Sic Semper Tyrannis

Athenaeum- Christmas Poetry

 

http://turcopolier.typepad.com/the_athenaeum/2012/12/robert-louis-stevenson-christmas-at-sea.html

The Solitude of Combat Veterans - Alan Farrell

 "Ladies and Gentlemens:

Kurt Vonnegut -- Corporal Vonnegut -- famously told an assembly like this one that his wife had begged him to "bring light into their tunnels" that night. "Can't do that," said Vonnegut, since, according to him, the audience would at once sense his duplicity, his mendacity, his insincerity... and have yet another reason for despair. I'll not likely have much light to bring into any tunnels this night, either.

The remarks I'm about to make to you I've made before... in essence at least. I dare to make them again because other veterans seem to approve. I speak mostly to veterans. I don't have much to say to them, the others, civilians, real people. These remarks, I offer you for the reaction I got from one of them, though, a prison shrink. I speak in prisons a lot. Because some of our buddies wind up in there. Because their service was a Golden Moment in a life gone sour. Because... because no one else will.

 

New Post On The Athenaeum

Veterans Day 2012

http://turcopolier.typepad.com/the_athenaeum/2012/11/veterans-day-2010.html

New Athenaeum Post

New post is up over on The Athenaeum:

"A Bit of Halloween History, Poetry, Music, & Ephemera"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://turcopolier.typepad.com/the_athenaeum/2012/10/a-bit-of-halloween-history-poetry-music-ephemera.html

"What Has To Be Said" Gunter Grass

Download What has to be said - guenter grass

Günter Grass warns in the Süddeutsche Zeitung of a war against Iran. In his poem with the title „What has to be said“ the Nobel laureate in literature demands, that Israel shouldn't get the German submarines which have the capability to launch nuclear weapons.  LeAnder

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"What has to be said

Why am I silent, silent for too long,
what is obvious and was practiced in
simulation games, at the end as survivors
we at most will be footnotes.

It is the asserted right for a preemptive strike
that could extinguish the Iranian people
steered to organized jubilation, enslaved
by a braggart, since in its realm of power
the creation of an atomic bomb is suspected.

But why do I deny myself
to name the other country by its name,
a country in which many years by now –although kept silent –
a growing nuclear potential is available,
but beyond control, since not accessible for inspection?

The general concealment of this fact,
to which my silence is subordinating itself,
feels to me like a burdening lie
and coercion, holding out punishment
as soon as it is ignored;
the verdict „antisemitism“ is well known.

But now, since from my land
that over and over again is caught up and confronted
with its very own crimes
that are without comparison,
but in turn businesslike, although with swift lip
declared as reparation
will soon deliver another submarine to Israel,
whose specialty consists in its ability to steer
all annihilating warheads to where the existence
of not one single atom bomb is even proven,
but as fearful apprehension wants to be evidence,
I say, what has to be said.

But why was I silent for so long?
Since I thought, my provenance
that is tainted with a stain that can never be erased
forbids to turn this fact into articulated truth,
since I cannot expect the country Israel, I feel tied to
and want to remain so, to put up with it.

Why do I only say it now,
aged and with my last ink.
Does the nuclear power of Israel
endanger the already delicate world peace?
Since what already tomorrow could be too late,
has to be said today;
but also since we –as Germans burdened enough-could
turn into suppliers for a new crime
that is foreseeable, why our partial guilt
couldn't be blotted out by any of
the usual excuses.

And I have to admit, I am silent no more,
because I am tired of the hypocrisy of the West,
as it is to be hoped many will unshackle themselves from silence,
call on the causal agent of this discernible danger
to abandon the use of force,
likewise demanding an unhindered and permanent control
of Israel's atomic potential
and the Iranian nuclear plants
by an international authority
admitted by both countries.

Only in this way Israelis and Palestinians,
more so, all people that live in this
region occupied by delusion,
close to each other and at enmity,
and finally also all of us can be helped."  Gunter Grass 

I understand that Bibi is not happy with this.  He moans of "ultimate anti-Semitism" and speaks of Grass's WW2 service in the Waffen SS.  pl

http://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/2006/08/gunter_grass_and.html.

 

 

"Red Fields" by Jason Poudrier

 http://turcopolier.typepad.com/the_athenaeum/2012/03/red-fields-by-jason-poudrier.html

pl

"John Brown's Body" Stephen Vincent Benet

 

Someone sent me this link to a piece of Stephen Vincent Benet's book length poem, "John Brown's Body" that won a Pulitzer in 1928 if I remember correctly.  It is uneven.  The best parts IMO are the descriptions of the two peoples, the armies and the leaders.  The narrative that runs through it of some mythical mountaineer has always escaped me.  That is probably my fault.

This description of the "marble man" is exquisite.  pl 

http://oldpoetry.com/opoem/show/38925-Stephen-Vincent-Benet-Army-Of-Northern-Virginia

Memorial Day - 2011

 
Download Dear Hearts Across the Seas

The essay is my work.  It was written in the midst of the Iraq War of 2003- .  pl 

Who is this?

OK. Confess.  Your sister?  Your cousin?  Miss Croatia of 1998?

View this photo

"we dance in our chains" Nietszche

"The phrase dancing in chains is in Beyond Good and Evil, Chapter VII. "This world with which WE are concerned, in which we have to fear and love, this almost invisible, inaudible world of delicate command and delicate obedience, a world of "almost" in every respect, captious, insidious, sharp, and tender--yes, it is well protected from clumsy spectators and familiar curiosity! We are woven into a strong net and garment of duties, and CANNOT disengage ourselves--precisely here, we are "men of duty," even we! Occasionally, it is true, we dance in our "chains" and betwixt our "swords"; it is none the less true that more often we gnash our teeth under the circumstances, and are impatient at the secret hardship of our lot. But do what we will, fools and appearances say of us: "These are men WITHOUT duty,"-- we have always fools and appearances against us! "  TS Wittig

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I find this passage in "Beyond Good and Evil" to be expressive of much of human experience.  It captures something  I have been trying to express in several ways including "The Butcher's  Cleaver."

The protracted process of the presidential primary season brings this very much to mind.  Perhaps the campaigns enjoy all this.  For me it would be a time in purgatory.

I would be interested in your thoughts on the subject.  pl

In Memoriam - November 11, 2006

Sergeant Willsun M. Mock, 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment was killed in action  22 October, 2006.  Sergeant Mock was serving his second tour of duty in Iraq.  PL

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"The minstrel boy to the war has gone,

In the ranks of death you'll find him;

His father's sword he hath girded on,

And his wild harp slung behind him;

"Land of Song!" cried the warrior bard,

"Tho' all the world betrays thee,

One sword, at least, thy right shall guard,

One faithful harp shall praise thee!"

Thomas Moore

http://www.ingeb.org/songs/theminst.html

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/11/10/btsc.damon/index.html

Bonsai from Stan

Jerome asked about Bonsai.  My classmate Stan Henning who lives in Oahu offers the following.  Whatever I know about the ME, he know much better about the Far East.

Download BonsaiStan.JPG

Also Strange rocks (guaishi). Located in the Wuhou Memorial to the famous Three Kingdoms strategist, Zhuge Liang, in Chengdu.  Stan wishes you all a Happy New Year in the Year of the Dog.

Download Stanrocks.JPG

Pat Lang

Hiroshige

There are so many ugly things in the world lately that I thought to put this piece by Hiroshige up for everyone's pleasure.

Pat Lang

"Fighting Position" - Farrell

Alan Farrell's verse.

Download fighting_position.doc

Download fighting_position.pdf

"Syndromes of Wisdom" - Murry

Download syndromes_of_wisdom.pdf

"Lunatic Leviathan" - Murry

Download lunatic_leviathan.pdf

"Dead Metaphors" Murry

Download dead_metaphors.pdf

"Soldier, Soldier" Murry

The verse of Michael Murry

Download soldier_soldier.pdf

"The Man Who Outlived His Lieutenant" Farrell

By Alan Farrell

Download the_man_who_outlived_his_lieutenant.pdf

"The Boobie Pledge of Subservience" Murry

By Michael Murry

Download the_boobie_pledge_of_subservience.pdf

"America the Dutiful" - Michael Murry

The verse of Michael Murry

Download america_the_dutiful.pdf

"Verbum Caro Factum Est" - Farrell

 

For those who do not know, the "montagnard" peoples of SE Asia are non-Han, non-Cambode, non-Lao, non-Vietnamese peoples of Mon-Khmer or Malayo-Polynesian stock and linguistic roots.  They are very tribal, animist if not Christian, and mainly hunter-gatherers.  Many of them hate the Vietnamese with the passion reserved for oppressors who regard one as less than human.

In the main the Montagnard peoples sided first with the French and then with us in our wars against the Vietnamese communists.  The "communist" factor in these wars meant nothiing to them.  The "Vietnamese" nature of the enemy meant all.  Our alliance with the non-communist Vietnamese was something they did their best to ignore.  Army Special Forces (Green Berets) lived for a decade with these brave people.  Many of our men became fervent partisans of the Montagnards and members of FULRO, the "Front Uni Pour La Liberation De La Race Oprimee."  They still are.

"Inter Cultural Communication" is a much babbled of thing nowadays.  Alan Farrell gives a glimpse here of the feeling that is the basis of real communication.

Pat Lang

Download et_verbum_caro_factum_est_1.pdf

Farrell picture

Download model_a.pdf

My picture.  I am the guy with the basket and the filed teeth.  It was a great disguise.  No.  I am the American in the middle.  pl

Download phuoc_long_1969.jpg

"The Boobie Unconscious Projection"

The poetry of Michael Murry

Download boobie_unconscious_projection.pdf

"Joe Lunchbox Went to War"

Alan Farrell walked those ridgelines in Laos.  This is his verse.

Download joe_lunchbox_went_to_war.pdf

Murry on "the days of their lives."

As the wise old adage has it: "You never get a second chance to make a first impression." As this applies to America's current military debacle in Iraq (if not Afghanstan, too): "You never get a second, third, and/or fourth chance to squander thousands of your own casualites, hundreds of billions of your own dollars (borrowed at that) all to cause tens of thousands of deaths and raging chaos among the target population of your alleged benevolence." Something like that. How many chances to demonstrate abject ignornance and rank incompetence does America think the world -- or even its own cowed and bullied electorate -- will grant?

Short answer: no more.

President George W. Bush has shot America's wad. That became evident shortly after the American military jumped headfirst into the Iraqi sand trap, leaving General Tommy Franks and his entourage barely enough time to "declare victory and get out" while they personally still had retirements to enjoy, careers to pursue, or books to sell about something worth reading -- all before the chickens came home to loot (which they did almost immediately.)

Everyone else who came afterwards got to sit in the shit storm.

As a victim/veteran of the Nixon-Kissinger Fig Leaf Contingent (Vietnam 1970-1972) I can say on the basis of much bitter experience that our marooned and abused military in Iraq now fights and dies for only one transparent thing: namely, to buy time for George W. Bush and the Republican Party to somehow find a way to spin "retreat" into "victory" in time to save their own sorry asses and cushy, corrupt sinecures. All this talk about what "we" want for the Iraqi people and their "army" will evaporate instantly the minute we get the last of our guys and girls out of that sand trap. We never cared a single additional tax dollar for the Iraqi people before this shameful attack on them and we won't care a thing about them after we've come to our senses and left. George W. Bush has shot our wad. We've already done more than we should have and far more than we can afford.

When I came "home" from Vietnam in January of 1972 I wanted so much to tell everyone about what I had seen and done. No one wanted to hear about it. No one wanted me and my friends around. Some puss-gut chickenhawk "conservative" would always come to the airport to call us "losers" as we tried to sneak back into our own country as unobtrusively as possible. Everyone thought the war had ended in 1968 when Richard Nixon said he had a plan to end it. Only those who knew it hadn't really ended cared enough to keep on protesting till first Nixon and then the war finally went away -- seven years later. The American people as a whole, though, just wanted the unpleasantness, inflation, and wage-and-price controls to go away quietly without requiring that they get involved. They just wanted to forget. So they did. They want to do that same forgetting now. They will.

Iraq will have an "army" if (1) any "Iraq" remains as an actual national entity, and/or (2) if any "Iraqi" people want or can afford one. These issues, though, involve the people who live in that sad place. They don't involve us. We've already proven conclusively that we don't know our asses from a hole in the desert. Who on earth any longer thinks that "we" have anything worthwhile to contribute in Iraq? We've done enough harm. We need to stop.

The surviving members of the New Fig Leaf Contingent will start coming home next year -- as Pat says. They will have purchased with their lives and limbs a few more months for America's "leadership" to dither, "Vietnamize," or "Iraqify" a few thousand more dead and maimed Iraqis. Our traumatized soldiers will want so much to tell us what they have seen and done. We won't want to hear it, though. We will not want any visible and wounded reminders of "losing." We will not want them.

I know all this because it happened to me. It happened to many of my friends. I know what our New Fig Leaf Contingent will suffer and remember all the remaining days of their lives. I hold George W. Bush and his crony cabal of clueless cretins responsible. Damn their eyes.

Posted by: Michael Murry | 31 October 2005 at 03:26 AM

"Boobie Precursor Chemicals"

"Boobie Precursor Chemicals"

Download boobie_precursor_chemicals.pdf

Michael Murry

"Deputy Dubya's Droopy Diaper Rap"

You fell asleep on watch and let some bad guys blow us up, And when you woke you swore to pay them back.

You then attacked a country that had never done us harm Which seems to indicate it's brains you lack.

You needed made-up reasons that you thought the rubes would buy.

You swore Saddam Hussein had done the crime.

You had Ms. Rice warn darkly of some sprouting mushroom clouds In little less than forty minutes’ time.

..................

Download deputy_dubya.pdf

Michael Murry -- Copyright 2005

"The Tunnel at the End of the Light"

"The Tunnel at the End of the Light"

Download the_tunnel_at_the_end_of_the_light.pdf

Another poem by Michael Murry

Pat Lang

“Bread and Circuses”

Mired in heat and dust and sand

Gallant band of brothers true

Country’s service is their aim

Death and maiming is their due.

In where angels fear to tread

Foolish, dreaded leaders rush

Bringing power’s fearsome groan

Leaving only graveyard’s hush.

Download bread_and_circuses.pdf

Michael Murry, "The Misfortune Teller," Copyright 2004