[Mb-civic] Falluja Arithmetic and "Yes, the times they are a changin'"

[ean at sbcglobal.net]

Here are 2 little disparate but engaging and enlightening articles....

Falluja Arithmetic Lesson
by Prof. Greg Palast

Monday's New York Times, page 1:

"American commanders said 38 service members had been killed and 275
wounded in the Falluja assault."

Monday's New York Times, page 11:

"The American military hospital here reported that it had treated 419
American soldiers since the siege of Falluja began."

Questions for the class:

1. If 275 soldiers were wounded in Falluja and 419 are treated for wounds,
how many were shot on the plane ride to Germany?

2. We're told only 275 soldiers were wounded but 419 treated for wounds;
and we're told that 38 soldiers died. So how many will be buried?

3. How long have these Times reporters been embedded with with 
military?
Bonus question: When will they get out of bed with the military?

Monday's New York Times, page 1:

"The commanders estimated that 1,200 to 1,600 insurgents had been 
killed."

Monday's New York Times, page 11:

"Nowhere to be found: the remains of the insurgents that the tanks had
been sent in to destroy. ...The absence of insurgent bodies in Falluja has
remained an enduring mystery."


NOT in the New York Times:

"Every time I hear the news
 That old feeling comes back on;
 We're waist deep in the Big Muddy
 And the Big Fool says to push on."

 - Pete Seeger, 1967


-----
Greg Palast is author of the Best Democracy Money Can Buy.  The New 
Deal: 
"Joker's Wild: Dubya's House of Cards" - regime change deck from 7 
Stories
Press available @ www.GregPalast.com.

-----------------------------------------------------


http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04321/412504.stm

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette     Tuesday, November 16, 2004

Yes, the times they are a changin'

By Tony Norman

Back in the days when this was a free country, it was possible to sing an
antiwar song like "Masters of War" without having to give the Secret
Service a second thought.

But 41 years after Bob Dylan recorded his elegiac, acoustically spare
meditation on the folly of war, the lyrics are still causing trouble with
those H.L.Mencken referred to as the "booboisie."

Last week, radio talk shows in Colorado were abuzz over a local punk
band's plans to cover "Masters of War" at a Friday night talent show at
Boulder High School. Rumors about the band, which drolly calls itself the
Coalition of the Willing, prompted calls to the Secret Service in Denver
because of alleged threats against President Bush. The "threat" consisted
of the following copyrighted lyrics:

"Let me ask you one question / Is your money that good? / Will it buy you
forgiveness? / Do you think that it could? / I think you will find / When
your death takes its toll / All the money you made / Will never buy back
your soul. "And I hope that you die / And your death will come soon / I
will follow your casket / In the pale afternoon / And I'll watch while
you're lowered / Down to your death bed / And I'll stand over your grave /
'Til I'm sure that you're dead."

Never mind that the intent of the song was to use a corpse as a metaphor
for the Cold War-era U.S. military, people still called talk shows in
Boulder insisting that the lyrics were about assassinating George Bush!
These days, high school students who call themselves the Coalition of the
Willing are assumed to be seditious until proven innocent.

Bob Dylan was standing on less controversial ground four decades ago 
when
he wrote what would became the third-most-covered antiwar song in
recording history.

In "Masters of War," Dylan was echoing President Eisenhower's parting
words to the country in 1961 -- a blunt warning about the military
industrial complex and its corrosive effects on American life. Ike's words
were still an important part of the public conversation when Dylan's song
hit the airwaves nearly two years later.

But as clever as the lyrics were, they weren't particularly radical. If
anything, Dylan's observations, though laced with bitterness and poetic
license, were a distillation of conventional wisdom:

"You fasten the triggers / For the others to fire / Then you sit back and
watch / When the death count gets higher / You hide in your mansion / As
young people's blood / Flows out of their bodies / And is buried in the
mud."

Decades after the trauma of Vietnam, the public's attitude toward the
military has become less skeptical than it was at the beginning of the
Cold War. Since 9/11, most Americans prefer to let the yellow ribbons on
their car bumpers debate the issues for them. "Support the Troops" has
become shorthand for "Don't Ask Questions." In the context of today's
politics, the lyrics to "Masters of War" can't help but come across as
both radical and prophetic.

A day before the talent show, the Secret Service paid a visit to Boulder
High School and corralled the school's principal, who quickly vouched for
his students' patriotism. Most of the chatter that had been swirling on
talk radio about the band was nonsense, but the Secret Service had to
check it out. Rather than risk another second of embarrassment, the agency
quickly cleared the band.

The next night, the Coalition of the Willing performed before a sold-out
crowd of young people who'd gotten a crash course on the threat to their
civil liberties. An American flag was the band's only backdrop, signaling
the anarchy in their souls.

Though cleared of treason, the C.O.W. must have taken delight in singing
the song's most prescient lyrics:

"How much do I know / To talk out of turn? / You might say that I'm 
young
/ You might say I'm unlearned / But there's one thing I know / Though I'm
younger than you / Even Jesus would never forgive what you do."


(Tony Norman can be reached at 412-263-1631 or tnorman at post-
gazette.com.)



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