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Friday, April 18, 2008  

Dollars and Commas

"If I listen to your lies would you say / I'm a man without conviction / I'm a man who doesn't know / How to sell a contradiction / You come and go / You come and go" - Culture Club (Karma Chameleon)

It was about two years ago when President Bush said casually that "when the final history is written on Iraq, it will look like just a comma."1 Well, experts who once sided with the Bushevik's $3-trillion folly, or perhaps sulked in the shadows, are now coming forth, and what they say ain't pretty. "Measured in blood and treasure, the war in Iraq has achieved the status of a major war and a major debacle," is the opening line in a major new report by the National Defense University.2 Add to this the many voices charging that the whole supplementary war funding process is effectively weakening "Congress's ability to provide the type of oversight absolutely necessary for fostering DOD accountability."3

Alas, none of this is preventing the opening of the new $474 million US embassy in Baghdad: built on 104 acres, the 27-building compound has "619 apartments for staffers as well as restaurants, indoor and outdoor basketball courts, volleyball court, and indoor Olympic-size swimming pool."4

But let's not forget the forthcoming War Crimes Tribunal:

Bush Regime War Crimes Tribunal


1.  "The Situation Room: Interview With President Bush," CNN, September 20, 2006; watch the video segment.
2.  "Pentagon institute calls Iraq war 'a major debacle' with outcome 'in doubt'," McClatchy Newspapers, April 17. 2008. Written by Joseph Collins, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Stability Operations in the Pentagon until 2004, "Choosing War: The Decision to Invade Iraq and Its Aftermath," is available as a PDF document at the National Defense University's National Institute for Strategic Studies, a Department of Defense research center.
3.  "Iraq War Senate Appropriations Hearing: Nussle's Nonsense Distorts the Record," Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, April 17, 2008. See these reports: Problems with Using the Supplemental Budget Process to Fund Ongoing Military Operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, Congressional Research Service, Congressional Budget Office, and Government Accountability Office.
4.  "Opening soon in Baghdad: Largest U.S. embassy in the world with restaurants, 619 apartments," World Tribune, April 18, 2008.

posted by Merle Harton Jr. | 4:45 PM |


Sunday, April 13, 2008  

Homage to the Bride of Peace

The story of Italian artist Giuseppina Pasqualino, also known as Pippa Bacca, is not likely to get much news coverage in the US, but the story, which is very sad, is making headlines in Europe.

Brides on Tour: Giuseppina Pasqualino, also known as Pippa Bacca, left, with her traveling companion Silvia Moro (Photo at bridesontour.fotoup.net)
Pippa Bacca and the foot-washing ceremony during the Brides on Tour (Photo at bridesontour.fotoup.net)

With traveling companion Silvia Moro, the two, dressed in bridal costumes, embarked on a project (Brides on Tour) to demonstrate the power and reality of peace, starting in Milan, Italy, and culminating in Jerusalem:

Our dream is to hitch-hike across the war-torn areas of the Balkans and the Mediterranean—dressed as brides. That's the only dress we'll carry along—with all stains accumulated during the journey. We'll visit artists and craftsmen along the way and stop at museums, foundations, cultural centres and youth clubs for the daily pacifist ritual/performance of personal hygiene and then interaction with the place, people, and their crafts.

The goal is to explore and collect photographic and video evidences on the common Mediterranean culture. The expected route is through North-Eastern Italy, Serbia, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Turkey, Lebanon, Palestine, Israel and Syria. At the end of the journey the dresses shall be exposed together with other evidences of the journey.1

Pippa Bacca never got the chance to finish the project. The two started on March 8 and together hitchhiked through eight of the fourteen planned stations before she and Moro separated in Istanbul, expecting to reunite in Beirut. Bacca was missing since March 31 after she hitched a ride with the driver of a black van. On Friday, her naked body was found in bushes in a wooded area near Gebze in northwest Turkey. She had been raped and strangled to death.2

As a bride, she and the project are pregnant with allusion. Metaphors beg to be spoken. I resist the temptation to do so, because that would make her an icon and surely rob her of her uniqueness as a human being, a woman, and an artist for peace.


1.  See the itinerary and photos at their website Brides on Tour.
2.  "'World peace' hitcher is murdered," BBC News, April 12, 2008; "Italian peace-bride murder shock," ANSA.it, April 13, 2008.

posted by Merle Harton Jr. | 9:30 PM |
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