Shannon Larratt is Zentastic

Whew. Long day. I've been up since five AM so it's just about time to crash out. Happy birthday to my friends Jordan and Blair (sorry I couldn't make it to Dee's). Let's see… We posted a tattoo update (thanks to locoloquito for the cover shot — you can visit his portfolio also), and of course updated ModBlog also.

I picked up a new computer today for BME's “office” (that would be the room across from my bedroom) so Phil will finally have a dedicated computer for his work, and I won't have to fight for access when I need to do some programming or answer my email… And it'll let me convert my personal environment to a Linux one (well, I'll dual boot for Photoshop because I can't stand Gimp) without having to rewrite all the BME management software.

I know I haven't written many news entries lately; I barely have time to keep up with it let alone write about it I'm afraid. But I did have a couple things I wanted to share, first being this article that talks about why Iran is so wary of trusting the West. Paraphrased:

“All the interrogators in the secret police were trained in the United States and Israel. Five of my fingernails were peeled out in interrogation. I was a medical student,” said the man, Ali Muhammad Besharati, a former interior minister and deputy foreign minister. “But they put me in prison because I opposed American dominance in Iran.”

“I would like you to write this down,” he said, speaking through an interpreter. “If we backed down on the nuclear issue, the U.S. would have found fault with our medical doctors researching stem cells. What they would like to see us do is plant corn, make tomato paste and bottle mineral water. They do not want to see us get high-tech.”

“What was the result of all our confidence in the U.S.?” he asked forcefully. “Our agriculture was demolished. Our educational system was destroyed.”

Dr. Besharati recounted every modern American offense against Iran, from the shooting down of the Iranian airliner that killed more than 200 civilians, to officials of the Reagan administration calling for pulling the theocracy out by the roots. All this, he seemed to be saying, was why Iran would not give in to Americas demands on something as consequential as the nuclear program.

“Although our economic system may not be strong,” he said, “our minds and our memories are.”

Let's see what else… Did you know that so far about 40,000 US troops have gone AWOL in the past half decade? And that the US military isn't making much noise about it because they'd rather not have their stories told.

“When I joined, I wanted to fight,” he says. “I wanted to see combat. I wanted to be a hero. I wanted to save people. I wanted to protect my country.” But soon after he arrived in Iraq, he tells me, he realised that the Iraqis did not want him there, and he heard harsh tales that surprised and distressed him.

“Soldiers were describing to me how they had beaten prisoners to death,” he says. “There were three guys and one said, 'I kicked him from this side of the head while the other guy kicked him in the head and the other guy punched him, and he just died.' People I knew. They were boasting about it, about how they had beaten people to death.” He says it again: “Boasting about how they had beaten people to death. They are trained killers now. Their friends had died in Iraq. So they werent the people they were before they went there.”

Anderson says that even the small talk was difficult to tolerate. “I hate Iraqis,” he quotes his peers as saying. “I hate these damn Muslims.” At first he was puzzled by such talk. “After a while I started to understand. I started to feel the hatred myself. My friends were dying. What am I here for? We went to fight for our country; now were just fighting to stay alive.” In addition to taking shrapnel from a roadside bomb — the injury that earned him the Purple Heart — Anderson says he often found himself in firefights. But it was work at a checkpoint that made him seriously question his role. He was guarding the “backside” of a street checkpoint in Baghdad, he says. If a car passed a certain point without stopping, the guards were supposed to open fire.

“A car comes through and it stops in front of my position. Sparks are coming from the car from bad brakes. All the soldiers are yelling. It's in my vicinity, so it's my responsibility. I didn't fire. A superior goes, 'Why didnt you fire? You were supposed to fire.' I said, 'It was a family!' At this time it had stopped. You could see the children in the back seat. I said, 'I did the right thing.' He's like, 'No, you didn't. It's procedure to fire. If you don't do it next time, you're punished.'”

Kill 'em all and let God sort 'em out.

Playing soccer with chopped off heads is pretty fucked if that story is true. Anyway, I've got to go to bed, so here's some good news about rape and porn, some great fearmongering (with some truth to it), and some awesome guitar playing. Night all.