The Common Ills: Half-assed

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Half-assed

James Denselow's "Egypt's Shockwaves Hit Iraq" has trolled over from the Guardian to the Huffington Post and aren't we all lucky for it? Well, actually, of course no.

You are an unruly, translucent
A dirty windshield with a shifting view
So many cunning running landscapes
For my dented door to open into

I just wanna tune out all the billboards
Weld myself a mental shield
I just wanna put down all the pressures
And feel how I really feel

Just show me a moment that is mine
Its beauty blinding and unsurpassed
Make me forget every moment that went by
And left me so half-hearted
'Cuz I felt it so half-assed

-- "Half-Assed," written by Ani DiFranco, first appears on her *Repriecve* album. [corrected]

Reading is fundamental but that escapes Denselow. Let's deal with all the Denselows and then let's come back to little Jamie who needs a real editor to save him from so many errors -- some of which we may or may not point out.

Denselow, you've ignored Iraq for too long. You can't come traipsing back and in and pretend like you know what's going on when you so obviously do not. You don't have a clue what you're talking about but you do have a novelty: Egypt.

And you're so damn convinced that because you've spent the last weeks obsessed, everyone else has as well. Or maybe you're needing a justification for the weeks you spent obsessing? Or maybe it's that the press loves their narratives? Or maybe it's all three.

Iraq is not Egypt. Protests were taking place before Egypt's unrest that (finally) caught the media attention. Thomas E. Ricks' online husband Joel Wing wrote a ridiculous post yesterday and we left it alone only because I didn't want to give Wingy a link. I'm so tired of these people who do not know what is going on Iraq. Joel Wingy apparently doesn't read any language but English which is why his 'sources' were all Western or Western translations. And based on four or five sources he threw together from the last two or so weeks, he just knew he was an insta-expert on what's going on Iraq. Something the smartest anyone can say is, "I don't know."

Denselow and Wing don't grasp a damn thing because they haven't put in the time required. Egypt's been of very little influence in Iraq.

The unrest, and you can trace the public sentiment if you were paying attention, in Iraq takes a new twist in November. There's a resignation on the part of many when backdoor deals allow Nouri to become prime minister-designate and then prime minister. You've already had Sahwa battling with Nouri (for jobs and payment) for sometime. You've got a country which appears -- based upon voting (even Nouri had to try to run as something other than a secularist) -- to want to unite to some degree. That's what was beyond Iraqiya's win.

Some of Nouri's supporters -- and this was clear in Arab media -- during the long drawn out process began to have second thoughts as they saw his resistance to change and his refusal to put Iraq's interests ahead of his own. This was a thread -- a sub-thread, granted -- developing in Iraq.

The Kurds backed Nouri on his falsification. He was moved from prime minister-designate to prime minister. This received harsh criticism outside English-language media. You need to put all these negatives together. They're just out they're floating.

And then events start hardening feelings. The waves of bombings that have been going on in Iraq for weeks now -- which Joel Wing and James Denselow appear unaware of -- go to the lack of security. Which goes back to those earlier feelings. Nouri never named a Minister of Interior, a Minister of National Security or a Minister of Defense. He grabbed all three of those positions himself. These are Iraq's security positions. And Iraq is suffering a wave of bombings, one after the other. The most obvious answer to those bombings? "If we had a Minister of Defense, we'd be secure!" Not only is the post not being filled a reflection on Nouri, his 'temporary' possession of it only adds to that.

Wing and Denselow want to credit Egypt. It's not Egypt.

It's Ned Parker. It's Human Rights Watch. It's Amnesty International.

All three (in the order listed) have been covering Nouri's secret prisons run by his forces. And although that's just a blip to a disinterested west, Iraqis remember secret prisons before the war, remember them throughout Nouri's reign and Nouri's claim in 2010 that they were no more. Many of the demonstrations -- especially the ones featuring attorneys in three cities but also the spot where the demonstrations kicked off and where demonstrators were attacked by police (Wingy and Denselow can't name that protest for you) -- have included demands for families to see the prisoners and for attorneys to see them and for speedy trials.

There was an uneasy feeling throughout the long political stalemate as the sitting prime minister (Nouri) was revealed to have only his interests at heart. Even some of his supporters picked up on that but dismissed it as untrue, unfounded. It was a nagging thought that didn't go away, however, and the last four months have reinforced those nagging thoughts. As Nouri lives high on the hog (and his family is the talk of Iraq -- despite not living there), they have no jobs, they have no basic services and the ration card system is a joke. All of these conditions were present in September. The big difference is that the long political stalemate did not show Nouri in a good light and events since have further tarnished the glow.

Let's go to Jamie, specifically. Remember last year when he was telling us about how no one was paying attention to Iraq but thank goodness for McClatchy because of their daily reports of violence which -- And we had to step in and explain that it had been months since McClatchy filed a daily violence report? (True again, today, by the way. They haven't filed one since December.) Whatever it is about Jamie and his obsession with McClatchy, it does not bode well for his readers.

You can't show up late and pretend you know what you're talking about. This isn't grad school and no one wants to hear you b.s. your way through a topic you've half-assed. That goes to Jack Healy (New York Times) who's pimping a narrative and confused as to who has been protesting as well and to Ben Lando, Munaf Ammar and Ali Nabhan (Wall St. Journal) who also desire to push a narrative. It really shouldn't be surprising that the MSM which never saw the uprising in Egypt until it fully erupted can't convey reality in Iraq either.

You are an unruly, translucent
A dirty windshield with a shifting view
So many cunning running landscapes
For my dented door to open into

I just wanna tune out all the billboards
Weld myself a mental shield
I just wanna put down all the pressures
And feel how I really feel

Just show me a moment that is mine
Its beauty blinding and unsurpassed
Make me forget every moment that went by
And left me so half-hearted
'Cuz I felt it so half-assed

The following community sites -- plus Military Families Speak Out and Jane Fonda -- updated last night and today: