Not Really
by ChrisAugust 24th, 2005 9:19 pm
That’s my perfectly unqualified response to the question Billmon asks in the title of his post Is Anybody Listening? My gut reaction was to say no, but I think that doesn’t give enough credit to people who are genuinely concerned, so I hedged.
In the post, Billmon focuses on Safia Taleb al-Souhail, Iraq’s ambassador to Egypt who was used, willingly, as prop in last February’s State of the Union Address. Given that the draft Iraq constitution appears to establish something not entirely unlike an Islamic theocracy, hostile to woman’s rights, Al-Souhail is feeling a bit queasy about the mess that is Iraq and the mess that is Bush.
This story is much deeper than one woman’s change of heart about all, or even a little, that is Bush. Should the Iraq constitution result in something less spectacular than a full blown civil war, will anybody, but a few notice that our nation has sold another down the river by replacing oppression and brutality with more of the same? Can that compete with the heart warming madness of the staged embrace between a grieving Marine’s mother and a woman who believed her nation might soon be free from brutality because the most powerful man on earth told her so?
No, not really. We are just that far gone.
August 25th, 2005 at 6:58 am
ann althouse http://althouse.blogspot.com/ might want to comment on this constitution thing
see http://althouse.blogspot.com/2005/08/amsterdam-notebookspage-25.html#comments
from althouse’s february 2005 report on the state of the union
see http://althouse.blogspot.com/2005/02/state-of-union-speech.html:
althouse quote 2/05
It’s very touching when the President introduces Safia Taleb al-Suhail:
(bush–) One of Iraq’s leading democracy and human rights advocates is Safia Taleb al-Suhail. She says of her country, “we were occupied for 35 years by Saddam Hussein. That was the real occupation. ‘Thank you to the American people who paid the cost’ but most of all to the soldiers.” Eleven years ago, Safia’s father was assassinated by Saddam’s intelligence service. Three days ago in Baghdad, Safia was finally able to vote for the leaders of her country - and we are honored that she is with us tonight. (–endbush)
She stands and holds her fingers up in the peace/victory sign, then rotates it around into a single index finger, the inkable voter’s Finger of Democracy. Later, Bush introduces the parents of Marine Corps Sergeant Byron Norwood, who was killed in Iraq. Norwood’s mother, Janet, is standing right behind al-Suhail and, at one point, the Iraqi woman turns around and embraces the American woman. The embrace goes on for a long time, and we imagine al-Suhail is thanking Janet Norwood for what her son gave to the Iraqi people. This long, symbolic embrace leaves a deep impression, beyond any words in the speech.
endquote from althouse 2/05