I read recently that actor Gary Sinise of Forrest Gump and Apollo 13 fame started a non-profit organization to help school-age children in Iraq. Called Operation Iraqi Children, one of its goals is to provide school supplies to this impoverished nation. Sinise visited Iraq and saw first-hand how little those kids have: several of them were sharing one notebook and pencil, for example.
When I visited the web site, the first thing I noticed was all the pictures of Iraqi girls. Unlike the photos we usually see of Muslims in the middle east with only men and boys out in public — you know, like those Fallujah pictures [more on that in a minute] — this site seems to have found a lot of girls willing to sit still and smile for the camera.
Not coincidentally, Iraqi girls were my first thought when I heard about this organization: Are girls even allowed to attend school in Iraq? Why would I give money or supplies to schools that might discriminate against girls? So I can see that the organization is making a concerted effort to plant the seed that girls are permitted to attend school in Iraq. I wonder how long that equality will last.
Another goal of Operation Iraqi Children is to give Iraqi schools Arabic translations of the book, Seabiscuit: An American Legend.
Let that sink in for a minute.
Can you think of anything a Muslim country wants less than a book that celebrates the American excesses of horse racing and gambling? Isn't one of the chief complaints of angry Arab Muslims that America is trying to push its culture onto them? How can sending this Seabiscuit book possibly help dispel that belief?
Do Sinise and the book's author, Laura Hillenbrand, really think the story of a crooked-legged horse, a mute horse breaker, and a half-blind jockey will actually touch the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people? Do you think the Iraqis will find this story uplifting and suddenly lead them to love America and all it stands for?
Isn't it possible that the story of a country — which happens to be in the middle of a financial depression — that becomes obsessed with a horse who "emerge[s] as an American cultural icon, drawing an immense and fanatical following, inspiring an avalanche of merchandising, and establishing himself as the single biggest newsmaker of 1938 — receiving more coverage than FDR, Hitler, or any other public figure" won't really help remove the Iraqi belief that our priorities are a little screwed up? I mean, come on. They've been starving for 30 years and we're making a huge deal about a horse that other Americans made a huge deal about 65 years ago?
Article comments
1 - Shark
bhw, I agree; on an emotional level, this shit is getting hard to take.
When Bush (et al) sold us this nightmare of a Pandora's Box, he was pushing 'liberation' images of Paris 1944.
Instead, we get images of Fallujah, 2004. Instead of flowers being tossed high in the air; we get burned American body parts tossed into the air.
What's really sickening is that it's not going to end anytime soon; as a matter of fact, I'm not so sure it will end in my lifetime. I don't see an end game to all this and unfortunately, I don't think our leaders (Dem and Repub) do either.
For all the early talk about "this isn't Viet Nam" -- it's sure starting to look like the dreaded *Q word.
* "quagmire" - note: can't be spoken in public without risk of arrest and trial for treason and/or unpatriotic behavior.
It would be BAD ENOUGH to be losing American soldiers daily if we HAD FOUND WMD, if there HAD been a decent reason to put Ameicans in harm's way. But we didn't. And there weren't.
I seriously think Bush & Co. started off America's 21st century with some of the biggest, most destructive blunders in our short history.
And who'll pay for it? Our children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren.
2 - Ms. Tek
I've felt like this all along.
Poor Iraqis my ass.
3 - bhw
The shame of it all is that there ARE Iraqis who appreciate the fact that Hussein is gone from power. The problem is that even the appreciative people wanted us to get rid of him and then leave the premises immediately.
No matter how you slice it, it seems to me that most Iraquis can't stand us and want us out of there [or dead], like pronto. Unfortunately, we can't do that, so we're in for the long haul, as you say, Shark.
4 - Shark
It strikes me that we're on a slippery slope: the Bushies might be painting the nation into A LOT of different corners like this.
We who once opposed the war in Iraq are now saying, "Well, we're stuck with it and we're in for the long haul."
Thanks to the Bush Boyz, I think we're going to be faced with many versions of this "we're here, stuck with this, and now we have to deal with it" type of situations.
We're out of money -- we need to cut ____.
We're low on energy -- we need to cut business and environmental regulations.
Fuck Alaska's wilderness; my Hummer is dry.
We need jobs, we need to cut wages/benefits, and kill the unions.
We're short on profits, we need to encourage outsourcing.
The thing is: when these rich criminals are through with raping our nation, they'll leave office and retire to some gated community, insulated from the very problems they helped create.
It's going from criminal to treasonous.
5 - Shark
BTW: Sunday's NY Times Magazine:
"UP IN SMOKE -- The Bush administration, the big power companies, and the undoing of 30 years of clean-air policy."
BTW: 60 Minutes - ex-Mines Inspector explicitly calls the Bush administration the MOST CRIMINAL BUNCH in American history.
Paul O'Neill, Scott Ritter, Richard Clarke --- too much stuff is piling up to think this is all a conspiracy by the "liberal media"
6 - bhw
Yes, we'll be cleaning up the messes from this administration for a long time.
All of this, and I still don't feel safer.
Anyone wanna take a cross-country train ride with me this summer?
7 - Eric Olsen
There are specific elements within Iraq that are causing the problems, and there are a significant number of non-Iraqis there whose only purpose is terror and disruption. THESE are the people who must be addressed and made severe examples of, not Iraqis in general. I want highly visible and vicious action taken in Fallujah very quickly.
8 - bhw
Eric, in my head I *know* that, but when I see young boys on the street mutilating dead bodies and celebrating, I get the "fuck this" attitude. Those boys are Iraqis, their fathers are Iraqis, and the cleric that they follow is also an Iraqi, I believe.
It's not like the vast majority of Iraqis -- who are supposed to want democracy, remember -- are fighting against these insurgents. The insurgents are walking into police stations and taking them over without the slightest resistance. When will the people of Iraq fight for themselves? Until they do, I'm going to have a hard time believing the people who tell me that most Iraqis don't hate us and want democracy.
9 - Eric Olsen
The key is that it is in our best interests that they become a functioning democracy.
10 - bhw
I agree, but I'm soooooo having a hard time thinking it will ever really happen.
11 - jaded naivety
I don't normally agree with Ms. Tek, but in this case I do.
We got rid of some of the main problem sources for them, let them try sorting the rest out for themselves.
12 - bhw
I must add that I really feel for our troops over there right now. I mean, who's the enemy, and who are you trying to help? Everyone is potentially the enemy -- civilians, men, boys, and who knows who else -- and that's an awful position to be in.
13 - Shark
MORE BAD NEWS:
"Ongoing violence in Iraq threatens the Bush Administration's deadline for transferring power to Iraqis in 88 days. Violence erupted in Iraq yesterday, as radical Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr unleashed his followers in several Iraqi cities. The resulting rioting and gun battles with coalition troops left at least 31 people dead, including eight U.S. soldiers, and more than 225 wounded.
Meanwhile, in Basra, about 1,000 Sadr supporters have taken over the governor's residence. The clashes "were the deadliest yet between occupation forces and Shiites."
At the other end of the spectrum in the Sunni triangle, this morning two Apache helicopters opened fire in Baghdad, and U.S. forces closed off the city of Fallujah to prepare for a "major operation against insurgents" after the brutal killing and mutilation of four American security contractors last week.
This fatal weekend comes on the heels of the second deadliest month of the war -- 49 Americans were killed in Iraq during the month of March."
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Wish we weren't here.
Thanks Geoge!
14 - Shark
BHW: "...who's the enemy, and who are you trying to help? Everyone is potentially the enemy -- civilians, men, boys, and who knows who else -- and that's an awful position to be in."
More similarities to Viet Nam, where it wasn't unusual to meet a 10 year old with a smile and a hand grenade.
15 - Ms. Tek
It goes back to this:
There are a lot of actual Iraqis in Iraq.
There are a lot of guns in Iraq.
When are the "Iraqis in general" with guns going to turn on the "specific elements within Iraq " which are behaving like uncivilized shits and keep blowing the Americans who are trying to help the "Iraqis in general"? Really, where are the mass walks and demonstrations of Iraqis who are FOR the US?? Hmmm?
They're cowards? Fear of retaliation? Then if you cannot fight for YOUR OWN FREEDOM, you do not deserve it. Period.