behind the iron-clad rhetoric

So I really don't have the time at the moment to rant in excess, but in the process of cleaning my desk I was going through the notes I took during some of last week's events, and I found one that I just had to share.

On Monday September 24th we had Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky speak at a luncheon. I will shamelessly admit that I had never heard of her, and really knew nothing about her. Long story short, she gave a fascinating talk, filled with the passion of conviction that I so long to see in today's policy-makers. She talked about a smattering of different issues over the course of her presentation, which was just short of an hour, but the topic that struck me more than the others was the war. She recently was appointed to the House Select Committee on Intelligence, meaning she's been privy to a much clearer picture of what's happening over there.

The public opinion for this war has steadily been declining in this country, and along with it the country's approval and patience. One of the primary reasons for this decline (among many) is the quickly-rising fear that we no longer are building a democracy, but reffing a civil war. This impression comes from the numerous reports of sectarian violence between Iraqis. It's an understandable concern, and our government knows that.

So naturally, we now are being told that this form of violence is dramatically decreasing, thus, we should quit worrying. Perfectly reasonable.

At least it would be ... if the data we were being fed wasn't cherry-picked and skewed to an absolutely ridiculous degree.

Every kind of data being tracked needs parameters, right? Right. And that's the sickening part: the parameters being laid down. Rep. Schakowsky discussed 4 such parameters in determining whether violence can be labeled as 'sectarian:'

1. Car bombs are not considered sectarian violence
2. Gunshots to the back of the head are included sectarian violence, but not to the front of the head
3. Sunni on Sunni violence is not considered sectarian violence
4. Shi‘ite on Shi‘ite violence is not considered sectarian violence

Does this come across as completely absurd to anyone else? The definition of sectarian violence is violence between two or more sects. So if two opposing religious sects (Sunni and Shi‘ite for example) attack each other using one of the most popular forms of violence - a car bomb - it's not sectarian violence. If one of them shoots another in the head, it depends on which side of the head in which the victim was shot to determine if it was, in fact, sectarian. And if they attack each other, regardless of which sect the other adheres to, it's not sectarian. Congratulations! We've all but wiped out the possibility of civil war without actually removing any of the violence or killing.

One other thing she mentioned saddened me just as greatly. The military PR machine has been cheering about how more and more of Baghdad's neighborhoods are safer, with violence ebbing significantly. Unfortunately, it's because in each neighborhood one sect has killed and/or driven out the other, creating a more segregated city than ever. We're basking in a victory that, in reality, is nothing more than the inevitable outcome of ethnic cleansing. And, as a tax-payer, I feel I'm a part of that victory.

Let me tell you, if that realization doesn't ruin your day, I don't know what will.