Articles
Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, Pages 42-43
Southern California Chronicle
“Cross My Heart,” an Operatic Tribute to Iraq War Veterans, Has Hollywood Premiere
By Pat and Samir Twair
Peace activists in Los Angeles often visit the Arlington West memorial to fallen U.S. troops in the Iraq war which is erected each weekend near the Santa Monica pier. Since February 2003 veterans and their families have placed symbolic grave markers in the sand to remind the public of the war deaths taking place in Iraq.
So when activists Peter Dudar and Sally Marr collaborated to write an operetta featuring the voices of war victims, the community enthusiastically responded for the world premiere of “Cross My Heart” Sept. 10 in Hollywood’s Renberg Theater.
The cast of 35 featured the spectacular singing voice of Ariana Savalas (daughter of Telly), actress Susan Sullivan as Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinsky, and actual Gold Star mothers, Iraq war veterans and anti-war activists telling their personal traumas.
Against a giant screen showcasing images of Arlington West, the play unfolds with visitors placing photos and flowers at the symbolic crosses. Grave markers haven’t been installed for the hundred of thousands of Iraqi deaths, Dudar explains, because it would be an impossible task and would cover the entire beach.
Military parents Rossana and Arturo Cambron worry about their son, who was traumatized by having to pick up fellow soldiers’ body parts but re-enlisted because he’s not qualified for a civilian job. Now, at home, the son suffers from combat flashbacks. “The recruiters never told us there’d be days like this,” his parents lament.
Recalling her soldier husband’s suicide, Gold Star widow Laura Hanson notes that every day 18 U.S. veterans take their own lives, culminating in an alarming annual rate of 6,570 suicides, according to the Veterans Health Administration.
Sullivan, as General Karpinski, stresses that one in every three women serving in the U.S. military is sexually assaulted by her male colleagues, and that none of their complaints have been followed up on by the top brass.
Shae Popovich enacts the testimony of a female cadet who said that, during military training, a sergeant raped her and when a fellow male recruit heard her screams and assaulted her attacker, the recruit was dishonorably discharged and the sergeant was neither tried nor reprimanded.
Hector Aristizabal plays the role of a veteran whose symptoms of post-traumatic syndrome and depleted uranium poisoning are ignored by V.A. doctors. The litany of tragedies of families of soldiers and the lot of veterans maimed physically and mentally is geared to warn young people against enlisting in the military.
Playwright Dudar says he has received requests to perform the play again in Los Angeles, San Diego, Santa Barbara and out of state. All proceeds will go to produce Arlington West DVDs, which are distributed free of charge to youth at risk of heeding military recruiters as well as to soldiers and veterans.
For more information, visit <www.arlingtonwestfilms.com>.
Armenians Commemorate Adana
Several hundred Armenian Americans gathered Oct. 11 in the Glendale Central Library for a photo exhibit, program and reception focusing on the Adana massacres of April 1909. Copies of Cilicia 1909, a book published in English especially for the commemoration, were made available to the audience.
The Adana massacres in southern Turkey’s Celician region resulted in the deaths of an estimated 30,000 Armenians and were the precursor of the Armenian Genocide, in which more than 1.5 million victims died.
Many foreigners who witnessed the Adana massacres reported the violence, stated historian Ara Sarafian, but the writing of Armenian intellectual Hagop Terzian, who survived the 1909 rampage, is an invaluable resource and is the material for the newly translated Cilicia 1909.
Dr. Sarafian is executive director of the Gomidas Institute in London which disseminates research on the modern Armenian experience. He will be in Istanbul in November for an international conference on the 1909 Adana massacres. Sarafian says archives in Turkey contain many reports which he and his colleagues hope to unearth.
The Adana massacres took place on April 14 to 16 and again from April 24 to 27, 1909. Not all Turks participated in the killing, Sarafian pointed out. Initially, rumors were circulated that the Armenians were arming themselves and were murdering Muslims.
Agricultural workers in isolated hamlets did not defend themselves and were butchered while surrendering. When Armenians sensed something was amiss, they fled to their churches in Adana and were burned alive in their places of worship. Businesses and Christian quarters were incinerated and many missionaries were killed trying to save the Armenians.
“Armenians are born into genocide,” stated master of ceremonies Arno Yeretzian. “From early childhood, we absorb images of the slain victims. Why are we caught up in genocide? The Jewish holocaust is acknowledged, but our genocide is not recognized. Our role is to tell the world what happened until it is remembered.”
Jodie Evans on Afghanistan
Code Pink cofounder Jodie Evans returned to the U.S. Oct. 6 from a private fact-finding trip to Afghanistan and had one thing to say: “U.S. withdraw from Afghanistan.”
The activist was part of a nine-member delegation that focused on talking to women—teachers, parliamentarians, doctors, destitute widowed mothers and non-governmental workers.
“Initially, we were told to be inside before sundown,” Evans said, “but we learned that was unneeded advice and we spent the next eight days talking to women from 8 a.m. to midnight.
“We were told that six and a half years ago, the Afghans had hope in the Americans, but that has changed into hatred,” she asserted. “They blame Washington for installing a corrupt administration and empowering the warlords. They say this is intentional because no one could be so dumb as to sponsor such destructive forces.”
Frequently, Evans said, she heard the complaint that the Bush administration used the Taliban’s abominable treatment of women as an excuse to strike Afghanistan—but once U.S. forces occupied the country, no Afghan women were consulted.
Evans said her group did speak to Taliban members. “Maybe 5 percent are hard-core religious fundamentalists, another 30 percent are seeking revenge for U.S. attacks, and the rest simply need a job,” she said.
“The people say the Taliban is restoring structure out of the chaos of warlord rule. The Taliban might order women to stay inside their houses, but at least they’re safe at home; whereas the warlords are violent and might kill and rape them in their dwellings. The Taliban makes decisions in any controversy and the people abide by them.”
Evans admitted to being overwhelmed by the complexity of Afghanistan’s morass. “It’s like going back one century in time,” she said. “I wanted to fix things and I saw the U.S. is making it worse. The longer we stay, the more we will be hated.
“A quarter-trillion dollars has been spent on the Afghan war and virtually nothing has been expended on building the infrastructure. USAID hands out money to subcontractors and by the time the funds trickle down to the workers, no money is left.”
The most common plea Evans heard, she said, was: “Please leave so we can have our country back.”
Bybee Protest in Pasadena
Sharon Tipton of Progressive Democrats of America led an Oct. 9 protest inside Pasadena’s 9th Circuit Court of Appeal to remind judges that Judge Jay Bybee, who is seated at the 9th Circuit Court in San Francisco, should be impeached as a war criminal. Simultaneous protests were staged in 9th Circuit Courts in Portland, OR and Seattle, WA.
Activists’ objections are that Bybee, who worked in the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel during the George W. Bush administration, approved memos on permissible interrogation techniques by DOJ official John Yoo. The memos argued that torture is perfectly legal against detainees who aren’t prisoners of war.
When the gavel designated the close of the court’s morning session, Tipton stood up and shouted in a tremulous voice: “Your Honors, demand that Jay Bybee resign. Torture is illegal and immoral.
“Jay Bybee is a disgrace to this court,” Tipton managed to state, before marshals escorted her out of the building. On the sidewalk, she told the Washington Report: “We want all the 9th Circuit judges to know that by authorizing torture, Bybee demonstrates he doesn’t deserve to sit in judgment of anyone. He disgraces his fellow judges and our country.”
Tipton vows to continue her protests at the elegant court building, which once was the world-famous Huntington Hotel.
Pat and Samir Twair are free-lance journalists based in Los Angeles.
SIDEBAR
Photo Correction
We apologize to oud virtuoso Rahim Alhaj for inadvertently printing on p. 49 of the November 2009 Washington Report a photo of Iranian-America author and filmmaker Sep Rihawi, instead of the Iraqi musician, in a review of Alhaj’s Aug. 21 concert at Los Angeles’ Grand Performances series in California Plaza. Alhaj’s latest CD, “Home Again,” which interprets his associations between his new home in New Mexico and his memories of Iraq, is available from <www.CDBaby.com>.
