Klammheimliche Freude, clandestine joy, is an expression from the 1970s in Germany.
Whenever the Red Army Fraction or another violent left movements had a successful operation, their sympathizers were accused of such joy. To a certain extend such blame was true. Only few agreed with the RAF actions, but a lot felt joy that someone was doing something against the repressive rightwing political/capital dung pile of that time.
A month ago I titled a piece In Favor of Killing American Troops. I tried to explain how I do NOT wish for anybody to die violently, but that reports of ever higher U.S. casualties will be the only way to get the U.S. out of Iraq.
With 10 more GI’s dead yesterday, I’ll get to see the headline I wished for "U.S. May deathtoll in Iraq exceeds record." Guilty of klammheimliche Freude, again.
Guilty also of feeling much sadness and sorrow.
At least 40 Iraqis died today in two big bombings. Of the 150 plus wounded, many will die too (but will not be counted) because of the very sorry state of Iraqi hospitals and for lack of medicine and doctors.
Not that we will see anything of this. News about carnage in Iraq is heavily censored now:
Police who arrived at the scene confiscated the cameras of journalists who came to cover the attack, according to AP photographers and television cameramen at the scene.
The U.S. does the equivalent with a catch22 like legalistic approach:
Since last year, the military’s embedding rules require that journalists obtain a signed consent from a wounded soldier before the image can be published. Images that put a face on the dead, that make them identifiable, are simply prohibited.
As we are not allowed to see the real mess anymore, we are left to note the more entertaining aspects. An Iraqi special police platoon, in full uniform, kidnaps four British mercenary guards and their client from within a finance ministry office.
There is certainly some never to be told interesting backstory to this. But then, it is just a diversion.
Another sad thing – Cindy Sheehan has given up her attempts to end the war. In her farewell diary she explains:
I am deemed a radical because I believe that partisan politics should be left to the wayside when hundreds of thousands of people are dying for a war based on lies that is supported by Democrats and Republican alike. It amazes me that people who are sharp on the issues and can zero in like a laser beam on lies, misrepresentations, and political expediency when it comes to one party refuse to recognize it in their own party. Blind party loyalty is dangerous whatever side it occurs on. People of the world look on us Americans as jokes because we allow our political leaders so much murderous latitude and if we don’t find alternatives to this corrupt "two" party system our Representative Republic will die and be replaced with what we are rapidly descending into with nary a check or balance: a fascist corporate wasteland.
Well said. Take a look at this bill many Democrats voted for. Tens of billions for the weapon industry, lots of other pork, no timelines for Bush, but pressure on the Iraqi parliament and administration. Pressure to pass THE Iraqi oil law. THE big price the war is about. This is the moral abyss some Democrats even called a success:
H.R.2206 – U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans’ Care, Katrina Recovery, and
Iraq Accountability Appropriations Act, 2007 (Enrolled as Agreed to or
Passed by Both House and Senate)Title I, Chapter 3, Sec. 1314
(b) Conditioning of Future United States Strategy in Iraq on the Iraqi Government’s Record of Performance on Its Benchmarks-
(1) IN GENERAL-
(A) The United States strategy in Iraq
, hereafter, shall be conditioned on the Iraqi government meeting
benchmarks, … :
(i) Forming a Constitutional Review Committee and then completing the constitutional review.
(ii) Enacting and implementing legislation on de-Baathification.
(iii) Enacting and implementing legislation to ensure the equitable distribution of hydrocarbon resources of the people of Iraq
without regard to the sect or ethnicity of recipients, and enacting and
implementing legislation to ensure that the energy resources of Iraq benefit Sunni Arabs, Shia Arabs, Kurds, and other Iraqi citizens in an equitable manner.
…(c) Limitations on Availability of Funds-
(1) LIMITATION- No funds appropriated or otherwise made available for the `Economic Support Fund’ and available for Iraq
may be obligated or expended unless and until the President of the
United States certifies in the report outlined in subsection (b)(2)(A) and makes a further certification in the report outlined in subsection (b)(2)(D) that Iraq is making progress on each of the benchmarks set forth in subsection (b)(1)(A).Chapter 6
Other Bilateral Economic Assistance
ECONOMIC SUPPORT FUNDFor an additional amount for `Economic Support Fund’, $2,502,000,000, to remain available until September 30, 2008 …
It is either bribery or extortion. It is criminal.
The military doubts that any progress is achievable. Iraq likely to miss goals set by U.S. – at least until September, so now they are busy to redefine success.
It is all about avoiding some – any end-date where Bush and the very bipartisan U.S. foreign policy establishment will finally have to declare defeat.
But that day will come. Maybe with the next President, probably later.
Until then what is left is open sorrow, and once a while, clandestine joy.