are they spring flowers…..
Posted: Monday, 12 March 2007 |
Comments
oh my heavens ... that stops you in your tracks doesn't it ... For all the world like the feeling I got when I went to see the french cemeteries, and walked around Ypres, Dunkirk, Arras and Vimy Ridge ...
soaplady from flooded with memories
Thanks, Island Threads. The Iraq war has been a disaster to Iraq and also the US. The incompetence of the Bush administration is almost incomprehensible. # Comparison with WWI, when the soldiers massacred each other in the trenches is not quite on the mark, I think. # The Reed display is of course ideological and not conducive to rational discourse. Unlike WWII when the Allies razed whole cities, the civilian dead in the Iraq war cannot be laid at the feet of Americans (or British). The Iraqis are killing each other. # Remember also how many (millions) Iraqis were murdered by Saddam Hussein - mostly Shias and Kurds, but Sunnis were not spared either.
mjc from NM,USA
I don’t think the soaplady was equating the 2 wars but reflecting that it had reminded her of the other sea of white, I think the Reed display is part of their Art week and I assume Gerrie went to the college to see the Art but was overcome by the flags, my reason for posting was to show the numbers visually, I agree about the other killings but several wrongs do not make a right, personally I just do not understand why so called intelligent human beings kill, we are supposed to be the most intelligent life form,
island threads from lewis
Talking blogs and Iraq there is a 91Èȱ¬ radio 4 programme about blogs, about the war from the people in it, http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/factual/pip/ruqlt/
island threads from lewis
It's only humans who think they are the most intelligent lifeform... and just as well the poor sods at the sharp end are blogging on Iraq, because the journalists are severely restricted. Or embedded. Same thing.
Flying Cat from cynics' corner club
yes, IT is quite right - I'm afraid I was commenting as a feeling creature, rather than a political creature ... I can do you a political analysis, if required ... But it wouldn't be anything much to do with the visceral feeling of looking at all of those flags ...
soaplady from on the misunderstood step ...
It shouldn't be forgotten either that the Western Isles' New Labour MSP fully supported this war and treated the SNP MP with whom he was 'debating' the issue on TV two or three years back with a sneering contempt. That is something I've not forgotten anyway.
Jimmy from Lewis
Visceral. Of course that is what art work with a political (ideological) bent is meant to induce, and the good ones are very effective. Bring to mind, for example, the reading with wind blowing by several people of the names of those who died at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, or the pictures and names (in silence) on Public Television (Lehrer Report) of our dead soldiers, almost every day (as the info. becomes available) - and then we think of the severely wounded (some 20 times the number of dead soldiers). I remember two years ago in the Hannover, Germany, townhall, looking at a 3D display of Hannover before and after the fire bombing: I felt so guilty and sad. Good ideological art (effective propaganda) makes one bleed. It is however no substitute for rational analysis (and I am NOT defending George W. here). I am confident soaplady could do a political analysis, by the way.
mjc from NM,USA
Rational analysis and Dubya in the same sentence, even taking into account the brackets, is a neatly oxymoronic juxtaposition. (Please excuse big words...they're useful for making a Point!)
Flying Cat from A hair shirt
FC: no one was suggesting that Incompetent Dubya would be the one carrying out the rational analysis (he could use some psychoanalysis, not that there would be hope even there). Anyway, Dubya may be a moron (he has been called worse), but I do not think he needs Oxy 5 (regular or extra strength) cream (no acne that I can see, but the poor bu*ger is clearly looking older by the day: happened to Carter, and even ole Bill Clinton. Being President can be a horribly tough job, obviously!). Our vice president (known as Darth Vader in some polite circles) does not seem to be any worse for the wear: he shoots fellow hunters, threatens worse to suspected enemy combatants, has blood clots, and yet does not evince any need for botox. # Heavens, our country is in a pickle: we could use some sympathy, for we seem to be heading to hell - on a road paved with good intentions - in a breadbasket. [of course, some folks see "oil cupidity" rather than "good intentions" - but I beg to disagree].
mjc from NM,USA
All my sympathy to those who did not and would not ever vote for Dubya....mind you it's cat sympathy, so probably not worth much!
Flying Cat from in sympathy
Textile Artists Notebook, 
RSS Feed