2020 Hindsight

daily war link roundup

Various links. (I don't know whether to get into another spate of war-related links or not. I liked being away from net over the weekend. But some stories just wanna be told)

New Yorker: Seymour Hersh on the battle between Rumsfeld and the Pentagon.

On at least six occasions, the [Pentagon senior] planner told me, when Rumsfeld and his deputies were presented with operational plans, ...he insisted that the number of ground troops be sharply reduced. Rumsfeld’s faith in precision bombing and his insistence on streamlined military operations has had profound consequences for the ability of the armed forces to fight effectively overseas.

Definitely not an "everything's going well" treatment. That, combined with this story quoting three senior admin officials on Bush being sheilded from nay-sayers and dire forecasts, does not inspire confidence. [via Talking Points Memo]

On the other hand, the "They'll welcome us with open arms" thinking hasn't taken into account the "They'll kill us if we protest, while the Ba'ath are still in power" perspective, as told in this ArabNews article and this story by a human shield who changed his mind after talking with Iraqis.

Stars & Stripes: US Won't Fight Dirty, Air Force JAG says. JAG is Judge Advocate General, or the legal person. US to stick to internationally accepted laws of combat.

International Herald Tribune: US Casualties trickle in, but is this the calm before the storm? Another in my Medicine and War news finds.

OC Register: Battlefield Treatment Goes Higher-Tech. "Battlefield medicine has the same basic objectives as civilian care: stabilize the injured, then quickly transport them to hospitals. In the field, matters are complicated by bullets and artillery shells."

The Most Excellent Life Stories Writing Workshop

I've been taking a writing workshop for over 1.5 years now, something I mighta mentioned here from time to time. Terrie Silverman, who leads the workshop, has new sessions beginning soon (location: Venice/West LA; Weekend mornings/Weds nites, respectively) and I'm helping get the word out.

Are you in LA? Writing? Want to write? or develop a one-person show? More info here.

Life Stories Writing and Performance Workshop

Life Stories is a writing workshop designed to explore personal expression through multiple disciplines (spontaneous writing exercises, music, movement and drawing).

The core of the workshop: play. The environment: nurturing, safe. At the end of 10 weeks, you may participate in a work-in-progress performance. All levels welcome.

The 10-week workshop (new sessions starting very soon!) is offered at these times:

• Sat 10-1, Venice
• Sun 11-2, Venice
• Wed 7-10 in West LA

Tuition is $300. To register, or for more info, call 310.281.3175 or email argenthomm[at]aol[dot]com.

Terrie Silverman, MFA is a writer/performer poet and playwright. Her work has been presented at The HBO Workspace, KPFK Radio, The Los

Angeles Theater Center, Highways and Arts Festivals throughout Southern California. She is an Artist-in-Residence at Beyond Baroque

Literary Arts Center.

. . . . .

Personal testimony time!

I've been taking Terrie's workshops for a while.

Terrie is amazing. She leads us in fun exercises (a different one every time) that open doors to new places. Her attention to the detail and potential in everyone's writing amazes me. She loves new writing into existence, and welcomes each expression, each metaphor, each described moment. She pours on encouragement for blocked writers. Her workshops are filled with "permission to try" and I've thrived and seen others thrive in that place.

In the nearly two years I've been participating, I have...

• written lots and lots and lots
• explored new material that I didn't even think of as "material."
• learned more of the craft of storytelling (very good for a technical writer who's written many words explaining things)
• witnessed the birth of some amazing writing by my fellow workshop attendees
• read my work at the workshop performances and at Fray day LA's open mic session

Medicine and War

My interest in the fortunes of a particular Air Force medic led me to these articles:

An article on the largest military hospital abroad, in Landstuhl, Germany, which details the stages of treatment between a battle injury and arrival at the hospital.

Another look at the Landstuhl hospital. heh. They had a quote by an ICU nurse named Loving. How many interviews does she get to do just 'cause of her name?

Germany's not the only place where the injured are treated.

Better training helps save lives. Train your medics in emergency trauma treatment. Keep your people alive. Very similar to Al's mention that effective stateside trauma treatment results in more "assaults" than "murders."

---

On a separate note, I'm experiencing technical difficulties. For the last 3 or 4 days, whenever I post something new, an older one disappears (they can't be brought back after they're gone, either). My apologies.I understand from Erin at Weblogger that he is aware of the problem and has fixed it. However, just now when I posted this item, one from yesterday disappeared, so I guess there's more to do to get this fixed. Blogging will be light until this is resolved.

or else this is God's way to telling me to quit blogging and get back to those other, more important things to do...

Former Senator Patrick Moynihan dies

Current Events
I didn't know much about Moynihan, other than having heard his name mentioned in congressional news stories. I listened to a <a href="http://freshair.npr.org/guest_info_fa.jhtml?name=2003/lawrenceodonnell">Fresh Air show</a> with <a href="http://www.mclaughlin.com/about/bio.asp?pid=16">Lawrence O'Donnell</a>, one of Moynihan's former staffers, who is a producer of West Wing and has created a show about a congressman called Mr. Sterling (not having a TV, I've never seen either show). But the interview was fascinating. Especially the part where O'Donnell said that Moynihan was a man of honor, through and through. I think he also said Moynihan was smart. So the obituary notices where others praise Moynihan's intellect do not surprise me.
http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/news/5488345.htm

Technical Difficulties, Please stand by

Manila
Bizarre. over the last few days I've experienced posted news items dropping out once I post additional news items. Blog is a timesink. Troubleshooting blog blocks is additional timesink. Feh. But a solution is out there, isn't it?

Here are <a href="http://discuss.2020hindsight.org/discuss/msgReader$3339?mode=day">links</a> <a href="http://discuss.2020hindsight.org/discuss/msgReader$3335?mode=day">to posts</a> <a href="http://discuss.2020hindsight.org/discuss/msgReader$3334?mode=day">that</a> <a href="http://discuss.2020hindsight.org/discuss/msgReader$3331?mode=day">went</a> away.

Good News amid all else: Spirited Away's nationwide release

Miscellaney
Spirited Away will be shown nationwide. That's what Oscar can do for a good movie. I've seen it twice already. Aside from my list of other things on my ToSee list, I'd see it again.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/030325/latu060_1.html

Daily war roundup of links

Boston Globe: Freed from Guantanamo, former prisoners describe their conditions.

More first-person accounts:

• Live from Kuwait, A Civilian War Diary
• QHate A group blog from Kuwait (QHate. Kuwait. Get it?)
• Wade Hudson in Baghdad as part of something called Iraqi Peace Team. It's on my to-read list.
• Kanan Makiya, Iraqi Expatriate's Warblog
• JD Lasica's New Media Musings. Okay, not first person, but JD examines War Journalism and has lots of good links. (thanks to JD for above-two links). Go there. Read it.

Kim Du Toit's News from the front: March 24 then and now. Ouch.

via email, from my brother, an AF reservist: Follow the Money: Facts on Who Benefits From Keeping Saddam Hussein In Power.

(I think my brother should blog; he forwarded a link or two from my site to his mailing list, along with other articles. So far, I've collected one protest letter in response to his mailings. Will more follow? The letter rightly belonged to the writer of the article I linked to. But I don't think the email zinger-person even read it. I stupidly spend too much time trying to have a serious, reasoned discussion. Give brother's friend benefit of the doubt. I'll think out loud here, using too much time and too many words. Silly me. Solution? For Bro to get a Blog. Take me out of the middle. Or to remove names and post the response here so that the world at large can ignore it.)

Craig's Booknotes' links of conscience about the unconscionable. Read his stuff. The other night on NPR I heard an interview with someone from Texas named Jensen, who's against the war. No, not Craig, but I wondered, Is he a relative? Yesterday, Craig links to the article the NPR-interviewee wrote about the experience: On NPR, Don't follow the script

Largely Undamaged Tape Raises NASA's Optimism

A flight recorder from Columbia was found, intact.

When the briefcase-sized box was opened over the weekend at a Minnesota specialty firm, technicians discovered only about two feet of tape that had been visibly damaged. The rest appeared to be in good shape.

Letter delivery better in Gulf War II

Current Events
This is getting near-ridiculous! Another story from Stars & Stripes. But there it is. THIS time around, letters are being processed faster to get 'em to the front, saith the U.S.general in charge of mail delivery.

<blockquote>Mail, Byrne noted, may be the second-most important moment of a soldier’s day. The first is chow. And letters can be nearly as important to troops as their weapon and ammunition when they go into combat.

“The letters aren’t left behind on a night stand or on a cot when they go into battle,” said Byrne. “They are taken along and read over and over.”</blockquote>

http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=13883