Absurdity

The reports from the alternate media are in direct opposition to the things that Patraeus talks about. From the Patraeus/Bush point of view the dead baby is a bright sign because this time the dead baby is not mutilated. The convenient lie and the PR spin are in full bloom, yet the brutality is self evident.

Part of the reason why there is a downward turn in violence in areas of Iraq is because those areas have been ethnically cleansed. Also it is said that somewhere in the neighborhood of six million people are now Iraqi refugees, those who have left the country completely and those who have been forced to resettle according to religious affiliation. If nobody is in a region, yes its going to be quiet.

This is not something to celebrate as if it were some kind of trend brought about through good American policy. It is just the opposite it is a tragedy brought about by disastrous American policy. Is the pail of rotting garbage, half full or half empty?

So after all this Patraeus wants another Friedman Unit, an F.U, six more months. Once again we will witness the re-return of the pathetic because the Iraq occupation isn't going anywhere, especially home.

Constantly Risking Absurdity

Constantly risking absurdity
and death
whenever he performs
above the heads
of his audience
the poet like an acrobat
climbs on rime
to a high wire of his own making
and balancing on eyebeams
above a sea of faces
paces his way
to the other side of the day
performing entrachats
and sleight-of-foot tricks
and other high theatrics
and all without mistaking
any thing
for what it may not be
For he's the super realist
who must perforce perceive
taut truth
before the taking of each stance or step
in his supposed advance
toward that still higher perch
where Beauty stands and waits
with gravity
to start her death-defying leap
And he
a little charleychaplin man
who may or may not catch
her fair eternal form
spreadeagled in the empty air
of existence

Lawrence Ferlinghetti