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Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2002 / 11:40 a.m. ~The Words of a General~ Speaking of Iraq, Jon Stewart went on and on last night about the US government�s obsession with attacking that country, even had a former (key word �former�) UN weapons inspector on for an interview. This was the 11:00 �Daily Show�, not the 7:00 �Daily Show�, which could mean it wasn�t really yesterday�s �Daily Show�, but the show from the day before. Either way, yeah, there you go, people who are thinking are sort of wondering, sort of saying, �Huh?�, and this is really encouraging to me. My hands are approaching numbness, the fingers anyway, as is typical in the morning before I�ve gone out in the lunchtime heat, before I�ve eaten and gotten my digestion, and hence blood, moving. My clothes are lightweight, made of cotton, but when I just looked in the mirror I saw a large stain on the front of my shirt. Funny that. Yesterday, around 11:00 a.m., D., the Supervisor, approached me to ask if I�d mind covering the reception desk from 12:00 to 1:00. Would I mind? Um, yes I mind, are you crazy?! So I said, No problem, or something to that effect, and I mentally prepared. I�d bring something to read, my water, I�d sit there instead of here, no problem, as I�d said, or something to that effect. In the first five minutes I was confused, couldn�t remember how to answer the switchboard and transfer calls, what to say when answering, how to open the door, where was the switch?, where is the site directory?, but then I got the hang of sitting there rather than here. I got the hang of looking out those front windows, at the trees, the sky, the clouds, the mountain in the distance, the little mountain that looks so big from here. Or there. Open the door for the flower deliveries, the guests here to take friends to lunch, call people and say, �You have a visitor at the front desk�, or �You have something waiting for you up here at the front desk�, then read a bit, look out the window some more. Hard to believe I did that every day, I sat there in the morning for 15 minutes, at lunch for an hour, in the afternoon for 15 minutes, then from 5:00 to 6:00, and when the actual receptionist was out I sat there all day, reading, looking at the weather outside, watching leaves fall or blossoms open, storms brew, opening the door for people, calling people at their desks, paging over the public address. It seems a lifetime ago. And it had been months since I�d sat there, months since I looked out those windows, floor to ceiling windows, chatted with so many people about the weather, isn�t it lovely?, or is it going to rain?, or isn�t it hot?, or isn�t it cold?!, over and over, me the surly anti-social one forced to be friendly every day. I don�t miss it. Off topic completely, but let me just say right here and now that the people who edit the �Big Brother 3� show are real troopers, and I admire them immensely. Watching the live feed has made me realize how incredibly and fucking BORING those people in that house are. They talk and talk and talk and say NOTHING. Whilst watching I long for the edited version. It reminds me of reading Stephen King�s The Stand, the second, unedited version. All I could think whilst reading it was, This REALLY needs to be edited! Pages removed. I can�t imagine having to sit and listen to those people in the BB house and find the gems amongst their conversations, if there are any. Even watching Chiara throw herself on Roddy last night, trying to get him to kiss her, wasn�t remotely interesting. They all go on and on about every little conversation they have with each other. One group talks amongst themselves, then they split off and talk to other groups about what they just talked about, and so it goes. I�m listening to the Commonwealth Club on College radio, and it�s awfully distracting. It�s some Strategic Commander, I�m not sure who, talking about the War On Terror and how WE can all help. The guy was talking about the divisions of strategic command, including the �Nookyular� Strategic Command and the SPACE strategic command. SPACE? Yikes! He said to remember these 4 key points: 1)The enemy we face is determined to do us great harm. 2)No business as usual. 3)Public/Private partnership with industry. 4)All citizens must be involved. That was General Richard Meyers, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Oh my god, this is really frightening to listen to this guy, talking about how we�ve secured our borders, etc. I don�t have the solution to terrorism, but I do feel that we need to work on our people skills when it comes to other cultures and countries, not hermetically seal and enclose this nation of ours. How I long to be a Bohemian ex-pat� What country should I choose? Italy, I think. A la �Stealing Beauty�. Oooh, war on Iraq, wait just a sec� How can we prepare without allies jumping in to help, the moderator asks� the General is having trouble answering, he resorts to doublespeak, and jingoism, plenty of use of that most popular phrase �weapons of mass destruction� (Jon Stewart tore that up last night beautifully! When our weapons are fired people say, �Mmmm, cinnamon!�). New military strategy, new defense strategy, he�s using the word �strategy� a lot� �We�re prepared to do whatever the President asks us to do, let�s leave it at that�. �Could we achieve the objective of unseating Saddam Hussein?�, she asks. He can�t answer. It would be giving aid to the enemy. He won�t even answer hypothetically. He�s a drone. He�s dedicated to his President, to doing what he�s told, to NOT QUESTIONING AUTHORITY. Crucial. Now, he�s dodging, talking about our loss already, soldiers who�ve died, how he talked to one of the soldiers� widows, �These are real people�. Now he�s dodging a question about leaks to the Media. �Don�t believe everything you read�, he says. He says it again. Blah, blah, yada, yada, yada. I just don�t know how to respond to what this guy is saying, but I can see who he is, sitting here listening, he�s a puppet and that�s his choice to be a puppet, I�m sure he is happy to be where, how and who he is. Oooh, good question, �Where do you believe Osama Bin Laden is?� �We don�t know, where UBL is�� oh no, �Usama�? I swear, he called him �UBL�. He�s covering his ass re: the killings of civilians at the Afghan wedding party recently. They�re �working it very, very hard�. Oh my god, he says �gubment�. �What constitutes victory?� �This is a war unlike any other�, he answers, admitting to the difficulty (and quoting his god, er, President). �There�s no good way to keep score�. Now he�s repeating all he�s been told, as goals and objectives. We need to keep weapons of mass destruction from falling into terrorist hands. �We know there are more attacks planned, we�re working on it.� They KNOW we�re going to be attacked. �How likely do you think it is we�ll have another attack on us in the near future?� Dodging. He says, �You can�t stop that�, re: suicide attackers. �We don�t have a crystal ball, we know we have disrupted some attacks, we�ve got to keep working at it very, very hard�. �Should the US Military be in the �nation-building� business?� Ooooh, excellent question!! Who IS this woman asking these questions? �People make the world go �round�, the General says. It�s not the technology of war, it�s the drones who operate the weapons, the true �heroes�. Right. Aw, soldiers have to eat powdered eggs, man, that�s rough. Poor guys. That�s harder than the kids who get their legs blown off when they step on land mines. Gee, powdered eggs. How horrible! And they don�t complain? Hey, those were audience questions! Nice. The Commonwealth Club of California, from San Francisco. Nice. �Dedicated to presenting important points of view on significant topics�. Sometimes I just LOVE non-commercial radio. My mother and I used to listen to radio theatre, I forget the name of it, it was some mystery theatre. And my father and I would listen to �A Prairie Home Companion� on our way to the Symphony. By the way, everything written above in quotes, was taken directly from the broadcast of the Commonwealth Club�s meeting as I listened. I type fast! I�m cold. 11:02 a.m., cubicle time. It�s a slow day, obviously, I was able to listen to all of that interview and type what I have. Time to read now. Cost of the War in Iraq
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