Free Mural Map of Eastern Market

 

 

27 distinguished artists created murals to cover the boarded-up windows of the historic South Hall of Eastern Market, heavily damaged by fire. The free diagram indicates the location of each mural, the name of the artist who painted it, and the title of the work. The “map” is based on a print by Capitol Hill artist Thomas Bucci.

 Free copies of the map are available only at Eastern Market locations, near the murals: 

• Capitol Hill Books, 657 C St. SE (opposite the Market’s C St., SE façade

• Uncle Brutha’s Hot Sauce Emporium, 323 Seventh St. SE 

And at these Eastern Market locations on weekends:

• Agora Farms

• Capitol Hill Community Foundation 

• Eastern Market South Hall interior viewing station

• Uncle Brutha’s Hot Sauce (farmer’s line location)

The flyer also lists artists who regularly exhibit their work at the Market each weekend.

 Many Eastern Market vendors are in the new East Hall (in the playground of Hine JHS, between 7^th and 8^th Streets at C St., SE) and artists and the flea market are still going strong while the historic building is under renovation. Market Lunch will open on September 15^th, and there are free concerts on Sundays in front of Port City Java (701 North Carolina Ave. SE).

Cheney’s Quagmire and the USMC

 In 1994, ex-Defense Secretary Dick Cheney spoke with C-SPAN’s Bruce Collins about why U.S. forces did not go on to Baghdad during the first Persian Gulf War: “How many additional dead Americans is Saddam worth? It’s a quagmire if you go that far and try to take over Iraq.”

Innocently retrieved from the C-Span archives last month, this snip of video has Desert-Stormed the Web, with over a million views on YouTube and counting. Mary Ann Akers gives the best account of this video resurrection, but there is more to this episode than the current Vice President’s embarrassment by his past video posturing.

It may not be the C-Span archives, but I was poking around a favorite information source, the free book bin outside Capitol Hill Books  (the used book store across from Eastern Market) and found a volume of readings from the 1993 U.S. Marine Corps Command and Staff College for the course Operations Other Than War (OOTW). It is an amazing compendium, and includes a message from Joint Chiefs Chairman Colin L. Powell, excerpts from the Small Wars Manual, and articles by Michael Schoelwer (“The Failure of the U.S. Intelligence Community in Low-Intensity Conflict: The Pattern of Warfare in the Modern World”), Colin Gray (“Combatting Terrorism”), Camille Rougeron (“The Historical Dimension of Guerilla Warfare”), and Dennis M. Drew (“Insurgency and Counterinsurgency: American Military Dilemmas and Doctrinal Proposals”). There are also documents and articles on Peacekeeping Operations.

The volume brings home the absolute appropriateness of the first Gulf War decision from a purely military perspective, without even examining legal and diplomatic considerations. I cannot imagine the agony of Marine officers who took this course and then had to execute George W. Bush’s instructions and order those under their command into combat in Iraq. Those officers certainly knew those Marines were headed straight into Chaney’s bloody “quagmire.”

In an interview on February 23, 2007, ABC’s Jonathan Karl asked Chaney: “Back in 1991, you talked about how military action in Iraq would be the classic definition of a quagmire. Have you been disturbed to see how right you were?”

Chaney responded: “Well, I stand by what I said in ’91. But look what’s happened since then — we had 9/11. . . . You wish there was never a casualty, Jonathan. Always regret when you have casualties, but we are at war.”