The Common Ills

Sunday, September 30, 2012

Hejira

As the month of September winds down, Mohammed Tawfeeq (CNN) notes Iraq witnesses its second deadliest day of the month (September 9th was the deadliest day). BBC (link is text and video) offers, "Civilians were among those killed and injured in the attacks around the capital, but the aim of the attackers seems to have been to kill as many security personnel as possible, wherever they could reach them, says the BBC's Rami Ruhayem in Baghdad." Jamal Hashim (Xinhua) counts 34 dead and 85 injured while explaining, "In and near the Iraqi capital, eight car bomb explosions and gunfire attacks killed up to 25 people and wounded 59 others, according to the police reports." Kareem Raheem, Suadad al-Salhy and Sophie Hares (Reuters) adds, "Two more policemen were killed when a car bomb went off in the town of Balad Ruz, 90 km (55 miles) northeast of Baghdad, and bomb planted in a parked car in al Qaeda stronghold Mosul killed a civilian."

Most reports float al Qaeda in Iraq as the culprit. The Irish Examiner quotes MP Hakim al-Zamili who sits on the Security and Defense Committee stating, "Al-Qaida leaders have no intention of leaving this country or letting Iraqis live in peace. Thus, we should expect more attacks in the near future. The situation in Iraq is still unstable ... and repetition of such attacks shows that our security forces are still unqualified to deal with the terrorists." If the series of assaults were part of the Islamic State of Iraq's Breaking The Walls campaign, they will no doubt claim credit in the next few days. July 22nd, the Islamic State of Iraq released an audio recording announcing a new campaign of violence entitled Breaking The Walls which would include prison breaks and killing "judges and investigators and their guards." (They also threatened to attack America on US soil.) They are only one group in Iraq resorting to violence. On the continued violence, Mohammed Tawfeeq offers this framework, "The violence comes just days after dozens of prisoners broke out of a jail in the northern Iraqi city of Tikrit. Among those who got out Thursday were several al Qaeda members on death row, according to authorities. The jailbreak occurred when armed men detonated two car bombs at the gates of Tasfirat jail. The explosions triggered clashes with security forces."

The Associated Press observes, "The blasts brought September's death toll from sectarian violence to nearly 200 people -- a grim, above-average monthly total for the period since U.S. troops left last year. The steady pace of attacks has worked to undermine confidence in the government." AFP's tally for the month is 253 killed. Counting through Saturday, Iraq Body Count tabulates 320 deaths in September.

The continued violence is probably among the reasons Nouri is negotiating with the White House to bring large amounts of US troops back into Iraq. (A small number never left.) And the threat that he could be overthrown is probably another reason. Baghdad was under crackdown recently -- obviously not today -- after informers called security forces last weekend to inform them there were multiple bombs already set up in Baghdad.

I'm traveling in some vehicle
I'm sitting in some cafe
A defector from the petty wars
That shell shock love away
-- "Hejira," written by Joni Mitchell, first appears on her album of the same name

The number of US service members the Dept of Defense states died in the Iraq War is [PDF format warning] 4488.

New content at Third:

Isaiah's latest The World Today Just Nuts "The 2,000 Mark" went up this morning. Kat's "Kat's Korner: Heart Walkin' Good" went up this afternoon. The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.

iraq
i hate the war
the ballet

Kat's Korner: Heart Walkin' Good

Kat: In the fall of 2010, Heart released their glorious Red Velvet Car and I thought it was incredible and assumed it was a nice footnote to their career. Was I ever wrong.

Not because sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson are back out on tour, though they are (NYC Wednesday, for example), and not because their new album, Fanatic, drops Tuesday but because, damn, Fanatic.

It blows you away. Red Velvet Car stands with the best of Heart albums but Fanatic is something altogether different. It blows Dreamboat Annie, Little Queen, etc. off the map. What group can make the claim that, decades after they started recording, they release the album that blows all the rest away?

And we're talking about rock classics. Those first four albums, for example, Dreamboat Annie, Little Queen, Dog & Butterfly and The Magazine, are rock staples. And though they're rightly considered classics now, they were huge rock albums in real time, and, in real time, they were competing for attention with the likes of Led Zeppelin's Physical Graffiti, Presence and In Through the Out Door. Against Zeppelin and other of rock's heavy hitters, Heart held their own. So these were not minor albums.

Leave it to Heart to surprise us all with something new that blows away their canon.

"59 Crunch" finds Ann and Nancy trading lines and throwing down hard. The whole album is basically a throw down, even in the softer moments. "Million Miles" throbs and glistens while also making a nod to the Hedy West classic "500 Miles." The sonic landscape that is "Mashalla" is sculpted in such a way that it always seems about to drop you but instead carries you along. And can anyone hold out "remain" like Ann or give it such depth and angst?

We've been together far beyond death
Stay by my side in darkness, night and day
Stay with me, remain, remain, remain.

"Dear Old America" -- dealing with PTSD and other issues -- reminds that social commentary is at its best when it's a part of a song and not the whole purpose (Ani DiFranco, take note). "No one knows what this is all about now," Ann observes in this song that's actually working on several levels though I fear the most literal minded will only grasp the nod to today's victims of PTSD and to Ann and Nancy's father. "Dear Old America" and "Fanatic" especially remind that Heart is a rock band -- not a singer fronting a pick up group for a tour or two.

"Fanatic" is an amazing track on an album full of them. When Ann sings about being a fool for love, the music rumbles in a way that reminds you rock is always at its best when exploring notions like freedom and power. And it's these heavy tracks that make you remember why rock ever mattered to you in the first place.

And it's these heavy tracks that make the sweet "Rock Deep (Vancouver)" and "Walkin' Good" all the more lovely. On the latter, when Ann comes in on the chorus and when Sarah McLachlan joins the sisters, it's musical nirvana. In fact, were I given a wish from some magic lamp and told I could make one change to this album, the only thing I'd do would be take this track from number three and make it the album closer. That's my only carp for Fanatic, the greatest Heart album of all time. At least until they next hit the studio. In other words, I've now heard the best album of 2012 and it's Fanatic.

Anyway, I'm okay
Day into night and night into day
Gone so far away from my home
Take the high road and damn the low