By Lucy Mohl
In the absence of major headline-grabbers --
(Yes, Charles Taylor is finally out of Liberia, replaced by new President Blah. Or, as we would say in this country, Blah Blah Blah. Though it was top of the Seattle Times today, few of the national news sites are playing the potential end of 14 years of violence much above the fold.)
It's strangely affecting, even moving, to see the community of bloggers in times of conflict reaching out to each other.
Salam Pax, the forefather of Iraqi bloggers, the celebrated Baghdad correspondent who kept posting "Where's Raed?" as the world turned, has discovered a soulmate in Turning Tables, written by Moja. And who is Moja, but a U.S. soldier on his second tour of duty. Though he notes, "due to a recent flurry of negative feedback i have taken the liberty of changing or omitting any names or information that i see fit to protect national security and to cover my own ass," Moja provides vivid descriptions of military life, and musings on the military/bureaucratic mind:
"i heard that 3 of the 4 'aces' were down for the count...i find it kind of silly that all of these vicious people who worked the iraqi country around their own wants...all of these carnivores who fed on the differences and lives of so many...have been reduced to a deck of cards...i know the reasons for it...but i wonder how many staff meetings were held to figure out just who would be the 4 of clubs...people with a hell of a lot more rank then me...making very important decisions...but doesn't it sound real news friendly when tom brokaw announces that they've caught 'the jack of diamonds'...a man with an even catchier name like 'machine gun abdula'...are these guys the atrocious leaders of an out of the way country filled with the 2nd largest oil reserve in the world...or are they 1930's american gangsters...baby face uday...maybe they're just a card game...where the stakes are really high...and the odds of winning are a house secret...
no political leadership does what is right simply because what is right is the right thing to do...that reason simply is not entirely worth it to the powers that be...people get real caught up in thinking that there are actually rules in the world scheme...i don't think that's the case...it's all about who comes out on top...at any cost...it pays to be the top dog...because you can make and break the rules...do i think that this is right??? hell no...it's so screwed up that i want to start screaming...
"but instead of going off like a crazy man...i'll take the easy way out...and stuff my face with some chow hall ice cream...finally...we've got ice cream...it's actually more like fluffed vanilla milk...but it is frozen...the little arab guys serving it up have to do it quick because it starts to liquefy immediately upon leaving the freezer...i've watched them throw away half full containers of the stuff because they couldn't serve it all up in time...it's alright though...the army's got a lot of money...about 4 billion a month if i'm not mistakin'...but man is it cold...my mouth isn't even used to it any more...it feels foreign going down my throat..."
It reminds me of Michael Herr's "Dispatches" from the Vietnam era. The same quality is in Salam's postings: writers -- real writers -- caught in a moment where they know there's a game going on, but they're stuck on the board and can only report on what's happening to the pieces.
Back to top