Scrapbook to the converted.

[Shannon Manning]

Hey! Cool! I can use this journal to post links to stories I found interesting without opening the door to talkradio style flaming.

The NYT Sunday had a story about increasing public awareness to the massive civilian deaths in Afganistan and Pentagon errors. Other international estimates that put the civilian death toll at over 5000 back in December.

In an age of eavesdropping warplanes and satellite-guided bombs, the Pentagon finds itself accused of sometimes relying on faulty intelligence in Afghanistan, leading to an unnecessary toll of civilian deaths.

Scrutiny has grown since a predawn raid on Jan. 24, when U.S. commandos killed at least 15 men presumed to be Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters. Officials in the interim Afghan government have since joined grieving survivors in calling the attack a tragic mistake, with some surmising the Americans were duped with false information by a scheming local warlord.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tm...war__civilian_deaths_in_afghanistan&printer=1


Here is a really great and touching article written by Howard Zinn in the Nation a few weeks ago which puts a human face on the victims of collateral damage:

Every day for several months, the New York Times did what should always be done when a tragedy is summed up in a statistic: It gave us miniature portraits of the human beings who died on September 11--their names, photos, glimmers of their personalities, their idiosyncrasies, how friends and loved ones remember them.....

I was deeply moved, reading those intimate sketches--"A Poet of Bensonhurst...A Friend, A Sister...Someone to Lean On...Laughter, Win or Lose..." I thought: Those who celebrated the grisly deaths of the people in the twin towers and the Pentagon as a blow to symbols of American dominance in the world--what if, instead of symbols, they could see, up close, the faces of those who lost their lives? I wonder if they would have second thoughts, second feelings.

Then it occurred to me: What if all those Americans who declare their support for Bush's "war on terrorism" could see, instead of those elusive symbols--Osama bin Laden, Al Qaeda--the real human beings who have died under our bombs? I do believe they would have second thoughts. ....

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20020211&s=zinn

No bastion of liberalism, here's today's article from the Washington Post.

Villagers Released by American Troops Say They Were Beaten, Kept in 'Cage'
URUZGAN, Afghanistan, Feb. 10 -- Afghan villagers who were misidentified by U.S. military forces as al Qaeda and Taliban fighters said they were beaten and kicked by their captors and imprisoned in what they described as a wooden-barred "cage" at a U.S. base in Kandahar.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55290-2002Feb10.html

 

[Shannon Manning]

Democracy drowning

A thoughtful article from Bill Moyers (swoon) that I found very helpful after the attacks. A call to arms for more democracy.

November 19, 2001

Which America Will We Be Now?
by Bill Moyers

For the past several years I've been taking every possible opportunity to talk about the soul of democracy. "Something is deeply wrong with politics today," I told anyone who would listen. And I wasn't referring to the partisan mudslinging, the negative TV ads, the excessive polling or the empty campaigns. I was talking about something fundamental, something troubling at the core of politics. The soul of democracy--the essence of the word itself--is government of, by and for the people. And the soul of democracy has been dying, drowning in a rising tide of big money contributed by a narrow, unrepresentative elite that has betrayed the faith of citizens in self-government.

But what's happened since the September 11 attacks would seem to put the lie to my fears. Americans have rallied together in a way that I cannot remember since World War II. This catastrophe has reminded us of a basic truth at the heart of our democracy: No matter our wealth or status or faith, we are all equal before the law, in the voting booth and when death rains down from the sky.

We have also been reminded that despite years of scandals and political corruption, despite the stream of stories of personal greed and pirates in Gucci scamming the Treasury, despite the retreat from the public sphere and the turn toward private privilege, despite squalor for the poor and gated communities for the rich, the great mass of Americans have not yet given up on the idea of "We, the People." And they have refused to accept the notion, promoted so diligently by our friends at the Heritage Foundation, that government should be shrunk to a size where, as Grover Norquist has put it, they can drown it in a bathtub.

Full article: http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20011119&s=moyers

 

[Shannon Manning]

Jimmy Carter in Wash Post

The Troubling New Face of America
By Jimmy Carter
Thursday, September 5, 2002; Page A31

Fundamental changes are taking place in the historical policies of the United States with regard to human rights, our role in the community of nations and the Middle East peace process -- largely without definitive debates (except, at times, within the administration). Some new approaches have understandably evolved from quick and well-advised reactions by President Bush to the tragedy of Sept. 11, but others seem to be developing from a core group of conservatives who are trying to realize long-pent-up ambitions under the cover of the proclaimed war against terrorism.

Full article:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A38441-2002Sep4.html