9/5/24

 Thursday, September 5, 2024

1906 Saint Louis U. quarterback threw the first legal forward pass in the history of American football for a TD at Carroll College, Waukesha, Wisconsin

1960 Cassius Clay [Muhammad Ali] beat the 3-time European champion Zbigniew Pietrzykowski to win Olympic light heavyweight boxing gold medal at the Rome Games

1972 Eleven Israeli athletes were taken hostage and later killed by the Palestinian Black September group at the Munich Olympics

In bed around 9 and not awake and up until 6:10!?!!😤😇

Prednisone, day 115, 10 mg., day 21/28.  Prednisone at 6:28, diclofenac on my knee at 6:30.  Let Lilly out at 6:35.

Two years ago today, Jimmy Aquavia left with his son Steve for Alexandria and his new home near Katherine and Jordan.  I was mostly sorry to see him leave because I considered him a good friend as well as my brother-in-law.  I still miss him.  He is 90 years old now and I suspect he is in worse shape now than he was when he left Newcastle Place and Wisconsin.  I say I was 'mostly sorry to see him leave' only because Katherine and Jordan picking up the responsibility of caring for him relieved Geri from it as Geri was herself approaching her 80th year with health concerns of her own, plus, though I didn't know it at the time, I was heading toward my year of very challenging health problems in 2023-2024 which placed additional burdens on Geri.  That said, I miss Jimmy a lot.  Another friend gone, out of sight, not out of mind.  My note from the day:

As 1:30 arrived, Steve got up and asked his Dad whether he needed a bathroom stop before they headed out.  Jim asked if they were leaving and where they were going.  When told they were going to the airport, he said "Me?"  and was surprised to hear that they were leaving for Washington.  He had forgotten.  We  shared hugs, good luck wishes, and they were off, hoping not to be delayed by Biden's motorcade on the freeway.  I went outside to fill the bird feeders with Lilly following to take up her post at the northeast corner of the house where she can look down County Line Road to Geri's return.  I felt grateful and sad, an emptiness and fulness at the same time.

Haditha massacres; trial of Sgt. Wuterich.  I listened to episode 8 of The New Yorker podcast In The Dark about the trial of squad leader Sgt. Frank Wuterich.  One of Wuterich's assigned Marine Corps defense counsel agreed to be interviewed by the team of investigative reporters for reasons I can't understand in terms of attorney-client privilege, respect for client confidences, and the duty of loyalty.  In any event, one of the matters he discussed the the composition of the 'jurors' in  Wuterich's court martial, all Marines and all veterans of the Iraq invasion. "Trying the case to a military jury, there's probably going to be a significant bias against Iraqis if the jury has served in Iraq.  And I say that because there was the uniform dislike or bias against Iraqis.  I don't know why.  We were supposedly going there to give them freedom, right? but we hate them and they're all cockroaches and we want to kill them."  I was reminded of course of Vietnam, and of the wary ambivalence towards the Vietnamese that we Marines felt towards them in 1965 and 1966, i.e., early in the war following our invasion in March 1965.  It didn't take long for the feeling of ambivalence to turn to distrust and hostility as the war dragged on, all while from Saigon and Washington we heard of our valiant efforts to 'win the hearts and minds' of those we feared, distrusted, and eventually hated, the 'gooks,' 'zipperheads,' and 'slants.'  I don't recall hearing those terms from the Marines with whom I served early in our war, but I do recall the distrust and, at best, ambivalence.  How much was based on simple racism and how much was based on the power disparity between our governments and our peoples is anyone's guess, but I remember hearing rumors of Marines mutilating the bodies of dead VC, collecting ears or noses, and of captured VC being thrown out of airborn helicopters so other captives would agree to provide intelligence info.  Who knows if the rumors were true?  Or whether some or most atrocities were committed by the ARVNs serving with their Marine advisors.  The fog of war, etc, but the purpose of war is Death and Destruction, and those who are called upon to do the killing and destroying ought not to be expected to have overly-refined sensibilities about who is killed and what is destroyed.  "Rules of engagement" are easy enough to compose, but not so easy to apply in potentially hostile, kill or risk-being-killed, circumstances.

The conclusion of episode 8 about the coverup of American war crimes which are investigated only by America's military, and the inherent conflicts of interests in the military establishment, is chastening.  (It reminds me of "Military justice is to justice what military music is to music.")  As I listened to it, I thought of My Lai and Lieut. Calley of course, but also of Israel and the IDF in Gaza and the West Bank, and of how military training, especially infantry training, is designed to convert ordinary civilians into killers.  Oh, there are classes on the Geneva Conventions and the Rules of War and all that, but at bottom, the training is intended to turn recruits and conscripts into people willing to kill and to be killed.  How else do we get Pickett's Charge, Passchendaele, and Iwo Jima.  I thought again of how closely related Israel and the U.S. are.  Over the past year, I have been thinking of Israel as our 'canary in the mineshaft' but after listening to the report on Haditha, I wondered whether the U.S. is Israel's canary.  Both countries seem to me to be coming apart at the seams, verging on civil wars, and guilty of many interrelated sins, including imperialism, militarism, deep internal divisions, racism, and war crimes.  Will the chickens come home to roost this year in either or both countries?

Anniversaries thoughts.  Who knew Carroll College was such a historic site?  I wonder whether there is a historical marker on campus.

Cassius Clay became a hero of mine (as Mohammed Ali) when he refused induction into the Army.  "I ain't got no quarrel with them Vietcong.  . . The real enemy of my people is right here. I will not disgrace my religion, my people or myself by becoming a tool to enslave those who are fighting for their own justice, freedom and equality… If I thought the war was going to bring freedom and equality to 22 million of my people they wouldn’t have to draft me, I’d join tomorrow."

51 years ago, the Munich Olympics.  Sarah and I drove past the Olympic Park when she took me sightseeing in Munich on my first trip to Germany.  Half a century later, Hamas continued the tradition and amplified the stakes on October 7, 2023.  Homo hominis lupus.  The wages of Zionism.