Flit

RETURN TO SAMARRA

Slate picks up and runs with the killing of an Iraqi at Samarra brought to the blogworld's attention by Zeyad, and now under investigation by American authorities. The piece does not make the Americans look good... apparently the American soldiers in question now concede they did in fact take the Iraqis to the same spot where they claim to have been thrown in the river, but say they just walked away and left them there on the dam unharmed... and then crushed their vehicle for no reason. Um, that doesn't make a lot of sense, to say the least. A second, more independent investigation is now ongoing.

Also of note from the story: the local commander of the Iraq Civilian Defence Corps evidently believes the American patrol in question pushed the Iraqis in, and that if his men hadn't rushed over to help them they'd have drowned. Inter-Allied cooperation seems to be fraying in Samarra...

REFLECTIONS ON A SNOWY DAY

Maybe it's just the third day of snowfall in Toronto talking, but I've decided more or less randomly a few moments ago that May, 2001 was probably the best month of my life that I can still remember. No specific reason, mind you... just that the weather was nice, all my jobs were going great, there was no nameless fear in the background of all our actions... yeah, I really liked that May.

Of course, I'm sure other people somewhere have crappy memories of that May... losing their loved ones, their pets, starting their lives over, stuff like that. But looking out my window at a two-foot snowdrift, I still find myself wishing I could roll it all back, or bring all that good stuff forward somehow. Of course, we can't, though. We just get older. Some seem to think we get more mature for it, that we learn from all those mistakes we made. I really really hope that's true... if only because there are some mistakes in my life I couldn't bear to think I'd be so stupid as to repeat again. (My current haircut comes to mind...) Throughout my life, I've always wished I knew then (whenever then was) all the stuff I knew now. We all do, I suppose, but I guess I'm particularly susceptible at the moment.

Still, if Toronto's going to get snow like this, I'd rather be in Montreal. You still have the snow, of course, but at least there I could look forward to some of the night life. :-)

UPDATE: Certain people who knew me back in 2001 and read this blog (evidently) have written to say some variation of a) I knew you then and you weren't that happy; b) I know you now and you're just as happy; c) Stop being so damn morose, and: d) What about that time in 2002 we had, with the trampolines and flamingoes, wasn't that insane? etc etc. For the record: yes, I've had some great times since May, 2001; no, I do not feel my life has gone inexorably downhill since then. I really was just remembering a time in my life centred on two back-to-back weekends in Kingston and Quebec City where everything seemed so... right. It's called reminiscing. We all do it; doesn't mean we're all about to throw ourselves off a bridge. Hope that clears that up.