not good

Arabs Call for U.S., U.K. Iraq Withdrawal.

I think they may have heard the CIA guy talking on NPR last week about how he was pretty sure that we would be attacking Iran and then maybe Libya or Saudi Arabia after we had Iraq locked down.

Probably should have kept quiet about that.

prisoners of war

I've been thinking about POWs and the Geneva Conventions
today, mainly because of the American soliders currently being held in Iraq.

Well, actually I've been thinking more about whether or not broadcasting their pictures on TV was a violation of their rights as POWs.

I'm not really sure, because the signifigant article is apparently:

Art 13. Prisoners of war must at all times be humanely treated. Any unlawful act or omission by the Detaining Power causing death or seriously endangering the health of a prisoner of war in its custody is prohibited, and will be regarded as a serious breach of the present Convention. In particular, no prisoner of war may be subjected to physical mutilation or to medical or scientific experiments of any kind which are not justified by the medical, dental or hospital treatment of the prisoner concerned and carried out in his interest.

Likewise, prisoners of war must at all times be protected, particularly against acts of violence or intimidation and against insults and public curiosity.

Measures of reprisal against prisoners of war are prohibited.

-Convention (III) relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War. Geneva, 12 August 1949.

The question is whether or not showing someone on television is an offense great enough to be protected against, I guess.

Frankly, the US is so heavily mediated, that I would think an American POW might feel slighted if they weren't on television.

Maybe that's mean, I don't know. I think really what makes the U.S. Government so mad about this incident is that it belies how well Hussein understands us, and how to combat us.

The Iraqis can not defeat us militarily without resorting to weapons of mass destruction. However, it has been demonstrated in the past that we can be defeated (or at least worn down to the point where we go away) via guerilla insurgency.

And images. We are a very media oriented society, and images are very powerful to us. Images of our children captured and dying make us upset and make us not want to fight wars anymore...this is why the military has controled media access to wars since Vietnam.

But Iraq has it's own media, that can give us those same images, and the military can't do anything...because once the image is out, there's no stopping it's circulation.

But getting back to the POWS. We're their rights violated by being shown on TV? I don't know. It doesn't matter, because the way the Geneva Convention works is that it's prosecuted by the winner of the conflict, so if the US wins and says Iraq violated the Geneva Conventions, then they did.

But in the end, probably the soliders were no more violated than any other normal prisoner of war... if there is such a thing. After all, they probably didn't see the broadcast in their cells.

Web bonus link!: Iraq: Are The Geneva Conventions Still Relevant Today?

Iraq issues Bush Family Advice: Surrender Power

Calling President Bush "unstable," Odai Hussein (son of Saddam) today offered the U.S. President the advice that he "should give up power in America with his family."

Lol. I guess Iraq will play the "no, you" card in this one:

Odai also warned that a United States-led attack will force Iraq to broaden the war against the United States. Any attack on Iraq, he said, would leave ``the wives and mothers of those who fight us constantly crying,'' adding, ``They should not believe there is a single safe spot for them inside Iraq or outside Iraq.''

Iraq's foreign minister, Naji Sabri, also said that Mr. Bush should step down, ``because he made the U.S. hated and isolated in the world.''

Myself, I'm psyched for the day Bush and Mr. Cheyney get dragged into the Hague.

I know, but a guy can dream, can't he?

hey wow, war

NYTIMES.com: In Address, Bush to Tell Hussein to Step Down or Face War

The Headline actually read:
U.S. Ends Effort for U.N. War Approval
And Declares Diplomatic Window 'Closed'

Huh. Am I a patriot yet? Are we sending Dennis Miller to fly a flighter jet? Or better yet, infantry?

All in favor of sending all in favor of this war to go fight it, say "AYE!"

musiX

I haven't posted in awhile, just not in the mood. I am totally psyched up about os x and live music performance, even f it is more to the electronica end.

Don't care? look at Pete.Yandell.com's OS X Audio Links and start playing. I just downloaded a few pieces of freeware and now I have a functinoing synthesizer on my mac, sort of.

Well, kind of.

It's really cool, trust me.

"there's just nothing to work with here"

Official Hired to Improve U.S. Image Resigns

I really can't improve on that.

the invasion you never knew about

Ha ha. We were invaded by Cuba last week, and nobody knew until they surrendered... in down town Key West. Feel safe now?

Ridge Discovers Size of Home Security Task

Carrying two AK-47 rifles and full clips of ammunition, they docked their boat before dawn at the marina of the local Hyatt hotel, a short distance from the United States Coast Guard station. Undetected, the Cubans, still in their camouflage uniforms and black boots, marched into the middle of the sultry Florida resort town looking for someone to surrender to.

what?

I just read this, thanks to Tom Tomorrow:

White House Concedes That Counterterror Budget Is Meager

Re sponding to criticism from Democrats and to the mounting concern of state and local governments, the White House is now saying that the long delayed government spending plan for the year does not provide enough money to protect against terrorist attacks on American soil.

Ok, let me get this straight--the story so far.

We (speaking for the U.S.A. here) get attacked by a terrorist group. The government toughens up, spends us in to a deficit gearing up for the war against terrorism. Along with this comes spending, what, billions(??) of dollars reorganizing the govenment to be a more effective immanent police state, and of course the impending War on Iraq ][ (which may cost 100 billion by the end of it all, according to the White house)...

and there's no money to actually "protect against terrorist attacks on American soil."

Well, that's just fucking beautiful.

Maps of Gunthak and Dulak

Using Everquest's new Cartograpy System, I made maps of the Gulk of Gunthak and Dulak's Harbor. And now they are available to you, the reader. Or anyone who followed this link but never reads my website, and never will again.

No matter, I cherish you all. All your eyballs and page views.

Instructions are included in the .zips. you must have Legacy of Ykesha in order for these to be useful at all.

Now go play.

Gulf of Gunthak

Dulak's Harbor