Entries this day: AM_Dream Alarm_misset Breakfast Dem_Happy_Wonderful_Shy_Girls Eon Kuni_othello Wende_dream erik's_Iraq_war_lecture lesson_with_Natalie zzzzzz

AM Dream

6:54am AZOST Tuesday 12 July 2005

I saw Arnold Schwarzenegger on the street. I was just leaving this party and he came up. I ignored him at first, but then thought I might as well say HI. I was like, "SCHWARZENEGGER!" and he stopped and I was like, "hey man, I just want to say that I look up to you as a man who has his shit sorted out, and I appreciate that." I said, "maybe there's a secret behind-the-scenes life that I don't know about, but if there is, you hide it well, so good job."

He was like, "thanks!" He asked me what I wanted to do with my life and I said I'd like to teach or something; I'd like to do something good and important for the world. He didn't really comment after that.

There was a bit of awkward silence, and I gave him my yellow card. Without hesitation he pulled out his card. He wrote down his email address - something weird like theiza@rica.net. I was like, "cool."

(His arms were not as big as in the movies; it was like he had lost a little bit of bulk being governor, although he wasn't governor in my dream.)

I was walking up to the street and I saw Kris on a bicycle, but she was going really slowly. She had left before me, but she was having trouble with the chain. I noted that it wasn't aligned and I told her what was happening with it. "Everytime you make a turn the chain goes crooked."

The sprocket was only a single front sprocket, not separate ones. It was sheet metal, not separate ones.

I was going to call Marcel cause I was in an area of town where my cellphone would work. I looked in my pocket and pulled out the wrong phone, and then I went to my other pocket and no phone at all. Then I realized, "wait a minute! This is a dream! I won't have Arnold Schwarzenneger's card at all!"

Alarm misset

6:57am AZOST Tuesday 12 July 2005

I'm thankful to my angels for waking me up because again, I set my clock back to *noon* instead of midnight, so basically my alarm wasn't going to go off for 12 hours. I would have been late.

Breakfast

7:27am AZOST Tuesday 12 July 2005

At breakfast. Olena asked if I wanted coffee or milk. I was like "a big orange juice." She said she couldn't use big glasses, but because we are going to New York, we are not allowed to put orange juice into the water glasses. That seems incredible. What a fuckin' nightmare.

Dem Happy Wonderful Shy Girls

11:06am AZOST Tuesday 12 July 2005

Aw man.

6 fuckin' shy ass girls.

I transcribed the Niveen speech while watching it in class yesterday. Before and during the transcription I was like, "if you have any questions; if there is any word you don't understand, let me know."

For the entire 1.5 hours, they were silent.

The six happy wonderful girls didn't say anything. They didn't say thank you. At one point I stopped, and was like, "is this helpful for you?"

They assured me it was.

At the end my hands were sore as shit, and I didn't feel appreciated.

Eon

12:30pm AZOST Tuesday 12 July 2005

In an effort to just relax my brain after being all mad at Happy Wonderful Girls, I started to read the history of earth as described in Encarta, an incredible resource that has become our backbone of research given we have no internet access.

I learned we are now in the Holocene period. There is like era, ???, period, and epoch. We are in the Holocene period. Kinda weird to be inside spans of time so large that I don't even know they have names much less what names.

(more here)

I wonder if we are thinking about getting out of the Holocine period due to global warming and subsequent freezing and etc etc... It would be cool to experience a new 10,000 year unit!

Kuni othello

2:30pm AZOST Tuesday 12 July 2005

Kuni and I just played Othello using the Go board and pieces. It was kindof a pain in the ass, but in a funny "we have nothing but time" way. She got bored after a bit so we quit.

Wende dream

3:50pm AZOST Tuesday 12 July 2005

After ranting a bit on tape 14 about how horny I have been lately, I fell asleep and woke up from this dream:

I was writing a letter to Wende about how I wanted to hook it up with her, but had to be really careful with my language, given that she is married. Little detail there.

erik's Iraq war lecture

4:00pm AZOST Tuesday 12 July 2005

The Context of War: Reasons behind the War

2 and a half years ago President Bush took us to war in iraq. As in the run up to war, today a national and global debate rages over the rising costs and dubious benefits of war and occupation in Iraq. For many people, especially in the United States, informed debate has been difficult since so much of what we have been told by the Bush administration has turned out to be false. The majority of people now recognize that the administration’s central premises in launching this war were lies: Iraq did not possess weapons of mass destruction, Baghdad had nothing to do with September 11, and Saddam Hussein did not have operational ties to al Qaeda.

[Rough copy here—Erik’s Notes]

Why go to war? Huge amounts of speculation. Oil, finish work of George Bush I, Ideology of neoconservatives who want to remake the world in the US image, war profitering, new place for military bases. Recent reports in the US that Bush discussed the war when he was in the Governors office in TX as a way of diverting public opinion away from the domestic agenda. In some sense, these are all right. The administration is made up of many different people, and many have their own agendas. Perhaps we’ll never know the exact reason why George Bush decided to make that fateful decision in March 2003 to order the attacks. While it is important to hold the President accountable for the lies and deception that led to the war we have a much more urgent task at hand right now—stopping the war. Once the suffering of the Iraqi people ends, we can spend our energies exposing the lies of the President.

The Costs of War

After 2 and a half years of war and occupation in Iraq, and even as public support for the war plummets, there is still little understanding in the United States about the real costs of the war. We have paid a very high price for the war and have become less secure at home and in the world. The destabilization of Iraq since the U.S. invasion has created a terrorist haven that did not previously exist in Iraq, while anti-American sentiment world-wide has sharply increased.

[Rough copy here for the 3 costs—Erik’s Notes]

Costs to the U.S.

• Military Deaths: 1750

• Military Wounded: Over 10,000

• Military serving: 150,000; loss of morale, problems with U.S. force structure

• Increased Terrorist Recruitment—largest # of terrorist incidents since the US started counting

• Dollar Terms: 200 billion, another 50 billion on the way before September; 2000 for every family. Vietnam—5.1 billion per month; Iraq—5.5 billion per month

• Reserves—40% of active force now.

• Loss of First Responders: 44% of police stations in the US have sent members to iraq

Costs to Iraqis

• 17,000-100,000 excess deaths

• Human Rights: Abu Ghraib prison

• Increased Crime

• Loss of infrastructure: water, electricity, health

• Loss of security—training failing, US not doing the job, esp with crime

• Unemployment: 30-70 percent

• Education: 80% of school buildings need repair

• Loss of Economic Sovereignty—Bremer orders

Costs to the Rest of the World

• Crushing blow to UN

• Sharp divide of international community

• Lack of attention to other conflicts: Liberia, Haiti, North Korea, Iran

• Oil Costs

An Alternative Path: Bring the Troops Home

Staying the Course? Putting aside the costs and illegality of the war, the very real question remains—what do to next. While the majority of the U.S. public are generally unhappy with President Bush's handling of Iraq and they are resigned to the importance of seeing the commitment through. Only 25% of the public thinks immediate withdrawal is the best option. Many, including progressives, argue that we have obligations to the Iraqi people to stay in order to provide security and reconstruction. Many conservatives argue that the project of democratizing the middle east is working so we need to stay. And we hear objections to setting a timetable as that will allow the insurgents to hide until that date. These are all deep and profound dilemmas we need to address in order to find a peaceful solution in Iraq. And I’m going to take a quick shot at providing some possible solutions and I look forward to having a good question and answer period to get more indepth.

What will happen when the U.S. troops are withdrawn?
No one can say with certainty what will happen when U.S. troops leave. But if the Administration continues to “Stay the Course” U.S. troops will continue to die and they will continue to kill. Iraq’s reconstruction will remain stalled and the country’s overall situation will remain dire.

It is likely that the withdrawal of U.S. troops would lead to the collapse of at least some parts of the current government, but some of its institutions, including the police, the military and other security agencies, could well survive with different people, untainted by association with the U.S. occupation, emerging from within them to assert new leadership. And without an outside enemy occupying the country, it is also more likely that the kind of secular nationalism long dominant in Iraq would again prevail as the most influential (though certainly not sole) political force in the emerging Iraqi polity, as opposed to the Islamist tendencies currently on the rise among Iraqis facing the desperation of occupation, repression and growing impoverishment.

Minimize Chances of Civil War
The most important step towards preventing civil war requires withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq, and thus diminishing the overall level of violence by removing its primary target. It is unlikely, however, that the violence will completely disappear with the end of the occupation, or that the Iraqi military can rebuild itself instantly as U.S. troops are withdrawn. As a result, there will be a need for international assistance—including some temporary kind of peacekeeping and/or security assistance until Iraq’s own security forces become viable. That temporary on-the-ground security assistance cannot be imposed by U.S. (or U.S.-led “coalition”) forces. Truly multilateral regional and international organizations must provide it.

A combination of United Nations blue helmet peacekeepers, along with temporary forces accountable to the Arab League and/or the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) would provide international legitimacy as well as regional accountability. The effect would be to reduce regional tensions and encourage neighboring countries to provide support throughout Iraq’s reconstruction process.

Washington rejected an offer from Saudi Arabia to help create a regional force in Iraq. But clearly there is willingness from other countries in the region to get involved. Since the U.S. went into Iraq with no plan to secure the support of neighboring states, despite the fact that one of the claimed goals of invasion was “spreading democracy” in the Middle East, it is not surprising that the war and occupation have significantly increased regional antagonism towards the U.S. Additionally, persistent U.S. hostility towards Iran continues to hurt the prospects for post-occupation regional cooperation. Once the Iraq occupation ends, though not before, U.S. efforts to repair its damaged standing in the region might have a chance of success. A serious U.S. effort to support regional (the Arab League and the OIC, which includes both Iran and Turkey) and international efforts, without controlling them, would be an important start.

A Plan for Withdrawal: Policy Directions for the U.S.
In the period between the announcement of a date certain for troop withdrawal and the completion of the actual withdrawal:

1) Decrease U.S. troops and end offensive operations: As a first step to withdrawal, the U.S. should declare an immediate cease-fire and reduce the number of troops deployed in Iraq. Increased offensive operations will only escalate the violence and make Iraq less secure and less safe. The U.S. should pull troops out of major cities so that greater manpower can be directed to guarding the borders to stem the flow of foreign fighters and money being used to fund the resistance. If Iraqi security forces need assistance maintaining order, they have the option of inviting in outside forces, preferably under the UN.

2) Declare that the U.S. has no intention to maintain a permanent or long-term military presence or bases in Iraq: Congress needs to make clear that it is committed to the principle of responsible withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Iraq. By making this statement through a congressional resolution, the U.S. would openly acknowledge that it has no interest in controlling Middle Eastern oil or in suppressing Muslims, hence depriving insurgents of their central organizing message. Without such a resolution, Iraqis have little reason to believe that our present actions are nothing greater than a plan to establish a long-term military presence in Iraq and make the occupation a permanent feature of Iraqi life.

3) Hand the restoration of services to Iraqis: The U.S. government and its contractors have failed to restore public services and public safety, strengthen institutions, or provide jobs. By giving Iraqis control over reconstruction funds more Iraqis will get jobs and projects will be better targeted to the needs of Iraqis. And lowering the unemployment rate will weaken the potential for recruitment into the insurgency. Lawmakers should put the brakes on the rampant war profiteering that has caused widespread waste, fraud, and abuse. To do this, the U.S. must stop awarding no-bid contracts and open-ended, “cost-plus,” multi-billion dollar contracts such as those awarded to Halliburton and Bechtel and increase oversight over the military and its contractors.

The U.S. owes a massive financial debt to Iraq. Over time, that obligation must be to repay Iraq for the cost of the collapse of their economy as a result of the U.S.-orchestrated 1990-2003 economic sanctions; for the damage of the 2003-2005 invasion and occupation; and promised U.S. reconstruction funds far beyond the pittance so far released.

4) Negotiations: As with any guerrilla war, the Iraqi resistance is unlikely to be defeated by military means. Political and diplomatic solutions must be the key components to change the terrible situation Iraqis are in today. The Association of Muslim Scholars, which represents thousands of mosques throughout the Sunni triangle, said they would have participated in the elections if the U.S. would have put forth a timetable for withdrawal. On a positive note, recent news reports indicate that some discussions between insurgent groups and the U.S. military have occurred. But even more important than negotiations with the U.S. is for a dialogue between the insurgents and Iraqi leaders who were recently elected.

Looking Forward

All possible scenarios in today’s war-ravaged Iraq pose potential risks. Having waged an illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq, the U.S. has no good options. Maintaining the U.S. occupation, with U.S. troops killing and dying in Iraq, violates U.S. and international law, as well as the UN Charter and the Geneva Conventions. Clearly this is not the way forward.

A January 2005 Zogby poll found that 82% of Sunnis and 69% of Shiites favor U.S. withdrawal either immediately or after an elected government is in place. How withdrawal is done will be our legacy. What we propose is that that legacy be based upon giving the Iraqis true control over their political, economic and military conditions. That means that withdrawal isn’t the last step—it is the first step in a long commitment the U.S. will have to this country.

lesson with Natalie

10:26pm AZOST Tuesday 12 July 2005

Natalie and I have been working on a lesson for a couple hours, and for some reason the computer just crapped out and died, but fortunately I had just saved.

12:32am AZOST Wednesday 13 July 2005

Have just finished creating a lesson titled Culture of Violence with Natalie.

It's based on clips from Bowling for Columbine: specifically the interview with Marilyn Manson.

I think it will be a bit too difficult for my classes, but I am going to try it even so.

zzzzzz

3:38am AZOST Wednesday 13 July 2005

Have just finished talking to Allison and Miki the awesomely cute woman who is only 16 but quite perfectly bilingual and beyond beautiful. She's a bit worried about her schooling next year, that it will be too hard, but I promise her that she will be able to get a full scholarship into any university around the world given her language skills and all hnors classes. awesome.

I massaged Allison's back and neck while we sat on the couches on 7th floor.

Allison seemed really pleased an amazed with/at my ability to massage her lumps away. I help release her back lump, but the one on her shoulder proved too durable.

Gotta be in my classroom in 4 hours and 20 minutes.

I'm just checking my room and find it's a bit of a mess, but I trust Natalie will clean her stuff up. Heading back to my bedroom now; I had hoped to take a shower tonight; damn.

4:22am AZOST Wednesday 13 July 2005

I'm in bed; showered and flossed and brushed and am wearing my mouthguard. My hair is in the crazy triple mohawk and samurai cuts on the side. I'm thankful to janette for the quilt; I use it every night on Pb.

Gotta be in class in 3 hours and 15 minutes or so. I'm really considering going to Palestine after Pb, at least for a little while. I also want to go on Pb again starting in December. South side.

For the record, I have suddenly lost my Sri Lanka bracelet that I got from Helena from Germany. I hope I get it back, but I release it to wherever it needs to go.