Author: R J Adams

There’s a new war in Iraq, according to NBC. Tonight Brian Williams and Richard Engel – NBC’s “man in Iraq” – agreed it was a whole new war.

They should try telling that to the Iraqis.

This new war has come about because Sunni insurgents (colloquially referred to as “Al Qaeda”) have begun targeting American soldiers whose commanders have, in their wisdom, decided to barrack in Iraqi police stations. Today, two suicide car bombers blew their vehicles up outside one such establishment, killing two Americans and wounding seventeen others.

Perhaps Admiral Fallon and General Petraeus might have considered the possibility of such an occurrence, given that Iraqi police stations have long been popular targets of suicide bombers. It might also have occurred to them that insurgents suppressed by US troop levels in Baghdad could possibility shift their theater of operations to other areas.

After all, it’s what insurgents do. It’s called guerrilla warfare. Isn’t General Petraeus America’s foremost expert on guerrilla warfare?

This latest incident occurred in Tarmiya, a small Arab Sunni town about twenty-five miles north of Baghdad.

It is not a new war, at all. It’s a four year old war that will get a great deal older and bloodier before it is through.

Filed under: Media drivel

If the earth was composed of motor cars, rather than countries, America would be a beat-up Model T Ford. Admittedly, there would be a few modern ‘accessories’ – a supercharged, ten-liter gas guzzling engine to assist in poisoning the planet; a global positioning system to pinpoint the areas of resource where waging war is economically viable; a well-stocked bar for George W Bush – and that not quite so modern, but equally vital asset – a leather-bound, large-print-so nothing-can-be-overlooked, copy of the Holy Bible.

Most other industrial nations would be symbolized by more up-to-date, sleeker, and people-friendlier vehicles, not necessarily environment-friendly, but certainly a cut above the overpowered, under-developed, rust-bucket that is the United States.

However, the most significant difference between them would have little to do with automobile evolution. The one piece of equipment missing from those motor cars that comprise the rest of the industrialized world, would be the part America considers most vital to the smooth running of its old Model T.

That ‘part’ is, of course, the Bible.

Nowhere among the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development – those motor cars considered most industrially and economically advanced – is there a hint of the mental-slavery devoted to this book by Model T America. While other motor cars pay lip service to the minority of their populace still loosely adhering to its tenets, the Book itself is never allowed to interfere in the smooth running of their engines.

Without a staunchly broadcast belief in the Bible, no US citizen can hope to gain access to the Model T’s workings. All of its not inconsiderable power is derived from those sworn to uphold “the Book”.

Unfortunately, the constraints imposed on its design and evolution by this book are causing it to rot away, even as it continues to voraciously gobble up those mopeds and bicycles on the planet not yet evolved to motor car status.

Unless America catches on, and chucks “the Book” out through the cavity that once was its windshield, all that will remain of the old Model T will be its supercharged, ten liter engine lying roaring in the dirt but going nowhere.

Its only remaining ability, to watch other more up-to-date, sleeker, and people-friendlier vehicles, purr smoothly past it.

Filed under: Scrapyard fodder

Early evening usually passes in our house with thirty minutes of BBC World News, recorded via PBS at 5.00pm, immediately followed by the NBC Nightly News at 5.30pm. The comparisons are occasionally laughable, often frustrating, frequently infuriating.

Friday evening was a prime example of the latter. The BBC led with a long, shocking, and detailed report from Chad, on the condition of the Darfur refugees, fleeing both from their own government forces and the despicable Arab Janjaweed militia, who have mercilessly raped, tortured and killed thousands of innocent Sudanese civilians over the last four years.

Seeking sanctuary across the border in neighboring Chad brought an all-to-brief respite, for the Janjaweed have followed and found them again.

The talk now is of genocide; another Rwanda in the making. While Western politicians splutter with indignation, but back away from upsetting the oil-rich Sudanese criminals running the government, there is no-one to protect these people from the ravages of the Janjaweed scum.

BBC reporter Orla Guerin, in eastern Chad, interviewed a young man who barely escaped with his life after being tortured by the militias. Before they left him, they stuck daggers into both his eyes – piercing his eyeballs. He is now totally blind.

It is obvious that no-one will do anything to stop the bloodletting in Africa. The UN is helpless unless western nations back it by providing armed forces prepared to take on both Janjaweed and Sudanese government forces.

It won’t happen because public opinion in the West is not pushing for action. So far as many Americans are concerned, Darfur is no longer a problem. Why? Because the American media has washed its hands of Darfur. It doesn’t feature on nightly news broadcasts anymore.

Immediately after viewing this report on the BBC, I switched to the NBC Nightly News as it briefly headlined with Bush and Iraq, before spending the latter half of its preciously short news time “Trading Places”, a nightly segment regaling Americans with how well NBC employees care for their aging relatives. As always, the last segment was “Making a Difference”, a regular slot attempting to promote the American “feel good factor” by spotlighting some minor nobody knitting blankets for the troops, or baking cookies for the “war effort”.

It’s not often Sparrow Chat stoops to blasphemy, but –

“Jesus Christ! What the Hell is going on here?”

Two hundred thousand have died in Darfur, and two and half million have been displaced; hundreds are dying every day in Iraq, and two million have been displaced. Meanwhile, Brian “Mister Complacency” Williams is regaling us with tales of how well he looks after his Daddy!

Do Americans really think they are good people because they bake cookies or knit blankets? They’re about as warm-hearted as the audience sitting in on the guillotining of the aristocrats at the French revolution!

According to history – they knitted, as well!

More on the crisis in Chad, including part of Orla Guerin’s report, can be found HERE.

Filed under: Bad news