Not even the world's tiniest violin...
I don't really think I can work up any sympathy for
this guy after his homicidal rampage.
"You probably think I'm a monster." Former U.S. soldier Steven Green has been convicted of raping and killing a 14-year-old Iraqi girl.
That's what FBI agents said former U.S. soldier Steven Green told them nearly three years ago about accusations that he had raped a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and killed her and her family.
Green was found guilty Thursday in U.S. District Court in Paducah of the crimes and could face the death penalty.
Not only did he rape and kill a 14-year-old girl plus her family, he
burned the girl's body to destroy the evidence of his crime. I can't even express my disgust.
Labels: sexual assault, violence against women, war
The irony pains me so
It
really does.
Thomas said he and his wife came up with the unprecedented idea to present the president with the Purple Heart over breakfast one morning a few months ago as they discussed the verbal attacks, both foreign and domestic, the commander in chief has withstood during his time in office.
"We feel like emotional wounds and scars are as hard to carry as physical wounds," Thomas said.
The medal was awarded to Thomas on Dec. 18, 1965, following injuries he sustained while serving in heavy combat with the 173rd Airborne Brigade in Vietnam.
Thanks, xiamin.
Labels: absurdity, war
The Shape of Water
Tonight I had the chance to see
The Shape of Water, a film about female activists in the third world. The director, an academic who studies development in the third world, set out to make a film that showed how women around the world are standing up for their dignity and survival, in their own ways and within their own cultures. (She was also at the screening, which was pretty neat.) There's much that inspires in this movie and much that breaks your heart - five groups of women living in poverty have their work cut out for them to simply survive, let alone fight forces like multinational corporations and thousand-year-old traditions.
I was very struck by the sensitivity expressed in these groups' approaches to their problems. A Senegalese activist group speaking out against female genital cutting not only hosted movie viewings and public discussions about the issue, but reached out to those who actually relied on performing the procedure as a livelihood by finding alternative sources of income. And they were not afraid to go head-to-head with the people who disagree with them; one of the most interesting moments in the film involved a young man toting a cell phone and wearing a Nike t-shirt arguing to the women that they needed to remain loyal to their African customs and not be so quick to embrace white Western culture.
It takes someone with an understanding of where the custom comes from and why it persists to begin to approach ending it. News stories about FGM and honor killings and other practices that Western readers can't begin to understand portray them as arising out of a vacuum - being an expression of pure evil. But there's no such thing as pure evil; there's a reason for everything people do, even if the reasons are based on misunderstandings or lies or wishful thinking. The Shape of Water gracefully shows that making culture-wide change is more complicated than just asking people to
stop.
Labels: changing culture, human rights, poverty, war
2007 Borah Symposium: Women, War and Peace
Anyone in the area should take note that the 2007 Borah Symposium is focusing on the subject of
Women, War and Peace. The series of lectures will be kicked off tomorrow at 7:00 at the Kenworthy theater in Moscow with a screening of
The Shape of Water, followed by a discussion with the filmmaker
Kum-Kum Bhavani. Lectures will also be held on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday - check out the
schedule for details. Other speakers include Mary Robinson, the first female president of Ireland, Sister Lorraine Gaseau, a noted peace negotiator, and Cynthia Enloe, who I'll confess I'd never heard of, but I'll
trust Samhita that she's pretty amazing.
And if you plan on going, email me so we can get a cup of coffee and talk about what we learn!
Labels: gender, Moscow, war
Death and Destruction
If you didn't see it, read yesterday's
NYT front page article about a family's fight, and ultimate loss, to keep their home in Baghdad in the face of sectarian power struggles. There was one death - the family's matriarch was murdered for seeking the protection of US forces against the sectarian violence - but it removed three generations of the Sunni family from their home in a primarily Shiite neighborhood.
The
number of dead in Iraq only begins to tell the story of the destruction that war has brought to the country.
Labels: Iraq, war
