Might be a Good Time for some Fresh Strong Tea

Here is a party-making moment for the Taxed Enough Already folks: There are a lot of people out there who are disenfranchised, feeling left behind, whatever you want to call it.

Opryland, Boston Common, The Mall in Washington - when it was all over, the News organizations, and the politicians that exhorted protest and "sending Washington a message" were the same ones calling participants "rabble rousing, somewhat seditious folk"

Now that the GOP has made chumps out of the party, and it's become pretty clear they were never going to get support anyway, how will the Tea Party folks roll? Do they have what it takes to get down at the grassroots level and build a party to participate on a national level - a third party?

Or will they hang on at the margin, like some Bonus Army camped out in Washington? That's where the GOP would like to keep them, sucking up news cycles as they further their agenda in the background.  Anything that keeps the light off them is a good thing for the GOP right now.  Not that they'll thank the Tea Party folk.

I know this doesn't come across as kind.  Frank talk as this sounds more than a litte rude.  Significant moments, when decisions with lasting effects are made, don't come often.  This might be such a time.

People who know me will tell you I did not think the idea of protesting ad hoc, showing emotion in demonstrations was helpful or smart.  The idea of Taxed Enough Already wasn't one I was close to, because I couldn't connect the dots, from protest to changes.

Tonight I saw primary returns come in with GOP establishment candidates leaving few spots uncovered.  It was clear the Tea Party was created to benefit the GOP exclusively - no change to the system, status quo OK thanks very much. 

At the same time the Democrats, rather than press for transparency at the Fed or for regulating the size of too-big-to-fail banks, elect a "hands off" approach to the out-of-control banking system.  Truth to tell the banks have too great a control. It is the congress, and the people, who have lost it. And neither party seems inclined to do anything to address the wealth and power imbalance that continues to favor a very few.

Could there be anything good in all of this?  Perhaps.  I'm thinking this might be an excellent time to organize a political movement for the longer term. A movement with patience and vision; that doesn't shout or yell or take cues from news organizations. This could be the time when quiet resolve, the stuff no one pays attention to, can enter, and begin to speak - quietly and clearly - to and for the American People.

This time, instead of taking cues from one or another special interest, looking at all of our neighbors would be more helpful.  Recognizing that we are all (except the Native Americans) settlers here.  That at some point in the future we will all be gone from here, regardless of where we came from. 

We're not getting any younger.  Clock's ticking.

Peace.

The Brighter the Light, The Stronger The Shadows

The news of the video and story distributed by Wikileaks continues to percolate into the national conversation, including the Christian Science Monitor. Their coverage is concerned with contrasting the story the US Military told Reuters in 2007, with the account told by the video tape. [spoiler alert: there are differences - significant ones]

Glenn Greenwald of Salon.com has been following the story since 06:00 this morning and has posted several updates. He is pretty rough on the slant of publishers such as Mediaite.com (where my original post emanated from) who shoot the messenger for slandering the troops and/or making much of an aberration.

Greenwald also takes the time to flesh out the point that the callous and/or sadistic satisfaction shown by the soldiers shouldn't surprise anyone - they are a product of their training. When we accept that the training process has changed them in this way, it's easier to understand them under these circumstances. It may also help understand the source of the changes we as family members may see in them, when they return home. As Greenwald puts it,

If you take even well-intentioned, young soldiers and stick them in the middle of a dangerous war zone for years and train them to think and act this way, this will inevitably be the result. The video is an indictment of the U.S. government and the war policies it pursues.

He closes his original post with the statement:

The value of the Wikileaks/Iraq video and the Afghanistan revelation is not that they exposed unusually horrific events. The value is in realizing that these events are anything but unusual.

If facets of military training impair a soldier's longterm moral compass when he or she is exposed to trauma, that soldier is being served poorly by a country they are sworn to defend.    I think we - that's us - you; me; the bank teller; the grocer; the school teacher... need to advance the need for a thoughtful conversation about this, until improvements are made.    It is the least we can do in support of our children, our brothers, sisters, wives and husbands who serve in the military.

Leak as Learning Opportunity

Today, Easter Monday, I returned home from my extended family in New York.  The sun was warm on a calm afternoon with a gentle breeze.  I ate watermelon ice cream with my two girls in our driveway after the four hour drive, happy to be home and alive on a beautiful Spring day.   I came up to my office and began looking through my incoming messages, to see ‘what’s behind door numbers one two and three,’ or in other words find out what’s new and exciting in the technosphere.  I was surprised and saddened to find the item below, from a site called Mediaite.com:

“In the past few weeks, the Pentagon has been waging battle on a whole new front: classified information that ends up on the Internet…In the following video, US Military in an Apache helicopter gravely mistake a group of Iraqi men for insurgents (what appears to be a camera is viewed by those in the helicopter to be a RPG.) Warning, the video below is graphic in nature.”

Mediaite labeled Wikileaks as the problem and its target in the article.  I’m really not sure why.  Wikileaks’ ‘…primary interest is in exposing oppressive regimes in Asia, the former Soviet bloc, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East, but … also expect[s] to be of assistance to people of all regions who wish to reveal unethical behavior in their governments and corporations.” 

I did not bring a dog to the fight between Wikileaks and anyone else; as a group it appears to have released information that matches its stated goal of exposing unethical behavior.  The most important thing in my humble view is that the story is out there, and maybe now we can discuss how to prevent the recurrence of such an incident.  The costs of this outcome are substantial, and long-lasting.  Perhaps the outcomes should be considered the (quoting Mediaite again) ‘…real threat to national security…’  

·        Our troops are killing non-combatants, and it’s being covered up.  There’s a good chance if the event is whitewashed, the effects on those troops is likely to be ‘unseen’ by military management, as well.  Threat to us:  more emotional problems, suicides, dislocation in military families, occurrences of substance abuse.

·        Our actions show we no longer recognize medical evacuation as part of the ‘rules of combatant engagement.’  The video and audio show the attack team is given permission to continue shooting at people who have been wounded, and are crawling away.  Threat to us:  If the hors de combat designation of the Geneva Convention won’t be honored by one side, there’s no incentive for the opposing side to do so.

The threat to the country’s security was exposed by Wikileaks when it published the story.  The man or woman behind the gun should not have to live with responsibility for the deaths of non-combatants, especially for shooting wounded.  Particularly, when the persons they’re shooting do not shoot back.  This ‘real threat’ remains, until the procedures our troops follow are changed.  Expediency can carry the day, but will serve our troops poorly.  

If the Military does not change those procedures to make the job safer for the soldier (and in the process for others) then the Military can only blame itself, or try and shoot the messenger, over the result.