Isaiah's latest The World Today Just Nuts "Your Server, Barack." Barack greets you, "Welcome to Operative Garden -- May I interest you in some endless spying or, my personal favorite, never-ending excuses." In the background, Natasha advises, "Ask about our appetizers." Isaiah archives his comics at The World Today Just Nuts.
Laura Flanders GritTV did a story on Iraq. Below's an excerpt of Laura's interview with Iraqi-American singer-songwriter Stephen Said.
Laura Flanders: You were there for the tenth anniversary of the, uh, the invasion and I want you to talk about that moment a little bit because the news from here, when we can get any, is very, very grim. So even though, yeah, you bring back the story of love can conquer, it's hard to see the future in Iraq right now.
Stephen Said: Yeah, I mean, of course, again, that's why I think we need to elevate those voices because it's certainly the majority that wants peace and you know everybody that I'm met -- I can't tell you how many people volunteered a couple things to me. One, like nobody's ever come here to work with us and tell our story. People were telling me over and over and over again, there always just telling what's happened to us. You know? And, uhm, also they all said, 'Look, before 2003, before this war, nobody knew who was Sunni and Shia.' And many of them even said that they didn't know, growing up, whether they were Sunni or Shia. Laura Flanders: But now you have the majority Shia, or rather, the majority Shi'ite against the Sunni minority. Uhm, the Sunnis saying that they feel kind of edged out of power since the invasion and the ouster of Saddam Hussein and what looks like a civil war brewing again -- as it was five years ago.
Stephen Said: Yeah definitely. When you say that we have the worst violence in five years, that's what's happening -- that's -- It's no secret that most foreign policy analysts already refer to Iraq as a failed state now. But that's not the case, obviously, for the youth. I mean, I went there and I met all of these people who were creating -- you know who founded Ted-Ex Baghdad, who founded Iraqi Culture Day to promote culture to unify this-this the-the people again. To -- All these amazing groups. And they are the most resilient, optimistic people I've ever met. I cannot imagine arriving any place on earth -- even in my own town here in New York City -- and trying to get people to unabashedly try to do something so brazen as to call for a global movement for change. And they all just came on board.
In the days when she carved out six hours of live radio on Air America (The Laura Flanders Show), Laura's Iraq coverage made clear that she knew the Sunni and Shia divide was something the US (further) imposed -- it was the first question Americans asked Iraqis -- which were they?
I say "(further) imposed" because the reality that many didn't want to face and that Stephen doesn't seem to get is that an oppressed people (the Shi'ites) do not forget. The Israeli government was built around fighting back against oppression because of what was done to the Jews. The Israeli government had crossed over into oppressing others. That often happens with oppressed people. Sometimes, they can move beyond it, they can use an awful experience to bring about peace between groups. (Though South Africa has many problems, it appears to be one where the oppressed people have been able to create an equal society.)
There is no way in the world that, under years of Saddam Hussein, with many Shi'ites having to join the Ba'ath Party, that your average Shi'ite was unaware that the system was rigged against them.
There's no question that the US encouraged Iraqis to see themselves in an either-or grouping. But let's get real that most Shi'ites knew they were discriminated against on the basis of being Shia.
That's not to say Stephen's story shared is inaccurate.
I believe him.
But, as an artist, I also know artists. Let's be really clear, most don't know a damn thing about politics. We know how to echo. We may echo the talking points of the Democratic Party or MSNBC or CGPSF (that's a person -- first two initials for those wanting to guess are "Closted Gay") (or Pajama Media or whatever on the right) but most of us do not put in the time necessary. I like Alec Baldwin, he's very smart. In the 90s, he put in the time. I have no use for what he says today (politically) because he doesn't put in the time. That's true of a lot of artists who just pay attention enough to have their own beliefs confirmed and then rush back to another topic.
I put in the time on Iraq. I can speak at length about that. After that? Did I sit through hearings on a topic? If I did (spying, the IRS' targeting, etc), I can speak on those topics. Not in the same manner as Iraq.
I'm at home for most of this month and speaking locally and that allows me to catch up with a lot of people. This includes many caring people, many vote each election and feel it's their duty to vote. This includes many people who are specialists on one or more areas of public concern (the environment, human rights, etc.). And I've heard over and over from both of those two groups this month, "You're still speaking/writing about Iraq? But all that's over."
They have no idea, for example, that last fall Barack sent a unit of US troops back into Iraq. Why would they? Only Tim Arango's ever reported on that -- one story in the New York Times. They have no idea that a Memo of Understanding between Iraq and the US was signed in December (see the December 10th and December 11th Iraq snapshots) and that it allows for joint-patrols (US and Iraqi) in Iraq. The memo was completely ignored.
Again, they're not bad people. When they fill me in on, for example, fracking, they have a lot to catch me up on because that's not an area I can follow every day. There are many other issues as well that I have to be caught up on.
Iraqi artists are the same as artists anywhere else.
And those, at this point in their lives and their country's history, willing to work with an Iraqi-American are ready to put certain things behind them.
It's equally true that Iraqi artists have made major protest contributions in the last three years and Stephen apparently didn't encounter any of those. Novelists and painters, singers and actors, playwrights and directors all took part in the 2011 protests and a number have taken place in the ongoing protests.
Stephen Said is giving a voice to a segment of artists and they deserve to be heard and their voices are valid. But from his description, I'm picturing the artist retracting -- due to a need to focus on the art or due to a need to shut out the pain.
That's a group of artists in any community, in any country.
That is not, however, the entire artistic community and it is a mistake to assume otherwise.
I believe very strongly in art and I especially believe in the power of music. I have no doubt that Stephen Said and the Iraqis who worked on the project have planted important seeds which will produce a positive effect.
But a song, no matter how great, is not going to pave over the problems multiplying in Iraq today because Ayad Allawi should be prime minister but the White House demanded Nouri get a second term and so, since the votes weren't there, they created the contract known as The Erbil Agreement -- a contract that created a power-sharing government in exchange for Nouri getting a second term as prime minister -- and, despite swearing they would back it, the White House then looked the other way when Nouri used it for his second term but failed to honor the contractual promises he made to the other political blocs. No song is going to erase mass arrests. No song is going to erase arresting family members when you can't find your 'terrorism' suspect and those family members rotting in prison for years.
No song erases that.
I'm glad Stephen's sharing his story and believe it's an important one -- but he would do well to acknowledge that he worked with a select group and not the entire Iraqi artistic community so he cannot, therefore, speak for the entire community.
The work he did was important and is important. And his desire to see all Iraqi artists as the warm and wonderful ones he met is a gracious move. But to pretend that, for example, the youth do not have problems -- serious ones -- with the government is not realistic. The youth have been most active in the protests of 2010 and of today.
You can see the full interview -- and other episodes of Grit TV -- by visiting the program's website. And Stephen Said's website is back up and you can learn more about him by visiting that.
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.
The latest from Third went up earlier this edition:
SECRETARY KERRY: Well,
good morning, everyone, and welcome. We’re very, very happy to welcome
Foreign Minister Zebari and Ambassador Faily from Iraq, and the rest of
the Iraqi delegation who we just met with and will be coming in here for
a meeting following our opening comments. We’ve just had a very good
bilateral meeting in which we discussed the challenges that Iraq faces,
the importance of Iraq and its relationship with the United States, and
we are going to continue those discussions this morning in the Joint
Coordination Committee. I want to start just by noting that since the
time that this committee met last September, Iraq has taken a number of
noteworthy diplomatic strides. I visited Iraq last March, and at that
time, there was great division. Parties within Iraq were not talking to
each other; there’d been a two-year hiatus in meetings. Since then, a
host of progress has been made. First of all, Iraq has settled a number
of difficult issues with Kuwait stemming from the 1991 Gulf War. Iraq
has dramatically improved relations with Jordan. It has improved its
relations with Turkey. In addition, it has also begun to stabilize
broader relationships in the region, and we welcome Foreign Minister
Zebari’s plan to meet with Foreign Minister Davutoglu of Turkey in the
very near future in order to discuss issues of mutual interest. We
also welcome the fact that they have renewed relations with Kuwait and
are currently paying very serious amounts of money as a matter of
settling the claims from 1991. So there are significant things that are
being achieved. We also welcome the internal political process that Iraq
has made over the last months. But they – nobody should make any
mistake, and we haven’t this morning. We know there are very significant
challenges that still remain, and we must face them together. Iraq
sits at the intersection of regional currents of increasingly turbulent,
violent, and unpredictable actions. Sunni and Shia extremists on both
sides of the sectarian divide throughout the region have an ability to
be able to threaten Iraq’s stability if they’re not checked. And
al-Qaida, as we have seen, has launched a horrific series of assaults on
innocent Iraqis, even taking credit for the deplorable bombings this
past weekend that targeted families that were celebrating the Eid
holiday. And this al-Qaida network, we know, stretches well beyond
Iraq’s borders. With many al-Qaida leaders now operating in Syria, we
all need to accelerate our work in order to set the conditions for a
diplomatic settlement to the Syrian crisis. Iraq was in Geneva at the
first meeting of Geneva, and the Foreign Minister himself made
significant contributions to that process. I know that Iraqis support
the vision of a stable and peaceful Syria, and we look forward to
discussing how we can work to make that a reality. We hope also to
discuss this morning the issue of weapons flowing from the Syrian
conflict into Iraq for use against Iraqis or weapons flowing through
Iraq and going into Syria. It’s a two-way street and it’s a dangerous
street. There has been some progress in this area since my visit to Iraq
in March, but Foreign Minister Zardari – Zebari agrees there is very
significant progress yet to be made. So this morning, we will discuss
the ongoing efforts of Iran and Hezbollah that are trying to fuel the
dangerous conflict in the region from the other side. And we agreed that
we cannot allow them to play on the sectarian divides that recruit
young Iraqis to go fight in a foreign war, the same way that we cannot
allow al-Qaida and other extremists to recruit young men from Iraq and
elsewhere to join into their twisted version of jihad. So we are
committed to helping Iraq to withstand these pressures and to bolster
the moderate forces throughout the region. Finally, I want to
reiterate: Everyone at this table and all of the people who will share
in this discussion this morning share a determination to succeed in
overcoming the challenges that we face today despite their seriousness.
The United States remains very committed to working together with the
Iraqi Government to address regional challenges, and we welcome the
steps that have been taken by the Iraqis to build a strong, democratic,
and inclusive state. The Foreign Minister agrees with me that there is
much that yet can be done internally in Iraq in order to meet some of
those internal political challenges, and that progress cannot be made on
security issues alone. There needs to be progress within Iraq on
political issues, on economic issues, as well as on the larger
constitutional issues that have been outstanding for too long. The
Foreign Minister agrees that these are challenges we need to beat
together. Our common roadmap in this endeavor is the Strategic
Framework Agreement, and that is what has brought us here today. So with
this said, I again welcome the Iraqi delegation. We look forward to
having a very constructive and successful conversation over the course
of the morning and the day. Thank you, Mr. Foreign Minister, and welcome. FOREIGN MINISTER ZEBARI:
Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Secretary. I appreciate very much what you
have said. And we are here with our delegation, in fact, to reaffirm our
commitment to our Strategic Framework Agreement with you, also to start
meeting on the Joint Coordination Committee on political and diplomatic
relations, which is a subcommittee of this SFA. We have together
endured many challenges together, Mr. Secretary, and our mutual
relationship have continued engagement of the United States. We’ve
always emphasized the importance, the significance, of continued U.S.
engagement, which is critical for the success of Iraq and the Iraqi
people on our ongoing transformation to a stable, inclusive, democratic,
and prosperous country in the heart of the Middle East. In recent
months, as we have seen – and in recent days, in fact – we have seen the
new violence or terrorist attacks by al-Qaida more frequently, and it
has cost many, many lives. But despite all these attacks, the Iraqi
people have not succumbed, in fact, to these atrocities, and I’m here to
inform you and the Administration that Iraq is not heading – is not
crashing, and it’s not heading to civil or sectarian war. There is a
clear determination by the Iraqi leadership that really we’ve been there
before in 2007, 2008, we are not going to go there again, and a great
deal of self-respect. The key message here: We’ve come here to seek
your help and support and security cooperation with the Iraqi
Government, and in fact, in counterterrorism and to have the capacity
building for our security forces to stand up to face to this increasing
threat from the nexus of al-Qaida and Al-Nusrah Front, as a spillover
coming over from Syria, let’s say, into Iraq. And we’ve worked before on
these issues. We look forward to your continued support. Al-Qaida is
not a local threat; it’s a global threat, as we’ve seen by the recent
closures of so many of your diplomatic missions in the region and in
North Africa. Mr. Secretary, I would like to confirm that really Iraq
is having an independent and neutral position vis-a-vis the Syrian
crisis, and we have said all along we believe that a political solution
is the most viable way forward for Syria. We kept our distance on both
sides of the conflict, and Iraq has not provided arms, money, or oil to
the Syrian regimes. We have kept equidistant with the opposition and
with the regime in order to play a helpful role, but our position is
difficult. We’ve taken your positions, your views on the overfly,
definitely taken some steps but we will do more to make sure that Iraq
is independent of its actions and there’s no influence whatsoever here
and there. No volunteers are going – no Iraqi volunteers are going to
Syria with the consent of the Iraqi Government at all. I mean, any
volunteers who are going may be encouraged by some militias, by some
people who want to fuel the conflict and the violence. But believe me,
this is not the government policy as such, and we live in a region that
we cannot disassociate from what is going on in Syria. And we’ve seen
the terrible event and atrocities that happened yesterday in Egypt. We
have ongoing demonstrations in cities in many parts of Iraq, and really
they have been going on for the last eight months, and neither the
government or even the demonstrators have reached such a level of
violence. So once again, we look forward to our meeting with you and
your teams. And Mr. Secretary, I want to say that Iraq is a reliable and
dependable ally and partner to the United States. Thank you.
SECRETARY KERRY:
Thank you. Thank you very much, Hoshyar, and we look forward to working
with you on this, and we’ll work through these issues this morning -- FOREIGN MINISTER ZEBARI: Thank you, sir. SECRETARY KERRY: -- and obviously for some time to come. FOREIGN MINISTER ZEBARI: Thank you. SECRETARY KERRY: Thank you, sir.
