When will they ever learn?

For the First Time, Desiderata is doing a Cut&Paste, for a good reason. I am wafully tired, may be also over-worked -- like Imran and Howsy -- I'm wont to half-giving up, except I have a few fans here whom I can't let down. They want their daily fix! Teh Tarik from Hari-Hari does it, anyone?

This update from

washingtonpost.com

is HIGHLY timely and consonant with yesterday's post, its usage here acknowledged with great and unfathomable thanks.

As Desi says, there is always an EXCEPTION to the norm, bear with me because I also have a more selfish and urgent reason, MY SERIES OF ESSAYS ON "THE MALAYSIAN DILEMMA" starts tomorrow! I need to get the SUB-EDITOR in me to GET CRACKING!:

Here follows a relevant news update from the newspaper that gave the world the two award-winning professionals whose expose brought down a US President! Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, remember? Watergate, don't remember? IgnorantC...! (But take my advice: see the movie ALL THE PRESIDENT's MEN on VCD or DVD, I'm sure you can get it from the neighbourhood teh tarik stall, pulling thy leg-lah! JUST to lighten everybody up. There's a lessson or two for the 4th Estate practitioners and politicians here, and everywhere, who think they can hide in the shadows ...

Remember, which way the wind blows today, tomorrow it may just strike down those shadowy ones like a typhoon or cyclone. Then I say:
I: I
S: say
A: amen.


Bush Says U.S. Will Stay and Finish Task
President Honors Lives Lost, Defends Role in Iraq

By Mike Allen and Sam Coates
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, August 23, 2005; Page A10

SALT LAKE CITY, Aug. 22 -- President Bush acknowledged the human toll of the Iraq war in blunt numerical terms on Monday, a gesture that advisers said was aimed in part at deflecting criticism that he is not sensitive to the sacrifices imposed by his policies.

Breaking with the previous White House approach of putting little public emphasis on fatalities, Bush said the nation has "lost 1,864 members of our armed forces in Operation Iraqi Freedom, and 223 in Operation Enduring Freedom" in Afghanistan.


"We owe them something," he said at the national convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. "We will finish the task that they gave their lives for. We will honor their sacrifice by staying on the offensive against the terrorists and building strong allies in Afghanistan and Iraq that will help us win and fight -- fight and win the war on terror."

Bush's speech was his first public appearance in nine days and came in a month when his Texas vacation has been shadowed by the encampment of Cindy Sheehan, the mother of a U.S. soldier killed in Iraq, and other antiwar protesters outside his ranch in Crawford.

Bush's aides said they have no illusion about quieting the demonstrators in Crawford, but they said the address was aimed at convincing a "broader audience in the country" that "this president recognizes the hardship of war and the sacrifices that are being made," as one senior official put it.

Bush struck a defiant tone in rejecting critics' views. "Terrorists in foreign lands still hope to attack our country," he said. "A policy of retreat and isolation will not bring us safety."

He said he would never settle for "less than total victory over the terrorists and their hateful ideology."

The speech is the first of three Bush will give in military settings in the next two weeks. They are part of an effort to mitigate the barrage of discouraging Iraq news -- including what polls show is flagging public support for the U.S. role there -- as the White House builds up to the fourth anniversary of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

The president's advisers were aware that increasing attention will be given to the Iraq death toll as it approaches the milestone of 2,000. By the end of Monday, the Defense Department's official toll had risen to 1,869 in Iraq. "Each of these men and women left grieving families and loved ones back home," Bush said. "Each of these heroes left a legacy that will allow generations of their fellow Americans to enjoy the blessings of liberty."

Bush's critics often point out that he has not attended a funeral for any soldier who has fallen in Iraq, and his speeches seldom address specific tragedies that are in the news on a particular day.

A senior Bush aide said the White House has been "sensitive about the subjectivity of elevating one sacrifice over another, but the president thought it was important to take stock collectively and say that these people are heroes."

Bush rarely lingers after speeches, but he stayed behind for 17 minutes to bask in the adulation of the VFW audience. He grinned as he loped along the front of the crowd and posed for photographs, kissed women, called kids "buddy" and signed caps, programs and coasters. He often rushes onto Air Force One when he is headed for a leisure destination, but Bush delayed his departure for Idaho -- where he plans to spend two days mountain-biking at an opulent resort -- to individually greet 200 members of the Utah Air National Guard.

But even here, in a state that gave Bush a higher vote percentage than any other (72 percent) in 2004, he was met with noisy protesters, suggesting they may become a staple of his forays into the country. The demonstrators, led by Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson, enjoyed supportive honks from passing cars. Before Bush arrived, two policemen tied a cordon across the plaza outside the Salt Palace Convention Center to separate the opponents from a small band of Bush supporters.

Bush spoke a day after Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) said on ABC's "This Week" that the U.S. involvement in Iraq "has destabilized the Middle East" and that the nation "should start figuring out how we get out of there." Democrats criticized Bush's remarks. Sen. Russell Feingold (D-Wis.) said in a statement that Bush "failed to give the American people a realistic assessment of where we stand today, and where we should be going."

Saluting the veterans who "triumphed over brutal enemies" and "liberated continents," Bush drew a parallel between the World War II generation and the forces now in Iraq by saying, "At this hour, a new generation of Americans is defending our flag and our freedom in the first war of the 21st century."

On Wednesday, Bush will speak to a National Guard audience in Idaho, a state in which he won 68 percent of the vote. Bush plans to say that the stakes in Iraq are high, aides said, and that failure would embolden the enemy.

Next week, Bush will travel to San Diego to mark the 60th anniversary of the allied victory over Japan in World War II. He plans to relate that to Iraq by pointing to the deep skepticism then that democracy could take root in Japan and that a hated enemy could turn into a strong and steadfast ally.

In his speech, Bush also pointed to the Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian territory in the Gaza Strip as a victory. "Both Israelis and Palestinians have elected governments committed to peace and progress, and the way forward is clear," he said.


May these participants be reminded that “Charity begins at home” – and these are some of the sentiments that inspired my writing this “war” poem in the midst of US-led war against Iraq earlier this year. Quite often it is the 15 minutes of media fame that provided the motivation for donors of charity. It’s all so easy to criticise other parties engaged in a war, about the death and carnage wrought on civilians and women and children, but they forget on the homefront, it’s daily warfare too -- on the streets littered with runaway children, or homeless old folks who can’t afford two square meals a day. Armchair critics need reminding that “war” is not just about soldiers engaged in combat in Afghanistan or the West Bank in Palestine, it’s just as real in the neighbourhood for homeless children and youths.


DESIDERATA: May these war-participants be reminded that “Charity begins at home” – and that the Americans who died in the 1960s/70s in Vietnam had paid an immense price -- did the current US president and his advisers learn anything from history?

It’s all so easy to criticise other parties engaged in a war, about the death and carnage wrought on civilians and women and children, but they forget on the homefront, it’s daily warfare too -- on the streets littered with runaway children, or homeless old folks who can’t afford two square meals a day. Armchair critics need reminding that “war” is not just about soldiers engaged in combat in Afghanistan or the West Bank in Palestine, it’s just as real in the neighbourhood for homeless children and youths.

There is a saying to the effect that: One sees the .... in the neighbour's eye, but does not see the beam in one's own eye.

It is appropriate to end this section on war with the soulful lyrics in the number quite often adopted as an anthem by the War Protesters, whther sung in the sixties or now in 2000s -- there is a relevant message for those who hear and see. “Where have all the flowers gone?” popularised in the ‘60s by The Brothers Four, so relevant to not just Americans but all thinking citizens worldwide, because in one way or another, the Vietnam war impacted on peoples throughout planet earth, just as the present US engagements in Iraq, Afghanistan and other parts of the Middle-East:


WHERE HAVE ALL THE FLOWERS GONE



Where have all the flowers gone, long time passing?
Where have all the flowers gone, long time ago?
Where have all the flowers gone?
Gone to young girls, every one!
When will they ever learn, when will they ever learn?

Where have all the young girls gone, long time passing?
Where have all the young girls gone, long time ago?
Where have all the young girls gone?
Gone to young men, every one!
When will they ever learn, when will they ever learn?

Where have all the young men gone, long time passing?
Where have all the young men gone, long time ago?
Where have all the young men gone?
Gone to soldiers, every one!
When will they ever learn, when will they ever learn?

And where have all the soldiers gone, long time passing?
Where have all the soldiers gone, a long time ago?
Where have all the soldiers gone?
Gone to graveyards, every one!
When will they ever learn, when will they ever learn?

And where have all the graveyards gone, long time passing?
Where have all the graveyards gone, long time ago?
Where have all the graveyards gone?
Gone to flowers, every one!

When will they ever learn, oh when will they ever learn?


PS: Just strolled to thecicak.com via jeffooi, enjoyed PREACHING TO THE CHOIR, so Desi reprised the footprint he just left behind with Jason Lim :

Just a short excerpt: Preaching to the choir is usually regarded as a pointless exercise.

However, call it faith, but sometimes, with the right sermons, choirs tend to grow."—
JASON LIM is a staff writer of theCICAK.

Desi's short:

August 24th, 2005 at 6:41 pm

It all boils down to FAITH REALLY…

Even if Desi’Place gets ONE guest calling a day, I promise my theatre will go on, because it’s fun, enhanced by an out-ofsync choir singing WHERE HAVE ALL THE FLOWERS GONG,(sowat, as long as WE ENJOY!) mayhaps, and on, as the good Bard says:

The world is a satge
And all men (and women) actors