Walls

Posting at Booman Tribune, Clammyc provides uncanny insights "Wall" strategies. This devastating historical overview of "walls" built by invaders to divide and rule invaded countries then asks the BIG questions, that, once again, I am sad to report, go unasked and unreported upon in the Chicago Tribune. Clammyc fails, however, to say anything about where John Edwards gets his hairs cut, and how much he spends to get them cut. Too bad. Clammyc will probably never win a journalistic Pulitzer Prize Award as a reporter / op-ed writer for the Washintgon Post. May there be compensating rewards for Clammyc.

The Korean Wall shows the vast difference between two halves of the same (former) country that are in stark contrast to each other. The “purported” wall has done little more than to keep half of the country under a repressive dictatorship with a poor track record on human rights.
(MG) Syngman Rhee had a pretty bad track record on human rights also. But then, back in the day, he was our poor track record on human rights guy, so, all was forgiven, or overlooked. Whatever.

(MG) The two halves ARE quite disparate: the HAVES and the HAVE NOTS. Here's some quality of life metrics from three not so randomly selected countries: North Korea (NK), South Korea (SK) and the United States (US)


Infant Mortality Rates: NK = 23.3 / 1,000 SK = 6.2 / 1,000 US = 6.4

Life Expectancy: NK = 71.7 years SK = 77.0 years US = 77.8

Per Capita Income: NK = $1,800 SK = $20,400 US = $42,000

Net Imports / Exports NK = ($1.436 B) SK = $32.2 B US = ($799.5 B)

Net Imports / Exports per capita NK ($62.13) SK = $659.20 US = ($2,665.00)

Net Imp-Exp per cap as % per capita income NK (3.45%) SK = 3.23% US = (6.35%)

Similarly, the Berlin Wall showed a stark contrast between one half of the country, which was in substantially better shape economically (and many would say politically as well) than the other.

...

The “Baghdad” wall, ... is a symbol of the colossal failure of the invasion and occupation. ... yet another example of the exact wrong approach to trying to quell the massive violence ... It shows, ... a complete lack of understanding of the situation on the ground, the negative short term and long term impact it will have on Baghdad and the country in general, that the administration thinks that the escalation is failing, and that they are throwing up their hands.

It is not a solution – not even a short term one. It is a symbol that this administration has given up. That they do not care at all. That nothing – not even the vaunted escalation is remotely working. This signifies a tremendous failure – just the latest in a long string of tremendous failures in Iraq.

(MG) Now comes "the REAL DEAL" when a reporter / prosecutor / deconstructionist / author / BLOGGER has set the snare, baited the trap, and waited patiently, OH ever so patiently for the final denoument -- the GOTCHA!!:

From the NY Times article (linked above):

(NYT) The American military said in a written statement that “the wall is one of the centerpieces of a new strategy by coalition and Iraqi forces to break the cycle of sectarian violence.”

(MG) And now, gentle reader, take a deep breath,
sit back comfortably, and watch while a true analyst
poses the most obvious of questions
(as if a child were to say "But, The Emperor has no cloths")
Clammyc, you were gifted with teachers who taught you HOW to think

• Wasn’t the “Baghdad offensive” last July supposed to break the cycle of sectarian violence?
• Wasn’t 20,000 additional troops this past January supposed to be enough security to break the cycle of sectarian violence?
• Wasn’t a heavily fortified “Green Zone” supposed to keep the violence out?
• Wasn’t firebombing Fallujah in 2004 supposed to break the cycle of sectarian violence?
• Weren’t the multiple raids on houses supposed to quell the sectarian violence?
• What about the hundreds of bodies found in the streets every single day
• What about the increased bombings since the escalation began?
• What about the US troops being killed at the highest rate over the past six months since the invasion began?
• What about the Sunnis kicking Shiites out of their houses and neighborhoods and vice versa? I guess that didn’t keep each of the sects from fighting.
• What about the curfews that were repeatedly imposed?

Nothing this administration has done has come even close to stopping the violence. And how do the Iraqis feel about this wall?

(MG) Oh my God in Heaven. A bloggers dares to think outside the Ameri-centric box. How do the Iraqis feel about this wall? All's the pity for Clammyc ... this is the very thing the MSM, president cheney, the pentagon, the military contractors, etc cannot allow to be asked. Because when we the people begin to view "the other" with compassion, searching for understanding, we must then face our own Medessa-headed hydrants and look into the depths of our own collective guilt to which we ought to be condemned for our own collective indifference. Humanize the Iraqis! YES. INDEED.

The wall has already drawn intense criticism from residents of the neighborhood, who say that it will increase sectarian tensions and that it is part of a plan by the Shiite-led Iraqi government to box in the minority Sunnis. A doctor in Adhamiya, Abu Hassan, said the wall would transform the residents into caged animals. “It’s unbelievable that they treat us in such an inhumane manner,” he said in a telephone interview. “They’re trying to isolate us from other parts of Baghdad. The hatred will be much greater between the two sects.” “The Native Americans were treated better than us,” he added.

(MG) and now for the $64,000 slam dunk questions -- which no republican party stenographer / columnist / op-ed writer has yet asked (in print or on air). These are the kinds of questions junior high school kids SHOULD be taught to ask. These are the questions one should learn to think about in Sunday School. These are the kinds of questions our childrens is not learnings to get axed, too busy cramming for the "No Child Gets Ahead" exams, being taught what to know, and not how to think. Cattle food, we the people become, for the sellers not of the steak, but of the sizzle. We are as cannibals, devouring our own kind (fellow human beings, all created by the One God).

Do they NOT think that this will increase hatred towards our troops?

Do they NOT think that this will increase violence towards our troops?

Do they NOT think that our already overextended and underequipped troops DON’T know this?

Jefferson Airplane Wooden Ships lyrics

Black sails knifing through the pitchblende night
Away from the radioactive landmass madness
From the silver-suited people searching out
Uncontaminated food and shelter on the shores
No glowing metal on our ship of wood only
Free happy crazy people naked in the universe
WE SPEAK EARTH TALK
GO RIDE THE MUSIC

If you smile at me you know I will understand
Cause that is something everybody everywhere does
In the same language
I can see by your coat my friend that you're from the other side
There's just one thing I got to know
Can you tell me please who won
You must try some of my purple berries
I been eating them for six or seven weeks now
Haven't got sick once
Probably keep us both alive
Wooden ships on the water very free and easy
Easy you know the way it's supposed to be
Silver people on the shoreline leave us be
Very free and easy
Sail away where the mornin sun goes high
Sail away where the wind blows sweet and young birds fly
Take a sister by her hand
Lead her far from this barren land
Horror grips us as we watch you die
All we can do is echo your anguished cry and
Stare as all you human feelings die
We are leaving
You don't need us
Go and take a sister by her hand
Lead her far from this foreign land
Somewhere where we might laugh again
We are leaving
You don't need us
Sailing ships on the water very free and easy
Easy you know the way it's supposed to be
Silver people on the shoreline leave us be
Very free
And gone

NO C'MON
GO RIDE THE MUSIC
C'MON RIDE IT CHILD