Category: In the News

Click the image to download the book [4.8 MB, PDF].

I remember reading about A Short Guide to Iraq [4.8 MB, PDF]  in SPY magazine during the

first Gulf War — a guide for U.S. soldier stationed in Iraq during

WWII. Here’s the intr, which aside from the bit about defeating Hitler, is still applicable today:

YOU HAVE been order to Iraq (i – RAHK) as part of the world-wide offensive to beat Hitler.

You will enter Iraq both as a soldier and as an individual, because on

our side a man can be both a soldier and an individual. That is our

strength — if we are smart enough to use it. It can be our weakness if

we aren’t. As a soldier your duties are laid out for you. As an

individual, it is what you do on your own that counts — and it may

count for a lot more than you think.

American success or failure in Iraq may well depend on whether the

Iraqis (as the people are called) like American soldiers or not. It may

not be that simple. But then again it could.

In its 44 pages, the book provides the U.S. soldier enough

cultural and background information to function as a simple goodwill

ambassador in Iraq. Some of this information may be fairly obvious to

the cosmopolitan modern reader, but you have to remember that this was

a time before CNN, the internet, relatively inexpensive air travel and

several wars that taught us all about mideast geography.

The book looks like a pretty thorough introduction to Iraqi culture and

it seems as though the War Department (since renamed to the Department

of Defense) was taking great pains to win hearts and minds.

(Perhaps it was an era of better-behaved U.S. soldiers, the sort of whom Joi Ito wrote about in his piece on the anniversary of the atom bombing of Hiroshima.)

The illustrations included in the book are rather amusing. Here’s

“Bargaining takes time”, a fact that would’ve been unknown to many

Americans back then, but now familair thanks to cheap trips to Asia and

the bargaining scene in Monty Python’s Life of Brian:

“How ’bout 30 dinars and I don’t electrocute your balls?”

This bit of advice is obvious today, but it wasn’t back then:

As is this:

My favourite tip in the “Do’s and Don’ts” section:

If you should see grown men walking hand in hand, ignore it. They are not “queer”.

Star Trek may have led to the term “red shirts”, but the expendable characters in Star Wars were more memorable. Most memorable of them all was Porkins (a.k.a. “Red Six”), played by William Hootkins, who passed away last weekend. Hootkins also played the crooked police lieutentant Echkardt in Tim Burton’s Batman and Frobisher in the Blackadder II episode “Beer”.

Rosa Parks get processed after breaking the law by

refusing to give up her seat for a white guy. Click to see the photo at

full size.

Rosa Parks passed away yesterday at the age of ninety-two.

Thanks, Ms. Parks — because you refused to give up your seat for the wrong reason, I don’t have to, either.

(Mind you, I’m an able-bodied relatively young man, and I still give up

my seat for ladies, older folks and really-tired looking parents with

young children.)

Sometimes when things come down hard on you — like being razzed by

your own supporters for your choice of Supreme Court Nominee and

members of your posse getting indicted — you have to go for whatever

little victories you can get. In this case, the victory in question is

putting the smackdown on The Onion. The New York Times reports:

“It has come to my attention that The Onion is using the

presidential seal on its Web site,” Grant M. Dixton, associate counsel

to the president, wrote to The Onion on Sept. 28. (At the time, Mr.

Dixton’s office was also helping Mr. Bush find a Supreme Court nominee;

days later his boss, Harriet E. Miers, was nominated.)

Citing

the United States Code, Mr. Dixton wrote that the seal “is not to be

used in connection with commercial ventures or products in any way that

suggests presidential support or endorsement.” Exceptions may be made,

he noted, but The Onion had never applied for such an exception.

Here’s a doco that’ll probably get a fair bit of discussion in the blogosphere this week: The Torture Question, which airs on PBS’ Frontline tonight at 9pm eastern.

The 90-minute documentary reveals how and why

decisions made in Washington, D.C., in the immediate aftermath of Sept.

11 led to the controversial interrogation policy that laid the

groundwork for prisoner abuse in Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay and Abu

Ghraib.

“We knew The Torture Question would be a timely subject,” said producer Michael Kirk, a Denver native who’s been with Frontline since its inception.

Kirk, who produced, directed and wrote The Torture Question,

said he could sense the building of nonpartisan Congressional interest

in how the U.S. was handling the prisoner-interrogation issue.

Then last week the Senate, in a 90-9 (see my buddy George’s blog entry to see who the nine were) vote, approved an Iraq

military funding bill, with an attached provision introduced by Sen.

John McCain, R-Ariz., that prohibits “cruel, inhuman or degrading

treatment” of prisoners in the custody of the U.S. military.

The last segment of The Torture Question includes comments by McCain and Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina on the importance of the Senate vote.

The House has yet to deal with the issue. President Bush has said he would veto any bill that contains anti-torture provisions.

While many conservatives view Frontline as a liberal mouthpiece, Kirk believes the Senate vote takes The Torture Question out of the political arena.

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Bonus: The “Torture you…that’s a good idea” line from Reservoir Dogs [77KB WAV file], for those of you looking for an (in?)appropriate startup sound for your computer.

(Sometimes only a Darth Vader quote will do for an entry title.)

Click the image to see the comic on its own page.