See How We Are: Iraq And A Discontents’ iMix
Its been a while since I’ve written one of my soundtrack pieces and I’m feeling that familiar urge. When people question me about the level of importance music plays in my life, something I often flippantly say is “Life is only as good as the soundtrack.” And in spite of the cavalier way those words may come across at the time, I really mean them. I don’t form top five lists like the character in the High Fidelity–to me, that’s not very satisfying. My intent is not to catalog my own musical knowledge, but to amplify and explore the way I experience life. The reason I’ve been listening to a particular song or artist over and over sneaks up on me and my conscious mind is not always as quick as my unconscious mind in divining the messages I’m trying to send myself. Lately, I’ve been feeling a surprising ambivalence–a strange feeling in light of the political victories for progressives this election. And the song I’ve been listening to over and over to is X’s “See How We Are” from the album with the same title. Its a song not only about America’s “bottom-rung,” its also a song about national loss–of loss of moral priorities (not at all the same thing as the more sanctimonious “moral values”), a loss of empathy for our fellow man, and a loss of national leadership–a leadership that willingly accepts the challenge to ask us to sacrifice as individuals and as a nation, and citizens who are willing to accept that challenge.
Like many Americans, I was against the Iraq war, and support a military and diplomatic solution that will bring our military personnel home as quickly as possible. But in our rush to save our own, I’m disturbed by the mess we are leaving behind. By now we all know that there is no “better off” for Iraq after our misguided intervention–at least not anytime soon. Whether you supported the war or not, the war was always presented as a moral decision in which our government acted the part of Dostoyevsky’s Raskolnikov and chose the lesser of two evils–killing Iraqis in order to remove a tyrant. Well, that was the second moral case for the war wasn’t it? The first case was, of course, to kill Iraqis before they killed us with their non-existent weapons of mass destruction. I don’t know about you, but neither of these cases for invading Iraq made me feel like a very moral person.
I received a message from someone who spent time in Baghdad just after the invasion as part of the CPA’s original effort to reconstruct the country–someone who seems to have buried themselves in their work and in their faith since returning from what was once such a hopeful situation. Like others deeply involved, they realize that the United States’ actions in Iraq make us culpable for the solution. Is it fair for us to expect 30 million Iraqis who exist in a country with no laws and no security, to pull themselves up by their bootstraps because the invasion and occupation was incompetently handled by our government? As my friend points out, despite what we may think, most of those 30 million Iraqis are good people who only want what we want–peace, freedom, security, a working government and a way to make a living so they can support their families. He explains that many families are both Sunni, Shiite and Kurd through intermarriage and wonders how we can blame Iraqis who cannot escape for “gathering behind the skirts of families, tribes and clans for their protection and safety?” Can it be so easy for us, the catalyst for their present situation, to leave them behind? if you are the cook, aren’t you responsible for what ends up on the table?
Thus, my ambivalence. We do bear an enormous responsibility for the mess in Iraq. How do we balance the responsibility for an Iraq gone to hell with the desire to save our own men and women by pulling out our military? Do we follow the advice of the military experts or political strategists? We have probably done too much damage and made too many mistakes in Iraq to make up for, but perhaps we can begin again by at least trying to do the right thing this time. What we do with the responsibility we have created for ourselves will be a measure of the ability of our new congressional leadership, and the Bush Administration and other Republicans to let go of the unnecessary allegiances required by the politics of power, and reach for something more. Perhaps there is still time for “See How We Are” to become “See How We Were?” So, in a characteristic fit of optimism, I have created the first Discontents’ iMix called “See How We Are.” It begins with songs that rail against the current state of things and ends with songs that grow increasingly hopeful. Its what I’ve been listening too. Here’s hoping….
See How We Are: X
Straight to Hell (unedited version): The Clash
Bullet The Blue Sky: U2
Get Down Moses: Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros
What’s Going On? Marvin Gaye
Save It For Later: The English Beat
Pressure Drop: The Clash
The Stand: The Coup
That’s The Way of The World: Earth Wind & Fire
Redemption Song: Bob Marley
Yalla, Yalla: Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros
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Check out Seymour Hersh in the new “New Yorker”. Cheney and his neo-con factors really have a plan to jodernos todos — mess us all up — with a bombing raid on Iran that can only get us in deeper. El Vice Darth Vader (my term for him, always) claims he can just order up the strike, himself (or almost), no matter what the new Dem. Congress says. !Que pesadilla! What a nightmare — how many of us would be willing to march on the Pentagon? What major poet could we get to play harmonium and try to levitate the building into another dimension?
!Saludos a todos en Reno!
“And we only sing about it once every 20 years….”
A great X song that unfortunately is timely, more often than every 20 years.
Great mix overall, Ms. Discontent.
Thanks Marko–it helps me anyway.
Deigo–I saw the Hersch interview–I think I linked to it in the post after this one. Some Dem has got a bill that addresses oversight of Iran-related intelligence. Let’s hope it passes. Besos.
Now that piece twanged at my heart. America has a history of politicians needing an “enemy” to mobilize for whatever reason…In response to the question “Did you ever kill anybody?”, from the class he offered to guest speak in, I remember my Dad - a WWII vet who didn’t talk about his war experiences for almost 50 years, kneel down eyeball to eyeball in front of a high school student’s desk and with tears streaming down his face choke out - “I don’t know”. Then out it all came - a flood of emotion and the desire to provide insight and understanding to a young questioning mind…he talked how it was necessary to dehumanize the enemy in order to follow orders. Putting faces on Iraquis…giving them body parts and emotions and children…that’s tough to do with the “enemy”.
Myrna - I think you should copy that piece and send it to your “friend” - well done.