Lucian of Samosata and the False Prophet of Glycon

Lucian of Samosata / Lucianus Samosatensis (circa 125-180 A.D.) was disgusted by mouthy flimflam men. Probably after 160 A.D. (in the Common Era), he wrote a scathing text on the False Prophet of Glycon that sounds amazingly contemporary. 

From about one thousand eight hundred and fifty years ago:

"I feel a sense of shame for both our sakes, yours as well as mine. Yours because you're willing to let the memory of a damned scoundrel be committed to writing and so preserved, mine because I'm spending so much time and energy on such a topic, on the acts of a man who ought not be a subject for the educated to read about but an object for the masses to behold being torn to bits by foxes and apes in some vast theater."

(Translation  by Lionel Casson from Selected Satires of Lucian. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1962, page 269). 

"Torn to bits by foxes and apes?" And here I was thinking in 2018 that basic impeachment or voting a brute out of office would be sufficient. What do you think? 

Today's Rune: Movement. 

Pier Paolo Pasolini: 'Medea' (1969)

Pier Paolo Pasolini's Medea (1969), filmed in stunning locations and starring the great opera singer Maria Callas (1923-1977) in the title role. 

Jason and the Argonauts will be on a collision course with fate: the Golden Fleece and Medea. Chiron, Jason's adoptive father, a centaur, tries to prepare him for life when growing up. "Wherever your eyes roam, a god is hidden. And if by chance he be not there, the signs of his sacred presence are."

Medea with her family in Colchis (modern day Georgia), before the disruptive arrival of Jason and the Argonauts.

Medea and culture shock: beware the coming of the Greeks and their rival gods!

Pasolini's approach is distinctive and unforgettable! Maria Callas shines as Medea! 

At points, I was reminded of The Wicker Man (1973) and Twin Peaks: The Return (2017).  On the one hand, human sacrifice as part of ancient tradition, and on the other, double-exposure technique, superimposing a face (Medea, Agent Cooper) over a key scene, and presenting two versions of an event (the final fate of Creusa / Glauca). I was also reminded of Werner Herzog in the way Pasolini intertwines other-worldly music and free-floating camera work. 

Today's Rune: The Mystery Rune. 

'Helen of Troy' (2003)

John Kent Harrison, director. Helen of Troy (2003). A lot of mythical ground is covered in just under three hours. This made-for-cable version mixes together bits of Greek and Roman lore, lots of stuff not in Homer and some that is. Though a little silly at times, Helen of Troy gives us interesting angles on Helen and the Trojan War. 

Emphasis here is placed on Helen, Paris, Theseus, Cassandra, Hector, Agamemnon and his brother Menelaus. Odysseus (Ulysses) is on the edges, portrayed mostly as a jerk. Achilles is inexplicably depicted as a tall and bald brute. Goddesses appear (briefly) in the Judgment of Paris, a scene that seems thrown together like an afterthought but featuring Hera (Juno), Aphrodite (Venus) and Athena (Minerva).The sacrifice of Iphigenia is included. (Recent post on Iphigenia here). Troy is set too close to the sea, with little room for all the fighting that takes place in Homer's detailed descriptions.   

Despite various quibbles, Helen of Troy is still fun to watch. Is Helen the fairest of people, or the most clever, or both? Is Paris an idiot, or Hector? And what about poor Cassandra, always pushing for her brother Paris' death to no avail? 

The tale is told mainly from the point of view of Menelaus, with Agamemnon as a sometimes humorous villain.   

BBC One and Netflix have reportedly partnered to produce Troy: Fall of a City, an eight-part mini-series that will probably come out later this year. Given that this is one of the greatest stories ever told -- especially with all the ancient spin-offs and prequels to draw from -- I look forward to seeing what they've come up with for 21st century audiences. 

Today's Rune: Partnership. 

Searching for Sappho (2016)

Philip Freeman, Searching for Sappho: The Lost Songs and World of the First Woman Poet (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2016). 

An easy to read overview of the life, times and art of Sappho (circa 630-570 B.C.), and Freeman makes it all seem easy, translating from ancient Greek into modern English. We learn that in Classical Greek marriages, men were generally ten or twelve years older than their brides. Mystery cults and religions abounded. Sensuality was then, as now, complex. The biggest hope -- and danger -- for many woman was pregnancy. Heterosexual men could -- and did -- supplement their love lives with regular courtesans and hetaira, "the companions often pictured on drinking cups. . . skilled not only in giving sexual pleasure, but also in music and conversation" (page 55).

Women of pregnancy age had to be more clever than men if they wished to supplement or compliment their marriages. Relations with other women made a lot of sense, as in the case of Sappho, who was at least for a time married to an older man (probably) and had one daughter that we know of (per Freeman). Why avoid pregnancy?  It was very dangerous, riskier than fighting in a war, to the mother, who could easily die in childbirth. Men could also turn to other men, if so wired or inclined.

We also learn that Sappho probably sang most of her poems, a sort of trobairitz with a lyre. Freeman has her performing at weddings and other ceremonies, and put in exile at least twice due to power struggles on Lesbos.

Freeman pieces together what he can, but most of Sappho's poetry is known only in beautiful fragments. Still, there is hope that more verses will continue to be recovered, as has been the case during the past century. 

And of time, how we measure it can be confusing and misleading. We may tend to think of ancient times as one big suck hole, but consider this: "By the time of Sappho [2600 years before this post], the pyramids were almost as ancient to her as she is to us . . ." (page 99)! 

Finally, Freeman notes that there are about one hundred known women poets of Classical Greco-Roman times -- there are many more to explore. Like Sappho, much of their so far rediscovered poetry is in the form of fragments. And let us imagine new finds among other civilizations and cultures as well. Let's hope, let's seek, let's find!

Sappho #147.  "Someone, I say, will remember us in time to come" (page 278).  And we do, as others will remember us. 

Today's Rune: Initiation.   

SPECTRE vs. Spectre

Number One (Blofeld) and his Persian feline friend, From Russia with Love (1963) 

Before getting into the SPECTRE milieu, let me weigh in on the possibility of a black James Bond. Of course James Bond can be black -- simply tweak the backstory and bring us into the 21st century. Yes, Idris Elba, David Oyelowo or any number of other black actors could play Bond. As for Daniel Craig's run as 007, he's done a good job and seems close to Ian Fleming's conception of his character in the early novels. 

Regardless of who plays Bond, the earlier films to date are much more interesting to me. Why? Because of the writing, and the greater complexity of worldview. The first batches of James Bond films were more layered and enduring, like The Iliad. The latest, including the new Spectre (2015), are written much more like Scooby-Doo Where are You!  The main reason for this oversimplification in the newer ones, the great narrowing in number and variety and scope of characters, is undoubtedly financial: by make the SPECTRE organization a vague and fairly generic international crime syndicate that does not include real world animosities or historical backdrop, it can be sold anywhere from the USA to China and all over the globe without offense. As an investment strategy, this generic approach works -- Spectre is on track to rake in the equivalent of more than one billion dollars worldwide at the box office by the end of 2015. 

Claudine Auger -- Domino in Thunderball -- as Athena/Minerva (1960)*

As for The Iliad angle, one can imagine 007 (as played by Sean Connery, say, or George Lazenby), being plucked from lethal situations by the last-minute intervention of the goddess Athena, or encouraged to sleep with a beautiful enemy through the wiles of the goddess Aphrodite, or punished by one of the same goddesses for some arrogant slight on Bond's part (as in the loss of his wife in On Her Majesty's Secret Service). In the newer story lines, how does Bond escape sure death? Who knows? For there is no sense of wonder, or magic . . . just simple-minded writing. We are supposed to believe that Blofeld's entire animus toward Bond is due to his father's affection for the orphan boy Bond when they were kids. In the previous film, former 00 agent Raoul Silva (Javier Bardem) was supposed to carry an identical hatred toward Bond because of a Freudian conflict regarding their mutual surrogate mother and boss, M (Judi Dench). Pitiful. What works in a Sergio Leone film does not work in a Bond film.

In the earlier Bond films, there is a sense of a greater, interlocking world with numerous conflicts going on, any number of which may blow up at any time. SPECTRE (Special Executive for Counter-intelligence,Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion) exploits Cold War tensions and other historical animosities. One catches glimpses of old and new conflicts, ones involving Turks vs. Bulgarians, Greeks, Russians, Koreans, Germans, British, Americans, Chinese and various organized crime syndicates. It's a big world, complex, and nationalism is treated in a tongue in cheek way. James Bond notes as much when he quips to "Bond girls" he's sleeping with: "What I did this evening was for Queen and country" (Thunderball) and, "The things I do for England" (You Only Live Twice). Any number of seemingly patriotic nationalists are, in fact, mercenaries, willing to do anything for money, power or revenge. These are valuable lessons for living in the world. One must always be on guard as to actual intent.

Besides the international intrigue and possibility, there's technology and its impact. This is a constant theme throughout the entire series -- including the limits of technology. (I'll write more about this, the importance of theme music and the mystique of hotel rooms at some point).

In the earlier films, I like the way they typically culminate in special forces assaults on a villain's castle, or secret lair. Bond is merely the frontman for larger backup forces. Again, in the new Spectre, there's none of that -- just the little Scooby-Doo band of oddballs working in conjunction with 007. And man, where is Oddjob (Harold Sakata) when you need a truly memorable assassin to contend with?

As of this posting, the closest thing to the spirit and range of the earlier run of James Bond films may be CNN's Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown (2013-present). Bourdain is like a real James Bond for the here and now, a cultural explorer who carries himself with grit, humor, curiosity, and an intrepid nature. Rather than a license to kill, he has a license to travel, drink, sample various cuisines, and engage with people of different backgrounds and histories, all the while making a serious effort to understand both historical context and future possibilities. And so the circle is complete -- Bourdain, Anthony, vs. SPECTRE-like chaos. Can you dig?

*In Jean Cocteau's Le testament d'Orphée, ou ne me demandez pas pourquoi! (1960). 

Today's Rune: Wholeness.     

Andrew Dalby's 'Bacchus: A Biography' (2003)

While still slowly going through a hefty book on Mary and her many manifestations, I finished two nifty books by Andrew Dalby, one on Venus / Aphrodite here and here, and one on Bacchus / Dionysos / Dionysus: Bacchus: A Biography (The J. Paul Getty Museum, 2004). There's intertwining of content in all three. An important shared element is wine.  

Bacchus / Dionysos / Dionysus has a rich life story throughout the Mediterranean regions that is depicted widely in art and text. Dalby shows how the Macedonians took this mythology with them through the Middle East and all the way to India, breathing new wine into old wineskin, as it were. 

The origins of Bacchus / Dionysos / Dionysus proceed backward from the present through artists, poets, philosophers, dramatists and various other types of writers, through the Romans and Greeks to at least 3200 years ago -- probably further back than that. 

What is the origin of Bacchus / Dionysos / Dionysus? As Dalby succinctly puts it: "You can try to find the original story, but there is no original story." (Bacchus: A Biography, p. 146). That's daunting, haunting, mysterious -- and cool. 

The mythology of Bacchus / Dionysos / Dionysus was well-known to early Christians, and to observant later Christians, too.  One of the more interesting connections is through "The Marriage of Cana" in the Bible (Book of John 2: lines 1-11). This scene is discussed in the Mary book, too, because Mary inspires the action. When the wedding party runs out of wine, Mary makes note of it, and Jesus performs the miracle of turning water into wine.

Which makes me wonder how some later Christian sects could ever justify their rejection of wine or any other spirits in their formal gatherings or even at home. Jesus didn't turn wine into water, he turned water into wine. But these eccentric sects reject drinking completely. For instance, the Mormons (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints); Methodists (traditionally); Southern Baptists; "Dunkers" (at least the Dunker from Maryland I once knew); Seventh-day Adventists (Ben Carson is a member, and Mitt Romney is a Mormon); certain Evangelicals; and so on. 

Islam is against wine and spirits in principle, although Sufis and various artist and mystic types have demonstrated different interpretations that allow and celebrate it. 

Finally, Jains and Sikhs shun wine and all spirits. 

Personally, I can't become too excited about any religion or sect that shuns wine or its alternatives, nor would I want to join them -- any of them.  

And so, back to Bacchus / Dionysos / Dionysus: a salute, with wine, is in the offing. 

Today's Rune: Joy.      

Gallipoli / Çanakkale Centenary: 1915-2015

Gallipoli / Çanakkale Centenary: 1915-2015.  Approximately 500,000 casualties in this one campaign of the First World War: mostly Ottoman imperial troops, British and French imperial troops, Australian, New Zealander, Indian, Canadian and German troops. 

100,000 dead in eight and one-half months.  

Gallipoli / Çanakkale Centenary: 1915-2015. Pertinent books, movies, poems and cultural exchanges have bubbled up in the past 100 years.

Here in Peter Weir's Gallipoli (1981),  Mel Gibson's character Frank Dunne looks across barbed wire at a Turkish POW on the beach at Gallipoli. Turkey is now part of NATO.  

Gallipoli / Çanakkale Centenary: 1915-2015. Recent Turkish film from the Ottoman point of view. 


June Tabor's excellent 1976 version of Eric Bogle's powerful 1971 song, "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda," which is all about Gallipoli from an ANZAC perspective.

Perhaps fittingly, the French and Turks battled over the same area as the site of the Trojan War (circa 1250 B.C.). 'Nuff said. 

Today's Rune: Harvest. 

The Ottoman Empire and the Great War of 1914-1918

In developing a mock online class on The Great War and the 1920s for training purposes, it's been interesting to connect the dots between the end of the Ottoman Empire -- and the intention of the Allied Powers to divvy up its territories -- to today's political and cultural developments throughout these same areas. Notice that Syria is smack-dab in the middle of this map of the Middle East.

For starters, all one need do is look at these maps to see the jigsaw puzzling impact of the Great War of 1914-1918 and its aftermath in the region, and on the world.

Here are some of my notes for such a class so far:

Unit 1, Lesson 2. The Ottoman Empire in Context.

Objectives:

To understand what was at stake for the Ottoman Empire in 1914.

To understand why the Ottomans allied themselves to the Central Powers.

To analyze why the Allied Powers sought access to Ottoman territories.

To analyze the strategic importance of geography and natural resources to all players.

Read G.J. Meyer, A World Undone: The Story of the Great War, 1914-1918 (Delacorte Press, 2006), pages  74-79.

What was at stake for the Ottoman Empire in 1914?

Why did the Ottomans ally themselves with the German and Austro-Hungarian Empires?

Why did the British, French and Russian Empires want access to territories under the control of the Ottoman Empire?

Consider resources and geography. Petroleum and waterways.

Unit 1, Lesson 3. Gallipoli.

Objectives:

To understand the Allied campaign to capture Constantinople/Istanbul.

To analyze how the Ottoman Turks contained the Allied attack at Gallipoli.

To understand the political and cultural impact of the Gallipoli Campaign.

Gallipoli Disaster. Read G.J. Meyer, A World Undone: The Story of the Great War, 1914-1918 (Delacorte Press, 2006), pages  265-272.

What was the Allied plan to knock the Ottoman Empire out of the war?

How did the Ottoman Turks contain the Allied attack at Gallipoli?

Additional reading (primary sources): James Hannah, ed., The Great War Reader (College Station: Texas A & M University Press, 2000), pages 151-164.

Unit 1, Lesson 4. Armenian Genocide.

Objectives:

To understand why the Ottoman leadership conceived of its Armenian population as enemies.

To analyze the role of the Russian Empire in Ottoman calculation.

To understand the essential details of the Armenian Genocide.

To understand the aspirations of the Armenian and Kurdish peoples.

To analyze the longterm political and cultural impact of the Armenian Genocide.

Read G.J. Meyer, A World Undone: The Story of the Great War, 1914-1918 (Delacorte Press, 2006), pages  289-291.

Why did the leadership of the Ottoman Empire scapegoat the Armenian population?

What was the role of the Russian Empire in Ottoman calculations?

Unit 1, Lesson 5. Palestine Front. Read G.J. Meyer, A World Undone: The Story of the Great War, 1914-1918 (Delacorte Press, 2006), pages  538-541.

Unit 1, Lesson  6. Mesopotamia Campaign, 1915-1918.

Lieutenant General Frederick S. Maude after Allied capture of Baghdad in 1917: “Our armies do not come into your cities and lands as conquerors or enemies, but as liberators."

Critical thinking. What were the main objectives of the Allied forces in Mesopotamia?

What was the role of disease and the medical corps in the Mesopotamia Campaign?

Unit 1, Lesson 7. Treaty of Versailles, Treaty of Sèvres,  Mandate System. Emergence of Modern Turkey (Greek War, Smyrna). Syria and Lebanon, Palestine, etc. 

Today's Rune: The Mystery Rune. Maps: UK National Archives.   

Syria's Turn

Today marks a significant turning point in the Syrian Civil War (2011-present) because the USA will now officially supply armaments to the rebels fighting Syria's Bashar Hafez al-Assad-led government forces. 

Above is an ethnoreligious map courtesy of Wiki Commons (from 2012).

To compare scale, Syria has many more people involved than did the American Civil War of 1861-1865, in which more than 600,000 died. Syria's population (including refugees) is about 23 million strong; so far, probably more than 100,000 people have died in its current civil war (about 93,000 is the official UN estimate as of today, mostly civilians).

A closer equivalent might be the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) -- Spain had a population of about 24-25 million people at the time. An estimated 500,000 died in the course of that internecine war; I'm not sure if the total number includes 150,000 or so executed by the government of Generalissimo Francisco Franco in its wake, or if the total rises to 650,000.

As with Spain, so now with Syria also in the sense of drawing in other nations, volunteers, weapons and additional supplies.

The Spanish Civil War is often depicted as a technological testing ground and precursor to World War II. The Syrian Civil War may be seen within the larger context of the "Arab Spring;" as for other effects, they will unfold with time.  

Today's Rune: Strength.    

The Charge of the Light Brigade (Take Two)

You might come away from Tony Richardson's The Charge of the Light Brigade (1968) asking a lot of questions in wonderment. For example:

What role did horses play in society then, and how about now, and in between, and in future, and in the way back when? How and why has this changed over time, and how may it still? What's your response to horses now, by George?

Plug in all sorts of facets, dimensions or variables for the same question:

Trains? 
Ships? 
War?
Artillery? 
Rifles?
Tactics?
Flags?
Armies?
Laws? 
Volunteers vs. the draft?
Men and women?
Cuisine? 
Music?
Alcohol?
Romance?
Sex?
Smoking?
Private vs. Public "Spheres?"
Family?
Fashions?
Architecture?
Commerce?
Telecommunications? 

The Crimean War (1853-1856), sandwiched between the Mexican-American War (1846-1848) and the American Civil War (1861-1865), displays an interesting link along the "path of progress" that culminates in today's best of all possible worlds . . . What? What? It must be the best now because we're living proof of it!

There's also the sheer entertainment value of catching certain changes in language then, now and in between across and within cultures, societies and regions. The Charles Wood-John Osborne script covers it all -- revealing certain attitudes, mores and customs depending on geography, class, etcetera. Here are two asynchronous snippets of interior monologue, a form of expression that's even more revealing than open dialogue or conversation:

A. Lord Cardigan: "I do not propose to recount my life in any detail, what is what. No damn business of anyone, what is what. I am Lord Cardigan, that is what!"

B. Captain Nolan: "There is no place happier than a cavalry mess. If one is a stupid, inconsiderate and lazy man, one can fit as a round peg in a snug round hole. At times, I am so pent up with their languour that I could scruff hold of any two of them and bang their noddles together until their doodles drop off!"

Today's Rune: Signals.

The Charge of the Light Brigade: Take One

Tony Richardson's version of The Charge of the Light Brigade (1968) leans more on the Charles Wood-John Osborne script than on Alfred, Lord Tennyson's wildly famous 1854 glory-poem of the same name ("Theirs not to reason why, Theirs but to do and die"). And well-written this film is -- darkly satiric, entertaining, interesting. We watch the English officers and troopers and horses of the 11th Hussars ("Hoo-SARS," the men say) training, preparing and heading off to the Crimean War (1853-1856). We see women and men of different socio-economic classes, how they relate  -- a study in manners (including romance) that lets us think about what's different now, what's the same, nearly 160 years later. By the end of the film, we much better see "the reason why" the "Charge of the Light Brigade" happened at all.

Excellent ensemble actors include Trevor Howard as Lord Cardigan, commander of the 11th "Cherrybums" and the whole Light Brigade (hilarious as a character, nightmare as an aristocratic officer); John Gielgud (playing the befuddled one-armed Lord Raglan, veteran of Waterloo); Jill Bennett (as the enthusiastic Fanny Duberly, who has a crush on gruff Lord Cardigan); David Hemmings (the protagonist in Antonioni's Blowup / Blow-up, 1966) as Captain Nolan, steely veteran of conflicts in India; and Vanessa Redgrave (also from Blowup) as Clarissa, part of a ménage à trois involving Nolan and her kindly but dullard husband. Good beans, Wellington! Now: The Brigade will advance! Trumpeter, walk . . . march!

Today's Rune: Growth.         

Skyfall

Fifty years and still running, the contemporary epic myth of 007 continues. James Bond, the Achilles of the here, the now and the recent past: from JFK to Barack Obama and way on down the road.

Skyfall is the best so far of the the Daniel Craig era Bond films. Beyond a large budget, Skyfall has many assets propelling it forward. Director Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Jarhead, Revolutionary Road). Craig as Bond. Javier Bardem. Judi Dench. Ralph Fiennes. Naomie Harris. Bérénice Lim Marlohe. Albert Finney. Istanbul. Shanghai. Macau. London. Scotland. Title song by Adele. Traditional Bond theme saluting back to the Sean Connery era. Clone of the Aston Martin DB5 from Goldfinger (1964/1965), which I first saw as a little kid at the New York World's Fair. Oh, yes. What's not to dig?
    

Today's Rune: Defense.

Argo

Ben Affleck's Argo (2012) does great work in conveying the sense of dread and volatility surrounding the Iranian Revolution (1979-present) and American and Canadian diplomatic staff trapped in country in late 1979 and early 1980. Beyond this scary milieu, the added excitement is seeing plans conceived and then attempted to extricate six of the Americans without them being killed or imprisoned. I thoroughly enjoyed the ride. Added bonus: learning a little more about the situation then as backdrop to events in 2012 and right on down the pike through 2013 and beyond.

Argo stars Affleck (as CIA operative Tony Mendez), Alan Arkin, John Goodman and Bryan Cranston, among a solid ensemble cast. As additional dramatic backdrop to the events shown in the film, there's Senator Teddy Kennedy's democratic primary challenge to President Jimmy Carter, blamed by Carter himself for his ultimate defeat in the 1980 general election. Kennedy later went on to defeat challenger Mitt Romney in the Massachusetts senatorial race in 1994. Indeed, the ghost of Ted Kennedy (1932-2009) hovers over both Argo and the 2012 presidential election.  

Here's an image of a stamp depicting the original Argo, the mythical ship that transported Jason and the Argonauts during their search for the Golden Fleece. Orpheus went along and saved the crew from the deadly song of the Sirens by playing his own music over them. Orpheus again?  Oh, yes. Argo/argos is derived in its Greek origins from something like "shining," last I checked.

Today's Rune: Joy. 

The Iliad Becomes An Iliad

A little more about the Undermain Theatre production of An Iliad in Deep Ellum. Bruce DuBose does the talking and Paul Semrad plays most of the instrumental mood music.

As you can see from the theatre card pictured above via the electrical outlet, this version of The Iliad has modern connections. Most of them are subtle, but two stand out from what I saw this past weekend. First, when the Poet (DuBose) begins reeling off where the Greek contingents arrayed against Hittite Troy (Ἴλιον aka Ilion or ILIUM) come from, it dawns on him (his persona): the audience may not be familiar with these ancient lands or peoples. So he updates them to different locales around today's USA -- the more to drive home the universal relevance of the epic story, song and poem of the Trojan War. The audience immediately connects the Trojan War to, say, the Afghanistan War, or the Syrian Civil War. And indeed, later on the Poet reads the names of wars from a long scroll, a representative sample only of what seems like a hundred of them from the Trojan War right up to Syria and the burning of Aleppo. The audience winces during this litany, chilled to the bones, and for good reason. It would seem that humankind is doomed to keep clawing itself to pieces down through the ages and right off into the future. Or as George Santayana noted in 1922, between the Great War to End All Wars and WW2: "only the dead have seen the end of war." But we were and are and will be human all the way. An Iliad also reminds us to live life while we can, because mischief awaits us at every turn. Be hospitable to poets and other artists, Homer seems to be saying, and they will make the way more palatable in return. Good one.

Today's Rune: Separation (Reversed).         

Is it Over?

And so the US is seemingly pulling its last combat troops out of Iraq after nearly nine years of invasion and occupation. It's been so long many were born into this debacle and have no idea how it all happened.

After the Persian Gulf War of 1990-1991 -- in which Iraq's military was badly defeated in response to its invasion of Kuwait -- no fly zones (NFZ map above courtesy of wikimedia) were created by the US, UK and France to keep the battered Saddam Hussein regime's remaining armed forces in check. One aspect of the NFZ: Kurds were to be more protected in the north and Shiites in the south from continued Hussein regime revenge attacks. Hussein's Iraq had earlier fought a brutal eight-year war with Iran and was still its primary enemy, so its eastern flank had to be covered, too. 

Into this mix -- which had the effect of keeping Hussein's government penned in while remaining a counterbalance to Iran -- came the events of 9/11/2001. The George W. Bush administration decided to invade Iraq, even though there was no direct link between Iraq and 9/11; the attacks had been devised and managed from Afghanistan, where bin Laden was based under the auspices of the Taliban. 

France, Turkey and several Arab states refused to participate in the invasion of Iraq (France did and does participate in Afghanistan operations). The US-led invasion of Iraq by a "coalition of the willing" removed Saddam Hussein from power, but emboldened (and made nervous) the Iranian government, which is still even now moving toward a nuclear weapons capability and engaged in a shadow war with its opponents.

Was the 2003 invasion of Iraq a wise move? Could the US afford such an adventure? Was it worth the cost in blood and treasure? Five and half years after the start of the invasion, the US economy took a nosedive, as did the economies of many of its allies. Today, the Obama Administration welcomed home some of the last US troops to be pulled out of Iraq.

Looking back, Turkey's position has risen. Some may not now remember or know that Turkey refused to allow US ground forces to invade northern Iraq through its territory. Now the Turkish government is in a stronger position to influence events in the entire region, including Syria, Israel-Palestine, Egypt and Iraq. The Turks and Kurdish elements continue to fight along the borderlands, as well. The Iraq War -- wiser to avoid than to plunge into.

I was opposed to an invasion of Iraq in 2002 and 2003, protested in the streets along with many many others to no avail and continue to think it was a terrible decision.

Today's Rune: Strength.