Author: Matt Barganier

About spreading freedom at gunpoint. Drug prohibition seems to be out the window in liberated Afghanistan– which is why we’ll soon be invading them again.
From the Christian Science Monitor:
Bumper year for Afghan poppies

BATIKOT, AFGHANISTAN – Gul Hazrat Bacha has turned his attention from his fields to building a new house for his family – a dream fulfilled by his recent opium poppy crop.

Only two years ago, Mr. Bacha and his four brothers grew wheat – and fell deeper into debt each year. Now, they make 12 times their former income, have paid back lenders, and see a future for the family. “Honestly speaking, whatever I have is because of poppy,” says Bacha with a smile. “Money, happiness, and the house … everything.”

Afghan farmers are producing a bumper crop of poppies this year, despite a ban imposed by President Hamid Karzai’s government, and just three years after the Taliban clamped down on cultivation.

On one of the nightly news programs this evening, news of Uday’s and Qusay’s deaths was said to have been greeted by Iraqis with celebratory gunfire. The video showed sporadic green flares across the Baghdad sky to support this claim. Struck me as odd that Iraqis–who aren’t supposed to own guns, remember–would be out shooting at the clouds for kicks. Then I read this version by an American soldier on the scene:

Fireworks are lighting up my sky…not happy to be alive…forth of july fire works…but rather m-249 tracer rounds and parachuting flares…red rounds arcing up in sweeps…distancing themselves from each other…losing their luster the farther they fly…

When I get up on top of my truck I can pick out from where they are being fired…from the individual guard points…and compounds…I think we do it just to let the Iraqis know that we know they’re up to something…I wonder what the Iraqis think…”stupid americans”…

I think it’s all a scare tactic… I hope it’s working…
we’re just letting the Iraqis know we are out there and we are paying attention…”bring your best shot”…”we’re watching you…watch us…so back the hell off”…

Limbaugh is right: the mainstream press is biased as all hell.

Update (7/23): The aforementioned blogger now seems to concur with press reports about the shooting–after having read the reports on the internet. My earlier questions still stand, and his earlier commentary is still illuminating.

I made reference to Haggard in my 4th of July piece for his musical merits, but Merle’s politics are pretty solidly libertarian, too. This profile on Salon (from November 2000) is a good place to start:

[O]ver the years it has become apparent that at the heart of his conservatism lies an idealization of the American past and a sincere, though occasionally paranoid, concern about the loss of privacy and individual freedom.

“Look at the past 25 years — we went downhill, and if people don’t realize it, they don’t have their f—-ng eyes on,” says Haggard. “In 1960, when I came out of prison as an ex-convict, I had more freedom under parolee supervision than there’s available to an average citizen in America right now. I mean, there was nobody going to throw you down on the side of the road spread-eagled, and look up your butt for a f—-ng marijuana cigarette. God almighty, what have we done to each other?”

Though Haggard campaigned for Ronald Reagan, who pardoned him while serving as California’s governor, he bristles at both candidates in the 2000 presidential election. “Let me say this,” he remarks. “I’m friends with George Bush Sr. He calls to wish me happy birthday. But I’ve got lots of friends that call to wish me happy birthday who I wouldn’t want to see become president.”

Haggard has also reportedly shared his, er, enthusiasm for John Ashcroft with audiences (scroll down on this link.)

From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

An Arabic-language magazine hitting newsstands in the Middle East this week may be America’s newest weapon in the war on terrorism, a White House official said Monday.

Hi magazine, which is subsidized by the U.S. State Department, will be sold in countries across the Middle East — including Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Morocco and Algeria — for roughly $2 an issue….

U.S. officials hope the new monthly magazine, targeted toward 18-to-35-year-olds, will dispel misinformation and misconceptions about the United States by focusing on similarities between American and Middle Eastern cultures with articles about lifestyle, technology and health….

Along with the new magazine, [director of the White House Office of Global Communications Tucker] Eskew cited plans for an Arabic television network funded by the U.S. government as critical to communicating America’s messages to the Middle East.

I have my doubts about the TV network, but Hi magazine might really work. This month’s feature on actor Tony Shalhoub is great (or would be if I could read Arabic)– probably enough to make everyone forget the billions we send to Israel every year.

There has been a lot of buzz around the blog of an American soldier in Iraq who describes the occupation in stark, unfiltered terms. Now another soldier, this one in Kuwait, has followed suit. This entry on his newborn son illuminates the personal toll of empire:

He is six weeks old now and getting huge! Is the bump on his head the doctors said would go away going away? God I miss him! I only knew him for four days before I left to come back to the desert, but leaving him broke my heart unlike any breaking it has had to endure to this point. Is he letting my wife sleep through the night? She says the last few days he has slept like six hours straight. That is a vast improvement over the two hours he was giving her before. Now my thoughts shift to her. I know she is holding up alright as I have some form of communication with her every night, but she is deteriorating. I think back to the morning that I left her standing in the parking lot of Battalion at three in the morning. She was crying and seven months pregnant. I tried to console her by telling her I would be back in time for the baby, but would I? They told me I would and ultimately I was. I am lucky (relatively speaking again). As I left her I couldn’t help but think about the ordeal she had coming her way. We had decided at the last moment that she was going to move back home with her mom. All of our friends were deployed and both of our families live in California (over a thousand miles away). She would have her mom to help her out especially if I didn’t make it back. My thoughts shift to being back home myself. When would I be able to walk the streets of my home town again? I re-enlisted in March for the opportunity to be a recruiter, but with all that has happened and is happening that plan may never come to fruition. My stomach turns at the possible things I may have gotten myself into by re-enlisting.

Is anyone in the White House reading this stuff? Stupid question.

Sorry, no column tomorrow, but if you’re looking for something to fill the void, check out www.philipdru.com
Philip hosts a weekly political conversation on Austin radio and posts the interviews on his website. He interviewed me last week– you can listen to me being nervous!