***On the Ground in Iraq - BAGHDAD BURNING!!! (Riverbend) CSPAN2 10PM***

[Viva_La_Revolution]

On the Ground in Iraq
Colby Buzzell and Yasmine El-Shamayleh

From the First Person Festival held annually in Philadelphia, a discussion of the Iraq War featuring Iraq War veteran Colby Buzzell (author of "My War: Killing Time in Iraq") and activist Yasmine El-Shamayleh (who is there to present Iraqi blogger Riverbend's book "Baghdad Burning: Girl Blog from Iraq"). Mr. Buzzell, who started a blog while serving in Iraq, and Ms. El-Shamayleh, a graduate student at New York University, read selections from "My War" and "Baghdad Burning," respectively, and then answer questions from the audience. Peter Lems, American Friends Service Committee national representative for Iraq, moderates the discussion. Portions of this program contain language that viewers may find offensive.

Colby Buzzell, who served with the U.S. Army in Iraq for one year (1st Battalion, 23rd Regiment), is the author of a blog titled "My War," which he started in 2004. For more information, visit cbftw.blogspot.com. Riverbend, the pseudonym of a Baghdad-based computer programmer in her twenties, began reporting on the war in August 2003. Her blog, "Baghdad Burning," can be found at riverbendblog.blogspot.com

[Viva_La_Revolution]

1. kick!

[MissWaverly]

2. I hope Riverbend and her family are okay

there were 150 people killed in Baghdad yesterday

[MoseyWalker]

3. 150 People killed

I believe you, but sure didn't see the news reported anywhere.

I've been reading Riverbend for years now.

Not only is the mission not accomplished, but no one seems to know what the hell the mission is/was.

[MissWaverly]

6. I was watching the news late last night

they were saying that 130 had killed in Lebanon and oh, by the way, 150 are dead in Baghdad
due to increased secterian violence.

[Erika]

4. The bushbots don't even acknowledge bad times in Iraq

It's unpatriotic. Sarcasm dripping.

[Nabia2004]

28. because there are no bad times... so my koolaid drinking brother professes

His wife too, total denial on everything.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

5. On now kick!

[Viva_La_Revolution]

7. American Friends Service Committee

The American Friends Service Committee was founded in 1917 to provide young Quakers and other conscientious objectors an opportunity to serve those in need instead of fighting during World War I.

Four decades later, the AFSC and the British Friends Service Council accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of all Quakers. In making the presentation, Gunnar Jahn, chairman of the Nobel Committee, said, "It is through silent assistance from the nameless to the nameless that they have worked to promote the fraternity between nations cited in the will of Alfred Nobel."

more - http://www.afsc.org/about/history.htm

[Viva_La_Revolution]

8. 6000 bodies at the Baghdad morgue in the first 5 months of this year.

that's just Baghdad. :cry:

[w8liftinglady]

9. i'm watching now-we can discuss...

[Viva_La_Revolution]

10. read along

Friday, September 12, 2003

A Modern-Day Fairy Tale
Someone asked me why I didn’t write anything yesterday mentioning September 11. I’ll be perfectly honest- I had forgotten about it until around 2 pm. I woke up to no electricity, washed up and went into the kitchen to help out with breakfast.

I found my mother struggling with the gas cylinder, trying to roll it around on the ground in front of the stove. The cylinder was almost empty and the bright blue flames were orange at the tips, threatening to go out any minute. I stood nervously in the doorway of the kitchen- gas cylinders make me very nervous. After the war, when there wasn’t enough cooking gas to go around, people who sell the gas began mixing kerosene with the cooking gas which resulted in some horrific explosions. Every time we change cylinders, I have a crazy urge to run out of the kitchen and wait to see if it explodes.

My mother looked at me helplessly as the flames began dying away. “E. will have to go see if they’re selling cooking gas at the station.”
“But E. was up until 4 am yesterday…” I remonstrated.
“Ok then- you guys don’t need to drink tea or coffee.”

And that was the beginning of a series of difficulties: almost no water, relatives who dropped by for a lunch that couldn’t be cooked and a wasp’s nest that was terrorizing anyone who ventured into the garden.

By 2 pm, the electricity was back on and I was sitting in front of the tv watching one of the Arabic stations. Suddenly, they showed American troops standing solemnly in a 9/11 Memorial Service being held in… Tikrit (where Saddam was born)!!

I sat watching, confused. I assume it was done in that specific place so some oblivious person can, five years down the line, hold it up as testimony to the world that this whole war was, indeed, about terror and Osama bin Laden and 9/11 and WMD. It was done in that particular place so that someone, a week from now, can write to me and say, “Of course there was a link between Osama and Saddam and that’s why we attacked you. The proof is this: the 9/11 Memorial Service was held in Tikrit.”

This famous ‘missing link’ between Iraq and the war on terror is like, how I imagine, a fairy might look- small, flighty, almost transparent and… nonexistent. Shortly after 9/11, this fairy was caught by the Pentagon and stashed in a cage for all the world to see.

Almost like the Emperor’s new clothes, anyone who could not see this enigmatic creature was accused of being an Enemy of Freedom, a Saddam sympathizer or- horror of horrors!- unpatriotic. They were promptly indicted and burned at the metaphorical stake.

So most people chose to see the fairy. Some people, in fact, really thought they *could* see it. Everyone certainly tried. Unfortunately, the fairy soon began growing smaller and paler under the burning scrutiny of millions of curious eyes.

So what did they decide to do? Bush, Rumsfeld and the rest made a critical decision: the fairy must be protected by a great wall. Plans were drawn up, the toughest bricks were selected and contractors from Fox News, CNN and others were assigned. And with every fresh news story, a brick was laid, until the wall was so high and strong, it became a fortress… and everyone forgot what lay behind it… which was the alleged fairy… who may, or may not have, existed. But it no longer mattered anymore, anyway- the wall itself was there…

And the fairy? The fairy dug an escape tunnel to Iran… or perhaps Syria… or maybe North Korea. Time will tell- she will be caught again.

[w8liftinglady]

12. this kid sounds like my son..

[burythehatchet]

11. Yasmine is a frickin rock star

awesome woman

[w8liftinglady]

13. she is so articulate...what a stage presence

[Viva_La_Revolution]

14. Colby Buzzell's blog

http://cbftw.blogspot.com/

[w8liftinglady]

15. thanks...

[bananas]

16. one more vote for greatest please. nt

[w8liftinglady]

17. i'll kick it again-this beats the CNN drivel

[Viva_La_Revolution]

18. This book is now on my list

Library Journal Review
At age 25, Buzzell had already led a life that embraced alcohol, drugs, a minor criminal record, and a series of dead-end jobs. Enlisting in the U.S. Army, he set his focus on "Being All That You Can Be" as an infantryman, spending most of 2003 in Iraq assigned to the Stryker Brigade Combat Team. He began sharing his experiences through a blog, thus providing more truth than CNN or the army could or would. Here, Buzzell cleverly prepares a text that is part memoir, part diary entries, and part email messages. War veterans will understand the episodic nature of his narrative, the confusion of described battle, the brutality of his life, and the rawness of his prose. With Buzzell's return to the States and the close of an effective soldier's life, neither he nor the reader is sure that he has not come full circle and returned to his civilian life of loss. Recommended for public libraries.

[w8liftinglady]

19. i'm buying it,too-these guys need encouragement to speak out

[Viva_La_Revolution]

20. How's your boy doing, by the way?

Mine still hasn't been deployed, (I'm NOT complaining!) he's off on his '2 weeks a year' thing at the moment.

[w8liftinglady]

21. he's home...but 5 years IRR-they can call him up again

I hate these bastards
My son is starting college in september,hopefully...he's adapting.Thanks for asking...:hug:

[w8liftinglady]

22. Colby's book is released in paperback in September..show him some love

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0425211363/sr=8-3/qid=1153104058/ref=sr_1_3/103-7938946-7944649?ie=UTF8

[w8liftinglady]

23. kicking this for the "real-ness" of this

both of the speakers are excellent-raw,unpolished,but real...and from the heart...definitely worth watching

[Viva_La_Revolution]

24. I'm all teary.

*sniff*

:(

[w8liftinglady]

25. me,too.This is an excellent,necessary program

[Viva_La_Revolution]

26. kick!

[Viva_La_Revolution]

27. Replay at 2am Eastern/ 11pm Pacific

Catch it if you can

[me b zola]

29. Thanks Viva

We just got in so I'm catching up :)

[Viva_La_Revolution]

30. Repeat Kick!

and you're welcome. :)

[me b zola]

31. I'm watching now

She is reading the book as prose--wow.

[Kurovski]

32. Kick. On again.