World View

Obama's Nobel Peace Prize

2009-10-09T15:53:00.001Z

I woke up this morning to the news that Barack Obama has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Like for most people I'm sure, the news came as a surprise, mainly because there had been no prior rumors to the effect, or even knowledge that he had been nominated.

My first thought was that all those people who have been spitefully wishing for him to fail, in whatever endeavor he was involved in (such as his recent attempts to woo the Olympic Committee on behalf of the Chicago bid), would be gnashing their teeth in rage over this.

That's their problem.

And then surely there would be others on the opposite side of the political spectrum scratching their collective heads wondering how Obama could win such an award while escalating the level of troops involved in the Afghanistan War.

That's more complicated.

But when I asked myself who else may have been a better choice this past year, may have done more to promote and pursue peace around the world, I couldn't think of anyone else. It isn't like anyone has stood out as more deserving.

So the Nobel Committee decided instead to make a statement to encourage Obama to continue his efforts to return the U.S. to a position of diplomatic global leadership, engaging and working with the world, instead of unilaterally. This was a decision "to support what he is trying to achieve".

That's not unprecedented with this award.

Having just heard part of Obama's remarks in reaction to the announcement, I think Obama clearly recognizes the intent of the award, and accepts it as a further "call to action", and less as a suggestion that any of his goals have been achieved. Ironically, he'll receive most of the flack about the award from within - but I think he is skilled enough to not allow it to become a distraction or political liability, but rather judiciously use it to his benefit on the international diplomat front.

After all, the same people gnashing their teeth because he won the award, would be openly celebrating if they knew he had been nominated and not received the award. That small but vocal minority will seek to undermine Obama, and ridicule the Nobel Institute as they do other international institutions, but around the world, I suspect that this award will viewed much differently, and the chosen recipient will be viewed with respect for having won it.

At the end of the day, as surprises go, this is a pleasant one, much preferable to all the nasty ones we've had to suffer through in the past decade.

Tehran University

2009-07-13T03:04:00.001Z

Things have changed at Tehran University since 1980! Now the brave students of that place are called anti-revolutionaries. How ironic!

IRANIAN ESCALADE

2009-07-04T05:55:00.005Z

…a step that would likely increase Iran's isolation and alienate Western nations that have been trying to keep options open with Tehran despite its crackdown on protesters.

…At the same time, the arrests test the U.S. and Europe's policy, which has so far been to avoid an overly harsh reaction to Iran's postelection crisis. The West has been wary of condemnations of Iran's leadership, in part for fear of undermining prospects for future talks with Tehran, particularly over its controversial nuclear program. So far, the EU has taken an incremental approach. On Friday, a day after issuing a public call for the staffers' release, governments across the 27-nation bloc summoned Iran's ambassadors to present the demand in person. Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said the EU's "escalatory approach to Iran was working." But French President Nicolas Sarkozy said his country backs Britain's push for tougher action, "so that Iranian leaders will really understand that the path that they have chosen will be a dead end."

Article Ref: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090704/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iran_election

YES.

The dead end is that ABSOLUTE POWER in the hands of only “a few countries” in the world surely leads to more DEAD people in other countries. AND some day it will have to stop. For the sake of all of those who are living in the bombed and destroyed countries or being threatened…

These “spanking wars” only enriches the Western (military) industries, the News outlets and the whole Media industry behind it…. There is nothing “dignified” or “human rights” in them.

A human life is supposed to be more important than my pocket. Or is it?

Or at least that’s what we learn as the main ideology of the Developed world … but I guess many have also forgotten the 6^st and 10^th commandments … and that is really PITIFUL.

A fair trial is actually a more civilized manner to blame someone of a wrongdoing rather than BOMBING a whole country for the wrongdoings of a few people.

Let’s see what we will see and let’s not worry too much about seeing criminal and illegal action stopped legally (whether they are normal citizens or “immuned” diplomats). If such a method is to be considered unacceptable, then the ICC should not exist either and no one will have to pay for humanitarian crimes that are so easily decided in round tables and white and red houses….

As if other human beings in the world are too “dumb” to think and decide for themselves about their OWN internal affairs.

Now that the UN has been “de-credibilized” thanks to the biased attitude of the SC, the only thing that is left for any global consensus is the UN Charter which all member countries are supposed to be respecting:

Article 2 – The Organization and its Members, in pursuit of the Purposes stated in Article 1, shall act in accordance with the following Principles.

The Organization is based on the principle of the sovereign equality of all its Members.

All Members, in order to ensure to all of them the rights and benefits resulting from their membership, shall fulfill in good faith the obligations assumed by them in accordance with the present Charter.

All Members shall settle their international disputes by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security, and justice, are not endangered.

All Members shall refrain in the international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations.

…. And finally

7- Nothing contained in the present Charter shall authorize the United Nations to intervene in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any state or shall require the Members to submit such matters to settlement under the present Charter; but this principle shall not prejudice the application of enforcement measures under Chapter VII.

(Chapter VII – Article 39 – The Security Council shall determine the existence of any threat to the peace, breach of the peace, or act of aggression and shall make recommendations, or decide what measures shall be taken in accordance with Articles 41 and 42, to maintain or restore international peace and security…)

THANK YOU the Security Council. BUT NO THANK YOU for maintaining constant WAR by the constant AGGRESSIONS that you impose on the most peaceful and law-abiding countries, and their innocent populations which are simply doing/ respecting just what the first articles of the UN charter has set (as the most important principles).

Maybe it’s really time for a CHANGE? But in such way that countries and people are judged, for what they have actually done, and not only in what is promised by them or “expected” of them.

And we will see in time what will be really done, by who… and realize the excuses that are being prepared to justify the violence of what is already planned to happen in the future.

History will tell those who will and can still read history books in the future.

Keeping calm and maintaining peace is the best situation for intelligent and wise behavior. This doesn’t mean that if someone slaps you sadistically, that everyone is a masochist/a slave/or weak and wants, or accepts, to be hit again….

On this 4^th of July, the United States of all countries should know that Independence is special. It is for other countries too.

And some people (and country leaders) if they are slapped, answer by slapping back. Because they are not someone's slave or child.

So it’s up to those who start thinking un-shrewdly of slapping someone they consider “weak”, to refrain from imposing their “bully powers”.

They just might get surprised.

More Facts

2009-05-22T12:11:00.005Z

Infant Mortality Rate for Israel: 4.22 deaths/1,000 live births

Infant Mortality Rate for West Bank: 15.96 deaths/1,000 live births

Source: CIA World Factbook

The Most Important Thing to Know When you Read the News about Israel and Gaza

2008-12-27T21:50:00.009Z

The average income of an Israeli is over 24 times higher than that of a Gazan, not twice as high, not three times as high, but over 24 times higher.

Intervention

2008-11-21T05:49:00.001Z

All attitude which leads to a massive attack on any country of the world, and for any sort of reason, is only a cultural interpretation of what people think is “a necessity” and what is not.

There are so many terrible events happening in the world these days (DR Congo…) and nobody is even trying to stop the despair of thousands of miserable humans around the world dying from famine, war, natural disasters and genocides…. while others are busy inaugurating dreamlands in Dubai or using jets to buy bread for their wives.

If a few countries decide to interfere in the affairs of other countries, unless it is in order to save other human beings from a disastrous event, absolutely no other reason can be acceptable in acting as a better person.

If we see a dying child at our neighbor’s house, will we break in and take the baby to the hospital?

Answer 1 - The parents have abandoned the child they are not home and we have to save the child.

Answer 2 - the parents have beaten up the child brutally and we feel that we have to interfere, but we need to call the police to figure it out

Answer 3 - We see the dying child but we don’t know that the child is simply dying of cancer and the parents are actually doing what they can to save their own kid.

Answer 4 - We do interfere, and take the neighbors child to the hospital, but we forget that we have left the kettle on our own oven and we return home to see the house burnt down while we were busy with somebody else’s business.

Faltering Steps

2008-11-17T23:48:00.002Z

The Iraqi Cabinet has passed a resolution requiring US troops to withdraw from all Iraqi cities and towns by 30 June 2009. They have also set a date of 31 December 2011 for the complete withdrawal of US forces from Iraq. The dates are supposedly “set and fixed” and “not subject to circumstances on the ground.” These few tentative steps are resolutions that still need to be approved by the Iraqi Parliament but are signs that Iraq is starting to take a more substantial role in controlling its own future. Like a person recovering from a devastating injury, the road to recovery is slow and painful but requires the full commitment of the individual. Changes can not be forced upon the country by outside forces however well meaning the intent. It will be interesting to see if the incoming administration will allow Iraq to succeed, or fail, on its own. The question now is whether these next few faltering steps will keep the country moving forward on the road to recovery or if it signals the need for indefinite life support by the US.

The Next U.S. President: Barack Obama

2008-11-06T22:40:00.002Z

A World Of Front Page Headlines

These are times...

2008-10-10T15:28:00.004Z

These are times that make it hard to blog. There is so much happening that it almost makes it feel superfluous and futile to write blogs about any one thing. But if I were to choose one thing to blog about it is fear. We (and that means everybody in the world) need to be ready to keep our heads cool. Once fear becomes entrenched it can be manipulated. That has been proven so many times, it isn't even worth listing them. And every country has examples in its modern history of the nurturing and use and abuse of fear by groups of people and/or governments as a tool for enhancing that group or government's power. By not allowing ourselves to be in a chronic state of fear, we empower ourselves, we serve as an example to others, and we retain the judgement necessary to oppose anarchy or tyranny.

Lies and Hollow Talk

2008-09-14T04:13:00.001Z

Watching the Charles Gibson interview with Sarah Palin, and listening to and reading about the McCain assertions regarding his running mate, and attacks against his opponent, I've come to the conclusion that the Republicans are running a McCain/Palin campaign built on hollow generalities and blatant lies.

He is literally running to be Liar in Chief!

After eight years of being lead on by the Bush administration, perhaps the press has finally had enough and the strategy to try to pull one over on the American public for just long enough to win this election will be exposed, and voters will reject it.

Gibson's interview exposed Palin to be a fraud. She clearly appeals to many people because of surface attributes; she looks young and attractive and folksy. But as we dig deeper, we find she's ill-versed on international issues, and her policies are based on generalities she cannot back up with specific actions to carry out. Reform? She's got no idea how she'll achieve it. Change? She's got no idea what to change. Washington D.C. isn't Wasilla. You're not dealing with the local librarian in this job, you're staring down Vladimir Putin and Hu Jintao.

Her list of problems, false claims, and extreme positions keep piling up on a daily basis. Now she's the only candidate under investigation with a spouse that's been subpoenaed.

It would be one thing if this was the opposition ticket, but these guys are from the same team that gave us Bush and Cheney. Their appeal should be limited to the diehards who cling to the hope their eight year wrecking crew can get another four years. But this election we're dealing with a complicated electorate. We've got unreliable young voters. We've got racist voters. We've got vindictive voters. We've got friends who'd be happy with a loss, and enemies that would be friends. We've got the old guard pretending to be the new guard, and the extremists packaged in pretty ribbons.

And we've got a lot of liars clouding the facts in the minds of voters.

Post convention polling shows the race has levelled. The good news for Obama is that he was previously working from a lead, so as voters begin to see through the McCain/Palin lies and hollow talk, beyond the cheap candy kisses, those that have been waffling will likely come back to the Obama/Biden ticket.

If there is any hope for this country, that's the hope.

On this day

2008-09-11T13:42:00.002Z

I was about to post something tongue-in-cheek about Sarah Palin's candidacy, but then I remembered which day of the year it is, so instead I am going to say that today is a day to remember that there is never a legitimate reason to kill innocent people.

Dangerously Poor Judgment

2008-09-01T21:59:00.000Z

Georgian provinces, Abkhazia and South Ossetia are are breaking away and Russia is welcoming them into their fold with open arms - literally.

John McCain decided on Friday that politics were more important than experience when he picked Sarah Palin as his Joe Biden equivalent on the Republican ticket. Where before McCain suggested Barack Obama lacked experience, in a Fox News interview with Chris Wallace, he now has the gall to suggest experience is not important, what matters is judgment:

WALLACE: You have criticized Obama as being, quote, "dangerously unprepared to be president." In the sense of national security and foreign policy specifically, isn't Sarah Palin even more dangerously unprepared?

MCCAIN: Oh, no. Look, she has got the right judgment. She has got the right judgment. She doesn't think, like Senator Obama does, that Iran is a minor irritant. She knows that the surge worked and succeeded, and she supported that.

Senator Obama still, still to this day refuses to acknowledge that the surge has succeeded. She has been commander-in-chief of the Alaska Guard, that has served back and back (ph). In fact, as you know, she has got a son who is getting ready to go.

But she has had the judgment on these issues and — that Senator Obama has not had in the — he has had all the wrong judgments. And Governor Palin understands these issues, and she understands the challenges that we face.

So she has had 12 years of elected office experience, including traveling to Kuwait, including being involved in these issues. And look, I'm so proud that she has displayed the kind of judgment and she has the experience and judgment as an executive. She has run a huge economy up there in the state of Alaska. Twenty percent of our energy comes from the state of Alaska, and energy is obviously one of the key issues for our nation's security.

WALLACE: But, Senator, you talked about her years of experience. Ten of those years were as a city councilwoman and mayor of a town of 9,800 people. And in terms of foreign policy, in March of 2007, after, two months after the surge had started, she was asked about it, and she said: "I've been focused on state government. I haven't focused on the war in Iraq." Understandable for a governor; not understandable for a vice president.

MCCAIN: Well, by the way, also she was a member of the PTA. I think it's wonderful.

Amazing. From PTA to staring down Putin and Medvedev.

How McCain can claim any judge of "judgment" after making a pick such as he made in Palin to be a heart beat away from the leadership of this nation, is beyond me. Putin and Medvedev must be licking their chops at the very real prospect Americans actually choose to make that a possibility in two months time.

OB-1 Solzhenitsyn

2008-08-04T15:53:00.001Z

“I am of course confident that I will fulfill my tasks as a writer in all circumstances -- from my grave even more successfully and more irrefutably than in my lifetime. No one can bar the road to truth, and to advance its cause I am prepared to accept even death. But may it be that repeated lessons will finally teach us not to stop the writer's pen during his lifetime? At no time has this ennobled our history.”

Alexander Solzhenitsyn quote

Quote

2008-06-25T12:15:00.000Z

“The government, which was designed for the people, has got into the hands of the bosses and their employers, the special interests. An invisible empire has been set up above the forms of democracy.”

Woodrow T. Wilson (American 28th President of the United States 1856-1924)

Ruminations on the Decline of Empire

2008-06-24T15:39:00.004Z

A couple years ago a columnist from "The Guardian" named Timothy Garton Ash wrote an article where he spoke of The Iraq War as America's Boer War. He claims that the 1905 Boer War kicked off the 50 year-long decline of the British Empire resulting in a loss of "top dog" status in the world. It's pretty convincing stuff actually.

If his claims are true (or even true-ish) then we have an interesting and not necessarily unattractive time ahead of us here in the States. Now, granted, that 50-year decline of the British Empire included two world wars and should this next protracted decline of a hyper-power also include such things then life will suck immeasurably. So let us hope that things like the Cold War's Mutually Assured Destruction will still apply through the coming years and that no big country knock-down, drag-outs will occur.

But barring the world war syndrome, we could see benefits from a slow releasing of America's grip on the world. Perhaps more money could be spent on schools and such. After all, half of the rest of the world's students want to study here (much like they did want to study in Britain back in the early to mid 20th century) and so becoming even more of a knowledge superpower (while discarding some of the ass-kicking superpower ways) would be a useful way to go.

If you look at Britain in those 50 years of imperial downsizing, there is a lot of good stuff! How many great British books were written, published and read worldwide from 1905 onward? How many great British plays were written and put on by theater companies worldwide? How much great rock and roll came off of those isles in the deep post-imperialist age? It's really almost as if the releasing of itself from empire spawned renewed creativity, isn't it? Take Monty Python. That is pure brilliance. It is also quintessentially English AND distinctly post-empire AND hugely influential on world culture. And did anyone think, when they heard and saw the Beatles, that England had lost its influence in the world? I think not.

Fast-forward to now. Washington is London a hundred years ago. Imperial over-stretch looms. One cannot conceive of a world where the US isn't all powerful and yet history teaches us that that world is coming. But it doesn't have to be that scary after all. And there could be benefits. There will also be some downsides to the end of US hegemony. You need only take a moment to imagine how Russia and China might behave toward their southern neighbors in a world free of those huge American fleets patrolling around tropical waters. I think certain countries will miss America's relatively friendly use of its powers. Let's be honest, if Russia or China had America's current power, they would never bother to spend 5, 10, or even 15 years merely warning a country to stop messing with their business interests, oil supplies, and diplomats of questionable motives. They would never allow tens of millions of their own citizens to vilify their own government's policies.

Be that as it may, and with the caveat that there is no current heir to US power (no you can't count China any time soon...not when they are still afraid to let their fighter pilots fly too far from base for fear that they might defect) US power will naturally diminish. I hope to see some good art, music, and literature come out of it.

I wonder if Rome's decline had any cultural benefits.

Hard to hide

2008-06-05T18:09:00.002Z

I knew that Al Qaeda would finally figure out to which extent Scandinavian society is the dead opposite of radical, militant religious fundamentalism. It was only a matter of time. There is simply no place on this planet that is further from and more unlike the imagined caliphate of Osama Bin Laden than are the Scandinavian countries, with the sole exception perhaps of Holland. 'Must be a combination of herring, cheese, and beer that does it. That and girls that get to anything that boys get to do. Well maybe those things plus an actual free and open debate about what the people want and don't want (and that without fear of intimidation).

I myself am a Norwegian and as such I am quite typical in being a dyed-in-the-wool opponent of any and all theocracies as well as being a proponent of 100% gender equality. I am also a huge believer in free speech. I do think the guys that are publishing these cartoons in Scandinavia are pushing the envelope a bit too far these days, but I am happy that no one is busting open their doorways and shutting them down for it. I am happy that they have the right to express themselves, even if I think they are going too far.

So there you have it. When presented with which side to support in this whole cartoon-based violence dilemma, I come down on the side of the people that do NOT do things like condone honor killings.

Question for the Times

2008-06-02T17:45:00.004Z

It would be interesting to see exactly how many tens of millions of dollars worth of Government aid Denmark has given to Pakistan over the last 15 years or so. 'Probably similar in amounts to the many millions given to the other countries where Danish embassies have been attacked. 'Money well spent?

Strange Tragedies

2008-05-15T14:50:00.004Z

What to make of the implications of China's earthquake coming so quickly after Burma's cyclone? At the very least, we can say that the Chinese earthquake is really bad luck for Burma. Both were completely random natural disasters, but there are man-made issues at play here too. China's post-earthquake rescue photos are truly heart-rending and they are getting all the attention now. And I don't know how to say this in an uncontroversial manner, so I'll go ahead and say it. The Government of China is going to benefit from the earthquake, at least in the short-term. Burma's disaster has no beneficiaries in the short-term.

Moral Constipation

2008-05-11T11:00:00.001Z

Given the immense destruction and imminent suffering caused by a cyclone in Myanmar, the question that needs to be asked is what is the role the the world. Should the sovereignty of Myanmar be respected while hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people suffer? At what point does an international body disregard the wishes of a country so that relief can be provided? More correctly, when does the world decide the junta that is controlling the country is illegal? While the government of Myanmar apparently welcomes the help offered by the various nations of the world, the junta, which actually runs the country, is blocking any attempt to provide support. This same de facto government is more concerned with consolidating and “legitimatizing” its power than it is with caring for the dead, sick, wounded, starving populace. At what point will the world get over its fear of offending an illegal and uncaring government? When will the world take the equivalent of a moral laxative and respond to the needs of a suffering population?

Burmese Disaster

2008-05-08T06:12:00.002Z

While we've been consumed by the ridiculous Democratic Presidential Primary race, this has been happening.

Consider pitching in.

Quote

2008-05-06T12:27:00.001Z

"Laws are silent in time of war."

Cicero (106-43 BC)

The Natives are Restless

2008-03-19T17:41:00.003Z

You know, we are lucky all of us that want to keep the pressure on China to be nicer to the Tibetans, that the Chinese authorities haven't even thought of conducting an information counter-campaign on the fates of America's Indian tribes. If the tables were turned and they were like us and we were like them, the Chinese television would be filled with movies and documentaries about the Trail of Tears, the cultural and literal genocides of countless native American tribes, the current state of Indian Reservations, and the fact that Native Americans are currently the poorest identifiable ethnic group in America. Just goes to show, they have a long way to go before being called a superpower.

The News Today

2008-03-16T20:26:00.003Z

One conclusion I can draw from the news today is that China is several decades away from superpower status in this world, and it may actually never reach that status. This whole Tibet thing is so far behind the times that it just makes the Han Chinese look weak and paranoid. Of course, every other big power in the world is misbehaving too these days to some extent, but only one of them has a chunk of its territory as enormous as Tibet filled with a native population that wants outright independence. You'd think the Chinese would have the sense to look at examples of separatist movements in relatively tiny areas like Chechnya and Kashmir (and yes, even the somewhat related case of the recently acquired U.S. colony of Iraq), and then realize that the tough-guy approach can really sap the strength of even the largest governed countries. And the Chinese have two of these by the way, because Xinjiang (with its Uighur separatist movement) is almost as big as Tibet. What China needs to do is try to prove to these native populations that staying with China has benefits, which it could if China were more enlightened or even just more in tune with its own interests.

The until recently over-exuberant U.S. consumer is basically responsible for the Chinese economic miracle of the last ten years. Right now, that gravy train is breaking down and being stripped for scrap metal. Hence, with the demand for its manufactured goods about to drop through the floor, China is about to get such enormous social problems of its own that trying to keep Tibet and Xinjiang is going to become ruinous.

I Dig These Guys

2008-03-09T22:23:00.002Z

These Pakistani demonstrating lawyers are the coolest thing to pop up in the news since the monks of Rangoon last year.

What Kind of Democracy

2008-03-05T19:50:00.001Z

What kind of Democracy is it that a bunch of people who think they own the world (which they surely don’t!) tell someone else; who is doing better than them; they call him all kinds of names; they don’t want him in their fancy clubs, they just say that he should not have something which they ALL have, and they end up saying they want to proliferate in more sophisticated ways…? !

How in heaven can the US prove it is innocent after killing thousands of free people who were just living in their own homes?

In the name of What? In the name of Who?

The cowboys of Freedom Ranch and their legal advisers better stay and keep their cows back home, instead of wanting to bring freedom to other places outside their properties, showing off their killing machines and fancy toys. Their Freedom is only a means for them to kill as they please and their backwardness in understanding human civility and the fundamental rights (they seem to know nothing of ) will be their last historical achievement before the decline of their Empire….

The US and first lady Israel, and the rest of those who support them, should not be allowed to possess any weapons, not even a colt! Who knows what a mass murderer is capable of.

In a civilized world a serial killer should be stopped immediately, not a person who is forced to defend his legal sovereignty and basic rights. On March 5 in year 2008, a same day which the NPT, an international treaty to limit the spread of nuclear weapons entered into force back in 1970, those who are about to use their weapons to clean the face of earth of all “resistance”, will surely leave another stain on their own histories… and more blood on their dollars and non-sense…

Insanity has sunk too far in some brains as well as those sitting at the UNSC but they are not yet on the “terrorist lists”. All it needs is to be patient.

Democracy is dead. Long live Humanity.

Recycling Please!

2008-03-05T16:22:00.003Z

Now that all of these SUV's are about to become too expensive to drive even by the most defiantly paranoid social eunuchs, the question arises as to what all of these soon-to-be derelict hunks of metal, plastic, and rubber should be used for? I guess that the best thing would be to separate out the components by material-type, melt them down, and then use them as raw materials for new, useful stuff like inexpensive bicycles, push-scooters, and little red wagons to drag to the grocery store and back.

A Telling Statement

2008-02-29T14:40:00.003Z

During their most recent debate, Clinton and Obama each politely tried to look like the more pragmatic-but-revolutionary future leader. One interesting thing that Clinton said was that having a woman win this presidential election would mean a lot for the world. I had to laugh at that because she said it as if she was going to be blazing some kind of new path if she won, as if electing a woman would be a progressive message for the US to send to the world! This to me is a real window into the strong limitations of Clinton's vision and worldview. Because it has to be either that she hasn't realized that it is now 20 to 30 years since the first set of countries were brave enough to democratically elect women as their heads of state (including Muslim Pakistan!) or it is that Clinton is so US-centric that she really doesn't think that a thing is important until the US does it. An example of someone else doing this is when Reagan got excited about sending a woman into space in the 1980s not realizing that the Soviets had sent a woman on a solo space flight as early as 1963. Speaking of which, what of "Iron Lady" Thatcher? Is Clinton unaware of the fact that not only has there been an influential female head of state before her, but there has even been a CONSERVATIVE influential female head of state! How lame is that? Neither liberal America nor Labour Britain nor any Canadians or Aussies have given us a moderate-to-left leader that is female. Luckily the world doesn't wait for America to come around before blazing new trails for governance and gender equality nor are the world's women looking to Clinton for much of anything except perhaps to not bomb them.

A World of Change

2008-02-19T22:59:00.000Z

Change isn't just a buzz world for the American election.

First Kosovo declares its independence from Serbia.

Then Pakistan votes out Musharraf's party.

And now Fidel Castro steps down in Cuba.

That's a pretty eventful three days!

Kosovo: Recall the Powder Keg of Europe

2008-02-19T04:24:00.003Z

We've seen this story before, and the previous times it didn't turn out too well.

Let's hope this time is an exception.

The Real Enemy

2008-01-24T15:36:00.000Z

As market fundamentalism smashes itself on the rocks of the business cycle, and as we see a neo-con President actually start to act like a 70s style Keynesian, I begin to wonder if natural social cycles of some sort are going to ruin other types of fundamentalism, particularly religious fundamentalism. Because if there is a real enemy to peace in this world it must be fundamentalism in all its forms, where people have somehow been taught that all things revolve around one thing and that one thing must not be compromised upon.

Religious fundamentalism is created by injustice (real or perceived) and is sustained by conflict. Once a religious fundamentalist movement has been created, it requires a continuing supply of conflict in order to legitimize it. That's why you can never count on the leaders of fundamentalist movements to take any steps to try to end whichever conflicts that fuel them. The end of the conflict is the end of the need for fundamentalism, and this is just as true in the evangelical megachurches of Colorado Springs as it is in the mosques of Peshawar. You can't keep people chanting simplistic blather and standing around in huge buildings for years and years on just a good public speaking style. You need (as Hitler and Goebbels obviously knew) to convince them that they are under constant threat and that your uncompromising, angry, militant ethic is the only thing that will save them.

America's Christian fundamentalists are fed a constant supply of threats to "their way of life" and those range from the threat of having gay men carrying away your sons, to being overrun by dangerous, wild-eyed feminists, to having your daughters marry a "heathen" that will bring the rest of his foreign family over from God knows where to destroy the fabric of American society and (shudder) ruin Christmastime. Now that the US economy is tanking and the Administration is about to switch, they will be taught that the Democratic Party is the enemy. Look for the next act of terrorism in America to be perpetrated by a white, Christian American guy that thinks he's saving his nation and his religion from the peril of liberalism....of course he won't be called a terrorist, being a white Christian American. Tim McVeigh, Eric Rudolph, and every KKK member that ever hurt a black man were all terrorists, but we never called them that did we? Wonder why!?

Muslim fundamentalists in the Middle East, Central Asia, South Asia have of course been studied ad nauseum over the last 15 years or so and I don't have much to add to that body of knowledge except to say that the same rules apply to them, and that is that they need conflict to thrive. And thus of course it is easy to thrive for those of them that live in countries filled with traumatized people that live in constant fear for their lives. The invasion and occupation of Iraq, for example, has created a perfect set of circumstances to promote and sustain religious fundamentalism, i.e. dangerous faction-based fighting combined with a lack of basic, functioning services like water, electricity and schools. Religious fundamentalists LOVE that kind of situation, it makes their jobs so easy. And every society has its potential enforcers just waiting on the sidelines for the chance to randomly brutalize people in the ways that the new gangs of Baghdad have been doing. They should never be given that chance, they should never be given the chaos and despair that allows them to roam freely.

Another situation that has ensured the creation and sustenance of Muslim fundamentalism was the "displacement" of Arab Palestinians from their homes and lands during the creation of Israel and the subsequent controlling of their whereabouts and movements ever since. Nobody likes to have their land stolen from them. And there's nothing like decades of living in refugee camps followed by many more years of forced isolation to give people that feeling of being ridiculously, immorally pushed around. And speaking of Israel, that society's Jewish fundamentalists do their part to ensure a constant state of threat and danger by undermining any reforms or moderate trends that might diffuse the constant state of conflict with neighboring countries. People like Israel's Shas party would hate for there to ever be peace with Israel's neighbors because that would spell the end of the Shas Party. Can you imagine how scared those Shas Party guys must have been when a small group of Israeli pilots refused on humanitarian grounds to bomb a Lebanese village during the conflict in August 2006? There is no greater threat to conflict-based fundamentalism than when regular people refuse to commit the acts of violence that perpetuate the threats that fundamentalism feeds off of.

As for the rise of home-grown Muslim fundamentalism in places like Britain, France, Holland, and Germany...I place the blame for that squarely at the feet of whoever came up with Guantanamo Bay, extraordinary renditions, waterboarding, etc. When people are made to understand that they and their family members can be secretly kidnapped from a place like downtown Stockholm and taken somewhere and tortured with no charges and no due process...and you add in that their parents may well have moved them to these countries specifically to escape those very same kinds of injustices...well what do you expect?

To end on a happy note, I'd just like to say that a different future is possible than the clash of civilizations BS that we have been presented with over the last 7 years by western governments and wacked-out terrorists alike and that is for all of us to follow sensible, moderate, tolerant, and cooler heads. But to get that we have to make people stop wanting conflict and start wanting reconciliation. 'Any takers?

Whither the Dragon?

2008-01-15T19:54:00.000Z

As US retail consumption begins to diminish and as the weak dollar makes certain U.S.-made products cheaper in relation to European and Asian products both for the domestic and international markets, it will be interesting to watch what happens in China. The Chinese economic boom over the last ten years has been dependent primarily on US consumption of manufactured goods (over-consumption in many cases) and secondarily on European consumption. Of course, the Chinese have been selling worldwide, but it is the sales to the US and Europe that have really fueled the Chinese boom.

If US consumers begin to stop buying so much, and that is happening now, that will already directly slow Chinese growth. It will also slow European growth as the U.S. demand for European luxury goods such as Ferraris, BMW's, and French and Italian haute couture and perfume products plummets even faster than for non-luxury goods. Those factors will then also begin to diminish the considerable foreign direct investment in China by US and European investors.

This is all potentially worrisome. Right now, the largest human migration in history is occurring between the Chinese countryside and Chinese cities, with hundreds of millions of people moving within China to fuel the demand for workers connected to manufacturing for export. If those jobs start to dry up, there is going to be trouble. And if there is trouble in China, it will be the whole world's problem.

THE FINAL PROVOCATION

2008-01-10T11:19:00.000Z

It seems that 2008 will have a head start for the postponed plans of Santa Claus in the Middle East.

Now that Bush junior has been able to easily savor the sunrise upon the hills of Jerusalem, the gift that best-friend-Israel will be offering on a plate to this Little Hero, we see that the threat of the Nuclear Pakistan Muslim neighbor of Iran has also been put off as to thwart the attention of the analysts from the possibility of Iran receiving any help from a Pakistan rebel, again.

And now that Bush has finally decided, at the end of his Presidential era, to meet his friends in the Middle East, what can one say. The only thing Bush junior ever pushed for has been War and everyone except the Western Media seem to know it. But of course everywhere in the world many people rather think they are dreaming rather than confront the hard realities of their doings.

The reality is that the Bush Administration is not only paving the way for the last legacy of its failed diplomacy, but it is using the whole world as a chess board for a bunch of greedy, sadistic and distorted masterminders of Total Destruction.

There it goes: “ Today, an unidentified Pentagon official called this 'incident' in the Strait of Hormuz "a serious provocation." Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman referred to it as a "serious incident." Mr. Gordon Johndore, National Security Council spokesman said the United States urges the Iranians "to refrain from such provocative actions that could lead to a dangerous incident in the future."”

So the Pentagon, the Defense Department and the NSC have the final script of the play they set the décor for of the Next Act : The Décor: Straight of Hormuz. Players : US Navy and Iranian Coast guard.

But the problem is the “unidentified” Play directors are improvising the reactions of Iran based on their high level of mislead-made-up “information”.

“…and a man speaking heavily accented English threatened, "I am coming to you. ... You will explode," according to a video released Tuesday by the Pentagon…”

The Media in the West continues to think that the Iranian coast guards have a very harsh accent… Ha Ha!!

The British also had a blast when they tried the “provocation” scenario at the Strait of Hormuz and they turned out to be the laughing stock of the international assembly; but to be showing commitment to the plans carefully set out in the Chatham-CFR-AIPACIAN club, the directors certainly have to get it over with. With or without applause.

Along this time the world looks on a faint video at two speed boats on routine (cut at the most important scene) checking the identity of the BIG BOATS filled with all kinds of weapons and dangerousity and of course saying HELLO becomes a threat. In Persian there is a saying “when you pick up a stick the robber cat runs”… or in other words, those who are the real criminals start blaming the others before they get blamed only to divert attention from their own crime.

Who in their right mind would sit home easily when a roaming criminal starts walking in their neighborhood?

Considering the tight military enclosure and build up as well as the constant pressure around the Islamic Republic of Iran, this country has shown an objective calm and certain stability in its reactions, compared to some of its near and far neighbors. First of all, considering that the main actors of the country are, intelligence-wise, amongst the most secure and impenetrable, the hard facts about Iranian tactics and goals cannot be evaluated simply through hypothesis or wishful thinking of a few.

Second, in order to maintain an analytic theory, Iranians do not merely depend on traditional western intelligence patterns, which have in the past years shown their inefficiency endangering the correct understanding of the situations at top levels. Lobbying is only one of the main diplomatic elements of decision making in Iran.

Apart from the Supreme Leader who functions like the founding Head of a family/ company, the circle of decision-makers / managers is thin and spread out as well and amid those who decide, the constant gain of knowledge and direct contact with the population as well as the levels of consultations are quite different from Western countries. Councils and Gatherings are not simply based on a certain level of society. The social classes inside Iran have been slowly transformed…and none of the Tehrangeles or MKO advisors of the Pentagon can be of help to understand them...

And as long as the Western decision-makers continue with their Dangerous Games, the followers of the prophecies of Nostradamus in the West, those who still feel pain and compassion as humans and those who follow the same God all over the world, will unite.

That is a lot of people to kill…

Finishing 2007 in the not-so-Great, not-so White North

2008-01-05T14:53:00.000Z

It is with a great amount of phlegm and hacking that I greet the New Year, but that is a personal matter unrelated to international affairs. This Xmas Holiday I found out that if you travel for days to get to the arctic in December, you can now find an absence of winter unknown to any of my ancestors from those climes. It is warmer up there, and strangely enough more extreme because all of this warmer air and water makes the winds blow absolutely out of control. I also found out that the old arctic communities of Scandinavia are dying out (after a thousand years of history) to be replaced by a combination of summer vacation resorts and offshore oil pumping stations.

One day up there, my cousin took me hiking to a small town I used to visit as a child. It was now abandoned. It's church, school, houses, and shops were perfectly intact...only there was no one there and all the windows had been boarded. In the twilight that is an arctic December noon, and with a howling wind, I shivered not from cold but from imagining much more of the world looking just like this some day.

So the world looked strange from its top this Xmas.

Foreign Sensibilities Drive Foreign Policy

2007-12-29T21:37:00.000Z

This commentary by Fareed Zakaria in Newsweek speaks to the issue of identity and personal experiences regarding ones ability to better empathize and understand those who live in or come from foreign lands.

Zakaria is talking about whether Obama's identity and upbringing are of significance with regards to foreign policy, and comes to the conclusion, despite all else, that they are.

Obama's argument is about more than identity. He was intelligent and prescient about the costs of the Iraq War. But he says that his judgment was formed by his experience as a boy with a Kenyan father—and later an Indonesian stepfather—who spent four years growing up in Indonesia, and who lived in the multicultural swirl of Hawaii.

I never thought I'd agree with Obama. I've spent my life acquiring formal expertise on foreign policy. I've got fancy degrees, have run research projects, taught in colleges and graduate schools, edited a foreign-affairs journal, advised politicians and businessmen, written columns and cover stories, and traveled hundreds of thousands of miles all over the world. I've never thought of my identity as any kind of qualification. I've never written an article that contains the phrase "As an Indian-American ..." or "As a person of color ..."

But when I think about what is truly distinctive about the way I look at the world, about the advantage that I may have over others in understanding foreign affairs, it is that I know what it means not to be an American. I know intimately the attraction, the repulsion, the hopes, the disappointments that the other 95 percent of humanity feels when thinking about this country. I know it because for a good part of my life, I wasn't an American. I was the outsider, growing up 8,000 miles away from the centers of power, being shaped by forces over which my country had no control.

...

I couldn't do my job well without the expertise. But any insights I have are thoroughly informed by the perspective and judgment that I've gained from being first a foreigner, then a foreign student, then an aspiring immigrant and now an American. My biography has helped me put my book learning in context, made for a richer interaction with foreigners and helped me see the world from many angles. So I understand what Obama means when he talks about his life and its lessons.

...

We're moving into a very new world, one in which countries from Brazil to South Africa to India and China are getting richer, stronger and prouder. For America to thrive, we will have to develop a much deeper, richer, more intuitive understanding of them and their peoples. There are many ways to attain this, but certainly being able to feel it in your bones is one powerful way. Trust me on this. As a Ph.D. in international relations, I know what I'm talking about.

The writers on this blog will get this immediately. We're either from different countries or of different nationalities, but we've all lived abroad, and as such have developed sensibilities of which Zakaria writes that are felt in our bones.

It is why this blog even exists. We may not have Zakaria's educational background on international relations, but when you find yourself growing up amidst so many nationalities, you cannot help but develop a better understanding of the world around you. As an American, it was clear to me growing up that the world did not revolve around America, yet American arrogance pervaded international politics. But this isn't about American bashing, it is about recognizing the sensibilities of others, what makes other people tick, why they live and work and play and pray like they do. Some of that can be learned in a classroom. Some of it can only be learned through shared experiences.

I don't know whether Barack Obama would be a better president than Hillary Clinton, but they definitely come from different backgrounds, and those backgrounds do matter when it comes to a great many things that require good judgement. Let's hope that Americans have the good judgement to recognize that over the coming months.

Bhutto Assassination Tragic and Inevitable

2007-12-28T01:44:00.000Z

The assassination of Benazir Bhutto is tragic news.

But it seems as if it was inevitable.

Her return to Pakistan in October began with the bang of another assassination attempt that killed scores of supporters.

It is a wonder to me sometimes that there are some brave enough to literally put their neck on the line, or as fate would have it, in the line of a bullet, to pursue a political role in so many of the world's countries. Assassinations don't just cut down a life, they too often take a dagger to the hopes of millions, and sometimes start a war.

Pakistan has been viewed by many as the country of biggest concern in that part of the world, not Iran. They have nuclear weapons and an historically fragile government. With Bhutto's assassination, there is great fear the country falls into a turmoil that only serves to strengthen radical influences unsympathetic to the West.

Musharraf will have his hands full. The next few months will be critical.

Setting A Date

2007-11-30T08:01:00.001Z

NY Times: Musharraf Sets Date for End of Emergency Rule

Doesn't setting a date "embolden" the enemy?

I'm just asking because that's what we've been told setting dates will do, yet it seems no one has a problem with asking Musharraf to do so in Pakistan.

Pleasing the Bear

2007-10-16T16:09:00.000Z

Russia is grouchy these days. They feel they have been discounted and ignored for too long. All their really talented people move to London or Boca Raton. The oil thing kind of works for them, but not really. China is the sexier former Marxist-Leninist. Even former cold and hot war adversary Vietnam gets more love. The Russians think to themselves, "One more vodka before I try to seduce the oil magnate's daughter, maybe two more vodkas..."...just kidding.

One imagines that they miss being taken note of in this world the way the Soviets were. And so what are they doing? Old Soviet stuff! 'Sending huge bombers out on long-haul sorties. 'Getting their subs to show up in all manner of strange arctic venues. 'Figuratively reclaiming Central Asia for the Tzar.

What we need to do is start caring about them again. We need to stroke the Russian Bear like one would a difficult and borderline-schizoid second cousin at Thanksgiving Dinner. 'Make them feel like they matter without all the little war-game silliness. Let's let the biggest country in the world know that we care about their bigness! Perhaps some praise for the Bolshoi combined with long Dostoyevsky retrospectives. 'An old film of Russian soldiers hugging American ones. 'More TV shows about Sputnick! We can do this and thus avert some really messy fascism popping up in Russia!

Bravo!

2007-09-26T16:13:00.000Z

The Buddhist monks of Rangoon, Burma are displaying an almost superhuman amount of bravery at this very moment. Burma is a place of slave labor, torture, and the use of rape as a government-sanctioned method of repression. These monks are showing a million times more love of freedom and liberty than all the armies of the US, UK, and Australia combined.

Prelude to an escalation

2007-09-25T02:56:00.000Z

It looks as if the Iranian President has now been shown to sprout horns and a tail. I suppose that is intended to make it easier to sell the notion that this country can afford another war even bigger than the one that has been lost in Iraq.

More misdirected piety and counterproductive surliness from our side

2007-09-20T20:14:00.000Z

The City of New York has officially refused the request of Iranian President Ahmadinejad to lay a wreath at the site of the World Trade Center. Guess who benefits the most in a political sense from that decision? Now guess who benefits the least?

The bottom line is that denying Ahmadinejad permission to lay his wreath in New York benefits him and his regime and no one else. He will be able to say, "Look, they wouldn't allow me to do the right thing, what am I supposed to do with people like these?" And his country will buy that, so will a whole lot of Iraqi Shi'ites. Ahmadinejad probably knew that he would be refused and knew that it would benefit him.

Paul Kennedy was right

2007-09-19T15:53:00.000Z

Back in 1988, when I was reading Paul Kennedy's "The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers", a university professor came up to me and said, "You'd better read that quickly because it's all about to become irrelevant." What he meant was that the Eastern Block was about to free itself (hence a re-united Germany), the Soviet Union was about to fall apart, South Africa was about to be taken over by the ANC, and the world was supposedly shaking off a thousand years of traditional power politics in favor of something else. I remember looking at him and thinking, "I'm still going to keep the message of Paul Kennedy in mind," i.e. that big powers tend to grow until they have overstretched themselves due to ever-growing costly security responsibilities that accompany the creation and maintenance of economic power and control of trade beyond one's borders.

I think that Kennedy is about to become hugely relevant again with one caveat and that is that in his system there is usually another power (or several powers) ready to step in and take over the mantle of "great" power (such as the US did after the fall of the British Empire). The difference now is that there is no heir apparent to US power. As the US overstretches itself with attempting to control the seas, the air, the trade rules, and the energy sources of most of the world....there is no one to fill the vacuum of the inevitable ensuing decline in power and influence.

And please don't say it's China. They can't even send their warships and fighter planes outside their territory because they're too afraid that everyone aboard will defect. They have 800 million seriously impoverished people hanging around their neck like a millstone. Their entire economic boom is dependent on US over-consumption (a thing that is about to take a huge dip btw).

Russia? Their decline in population combined with huge land area spells weakness.

The EU? The EU is effectively a consensually occupied territory with not even the desire to be self-sufficient in a security sense much less be in a position to project power (even though its member countries basically invented world domination as a concept and a practice)...so where to?

That's it then, for the first time since the Philippines....

2007-09-12T03:09:00.000Z

Iraq is now a colony of the U.S. It used to be said that the only colony America had ever had was the Philippines in the years following the Spanish-American War. But here America is going back into the realm of the white man's burden (like a virgin into a volcano).....or perhaps rather than white man's burden, we should now call it the culturally Christian (but occasionally also Jewish, Shinto-ist, Confucian, or Hindu), G-8, corporatist man's (and woman's, i.e. Rice, Townsend, and, forgive me, Hillary) burden.

There's an old saying among American shop-owners (especially antique shop owners) that goes like this, "You break it, you own it." Well America has broken Iraq, and now America owns Iraq.

The Neglected Fifth Column Against Terror

2007-09-05T19:53:00.000Z

As I read the German newspapers about three guys being arrested with 1,500 pounds of explosive material that they had allegedly planned to make bombs out of along with the news that they are allegedly Muslim militants hellbent on terror, I couldn't help but remind myself of a certain important tool against terror that has been completely underused....and that is ridicule. If everyone from the blind cleric on to Osama Bin Laden and Al-Zarqawi had been roundly and successfully mocked and laughed at for their idiocy, then they would have had almost no following by now. Instead they were made into the outlaws, the out-of-control desperados, the master criminals, the crazed zealots. All of those are things that our society has romanticized over time. Think of Jesse James, Captain Morgan, and even Al Capone. Brutal men committing brutal acts against innocent people have been an inspiration to down-and-out losers all over the world for centuries. So now we are at the point that wayward young western men are being caught playing the jihadi game, and I would bet my bottom dollar that the reason for it is the huge notoriety of the more famous terrorists.

The answer? Ridicule. We need to start making fun of these guys and need to do it fast! Otherwise, just like Manson found the unlikeliest of converts (i.e. upper-middle class white Anglo-Americans), so will Bin Laden. Believe me it's coming....unless we open a can of ruthless mockery on the asses of those who harm us.

Surveillance

2007-08-28T20:41:00.000Z

Well, there are more surveillance stories percolating back into the news here and there, and what I have to say about it is the following: the higgle-dee, wiggle-dee, piggle-dee poo........one went up and said to you....parsnikkety, wickedly, pickely too...for to have a prumplefish pie......

China Syndrome

2007-08-19T23:30:00.000Z

China is once again at the center of another crisis of its own making. Within the past two months it has exported toxic toothpaste, toys and other products containing unsafe levels of lead, tainted food and adulterated chemicals. Worse, these are just the items that have made recent headlines. How many shipments of substandard products have slipped out unnoticed and undetected? How many people have been unknowingly impacted? China is the center of manufacturing just about anything imaginable. Unfortunately, it is also contains bastions of corruption and a government more interested in money and self-importance than in being a good world citizen. Instead of looking inwards to see how it can fix the rampant corruption and lax laws that allow for hazardous products to be exported, the Chinese government continually claims these are isolated incidences perpetrated by a few individuals. I have no doubts that some of these cases might be the result of a few greedy men. However, the vastness of some of these violations indicates something more insidious. The type and magnitude of these egregious violations could not happen in a vacuum. The problems are of such a large and pervasive nature that they can only be the result of a government that turns a blind eye or worse, provides a wink and a nod. China is quickly approaching the manufacturing equivalent of a China syndrome. Dangerous products are breaching the minimal (or non-existent) safe guards and are leaking out to poison the world. Until China learns that it has a duty to act responsibly it will never achieve its great potential and the world class manufacturing empire it is working so hard to build will collapse.

Japan, Inc. Part II

2007-08-16T15:51:00.000Z

As the various triggers for a recession align themselves together once again here in the West, it is useful I think to remember the strange inverse relationship that our economies have with Japan. For the last ten years or so of expansion, growth and success in the US and European economies, Japan has languished in a recession. That's right, for all the time that we have had these good times, the Japanese have had bad times. Conversely, back in the 1980s, when the US and Europe struggled with serial recessions, the Japanese economy boomed and seemed on its way to becoming a new standard for all industrialized economies. So now the question is, as we slide into a recession, does that automatically mean that Japan Inc. will suddenly thrive and grow again? Let's keep an eye on it.

The Russians Want to be Santa Claus!

2007-08-10T02:57:00.000Z

I say we all reject it. The North Pole can't belong to a country of people who think that sinking a flag in a titanium capsule on the North Pole makes it theirs.

Wa[r]ter Over the Bridge

2007-08-05T02:13:00.000Z

With the collapse of the 35W bridge in Minnesota, the aging infrastructure of the US has been brought to the forefront. The major roads and bridges of this country have been neglected for way too long. Anyone can see the decay by simply driving to work or the grocery store. To make matters worse, the roads and bridges were not meant to be used so long nor were they built to handle the size and weight of current cars and trucks. That means the infrastructure is being worn down at a pace unimagined when most were first designed and built decades ago. As with most things, maintenance is required to keep them in good condition. Maintenance, of course, costs money. Lots of money. Therein lies the issue. Whereas in the past the American public has been told there is no money for the maintenance of our basic infrastructure, there always appears to be money to spare for other “projects”. Our bridges and roads which have been rated and found wanting are left to rot and decay year after year. Yet somehow the President and Congress finds money to wage wars that not only the US public but the world at large finds ill conceived and poorly run. To add insult to injury, the money that is sent to foreign countries to help rebuild what is being destroyed almost as fast as it is being constructed is being siphoned off to private individuals, politically connected corporations or just plain lost. Why is it that the Republicans can continually find funds to pay for unwinnable wars in distant lands yet cannot find the money for pay for basic domestic projects? Perhaps this recent tragedy will help open the eyes of our leaders that they must remember that the needs of the citizens of this country must be attended to at least as well as those of the countries to which we send troops and money.

Founding Fathers Knew Best

2007-07-26T15:37:00.000Z

"There is... an artificial aristocracy founded on wealth and
birth, without either virtue or talents... The artificial
aristocracy is a mischievous ingredient in government, and
provision should be made to prevent its ascendency."

--Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 1813.

Quote

2007-07-23T17:20:00.000Z

"An empire founded by war has to maintain itself by war."

Charles de Montesquieu

Live Earth Concerts! Wow! Amazing! Worldwide Concerts! Musicians Showing They Care!

2007-07-07T15:37:00.000Z

I guess that there are enough people asking about the carbon footprint of the Live Earth concerts for me not to need to bother. And there have already been articles in The Guardian about how people like Sting's wife will take an 80-mile helicopter trip to fly to someone's country estate in order to discuss environmental issues with them. So the whole hypocrisy of the artists thing has also been said. I don't know where this leaves me the lone quasi-unread blogger trying to re-establish a sense of engagement after weeks of stupefaction and quiet desperation in the face of...whatever historians will call this time of ours.

Back to Live Earth. Will it be more successful in effecting change for the better than were Live Aid, Farm Aid, or whatever other concerts were put on to change the world? I don't think so. We are now at the point where symbols and intent and flamboyant displays of concern are I think becoming quite superfluous. We all need to quietly start consuming less and giving more to eachother, basta.

Pre-G-8 Demonstrations

2007-06-03T01:52:00.001Z

There were a lot of effective, thoughtful, and truly engaged protesters at the Rostock, Germany demonstrations being held prior to next week's G-8 meetings. Many were calling needed attention to specific issues such as the power exercised over all of our lives by a couple of dozen multinationals or the degradation of the environment due to over-consumption. They marched and made themselves seen and heard, as it should be in an enlightened society. I also liked the more ambiguous but entertaining protesters who simply showed up dressed up as clowns.

On the other hand there were demonstrators who seemed to have no desire for a better world, these were the ones who hid their faces with scarves and hoods and took on the police and security with rocks and molotov cocktails. These guys (and gals) decided to turn over cars and set them alight, in the name of what, I don't know. This obviously wasn't a case of certain well-intentioned demonstrators being unfairly provoked into defending themselves. No, these people had obviously arrived ready and equipped for a brawl. I wonder who it is that they believed they were benefitting with this intentional, pre-meditated destructiveness....the world's poor?....the un-employed?...the marginalized?....the exploited....the workers? Just who is it that they think they were helping by doing this big, bad bit of hell-raising o' a weekend in Rostock? 'Especially given that you can see that some of them are wearing expensive running shoes sewn by underpaid workers in China. 'Especially when some of them had hip haircuts and faux-ratty, faux urban working class clothes probably sewn by children in Bangladesh.

I'll tell you who it is that the face-hiding, brawling demonstrators are helping. It is all of the entrenched, powerful, exploitative interests that they claim to be fighting against. This because every time these losers ruin another demonstration with acting like overgrown, tantrum-throwing brats (albeit ones with gasoline-filled bottles), they trivialize and even taint the legitimate messages that the more astute and non-hypocritical demonstrators are trying to convey to the people in the G-8 meetings and to the world.

Yellow Peril is back off the bench and warming up, as evil Mohammedans fail to maintain sufficiently scary image

2007-05-26T03:39:00.000Z

Wow, it looks like it isn't enough for us to be constantly baited and terrified by images of the dreaded Saracens coming at us in the night, it is necessary to start getting the next threat up and ready, you know just in case the Islamists lose steam or something. So the Pentagon is taking the dreaded Chinamen out of the closet of fears to dust off and re-introduce to impressionable folks here in the Greatest Country on Earth! And so now here it is, run by newspapers on Memorial Day weekend....Behold the New Chinese Threat!:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/25/AR2007052501954.html

Yep, it looks as if the U.S., which with its paltry 6% of world population nonetheless feels the need to account for 50% of the entire world's defense expenditures and also spends more on its military then the next ten biggest military spenders COMBINED......is needing to pretend that China's military and defense spending is excessive! The article claims that the Chinese might be spending more on their defense than they are owning up to officially, perhaps even three times more. Now if it's true and the Chinese military spending actually is three times higher than they are reporting, then that means that their defense spending is still less than one third of that of the U.S., and they have at least three times the population of the U.S. plus an even bigger land area to defend. How dare they spend a full one third of what the U.S. spends?

And the article even says that the Pentagon is worried that the Chinese may be trying to acquire a pre-emptive capacity to wage war. I wonder who they learned that kind of thinking from? Perhaps the people that gave us the doctrine of pre-emption? Nahhhhhh, 'couldn't be!

Honor Killings?

2007-05-19T13:32:00.000Z

There is a horrible irony in the expression "honor killing," which describes a situation where the men of a family grab, drag, and publicly kill one of the women of their own household in order to basically make a statement about how much integrity their family possesses. And where I am amazed that any father is capable of stoning his own daughter, I am even more amazed that the father that does so can pretend that he has just committed a supremely moral act.

I'd like to say to the societies that condone this behavior, that even if they don't get how horrible and hypocritical this act is, they should at least understand that it is practices such as these that will ensure that their societies will basically be at the mercy of relatively tolerant, enlightened societies until such time as they wisen up. Every time an honor killing is permitted, that society is further distanced from viability and independence in a 21st century world. And the more clannish and unenlightened they choose to be, the more sure they can be that the circumstances of their lives will remain hard and precarious.

Having said all that, it would appear that one thing that does not prevent honor killings is for one of our societies to invade, occupy, and attempt to directly control the societies that do this sort of thing. The 17 year-old girl that was stoned by her family a few days ago was a Kurdish Iraqi living in Nineveh, which is the most Coalition-friendly ethnic group and geographic area in Iraq. If THEY still do honor killings, then the war has achieved less than nothing.

Not under the bed this time around...

2007-05-10T13:44:00.000Z

In the 50s it was "Reds under the Bed". Now that there appears to be the high-profile prevention of a home-grown terrorist attack (the Fort Dix Six) by people who were so ingenious and devious as to try to have their terrorist training videos duplicated by some clerk at a local Circuit City store, there are already newspaper articles popping up even in liberal papers with the headline, "The Terrorists Next Door?" (WP). So now, it's just about guaranteed that a violent act of vigilante "justice" is right around the corner and it will undoubtedly be visited upon someone innocent. Let me just take the time to thank the print media for being such incredible inciters!

Additionally, there were articles yesterday claiming that there are Iranian-backed operatives in South And Central America ready to swarm up here like Killer Bees....Great! That brings it all home by combining the Terrorists-Next-Door with the Hordes of Illegals Streaming Across the Border! Perfect! It's almost too perfect, though isn't it? Is this how they want to bring the Lou Dobbs fans back over to the President's side?

Now please don't tell me that nobody sees what a boon all of this is to the approval ratings of the Administration. Every time I see something that automatically hits the primitive fear section of people's brains, I am tempted to ask questions.

Quote

2007-05-07T18:56:00.001Z

"Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all other countries because you were born in it."

George Bernard Shaw

85% and 15%: A Tale of Two Votes

2007-04-23T04:21:00.000Z

85%. That's the estimated voter turnout in Sunday's French presidential elections, that resulted in a first round that saw Nicolas Sarkozy, on the right, receiving over 30% of the vote, and Ségolène Royal, on the left, picking up almost 26%. The two candidates will face each other in a run-off vote in two weeks time, offering French voters their first true choice of candidates in 12 years.

While the other losing Leftist candidates have announced their support of Royal, initial polling gives Sarkozy a solid 54%-46% lead against the Socialist Party candidate. What remains to be seen is whether the "Anyone but Sarkozy" sentiment will be enough to stir an upset for Royal. Centrist candidate, François Bayrou, who received over 18% of the vote, holds the keys to l'Elysée. Bayrou ran a campaign that painted Sarkozy, as others did, as a scary choice for France, yet exit polls indicate that his supporters will split down the middle for the two remaining candidates. If Bayrou publicly declares a preference for a candidate that should seal the deal. At this point it may be Royal's only hope to become France's first woman president.

15%. That's what observers in Nigeria's presidential elections believe was the turnout due to voter apathy, confusion, violence and organizational flaws. Candidates and monitors have called for the results to be tossed out and a new election to be held.

I wonder if the folks at Sound Politics will bother to latch onto this result, as they did with the Ukrainian election a couple of years ago. Somehow I doubt they care about an election in Africa, although as the world's 8th largest exporter of oil, we should all be concerned that these historical elections, the first of their kind in Nigeria, might be tainted by events and election problems. It seems that so much of the world's oil resides in countries with unstable governments, and we could do with one less of those these days thank you very much.

Cross-posted at On The Road To 2008.

The World Bank Needs to Free Itself

2007-04-16T14:03:00.000Z

If there is one lesson that we should draw from the current troubles at the World Bank, it is that this supposedly multilateral institution should put an end to its 40 year-old custom of having its president be a political appointee of the U.S. President. Why is it a good idea for the world's pre-eminent international development organization to be consistently led by individuals who have little or no international development credentials? Generally the person appointed to be the World Bank President is either someone that might otherwise be awarded a plum ambassadorship such as France (usually because of a good record of funding campaigns) OR someone that needs to be put out to pasture in a dignified way (McNamara and Wolfowitz). Either way, it is not such a good deal for the world's poor or for the thousands of World Bank employees who have decades of development experience and expertise and who must then follow the lead of a person with almost no development qualifications. No wonder all the NGOs are chronically annoyed with the World Bank.

And this isn't the first time, by the way, that the institution has been led by an architect of a failed war. In the 1970s, the World Bank was led by none other than Robert McNamara of Vietnam War fame. The difference is that McNamara used the role to begin his long slow personal rehabilitation back to being a thinking, functioning individual (this came to its full fruition when he admitted his mistakes in "The Fog of War") and amazingly this made him a better World Bank President than Wolfowitz. Wolfowitz has not learned anything from failure, has brought his wrong-headed zeal with him to the World Bank, and is still trying to promote neo-con ideals in his new role. For example, he is obsessed with trying to open a large World Bank office in Baghdad, but he can't even get anyone to take the job of Country Director. After all, what suicidal fool would want to be Wolfowitz's man in Baghdad right now? Even at $300,000 a year with a 100%+ post allowance, no one will take that job. And yet Wolfowitz believes!

Now is the time for the Board of Directors of the World Bank to do its job and resolve to end the practice of allowing the World Bank President to be appointed by the President of the United States. Instead the World Bank President should be chosen through a vote participated in by the Finance Ministers of major donor countries AND of major borrowing countries. This would create a more effective result and would free the World Bank from its current status as a faux multilateral institution.

Multilateralism should be brought back or brought for the first time

2007-04-12T15:01:00.000Z

I think it's safe to say that the world's love affair with lazily allowing one country (and its five best friends) to lord it over the place should come to an end soon and a true multilateralism should replace the system of superpowers and empires and hyperpowers. Obviously the US doesn't have the capacity to run the world, as much as some Americans would like it to. I believe that even more Americans would like the US to relinquish its vast, self-acquired, overseas responsibilities. The Europeans would like this too, though most don't seem to understand that the current level of wealth in Europe makes Europe like a huge pot of gold stuck in the middle of a bazaar full of poor people, and thus that if the US stops protecting Europe, then they will need to be able to protect themselves.

There is no heir apparent to the US in terms of world supremacy, and that should be viewed as an opportunity. Why do this planet's countries need one from amongst them to be the leader? They shouldn't. Strangely enough the only countries that understand this seem to be the most dysfunctional and least free ones. That should not be the case. It should be that the countries that do allow tolerance and freedom, and there are about a 30 of them (including most of the G-8), should be taking the lead in promoting a true multilateral ethos for the world with trade and security rationales to go with it. We aren't getting that from the WTO or the UN or NATO, those organizations only provide the semblance of multilateralism. The EU has created multilateralism within its borders, but then that is also what the US did when it formed itself, so that doesn't really address the question of the world outside of the US and the EU, i.e. most of the world.

I don't know the way forward on this, because it needs to be a peaceful one and one that respects individual freedoms. But I do know that both the US and Europe will tire of our burdens, and we should protect our futures through more true cooperation with everybody outside of the US/EU/Australia/NZ continuum. What currently masquerades as multilateral cooperation is simply us using our economic might (and the guns that back it up) to make the others do what they're told. A simple look at world demographic trends shows that we cannot sustain that. Let's think it over a bit....

The Clash of Civilizations Revisited

2007-03-25T15:24:00.000Z

In January 2006, I wrote my first blog entry ever on the nature of what has been called the defining conflict of our time, and how I felt that the real conflict was not a clash between civilizations but rather a clash within each civilization. That is to say that within each country, region, or culture there was an on-going conflict between that society's militant, tribalistic, xenophobic, often religious, uncompromising element and that same society's tolerant, open-minded, internationally oriented, secularist, engagement-oriented element. I believe that the 15 or so months of events that have passed since I wrote that posting have borne this idea out.

When I wrote that posting, I also decided to use elements of the story of the Peloponnesian Wars with its arch-rivals Athens and Sparta to make my point. Interestingly, now with the opening of the movie "300" with its glorification of Spartan ways and it mockery of Athenian, I felt I should publish an updated version of that first posting. So here it is:

Excerpted from Pericles’ Funeral Oration, 4th Century BC (Peloponnesian Wars Book 2.34-46):

“We throw open our city to the world, and never by alien acts exclude foreigners from any opportunity of learning or observing, although the eyes of an enemy may occasionally profit by our liberality…..while in education, where our rivals from their very cradles by a painful discipline seek after manliness, at Athens we live exactly as we please, and yet are just as ready to encounter every legitimate danger….instead of looking on discussion as a stumbling-block in the way of action, we think it an indispensable preliminary to any wise action at all…indeed if I have dwelt at some length upon the character of our country, it has been to show that our stake in the struggle is not the same as theirs who have no such blessings to lose…"

In this 2,400-year-old speech honoring war dead, the leader of Athens is making a point of distinguishing his people, the Athenians, from their adversaries, the Spartans. The main message is that where the Spartans spend almost all of their peacetime preparing for war and honoring their Gods specifically in order to better be prepared for war, the Athenians spend their peacetime running their city as an inclusive, participatory place where the arts, sciences, and the general enjoyment of life are encouraged. The speech is of course given during wartime and the Athenian leader claims that Athenians do well when forced into war because they have so much to lose. The Spartans on the other hand, in his view, have nothing to fight for except the fight itself.

Unfortunately, in the end the Spartans prevail, establish tyrannical rule over Athens, and then it takes 30 years for the Athenians to bring enlightened rule back to their city. But from the perspective of modern times, the Athenians prevailed and the Spartans lost. This because the cultural and scientific importance of ancient Athens on the world today proved to be many times that of Sparta, which produced nobody of the stature of a Socrates, Plato, Solon, or Sophocles. Thus while Athens produced everything from scientists that could accurately predict the radius of a spherical earth to playwrights that defined drama for the next 2,000 years of western culture, Sparta did nothing more than create an image of militarism and regimented living. It is additionally interesting to note that the Spartans were much more religious than the Athenians and kept their martial society running mainly by exploiting slave labor to the greatest extent possible. Not to say that the Athenians were saints, just that for the ancient world, they were pretty progressive and especially so when compared with the Spartans who would take boys from their parents at the age of seven to start their 30-40 years of military service and whose mothers would bid their sons farewell when they went to war by saying that they wanted to see them return either in victory or being carried home dead on their shield.

So why is this important to us now? I would argue that this Athenian versus Spartan story can serve as an archetype for a conflict that exists in one form or another within every influential society of our current era. Note that I am saying that the conflict exists within each society and not between the societies. America's bigggest struggle is between America's Athenians and America's Spartans. Iran's biggest struggle is between Iran's Athenians and Iran's Spartans. The same could be said of China, Russia, Pakistan, and Egypt. Sadly, this same conflict could be coming to Europe soon.

Spartan militarism has been fully indulged several times and in several places in the last 100 years, and it has consistently failed albeit after causing untold damage. This current love affair with Spartan ways will fail too. I know which side I am on, and luckily in the long run, it is the winning side! So put THAT olive in your souvlaki and chew it!

Quote

2007-03-07T16:52:00.000Z

We fight to great disadvantage when we fight with those who have nothing to lose.

[It., Con disavvantaggio grande si fa la guerra con chi non ha che perdere.] - Storia d'Italia

FRANCESO GUICCIARDINI
Italian historian and dramatist
(1483 - 1540)

Leave no child inside

2007-03-02T12:34:00.000Z

The article on children and developments in Alternet made me realise how lucky I was, and how lucky my kids are. My sons are free to roam outside as much as they want to, go and play on the local village football field, build treehouses in a nearby forest, play by streams and on firelds behind the houses. As a child I did the same, albeit with the city of Stuttgart, as we had a large park nearby. Both them and I were lucky in that we had an ample supply of other children to play with.

But it will not remain so forever. Our village is becoming urbanised, the football field will soon become a housing and commercial development, and the new football field is inaccessible without transport and gated. The woods and fields they roam in will soon become the site of a new double lane bypass. And more and more people are reluctant to let their children play outside for fear of abduction and child molesters.

But surely the right point to start at, would be by educating the adults? How can we teach our children about nature, if most of us adults are ignorant? After all, most others changes have to be made by convincing the adults, who then convert their children. Just look at the multitude of "Nanny 922", "Brat Camp" and other programms designed to show adults how to make their children behave, eat well and become healthy adults. I might have played in nature, but I only truly learnt about plants once I had my own garden. Without the addition to my life of the garden I still might not know what a flowering larch looks like.

So maybe its the parents who should be shown what nature is, not the children. And maybe the way to go for cities is not only planning better housing developments, but also by encouraging Schrebergärten or garden colonies.

Castro's Triumph Over Illness Fails to Make Him Grateful to Uncle Sam

2007-03-01T19:47:00.000Z

As Castro recovers from his recent illness and returns to health, it is amazing that even now he refuses to thank the US Government for keeping him in power for over 46 years. Without the protracted US embargo put on Cuba long ago and its ability to enhance Castro's control over every aspect of life on the island, well he'd have been put out to pasture long ago by his own people. If the US Government had said back in...oh any time in the 60s...that the US was open for business with Cuba...well that would have been the end of Castro and Cuban communism within months. On the other hand, it is true that if Castro and Cuban communism had been lost before the official start of the Vietnam War then a very necessary and important Communist threat just 90 miles from Florida would also have been lost along with all of the fear-mongering opportunities that came with it, and it may have been much harder to sell to the US voters the illusion of an imminent international communist threat to the US.

'You know which Cubans WILL be able to show their gratitude to Uncle Sam? The Miami Cubans that will be given the island as a present in about 5 years. And they will be thankful for the clever PR campaign that will create a new Cuban mythology that will paint THEM as the heroes of Cuba while painting those who had the strength and stamina to stay on in Cuba as being the weak, hapless dupes of Cuban communism who deserve to be kicked out of their houses by wealthy Floridians reclaiming their grandparents' villas and plantations.

...and West is West and never the Twain shall meet...

2007-01-20T15:02:00.000Z

Statesmen will invent cheap lies, putting blame upon the nation that is attacked, and every man will be glad of those conscience-soothing falsities, and will diligently study them, and refuse to examine any refutations of them; and thus he will by and by convince himself that the war is just, and will thank God for the better sleep he enjoys after this process of grotesque self-deception.

Mark Twain - "Chronicle of Young Satan"

A Parable

2007-01-16T14:43:00.000Z

A man who was about to jump off of a cliff (convinced that this would solve his problems) found that just before he jumped, half of the villagers told him he was right to do it (and even said that it would benefit them as well as him) and the other half told him not to do it because it would destroy him and would actually diminish the resources of the village. The man listened to the first group and jumped....and while he was falling, the two groups of villagers continued their argument....and just before he hit the ground, the first group told the second group that if he dies it will be because the second group didn't support his decision to jump.....

One telling statistical indicator for two little countries

2007-01-05T14:41:00.000Z

GDP Per Capita for Israel: $25,000 US

GDP Per Capita for West Bank/Gaza: $1,100 US

Source: CIA - The World Fact Book

Saddam, just a few thoughts on his death

2007-01-02T14:57:00.000Z

So the Iraqi government executed him, or did they not? After all "American troops escorted him from Camp Cropper, near the Baghdad airport, to Camp Justice, another American base at the heart of the city. " Only then was he handed over to the Iraqis, albeit on American territory. And they stayed within American territory: "Two American helicopters flew 14 witnesses from the Green Zone to the execution site - a former headquarters of the Istikhbarat, the deposed government's much feared military intelligence outfit, now inside the American base. "

Now I am no Arab, just a cynical European, so I would like to know how it can be Iraqi justice if the US is responsible for moving the prisoner and he is ALWAYS in US controlled territory. Who arranged for all these meeting points? Likely to have been the US. And who allowed the Iraqis access? Also the US. So who is likely to have ordained the day? Very likely the US to suit W's political needs. After all it looks so much better if you execute someone over the Christmas holidays, but before the year end, as W had stated that the judgement would take place in 2006.

Another clue as to who ordered the execution is the timing. Yes, it leaves a nasty taste in your mouth, coming so soon after Christmas. But that is nothing compared to the taste left by holding the execution on one of the holiest days of the Arab calendar, Eid al-Adha. It seems unlikely that an Arabic government would have taken such a decision. But as we all know W has no sensitivies , and does not care for Arabs, so defiling one of their holy days just seems to fit his style.

So W has not been able to get hold of his family friend Osama, the alleged no 1 terrorist, even though he had vowed to do so. But he has managed to get rid of a dictator, formerly supported by the US, without a proper trial. He must be breathing a sigh of relief, as this way he avoids embarrassing revelations. Thankfully dead men cannot talk.

The way to contribute to a better future....

2007-01-01T05:54:00.000Z

...buy less shit that you don't need and encourage friends to do the same.....

Necessary words about unnecessary wars

2006-12-16T19:58:00.000Z

What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy?

Mahatma Gandhi (1869 - 1948), "Non-Violence in Peace and War"

Le Jour de Merci Donnant

2006-11-24T01:15:00.000Z

Growing up in France, reading the International Herald Tribune, Thanksgiving was a foreign concept for many that needed a little explanation. Fortunately we had Art Buchwald to turn to for an explanation in terms that could be more easily understood.

The American community abroad always enjoyed sharing this article with their French counterparts.

Buchwald's classic 1953 column still runs in the Washington Post and International Herald Tribune, and helps explain le Jour de Merci Donnant.

Here it is in full:

One of our most important holidays is Thanksgiving Day, known in France as le Jour de Merci Donnant.

Le Jour de Merci Donnant was first started by a group of Pilgrims (Pèlerins) who fled from l'Angleterre before the McCarran Act to found a colony in the New World (le Nouveau Monde) where they could shoot Indians (les Peaux-Rouges) and eat turkey (dinde) to their heart's content.

They landed at a place called Plymouth (now a famous voiture Américaine) in a wooden sailing ship called the Mayflower (or Fleur de Mai) in 1620. But while the Pèlerins were killing the dindes, the Peaux-Rouges were killing the Pèlerins, and there were several hard winters ahead for both of them. The only way the Peaux- Rouges helped the Pèlerins was when they taught them to grow corn (maïs). The reason they did this was because they liked corn with their Pèlerins.

In 1623, after another harsh year, the Pèlerins' crops were so good that they decided to have a celebration and give thanks because more maïs was raised by the Pèlerins than Pèlerins were killed by Peaux-Rouges.

Every year on the Jour de Merci Donnant, parents tell their children an amusing story about the first celebration.

It concerns a brave capitaine named Miles Standish (known in France as Kilomètres Deboutish) and a young, shy lieutenant named Jean Alden. Both of them were in love with a flower of Plymouth called Priscilla Mullens (no translation). The vieux capitaine said to the jeune lieutenant:

"Go to the damsel Priscilla (allez très vite chez Priscilla), the loveliest maiden of Plymouth (la plus jolie demoiselle de Plymouth). Say that a blunt old captain, a man not of words but of action (un vieux Fanfan la Tulipe), offers his hand and his heart, the hand and heart of a soldier. Not in these words, you know, but this, in short, is my meaning.

"I am a maker of war (je suis un fabricant de la guerre) and not a maker of phrases. You, bred as a scholar (vous, qui êtes pain comme un étudiant), can say it in elegant language, such as you read in your books of the pleadings and wooings of lovers, such as you think best adapted to win the heart of the maiden."

Although Jean was fit to be tied (convenable à être emballé), friendship prevailed over love and he went to his duty. But instead of using elegant language, he blurted out his mission. Priscilla was muted with amazement and sorrow (rendue muette par l'étonnement et la tristesse).

At length she exclaimed, interrupting the ominous silence: "If the great captain of Plymouth is so very eager to wed me, why does he not come himself and take the trouble to woo me?" (Où est-il, le vieux Kilomètres? Pourquoi ne vient-il pas auprès de moi pour tenter sa chance?)

Jean said that Kilomètres Deboutish was very busy and didn't have time for those things. He staggered on, telling what a wonderful husband Kilomètres would make. Finally Priscilla arched her eyebrows and said in a tremulous voice, "Why don't you speak for yourself, Jean?" (Chacun à son goût.)

And so, on the fourth Thursday in November, American families sit down at a large table brimming with tasty dishes, and for the only time during the year eat better than the French do.

No one can deny that le Jour de Merci Donnant is a grande fête and no matter how well fed American families are, they never forget to give thanks to Kilomètres Deboutish, who made this great day possible.

Art Buchwald

Quote

2006-11-19T00:27:00.000Z

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

H. L. Mencken (1880-1956), American Satirist

New developments in fashion laws

2006-11-17T20:34:00.000Z

Apparently the Dutch Government is banning Burkhas henceforth. I suppose that what will come of this measure is that certain contrary-minded Dutch girls will make it their mission to wear the things where they otherwise might wear see-through haltertops and studded leather collars. In a similar vein, I would like to suggest that the US Government ban women from wearing turtlenecks and sweaters featuring whimsical artists' renditions of prancing reindeer.......those things are demeaning both to the wearer and to the dignity of all women in this society.

1980 Redux?

2006-11-14T17:28:00.000Z

Isn't it strange to see that the same week that the Democrats take back the Congress, a guy by the name of Daniel Ortega wins an election in Nicaragua? It's as if the Reagan Revolution and its aftermath are being unravelled right now. What's next? A new Soviet Union?

Now Let The Counting Commence

2006-11-08T02:31:00.000Z

It has been a long day already.

The night has just begun.

I got up bright and early today and headed to the Darcy Burner campaign to help canvass, as did hundreds of other supporters. Our task: further help get out the vote.

By lunchtime I'd complete my first two precincts in Bellevue and returned back to our base for more.

Be careful what you ask for, they say. Indeed, paired up with another volunteer, Austin, we were provided with three more precincts.

Turns out these were in a the same area I canvassed on Sunday. We were checking back in with voters that still may not have voted. Since I was familiar with the streets and the voters, having talked to many of them, we were able to make quick work of the first precinct. After a stop to top off the oil levels in my car (a lot of idling can eat up an engine's oil fast), we attacked the second precinct. However, by that time it was becoming clear we wouldn't have time to complete a third precinct, so we called back to base to let them know so someone else could be assigned the area. While I did the driving, Austin jumped out at each stop to make contact with the voters. He did a great job for his first time out.

Oh, and it was raining - of course!

After eight hours of canvassing, we headed back to base and reported in.

But it isn't over yet! Volunteers continue to come in to help with last minute canvassing as people get home from work, encouraging them to head to their polling place, or to take their absentee ballots to a polling place if they haven't yet mailed it.

So now I'm watching returns come in from other races nationwide, and so far we're seeing some very promising results. Sherrod Brown winning in Ohio, Santorum losing in Pennsylvania, Webb neck and neck in Virginia, Cardin just now being projected a winner in Maryland.

Pretty soon people will be heading to the various campaign party locations, or Drinking Liberally. It is hard to say how the national scene is reflected locally, but everyone will be watching results all night, as the 8th congressional race, and many other races are expected to be very close.

Hope to see you there!

Living in Fear of Losing the Expensive Knick-Knacks

2006-11-07T15:09:00.000Z

As I sit and listen to several motorized leaf-blowers going at the same time in the yards around my house, and I watch the nice new foreign sedans gliding up and down my comfortable upper middle class neighborhood, I begin to truly understand how it is that this society can have turned its back on so many of the things that had defined it previously. Americans in general used to be individualistic and ambitious while at the same time being supremely pleasant, polite and optimistic. Americans in general used to believe in the primacy of the US Constitution as a set of ground rules for the American experiment. Now those things that were once exhibited by a majority of Americans appear to be only the domain of a minority, most of whom are senior citizens. The individualism has been replaced by a herd mentality that makes the French suddenly look like 55 million Daniel Boone/Mark Twain clones. The ambition to succeed in achieving great things has been replaced by a raw, amoral desire for the trappings of wealth. The politeness has gone into hiding way deep in the countryside where, if you can get there, someone might actually still smile and say hello to you simply because that's what done. I have a Sri Lankan American friend who moved away from the DC area to West Virginia years ago to follow a job opportunity, and now he doesn't even like coming back to DC. He says that people here are mean and impolite. And then there's driving culture, Europeans used to visit this country and be absolutely dumbfounded at how courteous the driving was, now they watch themselves 'cause they don't want to get run over by some soccer Mom, or shot by some soccer mom's wacked out husband.

Could it be that Americans have consumed away their combination of independence, grit, and likeability? Could it be that on top of the fear of violence is the even greater fear of losing creature comforts, and the deepest of those fears would be losing those creature comforts while others around you appear to retain them? It seems possible. After all, where some would say that this meaner, more greedy America is the product of 9/11, I would say that previous generations lived with far more danger and precariousness than we have since 9/11 while keeping their positive, friendly, play-fair American-ness. What's different now? Being adult versions of spoilt children is what's different now. This country represents 6% of humanity with the majority of the remaining 94% being poor and without prospects. Perhaps we should all be more mindful of that and try to re-capture the spirit that put his country on the map in the first place....and that spirit did not involve the sowing of fear in one's peers for personal gain.

I think it's possible. Hey, maybe the West Virginians and Kentuckians should re-teach this country how to be more true to itself?

End of Rant. Comments welcome.

Great Words on Tyranny

2006-11-01T16:06:00.000Z

I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.
Thomas Jefferson, Third US President

The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home.
James Madison, US President 1809-17

If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.
James Madison, US President 1809-17

The one pervading evil of democracy is the tyranny of the party that succeeds, by force or fraud, in carrying elections.
Lord Acton, British Historian 1834-1902

While we are under the tyranny of Priests, it will ever be their interest, to invalidate the law of nature and reason, in order to establish systems incompatible therewith.
Ethan Allen, American Revolutionary War Leader

The secret of freedom lies in educating people, whereas the secret of tyranny is in keeping them ignorant.
Maximilien Robespierre, French Revolutionary/Leader of the Committee for Public Safety

A state of war only serves as an excuse for domestic tyranny.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Russian Writer/Soviet Dissident

There is no week nor day nor hour when tyranny may not enter upon this country, if the people lose their roughness and spirit of defiance.
Walt Whitman, American Poet

Today's Quote

2006-10-25T16:04:00.000Z

Like all weak men he laid an exaggerated stress on not changing one's mind.

W. Somerset Maugham, "Of Human Bondage", 1915

Whaling and Peopling

2006-10-23T15:59:00.000Z

Iceland has officially resumed commercial whaling. Norway already does it, always has, and will continue to at least until such time as the industrialized production and consumption of mammal-based foodstuffs ceases worldwide. Also, on a slightly different note, it was explained to me once by a Norwegian that as long as the US reserves the right to continue the hunting and killing of human beings worldwide, the Norwegians and their fellow whalers will not manage to lose any sleep over their practice of hunting and killing whales worldwide.

'Nother Quote

2006-10-18T17:50:00.000Z

The price of empire is America's soul, and that price is too high.

J. William Fulbright

Short Note

2006-10-12T18:26:00.000Z

What if we decided to be the first democracy to come up with something better than a system based upon political parties? Why do we have to have parties? Are our interests best served by continuing to be subject to the party-based system? Why not a democracy made up of individuals?

Quote

2006-09-29T15:45:00.000Z

"Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard."

H. L. Mencken
US editor (1880 - 1956)

Eureka! I've got the answer! It IS torture, it doesn't work, and we shouldn't be doing it!

2006-09-24T18:48:00.000Z

In the news these days we are seeing senators, military brass, civil servants, and lawyers trying to figure out what the definition of torture is and whether or not certain, shall we say "techniques" might be alright for America, world beacon of freedom and justice that it is, to officially espouse and engage in. It is instructive to note that certain things that sound like torture to the rest of us are being called something else by some of these same senators, military brass, civil servants, and lawyers. In fact, some of these influential and powerful people are claiming that making someone believe that they are being drowned repeatedly over days and weeks and months does not constitute torture. They are claiming that denying someone sleep over days and weeks while making them bake and freeze intermittently...also is not torture. These "techniques" are simply being referred to as tough interrogation that is necessary to coerce people to to tell the truth.

This is all the worst kind of nonsense. First of all, there is an easy way to know whether or not a given treatment of a fellow human being should be called torture or not, and that is to ask the following questions: "What would you call it if it were being done to you? What would you call it if it were being done to your mother, your child, your spouse?" And secondly, the debate itself is doubly nonsensical in that there has been a parade of formerly tortured people coming to Washington to vouch for the fact that the tortured do not provide useful information, but rather simply say whatever they think might stop the torture. As if that weren't bad enough, we now also have more and more former captives of our side of the war on terror coming out and saying that they were tortured in foreign lands at the behest of this country's government, real torture by any definition such as genital mutilation. Well let me tell you, for every time another one of those stories hits the news, this country's credibility in the world sinks another few notches and the credibility of our enemies is enhanced.

So there you have it. Torture is easy to define, it doesn't achieve anything but to satisfy the dubious personal needs of sadistic individuals, in fact it is directly counter-productive for our needs, and those who attempt to legitimize and promote its use are not to be trusted. Basta.

No Longer the Land of the Free, but boy is it still the Home of the Brave!

2006-09-14T14:31:00.000Z

If you do a web search of of incarceration rates (average number of people serving prison sentences per 100,000 people in the population), one thing remains constant for every source, and that is that the US has hands-down got the highest rates in the world. That means that the US has more prisoners per capita than Vietnam, Cuba, El Salvador, Jamaica, Congo, Uzbekistan, or Russia. It may even have more than China though accurate numbers are hard to come by for China. What does it say about a country when its state locks up more people more frequently than ANY other country? At the very least, it says that the country in question cannot legitimately call itself the Land of the Free, however it can definitely still call itself the Home of the Brave because to live there requires more and more bravery for every year that passes.

The Clever Formulation of Blame and the Cultivation of a New Myth of Betrayal

2006-09-08T16:21:00.000Z

September 11th is a time to remind ourselves that it is always wrong to try to influence the behavior of your fellow human beings by killing them. But since pretty much everything that can be said about 9/11 has already been said a thousand times (apart from the things that will not be revealed for another 15 years or so), I am moving on to another subject.

For a long time I have been trying to figure out exactly how the Administration and its handlers were going to explain away their failures in Afghanistan and Iraq and explain how these failures occurred despite them having been given a blank check to spend from the American people plus almost zero political opposition to these measures over the first three years or so of both operations (Afghanistan and Iraq). Obviously, for them to simply admit to have been serially and consistently wrong is out of the question for them. I finally decided that in the tradition of party politics, when the day finally comes that both Afghanistan and Iraq have to be acknowledged as failures in terms of American involvement, the Administration will have to find a way to blame the Democrats. This will be difficult since the only Democrats that have had any influence on the events in Afghanistan and Iraq have been the ones that have played along with the Administration (and it would be foolish for the Administration to blame them for agreeing with policy). And as for opposition to policy, well the tiny number of active and vocal Democratic dissenters have been simply ignored to the point that they cannot be said to have unfluenced events at all. Hence, how to blame the blameless? So for the Administration, how do you take a situation where you have had it your own way for years and years and then afterwards try to pretend that the resulting debacle is somebody else's fault? This is the dilemma for Bush and Co. as well as Cheney Inc.

My feeling is that the technique that will be used is the creation of a myth involving the "Dolchstoss" (German for "Dagger Thrust) i.e. Stab in the Back. I first learned about this possible way out for the Administration's troubles from a Harper's article entitled, "Stabbed in the Back" (http://www.harpers.org/StabbedInTheBack.html) where the author traces the origins of how leaders and regimes have dealt with loss through the use of a mythology of betrayal from within. The idea is that when you promote the idea that your military and country are unparalelled in their righteousness and invincibility then the only way that failure and loss could legitimately occur is by way of internal sabotage of some kind. For example, even though the rest of the world knows that the US lost the Vietnam War, the prevailing story here in this country is still that the war was not "lost" but rather that the war effort was stymied and held back by dissenters at home. It's a convenient way to avoid admitting having been wrong and a way to avoid admitting losing a war.

Fast forward to our time. How are the Republicans going to find a way to blame the Democrats for the failure of Republican policies, wars, and other disasters? The answer is through claiming that the tiny, largely ignored anti-war liberals somehow demoralized the entire rest of the country plus its troops by exercising their constitutional right to question policy. Additionally the Administration will try to claim that this same largely ignored, small percentage of people somehow emboldened America's enemies despite their being small in numbers and with effectively no clout policy-wise. It will be a delicate dance, but I think the Republicans will pull it off....for a time.

Olbermann Blasts Rumsfeld and the Bush Administration

2006-09-04T21:23:00.000Z

Must see TV:

We need more Olbermanns in the media.

Why the Kurds matter

2006-08-29T14:42:00.000Z

It looks like the attacks on Turkish tourist spots may have been the work of a Kurdish group, at least one such group has claimed responsibility. This isn't really anything new for the Turks, and some say that it may have been a Kurdish group that assassinated Swedish prime minister Olaf Palme in Stockholm way back in 1987 (for reasons unknown). So there have always been a few dangerously discontented Kurds floating around. What I think is different now is that we are only months away from having the US and Coalition partners finally admit to what was clear to perceptive newshounds early on after the fall of Saddam, i.e. that if there is to be both peace and democracy on the territory of what is now Iraq, then that place has to be partitioned into three states. And if it is to be partioned into three states, then one of those states will have to be a majority Kurdish state in what is now northern Iraq. And that is something that not only the Turks will vigorously oppose, but maybe even also Iran. Turkey and Iran are the other two countries with Kurdish populations, and those populations would find themselves living in bits of Turkey and Iran that would border the news Kurdish state in northern Iraq. Now for some reason Turkey, Iran, and the former Iraq all have historically been in the business of denying Kurds their own automony or territory. For example, right now Saddam is on trial partly for supposedly gassing "his own people". However, we should note that when we say that Saddam gassed his own people, we are speaking incorrectly, because what he did in fact was to gas his own Iraqi Kurds. Saddam's "own people" are all Sunni Arabs from specific tribes of a specific area of Iraq that has almost no Kurds.

Anyway, why it is that nobody wants the Kurds to get their own country, I don't know. You'd think that if a people were that much trouble to hold onto, that a reasonable existing country would want to let them go. On the other hand if you look at countries like India and China that seem willing to subject themselves to all manner of trouble just to keep a hold of some worthless, in-arable, mineral-poor piece of rock out on the perify of the country, well then you see what they're up against over there where the Kurds live.

So what we will have, when the partitioning begins, is a situation where the US will have to either alienate the Turks or the Kurds. My guess is that the US will choose to alienate the Kurds, just like everyone else does, and then we will have yet another group of pissed-off mountain folk vilifying the US and vowing never to forget, etc., etc.

Iran, North Korea, Australia... Whatever! Just Nuke 'Em All!

2006-08-24T04:20:00.000Z

The video below has been out and about the Web for a while now, but, as these things tend to, I received an email today, as if it was new, with it as an attachment.

In all fairness, you could find people in any country as clueless as the Americans in this video. But what's more alarming is the impression that these people seem to nonchalantly consider the notion of the U.S. invading another country as no more a consideration than if they had been asked about their preference between Pepsi and Coca-Cola. When invited to point out the nations they feel we should invade, the very fact they can be fooled into believing Australia is Iran, or North Korea speaks volumes about the lack of global geographical knowledge in this country, and our cavalier and simpleton approach to world affairs. This is how the rest of the world views this country.

When I first came to the U.S. I was aghast that the solution by fellow students to every world problem was the same: Nuke Libya! Nuke Iran! Not much seems to have changed in all those years, and our world view is still as ignorant.

We should be ashamed of that and be looking to do something about it. It is a question of our education system, and it a matter of how we interact with the rest of the world. Do we solve all world problems with aggression and wars, or do we participate as partners with the world community to put our considerable military strength and economic power to better uses?

If not, Australia won't be surprised when our bombs start pounding Sydney.

Cross-posted at On The Road To 2008.

The Awful Truth

2006-08-23T15:20:00.000Z

Now that people are getting back to the truth, the awful truth is that perhaps Donald Rumsfeld is not as bad as he seems at running the Pentagon and that maybe the strategy he followed would have been more effective if he had an army to work with.

When the US, in peacetime, had soldiers stationed in Germany to fight off the Russian hordes only 16 years ago, there were 500,000 of them. Today we don't seem to have 500,000 troops and are resorting to the use of reserves and the National Guard to get the number we have (which seems to vary depending on the press conference or release) from 165,000 to 135,000.

The awful truth is that we don't have an army anymore. Moreover, Israel doesn't either. Both have airplanes. Rockets. Missiles. And atomic bombs. Of course none of the latter are able to defeat the kinds of foes that exist in Iraq and Lebanon. Since we can't use our armies we use our airplanes and cruise missiles. When they don't work will we have to resort to the A Bomb? I have a Jewish friend who said if push comes to shove Israel will not fail to use it. What an awful truth.

First they came for the.......

2006-08-16T21:48:00.000Z

This is from the archive section of the website of the newspaper, "The Guardian":

Communists to be interned in Dachau

March 21 1933

(Reprinted) Tuesday March 21, 2006

The Guardian

The President of the Munich police has informed the press that the first concentration camp holding 5,000 political prisoners is to be organised within the next few days near the town of Dachau in Bavaria.

Here, he said, Communists, "Marxists" and Reichsbanner leaders who endangered the security of the State would be kept in custody. It was impossible to find room for them in the State prisons, nor was it possible to release them. Experience had shown, he said, that the moment they were released, they started their agitation again.

If the safety and order of the State were to be guaranteed, measures were inevitable, and they would be carried out without any petty consideration. This is the first clear statement hitherto made regarding concentration camps. The extent of the terror may be measured from the size of this Bavarian camp which - one may gather - will be only one of many. The Munich police president's statement leaves no more doubt whatever that the Socialists and Republicans will be given exactly the same sort of "civic education" as the Communists.

It is widely held that the drive against the Socialists will reach its height after the adjournment of the Reichstag next week.

Absolute power for Hitler: The Cabinet at its meeting this afternoon decided on the text of the Enabling Bill which it will submit to the Reichstag. If this bill is passed, the Hitler Government will be endowed with absolute dictatorial powers. The Act will enable the Cabinet to legislate and to make laws even if these "mark a deviation from the Constitution", except that the Reichstag and the Reichsrat must not he abolished. But as these will be put out of action for four years, this provision will not inconvenience the Government, which will even have full powers at the end of four years to alter the electoral system by decree.

The rights of the President formally remain unaltered, but the laws will be promulgated on the Cabinet's initiative alone. The President would lose all his functions except that of Chief of the Army, but this function, too could probably be abolished by a decree, which would place the army, the last potential opponent of the dictatorship, under the Cabinet's control.

In that case the President would simply become a figurehead.

Military expenditure: As the Budget would be settled by decree, and as the figures would not need to be made public, there would be no extra-Governmental control of public finances, and the Government would be free to increase military and naval expenditure without the least publicity.

No fear....is the key

2006-08-15T04:41:00.000Z

I think we all need to learn to not be scared. Watching CNN's extended coverage this evening about all the different times, places, and ways that terrorists could strike, it appears that milking the fear of terror is now not only useful for policy initiatives, but it's also big business. Don't get me wrong, I am against ANYBODY that uses violence specifically to create fear and to attempt to exploit that fear for the furtherance of some political agenda (that is the definition of terrorism). I love to see those sorts of people thwarted in their efforts. But I also know that fear of terrorism has been turned into an instrument of sorts over the last five years, and that is a dangerous trend. Anyone that has studied the Salem Witch trials or the McCarthy years knows what I'm talking about. Preying upon people's fears is a threat to society. Let's not let ourselves be manipulated.

Wrong War, Not Anti-War

2006-08-12T04:41:00.000Z

In Daniel Henninger's Wall Street Journal article "Democrats Knifed Lieberman on Eve Of Airliner Plot", available here or here, he writes:

That was unfortunate timing this week for the Lamont Democrats, declaring themselves officially the antiwar party within 24 hours of the Brits foiling an Islamic terror plot to spread thousands of U.S.-bound bodies across the North Atlantic, or perhaps across New York, Boston and Washington as the planes descended. Yes, we know; they support the war on terror but are merely against George Bush's war in Iraq. How does that work?

Last week before the Lamont victory, 12 members of the congressional Democratic leadership sent President Bush a letter urging that he start a phased pullout from Iraq, euphemized as a "redeployment," starting before the end of this year. But it is becoming increasingly fantastic to argue that in Iraq, with its apparently limitless supply of suicide bombers, hasn't much to do with the terror threats manifest elsewhere.

Put it this way: From the perspective as of yesterday of getting on a U.S. airliner, who would you rather have in the Senate formulating policy toward this threat -- Ned Lamont or Joe Lieberman?
...

With the knifing of Joe Lieberman, the Democrats have locked in as the antiwar party. No turning back now. You're in or you're out. And this will be enforced. Susan Estrich, formerly of Dukakis for President, told the Fox News Channel this week that Hillary Clinton "has got to get herself in a position where she's for withdrawal of troops in Iraq before the next Democratic primary."

...

Events like the massive protests in Washington and elsewhere between 1969 and 1971 were in part about events in Vietnam, but there was also a huge amount of narcissistic self-indulgence in the movement. People joined in the expectation of being around an "event" -- part rock concert, part street theater, the rush of being part of a morally unblemished belief system. Sort of like the Web. This politics produced two major candidacies -- Eugene McCarthy's challenge to Lyndon Johnson in 1968 and George McGovern's to Richard Nixon in 1972. Both got blown out.

Seems the premise is that to be against the Iraq war is to be against fighting terrorism and ipso facto those who are/were against the war are soft on terrorism. I reject that premise.

1. I did not understand that the Dems are saying they are an anti war party. They are against the Iraq war, but that is not the same thing.

2. Daniel Henninger asks how the war on terror works. The "war on terror" (which is not a war) works exactly the way the UK police acted. They did not bomb West London. They sought out suspected terrorists and put them in jail. (By the way I think that they have to be charged within a month or released--Britain has no Guantanamo.)

3. I do not know the Lamont strategy, but for me if we are not able to send in 500,000 troops (and now the number is probably at least 1 million) there is no need to become bystanders to a civil war, which I predicted from day 1. Powell said if you break it you own it, but we never took control.

4. The only relationship that Iraq has with suicide bombers are from elsewhere. Suicide bombers preceded the Iraq situation by decades. The World Trade Center bombers had no special love for Iraqis and their motivation had more to do with Israel than Iraq.

5. I don't want Lieberman or Lamont formulating policy. I want a more efficient FBI and a more integrated police system than we have had up to now that works domestically and has wide contacts internationally.

6. Neither the old Hillary nor the new Hillary is the answer to this problem.

7. Mentioning Vietnam in the context of this article is a mistake just as Vietnam was a mistake. Does Daniel Henninger mean to say that we should have stayed in Vietnam? And since we left after losing about 60,000 young Americans has Vietnam been a problem? (I don't wish to imply that leaving Iraq would leave behind the same smooth transition to a peaceful country. I doubt that it would.)

8. The "war" on terror should be a bi-partisan "war". The WAR on Iraq cannot be since it was a mistake whose consequences are recurring.

9. I really doubt that the Democrats support for a fight against terror is zero. I consider that to be an unwarranted slur. And I am not even a Democrat. But it is a slur I am sensitive to since many friends who know of my opposition to the war on Iraq think of me as anti-American.

Why Do Americans Support Bush's Foreign Policy?

2006-08-06T09:08:00.000Z

Do Americans reject the notion that Bush has been mistaken in his foreign policy in the Middle East due to:

1) fear of terror,
2) blind agreement with anything Bush,
3) love of Israel and or hatred of Arabs,
4) ignorance of history and world affairs,
5) apathy,
6) superiority complexes,
7) religious convictions
8) misguided moral righteousness
9) an activist need to feel relevant in foreign affairs or what?

I am interested in the answers.

How Bush Gave Democracy a Bad Name

2006-08-06T06:55:00.000Z

The one and only hope I have is that when push comes to shove the whole Iranian nation would be less inclined to follow Ahmadinejad than the US has been in following Bush.

There is a large segment of the Iranian population that would resist taking Iran to war against the nuclear power and the combined military force of the West. Their army is not renowned.

The other possible hope is that the usual natural propensity of the Arab world to avoid coalescence could salvage the situation if someone showed them some tender loving care, instead of acting to unite them through atrociously ill-conceived invasions.

Kidnapping

2006-08-06T01:40:00.000Z

It is customary practice that when a person or persons are kidnapped that the police will first try to talk to the kidnappers while establishing plans for their release. In some instances negotiations go on for days.

No so with Israel.

Take one of theirs and you unleash a storm of retribution which escalates many times over.

Of course the kidnapper, knowing this to be the case, should be forewarned that he/she/they cannot be sure of the unintended consequences and history shows that Israel shows no mercy. But the consequences for Israel of this approach can hardly be seen as positive and it would appear that it now requires an increased force to make its point.

If this goes on one wonders if we are worrying about the wrong country in the Middle East when we worry about the use of the atom bomb.

The George Principle

2006-08-06T01:36:00.000Z

The Peter Principle says that people rise to the level of their own incompetence. The George Principle says that voters raise their leaders to above the level of their own incompetence.

I am very pessimistic about the Middle East. The only army that could contain the violence is not up to the job---the US Army. In fact I think that it could crack. It is a volunteer force and hardly likely to take on 5 million people in Iraq who want them out. And when real violence starts US guys may sensibly run. Or real mayhem and murderous retaliation by the US may ensue.

As to Lebanon it is touch and go whether the Israelis can do the job without resorting to mass murder. Arabs could spill over from Gaza into Israel while suicide types could come down from Lebanon. What good is an F-15 against a straggling group of volunteers.

If this is not the big blow up, we are getting closer to it and the US, with its volunteer force, can only get really violent or pull out.

The absurd idea that a force of outsiders should precede a cease fire fits into the neat Bush way of doing things: get someone else to do his bidding of the dangerous work. This time it is not his own army that he wants to mistakenly put at risk of death, it is foreign troops.

Believe me they won't do it.

Misguided War - When Civilians Are Caught In The Crossfire

2006-08-01T06:00:00.000Z

The debate about what happen in Qana rages. Israeli supporters claim it was all a Hezbollah propaganda piece. These commentators look at the bodies and destruction but that's not what they see. They are looking for suspicious evidence, that a Hezbollah missile was the cause, that these children were perhaps transplanted from elsewhere, already dead.

What I have yet to see disputed is that the children who may or may not have died in Qana while they were sleeping in what they and their mothers thought was a safe house, were killed from some form of an Israeli attack, and surely a missile.

There is an acceptance by so many that the children were in the wrong place and time. Ain't that the truth! However, there are many who would squarely point the finger of blame, not at those that killed them, but at those that brought on the attacks that killed them.

By this reasoning, I can only assume that the Israelis are not capable of restraint. Their's is a reflex reaction - when they are provoked, they attack back. Consequently, any harm that comes to those that provoke Israel is all on the provokers, not on Israel.

So, nevermind that woman and children might be killed in the process. They are casualties of war.

Recall the Beslan catastrophe, when Russian forces stormed the school with tanks and heavy weaponry? The result was chaos and 344 civilians were killed, including 186 children. I know most Americans were rightfully horrified at the huge loss of life during the rescue, and would never have accepted that kind of outcome were the hostage crises on U.S. soil.

The same should hold true everywhere. If Hezbollah is mingling with populations of woman and children, that has to be taken into account, it cannot be dismissed. There are ways to win a war, ways to execute a battle, but they should not include putting civilians in danger, even if that's what the "other side" is suspected of doing.

And this is what is causing the public opinion backlash against Israel. At the very least, they have allowed themselves to be lured into the type of war Hezbollah wants to wage, and by taking the bait, they fall to the level of the foes they would want the world to demonize as terrorists. They become partners in terror to the innocent civilians caught in the crossfire. Those that feed the beast are equally branded as demons.

And what of the vaunted precision guided missile system the Israelis are using? You know, the ones we sold to them. Is it a case of operator error when we hear report after report of mistaken hits on civilian homes, Red Cross vans, or U.N. observation posts? If so, it would seem that we need to get them some better training in the future to avoid such inconveniences. Too many such snafus can get embarrassing.

Is it the anonymity of a long distance strike that enables people to obscure the horror of the result? Is that an adequate enough defense that "shit happens" in war?

How is it different than lining up the civilians, the woman, the children, and shooting them at point blank range? Does the blind bomb make it alright?

If it does, then isn't that an admission that the precision guided missile isn't as precise as we claim it to be, and therefore when such weapons are used, they have the same result as the less precise missiles Hezbollah has also been accused of using?

What we're left with is yet another war with no winners, only losers. Israel's gambit that they could pound Hezbollah into submission isn't working, and the casualties have escalated to the point the whole world is watching for every new Israeli misstep. The powder keg that is the Middle East is poised to erupt if hostilities are not ended swiftly and completely. Otherwise Israel could find itself wishing it had responded to a kidnapping, let's say, "differently".

Just as Israel and its supporters will say Hezbollah is getting what it had coming, Israel has also fermented the seeds of international discontent against it. Even those that would not support Hezbollah's actions cannot condone the escalation of confrontation. Israel, as a democratic nation has the most to lose from this miscalculation, and will have played into Hezbollah's hands. They need an exit strategy that allows them to save face - but the big question is whether there is any opportunity for that now.

Cross-posted at On The Road To 2008.

Qana

2006-07-31T02:12:00.000Z

How many children did the Israelis kill in Qana today? Anybody know? I heard 30. Could that be true?

Our wonderful politicians (a ramble)

2006-07-30T09:10:00.000Z

What bemuses me about the whole conflict is the relative silence by our elected European leaders, apart from Tony Blair, of course , on the whole conflict. Mutterings of making truces, giving humanitarian aid and solving the conflict are heard, but that's it. So the US vetoed a resolution condemning Isreal for its actions, thats the 35th time the veto has been used to bin resolutions critical of Israel, and what do the other European leaders do? Do they stand up and condemn the veto? Do they loudly insist that the US must move for a truce and peace process? No, they just sit back and shut up. Or are they just scared of being labelled "Anti-semitic"?

And how can the US on one side accuse the UN of being ineffective, on the other hand do everything to undermine and negetate it? Why does no politician stand up and say something about that?

In the meantime the US is busy selling arms to Israel and other countries in the Middle East, threatening Syria and Iran, and letting India build nuclear weapons. But to do anything to stop civilians being killed in the Lebanon, Israel and Palestina, well I guess that would be bad for their arms sales. Do our politicians complain about those arms sales, given the current situation? Of course not, as the UK, France et al are doing the same, just more quietly. Plus if they said something they might lose some perks, just check how many politicians have links to the arms industry.

In the mean time the propaganda machine is running overtime persuading people that this is a necessary struggle, not just because we want to provoke armageddon. That the machine is working smoothly in the US is evident, as "Seventy-two percent (72%) believe that the Iraqis are better off now than they were under Saddam Hussein (slightly down from February 2005 when 76 percent said this was true). " Well, they did not have an occupation, civil war and the theft of their natural resources before the war, so does having all of those make it better? And the main starting point of this new war is lost in oblivion, seldom reported. Most people only know that it was because two Israeli soldiers were kidnapped. What came before that, where they were kidnapped is all lost as history is rewritten to suit the various parties. And again, our politicians (and media) just go along without a question.

Let's face it we are being governed by a bunch of spineless cowards, and as the oppostion in most countries is equally silent, when we get a chance to vote its a matter of chosing the lesser evil, but never a real change.

Heatwaves

2006-07-29T14:05:00.000Z

So we better get used to this excessive heat, or so the experts tell us. It's all a result of global warming. And what to do in order to survive this weather? According to some experts we should have three hours of air conditioning a day, if we don't have it installed in our own homes: "a body needs at least three hours of cooling - preferably by air conditioning - to survive excessive heat." Oh yes, and you'll probably need a car to get to that air conditioned center, another minus on the environmental front. So the solution seems to take steps that will actually increase global warming. Nice.

What puzzles me is
a) how will using air conditioning, which requires electricity and thereby contributes to global warming, help solve the overall problem?
b) how come we Americans and Europeans cannot cope with this heat, whereas people in Saudi Arabia, Oman, etc have survived these temperatures for generations without air conditioning, etc?
c) how healthy is it to go from 20C to 40C 2 or 3 times a day? Surely such extreme temperature changes are even worse for your body?
Surely the solution is not to have universal air conditioning, but to review our housing and our lifestyle.

Make the houses better insulated, that keeps the heat in during the winter thereby reducing the heating bill, and keeps the heat out in the summer thereby reducing the need for air conditioning. Look at the clay houses and fortresses built by the Omanis and Yemenis which show how our houses should be built for such conditions. Or is this just another ploy to not address the real issue, but just increase consumption?

Also, if areas are so hot, why live there? The Arabs have tended to live close to water, be it the sea or oasis, but not smack in the middle of a desert or any hot area without adequate water supply.

If we are facing hotter weather, it might also be worth while considering whether teleworking is not a better idea. Or follow the examples of the Mediterranean states and have naps, long lunch breaks and live in the evenings and mornings . The first reduces ozon levels and contributes less to global warming. The second gives you the opportunity to fit your lifestyle round the weather, not forcing your body to cope with high temperatures. Who said we must stick to our 9 - 5 routine anyway?

For what it's worth, and if you cannot change your working hours, just remember to close all shutters and windows in the morning when you leave for work. That will keep your house cooler during the day, making it easier to cool it down in the evenings. Wear only cotton, and have a cool shower before you go to bed. All that helps you sleep better and your body to cope better. And instead of whacking on the air conditioning try putting cold water on your neck and arms up to elbow level, which also serves to reduce the body temeprature.

What the...?

2006-07-27T20:25:00.000Z

"a biblically prophesied end-time confrontation with Iran, which will lead to the Rapture, Tribulation, and Second Coming of Christ." Yup thats' what one of the reports on the Israel Lebanon conflict said. The sad thing is you read those sort of remarks a lot when looking at the events of the last five years. Somehow the evangelical movement in the US seems to have persuaded itself that the bringing on of Armageddon is its role. The quote was from an article in counterpunch about the conflict. What I don't get, is why on earth they believe that this will benefit them.

I gave up on church and priests at a tender age, when my local priest informed me that anyone who was not Catholic might as well take a rope and hang themselves now. As we had just returned from Asia (where our friends were Muslims, Hindis, etc), I was stunned and disgusted. The thing is, as far as I am aware the most radical Jews believe that only they will go to heaven, same as the Christians believe that only they will go to heaven. So there we have radical elements on both sides trying to provoke the end of the world, together, both sides firmly believing that only THEY will reach Nirvana. Er, is that not a gamble? Or is it a showdown "Hell, we'll see who goes to Heaven and who goes to Hell!"

Worse yet that such an attitude can influence the actions and decisions of presidents and prime ministers. What happened to the seggregation of powers? Surely a prime minister ( or president, or whatever) must first consider the wellbeing of his country and people, not let himself be guided by his own religious beliefs. Yes, the US population is more devout that the European population, but is that actually a good thing? Religion is not just about going to church, but also about carrying out ALL the teachings. Last time I checked most world religions still contained passages about forgiveness, kindness and understanding others. What has happened to those passages, were they expunged?Maybe I'll have to swap my King James Bible for a newer version.

Don't get me wrong, I am not against religion, everyone needs hope and beliefs to function. What I do not condone or understand is how you can say your religion is the only right one. And how you can singlemindedly chose some bits, but not others. How can a religios person actually justify a war to themselves? They are causing hunger and suffering, discrimination and death, just so maybe, maybe they can cause of the world? Am I nuts or are they?