Planet Waves | for May 2, 2005

Hi everybody -- I'm Jude, editor of Political Waves.  Eric asked if I'd keep you amused for awhile, and I'm gonna give it my best shot.  Politics, of course, is a loaded subject -- as in that old saw about sex, religion and politics being party-stoppers. Why?  Because it makes us uncomfortable.  It makes us angry.  It makes our eyes roll back in our head. 

I am able to moderate Political Waves, emotionally unscathed, because I consider such stimulus "holy" --  similar to [but not exactly] Monty Python's Holy Hand Grenade in "Search for the Holy Grail" ... or ... that which is to be approached fearlessly but with respect. Lobbing the "politics" grenade into conversation often provokes our knee-jerk response and a glimpse into our ego-mirror to see ourselves and our dearly-held notions about life. Ouch and Wow, both!  The "holy moments" give us growth.  I think that's our primary job, here on Planet Earth ... and I think politics is a direct reflection of who we think we are and how we perceive ourselves spiritually.  I hope you find something here that is of interest to you, but if anything I write in the next couple of weeks pushes your buttons or ruffles your feathers --BONUS!  Whatever makes our heads spin 360 brings with it a gift of awareness.

To begin, then:

An ant and an elephant get married.  After they had sex, the elephant had a heart attack and died.  "Crap," the ant said.  "Five minutes of passion and now the rest of my life digging a grave."

The ant would be the American public -- the elephant is surely Iraq.  You know, that large item we broke at the Pottery Barn.  Dubya's estimates were that we'd have the whole thing cleaned up in thirty days or so, and then on to the oil fields.  Well -- not quite -- little miscalculation there.  Good call, Rummy.

This past Saturday, we marked 30 years since Saigon fell ... or defaulted back to it's owners, perhaps.  Either way -- THIRTY YEARS!  GOSH, time flies when you're having ... mmm ... fun.  While there are a number of dissimilarities between Nam and Iraq, there are a good many similarities as well, not the least that we're stuck in the mechanics of it and only something akin to a giant earth mover is gonna get this pachyderm into the ground.  "Iraq is Viet Nam on speed," says Greg Mitchell, in his article [link below.]  And, that's just the first layer of the onion, isn't it.  There's other layers to take into consideration.

Reports have it that the Iraqi interim government is being pressured to "invite the Americans to stay."  Dubya has over a dozen bases there now, of course ... not the kind of thing he'd want to forfeit -- and GOSH, it would be hard to let loose of the oil [even if it isn't ours.]. I'm reminded that Richard "Tricky Dick" Nixon won a second term by hinting that he had a "secret plan" to end the Viet Nam war, although that was never his intention.  As to Dubs actual geopolitical intentions, he ain't talking and he's too busy with "big ideas" to look back now [like the elephant wasn't big enough.]  We'll just have to guess.

Dub tells us that things are going very nicely in Iraq, thank you.  Well -- depends on who ya talk to [kinda like those blind men who tell us how an elephant looks, based upon which piece of it they sieze.]  The thousands upon thousands of dead don't have an opinion anymore -- the maimed and wounded can focus only moment to moment, given their own private sorrow -- and the warriors, well ... what they have to say is pretty scary. But, over here in the US of A, where the bullets aren't flying and the policy's made, it all looks pretty good -- we got the bases, we got the oil, we got old "Tall Tales" Chalabi in CHARGE of the oil -- hell, we've just BEGUN to bury this elephant. 

Keep digging, boys!

Peace,
Jude

Good links here:

The Unreported Vietnam-Iraq Parallel
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0501-32.htm

From 'Gook' to 'Raghead'
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0502-25.htm

At 30: Iraq and the Vietnam Syndrome
http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/21912/

Eric Francis is on holiday. Jude, the editor of Political Waves, is standing in for his daily blog. You can subscribe to Political Waves for free at this link. You’ll receive between five and 10 news articles each day.