The Invisible Library

Infoshop:

WASHINGTON — The chief of the Selective Service System has proposed registering women for the military draft and requiring that young Americans regularly inform the government about whether they have training in niche specialties needed in the armed services.

The proposal, which the agency’s acting Director Lewis Brodsky presented to senior Pentagon officials just before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, also seeks to extend the age of draft registration to 34 years old, up from 25.

The Selective Service System plan, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, highlights the extent to which agency officials have planned for an expanded military draft in case the administration and Congress would authorize one in the future.
…
The agency officials acknowledged that they would have “to market the concept” of a female draft to Congress, which ultimately would have to authorize such a step.

George Bush’s little cowboy adventure will soon threaten to decimate an entire generation, and for what? What’s this week’s Glorious Reason for bombing civilians, torturing prisoners and generally fucking up the world?

And more importantly, will any of the chickenhawks go and fight when their name is called? Or will they follow our leader’s example, and disapear? If it’s the latter, you’d best not come back at all.

Baghdad - April 30, 2004

Hello everyone!

I continue to get replies asking for permission to use excerpts from my dispatches on web sites. I encourage all who are interested to do so. Don’t worry, I won’t write about anything I shouldn’t be writing about. As a result, some details will be noticeably lacking but the idea is that a clear picture of what life is like here and my perceptions of what is going on around me will be accurately related. Additionally, feel free to forward these dispathes on and let me know if you know anyone that would like to be added to the list.

Now I shall attempt to paint a basic picture of what life is like here.

In some ways, I feel like I’m back at summer camp when I was a kid what with living in a big communal tent and the large cafeteria style dining hall. I live and work in the vicinity of one of the several palaces that populate the Green Zone. The palace itself is a rather ostentatious building with marble all over the interior. Inane quotes from SH (Saddam Hussein) line some of the walls. I can’t read them of course (they are in Arabic and I am hoping to delve into that language very soon) but apparently they say things like “Work hard and you will be rewarded”. His initials are imprinted on all the bricks in the walls in our dining area. The story is that our dining hall once housed a huge banquest hosted by SH whereupon many of the attendees were poisoned. Of course, I’m hearing such stories all the time and take everything with a grain of salt. Apparently, one of Udai’s many liquor collections are in the basement and includes 6 bottles of Johnny Walker Blue Label. One can also take a look at Udai’s sword and pistol canes (the man was injured by an assasination attempt - hence the weapons disguised as canes - like something out of a bad Kung Fu movie).

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