Month: November 2006

San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina, 4 pm.

A reader writes about servicewoman Alyssa Peterson, whose story can be found here:

When the both of us were in the Defense Language Institute learning Arabic, Alyssa and I talked a lot, sharing the stresses of military training and learning a foreign language in 63 weeks. The most striking things about her were how earnest she was, and how honestly she wrestled with moral issues. She finished training before I did and indeed died in Iraq just before I graduated. 

Of course we heard through the grapevine that it was suicide, but this never sat well with me, given that she was very devout and always cheerful except for when she faced injustice (something that one faces often, in Army training) toward herself or anyone around her.  She was, I felt, too great a soul for her to have killed herself just because her unit’s deployment had been extended as some – especially those who had been discomfited by her honesty – tried to imply.

It is this new story of objection to torture, however, that makes sense to me.  I am glad it has come out.

I am glad too. When you think of American soldiers, remember Pat Tillman and Alyssa Peterson. The flag is still there.

My column on the mid-terms and the choice we face can be read here. Money quote:

America’s founding fathers constructed a system so that if the president would not change a disastrous course, another branch of government could force him. A Democratic Congress would simply put a brake on the Bush express train. It could force the president to start vetoing some spending bills; it could encourage him to appoint moderate justices to the Supreme Court; it could demand an end to torture and a restoration of habeas corpus; it could compel him to be finally accountable for failure in Iraq; and it could investigate some of the many abuses of power that have accumulated during one-party rule.

Whether it does any of these things will be up to the Democratic leadership in both or either House. But that is a good thing too. Especially for the war. The Democrats need to be forced to take responsibility for the war on Islamist terror, to make the hard choices it demands. With a Democratic victory, we may ‚Äî finally ‚Äî have a serious debate about how to do triage in the ravaged country of Iraq, how to grapple with America’s dangerously growing debt, and how to defang the growing menace of Iran. Bush may even have to go back to some of his father’s wise men again, hire a new defense secretary and listen to a military leadership that wants a decent outcome in Iraq.

We may get, in other words, sane conservatism back again. And it may require a big Democratic victory to do it. Given the level of denial in the White House, this is not really an election. It’s more like an intervention. To save Republicanism from Bush, to save Bush from himself, and to save the world from impending crisis.

I occasionally get emails like the one below. I’m publishing it simply to say one thing in this nerve-racked time, especially on the issue of homosexuality. Gay people have the power to transform their own lives – and the world. In fact, only gay people can really accomplish the kind of change on this issue that we need. This revolution does not happen on the streets – but in living rooms and kitchen tables, in offices and schools, at church and at the movies. It’s happening more and more. And the power of honesty is extraordinary:

With your inspiration I found the strength to come out to my mother and father today. I have dreamt of this day for years. I have spent countless nights over the last 15 years (and I am 28 years old) going over in my head how it might be. I have read Virtually Normal three times. I have tons of gay friends and a partner of almost three years.

But finally today, I clutched my copy of Virtually Normal in my childhood bedroom, said a prayer to my God, and walked into my parents’ living room and revealed to them this secret that I have held for too long. I know it will take some time for them to understand, if ever, but I know that the only way that I can live a fulfilling, honest life is to be honest with those who have sacrificed so much for me.

It’s a simple and beautiful way to think of it. I remember another gay man who persuaded me two decades ago to come out to my own parents. He said a simple thing: "Don’t you deserve a mother and father?" At first, I said, well of course I have a mother and father and they love me. And then he said: "But do they really even know you? All of you? How can they love someone if they do not know him? Why are you shutting yourself off from the love of your parents?"

And so I told them. And their love has sustained me for two decades, and still sustains me, and celebrates my relationship. You ask me about Christianity? This is Christianity to me. That’s why that book is dedicated to my mother and my father. I owe them everything. But I once feared their love.

Be not afraid.

An evangelical reflects:

When I see a leader who becomes stubborn and rigid, who becomes increasingly less compassionate toward his adversaries, increasingly tyrannical in his own organization, who rouses anger and arrogance in others, I wonder if he is not generating all of this heat because he is trying so hard to say ‘no’ to something surging deep within his own soul. Are his words and deeds not so much directed against an enemy ‘out there’ as they are against a much more cunning enemy within his own soul. More than once I have visited with pastors who have spent hours immersed in pornography and then gone on to preach their most ‘spirit-filled’ sermons against immorality a day or two later. It‚Äôs a disconnect that boggles the rational mind.

No amount of accountability seems to be adequate to contain a person living with such inner conflict. Neither can it contain a person who needs continuous adrenaline highs to trump the highs of yesterday. Maybe this is one of the geniuses of Jesus: he knew when to stop, how to refuse the cocktail of privilege, fame and applause that distorts one’s ability to think wisely and to master self.

Yes, Jesus knew when to stop. He renounced all earthly power for the cross – to prove God’s love and forgiveness. He could have led a political movement. He refused to. His refusal is at the heart of his message. And all Christians – of all kinds and varieties – need to follow his example again.

Josh Marshall is all over what appears to be a desperate GOP tactic: harassing robocalls. Scroll down for details. More here.

Virtually the entire conservative movement is now disowning this administration and this Congress. I welcome every single one. Here’s the latest bunch of right-wingers urging a vote for the Democrats:

Faced on Sept. 11, 2001 with a great challenge, President Bush made little effort to understand who had attacked us and why—thus ignoring the prerequisite for crafting an effective response. He seemingly did not want to find out, and he had staffed his national-security team with people who either did not want to know or were committed to a prefabricated answer.

As a consequence, he rushed America into a war against Iraq, a war we are now losing and cannot win, one that has done far more to strengthen Islamist terrorists than anything they could possibly have done for themselves. Bush’s decision to seize Iraq will almost surely leave behind a broken state divided into warring ethnic enclaves, with hundreds of thousands killed and maimed and thousands more thirsting for revenge against the country that crossed the ocean to attack them. The invasion failed at every level: if securing Israel was part of the administration’s calculation‚Äîas the record suggests it was for several of his top aides‚Äîthe result is also clear: the strengthening of Iran‚Äôs hand in the Persian Gulf, with a reach up to Israel‚Äôs northern border, and the elimination of the most powerful Arab state that might stem Iranian regional hegemony.

The war will continue as long as Bush is in office, for no other reason than the feckless president can’t face the embarrassment of admitting defeat. The chain of events is not complete: Bush, having learned little from his mistakes, may yet seek to embroil America in new wars against Iran and Syria.

Meanwhile, America’s image in the world, its capacity to persuade others that its interests are common interests, is lower than it has been in memory.

Yes, there’s the usual anti-Semitic undertow here. It’s Buchanan’s posse. At the same time, on the simple facts on the ground, is any of this even debatable at this point? Republican or Democrat, conservative or liberal, we have to repudiate this administration’s disastrous incompetence, or face even greater perils than we have been exposed to already. Tomorrow’s the day. Do not be silent.

When rock met hip-hop. Aerosmith meets Run-DMC.

Click here to see the other entries…

Amazing listening, in retrospect. Money quote:

"Heavenly Father give us grace and mercy, help us this next week and a half as we go into national elections and Lord we pray for our country. Father we pray lies would be exposed and deception exposed. Father we pray that wisdom would come upon our electorate …"

Yep, his prayers were answered all right – but God works in mysterious ways. David Kuo comments here. The more you listen, the more uncanny it gets. It is as if Haggard saw this coming, and almost wanted it. If you have faith, pray for him, and especially for his family.

(Photo: Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty.)