Ann Sexton wrote in a love/death poem called "The Truth the Dead Know," "in another country, people die..." -- sometime the war feels so far away, while death itself looms thick and heavy. I have small children, so I don't tend toward the news very much -- the news, even NPR is so concentrated on deaths ... but sometimes it is important to see it again. I came across this AP video this morning.
The headline reads "Fighting Erupts in a Critical Iraqi Oil City."
Oil. I also notice in this video language I'm sure is still out there which I haven't noticed in a long time -- note Dana Perino says that insurgence have "infested" the area. This is part of a large base of language that was systematically employed during the first Gulf War to liken Iraqi people to insects. (I did my undergraduate thesis on this language in 1992.)
I found this video first on an amazing news search engine I just discovered, Silobreaker.com.
The Truth the Dead Know
by Anne Sexton
For my mother, born March 1902, died March 1959
and my father, born February 1900, died June 1959
Gone, I say and walk from church,
refusing the stiff procession to the grave,
letting the dead ride alone in the hearse.
It is June. I am tired of being brave.
We drive to the Cape. I cultivate
myself where the sun gutters from the sky,
where the sea swings in like an iron gate
and we touch. In another country people die.
My darling, the wind falls in like stones
from the whitehearted water and when we touch
we enter touch entirely. No one's alone.
Men kill for this, or for as much.
And what of the dead? They lie without shoes
in their stone boats. They are more like stone
than the sea would be if it stopped. They refuse
to be blessed, throat, eye and knucklebone.
Showing posts with label military. Show all posts
Showing posts with label military. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Monday, April 7, 2008
More Fight, Less Fuel
Just now I've been reading the "Report of the Defense Science Board Task Force on DoD Energy Strategy, subtitled, "More Fight Less Fuel."
The thing goes on and on -- 150 and lots of fancy seals. It's a little dry...
Finding #3: The Department lacks the strategy, policies, metrics, information or governance structure to properly manage its energy risks.
"There is currently no unifying vision, strategy, metrics or governance structure with enterprise-wide energy in its portfolio. DoD efforts to manage energy are limited to complying with executive orders, legislation and regulations ..."
I wound up at this report through a link on an AP article.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Think you're being gouged by Big Oil? U.S. troops in Iraq are paying almost as much as Americans back home, despite burning fuel at staggering rates in a war to stabilize a country known for its oil reserves.Military units pay an average of $3.23 a gallon for gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, some $88 a day per service member in Iraq, according to an Associated Press review and interviews with defense officials. A penny or two increase in the price of fuel can add millions of dollars to U.S. costs.
The article goes on to say:
"Overall, the military consumes about 1.2 million barrels, or more than 50 million gallons of fuel, each month in Iraq at an average $127.68 a barrel. That works out to about $153 million a month.
They have to say that? The American Military is consuming so much oil fighting in Iraq it is important to note they are not disrupting world energy flow...
"More Fight Less Fuel."
more fuel more fight
more fuel less fight
less fight less fuel
The thing goes on and on -- 150 and lots of fancy seals. It's a little dry...
Finding #3: The Department lacks the strategy, policies, metrics, information or governance structure to properly manage its energy risks.
"There is currently no unifying vision, strategy, metrics or governance structure with enterprise-wide energy in its portfolio. DoD efforts to manage energy are limited to complying with executive orders, legislation and regulations ..."
I wound up at this report through a link on an AP article.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Think you're being gouged by Big Oil? U.S. troops in Iraq are paying almost as much as Americans back home, despite burning fuel at staggering rates in a war to stabilize a country known for its oil reserves.Military units pay an average of $3.23 a gallon for gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, some $88 a day per service member in Iraq, according to an Associated Press review and interviews with defense officials. A penny or two increase in the price of fuel can add millions of dollars to U.S. costs.
The article goes on to say:
"Overall, the military consumes about 1.2 million barrels, or more than 50 million gallons of fuel, each month in Iraq at an average $127.68 a barrel. That works out to about $153 million a month.
Historically, these figures are astounding. In World War II, the average fuel consumption per soldier or Marine was about 1.67 gallons a day; in Iraq, it's 27.3 gallons, according to briefing slides prepared by a Pentagon task force established to review consumption."
The article is careful to say that this is a drop in the bucket compared to world oil consumption...They have to say that? The American Military is consuming so much oil fighting in Iraq it is important to note they are not disrupting world energy flow...
"More Fight Less Fuel."
more fuel more fight
more fuel less fight
less fight less fuel
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Collective Punishment
Today I am thinking about oil as weapon. Oil and gas.
The Times reported this week:
Police officials defended the heavy use of force and said that mobs carrying gasoline had been sighted in Nairobi's business hub on Wednesday. On Thursday a man was surrounded by riot police in the city.
Photo: Uriel Sinai/Getty Images
It's cold in the house this morning. I'm frustrated with some of the situations in my life. It is desperate in the world. Power. Need. Explosion and the desire to create -- change, death. I'm grateful it is not desperate here. I wish the world could feel the same. I'm grateful that my children were born to this way of life.
Adel Hana/Associated Press
The Times reported this week:
GAZA — After widespread criticism of its decision to cut off supplies of industrial diesel oil required to run a power station that serves Gaza City and its hospitals, Israel resumed fuel shipments on Tuesday on what it said would be a temporary basis.
The European Union, which pays for the fuel, called the cutoff “collective punishment,” but Israeli officials said they were simply trying to convince Gazans of the need to stop militants from firing rockets into Israeli towns and farms.
Meanwhile in Kenya,Police officials defended the heavy use of force and said that mobs carrying gasoline had been sighted in Nairobi's business hub on Wednesday. On Thursday a man was surrounded by riot police in the city.
Photo: Uriel Sinai/Getty Images
It's cold in the house this morning. I'm frustrated with some of the situations in my life. It is desperate in the world. Power. Need. Explosion and the desire to create -- change, death. I'm grateful it is not desperate here. I wish the world could feel the same. I'm grateful that my children were born to this way of life.
Friday, January 4, 2008
Ali Baba's Wife
By this means Marjaneh found that her master ‘Ali Baba had admitted thirty-eight robbers into his house, and that this pretended oil-merchant was their captain. She made what haste she could to fill her oil-pot, and returned into her kitchen, where, as soon as she had lighted her lamp, she took a great kettle, went again to the oil-jar, filled the kettle, set it on a large wood fire, and as soon as it boiled, went and poured enough into every jar to stifle and destroy the robber within.
Stories from the Thousand and One Nights. The Harvard Classics. 1909–14.
Today I've been looking for articles about boiling in oil as a form of torture and of the death penalty. I assume that it works because the boiling temperature of oil is very high -- coupled with its adherence to the skin and blocking of pours.
I'm interested in the old stories about oil too -- the use of oil as weapon -- but also the importance in cooking and lighting -- I guess it's not so different -- the sight of the oil truck lumbering from house to house -- from the image of a oil merchant traveling with barrels big enough to fit thieves.
In the story of Ali Baba is targeted because he stole from the thieves -- he found their treasure trove and took some of the wealth for themselves. I read that in Iraq, American Servicemen are referred to by the slang term, "Ali Babas."
One thing I've noticed is that it is much easier to find current reliable information -- I guess when it comes to history, books are still the place to go. That's kind of comforting, and kind of worrisome -- I think it probably means a lot of history is going to be lost.
It's crazy the things that are on the web. For one thing, an ex-military guy paid some Navy Seals to waterboard him on video, so that people could really see what it was. I couldn't watch. Also, there's a video of a Malaysian martial arts ritual where people wash their hands in boiling oil. I couldn't watch that, either -- I guess maybe I'm a little sensitive today.
A woman in South Mississippi killed her husband last year by (allegedly) pouring boiling oil over him while he slept.
Sanders is accused of pouring two or three quarts of boiling cooking oil on her husband, Sherman, on July 28. She fled with her two children in a white Pontiac Grand Prix, Garber said. Attorney Brian Alexander was appointed to represent Sanders on Thursday. Alexander also worked on the James Boswell capital murder case in 2005. He said Friday he believes his client will be acquitted when she has her day in court.
"When all of the facts are brought forth, it will be clear that Edna Mae's behavior was justified in light of the circumstances," he said. "She only acted in a way any reasonable, prudent person would have acted under similar circumstances." Link When Marjaneh saw him depart, she went to bed, satisfied and pleased to have succeeded so well in saving her master and family.
I'm sort of interested, too, in the idea of the weapons of the women revolving around their home duties -- lighting the lamp -- cooking. We use what we have, I suppose -- what we have access to.
Stories from the Thousand and One Nights. The Harvard Classics. 1909–14.
Today I've been looking for articles about boiling in oil as a form of torture and of the death penalty. I assume that it works because the boiling temperature of oil is very high -- coupled with its adherence to the skin and blocking of pours.
I'm interested in the old stories about oil too -- the use of oil as weapon -- but also the importance in cooking and lighting -- I guess it's not so different -- the sight of the oil truck lumbering from house to house -- from the image of a oil merchant traveling with barrels big enough to fit thieves.
In the story of Ali Baba is targeted because he stole from the thieves -- he found their treasure trove and took some of the wealth for themselves. I read that in Iraq, American Servicemen are referred to by the slang term, "Ali Babas."
One thing I've noticed is that it is much easier to find current reliable information -- I guess when it comes to history, books are still the place to go. That's kind of comforting, and kind of worrisome -- I think it probably means a lot of history is going to be lost.
It's crazy the things that are on the web. For one thing, an ex-military guy paid some Navy Seals to waterboard him on video, so that people could really see what it was. I couldn't watch. Also, there's a video of a Malaysian martial arts ritual where people wash their hands in boiling oil. I couldn't watch that, either -- I guess maybe I'm a little sensitive today.
A woman in South Mississippi killed her husband last year by (allegedly) pouring boiling oil over him while he slept.
Sanders is accused of pouring two or three quarts of boiling cooking oil on her husband, Sherman, on July 28. She fled with her two children in a white Pontiac Grand Prix, Garber said. Attorney Brian Alexander was appointed to represent Sanders on Thursday. Alexander also worked on the James Boswell capital murder case in 2005. He said Friday he believes his client will be acquitted when she has her day in court.
"When all of the facts are brought forth, it will be clear that Edna Mae's behavior was justified in light of the circumstances," he said. "She only acted in a way any reasonable, prudent person would have acted under similar circumstances." Link When Marjaneh saw him depart, she went to bed, satisfied and pleased to have succeeded so well in saving her master and family.
I'm sort of interested, too, in the idea of the weapons of the women revolving around their home duties -- lighting the lamp -- cooking. We use what we have, I suppose -- what we have access to.
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
Boundaries
This year, a decision will be handed down in a case: "New Jersey V. Delaware."
New Jersey is supporting oil-giant BPs building of a natural gas facility edging into Delaware's land. I found this article on what might be my new favorite website, Energy Law 360.
“The intense opposition to LNG comes from the theory, quite mistaken, that LNG tankers are large bombs susceptible to blowing up and taking out major East Coast cities,” [said Stephen L. Teichler, an energy partner at Duane Morris LLP's Washington, D.C. office.].
And get this!
“Delaware considered legislation authorizing the National Guard to step in to protect Delaware’s borders from encroachment. And one New Jersey legislator even explored the seaworthiness of the decommissioned battleship New Jersey, currently docked as a museum on the Camden waterfront, in the event the state was forced to repel an armed invasion by Delaware."
Very strange thought. While state autonomy often seems to surface in regards to laws, the idea of one state taking up arms against another -- and using national resources to do it -- seems extremely unsettling this New Year's morn...
This story reminded me of another one I noticed during my brief oil spill Hiatus --
I don't know -- boundaries is such a hot button word in pop-psychology -- maybe that's what I'm intrigued by. Over dinner the other night I was discussing Zionism with a man (the same man working to save Sanskrit) who thought Israel should just kick all the Palestinians out tomorrow. I'm a Zionist -- in practice, but not in theory.
That distinction has so much to do with the world. There are so many decisions that make sense in the moment, that make no sense with any sort of larger look at the world. What is at stake, what is forfeited through the requirement of autonomy, is just too big.
While I completely understand the need for self-protection, I also really think that no solutions can come maintaining an "us and them" mentality -- anywhere. There is no ownership, there is no time line. There is an I and a larger. Like the conversation about Americans and American poetics again -- where does the I fit in so that one (a person, a state, a country, an issue, a people, a world, a lover) is neither inflated nor diminished -- connected through communication; not alienated inside of it.
We are people -- who benefit from wealths and suffer from consequences -- living on this earth, in these homes, bodies and lungs. Better together.
New Jersey is supporting oil-giant BPs building of a natural gas facility edging into Delaware's land. I found this article on what might be my new favorite website, Energy Law 360.
“The intense opposition to LNG comes from the theory, quite mistaken, that LNG tankers are large bombs susceptible to blowing up and taking out major East Coast cities,” [said Stephen L. Teichler, an energy partner at Duane Morris LLP's Washington, D.C. office.].
And get this!
“Delaware considered legislation authorizing the National Guard to step in to protect Delaware’s borders from encroachment. And one New Jersey legislator even explored the seaworthiness of the decommissioned battleship New Jersey, currently docked as a museum on the Camden waterfront, in the event the state was forced to repel an armed invasion by Delaware."
Very strange thought. While state autonomy often seems to surface in regards to laws, the idea of one state taking up arms against another -- and using national resources to do it -- seems extremely unsettling this New Year's morn...
This story reminded me of another one I noticed during my brief oil spill Hiatus --
OIL SPILL SETS OFF BORDER DISPUTE: The environmental disaster wrought by last week's oil spill in the Kerch Strait off southern Russia, as reignited a border dispute between Ukraine and Russia in the region. Ukraine's foreign minister has blamed the tragedy, in which several sailors and thousands of birds and other wildlife perished, on the two country's failure to reach an agreement on navigation and the delimitation of borders in the strait and the Sea of Azov. Moscow has said that giving Ukraine control over the Kerch Strait, which Ukraine claims falls within its borders, would harm Russian security and economic interests.
This was a very small story in the midst of a roundup of top Russian news stories -- when I went to read the article it was, understandably, in Russian. But the issue is clear -- disaster sets in when people try to make boundaries in lieu of common sense.I don't know -- boundaries is such a hot button word in pop-psychology -- maybe that's what I'm intrigued by. Over dinner the other night I was discussing Zionism with a man (the same man working to save Sanskrit) who thought Israel should just kick all the Palestinians out tomorrow. I'm a Zionist -- in practice, but not in theory.
That distinction has so much to do with the world. There are so many decisions that make sense in the moment, that make no sense with any sort of larger look at the world. What is at stake, what is forfeited through the requirement of autonomy, is just too big.
While I completely understand the need for self-protection, I also really think that no solutions can come maintaining an "us and them" mentality -- anywhere. There is no ownership, there is no time line. There is an I and a larger. Like the conversation about Americans and American poetics again -- where does the I fit in so that one (a person, a state, a country, an issue, a people, a world, a lover) is neither inflated nor diminished -- connected through communication; not alienated inside of it.
We are people -- who benefit from wealths and suffer from consequences -- living on this earth, in these homes, bodies and lungs. Better together.
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Unreliable Currency
Yesterday I came across a story from December 8, that was published by The United Press International (UPI) reporting Iran would no longer accept US dollars for oil. link
Iranian Oil Minister Gholamhossein Nozari was quoted as saying Saturday that because "the dollar is no longer a reliable currency," his country would no longer accept it in oil sales, RIA Novosti reported.
I can't substantiate the article. I've been trying for an hour. I found it because I was trying to follow up on a story that the Pope had called for a world-wide automobile buying boycott. That story was widely reported -- by nobody reliable, and I decided it was probably completely made up.
The piece about Iran is small, 145 words including the dateline. I've found the information repeated on lesser news sources, but they, no doubt, simply read the same article and repeated the information. I trust UPI enough to think it's probably true -- I don't trust them enough to call it true. And I have no idea what it means.
It could just be noise, or it could be a war gong, right? In any event, it doesn't sound good. If true, it certainly means tension is continuing to build between US and Iran -- that the dollar is being put up for question probably means someone is trying to egg on the powers that be here -- their version of sanctions, I suppose -- or maybe their way of raising our prices without the political ramifications of raising oil prices, if we need to pay more by money exchanges in the billions of dollars; but that is completely speculation. The alternative to that reading is that Iranian ministers truly believe the dollar is going to collapse in the very near future -- which seems more unlikely.
Rules of reporting: Whenever you come across something reported only once it is suspect. Whenever you come across something repeated verbatim or wild-fire fashion it's suspect. Whenever you come across something specifically not reported, it's also suspect. Just as in anything else, the less you know the less grounded a situation is.
Communication is scary and lack of communication is scary. The currency of connection. Unreliable at best -- better to look someone in the eye over breakfast -- give them a hug.
What does seem clear is that War doesn't seem to be going anywhere anytime soon.
The woman I stood behind in the post office line yesterday -- two of her kids were in Iraq, one had recently returned. Her daughter-in-law, standing next to hear with a heavy leather Marine Corps bomber jacket, had finished her time in the service. Another daughter was looking at a deployment in 2008.
The following is from an article that ran in the Times 20 years ago:
Iranian Oil Minister Gholamhossein Nozari was quoted as saying Saturday that because "the dollar is no longer a reliable currency," his country would no longer accept it in oil sales, RIA Novosti reported.
I can't substantiate the article. I've been trying for an hour. I found it because I was trying to follow up on a story that the Pope had called for a world-wide automobile buying boycott. That story was widely reported -- by nobody reliable, and I decided it was probably completely made up.
The piece about Iran is small, 145 words including the dateline. I've found the information repeated on lesser news sources, but they, no doubt, simply read the same article and repeated the information. I trust UPI enough to think it's probably true -- I don't trust them enough to call it true. And I have no idea what it means.
It could just be noise, or it could be a war gong, right? In any event, it doesn't sound good. If true, it certainly means tension is continuing to build between US and Iran -- that the dollar is being put up for question probably means someone is trying to egg on the powers that be here -- their version of sanctions, I suppose -- or maybe their way of raising our prices without the political ramifications of raising oil prices, if we need to pay more by money exchanges in the billions of dollars; but that is completely speculation. The alternative to that reading is that Iranian ministers truly believe the dollar is going to collapse in the very near future -- which seems more unlikely.
Rules of reporting: Whenever you come across something reported only once it is suspect. Whenever you come across something repeated verbatim or wild-fire fashion it's suspect. Whenever you come across something specifically not reported, it's also suspect. Just as in anything else, the less you know the less grounded a situation is.
Communication is scary and lack of communication is scary. The currency of connection. Unreliable at best -- better to look someone in the eye over breakfast -- give them a hug.
What does seem clear is that War doesn't seem to be going anywhere anytime soon.
The woman I stood behind in the post office line yesterday -- two of her kids were in Iraq, one had recently returned. Her daughter-in-law, standing next to hear with a heavy leather Marine Corps bomber jacket, had finished her time in the service. Another daughter was looking at a deployment in 2008.
The following is from an article that ran in the Times 20 years ago:
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
The Prize Ultimately Lies
A fact a day… for the past few they’ve been feeling more like lessons than facts. Today I learned a fact from an NPR broadcast just a few weeks old:
The American military is the single-largest purchaser and consumer of oil in the world,
guzzling about 340,000 barrels of oil a day.
Now I remember that $100 marker.
Now I remember the doubling of oil prices.
Now I remember that yesterday I was wondering if I should give up driving out to the organic farm in Concord.
“If the Defense Department were a country it would rank about 38’th in the world for oil consumption, right behind the Philippines.” (Morning Edition, November 14, 2007)
One plane they talked about runs on 3 gallons per mile. No, I didn’t type that wrong. 3 gallons per mile. The military is not concerned about having their budget cut – obviously, we are in the middle of a war, and it needs to be continued...
The bigger challenge for the military, O'Hanlon (a former Defense Department budget analyst who is now with the Brookings Institution) said, is what the price hikes represent — a narrowing of the gap between supply and demand that could cause problems for the military down the road. What happens when such an oil hungry institution can't get oil?
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16281892
This seems like an amazing little knot we have ourselves in in the middle east, then, no? I am pulling both the quote above and below from larger articles, and isolating them to make my point, but I am taking neither out of context... I have been reading and rereading an article from The Independent from last January entitled, “The Spoils of War.” The article has lots of information about the future of Iraqi oil I'm trying to get my mind around, but in terms of our history there:
Vice-President Dick Cheney, who said in 1999, while he was still chief executive of the oil services company Halliburton, that the world would need an additional 50 million barrels of oil a day by 2010. "So where is the oil going to come from?... The Middle East, with two-thirds of the world's oil and the lowest cost, is still where the prize ultimately lies," he said.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2132569.ece
The American military is the single-largest purchaser and consumer of oil in the world,
guzzling about 340,000 barrels of oil a day.
Now I remember that $100 marker.
Now I remember the doubling of oil prices.
Now I remember that yesterday I was wondering if I should give up driving out to the organic farm in Concord.
“If the Defense Department were a country it would rank about 38’th in the world for oil consumption, right behind the Philippines.” (Morning Edition, November 14, 2007)
One plane they talked about runs on 3 gallons per mile. No, I didn’t type that wrong. 3 gallons per mile. The military is not concerned about having their budget cut – obviously, we are in the middle of a war, and it needs to be continued...
The bigger challenge for the military, O'Hanlon (a former Defense Department budget analyst who is now with the Brookings Institution) said, is what the price hikes represent — a narrowing of the gap between supply and demand that could cause problems for the military down the road. What happens when such an oil hungry institution can't get oil?
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16281892
This seems like an amazing little knot we have ourselves in in the middle east, then, no? I am pulling both the quote above and below from larger articles, and isolating them to make my point, but I am taking neither out of context... I have been reading and rereading an article from The Independent from last January entitled, “The Spoils of War.” The article has lots of information about the future of Iraqi oil I'm trying to get my mind around, but in terms of our history there:
Vice-President Dick Cheney, who said in 1999, while he was still chief executive of the oil services company Halliburton, that the world would need an additional 50 million barrels of oil a day by 2010. "So where is the oil going to come from?... The Middle East, with two-thirds of the world's oil and the lowest cost, is still where the prize ultimately lies," he said.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2132569.ece
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