reed writes

What the yellow ribbon really means

Some time, somewhere- in America – someone started a campaign and made the colour yellow a symbol for supporting their soldiers at war. One interesting aspect of this is that yellow is the official colour of the U.S. cavalry.

It’s also used in a popular American marching song. The first version copyrighted was in 1917 by George A. Norton, which he
titled ‘Round Her Neck She Wears a Yeller Ribbon (For Her Lover Who Is Fur,
Fur Away). While he tells in the song about the love between Susie Simpkins
and her soldier lover Silas Hubbard, his chorus goes:

• ‘Round her neck she wears a yeller ribbon,
  She wears it in winter and
  the summer so they say,
  If you ask her "Why the decoration?"
  She’ll say
  "It’s fur my lover who is fur, fur away.                                                                                        
  

The colour and the ribbon (which was really a cavalry neckerchief), came to symbolize support for soldiers at war and men in prison.

Following the invasion of Iraq, Americans adopted the yellow ribbon as a symbol of support for the men and women, who were fighting and dying there. War supporters wore them on their lapels, created bumper stickers and magnetic ribbons for their cars.

During the war in Afghanistan many Canadians fell into lockstep with their American sisters and brothers. They went out and bought these yellow magnetic ribbons and stuck them on their SUV’s and other places.

About a year ago I wrote a short column on the subject, questioning the practice…particularly when it came to mounting these ribbons on taxpayer-owned vehicles. I wrote the piece because – the ribbons seemed to symbolize support for our participation in the war in Afghanistan and the fact is that more than half of all Canadians oppose the war.

One of the comments on the piece came from a gentleman – Roger Ryan – who pointed out that the yellow ribbon is in fact, also a symbol for suicide prevention.

I checked – and he was absolutely right.

Here’s what I found: 

One of the Yellow ribbon sites has this message:

"You don’t need to say much and there are no magic words. Your concern
and your caring will show in your voice and in your mannerisms.
Demonstrate patience and caring. Avoid argument and advice-giving -
these will only serve to belittle the person already crushed under
unbearable emotional pain. All you need to do is STAY-LISTEN-GET HELP!"

So the next time you see a yellow ribbon on an SUV, remember…it means "HELP"!

Another interpretation could mean War is Suicide. Help!

I -  on the other hand – see war as murder. Help!

For a society, read Murder/Suicide. Help!

A useful look at the yellow ribbon syndrome can be found in this video by a Texas Group.

Want to really shed a tear? Watch this…being trapped in a war is like being imprisoned. We sent them, condemned them to hell.

And when they come home…they need acceptance.

They fight because our leaders sent them; the soldiers don’t know why. And nor do we.

But we support them because they are part of us and we love them. We want them back. We want them back alive.
And we do accept them back with love and open arms.

For God’s sake…bring them home.

Have you noticed how the media and the military deal with numbers?

They never seem to know how many "militants" they kill. It’s always "about" or "more than" or "scores" or "mostly". The Associated Press News Agency reported the other day that "More than 3,700 people — mostly militants — have died in insurgency-related violence in Afghanistan this year. No word on civilians killed. Innocent civilians.

The military/media gurus never seem to be quite sure of how to deal with the numbers.

The old General Rick Hillier policy remains in effect: "We are not in the business of counting bodies".

It’s particularly obvious and yes, even sad, that they never seem to know how many civilians…innocent people…women and children and even some innocent men…they kill. It’s all very mysterious. And very disturbing. And it says something quite profound about this war. Profound and yet quite simple.

Hillier used to say – when he was still a "soldier’s soldier" – before he decided to become a "business man’s soldier", that those "scumbags" over there don’t place any value on human life. That may be so. But it seems to this ink-stained wretch that the so-called "coalition of the western willing" has the same sense of values or lack of them, when it comes to Afghan life.

When it comes to counting the dead…the only accurate body count is our own. We know how many of
our own have died…we know when they died and we know how and we know exactly who.

The double standard on death has to be sending a message to the people of Afghanistan. A loose interpretation of the "coalition" message might well be: "We don’t give a shit". That’s what Afghans think…they think – those guys from the west just don’t give a shit…and you know what? I think they’re right.

What we care about is winning come hell or high water…no matter how many innocent civilians we blow away in the process.

How the Afghanistan Mission Could Work

Canada joined ISAF in 2002, as part of a nation-building and reconstruction programme in Afghanistan. Canadians thought this would be a project overseen and commanded by the United Nations. However, in reality…it is a project overseen and directed by U.S. Central Command.

A fatal flaw.

The military operations in Afghanistan are the product of a hydra-headed command structure which no one really understands. It contains U.N. elements (ISAF), NATO elements (combat boots on the ground) and American elements: i.e. the real power.

To quote the Prime Minister’s term with respect to the Canadian parliament…this is a dysfunctional enterprise.

It will remain dysfunctional as long as the overall operation is controlled by the United States.

The Canadian government would be wise to go to the Security Council and ask for a re-vamped mandate in Afghanistan under a unified command…with input from all the countries of the region including Saudi Arabia, Iran, the Gulf States and the nations of south central Asia.

Until there is a broader committment from the international community…we are blowing smoke and carrying water and we should pull out.

The following story appeared today on the British Broadcasting Corporation’s website.

Afghan President, Hamid Karzai, has announced a full investigation into the case of two rapists who have been freed on a presidential pardon.

The case was raised by the BBC after it discovered that the victim, Sara, had been forced into hiding by the release of the men.

Sara and husband Dilawar only found out the rapists had been freed when they saw them walking around their village.

The case highlights the endemic corruption in the Afghan legal system.

‘Questionable justice’

Dilawar said they were stunned, particularly when they found out President Karzai had apparently pardoned the rapists. "Our appeal to the president is how on earth a rapist who was involved in disappearance of my son was released. What a decision is this? What a justice system is this?" he said.

The president’s office has refused to speculate on how the pardon could have been signed.

But the suspicion must be that corruption – which is widespread across the Afghan justice system – has managed to penetrate the president’s office.

A spokesman for Mr Karzai told the BBC that the acting attorney general would lead a commission of investigation.

"We are taking this with extreme seriousness," he said.

It had been a horrifying case which started with the, as yet, unsolved disappearance of the couple’s son.

Dilawar said after his wife publicly accused a local commander of the disappearance, she was gang-raped, knifed with a bayonet and left half naked to find her way home.

Sara alleges the commander used connections to escape justice and he was released by a local court.

But three other men were eventually put on trial, found guilty of rape and sentenced to 11 years in prison.

One of them died and the other two were given a presidential pardon in May.