inspections, the endless nonwar
imagination
following UN-sanctioned international law to maintain
moral
& practical precedent on this ever-shifting Earth
Will the tough questions be arriving any time soon?
The
president's spokesman Ari Fleischer
holds his own conference
and claims our unelected president regrets Saddam
has put innocent people in harm's way
Ari asserts "use of force is being used
to help settle this
in the most peaceful way possible"
& not a single reporter vocalizes the obvious
though crowd does express surprise Bush doesn't
care
enough about their daily work or war's damage
to bother watching televised pictures this historic day
Flipping
channels, a young pilot returning to his ship
from first bombing mission
reports it was "really neat"
and a "heck of an experience" that
he wasn't sure
he would ever have chance to enact
after consigned to TV watching Gulf War I.
Wall
Street apparently agrees that shock & awe was neat--
market up 230 points! Anything, even death & destruction,
is better than uncertainty for investor confidence!
On
CBS News, Dan Rather notes we are seeing war
"with its million horrors, as Shelley once wrote"
and it is nice to see a poet in day's linguistic mix
Rather
observes Baghdad is burning,
"but only in specific places" as if
that would offer total comfort in NY or Chicago
On
NBC, Tom Brokaw interviews mother
of a U.S. Marine early casualty
Before she says goodbye
she wants to make a point about television
coverage
the technology that brings war to the nation
brings 24-hour anxiety to parents & families
Brokaw
nods sympathetically, promising to remind viewers
more often that war is not about technology
but real human lives
and in another moment we are back to flashes
and fires
and pops and smokes and tank treads and rationalizations
of former generals and right-wing hacks.
This
is a war whose core legality & morality hasn't been questioned
by a single US reporter all day any channel-- they are
wearing
Pentagon's label "Operation Iraqi Freedom"
and half day later still no investigations
on American TV
into civilian casualties on "A-Day"
"a spectacular light show"
We
will have to check internet next few days
www.iraqbodycount.net to find inquisitive reporters
who bother to dig into such questions
At
7:30 New York time, CNN notes there are still
a few more hours of darkness in Iraq
for bombs of shock and awe to drop
What
if this entire war, no matter how quickly it ends
no matter whether those bombs pass their IQ tests
no matter whether only a few
western working-class troops are lost, no matter
whether Iraqis
who do not lose family & friends eventually greet
American troops with dancing yellow roses
what if nonetheless this war was a callous gamble
with human lives
launched in violation of international law & ethical ties
how hold our leaders & "free press" democratically
accountable
Perhaps
the antiwar movement growing daily in creativity & size
can sprinkle some visionary seeds & long-term strategies
how choose a better one, of the many other worlds still
possible?
NYC,
3/21/03