Geopolitical Brouhaha 53 | ***Dave Does the Blog

Allies and enemies

As I wrote earlier this month, I’ve been listening to the soundtrack from The Living Daylights a lot. That was the first Bond film with Timothy Dalton, I believe. Story-wise,…

As I wrote earlier this month, I’ve been listening to the soundtrack from The Living Daylights a lot. That was the first Bond film with Timothy Dalton, I believe. Story-wise, it’s kind of a mish-mash of a rogue Soviet general (Jeroen Krabbe), a girl with a cello (Maryam d’Abo), an arms dealer (Joe Don Baker), and an assassin (Andreas Wisniewsky) who likes to listen to the Pretenders. Oh, and some partial nudity by Virginia Hey. Like I said, a mish-mash of plot elements that often holds together, but also frequently gets goofy.

Hey, it’s a Bond film.

At any rate, late in the movie, the action shifts. Bond has been taken captive, along with the girl (sans cello). They are all hauled off by the rogue Soviet general to … Afghanistan.

See, it’s 1987. The USSR is the bad guys, and they’ve invaded Afghanistan (again), and the brave freedom fighters, the Mujahadeen, are fighting for their land and their faith against terrible odds (horse vs. tanks). Sure, there are a few Evil Afghan Rebels who are using this as a way to move opium, but Bond helps a Good Afghan Rebel (played by Art Malik) escape from the Evil Soviets, helps launch a raid on the Soviet base, and then helps wipe out the Soviet troops that try to retaliate.

Exit into the sunset Mr. Bond and girl, having saved the freedom fighters to fight another day.

Anyone catching any irony here?

The Good Afghan Rebel, Kamran Shah, is Western educated. He’s gotten support and training from Western intelligence. And he’s fighting the Evil Soviets for his land and his faith.

Sounds a lot like a prime suspect behind the Red Tuesday terror. And, if not him, then a number of his hosts, the Taliban.

We were more than happy to give these guys props (figuratively and literally) when they were poor freedom fighters against the Soviets. The irony, as they’ve kicked the Soviets out, is that they’ve also turned on the West. Not all of them, certainly, and, in the case of the Taliban, only insofar as they’ve utterly rejected Western mores like tolerance, equality, and freedom. And maybe, tacitly or explicity, they’ve done quite a bit more. And the guys we were cheering when our money and spooks were training them to blow up Soviet soldiers may be among those who are now blowing up American civilians. And who may yet get to be blowing up American soldiers, too.

Not that the Soviets were saints. Not that their invasion and occupation of Afghanistan wasn’t brutal. Not that it was even wrong of us to be supporting the Mujahadeen.

But there’s a lesson here. At least a lesson in expectations.

The irony is choking me here. Here’s a last bit for you to start your day.

Thursday night, after the ‘Rents arrived, dinner was done, and Squiggy was off to sleep, I pulled some movies for us to watch.

Guess which one was on the stack.

I’m feeling angry now

But I don’t think I’ll write about it. I’ve already babbled enough, and when I’m angry, I invariably say thing I don’t like to have said. Doyce has a really,…

But I don’t think I’ll write about it. I’ve already babbled enough, and when I’m angry, I invariably say thing I don’t like to have said.

Doyce has a really, really nice quote from the Tao te Ching on his blog this afternoon. Read it.

Thoughts at lunch

Boy, not just a little anger in that last post, was there? And, contemplating my writing earlier this morning, I can see denial wending its way through the desert. Note…

Boy, not just a little anger in that last post, was there?

And, contemplating my writing earlier this morning, I can see denial wending its way through the desert. Note the immediate going into over-intellectualizing mode? Not only does that push away the emotional blow of something like this, but it gives an illusion of control.

Walking around at lunch, it was weird. Bright, sunny, pleasant day here in Denver. A little breeze flapping the sprinkler line flags. Ducks in the pond. Same ol’ Tokyo Joes to eat at. People talking, laughing, working, as though nothing were different.

And in the restaurant, the TVs were all turned to news channels, and I got to see the video footage. It was like (a bit more denial here) some medioicre special effects from a movie. The plane swings behind the closer tower, a ball of fire erupts from the other side. One tower collapses. The other. Mediocre because any sfx house worth its salt would show you what was happening more clearly.

After the Mount St. Helens eruption some years back, one subtle but definite impact was on the Portland skyline. The “perfect cone” of Mt. St. Helens (as LeGuin described in The Lathe of Heaven) was gone, a crumbled peak left behind. So, too, I wonder whether the destruction of the tops of the two towers (and, perhaps inevitably, the demolition of the whole structure) will have, in its absence, an ongoing psychic impact on those whose view of the NYC skyline included the WTC.

Margie’s off to the airport, to pick up the ‘Rents. They are (so we’ve heard) allowing vehicles in for that purpose. We’ll see. Hope there are no problems.

Update: Got a call from my mom no more than a minute later. They’re on the way to the house. Huzzah.

Stages of grieving

Elizabeth Kubler-Ross’ On Death and Dying identified five stages that a dying person goes through when they are told they have a terminal illness. Those stages are: denial, anger, bargaining,…

Elizabeth Kubler-Ross’ On Death and Dying identified five stages that a dying person goes through when they are told they have a terminal illness. Those stages are: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Those stages have been applied as well (though, some would argue, incorrectly) to those who have suffered a loss.

In looking at my own feelings on today’s terrorist attacks, and the reactions I hear from those around me, I see this happening.

1. Denial: “Oh, no!” “Oh, you must be mistaken — I’ll check on the news myself.” “Man, I can’t believe this is happening!” “This is a crazy world we live in! [i.e., this didn’t happen for a reason]” “Those people are nuts. [ditto]”

2. Anger: “We should bomb them [which “them”?] back to the stone age!” “We need to find those guys and hang them by their thumbs!” “How could God have allowed this to happen?” “Where were the FBI? Why didn’t the government protect us?”

3. Bargaining: “How can we stop this from happening?” “If we spend this money, take this action, pass this law, impose these restrictions, can we make it go away?”

4. Depression: “It’s just going to get worse.” “This is only the beginning.” “People are animals.”

5. Acceptance: “Okay … where do we go from here?”

Think about it. And when you hear our leaders talking about this, try to figure out which step they’re in — or which step is being pandered to.

Red of tooth and claw

As I write, we have Israeli military forces firing frickin’ missiles into buildings where they think Palestinian leaders or security forces are. And if a few bystanders get killed, c’est…

As I write, we have Israeli military forces firing frickin’ missiles into buildings where they think Palestinian leaders or security forces are. And if a few bystanders get killed, c’est la vie.

In the meantime, Palestinians are sending suicide bombers into pizza parlors. That’s productive.

Actually, if I were leading the Palestinians, I’d be following the Israeli tactic. Target soldiers. Target officers. Target leaders. Not only would that lend credence to the idea that you are fighting a war against your oppressors, and give you more support from the outside world, but it might make those same Israeli leaders more willing to talk peace.

At the same time, while the Israelis are scoring hits, in the long run they’re merely fragmenting (figuratively, as well as literally) the Palestinian leadership. Which means that negotiating with anyone is going to be increasingly difficult.

And, frankly, Israel is losing the publicity war. Sure, every pizza parlor the Palestinians bomb simply tars their whole “side” as a bunch of terrorists. But when Israel uses tanks and jet fighters and attack helicopters to blow up buildings, they come across as a Goliath vs. the Palestinian David. And we know who to root for in that competition. It’s even worse when collateral damage (i.e., innocent bystanders) get fragged in the process.

I found it morbidly amusing that Arafat has been trying to get the UN Conference on Racism, Intolerance, Xenophobia, and Related Stuff to declare Israel to be acting in a racist fashion toward the Palestinians. There’s arguably something to that — but it seems to me there’s a large degree of blackness in the kettle making the accusation at the pot.

As long as it’s a battle of Jews vs. Muslims, or Israelis vs. Palestinians, it’s a racist, ethnicist, xenophobic problem, on both sides.

I don’t know what the answer is. Sometimes I think we should just bomb the whole region down into a glassy plain. Other times, I think the Israelis should simply move the Palestinians (including in Gaza) lock, stock, and barrel into the West Bank, build a big wall, and then say, “That’s yours, this is ours, ’nuff said.”

I don’t think either of those is a good answer. But both are temptingly neat and simple (and bloody and final).

Peace — peace strong enough to get the majority of folks involved committed to it — has been so close, so many times. And there is so much bloody blame to heap on both sides, that neither can wear a white hat. I have to condemn, first and most of all, any side whose tactics are explicitly terrorist, who act in the most racist fashion because they consider anyone on the “opposite side” — wearing a uniform or not — to be an enemy. But the Israelis have more than tarnished their own shield here, between heavy-handed military action and police state tactics against anyone even suspected of being a Palestinian terrorist.

I would wish a pox on both their houses, but that’s clearly already the case. Because the biggest losers here are the haters, but the ones who merely want to live a life of peace and dignity, raising their families.

Meanwhile, in Northern Ireland, Protestant protesters (“Those bloody Catholics are marching their bloody Catholic kids through our Protestant neighborhood on the way to their bloody Catholic school as a deliberate provocation!”) are throwing bricks and frickin’ home-made bombs at schoolchildren.

As far as I’m concerned, any “credit” the Protestant activists up there had by facing off against a truly bloody terrorist organization (the IRA) has been squandered by their own terrorist tactics.

Okay. Enough of those depressing tactics. My blood pressure is already too high.