And then the reporting turned grim. Inevitably, some of the dead and missing haunt the media more than others. There's nothing like the conjunction of friendly fire deaths, a fratricidal "fragging" and above all the capture of American personnel to provide a salutary reminder of how messy and chaotic wars are, even ones as lopsided as this one.
I read that Mr Rumsfeld immediately claimed that Iraq was failing to respect the Geneva Conventions by allowing film of the captives to be shown on Al-Jazeera TV. The Conventions forbid the photographing of prisoners in ways that may be humiliating, or used for propaganda purposes.
I heartily concur -- all prisoners must be humanely treated. But I am nonplussed: Aren't international laws and conventions things that can be revoked or ignored when they are inconvenient? So who gets to decide who is a POW, who an "enemy combatant", and who a hostage? What authority will adjudicate when disagreements on status arise? What sanction may apply? Just asking. Do photographs from Guantanamo humiliate prisoners, perhaps? I don't know. Aren't photos of Iraqi prisoners in coalition custody currently being used as propaganda to persuade Iraqis to surrender...Oh, never mind. Even the President seems befuddled. Asked today what he would say to the family of an American taken prisoner, he keeps going back to the sacrifices of the dead. It's like he doesn't see the difference.
Reports still indicate continued firing in Basra, Umm Qasr and Nasariya (where the five GIs were taken prisoner and five others killed). Some of the Iraqi resistance in the south has been from plain-clothes fedayeen, under the nominal control of Uday Hussein. Expect more such attacks to occur even if regular Iraqi forces collapse. With "regime change" already foreordained and the entire Ba'ath party put on notice by the B-52 strikes of the past two days, members of its many paramilitary and secret police branches have little incentive to turn themselves in.
US forces are reported 100 miles south of Baghdad. In the North, where complex rivalries and hostilities among Kurds, Turkoman, Shia and Sunni underlie political and economic resentments, talks between Washington and Ankara are at a standstill. Maybe the status quo satisfies the administration -- for now.
It is heartening to learn that only 1,000 people are said to have shown up for a pro-war rally in Times Square (sponsored by the Christian Coalition et al), as opposed to the more than 100,000 who marched yesterday. (Saw "Shocking and Awful" "Freedom Fries While Baghdad Burns" posters and plenty more verbal and graphic creativity on display, but heard no singing.) Even if it is improbable that the war can be halted before the fall of Baghdad, pressure must be kept on this administration -- for the long haul. And that will require some new anthems.
Pop Culture Ironies: Our household always watches the Oscar broadcast and tonight will be no exception. The "red carpet" fashion show has been cancelled (No "And who are you wearing?" this year) but the show itself goes on. Whenever glitzy entertainment and its siblings -- fashion and advertising -- bump up against "special TV coverage" characterized by bloody violence, fascinating ironies and anxieties come to the surface: What is appropriate, what can be said and by whom? Can you accept an Academy Award and not say what's on your mind? Who decides if and when to pull the plug on the speaker? And what if some news event were to pre-empt the dream-machine as it spins its reveries of fame and fortune? ("We now interrupt this broadcast...."). Remember when that's all that little word pre-emption meant?
A memory: A few days after the Sept 11th attacks I went down to Wall Street to check with the office where I worked. On one of the side streets, just yards east of Broadway and two blocks from the smoldering WTC site, there was a large billboard advertising some brand of bourbon (Maker's Mark? I'm not sure.) Some copywriter's once-clever slogan read "A Hit, From Way Off Broadway." Photographers could fit it in the same frame as the silhouetted wreckage of the North Tower base, which looked like a smashed cheese-grater when the sunlight shone through. If someone did take such a picture, I never saw it published.
I passed by that billboard for several weeks, over and over. Its obscenity appalled and riveted me. Then one day someone came and applied paint. They blacked out the words but left the image of the bourbon bottle up there. You could still see faint traces of the slogan, but only if you knew what had been there. I still wonder who told them to do that and what they were thinking.
Actually, one tourist did take a picture of it but doesn't show the bourbon bottle. Can't hide anything from Google, I guess.
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I heartily concur -- all prisoners must be humanely treated. But I am nonplussed: Aren't international laws and conventions things that can be revoked or ignored when they are inconvenient? So who gets to decide who is a POW, who an "enemy combatant", and who a hostage? What authority will adjudicate when disagreements on status arise? What sanction may apply? Just asking. Do photographs from Guantanamo humiliate prisoners, perhaps? I don't know. Aren't photos of Iraqi prisoners in coalition custody currently being used as propaganda to persuade Iraqis to surrender...Oh, never mind. Even the President seems befuddled. Asked today what he would say to the family of an American taken prisoner, he keeps going back to the sacrifices of the dead. It's like he doesn't see the difference.
Reports still indicate continued firing in Basra, Umm Qasr and Nasariya (where the five GIs were taken prisoner and five others killed). Some of the Iraqi resistance in the south has been from plain-clothes fedayeen, under the nominal control of Uday Hussein. Expect more such attacks to occur even if regular Iraqi forces collapse. With "regime change" already foreordained and the entire Ba'ath party put on notice by the B-52 strikes of the past two days, members of its many paramilitary and secret police branches have little incentive to turn themselves in.
US forces are reported 100 miles south of Baghdad. In the North, where complex rivalries and hostilities among Kurds, Turkoman, Shia and Sunni underlie political and economic resentments, talks between Washington and Ankara are at a standstill. Maybe the status quo satisfies the administration -- for now.
It is heartening to learn that only 1,000 people are said to have shown up for a pro-war rally in Times Square (sponsored by the Christian Coalition et al), as opposed to the more than 100,000 who marched yesterday. (Saw "Shocking and Awful" "Freedom Fries While Baghdad Burns" posters and plenty more verbal and graphic creativity on display, but heard no singing.) Even if it is improbable that the war can be halted before the fall of Baghdad, pressure must be kept on this administration -- for the long haul. And that will require some new anthems.
Pop Culture Ironies: Our household always watches the Oscar broadcast and tonight will be no exception. The "red carpet" fashion show has been cancelled (No "And who are you wearing?" this year) but the show itself goes on. Whenever glitzy entertainment and its siblings -- fashion and advertising -- bump up against "special TV coverage" characterized by bloody violence, fascinating ironies and anxieties come to the surface: What is appropriate, what can be said and by whom? Can you accept an Academy Award and not say what's on your mind? Who decides if and when to pull the plug on the speaker? And what if some news event were to pre-empt the dream-machine as it spins its reveries of fame and fortune? ("We now interrupt this broadcast...."). Remember when that's all that little word pre-emption meant?
A memory: A few days after the Sept 11th attacks I went down to Wall Street to check with the office where I worked. On one of the side streets, just yards east of Broadway and two blocks from the smoldering WTC site, there was a large billboard advertising some brand of bourbon (Maker's Mark? I'm not sure.) Some copywriter's once-clever slogan read "A Hit, From Way Off Broadway." Photographers could fit it in the same frame as the silhouetted wreckage of the North Tower base, which looked like a smashed cheese-grater when the sunlight shone through. If someone did take such a picture, I never saw it published. I passed by that billboard for several weeks, over and over. Its obscenity appalled and riveted me. Then one day someone came and applied paint. They blacked out the words but left the image of the bourbon bottle up there. You could still see faint traces of the slogan, but only if you knew what had been there. I still wonder who told them to do that and what they were thinking.
- bruno 3-23-2003 11:36 pm
Actually, one tourist did take a picture of it but doesn't show the bourbon bottle. Can't hide anything from Google, I guess.
- bruno 3-23-2003 11:46 pm