Muffins or War

[~greg]

... I looked up to watch the number of vapour trails in the sky because
the Atlantic flights fly directly over us. They usually bend as the air traffic controllers
give new headings for the pilots coming in from North America. ...

reminded me of one of my favorite anti-war songs ...

Daniel

Music by Elton John
Lyrics by Bernie Taupin


Daniel is travelling tonight on a plane
I can see the red tail lights heading for Spain
Oh and I can see Daniel waving goodbye
God it looks like Daniel, must be the clouds in my eyes

They say Spain is pretty though I've never been
Well Daniel says it's the best place that he's ever seen
Oh and he should know, he's been there enough
Lord I miss Daniel, oh I miss him so much

Daniel my brother you are older than me
Do you still feel the pain of the scars that won't heal
Your eyes have died but you see more than I
Daniel you're a star in the face of the sky

Daniel is travelling tonight on a plane
I can see the red tail lights heading for Spain
Oh and I can see Daniel waving goodbye
God it looks like Daniel, must be the clouds in my eyes
Oh God it looks like Daniel, must be the clouds in my eyes

~~~

Songfacts' explanation of this song is not completely accurate.
According to an interview with Bernie Taupin, the song was loosely based
on a story which had appeared in Newsweek after the Vietnam war.
The song is about this guy who goes home after the war to the small town
from which he came. All he wanted to do was put the whole thing behind him
and get back to the life he had before --but because it was a small town,
the citizens wanted to make a war hero of him, not allowing him to forget
--in fact, forcing him to constantly remember. He decides that, in order to
put the war behind him for good, he must leave everything and everyone,
and ends up going supposedily to Spain --as his departure is seen through
his brother's eyes. No plane crashes, no blindness.

source:
http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=2350

It always surprised me that most people assumed that
"your eyes have died" - meant literal blindness.

And I remember reading what Bernie Taupin said about the song,
and then writing a poem to elaborate on it.

This is what I can remember of it : ....

Turn Half Right - gmw
==================
I keep a stranger in my place
Who keeps the cadence and the stance
And is obedient to commands.
There will be a stranger in my face.

I've kept the coffin open
That keeps the days before his coming.
But they have not arisen.

Nor as I was visiting
And held the blinded child by the eyes
Who had seen his ancient anger and his wrath
Did they arise.

These slow days
Call me closer
To the surf.

In a clearing
By the sea
Beneath a cliff

On a drift wood
I saw you, mother,
Although at first your size deceived me

and the aspirin pills
falling from your eyes.

....
~~

etc. (i cant remember...
But he wound up leaving.)


(ps: i now remember remembering this once before,
~ about 7 years ago, on the old ng,
where i gave it an entirely different explanation.
Oh well, ... : )

(suddenly, later this summer, i shall finish it.... )

[lizzytysh]

(suddenly, later this summer, i shall finish it.... )

Seems one may be baiting The Goddesses ?

[The copy-and-paste function here is overly enthusiastic, I've been meaning to say. It never seems to trust that you mean what you block, and gives you the whole bloody thing, anyway... and then you have to delete the rest .]

I like Einstein's quote. I wonder how he intended that they should "be done away with," though.

When I read the song, the dead eyes I took as being those that have seen so much pain and destruction as to have gone dead of their natural expression, more or less blank.


~ Lizzy

[Red Poppy]

Greg,
I'm sure Bernie Tapuin knew what he was talking about when he spoke of his own song (now there is an undervalued lyricist) but this line doesn't fit with your take (or his):
"Oh and he should know, he's been there enough"
If it's his first time going there how would he know?

I love this song. I was driving to a hospital in North Carolina to be with my (older) brother the night he died and this came on the radio - it seemed extremely apposite.

[Diane]

I like your image of holding the blinded child by the eyes, Greg.

I also adore this song, and find it very sad. My (younger in years) brother went to live in Spain about 17 years ago. He was, at least partly, running from things we both needed to escape from. But he went away from me, too.

Empty Garden, by Bernie Taupin, is surely the best John Lennon tribute song.

[mickey_one]

..

[Red Poppy]

And the mickey bit means....................?

[Diane]

Mickey _take, as you show an interest, I'll tell you that my little bro recently came second in a major singer-songwriter competition, has cut a disc, and is gigging around Spain as I speak.

Diane, proud big sis.

[mickey_one]

..

[mickey_one]

And the mickey bit means....................?

family dimunitive for Jonathan

[Red Poppy]

There's nowt so queer as families!

[mickey_one]

There's nowt so queer as families!

folk off? you saying ruiner, you

[mickey_one]

..

[lizzytysh]

KARIM KADIM/AP Photo

More Than 1,800 Iraqis Killed in August
By DAVID RISING
Associated Press Writer

Civilian deaths rose slightly in August as a huge suicide attack in the north two weeks ago offset security gains elsewhere, making it the second deadliest month for Iraqis since the U.S. troop buildup began, according to figures compiled Saturday by The Associated Press.

U.S. deaths remained well below figures from last winter when the U.S began dispatching 30,000 additional troops to Iraq.

At least 1,809 civilians were killed in the month, compared to 1,760 in July, based on figures compiled by the AP from official Iraqi reports. That brings to 27,564 the number of Iraqi civilians killed since AP began collecting data on April 28, 2005.

The August total included 520 people killed in quadruple suicide bombings on Yazidi communities near the Syrian border. The horrific attacks made Aug. 14 the single deadliest day since the war began in March 2003.

Eighty-five coalition troops - 81 American and four British - died in August, down from 88 the month before, including 79 Americans. The average rate of 2.74 coalition deaths per day was the second lowest since the surge began, and down from a peak of 4.23 per day in May.

May also saw the highest number of civilian deaths since the start of the year, with 1,901.

U.S. officials have maintained that violence is declining in Iraq in the run-up to a series of reports to Congress this month that will decide the course of the U.S. military presence here.

The top U.S. commander, Gen. David Petraeus, was quoted Friday as saying the troop increase has sharply reduced sectarian killings in Baghdad. Petraeus is expected to make the same point when he reports to Congress in about two weeks.

"If you look at Baghdad, which is hugely important because it is the center of everything in Iraq, you can see the density plot on ethno-sectarian deaths," the Australian newspaper quoted him as saying during an interview in the Iraqi capital.

"It's a bit macabre but some areas were literally on fire with hundreds of bodies every week and a total of 2,100 in the month of December '06, Iraq-wide. It is still much too high but we think in August in Baghdad it will be as little as one quarter of what it was," the newspaper quoted Petraeus, who gave no specific figures.

American hopes brightened this week when the most powerful Shiite militia leader, Muqtada al-Sadr, ordered a halt to attacks by his Mahdi Army for up to six months to reorganize and purge it of unruly factions that the U.S. maintains are armed and trained by Iran.

"If implemented, Sadr's order holds the prospect of allowing coalition and Iraqi security forces to intensify their focus on al-Qaida-Iraq and on protecting the Iraqi population," the U.S. military said in a statement Saturday.

The statement said an end to Mahdi Army violence "would also be an important step in helping Iraqi authorities focus greater attention on achieving the political and economic solutions necessary for progress and less on dealing with criminal activity, sectarian violence, kidnappings, assassinations, and attacks on Iraqi and coalition forces."

The government-run newspaper Sabah published a front-page editorial Saturday praising al-Sadr's declaration as "a correct decision" and urged other militia leaders to follow suit.

Despite those comments, U.S. and Iraqi forces have not let up on raids against extremists in Shiite areas.

Before daybreak Saturday, Iraqi and American forces raided Sadr City, the Baghdad stronghold of the Mahdi Army. Several cars were demolished during the operation by U.S. tanks, according to a police officer speaking on condition of anonymity and Associated Press Television News video from the scene showed several crushed cars on the street.

The U.S. military said American troops and Iraqi police were involved in the raid and searched two houses, detaining three suspects. On the way back to base the group was attacked with a roadside bomb but suffered no injuries, Spc. Emily Greene said in an e-mailed statement. There was no mention of the crushed cars or other collateral damage.

Leaflets scattered around Sadr City urged people to report on Shiite militants who are cooperating with the Iranians, providing a cell phone number and an e-mail address.

"The criminal Iraqis who work with the Iranian Revolutionary Guards are toys under Persian control," read one of the leaflets, which pictured a puppet dancing on strings. "Iranian Revolutionary Guards are interfering in Iraq's affairs while Iraqis are dying."

Armed Shiite groups are locked in a struggle for power in Shiite areas of the capital and in the Shiite heartland of the south, which includes major religious shrines and vast oil wealth. Control of the shrines offers not only prestige but access to huge sums of money donated by Shiites from around the world.

As part of that power struggle, gunmen on a motorcycle assassinated Muslim al-Batat, an aide to the country's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, police said. The attack occurred in Basra, where numerous militias are competing for power.



Copyright 2007 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Who can live with the reality of these unfathomable numbers? When are 'we' going to get the point?


~ Lizzy

[Alan Alda]

An excerpt of an email this morning from my 20 year old niece. I've X'd out a name she mentions. I'll take a fucking muffin. It speaks for itself:

Was yesterday a DAY or YEAR?
It was insane.
First thing in the morning I get my ass chewed out for saying something that never passed my lips. "roger" and drive on was all I could do. I tell you what though, I did start documenting and dating these situations..
That started the day off on a wrong foot.. but nothing too bad.
Well XX and I were told that there were a few Iraqi Army soldiers injured at the gate but they still hadnt heard if we were allowed to see them here at our aid station or not.. so they told us to get ready just in case... so we went and got our gear and got the 4 litter ambulance ready.. (They told us 2-3 injuries, no clue on severity)
they okay'd us to treat them so I drove over there... they were on the other side of the gate so XX and I backed the ambulance up for quickest evac... well before we knew it... there where two vehicles coming our way.. one Iraqi Ambulance and 1 truck... both full of injured soldiers...
XX ran to the ambulance and opened it up and I ran to the truck where there were 7 bodies on top of each other all bleeding from multiple extremities... They were screaming and there was no interp. with us so we had to make due.. there were a few us soldiers trying to do crowd control...
I dont know what happened or how to make sense of it.. all I remember is diving in and putting torniquets on almost everyone.. there were legs hanging on by a muscle or ligaments.. there were sucking chest wounds and amputated body parts.. I started to triage the pt and the 4 litter we brought on had two more beds so I loaded 2 up.. and then the our aidstations other vehicle showed up but its only a 2 litter and we could only get two more on there.. XX drove the 4 litter back and the other medic that came with the 2 litter drove the two littler back with the pts..
and I was there by myself for what seemed like eternity..
I was cutting clothes off and packing wounds... it was so hard to tell who was bleeding from where because there was 1 inch of blood on the bottom of the truck bed... everyone was screaming..
I started tasking out the us soldiers and having them cut clothes off and showed them how to pack and wrap tight.. finally another FLA came and we got back to the aidstation...it was even crazier here because there were sooo many people and they were all freaking out..
the doctors kept their cool but there were some medics running around like chickens with no head..
Over all, it was the most intense medical experience of my life..

[Red Poppy]

The just war is a great thing.
Thanks for that Alan.
It's an eye opener.