Mid Day Open Thread
Crooks and Liars celebrates the return to the blogosphere of Baghdad Burning. Much love and good wishes to Riverbend and family.
As we crossed the border and saw the last of the Iraqi flags, the tears began again. The car was silent except for the prattling of the driver who was telling us stories of escapades he had while crossing the border. I sneaked a look at my mother sitting beside me and her tears were flowing as well. There was simply nothing to say as we left Iraq. I wanted to sob, but I didn’t want to seem like a baby. I didn’t want the driver to think I was ungrateful for the chance to leave what had become a hellish place over the last four and a half years.
The Syrian border was almost equally packed, but the environment was more relaxed. People were getting out of their cars and stretching. Some of them recognized each other and waved or shared woeful stories or comments through the windows of the cars. Most importantly, we were all equal. Sunnis and Shia, Arabs and Kurds… we were all equal in front of the Syrian border personnel.
We were all refugees- rich or poor. And refugees all look the same- there’s a unique expression you’ll find on their faces- relief, mixed with sorrow, tinged with apprehension. The faces almost all look the same.
The first minutes after passing the border were overwhelming. Overwhelming relief and overwhelming sadness… How is it that only a stretch of several kilometers and maybe twenty minutes, so firmly segregates life from death?
Freedom?
Wow. That was a great shout out to a uniquely situated blogger.
Welcome back and best to you and your family, and thanks for sharing your experiences with us - most of us have never, and hopefully will never know the hell you and your country have been through. I still hope for a better future for Iraq, and for the States, for all of us.
When Bush was in Australia, protesters were chanting "Howard, Bush, USA, how many kids did you kill today?" A variation of that could be heard when the big anti-war march takes place this month in Washington D.C., by having protesters chant "Cheney, Bush, USA, how many kids did you kill today?" But if that were to take place, would the mainstream media do its job by reporting it in the newspapers and showing the protesters saying this on television, where most people get their news?
A St. Pete FL Republican city councilman, Conservative Republican and Friend of Bush Crony Mel Sembler killed his sorry ass yesterday after being exposed as a child abuser.
http://www.tampabays10.com/news/specials/popular/article.aspx?s=popular&...
His buddy Mel Sembler has his own sadistic sordid history:
They [stories compiled by Wes Fager] are stories of suicides and attempted suicides, rapes, forced abortions, molestations, physical abuse, lawsuits, court testimonies, and extensive documentation of profound psychological abuse at Straight chapters all over the country."
http://www.thestraights.com/index.htm
He is currently backing the Bush Lovers org "Freedom’s Watch" which is running pro war propaganda on TV.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0807/5479.html
Riverbend,
May your god be with you as you transition to the future. I sincerely hope that you may one day be able to return to your home.
I apologize most humbly for the people in my government, and for the extraordinary amount of damage that they have done to your wonderful country and to your countrymen. I hope that one day, they receive what they deserve for their crimes against you and your country.
Please remember that it was not the will of the majority of American people to do this to you. The leaders of my country - cheney, bush, and the others, have also gravely damaged the US by their actions, driven by greed and religious ideology. As such, they are traitors to The Constitution that has guided the US for over 200 years, and deserve nothing less than the standard punishment for such crimes.
switchgrass @ 1:
Freedom's just another word for "nothing left to lose".
Bush never sees those protests, they are ususally staged a mile or so away from him, notice he usually goes to military establishments to make speeches. Bush may be shielded from knowing that he has many critics.
The "MSM" wants to catch such instances but Bush is very protected.
I think it the ugliness that has been delayed is about to be exposed, if Bush and cons get their way it may trigger several riots demanding a new president.
Yes, the surge is just doing great - General Betray US told us so.
Baghdad Burning said the military never interfered with civil disputes – instead our military just sits by and watches civial war - doing nothing. I"m certain our military have been told not to get involved in the neighborhood disputes – no matter how bloody – this war is NOT about stabilizing Iraq – it’s about our vital interest in the region – oil.
If were not for lying – Bush and his bootlicks Generals wouldn’t have anything at all to say. Obvious - there is NOTHING stable about Baghdad - Riverbend had to leave.
I looking forward to Riverbend telling us exactly HOW Bush tried to stabilize anything other then the oil pipelines leading out of Iraq.
I can honestly say that I have thought of her and her family every day since I first found her blog long ago. I can't even imagine what they have been through. I hope the day comes when they can go back home to find everything okay, including her remaining family members. I also hope some day they can forgive our country for the hell we have put them through. But if they can't, I surely understand.
It's a relief to have escaped to an Islamic dictatorship? What's wrong with this picture?
btw, I just saw No End In Sight at the theatre last night. Go see it if you haven't already, and tell everybody you know to do the same. The Bushies are peeing their pants over this film, and they should.
Dennis and Elizabeth Kucinich were there this last weekend. I hope some more light will be shone on the tragedy that is occuring to the people of Iraq. Forget about all of the political and military and economic issues...what of the people?
We must stop the war immediately and stand up to the repubs and the dis-loyal dems.
We have a right to self-defense and we must speak out.
Peace.
I am so glad Riverbend is safe. I've been keeping an eye on Baghdad Burning for quite some time, and was distraught at the sudden ceasing of posting with no updates. I feared she was one of the countless victims of this horrific war of aggression. Thankfully, she is alright, and we may again be fortunate enough to see that region of the world through her unique eyes.
BAGHDAD BURNING...OUR THROATS
In the shading of your persistent speechless death
We cannot help be unsettled by your passion.
Now, just as the world boils, increased in suffering
Do we begin to sense brittle-boned-humanity.
A drama worth its ink, recoiled, unfolds inside us,
Leaping in our throats, coursing through our veins,
Diving deep, like a jilted lover’s plea, it swims through.
Wounded and yelping it tosses inside our existence
Telling us things we’d never tell ourselves...
The drama says, bring forth your lies
For they'll not penetrate truth.
Bring forth thy warmongering spirit
For it shall not dance.
It will flounder here... dreadfully.
Treading upon the boards, characterized as horrific,
Slumping; a dreadful creature, writhing, sweating
`neath the canopy of light.
The drama says,
Look! Look!
There you are, lumbering in final breath!
You coward!
You defiled wretch!
Bedraggled death!
Your countenance now but a shadow
As the lights begin to fade.
You may come cloaked in dream
But you’ve been seen
And we’ve felt your sodden breath upon our soul
From a city where no-one knows
If they will see another day.
(Welcome back my friend...thepoetryman)
When will this endless bloodletting be taken over by rational people? People like Dicker, err uh, Tucker Carlsen won't address the issues like this that Kucinich brings up. The right is so obsessed with keeping these countries at arm's length. What's going on in Syria is a tragedy -- and shows how pathetically two faced our leaders are. We've created a crisis far worse than ever existed before. The answer is always, "What, are you a Saddam lover?" I believe the republican party will go down in history as the most manipulative political party the world has ever seen.
Heraldblog @ 11:
That so called Islamic dictatorship is trying to deal with the catastrophe created by the neocons and their "democratically elected" puppet government. If that's a dictatorship, then long may they survive. Capitalist imperialism is the greatest threat to world peace in the history of organized societies.
So glad to hear that Riverbend is alive. It's that simple. They are either dead, or leaving.
George Bush and his handlers are a war criminals. I hope he never feels safe for the rest of his life.
But we got the oil.
Words can't express how great River is
Get bin Ladin? Now there's an idea!
You go Harry Reid. That we are still stuck on the frops' incredibly harmful frolic and detour in Iraq is an outrage. With the benefit of the passage of time and distance from the Fox Republican noise machine and the dispassionate analysis of historians, America over the upcoming decades will realize that Iraq was just another Vietnam. And that we were wasting our blood, money and time there when we should have been using them in the Afghanistan/Pakistan region to get rid of bin Ladin and the al Qaeda that actually threatens America and much of the rest of the world at home.
http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a79NQxBSDh4s
Open Thread Comment : When the Taliban ran Afghanistan the poppy crops were almost non-existant. Now that Bush is running the show, they are once again producing at record levels. Great googly-moogly, George isn't a complete failure after all. A business he has actualy made more profitable....
An interesting tidbit for y'all:
Search Google for "Fuck Nixon" turns up 447 hits.
Search Google for "Fuck Carter" turns up 504 hits.
Search Google for "Fuck Reagan" turns up 1330 hits.
Search Google for "Fuck Clinton" turns up 2340 hits.
... and search Google for "Fuck Bush"?
589,000 hits.
Worst. President. Ever.
booshs legacy...........................how people can still stand with him is unbelievable.....what is it....29-30 %.......it's one of two things....They actually believe him still...or it's all about the hatred they have for Dems..........somewhere in there is the truth.
Is Cheney behind the nuclear missile transfer http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_michael__070907_was_a_covert_att...?
Or maybe a false flag. I don't put anything past them.
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_michael__070907_was_a_covert_att...
Poignant stuff. I have bookmarked your site. Your story will not go unheard. There are good people aware.
Ron @ 22:
I'd like to know what Cheney did while he was president. He was the most powerful man in the world for part of a day. I doubt he sat around wondering if he had been a good father. I would think he'd be signing all kinds of top secret National Security, or Energy Task Force memorandums, or worse. Any thoughts? (They can mysteriously appear later, President approved, and "legal", and Bush can feign ignorance. Or, wait a minute... Bush can speak.)
Search Google for “Fuck Warren G. Harding” turns up 2 hits.
I hope Riverbend and her family have somewhere to stay while in Syria. Kucinich says there is a sea of refugees living outside of Damascus. I like the tradition of return that she describes. When you live in an arid climate, water is life. You must return to the water if you are to survive.
If the U.S. has to put up with much more of what is happening over the last several years, I can us lots of people from the U.S. having the same experiences at the Canadian border.
Like countless others, I have been reading Riverbend's blog for years and admiring her command of the English language and her exquisitely beautiful writing. Like countless others, I felt very concerned for her welfare whenever she didn't post for any length of time. Like countless others, I checked her blog almost daily since her April 26 post with growing unease and fear for her safety, hoping and praying that she had come to no harm. Like countless others, I was immensely relieved to read her latest post and to see that she was safely out of Iraq, and shared her grief too as my parents also fled their country at the beginning of the 20th century, never to return. The conditions of the Iraqi refugees in both Jordan and Syria is most precarious, as Edwards so well described. I feel it is time for people to organize support groups in their neighborhoods and among their friends of relatives so as to collect clothes (especially for children who grow out of clothes so rapidly), basic necessities (hygiene, sanitary towels and tampons for the women, toothpaste, toothbrushes, soap, shampoo, etc.) and even some luxuries (perfume, makeup, after-shave, and other things we take for granted but which these refugees do not have), toys for the children, school material for the children (notebooks, pencils, pens, pencil sharpeners, and all those other school accessories which are necessary), and send them to Riverbend and her family, and all those two million other Iraqi refugees who have found shelter in neighboring but poor countries.
Vierotchka @ 29:
Ooops! I meant Kucinich, of course - it is way past my bedtime, 3:42 a.m. in my neck of the woods...
Thanks for welcoming her back ...a nice welcome.....she truelly has been through alot...and it is good to know that she is okay...many were worried...thank you for the Poem Poetryman.....
HeraldBlog,
Search Google for “Fuck Warren G. Harding” turns up 2 hits.
I spit my coffee everywhere! Thank you for the much needed laugh!
A new ode to Riverend is now up... HeraldBlog, still laughing...
This is great news, especially knowing now that Riverbend is well. Thanks for the update.
Best wishes to her and her family, and all Iraqis trying to escape this mess.
I too had been checking her blog worried that something terrible had happened to her in April. I'm so relieved that she and her family are safe and grateful that there are people in Baghdad that can help some to escape. Riverbend has put a face on Iraq for me, a personal window into the truth of what is happening to people there, what it was like before our invasion and now. I'm so heartsick these days. All the protest before the war began, all the work so many did both in washington and around the world, couldn't stop this from happening. Now I have a new fear that this madman in the White House is planning another horrific attack. God's speed Riverbend, God's speed.
River's excellent writing has been unique in giving a face to the Iraqi people. Let's hope we continue to hear from her and that the bad situation opens opportunities for the family until they can return to a stable Iraq.
Batocchio @ 35:
And still more... I too have been saying prayers/wishes for her safety. Silly question, but is the Red Cross/Red Crescent etc operating there in Syria? Does anyone feel confident about charities that might actually reach the refugees?
Riverbend, if you read this, there's not enough I could ever do to thank you for your witnessing and documenting... but the wishes will keep coming.
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