Quote: Monchoachi + A Responsible Plan to End the Iraq War

The "first word" is the word that the poet attempts to restore in a universe deafened by the din of massive destruction, all the languages [langages] relentless in their desertifying of the world. The "first word" is quite simply the word. And the poet a warrior, the greatest of warriors, because--to take up the words of Celan, words of a burning timeliness--"exposed in that previously unforeseen sense, and thereby frighteningly in the open [auf das unheimlichste in Freien], the poet goes to language with his entire being, sore with reality and seeking reality.
--Monchoachi, from his "Speech on the Reception of the Prix Max Jacob (2003)," translated by Brent Hayes Edwards, in Edwards, "The Specter of Interdisciplinarity," PMLA, 123.1, January 2008, p. 193.


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5 years of war, with no end the US's participation in this manufactured disaster in sight/site. In addition to the 90,000-200,000+ Iraqis killed, and countless maimed, the 4.5 million now displaced and in internal or external exile, that country's destroyed infrastructure, its looted treasury, and its jerry-rigged political system, nearly 4,000 US troops have been killed and 40,000+ have been injured, some seriously. It is not a stretch to say that all of them have suffered some form of trauma after serving over there.

But there is an end in sight/site, even if some of the presidential candidates say they want to initiate a troop withdrawal but shadow-text to their advisors that it's just talk, or one of them wants 10o to 100,000 years of war. Some members of Congress have come up with a "Responsible Plan to End the War in Iraq." Their plan aims to:

1. End U.S. Military Action in Iraq
2. Use U.S. diplomatic power
3. Address humanitarian concerns
4. Restore our Constitution
5. Restore our military
6. Restore independence to the media
7. Create a new, U.S.-centered energy policy

How? You can read about how they plan to do so here, sign the petition, and send the links to your friends. Above all, urge your own Congresspeople and the presidential candidates to sign on to the plan, and use the site's discussion to reorient the discourse on the Iraq War. All the horrors we're constantly warned will happen if we withdraw our troops have already happened. The sectarian killings and cleansing, the soft-partitioning the country, the rise of extremism (especially in the South), the fomenting of anti-US rage and vengeance, the creation of Al Qaeda pockets, all of it has already taken place. The issue now is, do we continue to worsen the problem or do we address the damage we've done by getting out and truly working in a multilateral way to empower the Iraqi people's sovereignty, while also addressing and rectifying the extreme damage we've aided and abetted for years, but in an accelerated fashion since 2001, to our own political system and society?

In case you're wondering which Congresspeople and Congressional candidates are behind this plan, they include:

Darcy Burner candidate for U.S. House, Washington Donna Edwards candidate for U.S. House, Maryland Eric Massa candidate for U.S. House, New York Chellie Pingree candidate for U.S. House, Maine TOM PERRIELLO candidate for U.S. House, Virginia Jared Polis candidate for U.S. House, Colorado George Fearing candidate for U.S. House, Washington Larry Byrnescandidate for U.S. House, Florida STEVE HARRISON candidate for U.S. House, New York SAM BENNETT candidate for U.S. House, Pennsylvania Harry Taylor candidate for U.S. House, North Carolina Alan Grayson candidate for U.S. House, Florida Dennis Shulman candidate for U.S. House, New Jersey Larry Grant candidate for U.S. House, Idaho Leslie Byrne candidate for U.S. House, Virginia Bill O'Neill candidate for U.S. House, Ohio Steve Novick candidate for U.S. Senate, Oregon Jeff Merkley candidate for U.S. Senate, Oregon

Edwards, remember, defeated the DINO Albert (Bear) Wynn, from Maryland, in the primary earlier this year. Support these candidates if you can and care, and above all, do what you can to further their plan!