Agrégateur de flux

40 days after the violent killing of Farkhunda, supporters gathered on Monday, 27 April 2015, to mourn and protest her death. Afghan public opinion has now reached a broad consensus over the unprecedented gravity of this murder. Yet, many questions remain as to what triggered the killing and how it was possible for such a terrible incident to take place in central Kabul at the hands of what looked to be otherwise law-abiding and ‘normal’ citizens. In the first of two dispatches on the murder of Farkhunda, AAN’s Fabrizio Foschini and Naheed Esar have been looking at the specifics of the social environment where she met her death and exploring some of the social types who were possibly party to her murder, from the amulet sellers and beggars, whose economic interests revolve around shrines such as that of Shah-e Du Shamshira where the murder took place, to the petty criminals and police of that part of the city, Police District (PD) 2.

A second dispatch by AAN’s Borhan Osman will look at the responses of civil society and the ulama and how a polarisation emerged over how each interpreted the murder; this, he will argue, has complicated chances for a much-needed internal debate among Afghanistan’s clergy.

At the traditional 40-day ceremony, marked all over the Muslim world to mourn a death, those protesting Farkhunda’s murder re-enacted her killing. The dramatised scenes, the beating and burning were painful to those watching – many were in tears – and were later relayed on television news reports. The Shah-e Du Shamshira shrine was closed after the murder, but the messages of condolences and the images of the dead Islamic studies student left by the protesters have turned the place into a new shrine. The area is now calm, but passers-by told AAN an uneasiness remains and they now fear to pass down the road where Farkhunda was murdered.

With the many unsettling issues connected to the killing of Farkhunda, considerations about the place where it happened have generally been sidelined. But geography was and is important in this killing. The area of the incident, Shah-e Du Shamshira and the Kabul riverbanks beside it, are places everybody knows and that many people have to pass when crossing the city. If such a terrible murder had happened in some remote province, or in the outskirts of the city, it would not have been any less grave or atrocious. However, the shrine where everything started and the riverside where her mangled body was finally burned and discarded, lie at the very centre of Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan and are arguably perceived as the safest, most controlled and ‘civilised’ part of Afghanistan.

A central place in downtown Kabul

The spot where the incident happened can truly be termed the heart of Kabul. Administratively in urban district number and police station number two, the Shah-e Du Shamshira complex, with mosque and shrine, stands on the left bank of the Kabul river, at the junction of the Old City and the new residential and administrative expansions beyond the river. The latter symbolised the transformation of Afghanistan into a modern state in the late 19th century. Located at the western entrance of the characteristic riverside quays, which form one of Kabul’s most recognisable icons, the Shah-e Du Shamshira is also oriented towards West Kabul through Jada-ye Asmai, the road which crosses the narrow Kabul river gorge and skirts just behind the complex.

Many of the historical and social landmarks of Kabul surround the mosque or are in plain view of it: the mausoleum of Timur Shah, the sovereign who made Kabul the capital of the Afghan kingdom towards the end of the 18th century; Lycee Aisha Durrani, built in the 1920s as one of the European (in this case German) high schools wanted by King Amanullah to modernise education and still the largest girls school in the country; Pamir Cinema, one of the first cinemas to open in Afghanistan in the relatively peaceful mid-20th century, and the Central Polyclinic hospital established by the communist government in 1985.

The area hosts numerous other landmarks, from the National Gallery to the Turko-Afghan Technical Institute, but it is the National Bus Company Central Station close by that influences its human geography most. The square in front of the Shah-e Du Shamshira mosque and the riverside lane to the south of it have become a single transportation hub crowded by taxis, minivans and buses connecting the Old City with other areas of Kabul and the city with the provinces. Thousands of travellers transit through the area every day, and an adequate deployment of street hawkers, food sellers and pickpockets are ready to meet them.

The area was heavily damaged during the civil war in the 1990s, leading many residents to leave, while reconstruction in recent years has been rather selective. The Old City of Kabul proved less attractive than other areas for private investors, split as it is between key government facilities in the flat patches of ground along the riverside and the poor mud-house settlement on the hill slopes to the north and south of it. Although some new residential and commercial buildings have arisen, the area’s former social fabric has not been fully reconstituted. Rather, impoverished immigrants from outside Kabul have replaced many of the original residents.

The mosque of Shah-e Du Shamshira, a shapely square building showing mixed Ottoman ‘Belle Epoque’ and Italian baroque influences and abutting the riverbank, dates from Amanullah’s time. It was Olya Hazrat, the king’s mother, who commissioned the new building on the site of a smaller Mughal-era mosque and inaugurated it, as a votive offering (offered in fulfilment of a vow) for the quelling of the Khost Rebellion in 1925.

If the mosque itself is a favourite spot for Kabulis to go and pray, there is another part of the religious complex that attracts visitors from even farther away. Right across the street, the namesake ziarat (shrine) of Shah-e Du Shamshira stands in memory of the heroic death of an unnamed ghazi, a Muslim warrior, said to have kept wielding his two swords against the infidels, even after his head had been severed by a blow as he fought against the Hindu-Shahi dynasty which ruled Kabul at the time of the Ghaznavid conquest in the 10th century. Inside this highly revered shrine, frequented by visitors to the mosque and people in search of blessings, a number of beggars and amulet-sellers can be found. It was this practice, the selling of amulets, which brought Farkhunda into confrontation with the keepers of the shrine on the day of her murder.

Selling blessings in the shrine

Amulets (tawiz) have a long history in Afghanistan. They can be found all over Afghanistan, most commonly in the form of written pieces of paper and worn on the body of the person it is meant to benefit. They can be different in form and size; some are square, some rectangular and some roundish; they can be made from fabric or metal or be in the form of crystals or gems. Tawiz are often used in the belief that they heal or protect from illness, or solve a person’s problems in life – typically related to love affairs or the wish for offspring, particularly male offspring. However, more recently, the range of wishes has expanded to new topics, from passing the university kankur entry exam to getting a foreign visa. Women are the most frequent, though not the sole users of tawiz: they carry them in the form of a bracelet, necklace, pinned to their clothes, or hidden in houses and cars. They can cost anything from 100 Afghani (two dollars) to 15,000 Afghani (300 dollars).

The status in society of those who write amulets is presently unclear. Traditionally, also in the context of the presence of popular devotional practices centred around persons claiming descent from the family of the Prophet or from Sufi saints, some of them used to be quite prominent and respected as ulama (read a previous AAN piece here). Today, with changing social patterns and religious practices, due to some degree of modernisation at least in the urban centres, amulet-writers are being slowly pushed to the fringes of society.

According to Afghan scholar Abdul Zahir Dayi, the origin of the amulet-writing tradition in Afghanistan was Hinduism and Judaism (see here). Islamic scholars have contradicting views about the status of tawiz in Islam. Some divide amulets into two kinds, those with Quranic verses and those without. Tawiz without Quranic verses are largely considered haram (sinful), while amulets containing Quranic chapters are permissible according to some scholars. The Wahabis, on the other hand, believe that all tawiz are un-Islamic, primarily because there is no mention of them in the Quran or Hadith (see here). The latter attitude seems to have been shared by Farkhunda. A friend of hers whom AAN spoke to during the 40-day commemoration at the location of the murder on Monday said that “for about the past three years [Farkhunda] had regularly gone to the shrine of Shah-e Du Shamshira” to try to convince the amulet writers to desist from what she considered an un-Islamic practice.

Selling other things in the shadow of the shrine

The Old City of Kabul is definitely not ‘uptown.’ Despite the area being frequented by many people for shopping, it is not regarded as the safest. Crime rates are rather high, and while the security forces keep tight control of the area against possible insurgent attacks because of the many potential targets in it, they are not much concerned about repressing common criminality, according to a security analyst working for an independent organisation.

In the immediate post-2001 period, Kabul’s police districts were taken over and staffed by the military victors – different commanders belonging to Jamiat-e Islami/Shura-ye Nazar and Ittihad-e Islami factions of the Northern Alliance. Enjoying the support of heavyweights like the first post-Taleban interior minister, Yusuf Qanuni, or the first defence minister, Qasim Fahim, they managed to withstand foreign-sponsored reforms for quite a while. Eventually, the commanders had to give up their posts. However, their men have largely remained in place. The majority of the policemen there have been assigned to the area for a decade now and have resisted all attempts to transfer them. According to a Ministry of Interior officer interviewed by AAN, policemen have developed a strong attachment to their posts of duty in Police District (PD) 2, an area that is eminently commercial and offers additional income by levying protection money from shopkeepers and other businessmen in exchange for turning a blind eye on irregularities.

This part of the city is thus a hotspot of petty criminal activities. The massive presence of shoppers and travellers from outside the city draws groups of thieves from the settlement above the area, Deh Afghanan. The partially dry riverbed has also become the abode of drug addicts in recent years and their number has grown considerably, making it second only to Pul-e Sukhta area (see AAN report here). Large amounts of narcotics are thus brought to the area and pass from traffickers, often via shopkeepers for whom it is a side activity, to retail sellers who sell it to those on the riverbed. According to a social worker once engaged in a program to help widows in the area, the amulet sellers and some of the beggars in the shrine are also rumoured to be accomplices in the smuggling and safe-keeping of drugs there. Even the presence of a prostitution ring run from the shrine has been hinted at by the police, who have now temporarily closed the place down.

Together with the amulet-sellers, there are also many gadagaran, beggars, mostly female, within the ziarat enclosure. They can be roughly divided into two categories: those who regularly frequent the shrine and those who come only for religious festivals or during the days preceding them. On such occasions, wealthy merchants and businessmen visit the ziarat and are expected to give alms to the shrine and the assembled beggars. The right to ask for alms inside the shrine is sold – with the involvement of police and shrine staff, as on such occasions, high profits can be made – reportedly for as much as 30,000 Afghanis (600 dollars) in months with such religious celebrations. Some of the beggars at the shrine are said to work in close partnership with the amulet sellers as well.

A widow who often begs for alms inside the shrine told AAN that Farkhunda had had arguments with the amulet sellers in the past.  Another woman, Latifa, a visitor to the shrine and a former customer of Zainuddin, the shrine attendant who would later be accused of having initiated the false accusation that Farkhunda had burned a copy of the Quran, also said she had seen Farkhunda in the shrine on other occasions. “Farkhunda would debate the ‘sin’ of tawiz in Islam and ask the caretaker of the shrine, Zainuddin, to stop this trade.” Farkhunda had also enjoined female visitors to stop buying tawiz. The amulet sellers’ anger about her interference was shared by some of the female beggars who feared a loss in the ‘business’ tawiz clients bring to their begging grounds. The widow also told AAN the female beggars were among the first to instigate others to kill Farkhunda after shrine caretaker Zainuddin’s initial call for Muslims to “save the Quran.”

This is not to suggest that her killing was planned, although worse conspiracy theories about her death have circulated. But given the links between some of the criminal groups active in the area and those in charge of business inside the ziarat, some of those who took part in killing Farkhunda might have known more precisely what they were doing and had one or two ‘reasons’ for it.

The killers: Zainuddin, Sharaf Baghlani and others

“On Thursday at around 3.30, the voice of the cleric Zainuddin was heard from the front window of Shah-e Du Shamshira, and he called the crowd to punish an American woman who had burned pages of Quran.” This is how a female eyewitness, a frequent visitor to the shrine, recalls the start of the murderous rush which resulted in Farkhunda’s death. Reportedly, Zainuddin further provoked the crowd by saying, “If you are a real Muslim, please come and save the Quran.” Following that, some men gathered around Farkhunda aggressively asking her questions, some of which were: “Are you American? Are you America’s agent? Why did you burn the Noble Quran?

Representatives of the presidential investigative commission later also stated that that it was Zainuddin who first shouted that Farkhunda had burnt the Quran and asked the people to punish her. During the investigation, he admitted he had lied about the Quran-burning.

Another man, Sharaf Baghlani, who is in his thirties and has claimed a connection with the Afghan Forces on his Facebook account (the page has since then been removed), bragged about his role in the killing of Farkhunda. The translated version of the post said: “Salam: today at 4.00 pm, an atheist woman burned the Quran at the Shah-e Du Shamshira shrine. Afterwards, the religious people of Kabul, including myself, killed her. Hell shall be her place.” Baghlani was one of the first suspects to be detained. He had already posted, on 21 March 2015: “I believe in an extra-judicial court system for an un-Islamic country like Afghanistan.” He said, “suicide bombers released by the Afghan government” was one reason why he thought handing over criminals to the state authorities was pointless.

One of the other suspects, a young man in his late twenties, would later say his “religious emotion” was the reason he joined in the killing. Others would later condemn their own actions. One man in his early thirties spontaneously surrendered himself to the police saying his “sleep at night had been extremely disturbed by the anxiety and fear created by his feeling of guilt.”

Those involved in the crime were typically young men in their early 20s to late 30s, many of them ‘modern-attired’, sporting jeans and fashionable clothes. Some of them may have been associated with the drug users or crooks crowding the area, but many more seem to have issued from the mosque, while others might have been shopping in the bazaar along the riverbanks when the turmoil started.

If Zainuddin represents the conservative and self-interested use of religion to cow society into obeisance and Sharaf Baghlani the violent and ruthless face of the vigilante, the majority of people who took part in the killing cannot easily be dismissed as leftovers of Afghanistan’s past of violence and extremism, or as dangerous characters living at the margins of society. Rather, they appear to forebode a new generation having lost its bearings in terms of culture and social behaviour.

No shelter from the mad crowd

With the crowd being this diverse in its motivations, the criminality and degradation in the area we have described and the availability of goons to conduct a killing does not yet explain how a mob of some 400 persons could have gathered for such a long time to lynch one girl. The sheer numbers of the crowd prevented the police from succeeding in their, albeit half-hearted, attempts at rescuing her. It also doomed the efforts made by a few individuals to help Farkhunda and bring their fellow Kabulis to reason. It seems that some bystanders did try, in vain, to help her. AAN talked to a woman who asked a policeman only about ten metres away from Farkhunda to intervene. She said the policeman did not budge and calmly remarked, “Let her be killed. That will be a good lesson to those who insult Islam.”

Some observers have wondered why the gender of the victim did not protect her, given that women are usually at less danger from public (although not domestic) violence in patriarchal Afghanistan. While largely agreeing with this analysis, looking deeper into Afghan ‘traditions’, there is a different approach to gender to be detailed. Afghans can be said to treat women in a more ‘equal’ way than that often imagined by outsiders, meaning the treatment meted out by society to a woman seen as guilty of something is unlikely to be more lenient because of her sex. In the Afghan psyche, the duty to defend a ‘helpless’ women is not linked to some romantic idea of chivalry, but to a very concrete understanding of collective honour and respectability. Women who have not trespassed the boundaries set for their place in society are indeed more protected. However, those who are seen as having transgressed lose their status as women who need to be protected. This might have reduced Farkhunda’s chances of eliciting feelings of pity from the people who were attacking her.

What was also shocking about the killing was not just the behaviour of the mob but also of the people who witnessed it. Many filmed it on their smartphones or joined in to take part briefly in a sort of ‘I was there, too’ attitude. Judging by the images, this social type of the casual onlooker, among them many young shoppers, far outnumbered the actual killers. This is disturbing particularly given the hopes so often placed in young people to bring much needed changes in society and push it forward, away from the scars and ruins of the civil war.

But also most of the remarkable mobilisation witnessed in the days following the murder was initiated by Kabul youth, albeit a different section. These activists have been calling for “justice for Farkhunda”, that is, harsh punishments for her murderers. This attitude may feel reasonable at this stage, but it does not seem sufficiently introspective. This murder needs deeper and harder questions to be asked as to how Kabulis came to murder one of their own in the heart of their city.

Az EU sarokköve, hogy nincs halálbüntetés, reagált az Európai Bizottság, miután Orbánról kérdezték. Összeszedtük, mi történne, ha mégis elfogadnánk.

Der Fachkräftemangel ist in aller Munde – doch was hat es tatsächlich damit auf sich: Welche regional- bzw. branchenspezifischen Ausprägungen sind festzustellen? Welche Rolle spielen Trends, wie demographischer Wandel, Akademisierung, Digitalisierung oder Urbanisierung? Zu diesen Fragen hat der Hanns-Seidel-Stiftung am 20. April in ihr Münchner Konferenzzentrum eingeladen.

Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

This article originally appeared on open Democracy.

 

Four interlocking elements shape the global system: the neurobiological substrates of human nature (providing a more complex account of human nature), the persistence of global anarchy , which today coexists with conditions of instant connectivity and interdependence . 

In an era of widespread decentralization, formation of regional blocs, and popular uprisings the role of states will continue to evolve dramatically. While they will without doubt remain pivotal, their nature and the ways in which they deploy power are in a profound transition. 

In parallel to these developments, the discipline of International Relations can now benefit from a more complex understanding of human nature than what was previously held as perennially true. The role of rationality and egoism, long touted by the Realist school as critical to our understanding of human and state behaviour has become subject to significant criticism.

Neuroscience has contributed largely to providing a more nuanced view of humans and their neurochemistry. More circumspect accounts of human nature show that  emotionality  in fact plays a much more prominent role than previously believed, which overturns the conception of the foundations for interstate relations. A strong case can be made for the emotionality of states alongside a greater appreciation for the role of emotions in individual thought. These conceptions substantially undermine classical Realism in which the structure of IR itself was taken to be both zero-sum and analyzable in terms of pure rational self interest.

Alternatively, the theory of  Symbiotic Realism  adheres to our best neurobiologically-informed understanding of human nature, and offers the potential for a more collaborative conception of International Relations through the use of just power.

One important tenet of Symbiotic Realism is the acknowledgment that emotional vulnerabilities are shared by all parties, and that these can be orchestrated for good or for ill. While the human nature of classical Realism was fundamentally that of a pure rational egoist, Symbiotic Realism acknowledges the importance of symbiotic relationships in which both parties benefit from their willingness to interact cooperatively and compete in a non-conflictual way.

As such, Symbiotic Realism recognizes four interlocking elements which shape the global system: the  neurobiological substrates of human nature  (which provides a more complex account of human nature), the continuing persistence of global anarchy , which today coexists with conditions of instant connectivity and interdependence .

 

Emotionality, individuals, and states

Neuroscience and advanced brain-scanning technology has helped to elaborate our understanding of human nature in at least two important ways. The first is to lessen the role of reason in human decision-making, in large part by demonstrating the immensely  important role of emotions . The second is to name and characterize aspects of the ego that do not manifest straightforwardly in terms of self-interest or power-seeking. With regard to the first of these, there is growing consensus in both neurological and psychological research that human beings have long overestimated the role of reason in their thoughts. Reason has an important role, but comes into play more rarely than is usually understood, and typically only after emotions have had their say.

The circumstances necessary for reason can best be realized where  just power  is consistently employed. The term “just power” is defined here as the exercise of power that respects human dignity and international norms, is savvy with regard to current global conditions, and protects the national interest. In these conditions, emotions will inevitably be present and have causal efficacy, but their effects will be accommodated rather than downplayed or ignored. Just power generates stability as well as a wider recognition of the equal availability and legitimacy of this stability.

This consideration does not override the basic tenet of international politics that self-interest is the fundamental attribute of human nature nor the argument about emotionality. This self-interest evolved according to selection pressures in precisely the same ways as all other features of human beings, and these attributes are marked by a strong inclination towards self-preservation. The fundamental nature of these emotions also highlights the importance of group inclusion and a narrative of identity in fully developed human beings. Therefore, these attributes might broadly be construed as egoist in the sense that they are required for individual human flourishing, yet they simultaneously indicate an irreducible interdependence of people which undermines a simplistic conception of self-interested rational actors.

Although states differ in many ways from individuals, it is worth noting that the decisions that inform interstate relations are ultimately in the hands of individual human beings, even in cases of collaborative decision-making. Evidence for the  emotionality of states  is ubiquitous if we realize that genuine existential threats to states are far less common than challenges to a state’s self-conception. In contemporary events, it is often issues with a state’s self-conception that results in conflict.

For example the desire for vengeance across generations is very difficult to characterize in terms of (purely) rational actors, but is sufficiently  emotionally compelling  to motivate some of the world’s longest-standing and most intractable conflicts.

 

Modern states, power, and sustainability

The game-theoretic interpretation of Classical Realism was characterized by a structural situation in which each actor was forced to act egoistically in order to avoid being taken advantage of or defeated by free-riders. Typically these actors were seen as rational and egotistical states and the zero-sum assumption that underpinned this idea meant that one party’s gain implied another’s loss.

Symbiotic Realism also recognizes the inherent propensity of actors to be egoistic yet in a more accommodative manner as implies a wider appreciation for cultural synergy and recognizes the possibility to move beyond a zero-sum scenario.

Globalization has greatly increased the interdependence between actors in areas such as environmental integrity, the stability of financial markets or the control of nuclear proliferation. This theory remains realist in the sense that it acknowledges an important role for rational self-interest, but Symbiotic Realism is better attuned to the realities of an interdependent world and emphasizes that  mutual benefits  should be possible in collaborative circumstances.

Cultural borrowing  has been a source of great gain for centuries and now the opportunities for such shared benefits are more readily available than ever. Despite the significantly anarchic circumstances of contemporary interstate relations, connectivity and increasing interdependence now ensure that more intercultural exchanges are inevitable, and that problems of governance will arise (and are already arising) that cannot be resolved unilaterally. To put this in a simple scenario: suppose that “A” discovers a highly advanced and effective technology for mitigating carbon pollution, while actor “B” but not “A” has the resources and infrastructure to implement this technology successfully. In an arrangement in which both A and B will have absolute gain—that is, both will gain more than they lose if the technology is shared, Symbiotic Realism can overcome the zero-sum limitations of Realism. The pressing policy objective for the future will thus be to create the conditions in which such good faith arrangements are encouraged and implemented.

Just power includes conceptions of “hard,” “soft,” and “smart” power, with additional parameters of respect for human dignity, and a basic guarantee of justice and compliance with international law. These are the necessary conditions for this good faith to become the norm between states. Power conscientiously exercised in this way provides assurances to all the parties in the system and to would-be collaborators that their contributions will not be used unfairly. In order to be sustainable in our radically interdependent world, uses of power must be demonstrably just, as the misuse of power quickly destabilizes interstate relations.

The recent reporting of extensive torture in the name of security, and the violation of international norms should be examined in exactly this light. Such actions radically undermine the possibility of good faith agreements in the international theatre.

While Realism asserts an almost exclusive focus on the balance of power with an implicit assumption about the malign intentions of other powers, Symbiotic Realism is more nuanced in this view and alludes to the inescapable interdependence now predominant in the international system. The new climate of international relations imposes new mechanisms of deploying power. Manifestations of power that uphold robust regard for human dignity and respect for international norms enable the  sine qua non  trust that is necessary for mutually beneficial decisions. When such just power is exercised and recognized to be operational, the conditions are created for collaboration and the possibility of absolute gain among actors.

 

 

>> Back to GCSP Staff Publications

As the climate continues to change at alarming rates, many have lost faith in traditional international approaches to address the issue. As a result, climate policy innovation and associated experimentation are en vogue.[1] The thinking goes that if old approaches are perceived to be failing, we need new and innovative ones. The hope is that successful innovations will spread as policy-makers, civil society and businesses learn from one another. But what do we know about climate change governance experimentation, and are these hopes justified?

On the face of it nobody directly opposes the idea of experimenting. After all, experimentation drives tremendous progress in the natural sciences, so why should we not apply the approach more widely to governance? The idea also fits well with the evidence-based policy-making agenda, another fashionable idea, holding that experiments may be a key source of evidence for policy-makers. However, there is more to experimentation than readily meets the eye. A recent workshop on “Climate Change Policy and Governance: Initiation, Experimentation, Evaluation” organised by the Innovations in Climate Governance (INOGOV) research network including 26 European countries, focused on how experiments materialise and challenge existing policies, practices and regulatory systems. Thirty scholars from Europe, the US and Australia discussed new empirical and theoretical analyses, showing how diverse the topic of experimentation is. The emerging discussions highlighted that conducting, interpreting and using experiments may not be as straightforward as one may think.

First of all: what are experiments? There were numerous partly conflicting ideas among the workshop participants. Some broadly viewed all policies as potentially failing experiments in the sense that no one can ever exactly foresee policy outcomes in complex socio-ecological systems. Others took more narrow definitions as a starting point with specific criteria that echo statistical experimental designs. Such experiments can, for example, explore a novel policy instrument that is applied and evaluated in restricted regions before being adopted nationally. Our understanding of experiments will affect how we approach and use them. Crucially, experimenting also raises tricky issues of risks, duties and wider social implications. For example, who is to blame if a governance experiment goes wrong and who will bear the consequences? Leaving a legacy, experiments are never fully reversible. They will, at the very least, provide a new perspective on what is doable, and after that the world is never completely the same.

In many cases the purpose of experimenting is nothing short of learning how to change the world. But a single experiment will not suffice – multiple and repeated experiments in different places may be necessary. Crucial issues thus relate to learning and transferability. How can the experiences gained in one experiment be transferred to another? Some will argue that the context is so decisive that possibilities for duplication are limited,[2] but we know from practical experience that policy solutions are copied and multiplied within and across sectors and countries. Thus ‘upscaling’ happens. The mechanisms of these ‘upscaling’ processes and transitions are an area of considerable theoretical and practical interest.

On the whole, the workshop highlighted that there are many outstanding questions to answer before we may experiment our way out of climate change. This is of course not stopping politicians from touting experimentation as a potential solution to various societal issues: for example, following a recent national election, Finland’s Prime Minister-elect Juha Sipilä has declared that Finland should become an “experimental society”. But what it takes for an experimental society to ‘come true’ and whether this is even desirable cries out for in-depth research and an informed public debate.

With this year’s climate summit in Paris rapidly approaching, the INOGOV network is a good place to nurture this debate. Focusing on where climate governance innovations originate, how they diffuse and what effects they have, it seeks to bring together communities of scholars, as well as civil society and businesses, in order to accelerate humanity’s search for solutions to address climate change. Whether experimentation is among these solutions is one of the critical questions the network will discuss.

 

[1] See also Castán Broto, V. &  Bulkeley 2013. A survey of urban climate change experiments in 100 cities. Global Environmental Change 23: 92–102

[2] This has been a lively debate in for example development studies. Thus D.K. Forbes in ‘The geography of underdevelopment’ (Croom Helm 1984) refers to the impossibility to replicate development success stories.

The post Can we experiment our way out of climate change? appeared first on Ideas on Europe.

Ahogy közeledik a május 9-i dátum, s ezzel együtt a Győzelem Napja Oroszországban, úgy pörög fel megint a hisztéria a György-szalagok körül. Immár 10. éve.

Read more...

Die Bundeswehr im Auslandseinsatz: Erfahrungen, Bilanzen, Ausblicke

http://tvnewsroom.consilium.europa.eu/uploads/council-images/thumbs/uploads/council-images/remote/http_7e18a1c646f5450b9d6d-a75424f262e53e74f9539145894f4378.r8.cf3.rackcdn.com/d0726ade-9b33-11e4-8cdf-bc764e083742_8.83_thumb_169_1421161124_1421160923_129_97shar_c1.jpg

Donald TUSK, President of the European Council, at the European Parliament.

Download this video here.

A legfontosabb kérdésekről akarnak beszélni és felvázolni a modern Lengyelország hosszú évtizedekre szóló céljait, és annak elérési...

http://tvnewsroom.consilium.europa.eu/uploads/council-images/thumbs/uploads/council-images/remote/http_7e18a1c646f5450b9d6d-a75424f262e53e74f9539145894f4378.r8.cf3.rackcdn.com/758fdef6-ef36-11e4-a49c-bc764e083742_0.52_thumb_169_1430399735_1430399426_129_97shar_c1.jpg

The Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) has provided a forum for dialogue between Europeans and Asians since 1996.

Download this video here.

When the casualty incident described in this piece occurred, it fell to me to tend to the unit’s “family.” Beyond the families directly affected, the rest experienced these events through my messages. They chronicle a small piece of what happens on the home-front when casualties come home. [1] These events unfold regularly in our midst, more so in the last decade of conflict, but most in the general public have no experience of this aspect of war; they should.

 

Reflecting upon the conflict and mayhem that has been unleashed in Iraq since the instigation of the military operations to end the regime of Saddam Hussein, there are many issues to confront the scholar. As a military historian, most fundamentally for me I never believed regime change in Iraq was a good idea. Breaking states should only be a strategy choice of last possible resort, and even then it is probably best avoided. But as the spouse of a Marine Officer my professional and intellectual opposition would be challenged by personal obligations.

I was not unfamiliar with this internal conflict between scholarly and real world obligations. In 2004, as a Fellow in their Summer Seminar in Military History, I watched the veterans among the West Point uniformed historians experiencing both cognitive dissonance as well as resonance as they confronted their intellectual material. I could tell that they were comparing their experiences with their scholarship, but I did not understand what that meant at the time. Years later, humbled by my own small experience, I have a sense of how they must have felt and thought. My hope is that this glimpse into the wider experience of war and conflict will offer a similar bit of enlightenment for others.

The vagaries of the personnel system meant that my former husband missed the first several years of OIF. He spent its first year “Stop-Moved” in Okinawa – a one year unaccompanied tour doubled at the commencement of hostilities in 2003. Then a B-Billet tour in Newport, RI, followed, because the alternation between line units and administrative jobs is relentless in the Marine Corps, no matter the state of conflict. At the first opportunity, after only two years in Newport, the Fleet Marine Force beckoned once again, specifically for Iraq. After a three months’ preparation, in January 2007, as a Major, he deployed to Iraq in command of a Military Training Team (MTT). As a training cadre the team was small, giving the families in support an intimacy and closeness that would colour the experience of the deployment. Furthermore, I was the unit Key Volunteer, which made me the point of contact between the unit/Marine Corps and the families of the serving Marines and Sailor. For the most part this meant I was responsible for providing official and correct information about the unit’s movements and activities to the families on a timely basis. Secondarily, as possible, I tried to offer some measure of additional information and support, as well as to coordinate any assistance the unit or the families might require. [2] It is the sort of responsibility that anyone not afflicted with terrific arrogance will feel that they have done inadequately.

By way of background on the context of the deployment, Fallujah in the first half of 2007 was roiling. At the time of the casualty event the Marines and the Iraqi Army battalion they were training had already seen significant and regular combat action. Their AOR, an area of the city known as the “Pizza Slice,” was particularly dangerous, with regular and daily insurgent activity. The Lieutenant Colonel commanding the Iraqi battalion was experienced and educated, having served during the Hussein regime. [3] Pragmatic and hopeful that a new start could be made for his country, he was a willing and able partner in the rebuilding of Iraq. The battalion and its training team would endure several months of sustained attacks until the insurgency broke – of its own stupidity and the civilian population’s shifted allegiance – early in the summer.

However, before that break occurred, a sniper ambush towards the end of a day’s activities took the lives of one of our Marines, and wounded two others. On the afternoon of 29 April, an element of the battalion and its trainers had been conducting a dismounted patrol of Marines and Iraqi soldiers with vehicles in support. As the last task of the patrol, they had stopped to conduct a search. With the units’ vehicles deployed along narrow and twisted streets, the dismounted elements cleared a building which had been identified as a potential insurgent base. Finding nothing in the building, as the Marines made their way to their vehicles the attack opened with precision sniper and general supporting fire.

Within short order, no more than five minutes of fighting, the three casualties were taken. The remaining 15 to 20 of minutes combat was fought as the dismounted Marines struggled to safely remove the fallen to the vehicles while those in the vehicles provided cover. Unable to safely extricate from the killing ground on their own, the timely arrival of the QRF (quick reaction force) ended the engagement. It was a close run thing, as the Marines engaged on the ground were running out of ammunition to continue their fight.

I remember the day clearly. I was probably munching bagels and driving home to Newport with my son and dog after a weekend visiting family in New York, while these events were occurring. (Yes, you do stop to note the surreal aspects of such moments.) Or maybe I was reading the Sunday New York Times, which had a story on the turning tide fighting the insurgents in Ramadi. Although the deployment was not easy, things were not terrible, and I had just returned from the annual conference for the Society for Military History conference and was energized for my research. [4] We arrived home, safe and sound. And completely oblivious.

It was later that night when the Major sent me the following email:

Do NOT say anything/tell anyone.  The worst happened.  Notifications are being made.  I’m still alive.

Brevity enhanced, rather than diminished, the impact of the news.

The identity of one of the casualties was the first detail I would receive regarding the incident. Shortly after the email arrived the phone rang. On the other end was the brother of the unit’s corpsman (Doc) who had been wounded the ambush. As awful as it was in its brevity I was now happy to have received the message. While there is no way to prepare for such things it was better not to be caught completely unaware. I spent hours on the phone with the brother that night, talking through what was happening to Doc and trying to get what information I could from the unit in Iraq. This effort was complicated by the fact that when casualty incidents happen a unit goes into communications lockdown – “River City” [5] – so as to avoid the unfortunate circumstance where rumour gets ahead of the official notification procedures of the service. Technically the Major should not have been in email contact with me. But as I was conferring with him on behalf of the family of a wounded service member, judgment and discretion were exercised to provide every support possible.

That night we settled the first round of issues and for the moment Doc’s situation was stable.

 

 

The next day’s shock was my notification of the Marine who had been killed in action.

When the liaison from the Marine unit in Camp Pendleton called and started talking me through the details of the event and what was now happening, my mind was whirring through the names and what the loss of each individual would mean. A widow. A child who would never know his father. A new mother left at loss for her spouse. A beloved child’s life ended. A fiancé who would never marry. When I heard the name of the Marine who had been killed, I was gutted.

Even as some scenarios had been averted, in the end there was no good answer to the question I had been considering, who had been lost?

I was informed of the dates and locations for the return of this fallen Marine and the funeral services. The family was from the East Coast, so I would attend. At the time we expected Doc to return to Bethesda on the same weekend, so my plan was to go there after the funeral. As it would turn out, this did not happen, his return to the States was delayed by complications from his wounds. To be honest, when he did return the experience of seeing him in the hospital in those early days was not easy and so the delay was for the best. I would have struggled mightily that weekend to confront both shocks.

It was for me to break the news to the rest of the families. Studying war and military history, casualty notifications are a common part of the narratives. To write one in reality is far more difficult than the words put to paper suggest. It is a humbling responsibility.

 

01 May 2007

All — If you have not heard from your family member in the last two days, it is because their communications have been shut down in light of recent events. I can tell you that the team was involved in a serious incident yesterday, with one critically wounded, and another, unfortunately, killed in action….I am not certain when the guys will be able to resume communications, but I hope it will be in the next day or two. I have been in contact with both families involved and have been assisting them in every way possible.

The team member wounded was Doc. His injuries were serious, but he was operated on and stabilized in Fallujah before being evacuated to Balad, where he underwent further surgery. He is in stable condition and improving, and is nearing the end of the period of critical concern. They expect to evacuate him to Germany, where he will stay for a couple/few days before being returned stateside for the recovery and recuperation process. There is good cause for (guarded) optimism that he will make a complete (or near complete) recovery.

As concerns the other casualty, I am very saddened to have to inform you all that the team has lost [a] Lieutenant. I know from various things the Major related to me that the Lieutenant was a superb officer. He was instrumental in setting the sort of moral, ethical and professional standard that was a credit to himself, the Marine Corps, and the mission to which he had been assigned. His family is, of course, suffering from this tragedy, but they are trying to hold onto these positive values, and the importance the Lieutenant himself placed in them, as a means to help them through this time. I will be in contact with them later in the week regarding the plans for the services. As they are located relatively near to me I will be in attendance.

Obviously both families are trying to come to grips with the enormity of the situations they face, and neither is able to put into words what they might need or appreciate in terms of support or assistance. After the passage of some time I will find out what you all can do for them or on their behalf. I would suggest that you all allow a few days before attempting to reach out to the [Lieutenant’s family]. I know that they are surrounded by friends and family right now, and do not lack for the support necessary to make it through this time….

If you would like, you may forward messages to me to pass along to the families as appropriate. I will keep you apprised of the situation with Doc, and will let you know details regarding the service for [the Lieutenant] if there is interest.

Unfortunately I do not yet have information regarding the third casualty [a member of the augmentees assigned to the team], but as I receive details I will pass those along as well.

I will tell the Major to have everyone send a message home when communications are restored.

I think that’s it for now. My best to all of you,

Jill

 

That week passed in a blur as I tried to come to grips with the events, continued assisting Doc’s family, and made plans to travel to Pennsylvania for the funeral. I would speak to the Lieutenant’s parents briefly during this period, as well as send them the following message.

 

02 May 2007

Please allow me to again express my deepest sympathies to you on the loss of [your son]. I knew early on that there had been a fatality, but the Major, of course, could not let me know directly who it had been. When the GySgt from I MEF contacted me to discuss what had happened, and informed me that it was your son, the news was crushing. Part of it had to do with the email exchange we had last week — his loss did not seem right given that we had been talking about him just so recently. Another part was due to the role I know he played on the team and with the Iraqis, and how much his influence would be missed by all of them. I’ve spent a fair bit of time staring at the picture of [the Major and your son] sharing a cigar, trying to come to grips with his loss. It seems that he is staring right at me, and I just can’t imagine that he is gone. It provides me with the smallest glimpse into the enormity of what you must be going through right now.

I have attached a copy of the message I sent to the team families regarding the events of last Sunday. All of the immediate family members, as well as a wide universe of people secondarily related to the team, stand ready to provide you with whatever you may want or need, and when the time is appropriate, I hope you will feel free to let me know how they might help you and/or honor [your son’s] memory. I do not know whether you wish to remain informed of the doings of the team, and it is certainly not something you need to concern yourself with now. However, given what I have learned about you from our brief conversations over the past few months, and what I know about the sort of man [your son] was, I have to assume that despite your terrible loss you still hold the team close to your hearts — perhaps even closer now than before. Please know that I stand ready to accommodate whatever your participation desires might be when the time is right.

I have been collecting notes for you from the team families and others, and will bring those that I have with me. I will continue to collect these as time goes by and pass them to you as appropriate. And, as previously mentioned, I will forward the memorial collection that the team puts together. I know that the Major is eager to provide you with anything you need communication and information-wise, and will move heaven and earth to contact you directly tomorrow. I hope that speaking to him will assist you in this terrible time.

Finally, it will be an honor to meet you both in person on Saturday and to properly express my own sentiments, as well as those of the Major, the other team members, and their families.

My warmest regards, Jill

 

I drove to Pennsylvania on that Friday for the services. It was a long, exhausting weekend, and on Monday I reported back to the rest of the families.

 

07 May 2007

Good morning all,

I am returned from the weekend’s journeys and wanted to pass along an update on Doc and tell you a little something of the services that were held in honour of the lieutenant.

Despite his continued recovery and improvement, Doc’s return to the states has been delayed for a few days/a week. He developed a very minor infection, so in an abundance of caution they have kept him in Germany to continue his recovery. He remains on a respirator and sedated, although I understand that this is to give him the rest his body needs to recover, and is not bad news. The parents travelled to Germany yesterday, arrived there this morning (EDT), and have been in to see their son. I spoke with the brother, who did not make the trip, and he let me know that, despite the difficulties associated with seeing their son in such condition, just being with him had provided them with a large measure of comfort. I am certain that Doc is aware, on some level, of their presence and that this will help him along as well. [The fiancée of one of the other Lieutenant’s] is stationed in Germany, and will do everything possible to get down to Landstuhl, while the parents are there, to visit with them and help, if necessary, in any way that she can. As soon as Doc returns to Bethesda I will make a trip down to see him. I will continue to keep you all as up to date as possible on his progress.

===

I would like to tell you as much about the services for [the Lieutenant] as possible. I hope I can do justice to the event, though I will admit that parts of it exceeded my comprehension at times, both in terms of the scale of support and love that was in evidence from the family and the local community, as well as in the magnitude of the effect that [he] clearly had on the wide universe of people who knew him.

Unfortunately, I was unable to make it to PA for the services marking his return home. However, I am attaching a link to the video of the event, so that you might share in it somewhat….

The services on Saturday began with the viewing. I will admit that I had a great deal of difficulty with that part, as I waited and was thinking of the events, and I must express how grateful I was to have the [liaison officer] who had been sent by the Advisory Training Group in Pendleton there with me — he went above and beyond to support and help me. As soon as I was introduced to [the Lieutenant’s parents], as well as [his] sister and her husband, they embraced me as family. I cannot tell you how humbled I was at their graciousness, at their thoughts for me during this incredibly difficult time for them. It is easy to understand how [the Lieutenant] became the man of character that he did given the qualities of the family in which he was raised.

I took this last moment with [the Lieutenant] to offer the farewells of his teammates, as well as those of the families who love and support the team. I let him know that Doc and the other Marine wounded were doing well and would recover from their injuries with few if any ill-effects. I told him that this was not how I had wanted to see him again — I had wanted to have the team to our house when they returned to Pendleton for a big dinner and some fun to celebrate their homecoming. I am certain, however, that he will be with us in spirit as we get together to mark the end of the deployment. I made certain that he knew that we would take care of the team during the second half of the deployment. I also assured him that we would also see to it that his family did not lack for the love and support we could provide them to help them through this very difficult time.

As the viewing period came to a close and we prepared to move to the Church for the services, more evidence of the magnitude of the event was in evidence. The legion of vehicles, bedecked in the flags of the Marine Corps and the Stars and Stripes was awe inspiring. As we made our way through the town it seemed that every person there was out on the streets to salute their fallen neighbor and show their support for the family. The cherry blossoms were in full bloom, the town a rare beauty of old and stately homes, there were American flags everywhere. At first I felt inappropriate for taking account of the beauty, but as I thought on it more, I realized that it was as it should be, that a force beyond our comprehension had intervened to provide a day and a scene worthy of the event and the people involved. [The Lieutenant] had clearly reported to his next duty station — in the parlance of the Marine Corps and the idea that fallen Marines guard the streets of heaven — and was already proving to be outstanding in his job and had made certain that all was taken care of.

The services held at the Church were a tribute to the character, faith, and personality of the Lieutenant. We were given glimpses into the parts of his life that reflected upon the totality of the man. There were moments of laughter, as humorous stories were related about him. There were moments of reverence, as the depths of his personality were revealed. There were moments of profound sadness as the reality of what had been lost became abundantly clear. The family and friends chosen to speak on his behalf were eloquent, offering such meaningful words of praise and insight into the life of someone who had clearly made a difference at every moment he had on this earth. There was not a person in the Church who was not touched by their offerings. I intend to get copies of these remarks so that I can send them to the team back in Fallujah, and I will try to provide them to you all as soon as possible.

In order to convey to you the scope of the procession to the cemetery, let me tell you that I have, on many occasions, followed the exact same route as I travelled from my home in New Jersey to Washington, DC. It is a very busy route that is filled with businesses and often congested with traffic. To imagine the efforts that went into allowing the free procession that must have stretched for several miles is a testament of the lengths to which the local authorities went to show their support of the family and to pay their respects to the Lieutenant. It seemed that every local fire and police department was out to pay their respects. At one point we passed under the arch of crossed ladders from two fire trucks — an image I will never forget. Again, scores and hundreds of people lined the route to pay their respects. As I looked upon the people in cars who were stopped to provide for the free passage of the procession I am certain that I could see their profound respect for what they were witnessing.

The burial ceremony was simple, and yet filled with all of the honours and traditions that the Marine Corps holds dear. There was a piper playing in the background as we arrived. We shared in the playing of Taps, by a lone bugler off in the distance, and the rifle salute. The detail of Marines there to assist in the ceremony fulfilled their duty with all of the honor and respect they knew was due to a fallen comrade. As I took a moment to thank them afterwards for their service, on behalf of the team back in Fallujah and their families, they offered with great humility and true emotion that they could think of nothing they would rather do. The ceremony ended with the bestowal of flowers upon the casket.

At the end of the long day, one filled with many tears and sad thoughts on such a tragic loss, the family and friends gathered at the [family] home to share a brief moment of lightness and perhaps a little joy, as they reflected upon all of the good things associated with [the lieutenant] and his life, the funny stories that made up the texture and fabric of his character, and the things that would be missed in his absence. I had the opportunity to speak with several of his friends, and they told me a little of the person he had been in his youth, and the effect that he had had on their lives. I also talked with a Marine, recently returned from Fallujah, who had served as part of the augment in personnel the team had received near the beginning of the deployment….Although he indicated that things were challenging for the team, and at times downright rough, that they were all doing very well, their spirits were as high as possible, and were comforted and deeply appreciative of all the support the families had provided.

To close, I would like to relate to you all that, as I spoke with [the lieutenant’s father] before leaving, he made certain that I know that the family remained committed to the team and wished to remain a part of our group until the end of this deployment — a sentiment echoed by every member of the family with whom I spoke. Despite having an inkling that this would be the case, I was still amazed at what it said about them that they maintained the willingness to partake of something that would, on many levels, remind them in such stark terms of their loss and pain….And, as they face the difficult of simply living with the new reality, I am certain that there is nothing the rest of us won’t do to help them out….

My best to all of you,

Jill

 

The funeral was closure for only one part of the event. The long and often painful recovery of the wounded personnel was the next challenge to face.

Returning to the Doc, initial optimism for his recovery would be eroded over the next several weeks as his body struggled to cope with the terrible trauma to which it had been subjected. However, just after the funeral these difficulties were in the future and at that moment we celebrated the good news that he would be returning to the States.

 

09 May 2007

It is my distinct pleasure to pass along some good news. This is the latest report from [our family member in Germany]:

//I went back down to Landstuhl today to see Doc one last time before they fly him back to the states and I am happy to announce that his is fully alert and breathing on his own. He looked really good, considering what he has just gone through. His parents were not there so I stayed and talked to him for a little while. Even though he is breathing on his own they still have the ventilator hooked up for supplemental oxygen only so he isn’t able to talk yet. He mouths words when he can but mostly writes everything down. It was good to see he has a sense of humor and one of the first things he asked about was the rest of the team. He told me he remembers everything about their encounter but he asked who died and if [my fiancé] got shot. For a brief moment I started tearing up on him as I had to tell him about the Lieutenant and [my fiancé’s] grazing. He wants me to tell the guys that he is doing well but he’s not coming back! I had to chuckle at that after he wrote it. I know you will tell the Major so he can pass it on to the others. I’m sure he will be doing even better by the time he gets to [Bethesda] and hopefully you will be able to make it down to visit. I just wanted to pass along this information so you could spread the good news. Well, I must get started on my school work, talk to you later.//

I will let you all know when he arrives in Bethesda and how to contact him there.

Best, Jill

 

During all this time I had known there was a third casualty. However, as he and a dozen or so other Marines from his unit had been attached to the team after deploying to Iraq I did not have any information on them. Finally, in the second week after the event I was able to track him down.

 

09 May 2007

Hello all,

So, I finally made contact with the other Marine (a Lance Corporal) wounded during the incident of 29 April. He is back in the states, recovering at [the hospital]. His direct dial phone number is…, I’d say give him a call if you want — I did, and he seemed to enjoy the contact. He is doing pretty well, all things considered, able to get up and move around, and his spirits seem appropriately high — relative to what has happened to him, of course. He’s not able to eat anything more than toast and liquids, so there is no need to send him food care packages. However, he picked up something of a Sudoku habit over in Iraq, and so would enjoy books of those, as well as magazines along the lines of National Geographic, Time, etc. Cards and flowers would also be welcome. (I checked, and he sheepishly said that flowers would be good.) He will be [at the hospital] for about two weeks, so take that into account when sending anything….I would assume that you can send things to him care of the hospital, but it might be worth making a call to double-check the addressing procedures.

As mentioned in the previous update on Doc, he is conscious, alert, and cracking jokes, albeit in writing. He will probably be flying back tomorrow – I will receive word when his departure is confirmed. For the purposes of sending things to him (same magazines as above, cards, and flowers), I would assume that delivery for Monday is a safe bet. I will try to get down there for Monday to visit with Doc and his family.

I think that’s it for now. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

All my best,
Jill

 

When the Doc finally arrived to Bethesda Naval Hospital in mid-May I flew to DC to visit with him and his family. I had, by this time, spent quite a lot of time on the phone and emailing them. The visit was more difficult than I let on in the message below. I had last seen him hale and hearty on the eve of the deployment. His wounds had transformed him utterly. And the strain upon his parents was, as a parent myself, almost too difficult to bear. As well, at the end of this message to the families, there is the reminder of the toll the losses had on the rest of the team.

 

21 May 2007

All,

I hope this finds you all doing well. My apologies for the time between postings, I didn’t even realize the time had passed — deployment brain, I suppose. However, I do have quite a bit of information to pass along.

On Doc – I travelled to Bethesda on Friday to visit with the Doc and his family. It was a tremendous pleasure to finally meet the family after the weeks of phone contact. I can’t express how valuable it was to me to have a chance to talk with Doc, about the team, about what happened, and so forth, both with him and  his family, and [with him alone] for the few moments we had while they were having dinner. As for his medical condition, considering where he started in this, he is doing remarkably well. There are still medical issues to deal with, and he remains in significant discomfort, but all of the medical personnel remain really pleased with his progress and entirely optimistic about his recovery. I would suggest that his biggest “problem” right now is the loss he is feeling at being separated from the team. Because of the small size of the original MTT (and even with the augments the team retains its “small unit/big family” feel), and how close they got with one another, separation from the team must be very difficult. I also suspect that, although he had worked with Marines before, this was the first time the Doc had been fully integrated into a unit – if we stick with the family metaphor, I suppose I would describe it as the difference between being a favorite cousin and being a brother. I have passed this impression along to the Major and he will make sure that Doc gets a call from someone on the team on a fairly regular basis. If you are searching for something to do for him I think that contact — mail, visits (to the extent that they are geographically feasible), or phone calls — would mean the world to him.

On the Lance Corporal: [He] has made remarkable progress. Rather than the two weeks he thought he would spend in the hospital at LeJeune, he was released to home care here in Rhode Island last weekend. On Wednesday we got together for coffee at his favorite local place…, a lovely spot right on the water — of course we remarked on how the locale could not possibly be more different from where he had just come. It was great to talk to someone who had just been with the team. Although he was a recent augment to the MTT, he had already gotten quite attached to it, and is very disappointed that he has lost the opportunity to continue to work with them. This weekend he suffered a minor setback…and was checked into the Newport Hospital. When I visited with him on Saturday he was waiting on a friend to bring him some food and griping about the hospital, so he is clearly doing quite well. I will check in with him today and continue to visit with him as long as we are here in Newport.

The Team: I had a letter from the Major this weekend that described how the team was coping with recent events. I’ll let his words tell their story — “It’s the day after our memorial service for [the Lieutenant]. I do feel like it provided some closure for us about all of the losses we took. The last week reminded me of a portion of one of the wolf shows we’ve watched. I recall the part where one wolf has died and there is no play in the pack for almost two weeks. It’s been like that around here since April 29th. Everyone still moved about their business but the smiles and joking around were gone. Shortly after the memorial, once we were back home I heard laughing in the other room. One of the new guys had done something dumb, I don’t even know what it was, but the guys were teasing him mercilessly. I knew then that we were moving along.”

 

Doc’s medical condition took a turn for the worse in the following weeks. The reality of the physical trauma from his wounds was more serious than initially expected. As well, the suffering of his family, of watching him in pain, of not knowing what would happen, was tremendous.

 

02 June 2007

Hello all,

I called down to Bethesda today — I had sent a package (cake and brownies, and a few other items), and I wanted to check on whether it had arrived. I had expected to have a nice little chat with Doc and his family. Unfortunately, in the last few days there have been complications with his condition. He has had a fever, is on a feeding tube, and is sleeping a fair bit. I neither want to be excessively morose and pessimistic, nor do I want to give the impression that this is insignificant. The fact of the matter is that his original injuries were extensive and serious, and the process of recovery is difficult (if not something just shy of miraculous). As for me, I refuse to believe that we have come so far in this not to have a good outcome. I spent a fair bit of time speaking with his mother, and while she is worried (she’s his mother, after all), she remains nothing but steadfast in her certitude that things will resolve themselves in a positive fashion, full stop.

I have let the Major know the situation….

Finally, I am certain that this will wear heavily on the guys, so reach out to them as well.

My best to you all,

Jill

 

They would continue in the vein through June, and it was only by July that the certainty of his recovery was a comfortable fact.

The Lance Corporal, though the least seriously wounded, struggled with his return home. Late one night he called me, in distress. He had gone out with friends and found civilian obliviousness a crushing contrast to his military and deployed experience. I knew the Lieutenant with whom he had served, so I wrote this message to him in Fallujah.

 

13 June 2007

Hello,

I hope this finds you doing well… or, well enough for a guy doing duty at “the Rock”. I suppose it would be terribly mean of me to tell you about the brilliantly mild spring we’re enjoying here in Newport — I don’t think we’ve gotten over 70 yet, and right now it’s almost chilly! Well, the weather in Pendleton should be nice for your return, so you have that to look forward to.

 Seriously, though, I wanted to let you know that [your Lance Corporal is] having a bit of a hard time being away from the unit. He called me just a little while ago, needing to talk to someone who had some sort of a clue — he’s feeling a bit guilty for not being there for you guys, and is generally pissed at the run of the mill selfish civilians. Anyway, if you can keep after him, giving him a call now and then, I think it would be good. If you could get [his buddy] to call, that would be good too. I’ll do what I can, but the Major’s wife is not quite the same thing as a fellow Marine.

Oh, and I had a good laugh over the ruckus my having him sit in the Major’s seat for dinner has caused. You guys are relentless!

Sorry to hear that you missed the birthday party… I hope you’ve given the Major a hard time about it!….

Best, Jill

 

I would continue to have the Lance Corporal to dinner throughout that spring, to include a birthday dinner. He tried to be annoyed that I had informed the team of his struggles with having been taken from them and sent home, but I have the distinct impression that was only for show.

Only gathered and stood up for the deployment, at the end the remaining members of the unit dispersed upon their return to Camp Pendleton back to their home units. [6] By that time Doc and the Lance Corporal were well on their paths to recovery. But the events and losses of that day in April will stay with them and their families always.

At the beginning of this piece I suggested that more people “should” be aware of this facet of war. Reflecting with the humility such events demand, I might correct that now to say that they deserve to know.

 

Notes:

[1] To give a sense of the significance of the event for the unit and the families, the core unit lost two of its original 11 members. The third casualty was from the ranks of the augmentees the unit received in country.

[2] In the first months of the deployment there was an issue with feeding. Ironic given that subsistence and logistics are the subjects of my dissertation. Essentially the FOB system could not serve them in their location, they could not get to the FOB regularly and the unit was not stood up with organic feeding capabilities. Putting this information out to the families and friends we more than compensated for the deficiencies with a deluge of care packages. A modern iteration of the Berlin Airlift. After about 3 months of ideas that did not work, the Marine command in Fallujah sent a messman from another unit to cook them one hot meal a day. I liked this old school solution.

[3] He was clear on his professionalism, emblematic in that he was field grade professional military education in the UK, and that although he had been wounded by Marines in Desert Storm he dismissed that as the cost of war and worked quite successfully with the training team and Marine units assigned to Fallujah.

[4] Ironically, I recall that weekend being particularly aggrieved to have to listen to a retired General opine – incorrectly, in my opinion and experience – on what affected the morale of military families. I may have had an exuberant conversation or two with colleagues at the conference about what general officers know of the home-front experience – less than most expect – and I still maintain that position.

[5] I have tried and failed to find an authoritative explanation for this term.

[6] Several months later more than half of them would volunteer to join another MTT deployment with the Major.

M. Jean-Marc Todeschini, secrétaire d’état auprès du ministre de la Défense, chargé des anciens combattants et de la mémoire (SEDAC), s’est rendu sur la base aérienne (BA) 942 de Lyon Mont-Verdun le 22 avril 2015

Du 20 au 24 avril 2015, un instructeur du centre d’instruction du transit interarmées aérien 343 (CITIA) de la base aérienne 125 d’Istres s’est rendu sur le site du détachement air 181 de La Réunion. Il a ainsi dispensé une formation IATA (International air transport association) au profit du personnel de l’escale aérienne militaire 1D.181. Ce déplacement est une première sur un site ultramarin.

La décision de préserver les effectifs militaires, pour les missions de sécurité intérieure et de cohésion sociale, est une impasse budgétaire et stratégique

Russland zwischen militärischer Eskalation und Deeskalation in der Ostukraine

Sarajevo : un patrimoine à l'abandon
Albanie : le patrimoine moderne en péril
Patrimoine urbain au Kosovo : le vieux Prishtina est laissé à l'abandon
Roumanie : le patrimoine national est laissé à l'abandon

/ Culture et éducation, Histoire, Croatie, H-Alter