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Moon of Alabama: September 2004
And
must
have
whiskey
Oh, you
know
why
« August 2004 | Main | October 2004 »
September 30, 2004
The Exit Strategy
A foreign policy trial ballon from a current Financial Times article:
Members of the municipal council of Basra, Iraq's second largest city, have
been holding talks with officials from councils in two neighbouring provinces
on establishing a federal region in the south, ... The three provinces - Basra,
Missan and Dhiqar - account for more than 80 per cent of the proved oil
reserves of the country's 18 provinces and provide a large share of the national
income.
...
people close to the Iraqi government say some officials driving the autonomy
talks are backed by Muqtada al-Sadr, the renegade Shia cleric who launched an
uprising against American troops in July.
This Fictional Times article, January 2005, puts more light on the issue:
The occupation authorities in Iraq have secretly asked two confidants, who
afore had been appointed to the city council of Basra, to take over the
government of the southern province. They are to form an administrative unit
with those two neighbour provinces that account for most of Iraqâ€™s oil
reserves.
Only one cabinet member from the southern provinces is member of Prime
Ministers Allawis cabinet, created by the Coalition Provisional Administration.
"Unfortunately this now allows The South to complain about under
representation in the central government." the US ambassador to Iraq, Mr.
Negroponte, explained. "We are trying to correct this sad error by lobbying the
central government for more local latitude in The South."
A Marine Corp general in Bagdhad gave some background on the military
situation. "As the 15 northern provinces are now controlled by Iraqi personal,
we can immediately reduce our troop numbers significantly. 50,000 men and
women will stay in Iraq and will continue to build democracy. For logistical
reasons I have proposed to station them exclusivly in the Autonomous
Southern Provinces. This will shorten our lines of communication as supply
will come through the harbour of Basra. ItÂ´s also only a short jump from our
air bases in Kuwait."
A British general added: "As the British troops are leaving, the American
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2004/09/index.html (1 von 49) [16.11.2004 18:26:53]
forces will take over our tasks. There have been less clashes here as in the
Kurdish Kirkuk, the Sunni triangle and the Shia areas around Najaf, so their
task here will be a lot easier. There will be fewer body bags."
Prime Minister Allawi could not be reached for a statement as he is currently
consulting with Muqtada al-Sadr in Najaf. Al Sadr, who had been said to be
interested in the southern provinces, had denied such ambitions and had
pointed out that no significant symbolic places of Islam are located in the
south. After Sistanis death, the young cleric is expected to control the
significant money flow generated by Shia pilgrimage in Najaf.
"The process we are now engaged in, will lead to a completely Autonomous
South" a former senior official working at the AEI in Washington envisioned.
"That new national entity has strong family and tribal relations with their
brothers across the southern border. In the long term these borders may vanish
and a reunited Dawlat al Kuwayt will emerge as a new prosperous and
peaceful diamond in the northern Gulf."
The Financial Times article Oil-rich Iraqi provinces push for autonomy is just the trial
ballon. They are dead serious with this concept and for the neocons as for the realists it
makes a whole lot of sense. If the other 15 Iraqi provinces will be a dirt poor hell on earth who cares?
Posted by Bernhard on September 30, 2004 at 10:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (62) |
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Con Job
In CPI: Camouflaging Price Increase I voiced some shrill words about the official US
inflation numbers. Billmon has been on this several times. Now we have the honor to be
joined by Bill Gross, Managing Director for PIMCO, who oversees nearly $400 billion in
fixed income assets. In his current Investment Outlook he opines on the government
officials who produce the official numbers and looks at the real ones.
â€œInflation under controlâ€• â€“ (ex food and energy of course) shout the
carnival barkers. â€œThe CORE is running at just under 2%,â€• .. No matter
that a gallon of gasoline is over 2 bucks or that a half gallon of milk will set
you back $3.69; the CORE is under 2%.
.. prices of desktop and notebook computers declined by 8% a year during the
past decade, The WSJ reports but because the machinesâ€™ computer power
and memory have improved, their hedonically adjusted prices have dropped by
25% a year since 1997. No wonder the core is less than 2% with computers
dropping by that much every year. But did your new model computer come
with a 25% discount from last yearâ€™s price?
...
In addition, when â€œsubstitution biasâ€• (a BLS maneuver that follows your
preference for Chicken McNuggets vs. a Quarter Pounder) is eliminated, the
gap gets even worse.
...
The CPI as calculated may not be a conspiracy but itâ€™s definitely a con job
foisted on an unwitting public by government officials ..
...
[These statistics] might serve [Greenspan] well, but they do a disservice to
those grounded in the reality of stretching a paycheck for new cars, laptop
computers, and cell phones that somehow havenâ€™t gone down as much in
price as the government says they have.
...
High productivity? Nonsense, in part â€“ statistical, hedonically created
nonsense. My sense is that the CPI is really 1% higher than official figures and
that real GDP is 1% less.
Mr. Gross does not mention the home owner equivilant rent, the biggest chunk in the CPI
calculation, where increasing housing costs for home owners are substituted by decreasing
statistical apartment rents. This alone makes for 1% unaccounted inflation. Add that to Mr.
Gross' 1% and the official numbers and the true picture comes to light. Inflation is around
5-6% and GDP growth at maybe 1%. The official high productivity growth is and has been
no growth at all.
As more international recognized money managers go public with these facts, international
investors will take note. When they start to pull out their money, the real state of the US
economy will be unveiled. Sell your US treasuries and bonds now and buy some value in
Euroland, Australia or elsewhere.
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Fresh Open Thread
Any ideas about the dual staged press conference, The Debate, tonight?
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Perception Management
I am flabbergasted by a recent Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) study that
shows these results:
Majorities of Bush supporters favored including labor and environmental
standards in trade agreements (93%), and the US being part of the
Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (68%), the International Criminal Court
(75%), the treaty banning land mines (66%), and the Kyoto treaty on climate
change (54%). Only 33% of Bush supporters wanted to build a new missile
defense system now, while more wanted to do more research until its
capabilities are proven (56%). Forty percent of Bush supporters favored
increased defense spending, while 47% wanted it kept about the same (9%
wanted to cut).
Suddenly I find myself agreeing with Bush supporters on several important foreign policy
issues.
But why will they vote for somebody, who does not favor the positions they support? PIPA
says they do not know Bush's real position.
Majorities of Bush supporters incorrectly assumed that Bush favors including
labor and environmental standards in trade agreements (84%), and the US
being part of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (69%), the International
Criminal Court (66%), the treaty banning land mines (72%), and the Kyoto
Treaty on global warming (51%). They were divided between those who knew
that Bush favors building a new missile defense system now (44%) and those
who incorrectly believe he wishes to do more research until its capabilities are
proven (41%). However, majorities were correct that Bush favors increased
defense spending (57%)
Two possibilities come to mind:
● Bush supporters do not want to know Bush's real position.
● Bush supporters are managed to perceive his position as they do.
The U. S. Department of Defense defines Perception Management as:
Actions to convey and/or deny selected information and indicators to ..
audiences to influence their emotions, motives, and objective reasoning as well
as to intelligence systems and leaders at all levels to influence official
estimates, ultimately resulting in .. behaviors and official actions favorable to
the originatorâ€™s objectives. In various ways, perception management
combines truth projection, operations security, cover and deception, and
psychological operations.
Are these the results of such actions? How can they be countered?
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September 29, 2004
Intended Outcome?
Jim Sinclair is a serious trader in gold and commodities, and multimillionaire, with many
years of international experience. Here is his view (Reg.req.) on Iraq (corrected version):
One cannot compare Iraq to the war in Vietnam. For one thing, Vietnam was
never a critical player in the oil market and the war was never underpinned by
any particular religious fanaticism. The world did not turn on the success or
failure of the US war effort in Vietnam.
Iraq is infinitely more serious than Vietnam ever was in my view. However,
the 2300 attacks discussed [in the New York Times] can be compared to the
Tet Offensive in Vietnam by the North Vietnamese. If the election outcome is
interpreted as a mandate for the use of force, which will likely be the case if
George Bush is re-elected, the US will most certainly react exactly as it did
during the Vietnam war under General Westmorland and the administration of
that era.
As I have told you before, the â€œwar against terrorismâ€• is a contradiction in
terms. War is an action and terrorism is a strategy with no particular
geographical boundaries. War simply splinters terrorism into cells with no real
central command. Since all combat promotes madness on all sides, failing to
understand this brings one more horrific event after another.
The war to establish democracy in the Middle East will end up destroying
democracy in the West. The US is in a terrible situation in Iraq exactly
where the opposing forcers want it to be. A mandate for increased use of
force there will be the â€œcoup de graceâ€• for the US Bill of Rights and
the US Constitution. The names will remain but the soul will be
compromised.
I am still wondering, if the results Jim sees coming, are or are not the intended outcome. A
Clean Break, not only for Israel like in the original plan, but also for the political system of
the United States.
Posted by Bernhard on September 29, 2004 at 04:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (5) |
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Outsourcing Services
There is a clear and present danger of more government jobs to be outsourced to foreign
nations. A new bill, H.R. 10, which can be researched here, is coming to the floor of the
House of Representatives.
Section 3032 and 3033 of the proposed bill will allow the government - at its sole discretion
- to transfer people it is obliged to care for to other countries.
These foreign countries will then be tasked by the US government to provide the social care
and health services that the government vigorously claims it is legally beholden to provide
now. This is an absurd way to save the taxpayer's money and a huge step back from the
blessings of the New Deal.
Through this bill a significant number of US government personal that, up to today,
provides valuable social and health services to the inhabitants and guests of the United
States, will loose their well paying jobs adding to the army of unemployed the current
administration has already created.
Katherine at the Obsidian Wings has more information in her recent piece. Please join her
in writing to your Representative and thereby help saving US government jobs for US
workers.
Context Links:
NYT: Showdown Likely ...
WaPo: Irresponsible ...
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September 28, 2004
The Real Test Is Your Action
by jdp
We have had several discussions at the Moon of Alabama about peak oil, what the market
does concerning energy and how world stability affects oil prices. Well, instead of arguing
over oil, I feel it's better to try and figure out and apply methods to reduce our dependence
on foreign oil and be environmentally friendly. While this may not wet our appetites for
Bush bashing, energy conservation surely isn't his favourite subject.
First some web sites. Everyone should go on-line to www.energysavers.gov, a US
Department of Energy site and download "Energy Savers: Tips on Saving Energy & Money
at Home." This booklet shows where in picture form and tells where you lose the most
energy in your home and tips on how to correct problems.
Another useful website is the Energy Star site at: www.energystar.gov. This site rates all
appliances in the home. If an appliance doesn't have an Energy Star label, you want to ask
for Energy Star standard appliances.
Just some "Fast Facts" from an Energy Star fact sheet I received at a conference last week.
"If every household in the United States changed the lighting in one room of their home to
Energy Star,"
1. We would save 857 billion kWh of energy and keep one trillion pounds of greenhouse
gases out of the air.
2. Our annual energy savings alone would be equivalent to the annual output of more than
21 power plants.
3. Our annual savings could light more than 34 million US homes for one year.
This should be more than enough reason to switch light bulbs in your house. Our family is
doing our part. Our home has fluorescent throughout including my outside lights. Our first
sets of fluorescent lights lasted seven years. My walkway lights are solar. Our home has
extra insulation including six inch walls and fourteen inches in the ceiling. We also have
insulated floors. All of our appliances are energy efficient and our washer is a low water use
washer.
On the local level, some of the initiatives our community is involved in are amazing. The
community has a bio mass power plant located in it. The community received an
Agricultural Renaissance Zone designation for forty acres. To heat any new business that
may locate in the Ag Zone, the community through grants and grant match, run a
circulating hot water line using power plant cooling water. This will provide 90 degree plus
hot water to the businesses, the heat can be extracted and the water returned cooler. This
increases the efficiency of the power plant, and allows the Ag businesses a cheap source of
heat. (Europe is far ahead of the US in this type of venture, though eco-parks are becoming
more common in the US.)
Along the river in the community a functioning Grist Mill is being built. Much of the cost is
being paid for by grants, donations from business and individuals, and donations from local
governmental units. This project has been seven years in the making. It has a twenty foot
high water wheel and will be able to provide grain grinding demonstrations, and produce
electricity. On the building will be solar electric and in the river a micro-hydro unit to
produce electricity. The building should have plenty of electric and put energy back on the
grid. The building will be heated with ground water through a heat exchanger.
The walls will be insulated with 1 1/2 inch foam with foil backing that reflects cold and
heat. The building is wrapped in foil insulation with a R 10.2 value. The walls will have a
four inch dead air space giving the walls a total of R-30.6 value. The roof rafters have 1"
ridged radiant barrier foam board with an R-12 factors. On top will be 12" of blown
insulation with an R-38 value for a total of R-50 value in the ceilings. This is a great
addition to the community. And as a side note, the community officially has a new telecom
company that will be a rural cooperative. They will locate in a room in the Grist Mill
building and provide telephone, internet, cable TV and home alarm services to areas that
currently do not have phone service. Yes, there are still many areas in the US without
telephone service.
These are a few things you can do, what I am doing and what our community is doing. We
can argue about peak oil anytime, but, the real test is the actions you personally take to help
the problem. I would appreciate stories of peoples own energy conservation efforts and any
ideas.
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Bush with a Bathtub in Baghdad
by Koreyel
The REAL reason we went to war in Iraq, if you must know, is that after 9-11
we needed to kick the shit out of someone, anyone...
Contributor on a previous MoA thread
No doubt there is truth in that. In fact I've pointed in that direction as well. An "eye for an
eye" is a primitive human theorem. It lies buried within all of us, and needs but a lure to
lunge to the surface.
The lure for war was, of course, the sexed up intel. But a hot lure alone is never enough.
Ravenous hunger is necessary to land a fish. And in the case at hand: a hunger for violence.
Does America have such a hunger? For decades, American television has been dishing out a
sumptuous all-you-can-eat buffet of violence. The American mind has fed and fed well at
this banquet. So much so that I suspect the notion: good guys use violence to win the day
against bad guys--has entered our national psyche.
And when one hungers to do violence against bad guys any sexy lure will do. That's
probably how the Iraq War got sold to Bush. After all - Bush is NOT play pretend folksy.
He is, if fact, a genuine American drugstore cowboy.
Allow me a slight digression. I maintain that when George Bush walks and talks, what you
are looking at is a condensation of the worst traits of middle class America.
I remember long ago, when Bush was the owner of the Texas Rangers baseball team, Nolan
Ryan a Ranger pitcher got in a horrific fist-fight with a batter he had hit in the ribs with a
fast ball. It was worse than an eye for an eye. It was three punches for one-half punch. Bush
latter said it was the greatest thing he had ever seen on a baseball diamond.
The greatest thing? On a ball field? A fist fight?
Given that bit of insight would it surprise anyone to learn that Bush watches the Worldwide
Wrestling Federation? From the Guardian article on the Kitty Kelly book there appears this
snip:
How anyone got out of Yale without developing some interest in the world
besides booze and sports stuns me." New Yorker writer Brendan Gill recalls
roaming the Kennebunkport compound one night while staying there looking
for a book to read â€“ the only title he could find was The Fart Book.
These anecdotes demonstrate that plainspoken Bush would be at home watching violent TV
with just about any middle-class or lower-class American family. If you will: He is they,
and they are he, and he speaks their sort of violence. Not only that â€“ he speaks it well.
So it wouldn't surprise me if Iraq War was marketed to Bush by using a lot of virtuous hot
air aimed at his most primitive instincts.
But of course truth is a many-splendourd thing. We know the goons at the top sexed up the
intel. And that the neocon puppet masters had long been planning this conquest and
probably others. What we don't know is exactly what is in the minutes of Cheney's secret
energy plan meetings. Therein I've long suspected, is the key to everything.
But all that being said, HOW the war was marketed and sold back then is one thing. WHY
the war is still being marketed and sold today is really a far more critical question.
Obviously it is readily apparent to everyone with a brain that Iraq is a flytrap for
American troops and American treasure. Sure, some neocons are still true believers, but
the vast majority of congressmen know the war is now a complete and utter drain. So why
do they still overtly support it?
I am going to answer that question from three vicious perspectives. I will argue that the
neocons, the conservatives, and the born-agains ALL have something to gain from a
continuation of the Iraq-mess. In fact: the messier and costlier the war the better they see
themselves being served.
Why the neocons are happy is elucidated in this Joshua Marshall article: Practice to
Deceive. That's been tossed about on the MoA a few threads back. The born-agains are
happy because they are cheered by the rise of muscular Christianity and buoyed by the
possibility of jump-starting the End Times. Never mind that God ought not to be rushed,
these folks are certifiably wacky, and they know God won't be offended by their
zealousness.
Now as for the conservatives - the Texas Taliban - why should they be cheered by the
prospects of a 200 billion war mushrooming towards a trillion bucks? Because they want to
destroy the social contract. They want to starve that beast and then drown it in Norquist's
bathtub.
Think about that for an instant.
This isn't just a war against Iraq, it has become a war against The New Deal. What better
way to force social concessions on the public than via sacrifices made necessary by a
hyped-up war against terror? There is even a fringe benefit: certain American corporations
will prosper.
So that's where we are. And that's where we are trending.
We have an ordinary, crude President speaking ordinary and crude phrases to a population
that has become inordinately crude. But this film script has a plot twist. The President is not
really the friend of the middle-class. He might sit in their living rooms and watch wrestlers
trash talk, drink a lite beer, and throw back pretzels, and talk smack about Iraqis and
terrorists... but -- this is a Hitchcockian screen play: Just as Nero wished the Roman people
had but one neck so that he might cut it off, so this President and his lieutenants have
dreamed of having one hand on one neck in one bathtub so they might drown it.
In this movie's final scene our hero will do just that with his clear blue eyes and a smirk on
his face.
Most of middle-class America? They haven't a clue.
TrackBack
Crude
KARL: You better ring him up.
GEORGE: Okay Karl, IÂ´ll call him now: 202 342-3800
VOICE: Hello?
GEORGE: Hi, this is George, is Bandarboy in?
VOICE: Sorry sir, no, he is on vacation.
GEORGE: But you will have a number for me wonÂ´t you. This is George!
VOICE: Oh I am sorry George, he left no number. I am afraid he is
unreachable right now.
GEORGE: But, but when do you expect him back?
VOICE: Oh, that may take a while. I think heÂ´ll be back in November. Early
November that is.
GEORGE: Oh fuck.
Oil Charges to $50.47 Record
Morgan Stanley Says Oil Price Could Reach $61
Nothing Opec can do to bring oil down, says Purnomo
Bandarboy
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September 27, 2004
Open Off Topic Thread
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Dear Comrades
Through Andy Mukherjee of Bloomberg and Dr."Gloom" Marc Faber we got our hands on
a transcript of a speech held at a meeting of the Central Economic Commission of the
Chinese Communist Party. The speaker is unknown but is believed to be in a very high
party position.
"Dear Comrades,
One of the next days we will publish our paper on the "Ruling Capacity of the
Party". Let me cite three passages:
We should always put national sovereignty and security in the
first place and firmly safeguard state security.
...
Hostile forces are still pursuing their strategic attempts to
westernize and separate our country.
...
We will effectively guard against and deal with various risks from
the international economic field, so as to safeguard China's
political, economic, cultural and information security.
The US cronies at the IMF, the G-7 and the World Bank are putting pressure
on us to loosen the peg of our Yuan to the US-Dollar. If we would do so, the
US-Dollar could slowly devalue against all Asian currencies and the US
economy could move back on a sustainable path. For now we do some cheap
talk of planed revaluation to calm them down.
A week US Dollar is NOT in our interest.
The United States have fulfilled their long dream and occupied Iraq to achieve
control over Middle Eastern commodities. They are fighting our interests in
Sudan and Iran. They are engaged in various Central Asian countries at our
north western border. They are even selling German made submarines,
offensive weapons with cruise missiles, to the illegal government of our
province Taiwan.
We continue actively to buy large amounts of US securities, especially
treasuries, to keep the Yuan value bound to the US Dollar. We now have
accumulated some US$ 500 billion in such instruments. There are three major
positive effects to this:
● We enable the US Federal Reserve to keep the interest rates low in spite
of the huge US deficits and we thereby induce the US consumer to buy
more of our goods and services.
● We make the US manufacturing and service industries uncompetitive
and force them to move to Asia, teaching our workers the skills we will
need in the future.
● We make imports to our country expansive and induce our people to
save and to invest their money into our industrial build-up.
There are also negative effects, like some increased inflation here. But for now
we are able to control these by central administrative means.
There is no chance that this scheme will work into eternity. But there is a good
chance that we, the Party, can determine the point in time where a break will
occur. Until then we will use the accumulated dollars to build significant
strategic reserves of all commodities and increase the abilities of the People's
Liberation Army and especially the People's Liberation Army's naval forces.
At some point, for some reason, the US, in their quest of world domination,
will threaten us - either directly through military means or indirectly through
the oil lever. That will be the right moment do de-peg the Yuan, devalue the
US Dollar and throw the treasuries we own onto the international markets.
US treasury rates will then increase immediately to double digit values, the US
economy will falter first into recession and then into a Weimar like
hyperinflationary depression.
Then we will pick up what is left over from the US empire paying the cheap
price of some paper losses in our US security portfolio.
Comrades, lets work to keep the US dollar strong, very strong, for the glory of
the Party and the wellbeing of the people of China.â€•
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Billmon: Bush Cheney 2004
All is said with few words at the WhiskeyBar.
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September 26, 2004
Tom is Happy to Help
â€¦ the Bush administration launches a new pre-election antiterrorism
campaign this week that will include the likely arrests of hundreds of aliens
from Middle Eastern and other countries known to be havens for terrorists.
Homeland Security has targeted for possible detention as many as 2,000
foreigners who are believed to be in violation of their visas and about whom
there is "soft intelligence" suggesting possible terror connections.
Newsweek: Homeland Security's Info: Miles from Nowhere - last graph
RING, RING, RING
TOM: Ridge here
KARL: Hi Tom, this is Karl - how are you - hey we have a problem here and I need your
help.
TOM: Sure Karl, whatâ€™s up? Need some guards at a rally somewhere?
KARL: No, no - you see, this Kerry guy is pointing all over Iraq - and says itâ€™s a mess now even the media takes note - we can't let this happen - we need to change the headlines but nothing like anthrax this time - thatâ€™s too negative - you know - we ARE Winning
the War on Terra - even Osama holds back for now.
TOM: Okay, okay, so you want more like positive action. Want some terrorists dead or
something more subtle?
KARL: Subtle sounds fine - sounds fine - and big - big numbers.
TOM: Hmmm big. Ahh, here's an idea: Foreigners, illegal and we have plenty of them and
they don't vote. Girly manâ€™s land is full of them and they speak Spanish - nearly as good
as screwing the French.
KARL: No, no - not the Mexicans - cheap as they come - Texas needs them - get some
others - or these nasty academics and work from there - toss in some mullahs and foreign
actors - girly man has that list - and make it big.
TOM: So you want one hundred.
KARL: I said big - you know like ten thousand or so - big TERRORIST headlines.
TOM: Ten thousand? Hey I donâ€™t have room for ten thousand. The RNC still has Pier
57, but even thatâ€™s too small. Letâ€™s see, I can give you like one thousand max. That
all I can put into cells right now.
KARL: Make that five thousand Tom - four thousand - just stack them - hey, even the
Army could do that.
TOM: Two, two is all I can give you now and I canâ€™t hold them for long, you know like
six weeks or so.
KARL: Let me see my calendar - oh five weeks left - five weeks would be enough - and
two thousand is fine for now - and find some evidence - like something chemical or laptops
- you know cyberwar - just beef it up - and make it last - like, you know, five weeks - make
one headline each day.
TOM: Yeah - okay, okay - I got it. Two thousand roundup - Liberals, immigrant terrorists
and the like and stick some evidence up their asses. And daily media briefs - Consider it
done - I am happy to help - Weâ€™ll start Monday - Thatâ€™s fine with you?
KARL: Yeah, Monday is fine - gotta go and tell Dick now - see you and have a nice one bye.
TOM: Amen, bye.
spread the word
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September 24, 2004
Open W. Thread
Your links, discussions and opinions to pieces and events you deem of interest
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Where Are We?
... a film recommendation by anna missed
The recent documentary film Where Are We? is now on DVD. Co-directed by Oscar
recipients Jeffery Friedman and Rob Epstein, the film, on the surface is a sort of
â€œroadâ€• movie, where the pair set out on an eighteen day tour of the South and the
Southwest interviewing the common people they meet without any apparent judgment.
Under the surface, as the film unfolds, there is a curious blurring of boundaries on what is
normal, what is bizarre, and what collectively might be thought of as a culture gone stark
raving mad, incapable of meaningful reflection, or direction. The common character of all
the people interviewed, as even their own words belie their own condition, is one of being
adrift in a sea of banality, anchored only by religion or patriotism.
If Fahrenheit 9-11 documented the method and consequences of unrestrained American
power, this film, in its own little way documents the amorphous cultural sediments that
enable that power.
This is a beautiful, ethereal, and terrifying look at America that recalls the â€œnormalâ€•
torment evidenced in the photographs of Diane Arbus.
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September 23, 2004
The New Security Doctrine
This part of Bush's speech at the United Nation General Assembly needs to be thought
about:
In this young century, our world needs a new definition of security. Our
security is not merely found in spheres of influence, or some balance of power.
The security of our world is found in the advancing rights of mankind.
Paul Krugman says "He doesn't really believe that." because Bush doesnÂ´t live up to the
claim when he supports Russias Putin. Other see reason to be concerned.
In a letter to the NYT Editor Benjamin Solomon explains:
In the context of recent history, many will interpret this to mean the United
States' leading a group of countries to bring a version of freedom to the
designated country in accord with American interests and aims.
Such a policy would also signify a marked change in the United Nations
Charter and the prospect of unending war.
For the American body politic, such a policy declares that the conceptual
position with which the administration now defends the Iraq war will be
permanently central to America's role in the world.
Most people in this world will not agree to have their "rights of mankind" "advanced" to the
fundamentalistic faith based George Warmonger Bush version. Those who do not have the
gift of basic rights today for sure would like to have it. But what price are they willing to
pay?
Unlike during the last ideologic world struggle, the Cold War, this doctrine leaves the US
without an ideologic coalition. Has any other country a vision of advancing rights of
mankind that is compatible with Bush'? I hope not, but the power of the United States may
be big enough to intermediatly press others into this framework.
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Banana Republic Insult
In a recent comment barfly Fran points to one, two remarkable articles and opines with
regard to the US election:
"the rising of the Banana Republic"
With a respectful nod towards South American entities I strongly disagree.
If there are comparisons to the US election system these are to be found in places where the
US is supporting the implementation of democracy. There, like in the US, every effort is
made to make the elections outcome as effortless as possible.
Take a look at Afghanistan, where a distinguished ambassador is continuously consulting
with all presidential candidates. In an effort to make it easy to vote, he is tediously working
to shorten the ballot list, even if this involves incuring significant expenditures.
After the hourlong meeting last month, the ethnic Hazara warlord said in an
interview Tuesday, he wasn't satisfied with the rewards offered for quitting.
New meetings are said to be scheduled. To guarantee a high voter outcome, some 10.5
million of 9.5 million estimated eligible Afghan voters are registered by now. Efforts
continue to additionally register expatriates like Mr. Rahman.
"We are a bit confused about the candidates," said Saifur Rahman, 52, a
Jalozai[, Pakistan,] resident. "Nobody knows what their plans are for our
country."
But he insists he'll vote. "I'm an Afghan, and this is my right. I will use that
right."
Another good example for a decent election process may be found in Iraq. The voters there
will have to cast the ballot on party lists of candidates. To disburden the electorate and to
reduce the costs of ballot printing, the major parties are agreeing to form one "consensus
list". The voter's arduous decision process will significantly lighten as there will be one
simple circle on the ballot that may be marked. This entitles the Iraqi voter to exactly the
same extensive variety of policy choices the US voter is demanding and given.
The democratic legitimation of the next President of the US of A, Prime Minister of Iraq
and President of Afghanistan will be on comparable levels. To liken these with Banana
Republic standards is an insult.
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September 22, 2004
Sovereign and Just Screw Up
Two female Iraqi scientist are in custody. They are said to have worked for Saddam's
weapon programs. A group that has killed two US hostages during the last days, and still
has one British hostage, has demanded all female prisoners to be freed. It is not known
whether they referred to these women. Today there were a couple of announcements on the
scientists future.
● Noori Abdul-Rahim Ibrahim, a spokesman for the Justice Ministry, said
[Rihab Rashid Taha] will be released soon and on bail (NYT)
● The Iraqi Justice Ministry said one of the two women in U.S. custody in
Iraq, Rihab Taha, could be freed later in the day. (Reuters)
● But the U.S. embassy said later that Taha and Huda Ammash, dubbed
"Dr Germ" and "Mrs Anthrax" respectively by U.S. forces, would not
be released soon. "The two women are in legal and physical custody of
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the multinational forces in Iraq and neither will be released
imminently," a spokesman said. (Reuters)
Kassim Daoud, the Iraqi national security adviser, said that the release
would be conditional and would not happen "today, tomorrow or the day
after tomorrow." He asserted that the woman, one of three prisoners to
be released, was now in the custody of the Iraqis, not the Americans,
and that "Iraqi judges decided to release them because they didn't have
any evidence." (NYT)
Iraqi Minister of State Kassim Daoud told journalists in Baghdad that
the Iraqi judiciary had decided that there was not enough evidence to
justify the continued detention of the scientists - Rihab Rashid Taha and
Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash (BBC)
Iraq's Justice Minister Malik al-Hassan told the BBC that he supported
the release of Dr Taha (BBC)
The second woman, Dr Ammash, "may be released soon", the justice
ministry said. (BBC)
At that time both British and US officials in Iraq claimed to have been
unaware of the decision. US military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel
Barry Johnson said he had no information about a release. (Guardian)
The U.S. military says it has two Iraqi women in custody, both
high-profile security detainees held at an undisclosed location (AP)
Justice Ministry spokesman Noori Abdul-Rahim Ibrahim announced that
"Iraqi authorities have agreed with coalition forces to conditionally
release Rihab Rashid Taha on bail." (AP)
But soon afterward, a U.S. Embassy spokesman ruled out any
immediate release. The two female scientists from Saddam's regime "are
in our legal and physical custody. Legal status of these two and many
others is under constant review," (AP)
Following the embassy statement, Iraq's national security adviser,
Kassim Daoud, said that Iraqi judges have ordered the conditional
release of three prisoners in U.S. custody, including one of two women
held by U.S. forces. (WaPo)
"Iraqi judges decided to release them because they didn't have any
evidence. The judges decided on a conditional release. It will not happen
today, tomorrow or the day after tomorrow," he said. (WaPo)
Representatives of the Iraqi government and U.S. coalition forces have
identified a group of about 14 high-value detainees, including Taha, who
may be eligible for release because they are no longer needed for
questioning and do not pose a security threat, a multinational force
official said on condition of anonymity. (AP)
The Iraqi government has already assented to all the names on the list,
the official said. The list has gone to coalition forces and the U.S.
Embassy for final approval. (AP)
The Iraqi government has also made a special request for the release of
Ammash on humanitarian grounds, the official said. ... her case requires
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a Pentagon review. (AP)
After the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad said there would be no immediate
release of either of the two women in U.S. custody, Iraqi Prime
Minister Ayad Allawi said there were no immediate plans to free the
detainees. (AP)
Ayad Allawi, interim Iraqi prime minister, said that any releases had not
yet been decided, and that he has the final decision on any prisoners
who should be released (NYT)
Sources:
New York Times (NYT) Iraqi Officials Say Female Inmate Is to Be Released Washington Post (WaPo)
Two Dozen Killed, 150 Wounded in Iraq BBC Rift over Saddam scientists' fate Associated Press (AP)
U.S.: Iraqi Prisoners Won't Be Released Reuters Hope Fades for UK Iraq Hostage as U.S. Stands Firm
Guardian Chaos surrounds hostage's fate
Bush Iraq policy:
Keeping just how much trouble we're in quiet until Nov. 2. But these days, it
seems that part of the policy is no more successful than the rest of it. Over the
past weeks, the failure of the Bush Iraq policy has become so inescapable that
even John Kerry has noticed it.
Iraq situation gets worse -- very loudly
Spread the word please.
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Open (War) Thread
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Time Horizon
From a recent StratFor piece:
Bush's view is that every alliance must be evaluated in terms of its utility for
the United States and that the United States must pursue its foreign interests,
even if an existing alliance resists it. Kerry appears to be arguing that since
alliances should be seen as permanent institutional frameworks, accepting
limitations on American freedom of action is a small price to pay for retaining
critical international institutions.
...
The real debate has always been between two schools of internationalism. ...
One school looks at the United Nations as a hindrance to the pursuit of national
interest. The other looks at the United Nations as being at the heart of the
national interest.
...
Bush represents the former view; Kerry represents the latter view.
The difference between these views has a relation to the assumed time horizon. It takes time
to build coaltions and functioning international institutions. It takes time to build trust. Long
term partners who trust each other will go along, even when there are some accute
disagreements and no short term benefits. When this trust is broken, like it currently is in
some cases, the wound is usually deep and takes a long time to heal.
BushÂ´s view is relying on short term allies, pressured into duty by short term relative
benefits. Allies exchangable at hoc when needed. KerryÂ´s view relies on long term allies,
were pressure is applied by the threat of changes in long term real benefits. Most non-US
countries traditionally have a long term view.
This short term / long term divergence can be seen in other issues too. The small saving rate
in the US vs. other countries. Houses build for decades from plywood vs. build from stone
to last centuries.
Stratfor continues:
One of the things hurting Kerry is that his view has, in general, been a minority
view in the United States.
Was this the minority view after the second world war? Has this dichotomy change in
recent years? Has the US time horizon shortened?
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Just Guessing
State of the Union Address, January 2003
Our intelligence officials estimate that Saddam Hussein had the materials to
produce as much as 500 tons of sarin, mustard and VX nerve agent.
Remarks by President Bush and Prime Minister Allawi ..., September 2004
Q Right here, Mr. President, thank you. Why do you think the CIA's
assessment of conditions in Iraq are so much at odds with the optimism that
you and Prime Minister Allawi are expressing at the moment?
PRESIDENT BUSH: The CIA laid out a -- several scenarios that said, life
could be lousy, like could be okay, life could be better. And they were just
guessing as to what the conditions might be like. ...
Juan Cole asks the question every voter in the US should be asked: What if what is
happening in Iraq would happen at the appropriate scale in the US and the European Union
would say "freedom and democracy are just around the corner"?
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Peace Plane
Passenger Cat Stevens Gets Plane Diverted
A London-to-Washington flight was diverted to Maine on Tuesday when it
was discovered passenger Yusuf Islam â€” formerly known as singer Cat
Stevens â€” was on a government watch list and barred from entering the
country, federal officials said.
...
Homeland Security Department spokesman Dennis Murphy identified the
passenger as Islam. "He was interviewed and denied admission to the United
States on national security grounds," Murphy said, and would be put on the
first available flight out of the country Wednesday.
Cat Stevens - Peace Train
Now Iâ€™ve been crying lately,
thinking about the world as it is
Why must we go on hating,
why canâ€™t we live in bliss
Cause out on the edge of darkness,
there rides a peace train
Oh peace train take this country,
come take me home again
Context:
Small Kindness
Yusuf Islam
Cat Stevens Lyrics
NYT - U.S. Wants All Air Traveler Files for Security Test
Hattip to reader Harry Chapin
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September 21, 2004
Applause
In todayâ€™s address to the US General Assembly Bush said:
Both the American Declaration of Independence and the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights proclaim the equal value and dignity of every human life.
That dignity is honored by the rule of law, limits on the power of the state,
respect for women, protection of private property, free speech, equal justice,
and religious tolerance.
Some delegates may have read todayâ€™s LA Times: U.S. Probing Alleged Abuse of
Afghans
The dead soldier, identified as Jamal Naseer, a member of the Afghan Army
III Corps, was severely beaten over a span of at least two weeks, according to a
report prepared for the Afghan attorney general. A witness described his
battered corpse as being "green and black" with bruises.
Alleged American mistreatment of the detainees included repeated beatings,
immersion in cold water, electric shocks, being hung upside down and toenails
being torn off, according to Afghan investigators and an internal memorandum
prepared by a United Nations delegation that interviewed the surviving
soldiers.
Some of the Afghan soldiers were beaten to the point that they could not walk
or sit, Afghan doctors and other witnesses said.
Others delegates may have read yesterdayâ€™s Guardian: After Abu Ghraib
Like most Iraqi women, Alazawi is reluctant to talk about what she saw but
says that her brother Mu'taz was brutally sexually assaulted. Then it was her
turn to be interrogated. "The informant and an American officer were both in
the room. The informant started talking. He said, 'You are the lady who funds
your brothers to attack the Americans.' I speak some English so I replied: 'He
is a liar.' The American officer then hit me on both cheeks. I fell to the ground.
Alazawi says that American guards then made her stand with her face against
the wall for 12 hours, from noon until midnight. Afterwards they returned her
to her cell. "The cell had no ceiling. It was raining. At midnight they threw
something at my sister's feet. It was my brother Ayad. He was bleeding from
his legs, knees and forehead. I told my sister: 'Find out if he's still breathing.'
She said: 'No. Nothing.' I started crying. The next day they took away his
body."
Kofi Annans Opening remarks (PDF) included the general theme of the rule of law
beginning in Mesopotamia.
Much of Hammurabiâ€™s code now seems impossibly harsh. But etched into
its tablets are principles of justice that have been recognised, if seldom fully
implemented, by almost every human society since his time:
● Legal protection for the poor.
● Restraints on the strong, so they cannot oppress the weak.
● Laws publicly enacted, and known to all.
That code was a landmark in mankindâ€™s struggle to build an order where,
instead of might making right, right would make might.
...
Yet today the rule of law is at risk around the world.
â€¦
In Iraq, we see civilians massacred in cold blood, â€¦ At the same time, we
have seen Iraqi prisoners disgracefully abused.
...
I believe we can restore and extend the rule of law throughout the world. But
ultimately, that will depend on the hold that the law has on our consciences.
Guess who received warm applause.
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Nuclear Iran
Just as I start to write about Iran and the IAEA, George Monbiot of The Guardian comes up
with much better writing in Proliferation treaty .
Here is the world's most nonsensical job description. Your duty is to work
tirelessly to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons. And to work
tirelessly to encourage the proliferation of the means of building them. This is
the task of the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed El
Baradei.
...
His agency's motto - "Atoms for Peace" - wasn't always a lie. In 1953, when
Eisenhower founded it with his famous speech to the United Nations, people
really seemed to believe that nuclear fission could solve the world's problems.
...
The nuclear powers, he said, "should... make joint contributions from their
stockpiles of normal uranium and fissionable materials" which should then be
given to "the power-starved areas of the world", "to provide abundant electrical
energy". This would give them, he argued, the necessary incentive to forswear
the use of nuclear weapons.
...
Now there are about 20 countries which, as a result of foreign help for their
civilian nuclear programmes, could, if they choose, become nuclear weapons
states within months. When Russia shipped uranium and the technologies
required to build a bomb to Iran, it not only had a right to do so: under the
non-proliferation treaty, it had a duty to do so.
It's not yet clear whether Iran has stepped over the brink. It is plainly enriching
uranium and producing heavy water, which could enable it to build both
uranium- and plutonium-based bombs. But both processes are also legitimate
means of developing materials for nuclear power generation.
...
Both the US and the UK have abandoned their own obligations to disarm, and
appear to be contemplating a new generation of nuclear weapons. Both
governments have also suggested that they would be prepared to use them
pre-emptively. Iran is surrounded by American military bases, and is one of the
two surviving members of the axis of evil. The other one, North Korea, has
been threatening its neighbours with impunity. Why? Because it has the bomb.
If Iran is not developing a nuclear weapons programme, it hasn't
understood the drift of global politics.
Let me add some links to further the point. The International Atomic Energy Agency was
setup after EisenhowerÂ´s speech to the UN General Assembly. Any sovereign country
may sign the IAEA statute and join or leave the organization at its will.
The US pressure on the IAEA and Iran is ridicules, when the US supports Israel not only by
harmless giveaways like 5,000 smart bombs but also by not discussing Israelâ€™s nuclear
weapons at the IAEA. The US also refrains from pressure on South Korea that has, unlike
Iran, broken its IAEA obligation at least twice in recent years.
Other friends of the US suspect of military nuclear ambitions are Japan and Taiwan.
Iran today announced to restart work on machines for enriching uranium. There are legal
duties for IAEA members to support this. There is no legal ground to hinder Iran by any
means.
When Eisenhower initiated "Atoms for Peace", the promise was to help countries to
develop civil nuclear capacity while the military nuclear powers would diminish their
arsenals. Part one of these promises were fulfilled, part two never got traction.
This is the reason why there are Bush Aides Divided on Confronting Iran Over A-Bomb.
There are no good options until the US restrains itself from the US plan for new nuclear
arsenal and gets equal handed and serious about proliferation.
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September 20, 2004
Thread Open
Admission free!
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Battle Ready
You donÂ´t have to agree to send troops into a battle zone, but if troops are send to a battle
zone they should be in a state that serves the purpose. Thomas E. Ricks reports in WaPo
about a battalion of the South Carolina National Guard that yesterday left for Iraq. Their
task in Iraq will be to escort support convoys, i.e. riding shotgun for KBR trucks, in
northern Iraq.
This is an artillery battalion ("They donÂ´t know friend from foe, just valuable targets.")
filled up with a hodgepodge of personal from other units. The last two month they were
retrained to military police and infantry tasks.
During this time they:
- were on duty and training 7 days a week usually more than 12 hours a day
- had only one leave of 36 hours total on Labour Day
- were not allowed to wear civilian cloth, even when off duty
- had fights between soldiers
- were barred to leave their rooms when off duty since Labour Day
- had a high rate of AWOL and other incidents.
The share of National Guards and Reserve troops in Iraq will increase during the current
rotation with more call ups for Guard troops coming. Moral of troops in Iraq is already low
and with these new troops coming in, it will sink to the bottom. How can you expect these
troops to fight in a classic guerrilla war? You can not and sending them is a crime in and of
itself regardless of the any underlying reason for the war.
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Tips for More Tip
Science based lesson for my stepsonÂ´s after school job. When serving in a restaurant:
● make sure you are seen as an individual
❍ wear something that makes you distinguishable from other waiters/waitresses
❍ introduce yourself to your guests by name
❍ entertain the customer with simple jokes or puzzles
● recognize customer as individual
❍ call customers by name
❍ squat next to the table so you are on eye level and more intimate with the
customer
❍ repeat customers order, slightly mimicry customers tone and behaviour
❍ briefly touch the customer, preferable at the shoulder
● tips increase with bill size, so itÂ´s sell, sell, sell
❍ suggest appetizer
❍ check during dinner for new rounds of drinks
❍ suggest dessert
● make paying the check enjoyable
❍ forcast good weather
❍ write Thank You on check
❍ draw little pictures on check
❍ use tip trays with credit card emblem
● give customers candy or chocolates
Megatips (PDF)
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September 19, 2004
Jim Toweys Insurgency
by anna missed
For those watching the radar screen on the movements of our own religious insurgency
stateside would have noticed that GWBushes own â€œgeneralâ€• Jim Towey, director of
the White House Office of Faith Based and Community Initiatives, has received $1.5 billion
war chest funds through GWBâ€™s own Executive Order.
Towey has put these funds to work, opening offices now in the Deptâ€™s of Commerce,
Education, Health and Human Services, Urban Development, Justice, Labor, Agriculture,
Veterans Affairs, and the Agency for International Development, and the Small Business
Administration. He also has revised Dept. of Labor rules that exempt religious
organizations from provisions of the Civil Rights Act that forbid discrimination in
employment based on religion. One could presume that the infiltration of government
ministries with that other kind of ministry may preclude a sneak attack on the 1st
Amendment.
While we know Towey gave opening remarks, last year to Reverend â€œthe separation of
religion and politics, is what satan likes bestâ€• Moonâ€™s Unification Churches 3 day
God and World Peace celebration -- a lesser known interview with televangelist Robert
Shuller may be more telling -- as to future tactics.
At Shullers Crystal Cathedral Ministry:
J.Towey, â€œover the decades there was this idea that there should be this
strict separation of church and state, that what we banished the faith based
organization, the faith voice from the public squareâ€•.
R.Shuller, â€œthat is a face of extremismâ€•
J.Towey, â€œyes sirâ€•
R.Shuller, â€œextremismâ€•
...
R.Shuller,â€•well I think thereâ€™s loads of possibilities and opportunities for
this church, which is so powerful at the freeway hub of one of the great
counties of the world to do more than itâ€™s ever done, we have always been
undercapitalized, with running a television program and buildings, all of which
is history for us now. We are facing our next 50 years now and we want to
become the most effective church in really changing our society where there
really hurting, so lets work together, okay?â€•
J.Towey,â€• that's a great idea, thank youâ€•
And it should also be mentioned that Shullers Crystal Cathedral Ministries â€œHour of
Powerâ€• church services has recently been chosen by the US Armed Forces Radio and
Television Network to be broadcast to cities and bases in over 165 countries worldwide and
to all ships at sea.
Among the many implications set forth here, I wonder, if the last man to leave Iraq and then
seek help for PTS at the local VA-- will simply be given cab fare to the nearest annex of the
Crystal Cathedral?
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September 18, 2004
Chain of Evil
Moon-fly Emereton cited in the Weekend Open Thread Bill Moyers speech at the Society
of Professional Journalists conference. Moyers explains the danger of the Rapture believers.
These true believers subscribe to a fantastical theology concocted in the l9th
century by a couple of immigrant preachers who took disparate passages from
the Bible and wove them into a narrative millions of people believe to be
literally true.
According to this narrative, Jesus will return to earth only when certain
conditions are met: when Israel has been established as a state; when Israel
then occupies the rest of its â€œbiblical lands;â€• when the third temple has
been rebuilt on the site now occupied by the Dome of the Rock and Al Aqsa
mosques; and, then, when legions of the Antichrist attack Israel. This will
trigger a final showdown in the valley of Armageddon during which all the
Jews who have not converted will be burned. Then the Messiah returns to
earth.
Bin Laden, as many others in the Middle East, sees a connection.
OBL tape Feb. 2003 (BBC)
We are following up with great interest and extreme concern the crusaders'
preparations for war to occupy a former capital of Islam, loot Muslims' wealth,
and install an agent government, which would be a satellite for its masters in
Washington and Tel Aviv, just like all the other treasonous and agent Arab
governments.
This would be in preparation for establishing the Greater Israel.
The Iraq occupation, in preparation for establishing the Greater Israel, has happend. Step 2
is starting now.
The petition, which termed evacuating settlements "a crime against humanity,"
a "national crime" and "a clearly illegal act," urged soldiers to "listen to the
voice of their national and human conscience."
...
"In light of the Sharon government's intent to destroy communities in the land
of Israel and deliver them into the hands of the enemy, to violently uproot their
residents and expel them, we declare that this expulsion and uprooting are a
national crime and a crime against humanity, a display of tyranny, wickedness
and arbitrariness, whose goal is to deprive Jews of their right to live in their
land, merely because they are Jews. ..."
Rightists say evacuation is a crime against humanity (Haaretz)
Leon Wieseltier discusses this in Extirpation (TNR - free reg. req.)
It has been argued, and persuasively, that the movement to settle and hold land
captured in 1967, in particular the West Bank and Gaza Strip, has changed
Orthodox Judaism more profoundly than any event since the Holocaust.
Respected rabbis based in New York have issued Halakhic decrees forbidding
any Jew from ceding even an inch of soil of the Old Testament land of Israel.
...
The parallel talk of Holocaust and Armageddon has sparked debate within
Israel on the dangers of disengagement versus the risks of a concussive Jewish
backlash.
...
"We sense that the level of threat to the Temple Mount from the standpoint of
extreme and fanatic Jewish elements carrying out a terrorist attack in order to
'reshuffle the cards,' to serve as a catalyst to a change in the entire political
initiative [the disengagement process] - this level has risen in recent months
and more so in recent weeks."
...
Speaking of the extremists dream to remove the "abomination" as they call it,
from the Temple Mount, [Shin Bet chief Avi] Dichter declared that Jewish
terror could pose a significant strategic threat to Israel as well as the Jews of
the Diaspora, "turning the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians into a
confrontation between 13 million Jews and one billion Muslims around the
world."
Is Jewish terror next? (Haaretz)
Osama agrees with Avi.
OBL tape Jan. 2004 (BBC)
There is also the fierce attempt to destroy the al-Aqsa Mosque and destroy the
jihad and the mujahideen in beloved Palestine by employing the trick of the
roadmap and the Geneva peace initiative.
The Americans' intentions have also become clear in statements about the need
to change the beliefs, curricula and morals of the Muslims to become more
tolerant, as they put it.
In clearer terms, it is a religious-economic war.
The occupation of Iraq is a link in the Zionist-crusader chain of evil.
The second World War can be seen as a fight between one fanatic ideology against the rest
of the world. Now we see a devolping conflict between three fanatic religious ideologies.
Two of these are in a temporary coaltion against the third one which probably has the larger
base. The ideologic religious geographic stripline between the camps coincidents with the
economic striplines of control over oil and water. The chances to stop this
religious-economic war may be small. But we better try to break this Chain of Evil.
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September 17, 2004
Weekends Open Thread
Suggestive Content: Use at Your Own Risk!
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Kick Ass
New Blood at Heart of Kerry Campaign reports The Washington Post. The media echo on
the Kerry campaign is slightly better now, so this may have been the decisive. At least there
are some punch lines:
"Dick Cheney got $2 million. What did we get?" the ad's narrator says. "A
$200 billion bill for Iraq, lost jobs, rising health care costs. It's time for a new
direction."
"You deserve a president who will not play politics with national security, who
will not ignore his own intelligence while living in a fantasy world of spin ..."
Still Kerrys speech style is terrible.
Sentences - too long, thought chains - too long, wording - pompous. This will not win Joe
Sixpack and Larry Lawnmower over BushÂ´s good/evil - with us/against us style.
Campaigning is marketing, not an Oxford debate.
Explain KerryÂ´s position on Iraq in three short sentences? Impossible. What the f... is the
campaign staff doing? Is Kerry listening to them?
All Bush enemies try to help
● The CIA sends an unrequested National Intelligence Estimate to the White House
and leaks the content to the press.
●
Annan emphasizes the war was illegal
●
David Kay saying "we were almost all wrong" and the final reports come without
WMDs in Iraq
General Conway accusing the administration to have screwed the marines in
Fallujah.
But this is still not enough and it is uncoordinated.
●
On the other side the messages stick. Next week Prince Allawi (or as koreyel suggests The
Thug (formerly known as Prince) will address Congress and the UN. Rove will make sure
that the right 10-seconds-points are made on TV. Only a real big incident in Iraq could spoil
their effect. Then comes the October surprise - Iran? Syria? A terror incident? Who knows,
but for sure there is an ace somewhere.
Kerry is much too presidential. Âáy man, set the champagne glass aside and grab a beer.
Kick ass!
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Good News
GOOD NEWS!
CNN: Ford ups guidance
MSNBC: Ford raises earnings outlook
Reuters: Ford lifts profit forecasts
Newsday: Ford Raises Quarter, Full-Year Outlook
Bloomberg: Ford Boosts Third-Quarter Earnings Forecast to 10C-15C/Share
That is interesting. Should I add Ford to my portfolio?
The Ford Press Statement is upbeat, but in their presentation slides there are some small
caveats.
● Volume has grown, but less than expected
● External environment has deteriorated
● Jaguar sales have not lived up to expectation
But on the financial side, earnings forecast is 10c/share* higher for the quarter and the year.
Total earnings in 2004 will be about $1.95* per share. In the Q2 report Ford expected
earnings for 2004 to be only $1.85**. That is a positive trend.
But what are these asterisks?
*excluding special items of 25c per share
**excluding special items of 8c per share
Oh, guidance in the Q2 was $1.85 minus 8 cent special items. Guidance in Q3 is $1.95
minus 25 cent special items. The boost Bloomberg headlines is minus $0.07 per share.
Ford is loosing money with each car they make. Profits come only from lending to
consumers. With rising interest rates, record consumer debt, problems with Jaguar and 4%
lower earnings projections maybe thatÂ´s not a BUY. But then:
Ford shares added 37 cents, or 2.7%, to $14.32 in premarket trading Friday.
Sigh!
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Ready, Aim, Focus
by koreyel
Bob Herbert of the NYT continues to smash the Bush Administration with nearly divine
inspiration.
His latest seems almost like an artful montage of paragraphs borrowed from the Moon of
Alabama.
It is rare to see a columnist be so deadly blunt:
Although he died bravely, Lieutenant VandeGeer's death was as senseless as
those of the 58,000 who died before him in the fool's errand known as
Vietnam.
And then this:
Since we learned nothing from Vietnam, we are doomed to repeat its agony,
this time in horrifying slow-motion in Iraq.
Fool's errand... We learned nothing... we are doomed to repeat its agony.
Wow. Herbert's pen is as far from elite as it is from effete. He can flat out write when he
gets irked up.
Along these lines I sense that the rage at Bush's Iraq-mess is regaining traction. The reality
that the war is going badly is leaking with a steady hiss into the mainstream. Anger is
redoubling. People are wearing red on Fridays because they are seething red everyday of
the week.
Anger is a powerful human force. It can move elections.
Think of it this way: there are probably at least 3 billion people who wake up everyday
damning the very names of Bush and Cheney. That's a lot of semi-focused consciousness.
Would that we could all coordinate our thoughts at one chosen time and chant a select
group of powerful mantras. I suspect... Bush-Cheney would break out in hives, if not shrivel
up and blow away. As it is, our semi-focused rage may be enough to sweep these criminals
into history's ashcan.
So keep on keeping on. Wear red. Feel red. You have the right and the duty to be enraged.
Focus your anger like a laser beam on the right foreheads. They've earned your wrath, your
disgust, and your condemnation.
Be beautifully furious. Justice may depend upon your rage.
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September 16, 2004
Just In Time
BBC Annan Interview
Q: So you don't think there was legal authority for the war?
A: I have stated clearly that it was not in conformity with the Security Council
- with the UN Charter.
Q: It was illegal?
A: Yes, if you wish.
Q: It was illegal?
A: Yes, I have indicated it is not in conformity with the UN Charter, from our
point of view and from the Charter point of view it was illegal.
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Hope as a Budget Item
Last year the US Congress answered the administrationÂ´s "urgent request" by agreeing on
$18.4 billion non military spending for Iraq. By now $1.14 billion have been urgently
spend. Yesterday the administration asked Congress to move $3.46 billon of the US
pledged money to security - that at least is what you will hear in the news.
In a first step the Senate Foreign Relation committee yesterday moved $150 million dollar
from the Iraq pot to "help victims of violence and famine in the Darfur region of Sudan".
This may pay for the American military personnel working with African Union monitors in
the Sudanese region of Darfur to help bring the attacking militias under control and restore
security to the area - i.e. for illegal interference in a foreign sovereign country by military
means.
The actual State Department request has some details not reflect in the news.
- Water and sewer treatment projects will be reduced by 45%.
- Electricity project funding will be reduced by 20%.
- Refined Oil Purchases, i.e. subsidy for private Iraqi gas and petroleum needs, will be
reduced by $450 million.
This will make for some happy Iraqis this winter - sitting in the dark, no petroleum in their
heaters and sipping cold tea made with contaminated water.
But there is hope. The money will now be spent more wisely.
$1.8 billion will go to security - 45,000 additional police, 16,000 new border control and
20,000 additional Iraqi national guards. The capacity for the 8 week training course for new
policemen is planed to double to 5,300 academy slots. Sometime from now 31,800 per year
may be able to receive training.
Oil capacity enhancement - urgently needed to turn down the insurgency - will get
additional $450 million. Questions about these new contracts shall be directed to the Vice
PresidentÂ´s office.
Unspecified economic development goes for $380 million, accelerated employment gets
$286 million and democracy and governance can be bought for $180 million.
A nice chunk of $360 million will go to debt reduction. Sounds fuzzy? ABC news explains:
Some $360 million will be set aside to cover the "budget cost" of forgiving 95
percent of Iraqi debt to the United States incurred during the Iraq War.
Citibank would be proud of this scheme.
During the Congress hearing Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Iraq, Ronald
Schlicher, claimed the DoDÂ´s prize for the best new weapon technology.
"In short, one of our main weapons against the insurgents is the hope and the
creation of more hope," he said. "When Iraqis have hope for the future and real
opportunities, they will reject those who advocate violence."
Hope is now an official budget item.
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September 15, 2004
Tin Foil Hat in Jail
In July I wrote a piece Tin Foil Hat Required about "Jack" Idema and friends torturing and
running a private prison in Kabul, Afghanistan.
Today Idema and his folks were sentenced to 10 years in comfortable Afghan prison cells.
Soj of Flogging the Simian has researched and written extensively on the issue. The story
makes most spy / terror / comedy fiction look like scientific papers. Take some time to
follow her trail.
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Ivan Lashes the Gulf
Reuters:
Ivan, a large storm, started to lash the Gulf, disrupting the regions oil and
natural gas production and import.
Ivan the Terrible was
a man who believed himself chosen to save the souls of his people, but who
brutally put thousands to death ...
...
Ivan had huge ambitions for his new Imperial dynasty. He launched a holy war
... showing no mercy to these Muslim peoples and decimating their cultural
heritage. Ivan's conquest ... gave birth to a ... personality cult glorifying him as
the Orthodox crusader.
Please stay away from various Ivans.
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One Month Ago ...
... Billmon went "to be off on a boat for a week or so". I have no idea what happened to him
since - letÂ´s just hope he is well.
This site was created to carry comments on BillmonÂ´s posts after he turned off comments
at the Whiskey Bar. Here well used Open Threads were added, as were some posts from
fellow bar flies and my rants. This morning someone commented:
seems like less and less posts lately. i'm not on the same scale of intellect as
most of you but i wanted to let you know i check this site several times daily
and do really appreciate your insight. some of the best links to info also.
thanks!
The Whiskey Annex has hardly traffic anymore and here at the Moon Of Alabama traffic
dropped from some 1,200 hits per day to less than 1,000. Worse, comments to hits ratio has
halved from some 8% to 4%. Without Billmon or more active participation from the bar
flies this site looses its purpose.
I do not have the talent, cultivation, knowledge, background and time to create the content
needed to keep this side running all by myself. If you see value in keeping the Moon
shining please contribute.
You may want to write several short pieces a week and post them here. Drop me a note and
you will have a posting account. You may like to write a piece just once a while and have it
posted - send it via email and I will take care of it (address on the About page).
If writing posts doesnâ€™t fit you, please comment. Letâ€™s know your thoughts and
feelings, drop some links, suggest discussions - itâ€™s what keeps this site going. And if
you find something valuable here, let it be known elsewhere too.
However, thanks for visiting and your participation.
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Off Topics - Open Thread
for you convenience ... please share your news and views
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As Stupid as It Gets
Talafar in north western Iraq is primarily inhabited by Turkmen, an ethnic minority in Iraq.
The city of some 155,000 was under the Northern No-Fly Zone US and British forces set up
after the first Gulf War to protect Northern Iraq from SaddamÂ´s Air Force. From May
2000 on, after receiving some anti-aircraft artillery fire from around Talafar coalition forces
started to drop bombs.
On 16 June 2001 a missile hit a soccer field in the town while a game was under way killing
23 people. Iraqis blamed the coalition forces, US military sources said the explosion was
not due to a US-British airstrike, but an errant surface-to-air missile.
The US forces around Talafar are allied with the Iraqi Security Forces, which in the north
are nearly exclusively Kurdish Peshmerga fighters. As Juan Cole reports :
The US wanted the TÃ¼rkmen security forces of Telafer [obviously they are
governing themselves] to make searches in some houses. The TÃ¼rkmen
security forces rejected this since they knew the people, who were also
TÃ¼rkmen. Upon US insistance on the operation, the security chief of Telafar
stepped back and the US appointed a Kurd, Hurshit Hasso as security chief,
who immediatley started the operation using support of Kurdish troops from
Zaho and Erbil. These troops participated as Iraqi Security forces. Now much
of the civilian population is in the Kamber valley and are afraid that the Kurds
will bring their families along, settle for good and thus change the balance for
the national census in Iraq, which is to be held on Oct 12.
From the Turkmen and Turkish perspective this is a power and land grab scheme of the
Kurds, supported by US forces. In the last two weeks the US forces put TallÀfar under
siege and bombed parts of the city. Some 100 people are reported to have died and some
50,000 have fleed from the city to the country side. The US troops than barred the refugees
from returning to the city.
The Washington Post describes how an obviously Kurdish informer is leading US troops to
harass the Turkmen population.
The Iraqi known as "The Source" slipped the borrowed U.S. military fatigues
over his clothes in the back of the armored personnel carrier. He donned a
black ski mask that covered everything but his eyes.
He stepped out of the back of the vehicle and addressed the interpreter who
would in turn address the company commander who would lead the search for
terrorists this day.
"The village. He wants you to arrest all the men in the village," the interpreter
told Army Capt. Eric Beaty, commander of Company C, 5th Battalion, 20th
Infantry Regiment.
"They're all bad?" Beaty asked.
The interpreter consulted The Source. "Yes, all bad," he said.
...
"You have the right to remain silent," one soldier told an uncomprehending
detainee in English. "Anything you say will result in a punch in the face."
...
"All of the village, they are terrorists," The Source told two journalists after he
finished.
Asked how he knew, he said: "I have one guy here, and he passed along the
information to me."
Asked how he could be sure, he said: "Yes, they are terrorists. They all have
the long beard. They had the beard, but some of them they shaved."
The Source declined to give his name. He then asked: "Is the commander
going to pay me any money? If you are an informant, they are supposed to give
you money."
The Turkish government has send a strict ultimatum to the US saying if operations continue
in Talafar "Turkey's cooperation on issues regarding Iraq will come to a total stop" and "Of
course we wonâ€™t limit ourselves to words. We never shy away from carrying out
whatever is necessary.â€•. Such a step would deny the US the important use of the airbase
of Incirlic in Turkey and stop any supply coming through Turkey to US troops in northern
Iraq. The Turkish opposition parties have taken an even harder stance. The US now caved
in to this and Turkmen people are allowed back to Talafar.
The complete lack of knowledge of the US commanders to the obvious power schemes and
ethnic sensitivities is incredible. Aside from that, the dependency on Turkish support is a
sine qua non to their further operations in northern Iraq. To endanger this support is as
stupid as is gets. The atmosphere in the command ranks of course trickles down the ranks
leading to the maddening behaviour of the troops on the ground and the loss of any support
in the population.
Lord, please let it rain brain.
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September 14, 2004
Hole in the Pocket
U.S. Q2 current account deficit widens to $166 billion
The U.S. current account deficit widened to a record $166.2 billion in the
second quarter from $147.2 billion in the first quarter, the Commerce
Department estimated Tuesday
The deficit increased to a record 5.7 percent of gross domestic product during
the June quarter
The current account deficit is the broadest measure of the nation's economic
balance sheet with the rest of the world. It encompasses both trade and capital
flows.
Thanks to the US of A for the transfer of $166 billion in U.S. financial assets, stocks,
bonds, etc to foreign countries. LetÂ´s hope they will use it wisely.
Usually forgotten in the comments and calculations - the interest, dividends, and capital
gains earned on these assets in subsequent years will go to foreigners and will therefore
largely escape US taxation.
This years new transfer to foreigners will be over $600 billion. Even if foreigners may only
get a meager 3% dividend on this, there will be $18 billion of US generated profits per year
in the forseeable future that will not be taxed in the US but will help other nations budgets.
There is a big hole in the pocket of Uncle Sam and someone will need to fix this.
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Unblurred Slogan
Rush Limbaugh Becomes Official Unpaid Advisor to Bush-Cheney '04
I have become, and have been for a while, an official, unpaid advisor to the
Bush-Cheney '04 campaign, and we decided to go public with this because
there's no problem with it whatsoever.
...
There's no conflict here. There's absolutely no conflict whatsoever. The line
has been successfully blurring now for years and years and years.
Please help Rush in his old/new unblurred capacity. Find a special line for his old/new
unblurred poster. Submit your entries in the comments section and you'll have a chance to
win todayÂ´s grand prize - an all-expenses-paid three night stay at Abu Ghraib (cold water
showers standard, warm water is extra).
May the best win.
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Russia Centralizes
Putin is severly tightening the central grip on the 89 entities that make up todays Russia.
Putin proposed, first, to scrap direct gubernatorial elections, replacing them
with a system in which the president submits nominees to regional legislatures
for approval. He also called for doing away with first-past-the-post contests for
the State Duma; instead, the lower house is to be composed exclusively of
candidates elected from party lists. (Moscow Times Report and Editorial)
Putin sees the ramified democratic and federal structures as endangering the state. As a
consequence he is recreating the traditional centralism of Russia and seems to do so within
the consens of the majority. He has also inititated two additional major policy changes. First
Putin appointed his confidant and Cabinet chief of staff Dmitry Kozak as the
head of a new federal commission that will try to get at the roots of terrorism
by tackling poverty and poor education in the North Caucasus.
and second
Putin, reiterating threats by senior military officials last week, said the military
is ready to carry out preemptive strikes on terrorist bases anywhere in the
world.
The first measure will be positive, if Putin manages to put enough money behind it and if he
is able to this over long years. The second is a clear warning to the US. Stay out of our
sphere, or we will hit back - chess is our national sport, we know how to play it.
Is all of this positive? My gut feeling is yes. The Russian people were disenfranchised by
the breakdown of the Sowjet imperium. The Yelzin wodka induced anarchie did put
Russias wealth into the hand of a small class of oligarchs. Live expectations did sink from
65.0 years in 1987 to 57.3 in 1994. Infant mortality did increase from 17.6 per 1000 in 1990
to 20.3 in 1993. The state nearly dissolved and crime took over.
Since 1999 the economy is back on track and the state stabilizes. Fortunatly the Sowjet
Union dissolved without much bloodshed, relations with neighbor states are tolerable. The
next step Russia will have to take is to consolidate its strategic independence and clean the
internal social mess. It chances to do so are quite good as it is economically self sufficient
and the low birth rate insures imperial ambitions are contained.
In the typical Russian family all sons are equal. Emmanuel Todd sees this as the base of a
Russian universalism in contrast to the individualism most western cultures have
developed. Maybe it is also the inherited base for the steps Putin is taking now.
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September 13, 2004
Election Campaign
Thucydides comments about the election campaign:
Words had to change their ordinary meaning and to take that which was now
given them. Reckless audacity came to be considered the courage of a loyal
ally; prudent hesitation, specious cowardice; moderation was held to be a cloak
for unmanliness; ability to see all sides of a question, inaptness to act on any.
...
The advocate of extreme measures was always trustworthy; his opponent a
man to be suspected. To succeed in a plot was to have a shrewd head, to divine
a plot a still shrewder; but to try to provide against having to do either was to
break up your party and to be afraid of your adversaries.
...
The fair proposals of an adversary were met with jealous precautions by the
stronger of the two, and not with a generous confidence. Revenge also was
held of more account than self-preservation.
...
The cause of all these evils was the lust for power arising from greed and
ambition; and from these passions proceeded the violence of parties once
engaged in contention.
...
Meanwhile the moderate part of the citizens perished between the two, either
for not joining in the quarrel, or because envy would not suffer them to escape.
The History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides
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September 12, 2004
Baghdad Fighting
Here are pictures from todayÂ´s morning fights in Baghdad. 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.
The pictures were taken by Gaith, a friend of Iraq Blogger Salam Pax (old blog, new blog).
Gaith reports 20 dead and 48 wounded. According to AljazeeraÂ´s report, an Iraqi
photographer working for Getty Images were also wounded slightly by flying shrapnel.
Gaith looks ok though. Good, we need these pictures.
Yesterday Gaith made a picture showing AllawiÂ´s hand bandaged because he broke his
hand when he banged a table during an argument with an aid. Was he talking with
Negroponte? Maybe, but then, that aid relationship is supposed to be the other way round.
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DoesnÂ´t Rank Up
In his new book Seymore Hersh claims that in late 2002 a CIA analyst, FBI agents and a
military lawyer at GuantÃ¡namo reported to the Defense Department about prisoner abuses.
The reports went up to the level of Condoleezza Rice and Rumsfeld. Nothing was done. In
late 2003 a military officer in Iraq reported abuses in Abu Ghraib directly to General
Abizaid and his deputy. Again, nothing was done.
Meanwhile the Department of Defense preemptivly issues a statement claiming that:
Mr. Seymor Hershâ€™s upcoming book apparently contains many of the
numerous unsubstantiated allegations and inaccuracies which he has made in
the past based upon unnamed sources.
But thatâ€™s just the sideshow. To Rumsfeld it is more important to look at the differences
between various abuses and killings. He does so when he says:
Does it rank up there with chopping off someone's head on television? It
doesn't. It doesn't.
Chopping off someoneâ€™s head or struck[ing the detainee] in the head with the butt of a
gun so he dies seem to have similar outcomes. Why do they differ in ranking?
The difference in RumsfeldÂ´s mind must be in the words "on television". Showing the first
murder recorded on TV rather then to just take fun pictures of the dead like after the second
is the nuance that ranks the incidents. It is not deeds, itâ€™s the type of reporting done on
them that makes them harmful.
Thanks to Mr. Rumsfeld we can now see the difference between defined terrorism (PDF),
politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets, and the firing
from helicopters into civilian crowds. Whatever is reported on TV ranks up.
Dear Seymore Hersh, dear Aljazerra, please the reports coming.
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September 11, 2004
Thread Open
news and opinions...
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Paciencia y barajar
The reminiscence of the twin towers fades into background leaving room for perversities
like the above and the Wars on Terra that are brought on us in the name of the 9/11 victims
and other terror prey. Let us not be duped into such suppressions.
Spanish author Javier MarÃ-as writes:
It's also certainly true that for most of us, not a day goes by without
remembering the almost 200 victims of March 11, with pain and a keen
awareness that chance, fate and bad luck continue to be as important today as
they were in humanity's less foreseeing epochs.
Here in Spain, we don't feel as if we are at war because we aren't. And neither
are the inhabitants of the United States, however vociferously many Americans
may insist that they are.
...
There is no war against terrorism. There can be no such thing against an enemy
that remains dormant most of the time and is almost never visible. It's simply
another of life's inevitable troubles, and all we can do as we continue to
combat it is repeat Cervantes's famous phrase "Paciencia y barajar": "Have
patience, and keep shuffling the cards."
There is no such thing as a war on terrorism
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September 10, 2004
Two Planets Earth
There seems to be a more and more different apperception of todayÂ´s world in the United
States and the Rest of the World.
Compare the new Washington Post/ABC News poll numbers, with Bush leading Kerry by
52% to 43%, and the Pipa international poll where Kerry has a 46% to 20% lead.
One may diagnose that American exceptionalism is evolving into autism. Some behaviour
looks increasingly to fit the symptoms and as the individual numbers are increasing rapidly,
the nation may be just following the trend.
But then, maybe there are just two planets Earth circling the sun.
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September 09, 2004
Ban on Coke Expires
Section 110101 of the Â´Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994Â´ will
expire in four days. In the 2000 campaign Bush was expected to reauthorize the law. During
his confirmation hearing in January 2001 Attorney General John Ashcroft was also
supportive:
FEINSTEIN: Will you support its reauthorization when it sunsets in 2004?
ASHCROFT: It is my understanding that the president-elect of the United
States has indicated his clear support for extending the cocaine ban, and I
would be pleased to move forward with that position and to support that as a
policy of this president and as a policy of the Justice Department.
Now letÂ´s tune in to the September 8th Whitehouse Press Gaggle with Scott McClellan
Q The sale and purchase ban on cocaine expires in just a few days. Can you
list for us the many things the President might be doing to encourage Congress
to send him the bill that he said he would sign?
MR. McCLELLAN: The President's views have been made very clear, and the
best way we can reduce drug abuse is to strictly enforce our laws. And
prosecutions under this administration are up. I think it's -- well, it's more than
60 percent -- I think 68 percent over the previous administration. That's the
best way to crack down on drugs. That's an important issue here in terms of the
cocaine sale and purchase ban. He's made his views very well-known.
Q And his view is he'll sign it if -MR. McCLELLAN: He's made his views known as recently as this week.
Q His view is he'll sign it if it comes to him. Is he doing anything to make sure
he --
MR. McCLELLAN: The President supports the reauthorization of current law.
Q What is he doing to actively make sure -- is he doing anything to make sure
he -MR. McCLELLAN: The President doesn't set the congressional timetable.
Q No, but he can lobby for it.
MR. McCLELLAN: Congress sets the timetable. And the President's views are
very clear.
Q Has he made any calls or anything to encourage this to happen?
MR. McCLELLAN: What we've continued to do -- because this issue does go
to the issue of abuses committed with drugs, as well -- and what we've
continued to do is step up our efforts to prosecute abuses committed with drugs
and strictly enforce our laws. And that's the best way we can deter abuses
committed with drugs.
Q But he did something this week?
Q But he's not doing anything to make sure this doesn't lapse on the 13th?
MR. McCLELLAN: We'll continue to make our views known.
Somehow related links:
Beretta Magazine Promotion
'Bush doped to relate to women'
"Officer Down"
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September 08, 2004
Addictive Oil
by DeAnander (posted earlier on Open Thread)
To understand oil as an addictive substance requires, I think, an historical critique of energy
consumption. Illich's analysis of "energy slaves" as a substitute for human slavery might be
a good place to start ("Energy and Equity" iirc). To consume fuels of some sort for cooking,
for staying warm in winter, for making pottery, for smoking meat and fish, etc. is a long
human tradition, just as it's a long human tradition to ferment the juice of whatever's handy
and make some kind of tipple. Many cultures/people can handle their tipple all right, and
integrated it into a healthy community life. However, alcoholism as an addictive behaviour
pattern does exist, is well-attested, and causes harm; and imho petro-addiction also exists
and is a major cause of various kinds of harm in our contemporary world.
An America in which the average person is said to walk less than one mile in an entire year
-- where people use their cars to drive down their driveways and pick up the mail in the
mailbox -- where children are ferried two blocks to school in 6000 lb SUVs -- where
motorised tie racks, garden hose reels, etc. are viable consumer goods -- is an America
aspiring to the indolent lifestyle of kings and pharaohs, supported by an infinite supply of
energy slaves. This I would call addiction: the teenager who whines that he "can't walk"
three whole blocks, the American family that drives its 4 bikes on the back of its SUV 10
miles round trip to go for a 2 mile ride in a park; the American who easily racks up 20,000
Frequent Flyer miles every year, the 3-person family living in a 5000 sq ft home with 3
freezers and 5 TVs... in consumer culture there is no such thing as "enough". The very daily
fabric of many people's lives has become dependent on consuming a hugely
disproportionate amount (globally speaking), and an ever increasing amount, of a finite
resource. (cf Affluenza, Shovelling Fuel for a Runaway Train, Luxury Fever and other
critiques of the "infinite consumption" culture).
We can consume anything in quantities or in ways that match the pattern of
abuse/excess/harm that we call 'addiction' -- be it alcohol or other drugs, food, sex, or
energy. The main qualities of addiction are that: (a) the consumption is excessive, and
returns are diminishing so that more and more must be consumed to get the same thrill, (b)
there is harm to self and others, and that harm is staunchly denied, (c) the desperate need for
the consumable causes a rotting of moral fibre such that the addict is willing to sacrifice
probity, honour, ideals in order to feed the habit.
I think we can see the pattern of excess in ever-escalating energy consumption as a marker
of "affluence" [imho actually of laziness and stupidity, but that's a minority opinion] in
American consumer culture; in the staunch denial of harm (environmental damage, toxicity,
global warming, road danger and vehicular manslaughter, etc); and in the amount of power
and criminal behaviour permitted to the "dealer" (the oil cartels and oil-mafia families like
the House of Bush and the House of Saud, not to mention the House of Rice, the House of
Cheney, the House of Lay and many others). America's smash-n-grab raid on the gas station
that is Iraq very much resembles, to this jaundiced eye, a similar attack by any junkie on
any ready source of drug money in any grimy inner city on Earth.
Consuming water can also take a similar path when water is scarce enough to be valuable
and is squandered by an affluent few as a means of displaying status. We might say that in
this case it's the display of status that's addictive, not the water itself; perhaps the same is
true of petroleum, since (except for a few loonie gas-fume sniffers of school age) no one
really drinks or snorts the stuff direct. But as a metaphor, addiction seems to me a fairly
good fit for the dysfunctional relationship currently obtaining between Americans and other
G7 dwellers, and the fossil fuel on which their profligate lifestyle is based. Like winos
struggling in the gutter over the last of the bottle, we seem ready to humiliate ourselves and
roll in any dirt, not to mention gouge the other guy's eyes out and kick him in the kneecaps
and nuts, in order to get that last gulp. It's a pathetic [imho] and degrading spectacle.
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Fresh Open Thread
Thanks to everybody who participated in the last one - quite profound thoughts.
Two housekeeping remarks:
- I have no idea if and when Billmon will post again.
- Currently I hardly find time to write - if you have some thoughts worthwhile to post,
please drop me an email.
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Pre-emptive
Often when being a terrorist is one side of the coin, being a freedom fighter is the other one.
China and Taiwan, Israel and Palestine, Russia and the US may look at different sides of
the same coin. If everybody now declares pre-emptive strikes as part of their tool box, we
will indeed live in interesting times.
"As for launching pre-emptive strikes on terrorist bases, we will carry out all
measures to liquidate terrorist bases in any region of the world," General Yuri
Baluevsky, chief of Russia's general staff, said, according to Russian news
agencies.
But donÂ´t be afraid, the General is severly restricting the Russian use of force against
terrorism.
"However, this does not mean that we will launch nuclear strikes."
Russia ready to strike against 'terror' worldwide
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September 07, 2004
Awareness
Reading todayâ€™s New York Times, Washington Post and LA Times, incidents in Iraq
seem slightly underreported. Tracking other sources there is current news about some 91
Iraqi dead and 289 injured and 17 US dead with at least 4 injured.
NYT reports 7 U.S. Marines and 3 Iraqis Are Killed in a Car Bomb Attack - plus 1 dead
and one injured in another attack.
Washington Post identically reports 7 Marines Killed in Blast Near Fallujah - plus 1 dead
and 1 injured in another incident.
LA Times says Suicide Blast Kills 7 Marines and adds 1 dead and 4 injured in other places.
Now for sure there are some overlaps, double counts and misunderestimatings in the
sources reviewed. Anyhow - if the media wants the US people to have a correct impression
of this warâ€™s proceeding, there should be at least some reporting about Iraqis wounded
and dead. But then - who says they want to do so.
Clashes in Sadr City -- at least 15 killed
Iraqi: 15 dead, 60+ injured; US: 0 dead, several injured
Two killed in attack on Baghdad governor's convoy
Iraqi: 2 dead, 3 injured; US: 0 dead, 0 injured
US soldier killed in roadside bomb attack near Baghdad
Roadside bombing in Baghdad wounds three U-S soldiers
Another ID Soldier Killed In Iraq
Attacks across Iraq leave many dead
Roadside Bomb Blasts Kill 3 U.S. Soldiers in Iraq
U.S. Forces Battle Insurgents, 33 Killed
Iraqi: 33 dead, 193 injured; US: ? dead, several injured
Seven Marines Killed in Fallujah Attack
Iraqi: 3 dead, ? injured; US: 7 dead, ? injured
To keep up awareness why this is important, play a round of September 12th (Flash). It is
really relaxing - if you do it right.
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September 06, 2004
Dead Center
by Koreyel
Christopher Hitchens...ah yes... Christopher Hitchens...
The first time I ever heard this fellow speak (pre 9/11) I was astounded at his acidic
brilliance. Here was someone that not only wrote a good game, but talked a good game.
But, as they say, 9/11 changed everything. Including of course Hitchens.
Suffice it to say: he has certainly remixed his mixed mind since then. One almost expects
now to hear a lugubrious apology to Kissinger blubbering off Hitchens' pen. But then again,
Kissinger went after Vietnamese and Cambodians with his evil geopolitical heart. If only
Kissinger had instead given the hot kiss of death to "Islamofacists." Then I am sure...Hitch
would probably be the first in line to kneel in apology to Kissinger and slurps up his
right-wing jingo-jism.
My main interest in Hitchens these days is to see if his thinking--increasing right wing--has
become increasingly illogical. One would expect that. Here is a clip from one of his latest
pieces...a word-grenade thrown at Kerry:
In what sense, in other words, does his participation in a shameful war qualify
him to be president of the United States? This was a combat of more than 30
years ago, fought with a largely drafted army using indiscriminate tactics and
weaponry against a deep-rooted and long-running domestic insurgency.
(Agent Orange, for example, was employed to destroy the vegetation in the
Mekong Delta and make life easier for the Swift boats.) The experience of
having fought in such a war is absolutely useless to any American today
and has no bearing on any thinkable fight in which the United States
could now become engaged. Thus, only the "character" issues involved are of
any weight, and these are extremely difficult and subjective matters.
Dear Mr. Hitchens,
why was the war against communism any more shameful than this present war against
terrorism? Didn't the commies want to destroy our way of life too? And how has
yesterday's "indiscriminate tactics and weaponry" in Vietnam, differed from today's wanton
destruction of Old Najaf?
Here is a snip from the International Herald Tribune's recent article: In Najaf, the heavy
stench of war:
For every shot they took, American soldiers returned scores or hundreds. For
every mortar round the guerrillas lobbed, gunners at the marine base responded
with a 100-pound artillery shell. The insurgents had donkey carts loaded with
rocket-propelled grenades, the soldierâ€™s 70-ton tanks that can survive direct
hits from mortars.
...
The American advantage was especially large at night, when night-vision
goggles allow soldiers to see in the dark. The two sides have caused uncounted
civilian casualties and inflicted massive damage on the Old City. The area
stinks of sewage and soot, and its streets are filled with rubble from
bombed-out buildings
Your ignorance and rudeness has grown by leaps and bounds since 9/11 Mr. Hitchens. How
else can one explain this quote of yours from the above Slate piece:
"The experience of having fought in such a war is absolutely useless to any
American today..."
As if... the ordeals and horrors a man might experience in the heat of that war have no
bearing on the soul of such a man today.
I mean really Hitch, the only way one can respond to such a global vacuity of understanding
is with modern vernacular: "Whatever." Shame on you Hitchens... when one is blessed with
a sharp wit, to grow older and stupider is the most shameful of crimes.
You really do deserve a shit-pie with a whipping cream of offal, aimed dead center into
your smug face.
TrackBack
September 03, 2004
Open Thread
free for all
TrackBack
Osama Who?
The medias reflections of BushÂ´s acceptance speech (Transcript, Video) is quite cold.
They mostly agree that Bush had some points on national security, but the echo on his
domestic proposels is full of question marks. A press review:
New York Times
Bush Outlines Plan for a 2nd Term and Attacks Kerry's Record
After four days in which speaker after speaker attacked Mr. Kerry's credibility,
credentials and even his patriotism, and focused almost entirely on national
security, Mr. Bush expanded his appeal with a discussion of domestic policy.
... most of the proposals, on issues like affordable housing and community
college job training, were relatively modest and not of a scale likely to redefine
the presidential race. His package lacked the freshness and sweep of the
agenda he ran in 2000, presumably in part because the growing federal budget
deficit constrained him from proposing big new programs
The president made no mention of the foreign figure who arguably most
influenced his first term in the White House: Osama bin Laden, the
yet-to-be-captured leader of Al Qaeda.
Mr. Bush's speech drew as ecstatic a reaction as he has found while
campaigning, and for long moments, he stood and gazed at the cheering crowd,
smiling just slightly.
Analysis: Bold Strokes, Few Details
Mr. Bush spoke confidently but saved his passion for national security issues,
and sounded a tone of defiance at critics of his decision to invade Iraq...
Mr. Bush devoted the first half of his speech to domestic policy. But his
biggest ideas were not really new, and he left the daunting details of the
agenda items...
Washington Post
Bush Promises 'a Safer World'
... a lofty speech casting his reelection as crucial to the spread of democracy
across the world and to the security of Americans at home.
Bush's address combined many passages from his usual stump speech, familiar
slogans such as "compassionate conservative" from his 2000 campaign, and
mocking, dismissive jabs at Kerry.
The speech continued the efforts of other convention speakers ... to conflate
the war in Iraq, which is generally unpopular, with the war on terrorism, for
which Bush still receives strong marks.
Analysis: Domestic Questions Remain
... an acceptance speech long on ambitions but far shorter on the ways or the
means to accomplish them.
What the domestic agenda lacked was both a sense of priorities that has been
the hallmark of his political style and the passion that animated the second half
of his speech, when he turned to foreign policy.
Nowhere did he confront directly ... the loss of jobs during his presidency and
uneven economic recovery that casts a shadow over his hopes for reelection.
Bush's desire to reform Social Security collides with his call to make
permanent his tax cuts, and outside budget experts say it is unrealistic to expect
to do both without further enlarging the deficit.
... few doubt his willingness to act and act aggressively in the face of terrorist
threats. But after nearly four years in office, questions remain about his passion
or commitment to the economy or domestic policy.
USA Today
Analysis: 2nd term staked on war on terrorism
his prime-time address made clear that the heart of his administration for the
next four years would be the battle against al-Qaeda and the search for safety
from those who would do Americans harm. On this issue he will claim a
second term, or lose it.
Knight Ridder
Bush casts himself as strong leader
Delivering a message of fear and hope, President Bush presented himself to
America Thursday night as a wartime leader who can guide the nation through
dangerous times.
The speech excerpts released by the White House didn't include any reference
to Iraq, jobs or Osama bin Laden.
MSNBC
Bush promises: â€Ñothing will hold us backâ€™
Bush made no mention of a plan to raise the money to pay for any of those
proposals, much less pay down the record budget deficits that have been
created since he took office. Instead, he referred anyone wanting more details
to his Web site.
Not until almost two-thirds of the way through his address did Bush turn to the
war on terrorism, the cornerstone of his re-election campaign. And even then,
al-Qaida â€” the terrorist organization behind the Sept. 11 attacks, which
continues to launch terrorist strikes in the Arab world and elsewhere â€” was
noted lightly, almost as if in passing.
He did not mention Osama bin Laden â€” the al-Qaida leader whom U.S.
forces have not apprehended three years after his strike on America â€” at all.
Josh Marshall
Talking Points
I thought the president tonight was better than his speech. And what I mean by
that is that he seemed confident, assured, and at ease -- all the qualities that he
should have conveyed and embodied. But the speech itself, while good,
seemed like less than it could have been.
Andrew Sulivan
A SUPERB SPEECH
It was the second best speech I have ever heard George W. Bush give intelligently packaged, deftly structured, strong and yet also revealing of the
president's obviously big heart.
They presented a moderate face, while proposing the most hard-right platform
ever put forward by a GOP convention. They smeared and slimed Kerry - last
night with disgusting attacks on his sincerity, patriotism and integrity. And yet
they managed to seem positive after tonight. That's no easy feat. But they
pulled it off. Some of this, I have to say, was Orwellian. When your
convention pushes so many different messages, and is united with screaming
chants of "U.S.A.", and built around what was becoming almost a cult of the
Great Leader, skeptical conservatives have reason to raise an eyebrow or two.
The chutzpah is amazing. At this point, however, it isn't just chutzpah. It's
deception. To propose all this knowing full well that we cannot even begin to
afford it is irresponsible in the deepest degree. I've said it before and I'll say it
again: the only difference between Republicans and Democrats now is that the
Bush Republicans believe in Big Insolvent Government and the Kerry
Democrats believe in Big Solvent Government.
On CNNÂ´s website readers give Bush a C+ for this speech PUNDITS SCORECARD.
I think it was worse, a C-, and the speech left three major attack points open. Bad execution
in Iraq , irresponsible budget policy and the economic downturn are open wounds. Kerry
will have to rub salt into theses.
TrackBack
September 02, 2004
Oily Thread III
A loose thread collection about energy and water
For reference links to Oily Thread I and Oily Thread II
TrackBack
Unsorted Picks
Body armour is helpful. In August 2004 1112 US soldiers were wounded in action in Iraq
and 72 killed (15.4:1) while last April there were 876 WiA and 147 dead (6:1).
Abu Musab al-Zaqawi loses another leg as the US kills civilians in air raid on Falluja
The Deluxe Emergency Preparedness Kit (Adult, 3-day) for $64.95 is superior to the $49.95
Emergency Preparedness Kit (Adult, 3-day) as the backpack has self-repairable zippers, the
food bars are United States Coast Guard approved and the plastic sheeting (10'x10') was
tested in accordance with United States Mil Std 282. The duct tape is identical in both kits,
which are available at the American Red Cross Store.
May I ask Israel to spare my country in their 'global' war on Hamas? Thanks.
US fines Iberia for breaking embargo on Cuba. "It remains unclear why the US Treasury
waited four years to impose a penalty."
Says the Royal Institute for International Affairs: "transnational or regional dynamics could
overtake Iraq, such that it becomes simply the epicentre of a broader reconfiguring of
Sunni/Shiâ€™a, Arab/Iranian and Kurdish geopolitics â€“ a â€˜regional remakeâ€™." ...
"While some Israelis see advantages in the collapse of central authority in Iraq, the forces
unleashed by this would be highly dangerous and uncertain." Link (PDF)
Says Cheney: "we have put in place new policies... to help move the Middle East away
from old hatreds and resentments and toward the lasting peace that only freedom can
bring." Link
Please contribute at www.georgewbush.org.
TrackBack
September 01, 2004
CPI Bashing Needed
Social Security benefits and other programs, are bound to the general price level in the US,
officially measured as Consumer Price Index (CPI).
The CPI, as released by the Bureau of Labour Statistics, shows a year over year increase
(2004 annualized) of 2002: 1.3%; 2003: 2.5%; 2004: 2.3%.
The CPI is calculated from the surveyed price increases of bananas, cars, medical costs,
shelter etc. The biggest single item in the basket is Â´primary housingÂ´ with a 22% share.
The BLS measures the price changes for this item by calculating an ÂównersÂ´ equivalent
rent of primary residencyÂ´ from nationwide surveys of rents received by landlords. The
increases for this part of the CPI are: 2002: 4.1%; 2003: 2.4%; 2004: 2.2%.
Rental vacancy rates are now over 10%, an all time high, guaranteeing low rent increases.
But the home ownership rate is over 69% and the National Association of Realtors says the
median sales prices of existing single-family homes have increased by: 2002: 7.0%; 2003:
8.0%; 2004: 9.1%.
Mixing the rental price increases with the house price increases at the appropriate weights,
the real increase in costs for primary housing are: 2002: 6.1%; 2003: 6.3%; 2004: 7.0%.
Including these into the CPI instead of the ownersÂ´ equivalent rent leads to a significantly
higher CPI values of: 2002: 1.7%; 2003: 3.4%; 2004: 3.4%
The 2004 CPI increase with house prices included is a full percentage point, or 46%, higher
then the official CPI increase (which has many additional questionable assumptions).
Some 50 million Social Security recipients should question their yearly CPI-based increases
and their vote. Getting a $10 increase per month each year when prices increase by $15
each year is hardly sustainable. Though it might no be your problem now, it may well be
that you will depend on such calculations some years from now.
TrackBack
Imagine the Reaction to This
The Speaker of The House of Representatives of the United States of America live on FOX
News:
HASTERT: You know, I don't know where Rupert Murdoch gets his money. I
don't know where - if it comes overseas or from child porn groups or where it
comes from. And I...
WALLACE: Excuse me?
HASTERT: Well, that's what he's been for a number years - Rupert Murdoch
has been for legalizing porn in this country. So, I mean, he's got a lot of
ancillary interests out there.
WALLACE: You think he may be getting money from porn facilitators?
HASTERT: I'm saying I don't know where groups - could be people who
support this type of thing. I'm saying we don't know. The fact is we don't know
where this money comes from.
Transcript (search page for soro)
Video
Rupert Murdoch
Soros letter to Hastert
TrackBack
Moon of Alabama: The Exit Strategy
And
must
have
whiskey
Oh, you
know
why
« Con Job | Main | Bring It On »
September 30, 2004
The Exit Strategy
A foreign policy trial ballon from a current Financial Times article:
Members of the municipal council of Basra, Iraq's second largest city, have
been holding talks with officials from councils in two neighbouring provinces
on establishing a federal region in the south, ... The three provinces - Basra,
Missan and Dhiqar - account for more than 80 per cent of the proved oil
reserves of the country's 18 provinces and provide a large share of the national
income.
...
people close to the Iraqi government say some officials driving the autonomy
talks are backed by Muqtada al-Sadr, the renegade Shia cleric who launched
an uprising against American troops in July.
This Fictional Times article, January 2005, puts more light on the issue:
The occupation authorities in Iraq have secretly asked two confidants, who
afore had been appointed to the city council of Basra, to take over the
government of the southern province. They are to form an administrative unit
with those two neighbour provinces that account for most of Iraqâ€™s oil
reserves.
Only one cabinet member from the southern provinces is member of Prime
Ministers Allawis cabinet, created by the Coalition Provisional
Administration. "Unfortunately this now allows The South to complain about
under representation in the central government." the US ambassador to Iraq,
Mr. Negroponte, explained. "We are trying to correct this sad error by
lobbying the central government for more local latitude in The South."
A Marine Corp general in Bagdhad gave some background on the military
situation. "As the 15 northern provinces are now controlled by Iraqi personal,
we can immediately reduce our troop numbers significantly. 50,000 men and
women will stay in Iraq and will continue to build democracy. For logistical
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2004/09/the_exit_strate.html (1 von 24) [16.11.2004 18:26:59]
reasons I have proposed to station them exclusivly in the Autonomous
Southern Provinces. This will shorten our lines of communication as supply
will come through the harbour of Basra. ItÂ´s also only a short jump from our
air bases in Kuwait."
A British general added: "As the British troops are leaving, the American
forces will take over our tasks. There have been less clashes here as in the
Kurdish Kirkuk, the Sunni triangle and the Shia areas around Najaf, so their
task here will be a lot easier. There will be fewer body bags."
Prime Minister Allawi could not be reached for a statement as he is currently
consulting with Muqtada al-Sadr in Najaf. Al Sadr, who had been said to be
interested in the southern provinces, had denied such ambitions and had
pointed out that no significant symbolic places of Islam are located in the
south. After Sistanis death, the young cleric is expected to control the
significant money flow generated by Shia pilgrimage in Najaf.
"The process we are now engaged in, will lead to a completely Autonomous
South" a former senior official working at the AEI in Washington envisioned.
"That new national entity has strong family and tribal relations with their
brothers across the southern border. In the long term these borders may vanish
and a reunited Dawlat al Kuwayt will emerge as a new prosperous and
peaceful diamond in the northern Gulf."
The Financial Times article Oil-rich Iraqi provinces push for autonomy is just the trial
ballon. They are dead serious with this concept and for the neocons as for the realists it
makes a whole lot of sense. If the other 15 Iraqi provinces will be a dirt poor hell on earth who cares?
Posted by Bernhard on September 30, 2004 at 10:46 AM | Permalink
Comments
I think you are on to something here Bernhard.
These ideas willingly fit together nicely in the mind. It is a very soothing solution.
Circle the Humvees in the south, create a patch of psuedo democracy, and get on with it.
What is it?
It is the sucking sound of many mouths and greasy hands massaging the stopcocks of
billions of barrels of Southern Iraqi oil.
(To put it crudely.)
I think Cheney just had two orgasms.
Hurry--someone put a nitroglycerine tablet under that drooling tongue.
Posted by: koreyel | September 30, 2004 12:41 PM
DÃ©ja vÃ¹!
In a thread not to long ago there was a discussion on the possible division of Iraq and an
invasion of Iran, as Asia times prophezised.
My guess was that the will carve up Iraq, leaving the middle to its own and holding on to
the north (the Kurds) and the south. My prediction was then and is still that the US will
have trouble finding a strong-man for the south. Lets see who will turn up.
Al Sadr? :)
Posted by: A swedish kind of death | September 30, 2004 12:46 PM
From xymphora:
The essay A Strategy for Israel in the Nineteen Eighties by Oded Yinon, published in 1982,
contains the following paragraph on Iraq:
"Iraq, rich in oil on the one hand and internally torn on the other, is guaranteed as a
candidate for Israel's targets. Its dissolution is even more important for us than that of
Syria. Iraq is stronger than Syria. In the short run it is Iraqi power which constitutes the
greatest threat to Israel. An Iraqi-Iranian war will tear Iraq apart and cause its downfall at
home even before it is able to organize a struggle on a wide front against us. Every kind of
inter-Arab confrontation will assist us in the short run and will shorten the way to the more
important aim of breaking up Iraq into denominations as in Syria and in Lebanon. In Iraq, a
division into provinces along ethnic/religious lines as in Syria during Ottoman times is
possible. So, three (or more) states will exist around the three major cities: Basra, Baghdad
and Mosul, and Shi'ite areas in the south will separate from the Sunni and Kurdish north. It
is possible that the present Iranian-Iraqi confrontation will deepen this polarization."
The Iraqi-Iranian war failed to accomplish the dissolution of Iraq, so the Americans were
tricked by the neocons into the attack on Iraq, largely through the efforts of Douglas Feith
feeding erroneous Israeli-prepared intelligence into the American political system. Feith
will no doubt someday be honored by a statue in Israel. Israeli or American agents
provocateurs currently operating in Iraq are finishing the job proposed by Yinon, as part of
a similar ongoing operation against all the Arab states, of breaking the country up into
small, unthreatening ethnic enclaves. Everything that we see going on in Iraq today has to
be seen in the light of the long-standing Zionist plans for the Middle East.
Yinon Essay
xymphora
Posted by: Blackie | September 30, 2004 04:12 PM
I have four (damn, more) words for you : Weimar/Baghdad Republic. And Basra/Austria
Anschluss.
And a guy with a funny mustache in two decades.
Posted by: MarcinGomulka | September 30, 2004 05:58 PM
My God- I thought of almost exactly this same solution, long ago, as a joke! So did you
mean Financial Times or Fictional Times as you called it over the second blockquote?
Posted by: Mooser | September 30, 2004 06:50 PM
So, the US hope to control Iraqi oil with a separatist Shia South mostly ruled by Al-Sadr?
Well, I would rather go with something like Marcin Gomulka's idea, except I would put
Tehran as Germany and Rump Shia Iraq as annexed Austria. At the very least, it would be a
puppet of Iran.
Posted by: Clueless Joe | September 30, 2004 07:12 PM
So the plan is a Shia controlled southern province. Hmmm...sharia law, send women back
to the 9th century, autocratic rule by a collection of religious old men....well, gosh, small
price to pay for peace and oil, even if it ain't exactly democracy.
Posted by: maxcrat | September 30, 2004 07:57 PM
Seems to make sense that Sadrists would be helping this effort. Even though they were
driven out of Najaf, they seem to have some support in Basra. That handy insurgency map
shows 3 attacks a day against the British for the last month. If Muqtada really is a driving
force behind this, then "Southistan" might not be so receptive to American interests.
But with the Kurds continuing to quietly take over oil-blessed Kirkuk, there will be at least
one friendly, orderly oil-producing region in Iraq.
Posted by: Harrow | September 30, 2004 11:55 PM
It's exactly what happened with Kuwait 80 years ago. The trouble from the British and US
point of view was that when Kuwait was hived off from the rest of Mesopotamia the Basra
oilfields had not been discovered otherwise they would never have let all that oil fall in the
control of such a large population.
The other 20% of reserves is in the Kurdish North so it will be a simple matter to
completely cut off the bulk of the Iraqui population from oil, the sea, money or anything
anyone might want and leave em as another bunch of poverty stricken Muslims without the
wherewithall to shape their destiny.
Damn! Maybe this has been the gameplan all along. In which case I'll definitely consider
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi a US agent provocateur.
He is the only member of the resistance to that is heedless of Iraqui casualties, it would
explain how Nick Berg mysteriously moved from US captivity into Zarqawi's hands and
why so much of what Zarqawi does appears counter productive.
We're mostly aware of the inconsistencies and weirdness in the Berg execution but as well
as that Zarqawi had been sitting in the Kurdish area of Northern Iraq outside Hussein's
reach, protected by the US no fly zone for several years prior to the invasion. He also
blundered around with primitive nerve gases pre invasion which would have been useless
to him since he had no delivery system, but enabled Cheney and Rice to use this to muddy
the WMD waters just as he's been the proof that there are 'foreign terrorists with Al Qaeda
links" in Iraq.
The poor bloody Iraquis don't stand a chance in the face of such avaricious mendacity.
Posted by: Debs in '04 | October 1, 2004 02:50 AM
A week old article by Spengler.
I don't read this guy too much anymore - as I suspect he is at heart a racist .. but he does
have some interesting insights from time to time.
Anyway - this is not a long way from Bernhard.
Spengler
The moment recalls French Marshal Ferdinand Foch's 1914 dispatch from the Marne: "My
center is giving way, my right is in retreat; situation excellent. I shall attack." To be
specific, the United States will in some form or other attack Iran while it arranges the
division of Iraq.
...
If Washington chooses to dismember Iraq rather than pacify it, who will win and who will
lose? Washington always has had the option of breaking up the Mesopotamian monstrosity
drawn by British cartographers in 1921. The only surprise is that it has taken US
intelligence so long to reach this conclusion. Whether America's policymakers are slow
learners, or whether Bush chose to perpetuate the farce of Iraqi nation-building until the
November elections, we may never know. An Iranian alliance with Iraq's Shi'ites poses a
danger to this maneuver. But that danger, in turn, drives the US toward action against
Iran.
...
Personalities are less important than the layout of the chessboard. America's next move
will be to break out of the stalemate in Iraq by widening the conflict.
Posted by: DM | October 1, 2004 04:28 AM
I've said it before, but this comparison to Foch and France in late 1914 is just stupid. France
faced invasion and humilating defeat, homeland was partly occupied by Germans, and there
was no way to know what the Germans would ask this time, but most of the colonies was a
given, and maybe even a few more departments in the East would've passed into German
hands. So, the Marne was basically the last stand of French patriots ready to die defending
their country.
Iraq is Americans going into a land far away for no clear reason, and most people there
realise this has nothing to do with defending the US from annihilation. Expecting them to
fight as fiercely as the French under Foch is ludicrous.
Beside, Foch was a good military strategist and tactician; Bush is on par with Mussolini
when it comes to leading military operations ("We'll invade Greece by this road; send the
tanks and infantry now!" "Duce, that's not a road there on the map, it's a mountain river").
Though their ineptitude doesn't mean they realise they're inept; they made enough stupid
decisions not to be deterred from making more.
Posted by: CluelessJoe | October 1, 2004 06:28 AM
Anybody here know why this:
Congressman wants AIPAC prober probed
A U.S. congressman wants the Bush administration to probe the man investigating the
premier pro-Israel lobby. Rep. Robert Wexler (D-Fla.
"JTA" , 2004.09.29 20:06
can't be found anymore?
Posted by: | October 1, 2004 07:46 AM
Anybody here know why this:
DonÂ´t know Uncle $cam, I didnÂ´t delete anything.
Posted by: b | October 1, 2004 08:52 AM
That's what Americans do where ever they want...they encourage and help and bribe
separatists ...they did it in Kosovo too and are now pushing for independent state of
Kosovo. They did it in ex Yugoslavia by arming Croatians , Bosnian muslims and others.
They did it with USSR too...Chechens...and othersâ€¦where ever it is convenient for their
interest.
Divide and do what ever you wantâ€¦
They call it POLITIC!
May universal forces arrange for USA to fall a part in as many small pieces as possible! I
am believer and I strongly believe it will happen as a universal justice that never failed in a
long term.There was NOT Empire that lasted for ever. I may not see it in my life time but
I'll pray for it not as revenge but as cosmic justice.
Where ever American â€œfootâ€• comes there are deaths and suffering and theft and
corruption. Do not fool yourself that you have done anything good in Japan or Germany or
anywhere...the price in blood was so high where ever you have paid with anything good in
order to clean your conscience.
Iraq is just one more country to add to the listâ€¦and most of Americans sleep well at night
I supposeâ€¦
Posted by: vbo | October 1, 2004 10:11 AM
ohh, puhleeaase , vbo, USSR?
The USSR split up because the particular nations wanted it to, not because of US
involvment.
Estonia, Litwa and Lotwa have joined the EU since, and I am sure they would tell you to go
to hell if you asked them to reunify with Russia.
Your post is so blatantly anti-American, that I have to assume that you are ventilating some
personal anger. You use too many unjustified generalisations. For instance, you wrote
"where ever" (or "anywhere") 5 times. Generalisations are something to avoid in a
discussion, because in the real world there no '100%-and-always' situations.
( Some random examples for you: 'ALL foreigners are thieves', 'ALL arabs are terrorists',
'ALL Poles are drunk and lazy', 'you ALWAYS make a mess', 'you NEVER are on time'. )
Japan and Germany are also questionable examples to provide as an argument.
Posted by: MarcinGomulka | October 1, 2004 01:38 PM
Middle East specialist scholar despondent: Greater Risk Than Ever by Walter Andrews,
prof. Near Eastern Lang and Civ.
In the Middle East the one major thing that legitimizes a ruler or regime is the
ability to provide stability and security. There is a venerable saying in Arabic
that goes something like this, "Better a hundred years of tyranny than one day
of fitna (civil chaos)." This is how a Saddam Hussein can be seen by many as
an acceptable ruler.
I think he's made a good point here. history illustrates many time over the preference of the
populace for any kind of security, order, and predictability in daily life (even heavy
repression) over anarchy and the fragmented rule of warlords, neighbourhood mafias and
bullyboys, roving gangs, etc.
here I suppose I must say for the record that I don't doubt that Saddam was a nasty man. I'm
not trying to rehabilitate his rep, gawd knows. just point out that the average person will
embrace a dictator if the alternative looks like criminal chaos.
hell, we could say that the American people did to a limited extend embrace a dictator -- or
at least the quasi-dictatorial ambitions of the Bush/Cheney/Ashcroft/Rumsfeld junta -- in
response to one, just one, incident of chaos and murder in one city, on one day. that one
incident cowed Americans to the extent that most are willing to give up the Constitution,
give up whatever good reputation America had on the world stage, give up their
intelligence, their right to free speech and civil protest, their right to privacy -- and perhaps
most tellingly, their private and public conscience.
BushCo isn't in the Saddam league when it comes to oppressing citizens at home. in the
world championships for Repressive Regimes, the current crew occupying the White House
is still pretty far down in the tables. but the underlying principle holds -- that the Americans
accepted a radical (not conservative) right wing assault on everything from civil liberty to
constitutional law, simply because they were terrified of chaos, violence, and randomness.
in the light of all this it doesn't surprise me a bit, nor does it make me despise or contemn
the Iraqis, when I read about an Iraqi pundit who says that if Saddam could get out of US
jail and run for office back home, he'd be elected instantly. at least when the Big Thug was
in charge, people knew where they stood. the people who were most directly repressed by
him and whose lives were ruined by him and his boys, would probably cast a dissenting
vote (Anyone But Saddam!); but a substantial chunk of the public would say, Anyone Who
Can Get the Lights Back On.
Posted by: DeAnander | October 1, 2004 02:58 PM
@ DeAnander
Gravity's Rainbow ?
I bet Thomas Pynchon has a wicked sly, told ya so,
grin
Posted by: anna missed | October 1, 2004 03:53 PM
Not to be vague, but my Rube Goldberg thought process keeps running the Gravity's
Rainbow post war / pre new government chaos -- tape loop through my brain -- as GW
Slothrop stumbles through and over the wreakage he has unwittingly created and
perpetuates, as he so fades..........and fades.................away.
Posted by: anna missed | October 1, 2004 04:09 PM
Here's an excellent analysis of the strategy for taking back control of Iraqi cities before
their election - about 1 or 2 steps before the Exit Strategy, and necessary for Bush to be
able to reach the endgame.
The new U.S. strategy, then, is targeted at the cities where the guerrillas and
their clerical leadership dominate, notably Falluja, Samarra, Tal Afar, and
Sadr City (though there are several others which have not been in the news
lately). The U.S. method is to negotiate with the clerics, offering extensive
reconstruction aid in exchange for calling off the insurgency and perhaps
delivering the guerrilla fighters over to the U.S. (They call this negotiating
with the moderates to split with the militants.)
If they can get an agreement, then the U.S. marches into town and arrests at
least some of the guerrillas, using informants to determine whom to target. If
the guerrillas resist arrest, the U.S. annihilates them and the areas they take
refuge in. If they melt into the population, then the Iraqi police and National
Guard take up stations within the city to enforce the rule of a re-established
local government. American troops outside the city maintain the capacity to
intervene against any effort to challenge the police or National Guard.
To force an agreement, the U.S. threatens both economic and military attacks
on the city as a whole. Part of the plan is to use brutal air power that can
annihilate buildings or whole city blocks in an effort to convince residents and
leaders that the cost of resistance is simply too high. The underlying
assumption is that the "moderates" will eventually choose to negotiate rather
than see their city destroyed. As one marine officer in Falluja told Washington
Post reporter Rajiv Chadrasekaran, the goal is "to split the city, to get the good
people of the city on one side and the terrorists on the other."
This sounds a lot like what we've been reading about here at the Moon for a while, but
Schwartz does a good job looking at the major "insurgent enclaves" and how well or badly
these tactics are working. It doesn't include the latest violence in Samarra, and whether it
will cow or enrage the local people.
Posted by: Harrow | October 1, 2004 10:35 PM
I am anti-American (policy) big time and I am not hiding it.
I was pro-American big time (even after American bombardment of my country in 1999)
until recently when my eyes opened wide.
I was anti communism in a big way but I learned a lot last 10 years living in western (proand alike American) kind of democracy and I don't think about socialism that bad as I used
to.
Quote:
"The USSR split up because the particular nations wanted it to, not because of US
involvement."
***
Ohhhh pleassseeee...particular nations still want to separate (be independent) around the
globe (Northern Ireland, Basks people in Spain, Corsica, Serbian republic in Bosnia and
many more...) â€¦Why they canâ€™t split ???????????
Quote:
"Estonia, Litwa and Lotwa have joined the EU since, and I am sure they would tell you to
go to hell if you asked them to reunify with Russia."
***
Well first of all I don't really know about Estonia Litwa and Lotwa (or what ever the
spelling is) and how better of they may be joining EU but I know little bit more about other
Eastern European countries that are now COLONIES of EU with their cheep (slavery)
labor and resources and they had to bloody SELL everything worthy they ever had...Oh yes
they now are selling all of the junk western consumerism can offer, oh what a joy(most of
the people can only look at shiny shop windows and dream of being able to afford anything
similar).
Their countries are back to feudalism with 2 % of bloody rich (mafia and alike) and 98 %
of almost hungry people that MUST support their families mostly doing things against and
out of the low.
Did you ever managed to see how in all of those countries people tend to vote communists
AGAIN after they tried what ever has been sold to them as â€œwestern freedom and
democracyâ€•.
Of course itâ€™s not an answer to their problems.
I am not in favor of EU as such and I do consider all of them being very similar in their
foreign policies. What ever makes them richer is OK no matter what the price is for others.
I may be an idealist when I expect fairness in politic. But Americans just went out of the
way big time and that makes me angry as hell.
@Harrow
I'm not confident that we can any longer split the moderates from the radicals - not that the
two can't be split, but that Americans or even Europeans aren't the ones to do it. The
radicals seem dedicated to making anyone who collaborates with Amero-Europeans pay
with their lives, and from the reports we do manage to get here, I would imagine that it is
too dangerous for most people to negotiate with the U.S. at all. A few exceptions exist,
such as Sistani, but I imagine even he can't afford to give in to the U.S. when it threatens to
destroy whole city blocks.
Sistani might give in after several blocks were destroyed, but at that point we would
already have lost any chance of getting out with our souls (these seem to be necessary for
holding together a society, ours).
If we commit - in public - to blowing up entire city blocks, then we have announced
ourselves as Nazis, and God help us, because many of those troops will eventually go
insane or kill themselves first. And we will go to hell, just a bit behind the Iraqis.
The facts are clear. We are in there because Bush the smarter had his people (April
Gillespie?) greenlight Sadam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait 13 years from now, and no
matter how you look at it, we have no damned excuse for collectively punishing the people
of Iraq based on that.
We do not have the legitimacy to separate the moderates from the radicals. Worse for us if
we ignore this problem.
Apologies if I am overboard on tone, but wargame logic cannot be taken for the whole
picture here.
Posted by: Citizen | October 2, 2004 03:55 AM
"...Saddam Hussein'sinvasion of Kuwait 13 years ago...
Posted by: Citizen | October 2, 2004 03:59 AM
Quote:
BushCo isn't in the Saddam league when it comes to oppressing citizens at home.
***
Maybe, just maybe you should ask Arabs and other Muslims that live in USA how
oppressed they feel? How things are going with their civil rights ? Remember â€œthey first
came for Jews â€¦â€• We all hear about people being sent by USA government to other
countries to be tortured and killedâ€¦how different it is to what Saddam did ? It is easy to
forget those things like they never happenedâ€¦but they are still happening as we speak.
It's not that I don't agree with you DeAnander in general...
Reuel Marc Gerecht has an excellent, must-read analysis, The Battle for Iraq, in the Weekly
Standard. (Avail. among today's collection of linked articles at realclearpolitics.com.)
Posted by: Pat | October 2, 2004 10:50 AM
The Law of Administration - Transitional Period (signed 8 March 2004, largely written by
the CPA), also called the â€˜interim constitutionâ€™:
Chapter 8, Article 52.
The design of the federal system in Iraq shall be established in such a way as to prevent the
concentration of power in the federal government that allowed the continuation of decades
of tyranny and oppression under the previous regime.Â
It has been bruited about that Bremer - before he scurried off two days early, on 28 June,
skipping in his desert boots - wrote a sneaky clause into the law, namely that the laws
applicable up to 30 June, which he wrote, would continue to apply, which meant that the
interim Gvmt. was powerless to change them.
That is incorrect:
Section A of Article 26
Except as otherwise provided in this Law, the laws in force in Iraq on 30 June 2004 shall
remain in effect unless and until rescinded or amended by the Iraqi Transitional
Government in accordance with this Law.
(further..)
No amendment to this Law may be made except by a three-fourths majority of the members
of the National Assembly and the unanimous approval of the Presidency Council.Â
Link
As I read it, the Interim Gvmt. could have shredded any of Bremerâ€™s democratic
inspirations, including the â€˜Federal Iraqâ€™ clause, which was generally interpreted as
potentially leading to trouble, by al-Sistani, amongst others.
That they did not choose to do so can be interpreted as: 1) puppets bowed to the masters; 2)
a weird status quo, an apparent domination by USuk (as the previous official occupiers of
Iraq, according to UN resolution number x), was preferable, as it extended a situation
where the Geneva Conventions might be deemed applicable.
The Geneva Conventions prohibit occupiers from selling off the assets of the occupied
country, which is why Bremer was given the boot - nobody would buy soap factories or
land or anything as the lawyers told potential buyers that when Iraq was â€˜freeâ€™ Iraq
could just take those assets back, and would probably sue also.
Unfortunately for USuk, under Bremer's CPA, Governements, corporations, businesses and
individuals persisted in behaving as if the Geneva Conventions were valid and might be
invoked one day.
After all, the Americans kept saying there would be elections in Iraq. Iraq would be free.
That was their position, and everyone was supposed to believe it, or at least pay lip-service
to it or behave as if it were true. Once free, it would have used international law to
recuperate its factories, buildings, land.. lawyers and insurers could not ignore this
possibility and had to forcibly warn and restrain their clients.
I am not a lawyer, perhaps I have interpreted all this incorrectly. (?...I'd like to know...)
Also, the confusion on the ground is hard to grasp.... So many diverse interests, divided
opinions.
The neo-con dream of a glittering cum grovelling free market emporium in Iraq was
stillborn.
Posted by: Blackie | October 2, 2004 11:42 AM
@Pat - that "Analyse of Gerecht in my view is a collection of half truthes to come up with
the slogan "lets do more of the same".
First he is framing the whole scenario as there is choice 1 or choice 2, where 1 is more
"Iraqification" by putting Iraq troops in front of US troops when storming the cities and 2 is
to put in every marine the US has now and storm the cities. He calls for more blood,
because the Iraqis "do not feel beaten yet".
Why not just drop an H-bomb on Bagdhad? These are not alternatives, these are two
variants with the same catastrophic outcome.
An available choice could probably be this. Call the old Iraqi Army back into duty, as
Jordans king asked for last week. Pay them well and equip them well - there are some
tenthousands M113, mortars and trucks in US depots. Have a president that publicly and
openly on an International scene declares the war a big mistake and eats some crow. Call an
inner Iraqi conference of Iraqi clerics of all religions and let them find a way to pick a
government and a way to the future. They are the authorities, not Allawi and Co. If they
Sunni, Shia, Christians, Jews publish a commen edict, it will be followed.
Leave the country immediately by giving military/police control to the old army and with a
promise to guarantee its outer boarder for the next ten years so no neighbor will get bad
ideas. Pay an unconditional $5,000,000,000 each years for the next 10 years. press the
Kuwaiti into nullifying their redicules $100 billion reparation claim. The international
comunity will follow that beat.
Doable in my view, with much less blood lost and better results ten years from now than
any alternative.
Will the US do so? No. Gerecht thinks the Iraqis have to be "beaten" so they feel they have
lost, because their culture does not allow them to accept defeat in any other way.
With a look at Vietnam I believe it is exactly the US culture Gerecht is describing.
Will the US over time do the right thing? Yes sure it will. Unfortunatly only after it has
tried all other alternatives.
Posted by: b | October 2, 2004 12:34 PM
particular nations still want to separate (be independent) around the globe (Northern
Ireland, Basks people in Spain, Corsica, Serbian republic in Bosnia and many more...)
â€¦Why they canâ€™t split ???????????
The USSR was a UNION of REPUBLICS bound by ideology, but not by nationality. When
the ideology failed, the nations decided to separate.
Collapse_of_the_Soviet_Union
History_of_post-Soviet_Russia
If you did not notice, Yugoslavia DID split. Although violently.
The rest can't just split. In those areas are enough people who are against it. I am also being
told that currently more Basks say that the ETA is a criminal organisation than a national
liberation movement.
Posted by: MarcinGomulka | October 3, 2004 12:56 PM
Pat, I read the article you recommended at 10:50 AM, and I don't regret having taken the
time to do so. But I don't see the "excellent, must-read analysis" that you find there. Highly
detailed and well informed as it may be, it nonetheless refuses to entertain one simple
hypothesis--namely, that all the contending parties in Iraq are making common cause to
drive Americans from their soil, and that this aim is a source of strength that the US with all
its military strength can never overcome . Or to put it another way: why would Gerecht
sacrifice our Marines to such a foolish cause? As best I can tell, he's just another neo-con
hell-bent on hijacking the United States to keep us on the ground in the Middle East for the
benefit of Israel. Is there any other way to read his article?
Posted by: alabama | October 3, 2004 01:31 PM
pat
im here listening to steve earle while reading walter benjamin - a mind like an extremely
sharp knife clouded by a permanant state of melancholia - the gifts of benjamin are so great
- it will take a century or two to absorb them
steve earle is new - have come late, it appears very late to him - he reminds me profoundly
of the magisterial cowboy & communist cisco houston
but to the point - i am often moved by your posts & helped by your links - but sometimes i
find some of them extremely perplexing & sometimes worryingly so
you know pat that the gangsters who parade up & down the white house like so many
tattoed dwarves in a hallucinatory circus that seems to never end - don not have a plan never have - as i've sd they are incapable of conspiracy but they are capable of low
scheming because they are at once the whores & pimps of capital. everything seems to
rotated around their immediate selves & their interests. clearly they are not looking at the
future in any sense that is substantial. the erros they are making is so much like apartheid
south africa - uttmost brutality mixed with concession being made at the last possible
moment. it is a disastrous & perhaps even apocalyptic way of running business
but i disagree with alabama - i do think oil is a principal reason & i do think that they want
control in m e to challlenge china in the last instance. this does not require conspiracy simply rat cunning
& if ever rat cunning had a person to fit it mr rove would fulfill that role - don't think there
has been that kind of rat cunning since frank nitti, lucky luciano & of course their totemic
leader meyer lansky
what is missing in their plans - is competence & clarity - because i feel they are
congenitally incapable of even the most clumsy attempt at a machiavellan politics. they are
dunces - they are not the clever boys they think they are. they are just the best of a bad
crowd
they also lack courage - real courage & that became clear on september 11 when they were
confronted by people who were prepared to be courageous to arrive at their goals. their
goals were of course sinister - any fundamentalism is by its very nature. this most complex
world cannot afford absolutes of any king - that way leads only to madness
but as deanander has clearly pointed out your country is filled with hysteria & fear & it is
not new - it is an old tool of capital to hide the natural affinities of orfdinary/extraordinary
people
& it has a name - misanthropy. what the central command & the neoconservatives have in
common is a hatred, a real hatred of the people. & it is the people who always face the real
risks
this battery of clowns is not even responsible for their opinions which is not surprising
since they are so undergraduate in nature
the americans will lose in iraq - whether they bomb samarra or fallujah to the next life because in the end their brutality is without meaning except the extinguishing of life &
culture. the iraquis & the world will pay dearly for that lack of meaning but it is clearly the
last days of the empire
i rember tomaso buscetta - the mafia pentiti - when asked after the boms that killed the
magistrates falcone & borsellino & the assasination of salvatore lima - the mafi senator &
primary connection between the monster andreotti & the monster toto riina - busceta sd that
rather than being an expression of power to kill these judges it was an expression of
weakness. he sd the mafia at ease with itself did not need & on the contrary averted
expressions of the kind of brutal violence used in iraq
i feel you can find a connection between riina & bush - riina came close to destroying la
cosa nostra - because he had no other plan than slaughter - a methodic & faustian form of
massacre existed under his reign - that in the end - this sicilian institution which had
survived longer than a century began to collapse in on itsef. men of honour - spoke - it was
unthinkable - buit riina had confronted them with even worse - as an organisation - it has
deconstructed ever since. what they have in common is greed - a greed that only a rupert
murdoch can tell us about - a greed that is beyond us mere mortals - a greed for more than
the world can offer - it is demonic in principle & in fact
i think these criminals are capable of the worst things in iraq in the homeland itself - they
have already proved that capacity in the bluntest manner - the silencing of a real public
discourse. it also has a name - the patriot act 1 & 2. what is happening in your country is
beyon the wildest imaginings of even the most venal capitalist of the fifties. perhaps the
milliken boesky axiswas an indication - where very few man could destroy & crush the
destinies of many. now that crushing is public policy
what it will create in the end is a weak, hysteric & demented country incapable of a
consistent policy & as john le carre has george smiley telling us - of how it will end for his
nemesis - karla - it will end tragically - because he posesses no moderation
the absence of moderation has been the banner the republicans have held ever since bush
crawled into the white house
still steel
Posted by: remembereringgiap | October 3, 2004 02:25 PM
@ remembereringgiap
You are wicked in comparing Toto Riina to the boy Bush. Although they are similar in
intellect, Riina killed mostly those directly in the business while Bush makes no distinction
whatsoever - making Riina slightly more honorable.
I really enjoy reading your posts, I often have to run to google to find out what you are
talking about but that is what makes all this fun, isn't it. On the other hand, you are almost
always able to throw me into a deeper state of depression. That too is part of the
experience. Perhaps we have been comfortably numb for far too long.
Evenso, every now and then, you might tell us a story with a happy ending. Surely you
know some. I for one could use it.
Posted by: Dan of Steele | October 3, 2004 03:06 PM
@alabama
Gerecht rightly points out that the US cannot prevail in Iraq without fighting another war
there. (The last war ended, for all intents and purposes, just when Bush said it did, in May
of 2003. What we've seen since is most decidedly anything BUT war.) By 'prevail' I mean
just what the Pentagon and the White House mean: the creation of conditions favorable for
the establishment and security of a new Iraqi government - one that can hold the country
together.
At no time has there been any good indication that the White House (or even the Pentagon)
is prepared to undertake another, and yet more demanding, war in Iraq. (Nor that Allawi
would approve it.) What it faces, as a result, is a series of moves and counter-moves in an
escalating stalemate between Iraqi and multinational forces, on the one hand, and their
opponents on the other.
OIF can be sustained until 2006 and not beyond. (A draft can't change this, so the paranoid
can calm down.) This makes for an ever-shrinking window of opportunity to defeat the
guerilla movement - something, again, that the White House has preferred not to do. In the
event that the insurgency survives until mid-to-late 2005, then there is but one option:
secure your airspace and go home. Iraq then probably breaks up into three or four
provinces, as the Iraqis hash it all out themselves. (Those not interested in becoming hash
will depart for Jordan and other countries.) It's really as simple as that.
Gerect's article is valuable as a reminder of the stark choice presenting itself: Fight a war or
go home. He's optimistic that that war will be fought, but he does not take into account our
shrinking timeline, only the continued reluctance of the White House and the Pentagon to
get on with it. I see no radical changes in our operations on the horizon.
That signals a game over to me.
Posted by: Pat | October 3, 2004 03:13 PM
dan of steele
i think i'm reacting at once to my illness & to some extent to the optimism of the letters sent
by michael moore. while i respect him as john berger does for allowing the beautiful stars
of fury to be felt within a 'cultural' context - he's a bit like a big cheerleader - his heart & his
head are in the right place - & we must not search to find recriminations in a character that
is almost saint like in relation to the gangsters within the bushcheney junta
but but...i would prefer to prepare for the worst possible outcome because the forming of
communites of resistance will become a necessity for many, many people who will be
silenced & destroyed otherwise
the only happy story i hild at the moment is of the old tyrant pinochet finally being faced
with a few hard questions
but even there there is a sad history - history tells us for the most part that the andreottis,
the pinochets etc will die in their beds unpunished except for their obvious interior poverty
d of s - i'll search for a happy story this week, tryuly i will
still steel
@alabama
We'll end up maintaining no-fly zones in the north and south in any case, as we did after
the Gulf War, but this will be done from bases outside Iraq.
pat
you are not mrs hackworth by any chance
the highly respected wife of the highly decorated soldier
still steel
I don't know how accurate this site is, however even if it is not all true, it is the kind of
information (or maybe probaganda) apparently circulating in Russia? If it is true, it looks as
if the situation in Samara is very bad for the US.
Battle Of Samara - 7 Helicopters Downed, 147 Troops Killed
Posted by: Fran | October 3, 2004 03:39 PM
And some more bad news!
Influx of wounded soldiers strains VA - Claims backlog faces troops returning from Iraq,
Afghanistan
More on Samara by Riverbend.
Samarra Burning...
@rememberinggiap
Is Hack even married? Must be the combination of black turtleneck sweaters, paint-peeling
voice, and (not unpleasant) blunt manner that makes me think of him as a long-time
bachelor.
fran
thankful to be reminded as we need to be reminded that peopl are dying every hour of every
day & that the majority of that dying(aas it always is with the oppressed)is being done by
the iraqis
& we know the majority of those dying as the vietnamese before them are not even
combatants
no matter how high falutin' or tragicomic my tones i never ever forget that fact
still steel
pat
perhaps hack is anne coulters lovedoll
still steel
2006, Pat, because of the attrition on our side, no doubt (logistics and materiel are never a
problem).... So we'll probably use our "secured air space" to do lots more damage to people
and places on the ground (as we've been doing to Fallujah for months now).
Going back for a moment to Gerecht: he thinks of parochial interest-groups in Iraq as being
always and only parochial. Where did he get that idea? If Saddam Hussein accomplished
anything, it was the Iraq's self-recognition as a sovereign state. This is something the
neo-cons have ignored from the start, and not just from convenience, but from conviction.
And where does their conviction come from? I'll go way out on a limb on this one, and
propose that they're generalizing from their own experience in Israel. It would be Israel's
misfortune, in effect, that it never had its own Saddam Hussein to ride herd over
Palestinians and Israelis alike.
@alabama
2006, not because of attrition but because our force structure cannot maintain that optempo
longer.
@rgiap
I don't think there's enough common ground between us for a debate. I can read your
thoughts and criticisms, but that's about all.
@vbo my apologies, you have a good point about the Disappearances of Arab-American
citizens, the outsourcing of torture (Extraordinary Rendition -- can we spell
Sonderhandlung?) etc.
from what I understand of Saddam's reign over his fractured territory, a larger percentage
of the population was subjected to disappearances, torture, arbitrary detention, theft, etc. -that is, even ethnic-majority, native-born for generations, middle class, "respectable"
people lived in fear of the Ba'ath party apparatus. today, respectable people are starting to
live in anxiety about the Republican Party apparatus -- its mysterious No Fly lists, its
grandiose plans for total surveillance, etc. -- but I think the level of fear is not yet
comparable to what people experience in a real dictatorship. the persecution of Arab
Americans feels to me not so much like general dictatorship as a return to the pre-civil
rights era of gross, blatant race hatred and discrimination. some would say that era has
never ended; but whether during its heyday or its more muted modern manifestation, White
middle class people could comfortably pretend that it wasn't happening. I don't think
anyone in Iraq under Saddam could pretend that the Ba'athist repression was not
happening... I could be wrong though.
at any rate I should have spoken more clearly, your point is well taken, and I do worry
often about those 1200 or so Arab Americans, what has become of them, how are they
being treated. one of the characteristics of a gov't sliding into despotism is that it doesn't
like to admit its mistakes; so prisoners unjustly condemned tend to stay condemned or be
put quietly out of sight and out of mind, rather than be released as an admission of
officialdom's errors. I fear for the Disappeared as much for this reason as for any other.
thanks for the reminder.
Posted by: DeAnander | October 3, 2004 08:57 PM
Pat, what determines the optempo besides the build-up (or down) of troop levels and the
movement of men and materiel (logistics)? Is there a pressure that's meant to increase to the
point that it can't increase any further, and if so, does it have to decrease once it reaches that
level? And if this is the case, how does it differ from "attrition"? I could use a little
instruction here....
@alabama
Given the present force structure of the Army and level of commitment in Iraq, major
combat units and many support units and attatched personnel are spending one year in/one
year out of theater. That is an extraordinary optempo, when what one would usually aim for
is one year in/two years out, or six months in/twelve months out. (The "off" time is split
into halves: recovery and planning for deployment.) The one in/one out rotation schedule
reduces combat effectiveness very, very quickly; one sees sharply diminishing returns in
every subsequent rotation. Many units have been extended, in some cases by six months or
more, beyond their one year in theater - but without a corresponding increase in
recovery/prep time - which adds yet more strain.
Add to this the fact that 40% of our forces in Iraq are Reserves. This is the first time a
major military operation has depended heavily upon reserve units. The reserve system,
while functioning precisely as it was designed to function, has an even more difficult time
bearing the strain than active duty forces.
When people speak of "breaking" the Army, it's this unsupportable state of affairs to which
they refer.
Pat, I've never seen this explanation in print before, and it answers about 90% of the
questions about our troops and their problems raised by my readings in newspapers over
the past six months.
Thank you!
Thanks everybody!
Very informative thread, indeed.
And an important addendum to the discussion, as Fran points out above, is Riverbend's
latest post which speaks to why it is imperative to come up with a workable exit strategy
that will also benefit the folks on the ground.
An example is this quote on the tragedy of Friday's carbombing which takes things way
past fear and loathing into the stratosphere of incredulity:
"....That's how bad things have gotten- we have to celebrate the reconstruction of our
sewage treatment plants. I don't know who to be more angry with- the idiots and PR people
who thought it would be a good idea to have children running around during a celebration
involving troops or the parents for letting their children attend."
Posted by: RossK | October 4, 2004 12:05 AM
Making myself clear: I do not advocate a larger Army, and it would arrive anyhow too late
to be of use to us. And those taken on for the job would soon be dumped - which sucks.
Samara a US and Allawi success?! Compare with this article from the TurkishPress.com.
Iraqi Sunni Muslim clerics blast "massacres" in Samarra
Posted by: Fran | October 4, 2004 01:54 AM
De Anander I know what you meanâ€¦but even tho Iâ€™ve never have been in Iraq and do
not know much of the FACTS (not propaganda) of Saddamâ€™s governing I have lived in
two dictatorships and I can tell that itâ€™s nothing like western propaganda wants you to
think it looks like.
During the communisms in Eastern Europe, western propagandists wanted their people to
believe that everybody in east Europe lived in deadly fear from their authoritarian leaders
and governments, but it wasnâ€™t so. Most of the people actually suffered economically,
which was a crime of the kind under some dictators like Chausheskue in Romania where
people were literally hungry and almost have forgotten the taste of meat for 10 years or so.
Well luckily we lived under â€œsofterâ€• dictator Tito for 35 years. It wasnâ€™t same all
the time. It was really bad after the WWII when communists were allowed by Britain, USA
and USSSR TO STEAL elections and once in power they changed laws as they were
pleased so they not only confiscated and nationalized all the private property but they did
killed a lot of owners of this capital and political opponents too. People couldnâ€™t get a
passports to flee and were imprisoned and tortured if they didnâ€™t want to give â€“up
their property. In 1948 when Tito have got the green light from USA and Britain to fuck off
Stalin (Inform biro) interestingly but people who couldnâ€™t change their attitude against
loving Russians comrades over night, were imprisoned on an island in Adriatic see . and
were tortured, and killed and their families were ashamed for everâ€¦That was a time of the
fear cause people still couldnâ€™t adapt to the fact that democracy was taken away just
like that. In 50-ies and 60-ies gradually living conditions became better and in 70-es
Yugoslavia was the most open socialistic society in Europe. There was no anything like
democracy (we had one party elections incredibly) but except a small number of
intellectuals and artists not many people were involved in politics . Not everybody who was
a member of â€œcommunistâ€™s partyâ€• actually believed or even was interested in
politic. People needed this membership in order to get carrier etc. They didnâ€™t imprison
people for telling a joke about Tito (like after WWII) and people did not disappear like
after WWII and in 1948. Actually rock singers had songs where they pass on allusion that
Tito is mafia boss (calling HIM â€“ Al Capone) and no he wasnâ€™t imprisoned but on
the contrary he was very popular.
Under Miloshevic who definitely tried to take us back in post WWII era but just
couldnâ€™t, most of the people suffered economically too. They lost their previously
secure jobs , their salaries and had to survive on a black market but mostly as small
operators for Milshovecâ€™s mafia bosses selling petrol and cigarettes etc anything
profitable that was reserved for them only. Yes, there were a few victims of police violence
and his â€œfear squadâ€• but nothing major. Half of the people (at least) didnâ€™t even
care to vote and were occupied how to survive.
OK itâ€™s Europe and probably the rules in Middle East are much tougher with their
dictatorsâ€¦or maybe not? I mean they do not have interest to alienate their people. They
want to be loved, you know. Not that all of them are sadistic maniacs (all tho they employ
some of the kind to make examples).
OK I am O/T and itâ€™s so bloody long.
Sorry guys. I just wanted to let you know some parameters so that you can recognize
dictatorship while itâ€™s early enoughâ€¦Itâ€™s not always visible how they robe you and
take your freedom from youâ€¦
Take care!
Generally where ever they are selling patriotism watch your back and your wallet, haha
From TNR:
10.04.04
BALKANIZATION: In the largest demonstration to occur in Iraq since the Sistani-inspired
protests against the U.S.-backed caucus plan for picking a transitional government,
hundreds of thousands of Kurds took to the streets over the weekend to demand
independence. (Or, as this Kurdish report calls it in English, "self-determination.") These
protests, spread among five cities in the north, demanded the reclamation of territory for the
Kurdistan Regional Government, including the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, and "correcting the
unjust annexation of southern Kurdistan (Mosul Wilayet) to the newly created state of Iraq
in 1925." In his excellent New Yorker article last week, George Packer vividly detailed
how much of a powder keg Kurdistan is becoming, especially over the question of Kirkuk.
But Kurdistan is not the only part of Iraq agitating for considerable distance from central
authority. Officials from the (also oil-drenched) southern Shia provinces of Basra, Dhiqar,
and Missan, are holding talks about exercising their right under the Transitional
Administrative Law (TAL) to become a Kurdistan-style superprovince (or, if you prefer,
mini-state). Walid Khadduri of the Middle East Economic Survey told the Financial Times
that the move could "weaken the state and lead to the eventual fragmentation of the
country." (TNR predicted this consolidation into mini-states back in March, when the TAL
was approved to great fanfare by the administration.) After all, under Article 27 of the
TAL, consolidated provinces can field regional armed forces "as provided by federal law."
How much control do you think this superprovince will want to cede to the weak Baghdad
government over the massive amounts of oil it possesses?
posted 11:50 a.m.
It's not just the Army that's stretched to the limit. Phil Carter at IntelDump links to this Air
Force Association article:
Too few aircraft. Lots of old ones. High cost. Breakneck pace. Trouble.
The Airlift Gap
By John A. Tirpak, Executive Editor
The airlift operation that has supported US forces in Southwest Asia over the past three
years now ranks among the most extensive in history. Taken together, the efforts in
Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom can be put in the same general
class as US airlifts to Berlin (1948-49), Israel (1973), and the Persian Gulf (1990-91). And
Air Mobility Command leaders expect no letup for at least another 18 months.
At the same time, the Air Force faces an acute airlift shortfall. The capability of the fleet
used in the 2003 Iraq War was well short of requirement; the gap was at least 10 million
ton miles per day. Today, AMC leaders say, the gap is widerâ€”at least 15 MTM/D,
perhaps 22 MTM/D.
A series of analyses and inspections now being performed will help set the nationâ€™s true
airlift requirement and possibly pave the way for what may have to be a large new
investment in transports.
â€œOur folks, across the mobility fleet and AMC, have been at an incredibly high,
record-setting pace,â€• said Gen. John W. Handy, the commander of both AMC and US
Transportation Command. â€œWeâ€™ve never seen the sorties that weâ€™re generating
right now.â€•
In July, Handy reported that AMC was mounting between 450 and 500 sorties a day, as
compared to what had been a post-Sept. 11 level of about 400 missions a day. And that, in
itself, marked a major spike in operations.
That Was Then ...
â€œIf you go back 12 years, when I was a one-star, ... 250 missions a day was average,â€•
said Handy, who has spent most of his 38 active duty years in the airlift business. â€œWe
thought we were pretty busy, and, for that time, we were busy.â€•
Now, Handy noted, â€œwe have doubled what we thought was a significant mission load.
As I look to the near term, I donâ€™t see that [requirement] changing dramatically. I think
the airlift situation is going to be under considerable strain. ... Itâ€™s not going to get any
better.â€•
Handy gave a candid and detailed assessment of todayâ€™s mobility status first in an
interview with Air Force Magazine and then later in a larger discussion with military
reporters in Washington, D.C.
He said that Air Force mobility forces, even as they carry out the resupply of forces in
Afghanistan and Iraq, continue to support other theater combatant commanders who have
their own exercises, redeployments, and contingencies to cope with.
It all adds up to an airlift fleet that is too small to carry the load and personnel who cannot
maintain a breakneck pace forever.[...]
Okay, Pat, let's see: is a "sortie" a one-way flight? Is a "mission" a round-trip flight? Or are
these aggregates of MTM/D? In any event, it seems that a plane's life-span is being cut in
half, and so the bill will fall due....in 2010? It's certainly not being subsidized by that $10
billion per year going to M.D.A. (as reported by Frances Fitzgerald in the current NYer).
What fools we mortals be!
It all reminds me of an article in the WSJ last month about Sgt. John McCary, an
intelligence soldier, fluent in Arabic, who ends up interrogating eight-year-old children in
the middle of a warzone. What's this "rara avis" doing in such a dangerous place--given the
fact that maybe fifty soldiers in Iraq have his skill-set? Answer: the army can't function
without putting him on the front--a front that no one ever dreamed of before. IOF feels far,
far crazier than Viet Nam ever did--much, much more stupidly wasteful.
@alabama
I believe "sortie" and "mission" are interchangable here, and round trip.
Is Fitzgerald's article in the OCT 4 edition? I couldn't find it at the NYer website.
But while searching around the net I found this, from a Salon.com article describing the
changes Tina Brown made at the NYer:
The New Yorker lost many admirers in those years, and most of them it has not gained
back. "There was a time in my life when the New Yorker made a difference," says Barbara
Ehrenreich, the journalist and Time magazine essayist. "I can remember, to give just one
example, when my father read Frances Fitzgerald's 'Fire in the Lake' in the New Yorker in
the 1960s. That writing literally changed his mind about Vietnam. There are no articles like
that in the New Yorker today."
[I've never heard of Fitzgerald, but now I'm curious enough to hunt down 'Fire in the Lake.]
She's your soul-mate, Pat. She's been writing for forty years on lots of different things,
always in a lucid and patient manner, and with an extraordinary gift for clarifying complex
issues. (Her father, Desmond Fitzgerald, was a celebrated analyst for the CIA in its early
days; her mother, Marietta Tree, was a great friend of Adlai Stevenson and a powerhouse in
the Democratic Party).
The piece in the NYer is the lead piece for "The Talk of the Town". It's called
"Indefensible". It's funny, scary and enraging. Its last sentence: "This spring, forty-nine
retired generals and admirals called upon the President to put off the deployment and to
transfer the funds to the securing of nuclear facilities and the protection of American ports
and borders against the far more immediate danger of Al Qaeda, rather than pursue a
system that may never work against a threat that doesn't now exist."
Posted by: alabama | October 5, 2004 12:34 AM
@alabama
I couldn't find a reprint of the 1960s NYer article on the net, but fortunately the article gave
rise to, or was taken from, the very highly praised book, "Lake of Fire." I just ordered it and
should have it by Friday. Thank you, very much, for pointing her out to me. Now I'll see
once again if I can find her current Talk of the Town piece.
Hi, alabama and Pat.
Just catching up on the conversation ... and I'm trying to figure out what time the postings
say vs. the time here
Looks like the timestamps on posts are Greenwich time, 7 hours ahead of Pacific Daylight
Savings Time here on the foggy coast.
So thanks for the continued flow. G'nite.
Posted by: jonku | October 5, 2004 03:26 AM
Will someone delete this spam above, please.
Posted by: Kate_Storm | November 7, 2004 10:41 AM
@Kate - done
Posted by: b | November 7, 2004 10:58 AM
im here listening to steve earle while reading walter benjamin
what a fine sentence, rgiap.
Posted by: slothrop | November 7, 2004 11:29 AM
Thanks, b.
Posted by: Kate_Storm | November 7, 2004 12:49 PM
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« Con Job | Main | Bring It On »
Moon of Alabama: Con Job
And
must
have
whiskey
Oh, you
know
why
« Fresh Open Thread | Main | The Exit Strategy »
September 30, 2004
Con Job
In CPI: Camouflaging Price Increase I voiced some shrill words about the official US
inflation numbers. Billmon has been on this several times. Now we have the honor to be
joined by Bill Gross, Managing Director for PIMCO, who oversees nearly $400 billion in
fixed income assets. In his current Investment Outlook he opines on the government
officials who produce the official numbers and looks at the real ones.
â€œInflation under controlâ€• â€“ (ex food and energy of course) shout the
carnival barkers. â€œThe CORE is running at just under 2%,â€• .. No matter
that a gallon of gasoline is over 2 bucks or that a half gallon of milk will set
you back $3.69; the CORE is under 2%.
.. prices of desktop and notebook computers declined by 8% a year during the
past decade, The WSJ reports but because the machinesâ€™ computer power
and memory have improved, their hedonically adjusted prices have dropped by
25% a year since 1997. No wonder the core is less than 2% with computers
dropping by that much every year. But did your new model computer come
with a 25% discount from last yearâ€™s price?
...
In addition, when â€œsubstitution biasâ€• (a BLS maneuver that follows your
preference for Chicken McNuggets vs. a Quarter Pounder) is eliminated, the
gap gets even worse.
...
The CPI as calculated may not be a conspiracy but itâ€™s definitely a con job
foisted on an unwitting public by government officials ..
...
[These statistics] might serve [Greenspan] well, but they do a disservice to
those grounded in the reality of stretching a paycheck for new cars, laptop
computers, and cell phones that somehow havenâ€™t gone down as much in
price as the government says they have.
...
High productivity? Nonsense, in part â€“ statistical, hedonically created
nonsense. My sense is that the CPI is really 1% higher than official figures and
that real GDP is 1% less.
Mr. Gross does not mention the home owner equivilant rent, the biggest chunk in the CPI
calculation, where increasing housing costs for home owners are substituted by decreasing
statistical apartment rents. This alone makes for 1% unaccounted inflation. Add that to Mr.
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2004/09/con_job.html (1 von 3) [16.11.2004 18:27:01]
Gross' 1% and the official numbers and the true picture comes to light. Inflation is around
5-6% and GDP growth at maybe 1%. The official high productivity growth is and has been
no growth at all.
As more international recognized money managers go public with these facts, international
investors will take note. When they start to pull out their money, the real state of the US
economy will be unveiled. Sell your US treasuries and bonds now and buy some value in
Euroland, Australia or elsewhere.
Comments
If consumer inflation really is 5% plus, why don't we see it in general prices and workers'
wages? When inflation gets to that level, it should be fairly obvious. Okay, it's true that
health care, university education, commodities and milk are rocketing, but I'm not sure
that's true of most other items.
Is it a combination of a feeble job market and ultra-cheap imports from China?
As for the hedonically priced electronics, I agree it seems a bit fishy. Some low-end users
have been content buying a new computer that's cheaper than their older one, as long as the
new one can run basic software. But many others need to buy a computer of equivalent
price every 18 months or so, just so they can use the latest versions of programs. It's pretty
ridiculous for the Fed to claim that every year they're getting 25% more
utility/productivity/joy out of the new versions of their software and hardware.
@Harrow
why don't we see it in general prices and workers' wages?
Workers can only negotiate for higher wages, if there is no replacement for them waiting at
the door. When the current oil price has dripped through the verious stages of production, a
few month, you will also see some increases in "general prices" - whatever these are.
Posted by: b | September 30, 2004 01:03 PM
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« Fresh Open Thread | Main | The Exit Strategy »
Moon of Alabama: Fresh Open Thread
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« Perception Management | Main | Con Job »
September 30, 2004
Fresh Open Thread
Any ideas about the dual staged press conference, The Debate, tonight?
Comments
OT but somehow funny. The House Committee on International Relations had some
exchanges yesterday: "Nobody questions your patriotism," Mr. Hyde said. "It's your
judgment that's under question." ...
There is a webcast (Real Player) available. The exchange starts at about 1:50h. NYT has
more.
Posted by: b | September 30, 2004 06:10 AM
Post John Rawls-ism?
or...Neo-Cons and the Counter-Enlightenment
So what I want to do to begin is describe this counter-Enlightenment, for that is what it is,
with one pregnant addition. It certainly hasnâ€™t replaced classical American liberalism,
but it contends for power with it; and now it has welded together its own anti-modernism
with a political strategy imported by ex-Trotskyite and ex-Leninist intellectual savants.
Together they now look not just to struggle with liberalism but to wipe it outâ€”along with,
of course, all variants to the Left of liberalism. This is where my theme of
counter-Enlightenment meets the more specific theme of "neo-conservative strategies."
Posted by: Uncle $cam | September 30, 2004 07:27 AM
Thanks Uncle $cam.
This too:
"The debasing of rational thought by millions of people, and beyond that the
acquiescence in or encouragement of that debasing by educated and
knowledgeable persons who know the difference between hysteria and
thought, chills the blood, and suggests that the lust for power has become
unlimited."
Posted by: beq | September 30, 2004 07:56 AM
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2004/09/fresh_open_thre_1.html (1 von 11) [16.11.2004 18:27:04]
Salon.com is publishing excerpts of the 60 Minutes Analysis of Iraq that CBS Will Not Air:
LINK
Also Interesting Story of a Retired Marine LTC Whose Last job Was to Prepare a Report
on Reserve Component Morale/Retention. Very Interesting Thoughts. LTC's Running for
Congress as a Democrat in New Jersey.
Marine Declares War On Bush
While Salon is a subscription site, interested readers can get a free day-pass at the first link.
Posted by: Walter Cranckcase | September 30, 2004 09:09 AM
From the Cato Institute:
[...]The security situation [in Iraq] is so bad that the seven members of Iraq's Independent
Electoral Commission are unable to move freely around the country. Backed by a $320
million budget, the commission is responsible for the conduct of the upcoming election.
However, for security reasons, the commission's official business is confined to Baghdad's
high-security Green Zone.
The commissioners are increasingly forced to abandon their bodyguards and travel
incognito throughout Iraq as they try to hire some 36,000 election officials to operate the
9,000 polling stations required to conduct a free and fair national election. Beyond the
overriding security concerns, the commissioners are faced with the short-term problem of
trying to register voters as part of an electorate that has never before participated in a
democratic election and has never been included in a national census.
Independent observers on the ground consider it increasingly unrealistic to attempt to hold
elections in such an inhospitable climate. Nevertheless, government officials insist that
elections will take place on schedule. Allawi has suggested that elections could be
"delayed" in Fallujah and other hostile centers without invalidating the overall outcome.
Under that scenario, a significant portion of the Iraqi electorate would be immediately
disenfranchised.
However, according to Allawi, Fallujah's residents could take part in elections "after we
liberate them from terrorists." But the liberation of Fallujah from those guilty of terrorist
acts and terrorist sympathies will require the removal of most Fallujans. A genuinely
democratic vote would result in an overwhelming endorsement of those cloaked in
Baathist-friendly colors.
Pessimistic Iraqis, especially the minority Sunni, already see little light at the end of the
democratic tunnel. Today, public opinion surveys reveal that a majority of Sunnis support
the insurgents. Without any political representation, Sunni pessimism will turn into rage
that will be directed violently at Iraq's nascent democratic institutions and actors.
No amount of wishful thinking in either Baghdad or Washington will erase the unpleasant
reality that division, fear and hatred distinguish contemporary Iraqi politics. If Iraq's first
election is a partial one, the country's new democracy will be politically stillborn. That
would represent an insufficient return on so costly an investment.
Posted by: Pat | September 30, 2004 09:15 AM
Some links - Palestine and Iraq are getting ballistic - and someone has a big idea:
Twelve Palestinians, 3 Israelis Die in Gaza Violence
Film shows 10 new Iraq hostages
Many killed in Baghdad blasts 41 killed, most of them children
U.S. soldier killed in Iraq rocket attack
No. 1054 if you believe the official numbers are correct
Israel Plans Large-Scale Gaza Operation
Gunmen Kill Police Official in Mosul
This one is special:
Iraq's oil-rich south considers forming breakaway region - let me think - "cui bono"; it is
small, it has no Sunnis or Kurds, it has good logistics (sea port Basra, Kuweit boarder) and
the locals have not yet been anoid by US troops only by Brits. On top of that it has 80% of
Iraqs oil reserves. Now who could be interested in seperating the south from the rest of
Vietraq???
His critics would say so emphatically, and they are not without evidence. On its face, the
rhetoric of Bush's recent convention speech harkened back to the democratic idealism of
Woodrow Wilson. Bush spoke of this generation's "rendezvous with destiny" and of
America's obligation to spread the light of freedom across the globe. He spoke of the great
things being done for the liberated people of Afghanistan and for the newly-freed people of
Iraq. He underscored America's enduring obligation to facilitate the triumph of liberty. Yet
reality and rhetoric often depart, or if they do not depart, they at least fail to line up in
perfect congruence.
The reality of Bush's presidency is that he is still a realist. He is a realist who understands
the mandates of American realism. While America must indeed act dispassionately to
maximize global stability and its national security, the governmental actors conducting that
foreign policy must ultimately still answer to the American people. In the American
democracy, the people are not satisfied with the sacrifice of US soldiers for the sake of
"stability" or mere "security". Americans must believe that they are also in the right.
[Jeeeeezuz H. Christ. Ask yourself what 'national security' means. Simply speaking, it
means the safety of the country from danger originating abroad. Simply speaking, it is the
protection of our lives and our property from foreign harm. This is the ONLY mission
appropriate to the armed forces of a free country - not to prop up a world order, not to act as
that world's policeman or governor, not to chase the phantom of 'stability,' not to "bestow
the blessings of liberty" upon others, and most certainly not to turn the globe into one large
theater of meddling and intervention for ambitious generals and politicians. If securing our
lives and our property against threats from abroad is not, of itself, "in the right," then we
are doomed to sacrifice life and wealth forever in pursuit of ostensibly grander goals.]
Sorry. The exerpt above, to which I commented, is from Michael McClellan's article at
Tech Central Station, "George W. Bush, Realist or Idealist?" (Link provided at
Realclearpolitics.com.)
One of the most informative articles about Kerry's background, I have read so far. Maybe
there is more to him, than the media has let on so far.
Introducing John Kerry
Posted by: Fran | September 30, 2004 11:03 AM
National Security isn't just about external threats. The greatest threat to our collective
interests actually comes from w/i, from those who pass themselves off as leaders.
In his last book, Kolko had this to say re interventionism:
The strongest argument against on nation interfering w/ another does not have
to be deduced from any doctrine, moral or otherwise; it is found by looking
honestly at the history of the past centuries.
Posted by: b real | September 30, 2004 11:31 AM
Thanks Fran. Why doesn't everyone know this?!?
Posted by: beq | September 30, 2004 12:56 PM
Uncle $cam, the "intellectual history" in your post upthread at 7:27 AM obliges me to go
out on a limb--a "sociological" limb, if you will, which is something I don't like to do (from
fear of falling). The limb is this: in the United States, as elsewhere, our most active
Trotskyites and Leninists were Jewish intellectuals from Eastern Europe. Some of their
heirs are various neo-cons with Likudite affinities. We aren't tracing "enlightenment" and
"anti-enlightenment" lines here (everone's very enlightened), we're tracing the vicissitudes
of an Eastern European Jewish tradition of Messianic and utopian political activism (to
which, for example, our own Civil Rights Movement owes so much). I regard the aims of
the neo-cons as a regrettable narrowing of that energy. I see nothing of philosophical
interest at stake in tying the fortunes of the U.S. to one or another side of a religious civil
war in Palestine. I think it's a disaster mainly driven by a theology of "election" (and you
know that I tend to carry on about "election").
Posted by: alabama | September 30, 2004 02:11 PM
So saith the Pentagon ... DU is not a medical threat to human beings: War's Littlest
Victim[s](NY Daily News)
So mote it be.
Posted by: Kate_Storm | September 30, 2004 02:44 PM
@Fran
I have a dream.
Tonight Kerry will stand up in the 'debate,' and instead of getting trapped by the format, he
will narrate his story.
In WWII, my mother, Rosemary, spent weeks fleeing from the Nazis, hiding in cellars and
travelling at night under threat of death. As she struggled to escape the Nazi dragnets, my
opponent's grandfather, Prescott Bush, was running banking operations that were secretly
funding the same Nazi's who were our enemies. In 1942, the United States government
seized grandfather Bush's banking operations under the Trading with the Enemy Act.
During the Vietnam War, I served in the Navy in an operation that took 75% casualties. My
opponent may or not have fulfilled his service in the Texas Air National Guard. For some
reason, not a single person will vouch for this man.
During the 1980s, my opponent was taking loans from the Bank of Credit and Commerce
International and driving companies into the ground. I and my people were investigating
the same BCCI and proved that it was funding international drug dealing, money laudering
and illegal arms deals to terrorists and international criminals. This enterprise was not
being run by the Bush family, like in grandfather Bush's day, instead it was financing them.
An investigator of the BCCI rightly called it "The mother and father of terrorist financing
operations."
My opponent's family have been business partners with Nazi financiers, with the greatest
U.S. financiers of terrorism, and with the Bin Ladens, and now his VP seems to have
become a spokesman for terror and has threatened that there will be more terrorist attacks
if I am elected. Well, I do judge a man by the company he keeps, and tonight I am going to
ask the American people to take a long look.
But just as he began to tell his tale of national betrayal, I awoke. Now that would make a
real debate on our politics.
Posted by: Citizen | September 30, 2004 03:50 PM
WSJ journalist sending e-mails to his friends. Funny that stuff isn't printed in the
newspaper.
Not safe, not stable: A WSJ reporter discusses Iraq
Posted by: Fran | September 30, 2004 04:48 PM
alabama "We aren't tracing "enlightenment" and "anti-enlightenment" lines here ..."
Where is here? Are you talking about the US? If so I think we certainly are talking about
enlightenment versus anti-enlightenment, at least in what the government is advocating.
Who is the audience for this? How much of it titrates down to the media and hence the
residents of Oz?
Citizen, don't give up your dream, because sometimes dreams come true.
Many people died today of foreign induced violence in Palestine nd in Iraq. The descison
by Russia to join the Kyoto agreement may save much more lifes. heads up!
Russian Government Backs U.N. Accord on Global Warming
Kate, "here" was meant to refer to Uncle $cam's distinction between two kinds of liberalism
in his 7:27 AM post. I have trouble, it seems, marking off my contexts clearly. Freshman
English is always near.....
Mmmmmm, nothing like the smell of a fresh thread.
So I heard about debate drinking games on the radio. Here is what the Chicago Tribune
suggests for drinking conditions:
>>>
- Every time President Bush says the word "safer," take a drink. If he uses the word
"democracy" in the same sentence, make it a double.
- For every John Kerry reference to the UN, have a drink.
- If Bush uses the phrase "compassionate conservative," you must chug your entire
beverage.
- Take one drink for every three times Kerry points with his left hand.
- Any previously recorded Bushism, like "misunderestimate" or "subliminable," used by the
president during the debate requires one drink.
- If Kerry exceeds the time limit for any response, take a drink.
- Back-to-back offenses require a double shot and a NoDoz.
A reference by your candidate to any of the following requires one drink:
1) Florida
2) North Korea
3) Axis of evil
4) Saddam Hussein
5) The American people
- And for an exciting twist on the game, anytime anybody mentions the word "Vietnam,"
everybody has to take a drink.
<<<
Other versions threw purple hearts, nucular,...
Posted by: PRob | September 30, 2004 06:28 PM
alabama, I was mostly just ribbin' you about "here"... ;-)
Kerry says - "We've got to win the war in Iraq. I'll win the war in Iraq by holding a summit
conference."
I don't think so.
And I'm voting for him.
May the Creative Forces of the Universe have mercy on our souls, if any.
Posted by: mistah charley | September 30, 2004 10:39 PM
Hey Kate, English teachers are paranoid about problems of context; and when did a
paranoiac ever smile about his paranoia?.....OT: I notice that no one mentioned the
neo-cons in the great debate, and that Israel was mentioned just once, in a subordinate
clause by someone or other.....Two WASPs from Yale on their best behavior?
I think Kerry just waxed the floor with Mr Bush, and he probably still does'nt realize it,
having never performed the task himself.
Posted by: anna missed | September 30, 2004 11:18 PM
I love it alabama ... "two wasps from Yale on their best behavior" ... I dunno, but "from
context" is all that I can do on the Happy Planet. You?
I hate that Repub talking point that Bush keeps hammering, about how Kerry's questioning
of the war's motive sends the wrong message to the troops over there, and is inappropriate
for a commander-in-chief.
Truth and Nuance held hostage in the name of those risking their lives, gungho or
shutdafuggup. arghh.
Thank the goddess Kerry jumped on the "they attacked us here, so we had to go to Iraq"
biz.
Posted by: catlady | September 30, 2004 11:32 PM
I thought that Bush was at his best tonight,
and it wasn't good enough. Kerry clearly seemed "more presidential": the BBC spin-doctors
Sid Blumenthal and David Frum
showed respectively disdainful satisfaction and ill-concealed consternation. Nevertheless,
the American electorate has ofter preferred a sow's ear to a silk purse,
and neither man did anything to diagnose of cure America's enduring national
megalomania.
Posted by: Hannah K. O'Luthon | October 1, 2004 12:27 AM
Best Bush line of the night:
"But I'm, I just know how this world works."
When was the last time a world leader packed so much hubris alongside so little intellect?
Posted by: koreyel | October 1, 2004 12:47 AM
Isn't it a bit odd that bush really only had the flipflop attack ("changes his position","mixed
messages") lined up, which he pretty much struck out on. CSPAN running the split screen
was bad for bush; he fidgeted, got red in the face, made faces, drank a lot (including raising
an empty glass to his lips), leaned on the podium, stammered, yammered,
(half)brain-dumped old talking points, and looked quite testy. What were these guys
thinking? He came across terrible on the visual portion, and not any better on his grasp of
the issues. Which makes me wonder just why they could be so cavalier about the whole
thing. The event was actually more impactful than I was thinking it would be -- for Kerry.
But what was the deal w/ him saying "It's right for Israel. It's right for America." That's
gonna hurt. But Bush wasn't really prepared tonite. Why? Too busy planning something at
the ranch this week? (Where's Rummie? Not scheduling any drills I hope...) I did find it
interesting how he refered to Missy's soldier husband -- "He got himself killed." As if it
was the guys fault.
Looks like the dems echo chamber is working, much thanks to the weak effort of bush.
Kerry could have been hitting them out of the park tonite. Would have preferred it if
Citizen's dream materialized though...
Posted by: b real | October 1, 2004 12:56 AM
The puppet-show!!!
Lawmaker expresses "dismay" that White House allegedly wrote Allawi speech
@koreyel re Mad King George W:
"speak loudly and carry a small brain"?
sigh
Posted by: DeAnander | October 1, 2004 03:27 AM
After all the comparisons to the latest Nixon administration and Vietnam war, could it be
that Bush is rather the Nixon from 1960, looking silly on TV debate?
Posted by: CluelessJoe | October 1, 2004 03:52 AM
@ Clueless Joe Right on! This debate was Bush's Waterloo. Apparently his remark about
keeping his daughters on a leash was, rightly, perceived as highly inappropriate (but
characteristic) for a candidate trying to free himself from command responsibility in the
Abu Ghraib torture case. Will Lynde England now endorse Bush? Will the bondage &
discipline brigrade transfer en masse to the Republican ranks?
Posted by: Hannah K. O'Luthon | October 1, 2004 04:22 AM
Leash the twins! Point at the Bush!
Posted by: Unlce $cam | October 1, 2004 06:30 AM
Tom Shales, Movie Critic @ WAPO, Weighs IN
Posted by: Walter Crankcase | October 1, 2004 07:27 AM
You know what makes me crazy?
"What message does it send to the troops" when you launch them unprepared to invade a
country that never threatened us?!?! I believe they signed up to defend our country not to
invade and occupy others. Is this too hard too wrap your brain around?
Posted by: beq | October 1, 2004 07:33 AM
A correction to my misquote of bush last night. He said "he got killed." My mind/fingers
filled in the missing word as it was what I took away from the sentiment. A couple other
stmts that stood out for me: "every life is precious, that's what separates us from the enemy"
and that we couldn't join the ICC b/c of "unaccountable judges @ the hague."
Posted by: b real | October 1, 2004 10:30 AM
Alabama Getaway Rolling Stone covers what little boots did in the "Missing Year".
@ catlady 11:32
Sorry. In a hurry to vent this morning.
Good comment on the debate!
It Was a Rout - By William Rivers Pitt
@Citizen...
That's damn strong drink.
Very heady.
Can you decant some more?
That really ought to be hyperlinked and posted front and center someplace important.
Posted by: koreyel | October 1, 2004 11:53 AM
@ beq: always glad to know that i'm not alone.
And I have a feeling that Bush is gonna sorely regret the efforts being made to get mail-in
ballots from the troops in Iraq.
Posted by: catlady | October 1, 2004 12:37 PM
@ catlady:
Election? What election? At Soldiers for the Truth I saw a letter the other day from the wife
of a soldier in Iraq who said that the tvs in the mess "had technical problems" during the
Democratic convention but worked fine in time for the other thing. Those efforts to get
mail-in ballots may be moving another direction by now.
Posted by: beq | October 1, 2004 12:59 PM
When I hear any talk of exploring new energy sources,it reminds me of when I was a kid
my dad took me to a friends house in Pa. 35 yrs ago.His entire house has run off some
machine in a small shed.Same old story the gov't swooped in and took his patent and
eventually his property.Just this year 3 patents were made secret by DOE.We already
have these sources.(tesla comes to mind)Recently I've read articles on the Quantum Flux
Level Over Unity device and Zero Point Energy among many others.I wish Kerry would
mention these hidden patents and that he would look into them.Let the unimformed know
we don't need anyones stinking oil.No one is going to rush out and trash their SUV there
will not be an instant economic crash (except for oil companies...hee hee)With cheaper and
cleaner energy the middle class could afford to start saving again.Sorry rambling its just
this has been bothering me since I was a child.Thanks for listenting.
Posted by: onzaga | October 2, 2004 07:28 PM
sorry for spelling in my rant i fogot to preview.
Posted by: onzaga | October 2, 2004 07:30 PM
In Condemnation of Despair It has become fashionable in recent years to indulge in public
displays of resignation and to celebrate history's darkest moments. The magnitude of
today's culture crisis has produced a particular spectrum of despair which, in its worst
formulations, has become the justification of further grave-digging. I am referring to the
smug celebration of any number of toxic futures which Western military-industrial excess
has made possible. This hip resignation takes many forms, from the punk Luddite who
welcomes apocalypse as the termination of collective misery, to the capitalist whose tacit
cynicism gives him license to rape and plunder until the well runs dry.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | October 3, 2004 05:14 AM
Ummm....uh...it's hard work...um....uh...
Posted by: koreyel | October 4, 2004 11:13 PM
@koreyel
Painful to listen to. SNL did a good send-up last weekend.
My husband said he listened to Bush speaking at a campaign event today and he sounded
really, really awful. Tired, confused, almost like the sufferer of dementia. He wondered if
maybe he's drinking again.
I doubt it, but have nothing to offer other than the strain that's been evident since last
winter.
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« Perception Management | Main | Con Job »
Moon of Alabama: Perception Management
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« Intended Outcome? | Main | Fresh Open Thread »
September 30, 2004
Perception Management
I am flabbergasted by a recent Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) study that
shows these results:
Majorities of Bush supporters favored including labor and environmental
standards in trade agreements (93%), and the US being part of the
Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (68%), the International Criminal Court
(75%), the treaty banning land mines (66%), and the Kyoto treaty on climate
change (54%). Only 33% of Bush supporters wanted to build a new missile
defense system now, while more wanted to do more research until its
capabilities are proven (56%). Forty percent of Bush supporters favored
increased defense spending, while 47% wanted it kept about the same (9%
wanted to cut).
Suddenly I find myself agreeing with Bush supporters on several important foreign policy
issues.
But why will they vote for somebody, who does not favor the positions they support? PIPA
says they do not know Bush's real position.
Majorities of Bush supporters incorrectly assumed that Bush favors including
labor and environmental standards in trade agreements (84%), and the US
being part of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (69%), the International
Criminal Court (66%), the treaty banning land mines (72%), and the Kyoto
Treaty on global warming (51%). They were divided between those who knew
that Bush favors building a new missile defense system now (44%) and those
who incorrectly believe he wishes to do more research until its capabilities are
proven (41%). However, majorities were correct that Bush favors increased
defense spending (57%)
Two possibilities come to mind:
● Bush supporters do not want to know Bush's real position.
● Bush supporters are managed to perceive his position as they do.
The U. S. Department of Defense defines Perception Management as:
Actions to convey and/or deny selected information and indicators to ..
audiences to influence their emotions, motives, and objective reasoning as
well as to intelligence systems and leaders at all levels to influence official
estimates, ultimately resulting in .. behaviors and official actions favorable to
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2004/09/perception_mana.html (1 von 4) [16.11.2004 18:27:06]
the originatorâ€™s objectives. In various ways, perception management
combines truth projection, operations security, cover and deception, and
psychological operations.
Are these the results of such actions? How can they be countered?
Comments
because it is not about issues, but about 'values', image, 'presidential hair', emotions,
Reagan's cowboy hat, 'I believe the candidate shares my values' .
stolen quote:
To a lot of people it's about America being number one!, kicking some ass, killing some
ragheads, bashing some faggots, being the alpha-dog-top-gun testosterone king.
There's a lot of jerks out there.
And Bush is the perfect president for these people.
Posted by: | September 30, 2004 06:18 AM
I expect that one day Hannity will ask his guests:
"Why do you say Preznit Bush should not kick some ass? You want America not to be
Number One? "
Bush is a carefully constructed figure. (Not self-constructed of course.) His idiocy;
meaningless, empty speech, combined with his authorative position turns him into an icon,
or a symbol, something like a moving statue that one can venerate and project good
qualities, fair intentions, correct opinions, etc. on. His religiosity helps here - he himself
says that he is guided by God, God gives him wisdom. God is good, merciful, just, right,
true. Bush must be too.
What is mind boggling is that the trick works!
I think both Bâ€™s possibilities are right, a combination of them is operating.
Bush supporters are denying reality, I suppose because they somehow do perceive that
reality at present is a total * -up. They are clinging to some imagined past state of affairs,
hanging over the cliff, gripping desperately with their fingernails.
The only puff of wind that will dislodge them is Bush being knocked off his pedestal. Bush
stumbling (e.g. breaking out in tongues at a press conference) would probably not be
enough. Such figures are not judged on the basis of their actions or opinions, but admired
just because they *are*. To knock him off, it would be necessary to show that he is not who
he is. He has to be turned into a fiend, have some atrocious stigma attached to him treason, pedophilia, some horror that symbolicaly burns him up.
At the same time, if he could become a better, more rational, honest and articulate man, he
would loose his iconic status and become â€˜realâ€™, and would loose voters in droves. If
he did express some coherent opinions, many Bush supporters would be against them and
would start to doubt.
Not the whole story, but a piece of the puzzle.
Posted by: Blackie | September 30, 2004 07:19 AM
@b, Blackie
It's like the appeal of junk food, Bushs image must taste good, look good, feel good, and
most of all be easy, easy to consume as the wishful image of the self as better than the real
self -- that somehow this new food is better than real food, real food lacking the perfection
of that which is from replication. It's why people so love that TV show about radical
makeover, subjecting themselves to all manner of cosmetic and surgical transformation to
emerge at the end as some giant step closer to what they imagine that they could be, a step
closer to the replicant mode of perfection -- And this my friends, is why Andy Warhol
wanted to "become a machine" and probably part of the reason why some people just love
George Bush, no matter what.
link to www.seattlepi.com for op-ed " Advisers shape Bush presidency", by Walter
Williams
"The Constitution, the National Assembly, the dynastic parties, the blue and the red
republicans, the heroes of Africa, the thunder from the platform, the sheet lightning of the
daily press, the entire literature, the political names and the intellectual revolutions, the
civil law and the penal code, the liberte, egalite, fraternite and the second of May 1852 â€“
all have vanished like a phantasmagoria before the spell of a man whom even his enemies
do not make out to be a magician. Universal suffrage seems to have survived only for a
moment, in order that with its own hands it may make its last will and testament before the
eyes of all the world and declare in the name of the people itself: Everything that exists has
this much worth, that it will perish.
"It is not enough to say, as the French do, that their nation has been taken by surprise. A
nation and a woman are not forgiven the unguarded hour in which the first adventurer that
came along would violate them. The riddle is not solved by such terms of speech, but
merely formulated in another way. It remains to be explained how a nation of thirty-six
millions can be surprised and delivered unresisting into captivity by three high class
swindlers."
Karl - The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte
I am less elegant than this, and am convinced that this all starts when enough people buy
the idea that the shit they do to others will, heavens no, never be done to them.
But read the "Eighteenth Brumaire." It teaches clearly where others simply mutter.
"Driven by the contradictory demands of his situation, and at the same time, like a conjurer
under the necessity of keeping the public gaze fixed on himself, as Napoleon's substitute, by
constant surprises, hence of executing a coup d'etat en miniature every day, Bonaparte
throws the entire bourgeois economy into confusion, lays hands on everything that seemed
inviolable to the revolution of 1848, makes some tolerant of revolution, others desirous of
revolution, and produces actual anarchy in the name of order, while at the same time he
divests the whole state machine of its halo and makes it at once loathsome and ridiculous."
Sound increasingly familiar?
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« Outsourcing Services | Main | Perception Management »
September 29, 2004
Intended Outcome?
Jim Sinclair is a serious trader in gold and commodities, and multimillionaire, with many
years of international experience. Here is his view (Reg.req.) on Iraq (corrected version):
One cannot compare Iraq to the war in Vietnam. For one thing, Vietnam was
never a critical player in the oil market and the war was never underpinned by
any particular religious fanaticism. The world did not turn on the success or
failure of the US war effort in Vietnam.
Iraq is infinitely more serious than Vietnam ever was in my view. However,
the 2300 attacks discussed [in the New York Times] can be compared to the
Tet Offensive in Vietnam by the North Vietnamese. If the election outcome is
interpreted as a mandate for the use of force, which will likely be the case if
George Bush is re-elected, the US will most certainly react exactly as it did
during the Vietnam war under General Westmorland and the administration of
that era.
As I have told you before, the â€œwar against terrorismâ€• is a contradiction
in terms. War is an action and terrorism is a strategy with no particular
geographical boundaries. War simply splinters terrorism into cells with no real
central command. Since all combat promotes madness on all sides, failing to
understand this brings one more horrific event after another.
The war to establish democracy in the Middle East will end up destroying
democracy in the West. The US is in a terrible situation in Iraq exactly
where the opposing forcers want it to be. A mandate for increased use of
force there will be the â€œcoup de graceâ€• for the US Bill of Rights and
the US Constitution. The names will remain but the soul will be
compromised.
I am still wondering, if the results Jim sees coming, are or are not the intended outcome. A
Clean Break, not only for Israel like in the original plan, but also for the political system of
the United States.
Posted by Bernhard on September 29, 2004 at 04:14 PM | Permalink
Comments
â€œcoup de grasâ€•
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2004/09/another_open_th.html (1 von 3) [16.11.2004 18:27:07]
Um, I assume you didn't mean "cup of lard", so perhaps we could correct that to "coup de
grace"?
Posted by: glenstonecottage | September 29, 2004 07:03 PM
ULTIMATE IRAQ ANALYSIS BY NAOMI KLEIN.
i won't even bother to copy snippets. A MUST READ, OBLIGATORY ARTICLE. if you
do not read it all, you are OUT OF THE LOOP. tell others.
Regarding the Clean Break plan:
A must read-Pretext for War : 9/11, Iraq, and the Abuse of America's Intelligence Agencies by James
Bamford
Posted by: j | September 29, 2004 10:44 PM
Naomi Klein did an excellent Analysis. Sometime, Somehow, Someone has to publish their
expose of how radical ideologues joined together with evangelicals with corporate
mediaâ€™s blessing to take over American. Most frightening is that the beliefs of these
radicals and cultists have no grounding in reality. Their policies are exactly opposite of
what is best for the citizens of the United States. Their Shock Therapy will shortly be
applied to the USA. Just as Iraq spun out of control so the USA is starting to spin.
Posted by: Jim S | September 29, 2004 11:23 PM
Sometimes it's hard to keep this much straight: the men in charge are the ones being
brainwashed, not us. A crucial lesson learned from the very origins of this empire was that
local recruits and short supply lines determine success. It's not the size of your army that
counts. Someone or something has led these men astray. But then this is not new, as the
"superpower" has yet to decisively win a battle against other than the likes of Grenada or
Panama. The fact that this inbred stock of leaders keep persisting indicates a death impulse,
vicarious at first, but fatal for all in the end. They should be the targets for shock therapy
and the ones who have their privileges and rights taken away. Once the bear feasts on
human flesh, the Park Ranger doesn't sit around and discuss what its motives might have
been.
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Moon of Alabama: Outsourcing Services
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« The Real Test Is Your Action | Main | Intended Outcome? »
September 29, 2004
Outsourcing Services
There is a clear and present danger of more government jobs to be outsourced to foreign
nations. A new bill, H.R. 10, which can be researched here, is coming to the floor of the
House of Representatives.
Section 3032 and 3033 of the proposed bill will allow the government - at its sole
discretion - to transfer people it is obliged to care for to other countries.
These foreign countries will then be tasked by the US government to provide the social care
and health services that the government vigorously claims it is legally beholden to provide
now. This is an absurd way to save the taxpayer's money and a huge step back from the
blessings of the New Deal.
Through this bill a significant number of US government personal that, up to today,
provides valuable social and health services to the inhabitants and guests of the United
States, will loose their well paying jobs adding to the army of unemployed the current
administration has already created.
Katherine at the Obsidian Wings has more information in her recent piece. Please join her
in writing to your Representative and thereby help saving US government jobs for US
workers.
Context Links:
NYT: Showdown Likely ...
WaPo: Irresponsible ...
Comments
The scary thing is that when I read this:
I thought--WITHOUT SURPRISE--that the republicans had engineered a bill to send sick,
old, and indigent Americans to third-world nursing homes.
And that just as few citizens screamed when Greenspan warned that social security was no
longer secure--so too, no one was going to much cry foul on this exotic new form of
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2004/09/outsourcing_ser.html (1 von 4) [16.11.2004 18:27:09]
outsourcing.
How scary is it that a US citizen could interpret Bernhard's coy sentence in such an uncoy
manner and NOT be surprised?
How long until the republicans do consider outsourcing the aged and feeble-minded that are
on the public dole to Poland, Sri Lanka, or India?
That solution is, after all, the natural extension of their value system.
Posted by: koreyel | September 29, 2004 10:17 AM
Over at CounterPunch there ia an article about outsourcing by Paul Craig Roberts. It is
good.
The American people are being played for fools.
Posted by: jdp | September 29, 2004 12:05 PM
@koreyel
Exactly! I had the exact same reaction. Japan has actually tried this strategy already with
their senior citizens, sending them to countries in Latin America with large Japanese
emigre groups. Yes, it creates scandals.
I wrote the following letter to my Representative. Those of you who know more about
politics, could you suggest ways to make letters to Congress more effective.
LETTER:
I am writing about Sections 3032 and 3033 of H.R. 10, the "9/11 Recommendations
Implementation Act of 2004." These sections allow ANY SUSPECTED TERRORIST to be
deported from the U.S. to places where they will be unprotected from torture. The clear
result of these sections will be to hobble grassroots politics (non-avaerage views are
constantly accused, as you well know), and instead take us a step toward dictatorship.
Or, more plainly, the bill casts us into a world of serfs and masters. Merely by labelling
someone a "suspected terrorist," not all, but rather certain parts of the government become
our masters. The one so-called protection in the bill is that the newly detained serf is
"allowed" to prove "by clear and convincing evidence" that they will be tortured if
deported.
How will the detainee be able to prove certain torture? This would only be provable after
such a new system had already degraded all expectations of justice for anyone accused of
terrorism. This bill is asking to put the U.S in the position of the old USSR, and it is making
a serious bid to destroy the actual community of feeling among citizens, police, and
politicians in the United States.
Edward Markey has introduced a bill to outlaw extraordinary rendition. Please cosponsor
this bill and work to gain support for it among your colleagues. This is a defining
resolution, and representatives need to know that opposition to a growing torture/prison
state is also growing at the grassroots level. Please let your colleagues know that their
choice to prevent or encourage degrading shameful torture will not disappear into
yesterday's news.
Sincerely,
Koreyel,
Bingo! Another reader with the same reaction. Interesting to see how our point of view and
mindsets have been affected in the last 4 years of hell. I don't know which is more scary,
the way we interpreted it, or what it really means.
Posted by: NEPAJim | September 29, 2004 12:54 PM
When I wrote the above I didnÂ´t think anyone could take it seriously. It was obvious to
me that by those lines every reader would know it to be satire.
Looks like I was wrong and that scares me. If the informed and intelligent readers here
swallowed the line, there is something wrong.
You may say that under this administration anything is possible and therefore the line could
be taken as realistic. But with the always-first-thought of "cui bono", who is benefitting, it
should have been clear that there would be no corporate benefit from such outsourcing, but
many corporate loosers (pharma etc.). Thereby this was impossible to be a standpoint of the
current administration.
I was pinning the high believe of an Iraq-9/11 connection on the US media not on the
people who believed it. But if it is so easy to deceive I should probably shift the blame?
Hey did you know that America Will Be Occupied By UN Troops?
Dana Priest and Charles Babington are writing on the new torture outsourcing plans in
todays WaPo: Plan Would Let U.S. Deport Suspects To Nations That Might Torture Them
[The law] also would allow U.S. authorities to deport foreigners convicted of
any felony or suspected of having links to terrorist groups to any country -even somewhere that is not a person's home country or place of birth, contrary
to current practice. The CIA already has such authority, under a secret
presidential finding first signed by President Bill Clinton and expanded by
Bush after Sept. 11, 2001. The CIA has taken an unknown number of
suspected terrorists apprehended abroad to third countries for interrogation.
Recommended:
Abu Ghraib: The Hidden Story in the Oktober New York Review of Books.
It has become a clichÃ© of the Global War on Terrorâ€”the GWOT, as these
reports style itâ€”that at a certain point, if the United States betrays its
fundamental principles in the cause of fighting terror, then "the terrorists will
have won." The image of the Hooded Man, now known the world over, raises
a stark question: Is it possible that that moment of defeat could come and go,
and we will never know it?
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Moon of Alabama: The Real Test Is Your Action
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« Bush with a Bathtub in Baghdad | Main | Outsourcing Services »
September 28, 2004
The Real Test Is Your Action
by jdp
We have had several discussions at the Moon of Alabama about peak oil, what the market
does concerning energy and how world stability affects oil prices. Well, instead of arguing
over oil, I feel it's better to try and figure out and apply methods to reduce our dependence
on foreign oil and be environmentally friendly. While this may not wet our appetites for
Bush bashing, energy conservation surely isn't his favourite subject.
First some web sites. Everyone should go on-line to www.energysavers.gov, a US
Department of Energy site and download "Energy Savers: Tips on Saving Energy & Money
at Home." This booklet shows where in picture form and tells where you lose the most
energy in your home and tips on how to correct problems.
Another useful website is the Energy Star site at: www.energystar.gov. This site rates all
appliances in the home. If an appliance doesn't have an Energy Star label, you want to ask
for Energy Star standard appliances.
Just some "Fast Facts" from an Energy Star fact sheet I received at a conference last week.
"If every household in the United States changed the lighting in one room of their home to
Energy Star,"
1. We would save 857 billion kWh of energy and keep one trillion pounds of greenhouse
gases out of the air.
2. Our annual energy savings alone would be equivalent to the annual output of more than
21 power plants.
3. Our annual savings could light more than 34 million US homes for one year.
This should be more than enough reason to switch light bulbs in your house. Our family is
doing our part. Our home has fluorescent throughout including my outside lights. Our first
sets of fluorescent lights lasted seven years. My walkway lights are solar. Our home has
extra insulation including six inch walls and fourteen inches in the ceiling. We also have
insulated floors. All of our appliances are energy efficient and our washer is a low water
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2004/09/the_real_test_i.html (1 von 20) [16.11.2004 18:27:14]
use washer.
On the local level, some of the initiatives our community is involved in are amazing. The
community has a bio mass power plant located in it. The community received an
Agricultural Renaissance Zone designation for forty acres. To heat any new business that
may locate in the Ag Zone, the community through grants and grant match, run a
circulating hot water line using power plant cooling water. This will provide 90 degree plus
hot water to the businesses, the heat can be extracted and the water returned cooler. This
increases the efficiency of the power plant, and allows the Ag businesses a cheap source of
heat. (Europe is far ahead of the US in this type of venture, though eco-parks are becoming
more common in the US.)
Along the river in the community a functioning Grist Mill is being built. Much of the cost
is being paid for by grants, donations from business and individuals, and donations from
local governmental units. This project has been seven years in the making. It has a twenty
foot high water wheel and will be able to provide grain grinding demonstrations, and
produce electricity. On the building will be solar electric and in the river a micro-hydro unit
to produce electricity. The building should have plenty of electric and put energy back on
the grid. The building will be heated with ground water through a heat exchanger.
The walls will be insulated with 1 1/2 inch foam with foil backing that reflects cold and
heat. The building is wrapped in foil insulation with a R 10.2 value. The walls will have a
four inch dead air space giving the walls a total of R-30.6 value. The roof rafters have 1"
ridged radiant barrier foam board with an R-12 factors. On top will be 12" of blown
insulation with an R-38 value for a total of R-50 value in the ceilings. This is a great
addition to the community. And as a side note, the community officially has a new telecom
company that will be a rural cooperative. They will locate in a room in the Grist Mill
building and provide telephone, internet, cable TV and home alarm services to areas that
currently do not have phone service. Yes, there are still many areas in the US without
telephone service.
These are a few things you can do, what I am doing and what our community is doing. We
can argue about peak oil anytime, but, the real test is the actions you personally take to help
the problem. I would appreciate stories of peoples own energy conservation efforts and any
ideas.
Comments
There is a downloadable free book, Winning the Oil Endgame, by the Rocky Mountain
Institute.
Winning the Oil Endgame offers a coherent strategy for ending oil
dependence, starting with the United States but applicable worldwide. There
are many analyses of the oil problem. This synthesis is the first roadmap of the
oil solutionâ€”one led by business for profit, not dictated by government for
reasons of ideology. This roadmap is independent, peer-reviewed, written for
business and military leaders, and co-funded by the Pentagon. It combines
innovative technologies and new business models with uncommon public
policies: market-oriented without taxes, innovation-driven without mandates,
not dependent on major (if any) national legislation, and designed to support,
not distort, business logic.
I didnÂ´t read it yet, but you may want to take a look.
Good thoughts jdp.
I'm really interested in this subject-wind power,water power,alternatives to oil, insulation,
conservation, etc. Just beginning to learn.
will check ypur links out.
Posted by: FlashHarry | September 28, 2004 08:52 AM
I repost here my comment form this morning on 'crude', as I think it fits much better here.
Bernhard, I really hope Bandarboy will stay on his vacation until November. Actually, I am
not very unhappy about the oil price, maybe when it gets even higher things will finally
start to change.
The other day I received a consumer magazine from my electricity company, with a nice
article an how to conserve energy and reduce CO2. Unfortunately, it is too long to translate.
However, in a separate box there was this model called the â€œ2000-Watt-societyâ€• with
a graph of the hourly watt consumption of primary energy per person, in different
countries.
UAE - 14â€™500W
US - 10â€™500W
Russia - 5â€™700W
Switzerland - 5â€™100W
China - 1â€™200W
Bangladesh - 200W
At present, it seems that the average per head consumption, worldwide, is at 2200W. The
Goal would be 2000W, meaning that countries like China and Bangladesh would be
allowed to use more energy and the most of the other countries would have to reduce their
consumption. I guess the consumption of the UAE is neglectable in its effect on world
consumption, considering its population that I think is small, but for the US it will be a
tremendous challenge. The electricity company thinks this can be done through saving and
through new technology. I must say I was pleased to read, that my electricity provider
shares my own environmental philosophy.
Oh, man.
It's nice to hear that people are aware of the new technologies that are, to be certain, more
energy efficient than the current standard incarnations of these products.
But even if the energy savings you quote are accurate (and I will show in a moment why
they likely are not), "saving" energy in the fashion you describe merely applies the brakes
to a vehicle that has already sped past the point of no return, and the brick wall limit of
minimum calories needed to sustain human life looms.
On a less apocalyptic level, I think the "energy savings" you posit leave out the energy to
1)fabcricate the new devices; 2)transport them ;3)dispose of the old devices; 4) the
environmental costs of said fabrication and transport, and disposal. Plus, who the hell has
the spare cash (most of us don't, I'm afraid) to replace my appliances and bulbs and
insulation when rent and rice is killing us?
The essential flaw is the belief that our way of life can continue, albeit in fluorescent,
low-flow, form-Not so. The vehicle must hit the wall, billions must die, and the survivors will evolve, or
die.
Other than that, how are all of you folks? And I'm still voting for Kerry in the desperate,
silly hope that I'm simply out of my mind, despite the screaming red indicators all around
me.
Peace.
Posted by: thepuffin | September 28, 2004 12:27 PM
I've been "away" for a while, so I'm not sure if the topic of renewable oil has come up here.
There have been several articles released lately that have covered the "myth" of peak oil.
Like this one In the Wall Street Journal
Apparently, oil is not the result of dinosaur bones and million year old plants. Instead
results from an underground process using methane.
And...oil wells don't really dry up. The holes that are drilled clog up. There have been artile
out saying that the walls of the holes just need to be re-scraped for production to continue.
I was recently told that the Germans made there own oil during WWII because of their lack
of natural resources. Haven't researched that one yet.
Unfortunately, my browser blew up a little while ago and I lost my links to the methane
process and redrilling techniques. I'll see if I can re-find them, because I know just one link
doesn't cut it.
Even with replenishable oil being a possiblity, I firmly believe it still does not detract from
the imperitive need for using and finding more alternate sources of power.
The biggest reason for alternates is our atmosphere. How much oxygen can the world burn
up and pollute for the sake of power before the CO2 O2 exchange starts having troubles
keeping up? Between pollution and just the plain old using up of oxygen, there has to be a
limit.
The links above bring me to a page announcing they are no longer available?
Hmm. Until the 'car' does 'hit the wall' and until 'billions' do 'die' [not holding my breath for
this like the puffin], I wouldn't mind info on how to use solar power [not much wind here]
to reduce my energy bills. I read somewhere that some guy was actually selling back to his
local energy company the extra energy he generated at home. Neat trick. In this
neighborhood there would probably be an HOA rule against it.
Posted by: gylangirl | September 28, 2004 02:36 PM
Right on jdp. The important message to glean from the peak oil scenario is that
opportunities are opening for anyone who chooses to think beyond the petroleum age.
Whether oil has peaked today or will in 5 to 10 years is a moot point in this regard. Oil will
eventually peak and energy costs must rise as this happens. This will make many
alternative energy financially more attractive and those who prepared for this eventually
will fare better than those who havenâ€™t.
The Rocky Mountain Institute's publication "Winning the Oil Endgame" linked to in b's
first comment on this thread is must reading for those interested in where we might head
from here. It is free on line and I would suggest reading at least the â€œExecutive
Summaryâ€• and â€œConclusionsâ€• sections. An interesting quote from the
â€œConclusionsâ€•:
As Paul Roberts says in â€œThe End of Oil,â€• the real question... is not whether
change is going to come, but whether the shift will be peaceful and orderly or chaotic
and violent because we waited too long to begin planning for it.
An important point I think often overlooked in understanding the repercussions of peak oil
is how heavily dependent most everything in our economy is on the low price of petroleum.
For instance, the most conservative estimate for unit of fossil energy input per unit of
editable energy (food) output is 10 to 1. For every calorie we eat it requires 10 calories of
petroleum energy. This isnâ€™t, of course, a law of physics but only how the
national/world energy equation balances today. This is far from true in my garden because I
donâ€™t use any petroleum products in my garden food production. (Not exactly true.)
The chicken manure in my compost is partially a product of grain which had a petroleum
input.
One other point that Iâ€™d like to make in regard to your post on the last thread jdp. The
off shore oil, the Canadian oil sands etc all contain huge quantities of petroleum reserve but
another factor comes into play as we start to exploit these resources. That is the EROEI
(Energy Returned On Energy Invested). Recovery of these will take an ever increasing
investment in energy input for usable energy output. After we reach peak oil, itâ€™s a
constantly diminishing return.
Anyway, I applaud you for tackling this issue on your post. Thanks.
Posted by: Juannie | September 28, 2004 02:49 PM
@PRoB
That WSJ article was by CHRISTOPHER COOPER. Asia Times once dissected his
disinformation technics.
The article you pointed to is fraud. It starts with mysteries and something "unexplained"
By 1989, production had slowed to about 4,000 barrels a day.
Then suddenly -- some say almost inexplicably -- Eugene Island's fortunes
reversed. The field, operated by PennzEnergy Co., is now producing 13,000
barrels a day, and probable reserves have rocketed to more than 400 million
barrels from 60 million
and only after one has read through all the academics cited out of context one finds:
The Eugene Island researchers began their investigation about the same time
that 3-D seismic technology was introduced to the oil business, allowing
geologists to see promising reservoirs as a cavern in the ground rather than as
a line on a piece of paper.
...
A third well was drilled at a spot on an adjacent lease, where the fault
disappeared from seismic view. The researchers missed the stream but hit a
fair-size reservoir, one that is still producing.
Conclusion: An oil well ran dry. Someone did new research with new methods to look at
some interesting geologics in that area. Then they drilled a new well at a new site near the
old one and that did produce some amount. - almost inexplicably - isnÂ´t it? Only the
editorials at the WSJ are worse than this.
@gylangirl
The links are fixed now - sorry, I did screw them up when I posted jdpÂ´s piece.
jdp - thanks for raising the issue.
As most of you may already know, I work in project finance in the energy sector, and I
have moved in the past few years from a purely oil&gas activity to oil + renewables, and
my bank, thanks to the push by my boss and myself, has become a leader in the financing
of the wind sector.
This document by the EWEA (European Wind Energy Association) provides a good
summary of where the industry stands today (this is the link to the Executive Summary,
you also have a 300-page report on the same site). The important thing is that today, wind
is already almost competitive with other sources of power (coal, gas, nuclear), without even
taking into effect the obviously better sustainability (no pollution, no fuel dependency).
Plus, interestingly, it is a lot more labor-intensive form of energy production, and thus less
sensitive to the declining EROEI effect mentioned above by Juannie. And the lack of fuel
requirements means no need for imports from "difficult" countries, and thus no hidden
military cost either.
All of this to say that I claim that my work directly contributes to bringing our civilisation
to a more rational and sustainable form of energy use, and I will thus count it here in the
"what have you done" list... In the past 3 years, we have taken a leading role in the
financing of 15 projects (that means doing real work to make the project happening, not
"just" providing money), totalling close to 2000 MW, i.e. 2 billion euros of investment, of
which banks provided about 80%, and our own 10% (we like to share the risk around).
That's projects on which I have worked personally and brought to a succesful conclusion.
We've also worked on the same number of project in addition in a passive way (i.e. the
work is done by another bank and they bring us in at the end)
I am still working on the oil&gas side (and an interesting trend is that the big Western oil
majors seem to be doing most of their investments in the natural gas business these days)
and it is quite fascinating to see - and participate in - both parts of the energy sector. As you
know, I am "sold out" to Big Oil, in that I have a lot of respect for the job they do providing us with the cheapest energy they can find within the existing incentive
framework.
which leads me to my real point - if you want to change things, change the incentives, and
these companies will deliver. No, really. Europe has done a pretty good job of encouraging
wind power, and the result has exceeded all expectations - even Greenpeace's. That's the
way to go to - change micro and macro incentives. Of course, that's newspeak for
tax-and-subsidise, but if you can show there is an underlying economic reality behind it
(pollution, scarcity, etc), you can go a long way.
Do the right thing on your own and feel good. Get your authorities to reward doing the
right thing and feel even better! (and getting results when the incentives you clamored for
do come is a good way to get more).
Posted by: JÃ©rÃ´me | September 28, 2004 03:28 PM
Twenty years ago I created a t-shirt design. It was a silhouette of myself on my ten-speed,
with both hands high above my head.
The caption: Look Ma, No Arab Oil.
Twenty freakin' years ago...
Far and away the greatest thing you can do for yourself and the planet is to find a way to
bring bicycling back into your life.
There are three reasons why obesity is such a problem:
1) Our bodies have evolved to store excess food against future scarcities.
2) We have surrendered out legs to the internal combustion engine.
3) An abundance of cheap and tasty corporate fast food.
Only (2) and (3) can be altered by behaviour changes.
Every other argument that tries to explain obesity in other terms is pretty much modern
apologetic bullshit.
The bottom line is that people are fat because they are sedentary and eat too much.
Nuf' said.
In point of fact--WE have surrendered our legs to the automobile. WE, a speicies that
walked the planet in seach of flora and fauna. A species that was in constant motion,
constant caloric burn.
Consequently our bodies crave the self-motion, the balance, the awareness that comes with
being on that most efficient and elegant form of human transport.
Lose a car.
Gain a bike.
If you are serious about walking the talk...
As Bernhard said, stating that oil doesn't come from eons ago but is a continuous process is
akin to creationism BS. After spending tens of billions on research and exploration, one
woulde xpect the scientists and oil-men to know how the stuff comes to be.
Puffin: points taken. Though one of my first concerns when reading jdp very interesting
post was that it left out some key concernes.
Sure, it's fine to have energy-efficient lightbulbs. It's also important to know how many are
used and lighted and for how long. I cringe and curse every holidays when I see all this
waste of electricity going to light stupid lights all over the city. Of course I also cringe
when thinking of all these big signs at Piccadilly Circus and Time Square. But then, when
I'm stupidly at my comp the night, half the time I turn the lights off because I don't really
need to see my keyboard anymore to use it, usually.
JÃ©rÃ´me: as usual, great post.
Right now, I tend to think that one of the main issue wind may face in many areas will be
the NIMBY opposition - if it's big turbines all over the far sea, people won't mind, but
you'll have to convince them to put one atop the hill behind their house.
Incentives should definitely be used. When I think of the tens of billions that were spent on
R/D for nuclear power in the last 40 years, I can't help but think that if the same sum had
been put into tidal, wind and solar power, we would currently have at our disposal a bigger
amount of energy to waste as we will than we have with oil and nuclear plants.
I'm also reminded that Greenpeace, a few years ago, funded an independant lab who, in
something like one year of research, managed to come with a modified VW beetle that
went from Hamburg to Roma and back again without having to refuel (something like 1.5-2
l / 100 km, roughly). That just goes to show that the car industry is just a dinosaur stuck in
its own Kondratieff cycle because they don't want to lower their margins by modifying
their plants.
Koreyel: tell that to the Chinese. These guys are frightening. They're busy banning bikes
from the cities right now.
That said, I fully agree about the way of life. If people walked just half a mile to and from
work every day, it would alreaday lead to serious changes. Though I suspect some people
would prefer to become a car-human cyborg rather than use foot, bike or public
transportation...
Thanks for the good comments.
For the post above who cannot afford energy saver bulbs, Home Depot has the five year for
around seven dollars for four of them. Thats what I used the second time around. My light
bills are 10-15% lower than they were with conventional bulbs. The reason fluorescent
works better is conventional bulbs lose 90% of the energy in wasted heat production. Feel a
conventional and then feel the energy saver.
jdp
@b
Thanks for the info on the misinfo.
I'm not trying to BS anyone. I guess I'm latching on to technical propaganda. That sucks,
but I still want to keep an open mind. Especially with leading edge technologies.
I'm pretty sure the technology for energy saver bulbs has been around for over 100
years(you do know its just a repackaged flourescent light, right?). Ever wonder why its
taken so long to come to market? Probably that 90% inefficiency thing with regular bulbs.
In the words of those Enron pukes, "burn baby burn"
Of course advancing quickly is rarely popular with the Haves of the world. JP Morgan
never liked Tesla, inventor of the flourescent bulb, and after the panic of 1907, squashed
the funding he promised Tesla to build a wireless power station. Light bulbs using that
power would have been of the "energy saver" variety. Has anybody seen an attempt at
building on of those stations since? No. Why? Because the copper, lumber, steel and other
industries like GE, Edison, and Westinghouse would not have profitted like they did if
wireless power was in place. Oh, and you can't meter houses for energy use.
What's my point? Well, I firmly believe that there is energy technology out there that is just
sitting on a shelf somewhere. Technology that is better than solar and wind. I think it exists
and is just sitting there like the energy saving bulb was. So, if I have to get suckered into
believing disinformation just to find the few things that are viable and true, I will. And I'll
share it so other people start to ask where this stuff is too.
Here is a link to another article. Its about Super Deep wells. The title is harsh but again the
content was interesting. This describes the redrilling I was referring to.
Like I said before, even if we weren't running out of oil. I question its use for providing
energy at current and any future elevated levels. There is just too much exchange of bad for
worse going on.
JÃ©rÃ´me brings up a great point about "Getting our "authorities to reward doing the right
thing". I agree that's what we should do. It just too bad that our "authorities" are all of those
bastards in bed with the energy industry.
So yes, turn off those lights, drop your thermostat, promote solar and wind power, but to
really make things right, we need a revolution!
Just some further info. You can buy 6 energy star rated bulbs for $9.97. They are 7 year
bulbs and kick out 60 watts at 14 watts use. Over the life of each bulb you will save $46 per
bulb over conventional.
Also, I heard Mike Hoover, a portfolio manager for the Excelsior Energy and Natural
Resources Fund. He stated in no uncertain terms that there is a $20 terror premium built
into a barrel of oil. He stated at current supply long term prices per barrel should be $28.
@clueless joe:
Right now, I tend to think that one of the main issue wind may face in many areas will be
the NIMBY opposition - if it's big turbines all over the far sea, people won't mind, but
you'll have to convince them to put one atop the hill behind their house.
EXACTLY!
In western Maryland (home turf to that infamous vixen Lyndie England), the wind blows
most all the time. A windmill project was set up behind a block of subsistence housing, and
worked just fine.
Residents of the project complained that it interfered with their view of the mountains.
Project's in limbo at this time. Friends I have up there say the project's visual effect is pretty
innocuous.
True story. Dave Barry didn't make it up.
Posted by: FlashHarry | September 28, 2004 08:33 PM
koreyel,
I wish I could remember where I read it, but while I'm looking I'll post this. I read or heard
an evolutionary physiologist on the subject recently. He said this: The reason why there
"appears" to be an "obesity" problem is that our species' metabolism has not yet caught up
with our evolved activity. The metabolism that produces leaner people came from a time
when lives were very different. No vehicles, some animal transportation, but feet were it,
basically. Diets were different when our ancestorial metabolism became "set in semi-stone"
back then. He said in essence that in time the human metabolism will adjust, evolve, and
there will be fewer humans overweight. Then of course you must factor in hereditary body
types ... the traditional 3 are ectomorphs (long bones, build bone and hair well, don't gain
weight abnormally, build muscle with difficulty) ... the mesomorphs (the medal-winning
muscle-builders and keepers... they can be overweight if inactive. Mesos are the group that
NEED activity to feel healthy in body and mind) ... and last but not least, the endomorphs...
(poor endos are maligned a lot, but their body type, like the others is inherited. They can
build muscle but not like the mesos. They are genetically big people, who can get very big
with large consumption and little activity) There's more, but I know I'm off topic. I just
really hate the junk science that foisted upon us these days about the new cultural demon:
"obesity". Oh, and BTW ... the fad diets that are low-carb and little or no-carb are very
dangerous, but they are being marketed to the hilt now in our Time of Fat Shame.
;-)
Now can somebody tell me how I can get solar panels on the cheap for my house? I've been
wanting them since early 1999, but have never been able to afford them. And I don't do
credit cards. Anybody know anybody who will barter for ghost-writing or HTML web
work or similar services?
Well here's a thread after my own heart -- picking back up some of the issues from
"Addictive Oil". We've been over some of this ground over at the Annex, talking about the
unsustainability problem.
I'm working on kicking the habit (mainlining crude, that is)... Haven't owned a gas car for
over 10 years. Haven't owned any car at all for about 4 years. Bike and walk, bus, train,
whatever works. However, be advised all this exercise does not necessarily make a person
thin, only healthy :-)
Americans consume more energy per capita per diem than most people in the world and
many people think that this means we're happier. And yet Americans also consume more
prescription antidepressants than any other population in the world, and are one of the
biggest markets for illegal (self-medication) psychoactives of various kinds. Does that
sound like a happy population? Hmmm. Does "Consumer Choice" make us happy? Maybe
not. What if the world is counter-intuitive -- counter, that is, to the intuitions of a greedy 7
year old whose imagination leaps at the thought of being let loose in the candy store to Eat
it All?
Our agricultural system is terrifyingly dysfunctional and in many ways counterproductive;
it produces low-grade food by destroying the most valuable agricultural resources: living
soil, genetic diversity, nutritional content. Which is like chopping bits of wood out of the
hull of the ship to have a nice barbie on deck.
At some point someone really ought to think about economy, lifeways, how business and
politics are conducted etc, in terms of happiness and health, the two things which are,
imho, our only real wealth. Should we judge our success as a country by how many
millionaires we count as citizens, or by how many happy people we count as citizens? And
what makes people happy, anyway? If the mountain of material goods that many Amurcans
spend their lives perched on doesn't make them happy, then what the heck do they want?
America-as-a-business is certainly generating a lot of cash that goes into a few people's
personal pockets, but it seems to be generating a lot of depression, malnutrition, boredom,
incompetence, misery, etc. at the same time. Not to mention spreading misery generously
around the globe in its haste to grab the resources needed to go on feeding the squandrous
lifestyle and generating the easy profits.
Consuming more and more energy, more and more conspicuously, having more and more
"energy slaves" that free us from the slightest effort or the least need to acquire a skill, to
concentrate for more than a few seconds, to accumulate any knowledge -- it does have a
kind of brute-force appeal, an appeal to the barbarian in us, a kind of Pharaonic grandiosity.
But I'm not sure it makes us happy.
One of the side benefits of choosing the less energy-intensive path might be -- we could
cross our fingers here -- that more happiness, more fun, a more engaged and interesting life
might be the end result. I have a couple of friends who have done the solar whole-house
thing -- selling power back to the utility -- and I notice that they seem to be getting a lot of
fun out of the simple business of getting electricity to run their microwave oven. They had
to plan and think to build their system. They take pride and satisfaction in its success. The
transition from being passive consumers to active producers [in a limited sense of course,
they didn't exactly weave their own solar panels out of hand-spun silicon clipped from their
own basaltic sheep formations] has been fun. Riding my bike is way more fun than driving
a car. So when I think of a less energy-intensive lifestyle I tend to think it might be an
improvement.
Just to confuse everyone who had got me nicely pigeonholed as the Self Appointed Prophet
of Doooooom :-)
Posted by: DeAnander | September 29, 2004 02:04 AM
Kate: well, we still have the metabolism of cavemen, one who has evolved over the
hundreds of thousands of years of our late hunter-gatherer lifestyle. We grow crop and rise
cattle since a few thousands of years, which is obviously unsufficient to see an evolution in
human species. So our body is still used to eat meat and vegetables, fruits and the like. That
our body wasn't originally designed to eat bread and pasta is probably the only loose
argument I'll ever see about low-carb; but it doesn't mean we can't eat this, and most
importantly it omits another crucial fact: cavemen ate meat, but they didn't eat fat meat
because that didn't really exist. People weren't fattening pigs in their farm 30'000 years ago,
they were hunting wild beasts always on the run, themselves feeding over weaker animals
also on the rung - as opposed to cattle messed up with hormones, antibiotics, and overfed
so that it can grow even bigger and fatter.
DeAnander: I tend to think the main problem of US agriculture (which may soon be the
problem of many other areas) is that it doesn't produce crop to feed people, but to feed beef,
which is then fed to people.
Posted by: CluelessJoe | September 29, 2004 04:39 AM
Getting my kids to school and back in rain and snow rules out a bike, thanks. When you
add the sports gear, the groceries, the dog, and the luggage from hubbie's business trips,
there is no way we could manage without a car. Can't afford housing near the office, and
the metro doesn't stop everywhere you have to go. Work is in one direction, university is in
the other, the sick friend's hospital in a third, the friend who agreed to watch your kids for a
couple hours is in a fourth direction.
Face it, the bike lifestyle only suits a certain type of person: single city dweller where
everything is conveniently located nearby. Expecting the whole nation to trade in their cars
for bikes is just plain crazy.
Inventing a car that doesn't ruin the atmosphere is a much better plan.
@Gylangirl
au contraire, I know quite a few families with kids who don't use cars, or use them only
minimally. it's true that country dwellers have a harder time of it, and imho a legitimate use
for powered individual transport; but the majority of the world's people live in cities or
urbanised areas, not out in the country.
the really intractable problem (aside from the deliberate sabotage and dismantling of US
public transit networks in the 40's -- they can be rebuilt) is the "have cake and eat it too"
suburban lifestyle, invented in the US -- in which people choose (and are encouraged) to
live at a great distance from shops, libraries, schools and other amenities, in a kind of
wasteland that is neither country nor city, neither rural solitude nor community. they expect
to enjoy all the amenities of urban life, while remaining cloistered in an enclave restricted
to their own class (and sometimes race); and the only glue that will hold that lifestyle
together is neverending car use, hours and hours of life-time spent driving around
consuming fossil fuel and emitting toxins.
interestingly enough, the strange life of the suburbs, usually embraced partly for a sense of
"safety," turns out not to be any more safe than urban living; suburbanites are more likely
to be killed or injured by a car than urbanites are to be mugged, and urbanites who
walk/bike/bus have better general health than suburbanites. oddly there is not much
difference in stress/depression levels between the two demographics, though I myself find
suburbs intensely depressing. Guardian Article.
Twitch back the lace curtains and, far from a good life, you'll find that living
in the "burbs" can lead to a range of chronic illnesses including high blood
pressure, arthritis, diabetes and migraines, according to new research.
Scientists writing in the journal Public Health even found that the strain of life
in suburbia could leave residents prematurely aged, compared with city
dwellers.
great legacy to pass on to the kids eh? and that is not counting the issues in child
development raised by Mayer Hillman and others -- the "UPS package kids" who are
shuttled from one location to another through their entire childhoods, never achieving
independent mobility until they can get their driver's license at the age of 16, miss out on
some fairly important stages of mental, social, and physical development. loving parents
imagine that cocooning their kids from cradle to high school in heavily armoured cars is a
good thing, but it may not be.
btw there is no such thing as "a car that doesn't ruin the environment" -- this is like
believing you can be a vegetarian and still eat chicken. the definition of "car" as we know it
is a heavy vehicle (15 to 30+ times the weight of its driver plus payload) with a power plant
sufficient to provide snappy acceleration and high speeds over long distances. there is no
power source other than fossil fuel that will provide this blend of features, nor is there any
way to make the absurd disproportion of vehicle weight to payload weight anything other
than grossly inefficient and wasteful. nor for that matter is there any way to make the huge,
heavy vehicle w/o enormous energy investments, materials mining, etc.
if we consider the greenhouse gas emissions for which the average US car is "responsible"
-- the emissions that can be traced or apportioned to that particular car -- then 30 percent of
that total emission happens during manufacturing. its subsequent life on the roadway
accounts for only 2/3 of its contribution to greenhouse gas overload. and we're not even
talking about the amount of clean water that is irretrievably polluted by the various
manufacturing processes, etc.
now, we could get creative and imagine a private, covered, self-powered vehicle that would
be more sustainable, but it would not be recognisable to today's driver as "a car" -- the body
would be made of ultralight composites, the acceleration would be modest, the top speed
would be modest, it would not be as soundproofed, the range would be more limited, etc. it
would, of course, be far safer -- driver, passenger, pedestrian and cyclist deaths would be
reduced considerably. but today's driver would reject it out of hand. it would not be "fast
enough" or "strong enough" or (and this I think is the real reason) macho and swaggering
enough to keep consumers happy.
I note that car-dependent persons often seem to recite the same script when brought face to
face with the consequence of car-dependence; and the script is similar enough both
emotionally and structurally to the script that substance addicts recite, that the metaphor or
simile of "addiction" remains defensible for me.
the driver disavows all responsibility for the choices they have made that commit them to
car-dependence. they disavow responsibility for the pollution they emit, or the fuel they
guzzle, or the noise they inflict on others, or the pedestrians they endanger, or the millions
of animals killed by cars every year, or the health problems they inflict on themeselves by
total car dependence. the responsibility is all with someone else... a shadowy "They" who
must "invent" a magical solution that will let us have our cars, just like they are now, and
yet still have a healthy planet. it's always someone else's problem to "fix it". it's always
"you can't expect people to..." (get wet when it rains, walk more than a block, make friends
with their neighbours, not fly everywhere at the drop of a hat, travel more slowly, get a
little exercise)-- but on the other hand we can confidently expect other people -- lots of
them -- to die or starve or accept perpetual colonial occupation, so we can go on driving our
cars everywhere. I know which expectation I think is "plain crazy."
and, by the way, No, we can't run them on peanut butter :-)
Posted by: DeAnander | September 29, 2004 02:38 PM
Yes it is good to be a responsible citizen and Save.
Here upper class people sneer at supermarket cash-desk girls on minimum wage who offer
them free plastic bags -- plastic bags pollute. Even Russian Mafyia peope do this. Dripping
diamonds, they deliver a free lecture, counting on a captive helpless audience. The Client is
King. Jeez, the last lady I saw who did this had the guts to tell the cash-desk girl that in
Russia people didn't pollute much!
Consuming â€˜energyâ€™ (petroleum, electricity usually produced by fossil fuels in the
US, coal, wood, bio..) is locked into the territorial, industrial, building-arrangement in most
developed countries. Individual action cannot have any consequent, long-term, or hard
hitting impact. People are entirely dependent on their geographical and housing set up, and
unless they are very rich, they can do nothing to affect those parameters. They can save for
double glazing to reduce their energy bills, but will continue to live in a crappy suburban
house and drive 100â€™s of miles each month to shop in the cheapest supermarket, bring
their kids to school, and, absolutely vital, get to work. People who refuse to live in this way
(and really do â€˜saveâ€™ energy on an individual level) are considered outcasts, cranks.
Nobody wants to be one of those. How could you get a groovy date? And get married?
Nope.
While some of the measures posted by jdp are great, buying new light bulbs will not change
the % of US energy dependence, nor will it stop the confrontation in the ME. (Just a
friendly dig :)
Surely, many good initiatives exist here and there. They may be examples for others. (I
even think about Switzerland in this way, although here all the known miracles have been
implemented..or are being so..)
However, without a drastic and immediate Governmental change in energy policy in the
US, which would include territoral re-organisation, complete review of transport, huge
investment for the future, and some very tough measures people would not like, such as
doubling up in existent housing, nothing will change.
The interesting thing is that particularly in the US people feel it is their personal
responsibility to â€œdo somethingâ€•. If they do so, though the Gvmt. makes approving
noises, they are going completely against the policies of their leaders, without confronting
them head on.
And, hey, windpower acconts for less than 2% of energy production worldwide.
Amen Blackie.
Like I said, to really make things right, we need a revolution!
Bring it on! :)
@gylangirl
Expecting the whole nation to trade in their cars for bikes is just plain crazy.
I agree - impossible for most the people in the US. There would have to be a serious
investment in infrastructure to make it possible for maybe half of the US citizens - like 20%
of the defense budget per year.
But a car is not a car and you can decide which one you want to drive. My Twingo goes
some 38 miles per gallon while rushing through real live city traffic. The average in the US
is a theoretical 24 MPG for passenger vehicles and declining.
The US imports roughly half the crude oil it needs. Driving Twingos etc could bring a 36%
decline in fuel usage, a 74% decline in US fuel imports, and would make for a healthy
economy and a more peacful world.
@b respectfully disagree. the huge investment in infrastructure (paved highways and roads)
is already made, at crippling cost. remember it was cyclists who first demanded paved
roads in the US... little did they know what was coming. the notion that we need to build a
whole parallel infrastructure dedicated solely to bicycles is imho bunkum. all we need is
taming of the egregious endangerment currently permitted on the part of mv operators, and
the existing road network is quite workable for a wide variety of transport mechanisms,
whether human powered or power-assisted.
@vbo: yes, wind power currently accounts for only 2 percent of world energy production,
quite true. and 100 years ago, automobile use accounted for only a tiny percent of world
transport use, and only a tiny percentage of homes were lit by electricity at all.
so obviously all nascent technologies are irrelevant losers, since in their nascent stage they
capture a very tiny market share? I am reminded of the exec who opined (this was in the
70's iirc) that the market for computers in people's homes was so tiny as to be irrelevant,
certainly not worth any serious thought.
in fact automobile use is still not that big a deal statistically: only about 14 percent of the
world pop owns a car. obviously a marginal, unimportant technology, eh? I mean, 14
percent? a small minority. what possible impact could that have? it's possible to have all
kinds of fun with statistics, but what is small today may be large tomorrow and what is
apparently small may have large knock-on effects.
I agree that feel-good rituals like recycling and eschewing plastic bags have only small
impacts, and that fundamental restructuring and retooling are required. the irony of yuppies
dripping with "blood diamonds" but fussing over their plastic bag usage is not lost on me;
OTOH one less plastic bag tossed idly overboard by a yuppie may mean one less dead
seabird. because an amelioration is minor doesn't necessarily make it utterly worthless. nor
does the shallow embrace of trendy yuplets disfigure and taint every cause they temporarily
take up: just because a foolish rich person offends us by using environmental correctness as
an excuse to flaunt her class position, doesn't make environmental issues any less pressing
or serious. causes and facts are not, thank goodness, altered in any way by the behaviour
and credentials of those who follow or cite them... though alas they may be tarnished in the
public eye by sufficiently foolish advocates.
the impact of small things is difficult to assess. behavioural changes have a cascade effect:
asking questions and practising moderation in one area can easily lead to a widening
inquiry and more ambitious reforms in other areas. as the man said, "It is easier to act your
way into a new way of thinking, than to think your way into a new way of acting." I doubt
anything will alter the fundamental attitudes of human hierarchy, swanking and ranking;
but if we learned to play out our silly games using more sustainable poker chips, we might
be able to play a bit longer and do less real harm.
10 years ago, Strasbourg, my home town, launched an ambitious plan to change driving
habits. They built a new tramway (light rail) system, increased bus routes and frequencies,
built real bike lanes (physically separate from car lanes) AND they voluntarily made
driving more difficult in the city (all roads going through the center were cut off, so that
you could only loop in and out of the center, but not go through anymore).
Road traffic dropped by 20%, and the center was suddenly even more pleasant than before.
It is possible; it is a question of policy and incentives. what actually pisses me off is that all
the subsidies that go into driving are never aknowledged, but any investment in public
transportation is so easily seen as "socialism" or worse. Make cars pay for infrastructure
use, road deaths, the costs to the health system of all injuries and cripples from accidents,
not to mention pollution, military budgets, etc... - and the unquantifiable but significant cost
of using up something finite. Make these explicit, and you could suddenly find that you
have enough money to provide pretty convenient public transportation systems and
encourage other behavior.
Higher oil prices are an indirect route there; we need to force the issue of all these hidden
costs.
My philosophy in life is "luxury is good, waste is bad", i.e. it's okay to spend or use
resources if you ackowledge the real full cost of that and can afford it. On a personal level,
strive to avoid waste but enjoy luxury. On a macro level, encourage policies that punish
waste and price things correctly (which includes, but does not mean only, market
mechanisms, of course)
@ DeAnander - you are right - but I intended a different view. I did write:
There would have to be a serious investment in infrastructure to make it possible for maybe
half of the US citizens - like 20% of the defense budget per year.
I should have written:
There would have to be a serious investment in infrastructure to make public transport
(including taking bikes on the train) possible for maybe half of the US citizens - like 20%
of the defense budget per year.
@Jerome, amen to that! I never get tired of recommending Hart and Spivak's The Elephant
in the Bedroom which points out the degree (massive) to which "private" auto use in the US
is actually socialised -- and the weird, skewing and draining effects this has on muni and
regional budgets. what we've come to in the US is privatising necessities and socialising
luxury, which from where I sit looks downright certifiable.
so I say again, in complete agreement with you:
True cost accounting, it's waaaay overdue.
@b sorry, friend, I jumped the gun and assumed (you know what they say about the verb
"assume", right?) that I was hearing a repeat of the usual excuse for not cycling or walking,
i.e. that Big Gummint has to build me special facilities before I can possibly do anything so
dangerous/weird/different. groveling apologies, and I agree with you about the investment
needed to restore and extend America's trashed or nonexistent transit network. it breaks my
heart to see what happened to the world-class railroads that so much wealth and human life
was spent to create -- a century of vandalism which might someday be remembered in the
same light as the burning of the Alexandrian library (or the sack of Baghdad, for that
matter), a wilful squandering of human achievement and national wealth. its being
self-inflicted only sharpens the ironic edge of the tragedy.
the US is now about, what, fifty years behind the rest of the industrialised world in rail
technology? and the rest of our transit service is equally pathetic.
anecdotal interlude: a few years back I met a visiting professor from Uruguay [Uruguay,
not exactly a power member of the G8, yes?] who was astonished, she confessed
apologetically [unlike Anglo/Americans, many other persons travelling abroad consider it
rude to criticise their host country and try to take a positive view of it], to find that bus
service in a prosperous seaside town here was so much worse than back in a
not-so-prosperous midsize inland hometown, let alone in the city where her University was
situated. she said that her guest lecturer pay didn't look so good if she was obliged to buy
and maintain a car on it :-)
that was a few years ago. since then the bus service in my town has been cut back even
further, while support remains fairly strong to raise sales taxes [can we spell "regressive"?]
for yet another $300M highway-widening project.
roll on, Hubbert's Peak. only a short, sharp dose of real pricing will shake people out of the
oleaginous trance.
Has anyone seen an estimate of the oil price per bbl at which methyl clathrates become a
viable cost-competitive alternative energy source?
Posted by: melior | September 29, 2004 09:09 PM
How about for cellulose-derived ethanol? (pdf)
How much of a national R&D funding commitment might it take to bring to market a
superior alternative energy storage medium, i.e. one that is comparable to gasoline in
energy density (and far greater than hydrogen and other current alternatives)? (pdf)
How much would these numbers change if we spent the money we are currently spending
to wage war in order to try to secure existing oil reserves in the Middle East and elsewhere?
original source and shameless plug.
Thermal depoly is a very interesting notion. I'd feel a bit better if there wasn't just one guy
(Appel) claiming he has a special patented process that mysteriously makes it work at a
profitable recovery rate.
The phrase that sticks with me (found in various forms in various reports on Appel and
CWT) is "It is not noted in the article if this has been put forth to widespread scientific
peer review." Now, most other scientific advances or innovative industrial processes that
have made a real mark, were reproduced by independent researchers to prove their
viability: radio emitters, semiconductors, supercooled magnets, etc. Any time a process or
technique can be reproduced successfully only by one person or one team, all the warning
buzzers should go off -- particularly if that person or team is making a hard pitch for
venture capital :-)
One skeptic remarked "'Paul Baskis, the inventor of the process' says that he filed patents
for this in the late 1980s. I can't seem to find a relevant patent grant for this 'thermal
depolymerization' process, or indeed any patents for Paul Baskis nor for the new owner
Brian Appel, nor for Changing World Technologies, nor does the Changing World
Technologies web site mention any patents, which is a pretty big omission for a company
looking for funding."
It all does remind me (a) of the original hype over Cold Fusion, and (b) of any generic
investment scam. I seem to recall CWT doing spam mailings a few months back promoting
their IPO. So I reserve judgment.
Even supposing it works, it's a waste reclamation technique with a 15 percent loss -- a way
of mining debris and detritus and (allegedly) reversing entropy, returning some portion of
the debris to a low-entropy state so it can be re-degraded for a 2nd round of energy release
(but not more than about 7 rounds). This means it is still a negative sum game, whereas the
ideal goal is a zero sum game (within the general limits of an entropic universe -- a rigged
casino).
Sure would be cool to recycle plastics more efficiently and to separate waste streams into
useful reclaimed products rather than filling endless dump sites with the stuff. But the idea
that this gets us off the hook as far as our fossil fuel squandering is imho unreasonable. The
biggest chunk of the fossil fuel stream goes into transport and heating, i.e. it gets burned.
Even Dr Appel's Miracle Percolator can't pull the smog out of the sky and the heat back out
of the atmosphere and turn those degraded products back into long carbon chains.
See, there are these axioms called the laws of thermodynamics, and... oh well, never mind.
The Rapture's a-comin', better get ready.
DeAnander: the massive investment in infrastructure isn't in road and public transportation,
it is in levelling the suburbs, razing most of the huge corporate HQs in downtown, and
rebuilding housing there. Of course, it means people live in flats in multi-stored buildings,
not in McMansions anymore. But if you want to limit car use, which is necessary long-term
speaking, you have to go back to the basic elements of life as men knew it for millennia.
Most notably, the huge majority of people should simply not live farther than 3 miles from
their job place; this way, most of them they can go there by walking, biking, or bus. The
density of the average US city is just plain crazily low.
Of course, re-concentration of human activities into cities means that the streets will be
car-free and devoted to pedestrians and bikes, with streetcars or other kinds of public
transportation system.
Last but not least, if you want a "changing world technology", I just have one word for you:
nano-technology.
Blackie: Sure, it may be fancy to complain about plastic bag, but then you may not have
seen the waste that you get in the US. And all mircles are implemented in Switzerland? All
houses' roofs with solar panels, car use is legally rationed?
Melior: Indeed, if we stopped wasting money on oil, nuclear stuff and missile shield, and
put it in serious R/D, we would be far better. We just need to find leaders that support these
ideas (hint: it's not Bush-Cheney04).
Though I think that peak oil is a contributing factor to the impending and long-overdue
Malthusian crisis which will hit mankind in a few decades. To plagiarise Roberts, either we
change our ways of life and massively reduce population, or nature will do it for us. In this
case, I'm all for pre-emptive actions.
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« Bush with a Bathtub in Baghdad | Main | Outsourcing Services »
Moon of Alabama: Bush with a Bathtub in Baghdad
And
must
have
whiskey
Oh, you
know
why
« Crude | Main | The Real Test Is Your Action »
September 28, 2004
Bush with a Bathtub in Baghdad
by Koreyel
The REAL reason we went to war in Iraq, if you must know, is that after 9-11
we needed to kick the shit out of someone, anyone...
Contributor on a previous MoA thread
No doubt there is truth in that. In fact I've pointed in that direction as well. An "eye for an
eye" is a primitive human theorem. It lies buried within all of us, and needs but a lure to
lunge to the surface.
The lure for war was, of course, the sexed up intel. But a hot lure alone is never enough.
Ravenous hunger is necessary to land a fish. And in the case at hand: a hunger for violence.
Does America have such a hunger? For decades, American television has been dishing out
a sumptuous all-you-can-eat buffet of violence. The American mind has fed and fed well at
this banquet. So much so that I suspect the notion: good guys use violence to win the day
against bad guys--has entered our national psyche.
And when one hungers to do violence against bad guys any sexy lure will do. That's
probably how the Iraq War got sold to Bush. After all - Bush is NOT play pretend folksy.
He is, if fact, a genuine American drugstore cowboy.
Allow me a slight digression. I maintain that when George Bush walks and talks, what you
are looking at is a condensation of the worst traits of middle class America.
I remember long ago, when Bush was the owner of the Texas Rangers baseball team, Nolan
Ryan a Ranger pitcher got in a horrific fist-fight with a batter he had hit in the ribs with a
fast ball. It was worse than an eye for an eye. It was three punches for one-half punch. Bush
latter said it was the greatest thing he had ever seen on a baseball diamond.
The greatest thing? On a ball field? A fist fight?
Given that bit of insight would it surprise anyone to learn that Bush watches the Worldwide
Wrestling Federation? From the Guardian article on the Kitty Kelly book there appears this
snip:
How anyone got out of Yale without developing some interest in the world
besides booze and sports stuns me." New Yorker writer Brendan Gill recalls
roaming the Kennebunkport compound one night while staying there looking
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2004/09/bush_with_a_bat.html (1 von 12) [16.11.2004 18:27:18]
for a book to read â€“ the only title he could find was The Fart Book.
These anecdotes demonstrate that plainspoken Bush would be at home watching violent TV
with just about any middle-class or lower-class American family. If you will: He is they,
and they are he, and he speaks their sort of violence. Not only that â€“ he speaks it well.
So it wouldn't surprise me if Iraq War was marketed to Bush by using a lot of virtuous hot
air aimed at his most primitive instincts.
But of course truth is a many-splendourd thing. We know the goons at the top sexed up the
intel. And that the neocon puppet masters had long been planning this conquest and
probably others. What we don't know is exactly what is in the minutes of Cheney's secret
energy plan meetings. Therein I've long suspected, is the key to everything.
But all that being said, HOW the war was marketed and sold back then is one thing. WHY
the war is still being marketed and sold today is really a far more critical question.
Obviously it is readily apparent to everyone with a brain that Iraq is a flytrap for
American troops and American treasure. Sure, some neocons are still true believers, but
the vast majority of congressmen know the war is now a complete and utter drain. So why
do they still overtly support it?
I am going to answer that question from three vicious perspectives. I will argue that the
neocons, the conservatives, and the born-agains ALL have something to gain from a
continuation of the Iraq-mess. In fact: the messier and costlier the war the better they see
themselves being served.
Why the neocons are happy is elucidated in this Joshua Marshall article: Practice to
Deceive. That's been tossed about on the MoA a few threads back. The born-agains are
happy because they are cheered by the rise of muscular Christianity and buoyed by the
possibility of jump-starting the End Times. Never mind that God ought not to be rushed,
these folks are certifiably wacky, and they know God won't be offended by their
zealousness.
Now as for the conservatives - the Texas Taliban - why should they be cheered by the
prospects of a 200 billion war mushrooming towards a trillion bucks? Because they want to
destroy the social contract. They want to starve that beast and then drown it in Norquist's
bathtub.
Think about that for an instant.
This isn't just a war against Iraq, it has become a war against The New Deal. What better
way to force social concessions on the public than via sacrifices made necessary by a
hyped-up war against terror? There is even a fringe benefit: certain American corporations
will prosper.
So that's where we are. And that's where we are trending.
We have an ordinary, crude President speaking ordinary and crude phrases to a population
that has become inordinately crude. But this film script has a plot twist. The President is not
really the friend of the middle-class. He might sit in their living rooms and watch wrestlers
trash talk, drink a lite beer, and throw back pretzels, and talk smack about Iraqis and
terrorists... but -- this is a Hitchcockian screen play: Just as Nero wished the Roman people
had but one neck so that he might cut it off, so this President and his lieutenants have
dreamed of having one hand on one neck in one bathtub so they might drown it.
In this movie's final scene our hero will do just that with his clear blue eyes and a smirk on
his face.
Most of middle-class America? They haven't a clue.
Comments
Review of The Fart Book
Hmmm, iirc, it was Caligula, not Nero, about the neck of the Roman people.
Koreyel - good post
I would argue however that Iraq was, as seen from the outside, a demonstration of
weakness.
Iraq was the only country whose ass the US could kick. Iran? North Korea? Forget it. Iraq?
It was weak (already bombed and sanctioned to death), it was an outlet for revenge (being
ay-rab and having a nice nasty bogeyman) and there was even a veneer of an excuse (past
UN resolutions).
Typical bully behovior, of course, but counterproductive if you cannot even kick the shit
out of them convincingly...
So now have (i) most of the the US Army hopelessly bogged down (ii) wary (or worse)
allies (iii) empty treasury (iv) China, Russia and others duly noting all the precedents this
has created ("might is right" first and foremost, including its nuclear dissuasion collaterals)
(v) China - again - happily growing and building up strength while US attention is
distracted elsewhere and its strength is slowly drained...
The US is lucky to still be able to count on the US Navy to control the oil and shipping
routes, thus scaring China off, but for how long? The oil situation may accelerate that
confrontation much more than we expect, and a lot of "arguments" in that real strategic
conflict have been lost, spent or given up in Iraq.
Quite a coup. It's not just the domestic agenda which is "down the bathtub"...
Posted by: JÃ©rÃ´me | September 28, 2004 07:42 AM
@ JÃ©rÃ´me
Good to see you back, I hope things are going better for you and your son.
It must give you a bit of schadenfreude to see this happen after all the France bashing
coming out of the US the last couple of years.
I do wonder if these men are all evil geniuses with a clear plan to destroy what is left of
socialism in the US or just evil and incompetent.
Posted by: Dan of Steele | September 28, 2004 07:56 AM
Bravo! very well done Bernard.You made articulate and erudite ideals that were floating in
my head uncalibrated thus far, however, I would like to add to this base of wonderfully
(foul?) smelling stew, some spice to salt it a bit. As you say ...exactly what is in the minutes
of Cheney's secret energy plan meetings. Therein I've long suspected, is the key to
everything. I believe this to be ONLY part of an equation, the other parts are "What Sibel
Edmonds knows" and what roles "PNAC/AIPAC" (Project for the new American
Century)and (American Israel Public Affairs Committee),explicitly the The Nazi/fascist
presence in the Republican ethnic outreach program have in mind. Just as In Hindu
mythology, The Goddess Durga was given many different kinds of weapons with the idea
that one weapon cannot destroy all different kinds of enemies. Your ...three vicious
perspectives is dead on the right track , but these things are so much more complicated than
we know. Hidden in a veil of disinfomation. (Think Rummy's P2OG). We have a
multi-fascited Demon to destroy. A tapestry of evil to fight. Durga was given a mace,
sword, disc, arrow, and used a weapon called a trishul or trident (where the Idea of the
devil aka Satan had a trident comes from)to convey the idea that such a adversary which
changes form and faces needs to be battled on many fronts. That's where I think forums
such as this i.e. group-think can be of much use.
Other considerations to think about:
Miltary Industrial Complex, Resource Wars: The New Landscape of Global Conflict by
Author, Michael T. Klare and "THE GRAND CHESSBOARD - American Primacy And
It's Geostrategic Imperatives," by Zbigniew Brzezinsk.
Damn, what a way to embarrass myself, I was thinking Koreyel, but wrote Bernard. Sorry,
I'll just hide over in the corner, till I get more coffee in me...*slink*
@Jerome:
Typical bully behovior, of course, but counterproductive if you cannot even kick the shit
out of them convincingly...
Quite a coup. It's not just the domestic agenda which is "down the bathtub"...
You've got it Jerome.
The US will be paying for this blustering incompetence for a generation.
Clueless Joe,
Thanks for the correction. Don't know how I kicked that reference. Except to suggest that
my last Roman reference was: "Bush fiddling while Baghdad burned." I think thereafter,
Bush as Nero took over some of my mind's territory.
JÃ©rÃ´me,
You know me well enough to know the bully analogy is one I think fits. And certainly I
can't disagree with any of your points in regards to a less safe, more demasculated USA.
Truly it is stunning what Bush has accomplished in just 3½ years.
But to allow the willful drowning of his own citizen's future security in a bathtub?
This is beyond Hitchcock. Beyond bullying. Beyond Nero. Beyond even Caligula.
Uncle $cam,
Thanks for your comments.
I'd love to see you work those ideas up into a front and center post.
@ Jerome I second Dan of Steele's observation.
Things may not be quite as bad as
we fear: bitter opposition to the way Bush perpetrated his criminal Iraq policy is surfacing
in unexpected places (see While America Slept). This site is well worth watching to see
what real soldiers are thinking.
Posted by: Hannah K. O'Luthon | September 28, 2004 10:19 AM
Had to laugh despite the sad topic.
Apparently, only one thing can stop the dangerous state of a battleground like Iraq: a
strenuously cheerful diagnosis in a battleground state like Ohio. And Mr. Bush's policy of
Preemptive-Panglossianism appears to be working, dear Fox viewers. It's like I always
say: when terrorists give you terror, make tiramisu!
...
But in striving to be fair and unbalanced, Mr. Hume sells Iraq's homicidal
accomplishments short. Had Mr. Hume bothered to succumb to the tedium of statistical
analysis and compared the number of American soldiers in Iraq with the population of
California, he would have found that Arnold Schwarzenegger would have to encourage
50,750 murders a month to keep up with American causalities in Iraq (I'd love to see those
billboards!). Once again, a hearty brava for the protÃ©gÃ©e showing up its proud
mentor!
...
The only thing that would make Iraq more like America is if partisan corporations
tinkering with the software for electronic voting machines could rig the vote. But, I
suppose, Iraq would need something Americans love even more than democracy for that:
electrical power.
Betty Bowers: Iraq the Vote
Krugman gets it:
"It will also reflect the undoubted fact that Mr. Bush does a pretty good Clint Eastwood
imitation."
Laura on the Ranch with the Kool-Aid...
...at his Crawford, Texas, ranch Tuesday, "crystallizing" his thoughts on policy and
sharpening zingers, Bartlett said.
The ranch has an important mind-clearing effect, he said.
and what's with the table cloth posing as a shirt???
Posted by: esme | September 28, 2004 02:14 PM
The ranch has an important mind-clearing effect
and aren't all the meetings/conversations/plannings sessions/etc which take place at the
ranch are exempt from public access [FOIA requests] and not part of the official record? I
read or heard this somewhere but have never confirmed it. Might shed more light on the
month-long vacation in the summer of 2001.
And last night I attended a lecture from Dr. Helen Caldicott who wants to remind us all that
the US and Russia possess 97% of all nuclear arsenal on the planet. North Korea or Iran?
"Let me get my microscope..."
Posted by: b real | September 28, 2004 02:34 PM
Uncle $cam - i second koreyel's call for a front and center post on your thoughts. esp.
interested in the lastest on Cheney's secret energy meetings - was out of touch with the real
news world for a bit and have been wondering where that is.
All very true, but omits one crucial fact: the Iraq War was a 2002 election year gimmick.
And it worked, big time, for the Repugs!
*******************************************
What does Col. David H. Hackworth (USA Ret.) the United States' most decorated living
soldier, SFTT.org co-founder, and Senior Military Columnist for DefenseWatch magazine,
think of George and Dick's Excellent Iraq Adventure?
http://www.sftt.org/index.html
"In its micro way, the Lynch scam symbolizes the miasma of deception surrounding the
invasion and the ugly unsolvable occupation already causing the direst consequences to our
national security.
"From post-9/11 to the present, the war too has been based on lies fanned by the same
Pentagon propaganda machine busy doing everything possible â€“ including the censorship
of our troops in Iraq for â€œnational security purposesâ€• â€“ to convince the American
people that, as we sadly heard for eight bloody years in Vietnam, thereâ€™s â€œlight at the
end of the tunnel.â€•
"We went to war because we were told Iraq had WMD that threatened our countryâ€™s
security and that Saddam was a key player behind 9/11. Both have been proven to be super
whoppers.
"We were also told that liberating Iraq would be a cakewalk with few U.S. casualties and
would cost no more than a billion bucks â€“ which would quickly be repaid by Iraqi oil.
Yet more duplicity.
"So far I count 1,050 American dead, 7,750 combat wounded and about 30,000 non-battle
casualties. And our war costs are already close to a cool $200 billion.
"Meanwhile, Super Flack James Wilkinson, the reported Spielberg of the Lynch saga, has
recently been shifted from desert duties to advising National Security Advisor Rice on how
to further deceive the American people.
"Like Vietnam, the cover-ups and distortions will continue until the press and the people
wake up. Hopefully that will be before the count is 3,000 or 4,000 dead American soldiers."
@koreyel
Great post.....The rubics cube turns on a single armature, and all the pieces are connected to
it in their movement or their lack of movement, what at first seems a mystery of intention,
can now appear an age old synchronic clockwork thugary of selling freedom for
power.....fattening frogs for snakes.
And I"m reminded of Bernhards Sept 13 Thueydides post:
.............................
Words had to change their ordinary meaning and to take that which was now given them.
Reckless audacity came to be considered the courage of a loyal ally; prudent hesitation,
specious cowardice; moderation was held to be a cloak for unmanliness; ability to see all
sides of a question, inaptness to act on any.
...
The advocate of extreme measures was always trustworthy; his opponent a man to be
suspected. To succeed in a plot was to have a shrewd head, to divine a plot a still shrewder;
but to try to provide against having to do either was to break up your party and to be afraid
of your adversaries.
.................................
So yes you are so right, GWB, while not the brains of the outfit, is the willing and amiable
frontman, the costumed henchman playing protector and warrior, to enable with impunity,
the destruction of the social contract -- most likely with the fantasy -- of actually drowning
someone in their own bathtub.
Posted by: anna missed | September 29, 2004 04:53 AM
25 National Security Experts Blast Bush and 9-11 Commission
[9-11 FBI whistleblower Sibel Edmonds just sent TomFlocco.com a copy of this open
letter.]
Date: September 13, 2004
To The Congress of The United States:
The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States ended its report
stating that "We look forward to a national debate on the merits of what we have
recommended, and we will participate vigorously in that debate."
In this spirit, we the undersigned wish to bring to the attention of the Congress and the
people of the United States what we believe are serious shortcomings in the report and its
recommendations.
We thus call upon Congress to refrain from narrow political considerations and to apply
brakes to the race to implement the commission recommendations. It is not too late for
Congress to break with the practice of limiting testimony to that from politicians and
top-layer career bureaucrats-many with personal reputations to defend and institutional
equities to protect.
Instead, use this unique opportunity to introduce salutary reform, an opportunity that must
not be squandered by politically driven haste.
Omission is one of the major flaws in the Commissionâ€™s report. We are aware of
significant issues and cases that were duly reported to the commission by those of us with
direct knowledge, but somehow escaped attention.
Serious problems and shortcomings within government agencies likewise were reported to
the Commission but were not included in the report. The report simply does not get at key
problems within the intelligence, aviation security, and law enforcement communities. The
omission of such serious and applicable issues and information by itself renders the report
flawed, and casts doubt on the validity of many of its recommendations.
We believe that one of the primary purposes of the Commission was to establish
accountability; that to do so is essential to understanding the failures that led to 9/11, and to
prescribe needed changes.
However, the Commission in its report holds no one accountable, stating instead "our aim
has not been to assign individual blame". That is to play the political game, and it shows
that the goal of achieving unanimity overrode one of the primary purposes of this
Commissionâ€™s establishment.
When calling for accountability, we are referring not to quasi-innocent mistakes caused by
"lack of imagination" or brought about by ordinary "human error". Rather, we refer to
intentional actions or inaction by individuals responsible for our national security, actions
or inaction dictated by motives other than the security of the people of the United States.
The report deliberately ignores officials and civil servants who were, and still are, clearly
negligent and/or derelict in their duties to the nation. If these individuals are protected
rather than held accountable, the mindset that enabled 9/11 will persist, no matter how
many layers of bureaucracy are added, and no matter how much money is poured into the
agencies. Character counts.
Personal integrity, courage, and professionalism make the difference. Only a commission
bent on holding no one responsible and reaching unanimity could have missed that.
We understand, as do most Americans, that one of our greatest strengths in defending
against terrorism is the dedication and resourcefulness of those individuals who work on
the frontlines.
Even before the Commission began its work, many honest and patriotic individuals from
various agencies came forward with information and warnings regarding terrorism-related
issues and serious problems within our intelligence and aviation security agencies.
If it were not for these individuals, much of what we know today of significant issues and
facts surrounding 9/11 would have remained in the dark. These "whistleblowers" were able
to put the safety of the American people above their own careers and jobs, even though
they had reason to suspect that the deck was stacked against them. Sadly, it was.
Retaliation took many forms: some were ostracized; others were put under formal or
informal gag orders; some were fired. The commission has neither acknowledged their
contribution nor faced up to the urgent need to protect such patriots against retaliation by
the many bureaucrats who tend to give absolute priority to saving face and protecting their
own careers.
The Commission did emphasize that barriers to the flow of information were a primary
cause for wasting opportunities to prevent the tragedy. But it skipped a basic truth.
Secrecy enforced by repression threatens national security as much as bureaucratic turf
fights. It sustains vulnerability to terrorism caused by government breakdowns. Reforms
will be paper tigers without a safe channel for whistleblowers to keep them honest in
practice.
It is unrealistic to expect that government workers will defend the public, if they can't
defend themselves. Profiles in Courage are the exception, not the rule.
Unfortunately, current whistleblower rights are a cruel trap and magnet for cynicism. The
Whistleblower Protection Act has turned into an efficient way to finish whistleblowers off
by endorsing termination.
No government workers have access to jury trials like Congress enacted for corporate
workers after the Enron/MCI debacles.
Government workers need genuine, enforceable rights just as much to protect America's
families, as corporate workers do to protect America's investments. It will take
congressional leadership to fill this hole in the 9/11 Commission's recommendations.
The Commission, with its incomplete report of "facts and circumstances", intentional
avoidance of assigning accountability, and disregard for the knowledge, expertise and
experience of those who actually do the job, has now set about pressuring our Congress and
our nation to hastily implement all its recommendations.
While we do not intend to imply that all recommendations of this report are flawed, we
assert that the Commissionâ€™s list of recommendations does not include many urgently
needed fixes, and further, we argue that some of their recommendations, such as the
creation of an â€˜intelligence czarâ€™, and haphazard increases in intelligence budgets,
will lead to increases in the complexity and confusion of an already complex and highly
bureaucratic system.
Congress has been hearing not only from the commissioners but from a bevy of other
career politicians, very few of whom have worked in the intelligence community, and from
top-layer bureaucrats, many with vested interests in saving face and avoiding
accountability.
Congress has not included the voices of the people working within the intelligence and
broader national security communities who deal with the real issues and problems
day-after-day and who possess the needed expertise and experience-in short, those who not
only do the job but are conscientious enough to stick their necks out in pointing to the
impediments they experience in trying to do it effectively.
We the undersigned, who have worked within various government agencies (FBI, CIA,
FAA, DIA, Customs) responsible for national security and public safety, call upon you in
Congress to include the voices of those with first-hand knowledge and expertise in the
important issues at hand. We stand ready to do our part.
Respectfully,
1. Costello, Edward J. Jr., Former Special Agent, Counterintelligence, FBI
2. Cole, John M., Former Veteran Intelligence Operations Specialist, FBI
3. Conrad, David "Mark", Retired Agent in Charge, Internal Affairs, U.S. Customs
4. Dew, Rosemary N., Former Supervisory Special Agent, Counterterrorism &
Counterintelligence, FBI
5. Dzakovic, Bogdan, Former Red Team Leader, FAA
6. Edmonds, Sibel D., Former Language Specialist, FBI
7. Elson, Steve, Retired Navy Seal & Former Special Agent, FAA & US Navy
8. Forbes, David, Aviation, Logistics and Govt. Security Analysts, BoydForbes, Inc.,
9. Goodman, Melvin A., Former Senior Analyst/ Division Manager, CIA; Senior Fellow at
the Center for International Policy
10. Graf, Mark, Former Security Supervisor, Planner, & Derivative Classifier, Department
of Energy
11. Graham, Gilbert M., Retired Special Agent, Counterintelligence, FBI
12. Kleiman, Diane, Former Special Agent, US Customs
13. Kwiatkowski, Karen U., Lt. Col. USAF (ret.), Veteran Policy Analyst-DoD
14. Larkin, Lynne A., Former Operation Officer, CIA
15. MacMichael, David, Former Senior Estimates Officer, CIA
16. McGovern, Raymond L., Former Analyst, CIA
17. Pahle, Theodore J., Retired Senior Intelligence Officer, DIA
18. Sarshar, Behrooz, Retired Language Specialist, FBI
19. Sullivan, Brian F., Retired Special Agent & Risk Management Specialist, FAA
20. Tortorich, Larry J., Retired US Naval Officer, US Navy & Dept. of Homeland
Security/TSA
21. Turner, Jane A., Retired Special Agent, FBI
22. Vincent, John B., Retired Special Agent, Counterterrorism, FBI
23. Whitehurst, Dr. Fred, Retired Supervisory Special Agent/Laboratory Forensic
Examiner, FBI
24. Wright, Ann, Col. US Army (ret.); and Former Foreign Service officer
25. Zipoli, Matthew J., Special Response Team (SRT) Officer, DOE
CC:
Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Chairman Pat Roberts & Vice Chairman John D.
Rockefeller
Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Chairman Orrin G. Hatch & Ranking Democratic
Member Patrick Leahy
Senate Committee on Armed Services, Chairman John Warner & Ranking Member Carl
Levin
Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, Chairman Susan Collins & Ranking Member
Joseph Lieberman
House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Chairman Porter J. Goss & Ranking
Member Jane Harman
House Committee on the Judiciary, Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner, Jr. & Ranking
Member John Conyers
House Armed Services Committee, Chairman Duncan Hunter & Ranking Member Ike
Skelton
House Committee on Government Reform, Chairman Tom Davis & Ranking Member
Henry A. Waxman
House Select Committee on Homeland Security, Chairman Christopher Cox & Ranking
Member Jim Turner
Senator Charles Grassley
Contact: Sibel Edmonds
Posted by: glenstonecottage | September 29, 2004 08:14 AM
Live vote. Just for fun since MSNBC has discontinued "If the election was today" vote. Do
you believe George Bush has been born again?
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« Crude | Main | The Real Test Is Your Action »
Moon of Alabama: Crude
And
must
have
whiskey
Oh, you
know
why
« Open Off Topic Thread | Main | Bush with a Bathtub in Baghdad »
September 28, 2004
Crude
KARL: You better ring him up.
GEORGE: Okay Karl, IÂ´ll call him now: 202 342-3800
VOICE: Hello?
GEORGE: Hi, this is George, is Bandarboy in?
VOICE: Sorry sir, no, he is on vacation.
GEORGE: But you will have a number for me wonÂ´t you. This is George!
VOICE: Oh I am sorry George, he left no number. I am afraid he is
unreachable right now.
GEORGE: But, but when do you expect him back?
VOICE: Oh, that may take a while. I think heÂ´ll be back in November. Early
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2004/09/crude.html (1 von 3) [16.11.2004 18:27:20]
November that is.
GEORGE: Oh fuck.
Oil Charges to $50.47 Record
Morgan Stanley Says Oil Price Could Reach $61
Nothing Opec can do to bring oil down, says Purnomo
Bandarboy
Comments
Get ready for the "real" war soon (hint: it's with a country with an "i" and an "a", but no "r"
in between...)
See my post on the Koreyel thread above.
Bernhard, I really hope Bandarboy will stay on his vacation until November. Actually, I am
not very unhappy about the oil price, maybe when it gets even higher things will finally
start to change.
The other day I received a consumer magazine from my electricity company, with a nice
article an how to conserve energy and reduce CO2. Unfortunately, it is too long to translate.
However, in a separate box there was this model called the â€œ2000-Watt-societyâ€• with a
graph of the hourly watt consumption of primary energy per person, in different countries.
UAE - 14â€™500W
US - 10â€™500W
Russia - 5â€™700W
Switzerland - 5â€™100W
China - 1â€™200W
Bangladesh 200W
At present, it seems that the average per head consumption, worldwide, is at 2200W. The
Goal would be 2000W, meaning that countries like China and Bangladesh would be
allowed to use more energy and the most of the other countries would have to reduce their
consumption. I guess the consumption of the UAE is neglectable in its effect on world
consumption, considering its population that I think is small, but for the US it will be a
tremendous challenge. The electricity company thinks this can be done through saving and
through new technology. I must say I was pleased to read, that my electricity provider
shares my own environmental philosophy.
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« Open Off Topic Thread | Main | Bush with a Bathtub in Baghdad »
Moon of Alabama: Open Off Topic Thread
And
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« Dear Comrades | Main | Crude »
September 27, 2004
Open Off Topic Thread
Comments
Jimmy Carter:
Still Seeking a Fair Florida Vote
.. some basic international requirements for a fair election are missing in
Florida.
The most significant of these requirements are:
â€¢ A nonpartisan electoral commission or a trusted and nonpartisan official
who will be responsible for organizing and conducting the electoral process...
â€¢ Uniformity in voting procedures, so that all citizens, regardless of their
social or financial status, have equal assurance that their votes are cast in the
same way and will be tabulated with equal accuracy...
...
It is unconscionable to perpetuate fraudulent or biased electoral practices in
any nation. It is especially objectionable among us Americans, who have
prided ourselves on setting a global example for pure democracy. With
reforms unlikely at this late stage of the election, perhaps the only recourse
will be to focus maximum public scrutiny on the suspicious process in Florida.
This elections, like the last one, will be decided in a court room.
Good call from Carter.
Though I have to smile at "will be tabulated with equal accuracy", since there can't be any
true egality and equality as long as there's an Electoral College acting as intermediate,
which is chosen based on "winner-takes-all" majority rule (which imho is even worse a
travesty of democracy than the College itself).
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2004/09/open_off_topic_.html (1 von 32) [16.11.2004 18:27:28]
In his LATimes piece, the Barkeep deplores the advertising on blogs as a thing contributing
to their loss of edge. But subtract those ads and what's left? An enterprise too expensive for
the blogger to maintain--not, perhaps, in the actual laying out of funds for the site, but in
the opportunity costs associated with a growing enterprise (an exploding blog eats up time
otherwise spent on gaining one's daily bread, and advertising frees that time up). The
Whiskey Bar, of course, was growing like a stand of bamboo trees, exacting costs too great
for the Barkeep to sustain. And so I draw this moral: let no one, least of all Bernard or
Jerome, be caught in a similar bind. Let's skip the nostalgia for days of greater magnitude,
and help out as best we can. We don't need to convert the world, we just need to tell each
other the truth. That's of value beyond all price.
@Alabama:
Truer words never spoken.
I second alabama.
In the Chicato Sun-Times Bob Novak asks, "Is the CIA at War Against Bush?"
Well, after Bush's extraordinarily dumb remark that the CIA, in its latest, insufficiently
optimistic Iraq NIE, was merely "guessing" at outcomes, one could answer, "I sure as hell
hope so."
But if there's a war on between the two, the CIA's not exactly an easy outfit to root for.
Like the Bush/Rumsfeld Pentagon, sending the armor back to Iraq this fall, the CIA
recovered its senses a little too late.
But hey, maybe it will be successful in repositioning itself to take advantage of the Iraq
fall-out, and to keep Rumsfeld from staking out any more of the valuable territory of intel
reorganization for the DoD.
Maybe, but I doubt it.
Posted by: Pat | September 27, 2004 03:43 PM
How weird is this:
US buys town for terror training
Sounds like an episode of the X-Files
Posted by: kat | September 27, 2004 04:16 PM
My fine column for those who don't want to Google it.
Is CIA at war with Bush?
Posted by: Bobbie Novak | September 27, 2004 04:35 PM
Interesting picture of Tony Blair - look at the pattern the lines are creating on his forehead.
Amazing, isn't it?
picture
That Playas sale sounds like it could lead to a real interesting story about how Phelps
Dodge interacts w/ the fed govt to stay afloat and turn a profit. A quick google search
shows a controversy over questionable land grabs (like purchasing 155 acres of federal land
near the resort town Crested Butte for $875), buying other lands on similar questionable
terms from govt agencies and then selling it back for profit, and using influence/lobbying to
get out of environmental cleanup after closing mines or buying out old claims, etc. Also of
interest is the financial turnaround the company has experienced, from back in a net losses
in 2001 of $275 million and $341.6 million in 2002, to a second quarter net income of $227
million this year. Now they're considering putting other towns up on the block.
US bombing of Iraq city of Kut kills 75, wounds 148
What I'd like to write about is that I live in a village just off the Bush presidential route
today - was offered opportunities to go protest but declined. However, two of my fellow
villagers were somewhat unnerved to see the gunships flying overhead so close you could
distinguish the gun mounts. Sort of puts things in perspective when Bush talks about Kerry
"debating himself" - Bush intends a government where there will be no debate - you'll just
be shot for dissenting. And his military will enforce it (whatever happened to the Right's
perpetual screaming about posse comitatus when Clinton was in office?)
Posted by: francoise | September 27, 2004 06:12 PM
U.S. Oil Hits $50 on Nigeria Supply Fears
My target now is $52/barrel before a backtrack to $48 and a surge to $58/b. Then after a
short pull back, $70/b will be a decent target for October.
Remember this one?
Saudi Envoy Promised Bush a Drop in Oil Prices Ahead of Election
No way - Iraq has changed the picture and Prince Bandar now puts his bet on Kerry.
But who cares, the Saudis lost control of the game. It is played elsewhere - or, the worst
scenario, not played at all - itÂ´s reality.
FRAN! That picture of Blair is creeeeeepy.
He's branded. His face is revealing who owns him, like a cattle on the BushCo ranch.
Posted by: fauxreal | September 27, 2004 06:44 PM
@fauxreal:
It sure looks like an OMEN to me.
A former U.S. Ambassador to Great Britain
Posted by: Gregory Peck | September 27, 2004 06:52 PM
(whatever happened to the Right's perpetual screaming about posse comitatus when Clinton
was in office?)
Excellent question, francoise.
@fran - had a laugh and a flash of the madonna sightings in the water stains on the side of a
building in, what was it, New Port Richey or some run-on city on florida's west coast.
would that Carl Hiaasen would write global.
So Israeli agents are admittedly using car bombs as their weapon of choice in the latest
assassination attack in Syria.
While it's refreshing to see them remove all pretense of a difference in tactics between
themselves and their sworn enemies, I am boggled when trying to imagine how they're
going to spin this as somehow not "state-sponsored terrorism".
At least lobbing missiles into neighborhoods gave them some tissue-paper thin rationale to
use with the press.
Hamas, meanwhile, vows to shift to "overseas targets" in retaliation... gosh I feel safer
already.
Melior: worse than that, they did it in a foreign country, not even in "occupied territories"
they claim as their own. Or if they do, I'm eager to wait how Bush can legitimise their
claims on annexing a big chunk of Syria up to Damascus.
At least, if Hamas decides to target overseas, it may be safer to visit Israel (ok, I know I'm
very cynical on that one)
i know it's CNN (Creative News Network), but...
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said this month there could not be "credible elections
if the security conditions continue as they are now."
The United States will not use covert aid in an attempt to influence the election, a White
House spokesman said Sunday.
"There have been and will continue to be concerns about efforts by outsiders to influence
the outcome of the Iraqi elections, including money flowing from Iran," spokesman Allen
Abney said. "This raises concerns about whether there will be a level playing field for the
Iraqi election.
"We have adopted a policy that we will not try to influence the outcome of the upcoming
Iraqi election by covertly helping individual candidates for office."
1,) do you think the U.N. would consider sending observers - not just to FLA, but
everywhere
2.) have we transferred Iraq our constitution yet (electoral college and all, cause we're not
using it)...
by the way, what is Negroponte up to these days?? and where are all those air craft
carriers??
clearly billmons rage at his darkness not so far from our own
tears of steel
qtill steel
Posted by: remembereringgiap | September 27, 2004 08:05 PM
clearly billmons rage at this darkness not so far from our own
tears of steel
have been receibing michael moores twice weekly missives - wished i felt his optimism
i do not
know that it will get a great deal darker than it is - being battered by what the tougher call
life
in my dreams i'm being eneveloped by huey longs ass as it spreads across the coats of jeb
bush's florida
still steel
If Billmon wrote a book I'd boycott it! He tries to beg for money on his web site, doesn't get
enough, so spitefully writes a nasty article for the LA Times for cash, trashing the best
bloggers who have found a way to make a living at it. What an embittered piece of work.
Posted by: | September 27, 2004 08:35 PM
no 8:35
as alabama has pointed out the exchanges here & at whisky annex are the some of the fruits
of billmons intervention
his darkness at this point in time is not strange to me or to the other posters here - the pure
weight of the events we are living through is exceptionally painful
for alabama - in these days & nights - the work of toni negri - kairos, alma venus multitudes
(calman-levy, paris 2001) & du retour (aussi calman-levy) & work on the internet here has
been getting me through these darkest of nights
there is sometimes a little too much beauty in his suffering & a virtuosity in his thinking
that i tread prudently - but i find something there which has not been sd - & that needs to be
sd & that represents the real multiplicity we are living which is our strength & not our
weakness
i hold on to it as jackson pollock did to his 'blue poles'
no i do not blame billmon - i look along the front - & as any soldier - i care if one of us has
fallen because it makes our task so much the harder - but we will be falling before we stand
up & walk through the line of terror created by bush
still steel
& might i say as i have sd again - the franker the thought the greater the obligation not to
hide behind anonymity
still steel
@RGiap:
Why all the negativity.(Think Kelly's Heroes).
My brother Huey would not have deigned to wipe his ass on one of J. Bush's
monogrammed hankerchiefs.
Think of Blaze, instead, when you dream of envelopment. Much more pleasant dreams, I
assure you.
@Blank:
I don't think anybody still here really gives a flying fuck about that subject, one way or the
other.
Posted by: Earl Long | September 27, 2004 08:57 PM
yr quite right flashharry/earl
even in huey there was more humanity & a little more decency & if the truth be known - he
had for all his faults a deeper connection to the 'people'
i stand/lie down/collapse reproached
still steel
@RGiap::
Hell, I was just trying to cheer you up a bit.
No offense meant. I've not read about Huey much.
Read some about Earl. He was an interesting Southern governor circa 1960. Crazy as a
shithouse rat--but funny as hell. And La Affaire Blaze was the icing on the cake.
In these times we all need as much humor as we can find. Wherever we can find it.
Something is amiss with Billmon. His essay is not characteristic and placing it in the LA
Times is odd. He has a blog where he could place it. His usual gracefulness is absent. The
quality of the graphic currently posted on Whiskey Bar is also not the Billmon I read for
two years. Billmon, I wish you good health and peace. You are the best, I hope you come
back.
Posted by: emereton | September 27, 2004 10:19 PM
Why this leftwinger might vote for Bu**sh**!
Not because I agree with a single thing IdiotBoy has ever done.
But he's made such an utter debacle of both Iraq and the domestic economy you can almost
smell that brown stuff hitting the fan!
And it's best for the left that the fecal material get blown back exclusively into the faces of
Bush and his fellow fratboys... rather than have it be, like Vietnam, a 'bipartisan' f***up, so
that Joe and Jane Sixpack can say, "Yup, them politicians all the same."
Hell, after another four more years of wingnuttery, American voters probably won't elect a
Republican as county dogcatcher for the next twenty years.
The only thing that interrupts my pleasant little fantasy is the thought of all those corpses,
American and Iraqi, staring at me...
@ glenstonecottage:
I think most rational people feel the same way about "the pleasant little fantasy".
It takes a lot of strength and a lot of community to stay sane in this Bizarro world. Clever
insights, turns of phrases and positive feedback can only support one for so long. Taking a
step back to better observe the abyss incurs the risk that we will fall backwards into another
another abyss, that of disassociation and alienation. I sense that Billmon is having an
extended episode of vertigo, his hope for a united front has been diluted by bloggers who
have bought the DNC's line complete with hook and sinker.
I used to be frustrated by Billmon's refusal to take the extra step back in his perspective, but
I respected his ability to connect more dots, and in a more eloquent manner, than almost
everyone else. I hope he returns.
Posted by: biklett | September 27, 2004 11:16 PM
This blog seems to be really hopping now. At the very least, it's a lot more active than a
few weeks ago. I guess Bernhard's guilt trip must have had some effect (it worked on me). I
hope the community keeps it up.
So,this is weird, I just stopped by kos and there was an article in the diaries w/comments
that linked to the NYT (New York Times)the topic was "The FBI intercepted on sept 10th
the transmission that 911 was to happen the next day, but didn't get to it for lack of time
and translators" so I go the link use Bug me not to access it, it doesn't let me in I go back to
the diary and the link and diary is gone! Anybody know anything about this matter?
Posted by: Uncle $cam | September 27, 2004 11:42 PM
Branded Blair - it's "W" for "Wanker"
Uncle $cam:
This seems to be the problem.
Mon Sep 27th, 2004 at 19:36:44 GMT
The site is getting pummeled today with traffic, so I've turned off
recommended diaries, the hotlist box, and the RSS reader. I may have to turn
off other things if problems persist.
Try this link for the article.
Posted by: Harrow | September 28, 2004 12:23 AM
Gott mit uns!
re BillmonI found both his article and that graphic somewhat uncharacteristic- so whatever, I guess
he's done, and I'll miss him. But in as much as what he started was bigger than he could
handle, it does seem to handle itself pretty well without him, n'est pas?
So I'll still be checking in here with you all- cheers, then! I guess we're self-serve nowanybody want anything from the fridge? or the cabinet above the fridge, perhaps...
Posted by: Ã¦ | September 28, 2004 01:26 AM
Yesterday I thought Billmon was overly pessimistic about the decline of blogs. But today I
began to reflect about how the talking we do online can end up seeming so much like
chatter.
Prophets of authentic being, whether they be Freepers or fundies or greens, so easily end up
simply hating others for being different. So what use to blog? I can see the despair.
But we don't have to act as if all we can be is ourselves, as if what we read here can only
mean something if we already know what slot to file it under. And every encouragement to
make something in our own lives is another little encouragement to not settle for simply
being what we are. To simply be myself (though it sounds plausibly modest) is precisely a
logic of meaninglessness and death, a monstrous denial of creativity and potential for actual
change, growth, and especially enlightenment. No wonder people get tired of writing or
talking to such an empty view of life and what we can do in it.
Rgiap's poems say more to us than he ever could have meant. Billmon's writings keep
meaning anew to people even after he tires of his own words. And I come here to remind
myself of other ways of seeing problems, to find inspiration and new directions.
Thanks to all its grandfathers for this place.
Posted by: Citizen | September 28, 2004 01:32 AM
oops. my post about Blair should have included head.
...as in "head of cattle," not the good kind. although saying good kind of head and Blair in
the same post is also creepy.
not that I'm saying head is good, John Ashcroft, and you other Talibornagains, n'kay?
Posted by: fauxreal | September 28, 2004 01:45 AM
Wondering if this conference will ever fly?
France seeking to put pullout on agenda - Paris also wants 'all forces in Iraq' at proposed
talks
@ Harrow and Uncle $cam:
You don't suppose Sibel Edmonds was translating any of those transmissions?
I just got home, about an hour ago, from a lecture by Daniel Ellsberg and Norman
Solomon. Ellsberg's Pentagon Paper story resonates strongly here in Oregon, because it was
OR senator Wayne Morse who told him had the information been leaked in '64 when it
happened, the Tonkin Resolution wouldn't have gotten out of committee, much less passed
on the floor.
I was sitting close to the front, and was first to the mic when they opened the floor, so I
asked Ellsberg if he could tell us anything about Sibel Edmonds (for you and MoA, Uncle
$). Ellsberg flashed a huge smile, and told what he could of Sibel's story to a roomful of
some 1100 people, many of whom had never heard of her.
Ellsberg's latest is in today's NY Times. He was glancing at his watch while speaking, and
at 9:00 PST let us know his editorial was on the web.
Posted by: catlady | September 28, 2004 01:59 AM
On a lighter note, a friend sent me this yesterday:
Quote of the Day: James Carville:
"Back in 2000 a Republican friend warned me that if I voted for Al Gore and he won, the
stock market would tank, we'd lose millions of jobs, and our military would be totally
overstretched. You know what? I did vote for Gore, he did win, and I'll be damned if all
those things didn't come true!"
Posted by: catlady | September 28, 2004 02:04 AM
Hi everybody!
I wondered where everyone wound up after Last Call. I've been cold turkey since that last
post months ago.
After peeking at the Whiskey, I found this site.
It's good to see the likes of Uncle $cam, fauxreal, remembereringgiap, glenstonecottage,
Bernhard, Pat, Fran, RossK and a bunch of others still get together.
Does four legs come around? How semper Ubi or Outraged?
Anywho, I guess I'll be swinging by to do some catching up...
Posted by: PRob | September 28, 2004 03:26 AM
Well, sure, Bush deserves the blame for all this crap. But frankly, I've heard many people,
including all the Naderites, saying 4 years ago that if Bush won in 2000, his catastrophic
administration would doom the GOP for a decade.
So, serously, I'd like to hear any real and solid argument as to why this time it may happen
in a different way. Particularly since it would mean 4 more years of GOP bullshit.
And if you want a comparison, after 8 years of Hitler rule in early 1941, Germany had
conquered Poland, France, bits of Norway, tried to trash UK, and was busily planning to
take over the Balkans and USSR. The guy had barely ever been so popular before then.
OK, sorry to spam:
N Korea says they have nukes, and they're serious about it. So, that makes for something
like 10 nukes to toss around. If all Hell breaks loose there, Seoul won't be the only casualty.
Meanwhile, W is having a nap at the White House.
@ CluelessJoe
It's true that another 4 years of Bush would almost certainly be catastrophic, perhaps
"catastrophically successful" as
was Hitler at his apogee, but certainly disastrous for whatever shreds of American
democracy remain in place. Kerry would be better on every issue EXCEPT Iraq and the
war
on terrorism. On both these issues he has refused to really put space between himself and
Bush, probably because his close ties to AIPAC (a short tether indeed) preclude making a
"clean break" (to use a neo-con phrase). The overall cost of continuing this policy, or even
exacerbating it (Does Kerry still think the U.S. should be sending more troops to Iraq?
Does he still identify American and Israeli aspirations?) will strangle the hopes for funding
a progressive domestic policy, just as the war in Vietnam aborted LBJ's Great Society. As
long as a vote for Kerry portends only a more rational continuation of present Middle East
policies, a vote for Nader doesn't seem at all unreasonable.
Wildly off-topic and utterly bizarre, the following nevertheless offers a splendid example of
George W. Bush's likely interpretation of "Christianity". [Read full article to grasp the
sheer lunacy inherent.]
Punch-up at tomb of Jesus
Fistfights broke out yesterday between Christians gathered on the site of the crucifixion
and burial of Jesus Christ. ...
Posted by: JMFeeney (USA) | September 28, 2004 07:26 AM
Wildly off-topic and utterly bizarre, the following nevertheless offers a splendid example of
George W. Bush's likely interpretation of "Christianity". [Read full article to grasp the
sheer lunacy inherent.]
Punch-up at tomb of Jesus
Fistfights broke out yesterday between Christians gathered on the site of the crucifixion
and burial of Jesus Christ. ...
@JMFeeney (USA):
Wild strange times indeed(Re:Blogosphere):
parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus
Posted by: Juvenal | September 28, 2004 08:19 AM
Well, I can say only Oophs!!!!
Three years after the Sept. 11 attacks, more than 120,000 hours of potentially valuable
terrorism-related recordings have not yet been translated by linguists at the Federal
Bureau of Investigation, and computer problems may have led the bureau to
systematically erase some Qaeda recordings, according to a declassified summary of a
Justice Department investigation that was released on Monday.
F.B.I. Said to Lag on Translations of Terror Tapes
"Follow the gourd!"
"No, follow the sandal!"
Paul Campos at the Rocky Mountain News (rockymountainnews.com or, if you prefer,
realclearpolitics.com):
If it were somehow possible to extract an honest answer from either George Bush or John
Kerry to just one question, here's the one I would choose: Are you going to fight this war,
or not?
Both men have spent the last few weeks dodging this question. Bush keeps repeating that
his plan to transform the Middle East into a region friendly to the United States is
proceeding on schedule, and that, while he is willing to send more troops to Iraq, he doesn't
believe this will be necessary.
Kerry keeps pointing out that the situation in Iraq is bad and getting worse, but to this point
he hasn't offered much in the way of an alternative to the status quo, other than vague
promises about internationalizing the war, and pledging to get U.S. troops out within four
years.
Both Bush and Kerry are talking nonsense. Each candidate should be asked point blank:
Are you willing to sacrifice the lives of thousands of American troops, and kill tens or
hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, to crush resistance to the U.S. occupation?
And if not, are you willing to allow Iraq to descend into even more chaos, including
perhaps a full-scale civil war, that could fracture the country into perpetually warring
factions?
This is the grim choice that will face the man who wins the upcoming election. The
pleasant fantasy presented to the American people by the Bush administration - that our
troops would be greeted as liberators rather than occupiers - has been destroyed.
This doesn't necessarily mean the war was a mistake. It only means that the war was sold to
the American people on a false premise: that the invasion of Iraq wouldn't really be an
invasion, and that the occupation of the country wouldn't really be an occupation - in short,
that the war wouldn't really be a war.
It is a war. It isn't a humanitarian relief effort, or a civics lesson with guns. Whoever wins
on Nov. 2 will either have to kill a lot more people a lot more quickly, or get the hell out.
Ed Koch: Only Bush can
"While I don't agree with the president on any single domestic issue, ranging
from taxes to social security and everything in between, I do agree with him
on the single issue of fighting international terrorism," he said in an interview
with Haaretz last week. "I simply don't believe that the Democratic Party or
[John] Kerry have the stomach to fight - as long as it takes - international
terrorism."
In a single sentence, Ed Koch sums up the entire principle behind President
George W. Bush's re-election campaign: the idea that only Bush is strong
enough to fight terror, and therefore all the rest is unimportant, at least this
time around, when America is recovering from an attack and is in the midst of
a war.
...
"I'd say give Falluja 48 hours notice," Koch declares. "Every civilian must
leave because we are turning Falluja into a free-fire zone to eliminate the
people that are engaged in terror. After that I would use the 500-pound
bombs."
...
"You owe President Bush. If Bush hadn't stood up in the [United Nations]
Security Council, in the [General] Assembly, Israel would have been
destroyed.
What pills did he take? According to last sentence, that must have been strong medication.
rememberinggiap:
& might i say as i have sd again - the franker the thought the greater the obligation not to
hide behind anonymity
authenticity is bourgeois.
Posted by: slothrop | September 28, 2004 01:27 PM
i too have been wondering where is our comrade outraged
we need his expertise
i need his expertise
still steel
comrade slothrop
i have just had a small chat with the central commitee & also a phone conversation with the
politburo & they have sd to me without condition - if we read j v stalin's 'foundation of
leninism' & his epochral work ' the short history of the russian communist party(bolshevik)'
that in this circumstance & given the peculiar conditions & acknowledging both
antagonistic & non antagonistic contradiction in th both the long & shoprt term with
reference to the hegelian dialectique - with particular emphasis on phenomenologie of the
spirit - that on the contrary - authenticity is hyperproletarian
fraternal greetings
still steel
Fran...is it just me (or this puter), but has the mark of the beast on Blair's forehead been
replaced with a US dollar sign?
Military intelligence: Improved security in 2005
Nina Gilbert, THE JERUSALEM POST Sep. 28, 2004
The security situation in Israel and the region may improve as a result of developments in
2005, including the implementation of the disengagement plan, the conclusion of the US
elections and Turkey's bid to join the EU, according to the IDF's annual intelligence
assessment presented to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Tuesday.
MKs indicated following the session with IDF Intelligence Branch chief Maj.-Gen. Aharon
Ze'evi Farkash that terror may build up in advance of the pullout from Gaza Strip, but then
ease in the long term. The US may also make a move against Iran's nuclearization efforts
and Damascus after the elections.
@RGiap and Slothrop:
Glad to see that all the comrades are in good spirits tonight.
Pat, the column from Campos @ 12:42 PM seems absolutely right to me. I can't begin to
say how utterly "Vietnamized" this war now feels. It's becoming a question of when, if
ever, the neo-cons and their friends might start to taste defeat. And this time around, it
won't be American draftees who get to protest and defect--rather, the fully enfranchised
citizens of Israel. If ever they trended towards a peaceful solution, the neo-cons might trim
their sails accordingly. In the meantime, of course, our fighting men and women get to
meet the down-payment, and the rest of us go into deep, deep hock.
Ah, hell rememberinggiap, you the man. I'm honored to be your comrade.
From a remarkable article by the Canadian historian Gwynne Dyer The Poisend Calice
Democrats in the United States can take solace in two facts. If their man is not
in the White House for the next four years, then they will not end up carrying
the blame for the almost inevitable US defeat in Iraq -- and they will not have
to preside over the biggest financial crisis to hit the United States since the
Great Depression.
...
"The US dollar is going the way that [the British pound] went as it lost its
place as the world's reserve currency," said Jim Rogers, the Wall Street wizard
who in 1973 co-founded the Quantum Fund, one of the first and most
successful hedge funds, in a recent interview.
...
A far-sighted Democratic strategist might therefore conclude that this is the
wrong year to win the presidency. Democrats don't want the blame for an
impending economic crisis that is mostly due to the Bush tax cuts -- and since
their chosen candidate has no strategy for pulling out of Iraq, why not let the
Republicans collect the blame for that debacle, too?
There is going to be a smash; it's too late to avoid it; let the other lot stay in the
driver's seat for now. We'll win next time, and stay in power for a generation.
But there is no sign that anybody in the Democratic Party is making such a
calculation: they are genuinely committed to fighting Bush.
...
Though Mr Kerry now vows to "stay the course" in Iraq, he is likelier than the
crew around Mr Bush to accept reality and pull American troops out before
too much damage is done. And if economic disaster strikes the United States
in the next four years, as it well may, he is less likely than Mr Bush to devote
all his energy to shifting the blame for it onto foreigners.
I imagine this is not the first high Iraqi officer arrested for being a double agent, and we can
all be certain he will not be the last. And what claim do we or Allawi et al have to this
man's loyalty?
Brig. Gen. Talib al-Lahibi, who previously served as an infantry officer in Saddam Hussein
(news - web sites)'s army, was detained Thursday in the province of Diyala, northeast of
Baghdad, the U.S. military said in a statement.
Al-Lahibi was the acting head of the Iraqi National Guard for the Diyala province, said
Maj. Neal O'Brien, spokesman for the Army's 1st Infantry Division.
The military declined to provide details on the general's suspected ties to militants waging
a 17-month campaign to topple the interim Iraqi authorities and oust coalition forces from
the country.
Vietnamisation
From Stratfor:
...Kerry's core position has been that the United States has fought the war in Iraq and
elsewhere without proper coordination with allies. Many countries would agree that there
wasn't proper coordination, but only in the sense that their arms are still in agony from
being twisted. The problem that Kerry describes -- that the U.S. is fighting unilaterally -doesn't gibe even slightly with their experience, because dozens of governments have been
persuaded or bludgeoned into collaboration, even at the risk of estranging some leaders
from their constituencies. It seems to many countries that Kerry is looking at the
estrangement of the United States from France and Germany as emblematic for what has
happened around the world. The Italians and Pakistanis wonder what in the world Kerry is
talking about.
Kerry is talking to an American audience. What he is saying is this: The alliance system
that won the Cold War has been abandoned by Bush in fighting this war. It is essential to
retain that alliance in this war. Now, since Britain is working with the United States, as are
the majority of other European states, it is clear that he is speaking of the French and
Germans, the two major allies from the Cold War that are missing. Kerry is certainly held
in higher regard around the world than Bush, but he is confusing other countries by what he
is saying. Other countries do not see unilateralism -- they would be delighted if the United
States went ahead and did what it wanted without involving them. What they are seeing is
intense and effective pressure on key countries for multilateral action. The last thing they
see is unilateralism...
Hasan Abu Nimah in the Jordan Times (15 Sept.):
Unlearned Lessons From September 11
...The vast majority of people in this region will do nothing to aid
Ben Laden, but neither will they do anything to stand in his way
or to help the US against him as long as they see the US as unjust
and self-serving. If there were a UN or an Arab League, or even
their own governments, that could forcefully defend international
law and prevent the kinds of abuses that have victimised people in
the region for decades, no Ben Laden could ever gain any appeal.
But rather than wait for these institutions, the US could have
done a lot on its own to improve its lot.
Military force should have been America's last resort. US Defence
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld admitted that we have no way of knowing
whether the "war on terror" as America has conceived it is being
won, and President George W. Bush recently admitted that this
"war" is in fact unwinnable. But these tentative admissions are
buried in a barrage of American nationalism and militarism which
overwhelms all other considerations. America seems tragically
incapable of absorbing a simple message: only by revising many of
the traditional policies, particularly blind support for Israel
and its illegal policies and repression, can the US win the
respect and cooperation it ought to enjoy among Arabs and Muslims.
But as the vicious backlash after the recent AIPAC spy scandal
taught us yet again, the Zionist lobby will never tolerate any
hint that American interests are being exposed to so much harm and
danger because of unreserved support for Israel's unlawful
practices. And Americans need to break these taboos and recognise
that what suits Israel is not what is best for America.
The US has exacerbated an already charged situation by allowing
Israel to define its conflict with the Palestinians as part of the
"war on terror" and to paint any Palestinian resistance to Israeli
aggression as "terrorism". None of this helps the US in its battle
against those who would harm it, but it does help the Israeli
government to maintain a bloody status quo. Much has been written,
too, about the role of pro-Israel hawks in shaping the US war on
Iraq. It is clear that their broader goals were to rearrange the
Middle East in a manner that serves the long-term expansionist
ambitions of Israel. These characters conceived the war in Iraq as
only the first stage, before moving on to Syria, Lebanon and Iran.
But whatever influence they have, it was the Bush administration
that misled many other nations to join an illegal war in Iraq that
cannot even be justified by its results.
Probably the greatest lesson the US should have learned is that
its doctrine of preventive war is no more than a licence for
aggression at will and a call for the return to the rule of the
jungle. It is like execution before trial. It is a dangerous form
of arbitrary justice which will plunge the world into certain
chaos and enable the strong to destroy the defenceless weak...
b- Gwynne Dyer's prediction of financial disaster makes it all the more important to get rid
of Bush, because of the theo-fascist faction that makes his prez possible.
Why? Full-blown fascism in any western nation has always been precipitated by a financial
crisis, according to what I've been reading.
If we think things are bad now, just imagine what they'd be like with Bush "fixing" the
economy. Rush, no doubt, would find a way to blame liberals, no matter what, and
everyone who follows him would be looking for a scapegoat.
btw, everyone here is familiar with the Orwellian "Constitution Restoration Act of 2004"
that is now in committee, I hope? It was intro'd by a Christian Reconstructist who is the
lawyer for Judge Roy Moore. The language of the Act states that Federal judges may not
rule against the idea that "god is the source of Constitutional law" or some such rot.
If a judge did attempt this, he or she would be subject to impeachment.
The talibornagains have another amendment coming up very soon to ban gay marriage. The
language in that bill makes it impossible for one state judge to rule for gay marriage.
although presented as a "gay marriage ban" the amendment would have further-reaching
consequences.
Rather than see these two as at odds, the reality seems to be that the Talibornagains want to
castrate the court as an equal branch of the three branches of govt. in order to make it
possible to pass draconian laws in, say, southern states, without interference by judges who
think the Constitution is not a dead document.
If the Constitution "restoration" act were in effect during the civil rights era, Brown v.
Board of education would have been null and void.
Posted by: fauxreal | September 28, 2004 04:10 PM
"The people of England have been led in Mesopotamia into a trap from which it will be
hard to escape with dignity and honor. They have been tricked into it by a steady
withholding of information. The Baghdad communiquÃ©s are belated, insincere,
incomplete. Things have been far worse than we have been told, our administration more
bloody and inefficient than the public knows. It is a disgrace to our imperial record, and
may soon be too inflamed for any ordinary cure. We are today not far from a disaster."
--T.E. Lawrence (a.k.a Lawrence of Arabia), British soldier and author, in a Sunday Times
article from 8/2/1920
A cemetary in Baghdad is the final resting place of 33,000 British soldiers.
For the sake of provocation, I share with you the following, from Michael Totten at Tech
Central Station:
Electing John Kerry won't put radical left activists into power. It will put them in a box.
Their knee-jerk anti-American jackassery won't get a hearing if mainstream liberals are the
"establishment." Soccer moms who voted for John Kerry are not going to put up with
punks who say he is the "real" terrorist. Mainstream liberals won't want to march in the
streets against the president they elected alongside ranting neo-Stalinist goons from
International ANSWER. Radical leftists will be first isolated then ridiculed by the
overwhelming majority when they and the Democratic Party have no common "enemy" to
unite them.
Some conservatives will say I'm urging appeasement by rewarding obnoxious behavior on
the activist left with votes. I'm not. For one thing, John Kerry is not a radical leftist. He is in
the Democratic mainstream. Besides, appeasement is giving in to an enemy's demands.
John Kerry is not the enemy of any American. He is a political opponent of Republicans.
Compromise is fatal in war, but it's required in politics.
Fauxreal: Juan Cole would probably tell you these guys are clones of Khomeini. Their true
goal is that at the end, fundie televangelists will be the judges and will make laws, not the
lawmakers and secular justices that do it now.
koreyel, interesting picture. Maybe Blair changes the mark according to the topic he is
talking about.
Is it only my impression or is he falling apart. He used to be relatively good looking, but
now he seems to look more and more like his own ghost.
comrades flashharry & slothrop
am feeling a little better - the doctors say that at 30 units(?) of insulin - it is beginning to
level off - i don't know but think that is a high dosage. most days feeling on the verge of
vertigo - when working/thinking a little surreal but taking a cafe sans sucre on the terrace it
is not altogether unpleasant
just seems lot of 'things' happening to this poor body of mine but flash that will explain the
hallucinations of huey long(sans blaze) && the convergence with the darker imagining of
billmon
& comrade slothrop in our hyperproletarian search for authenticity i suggest a little recipe
for the darkness - two books by toni negrie that i mentioned to alabama(kairos, almavenus,
multitude & ma retour) followed by two films of theo angelopolous - 'eternite et un jour'
(eternity & a day & voyage to cythere
followed by a craven a or two & the music of mikis theodorakis especially eptafios
brecht often asked what to do in the dark times - well we are starting to find out
yr comrade
still steel
After Bush's unequivocal statement to Bill O'Reilly yesterday on the subject of Iran - to
wit: he will NOT allow Iran to have nuclear weapons - I think it's time to start seriously
asking how he's going to go about preventing it, determined as he seems to be. (I'm talking
to myself, here. I know many of you started seriously asking that some time ago.) There is
a 6-24 month window of opportunity for the administration to act. Window varies
depending upon whose nuclear program estimate you accept. One thing seems clear: The
only thing stupider than air strikes on Iranian nuclear sites, is air strikes on Iranian nuclear
sites unaccompanied by regime change. This is so because of extremely unpleasant short-,
medium-, and long-term retaliatory capabilities of the current regime. In fact, regime
change means you don't HAVE to directly attack Iranian nuclear facilites - only negotiate
uranium enrichment with a new and friendlier government. (I'm thinking like a neocon, not
like someone deeply concerned that said new and friendlier government might fail to
materialize.) But regime change in Iran, no matter what M. Ledeen says, isn't going to
come about through a popular overthrow energized by vocal support from the Oval Office
and a little money and expertise from shadow warriors. No, it will come about with
bombers and tanks. Our bombers and tanks.
But is this in any way feasible? I've yet to come across anyone with any experience who
thinks it is.
Is telling oneself that "they can't really mean it because there's just no good way to do it"
akin to whistling in the dark?
Nevertheless, I continue to search for reasons why "they can't really mean it."
A July 19 post at Iraq Now, weblog of Jason Van Steenwyk, a US soldier formerly
stationed in Iraq:
As I've written before: loads of doodoo-flinging monkey wannabes study tactics. And even
more of them study strategy.
The professional, in contrast, studies logistics.
How would [we support an assault on Iran]? From where? The Afghanistan model is too
light, and there are no existing conventional formations to leverage, as we did with the
Northern Alliance. All the heavy lifting would have to be done by us. Which means we
would have to send mechanized formations lumbering into Iran.
From where?
Such an operation would have been logistically impossible--even absurd, without first
having invaded Iraq. There is no way the governments of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait would
have allowed us to support an attack on Iran from their bases. We had a hard enough time
getting the Saudis to acquiesce to Iraq!
Second, Even basing a mechanized operation in Iran would be a dice roll. Why? Because as
soon as you picked a fight with Iran, Iran would immediately cut your logistics base off
from shipping by shutting down the Straits of Hormuz with Exocet missiles.
Do you have enough prestock in Iraq to make it to the Straits of Hormuz to protect your
own supply line?
Are you sure?
Well, then everything you devote to securing the Straits of Hormuz sure isn't going to be
knocking the regime out of power in Tehran is it?
So we'd be forced to split our effort between the two, just as Hitler did by trying to attack
Moscow and the Caucasus simultaneously.
And even if we didn't do a conventional invasion--if we limited ourselves to airstrikes,
what's the risk/reward analysis.
Well, here are the potential downsides:
Well, we broaden the conflict and make support for our efforts in Iran AND Iraq alike very
difficult for moderate Arab leaders to provide, thanks to political pressures at home.
We make things more difficult for ourselves in the UN than they already are.
Iran will shut down the Straits of Hormuz anyway, cutting off Kuwait from all shipping,
undermining our logistical support in Iraq, making it impossible for us to deploy or
redeploy heavy equipment without Iran's ok, and cutting off middle eastern oil supplies to
the entire world, sending oil prices to the stratosphere and the world into a recession.
Jihadist insurgents will be emboldened in Iraq and elsewhere, as they score rhetorical
points about how the attack on Iran proves that the US is really at war against Islam.
The air assault on Tehran will likely have little effect, and may even serve to consolidate
the Mullah's hold on power. But it will play very poorly on CNN International Edition, and
possibly go on for weeks without effect, just as our attacks on Yugoslavia did in 1999.
And the upside:
Well, none that I can think of.
Even if you did knock the mullahs from power, how would you secure the country? With
what troops?
Pat, no mention here of Feld-Marschal Herr Rumsfeld's lean, mean
logistico-luftwaffe-shockinawe-panzer machine....Perhaps it doesn't exist?
no mention here of Feld-Marschal Herr Rumsfeld's lean, mean
@Alabama:
It exists, but I think it is already fully committed on the Western Front.
No drive to the East this year, I'm afraid.
Posted by: Heinz Guderian | September 29, 2004 12:39 AM
Pat, no mention here of Feld-Marschal Herr Rumsfeld's lean, mean
Not under his leadership it doesn't.
***********************************************
In its own analysis, GlobalSecurity.org believes that airstrikes against the most important
Iranian nuclear sites can probably be undertaken, success depending upon the accuracy of
intelligence, natch, with Iranian retaliatory capability limited to missile attacks against
Persian Gulf targets. Likely targets of retaliation would have to be secured against this
threat ahead of time. (Any likely attempt at closing the Straits of Hormuz would have to be
preempted.) They point out that whether undertaken by the US or Israel (and Iran couldn't
be certain which had carried out the deed) it will be understood as a joint endeavor by much
of the world. Not without reason.
Growing Pessimism on Iraq
Doubts Increase Within U.S. Security Agencies
By Dana Priest and Thomas E. Ricks
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, September 29, 2004; Page A01
A growing number of career professionals within national security agencies believe that the
situation in Iraq is much worse, and the path to success much more tenuous, than is being
expressed in public by top Bush administration officials, according to former and current
government officials and assessments over the past year by intelligence officials at the CIA
and the departments of State and Defense.
While President Bush, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and others have delivered
optimistic public appraisals, officials who fight the Iraqi insurgency and study it at the CIA
and the State Department and within the Army officer corps believe the rebellion is deeper
and more widespread than is being publicly acknowledged, officials say.
People at the CIA "are mad at the policy in Iraq because it's a disaster, and they're digging
the hole deeper and deeper and deeper," said one former intelligence officer who maintains
contact with CIA officials. "There's no obvious way to fix it. The best we can hope for is a
semi-failed state hobbling along with terrorists and a succession of weak governments."
"Things are definitely not improving," said one U.S. government official who reads the
intelligence analyses on Iraq.
"It is getting worse," agreed an Army staff officer who served in Iraq and stays in touch
with comrades in Baghdad through e-mail. "It just seems there is a lot of pessimism
flowing out of theater now. There are things going on that are unbelievable to me. They
have infiltrators conducting attacks in the Green Zone. That was not the case a year
ago."[...]
I can't keep from hearing the refrain:
"We fucked up here, let's move on to the next place". Mad-juggernautitus. Some one give
them an "injection", like the one's Georgie liked to sign for in Texass a few years ago.
Caramba!
Posted by: Kate_Storm | September 29, 2004 01:43 AM
For your convenience Kevin Drum at WashingtonMonthly provides a bulleted version of
Wednesday's Hell in a Handbasket Washington Post article:
CLUELESS....Here's the PowerPoint version of Dana Priest and Thomas Ricks' survey of
opinion in the intelligence community regarding Iraq:
*A former intelligence officer who maintains contact with CIA officials: "There's no
obvious way to fix it. The best we can hope for is a semi-failed state hobbling along with
terrorists and a succession of weak governments."
*A U.S. government official who reads the intelligence analyses on Iraq: "Things are
definitely not improving."
*An Army staff officer who served in Iraq and stays in touch with comrades in Baghdad
through e-mail: "There are things going on that are unbelievable to me. They have
infiltrators conducting attacks in the Green Zone. That was not the case a year ago."
*An intelligence expert with contacts at the CIA, the State Department and the Pentagon:
"There's a real war going on here that's not just the [CIA against the administration on Iraq]
but the State Department and the military."
So the war against the happy talk from the administration is coming from the CIA, the State
Department, and the military. Is there anyone else who counts?
In other words, is there anyone outside the White House who thinks that Bush has the
slightest clue what to do in Iraq?
Exerpt from the Tuesday weblog entry of Faiza at afamilyinbaghdad.blogspot.com:
I want an answer to my daily question: what will happen if the occupation forces pulled out
of Iraq?? And my answer is: The conditions that occurred after the occupation forces
entered Iraq, the disbandment of state institutions, the Army, the Police Force, and the
security forces. All that created a void, giving way to an escalation of crimes, the entry of
terrorist foreign forces, and the occurrence of daily clashes. The Iraqis no longer know
friend from foe?
All these things happened, either by the stupidity of the occupation forces, or else by prior
intent and planning. If it would have happened because of mismanagement, poor planning,
and confusion, it could have been overcome with time, then correctedâ€¦.but the program is
going on stubbornly, persistently, with the same cadencyâ€¦ a weak interim government,
guarded by the occupation armyâ€¦ a weak Army and Police Force, with old weapons, and
no technologiesâ€¦. The American army roams the land and skies of Iraq, using the most
sophisticated technologyâ€¦ and the Iraqi police carry an ancient Klashencove, and so is the
Army, driving small, miserable, pathetic vehicles, so that one missile could make all
passengers fly in the airâ€¦ while the tank, Helicopter, and Humvee could give more
protection to their passengers against accidents, and reduce causalities??
So, there is some contemptuousness and marginalizing to the Iraqi Army and Policeâ€¦ or a
plan to keep them incapable of taking control of thingsâ€¦in constant need of another,
strong, backing force, to rule the country.
Of course, if three is a strong Iraqi Army that can control clashes and confrontations, a
strong Police force to control security and thieves, and a government that is successful in
managing the country and economyâ€¦ the question then would be, from Iraqis and
non-Iraqis alike: Here is the country going in the right direction, so, why is the occupation
force here??? Ha?
Yes, that is the dangerous question that the Bush administration does not want to hearâ€¦
A weak Iraqi army unable to face challengesâ€¦ a weak Iraqi police force that does not
control security and orderâ€¦ and a confused, helpless government, without planning,
without authorities, nor a strong budget, nor finance, nor a clear vision to solve the
country's problemsâ€¦ and this is exactly what the occupation force wantsâ€¦to stay.
How would they leave the country in such a state of disorder, weakness, and collapse??
Whoever person who has an ounce of brains, and quietness in his head would tell them:
Stay, do not withdraw, until conditions get betterâ€¦
Well, now, the all important question: when will conditions get better??? And what has the
Bush administration done, in real, clear, tangible steps, for almost one and a half years to
make conditions better???
Each one here asks himself the question, for this is the important question nowâ€¦ whether
Bush remains in office or notâ€¦.
This is the question that he should be pursued with night and dayâ€¦. In all conferences,
meetings, and lecturesâ€¦ ask him this question, for all the Iraqi people hereâ€¦ we cannot
reach him, nor see himâ€¦. You are the ones who can reach him, and ask him, so ask him, if
you love the Iraqi people, or have kindness to them, and wish to help themâ€¦
Ask him what more did he do, other than speeches and wordsâ€¦. Ask him, in the hope he
might take responsibility for those who fell dead here, the innocent, Iraqi civilians, or the
military Americansâ€¦ your boys.
When he has a clear, truthful plan to improve conditions and reduce causalitiesâ€¦ cheer
him up, and re-elect him.
But if he retold the stories of terrorism, and the war on terrorism, and the same old, boring
tuneâ€¦ then you will be joining him in the follies he commits here, and the
mismanagementâ€¦ and be responsible for the victims who will fall because of this
mismanagement, and blunders.
A clear vision, and a realistic plan, strong and convincing, is what we need now, after long
months of waste, propaganda, lies, and victimsâ€¦.
*****************************************
What is the meaning of Democracy, and participation??? Doesn't that mean helping each
other to overstep the cruel ordeals?? By thinking and discussions to find the suitable
solutions? That we do not submit our necks to a fool who wields, makes mistakes, and
destroys, exactly as Saddam Hussein did to us??
Didn't he trick the Iraqis for long years, claming to be the national, savior, hero, meaning
the savior of the nation against lossâ€¦. How many Arabs and Iraqis believed in him?? How
many victims they paid, a price for his folliesâ€¦ and how many long years were lost until
the Arabs discovered he was a lying fool, who led the nation to doom, instead of
salvation???
Is Bush leading the nation to doom, or salvation???
Do not be led behind him like blind men and fools, and repeat what happened to the
Iraqisâ€¦open your eyes and mindsâ€¦ so you wouldn't be sorry when it is too lateâ€¦â€¦â€¦..
[This is from a lengthy weblog entry that begins by describing the terrible security situation
and then engages the subject of civil war. Worth reading the whole thing.]
Pat: regime change in Iran means a necessary invasion at ground level, and I don't see the
Army entering Tehran that easily. THat means going through hundreds of miles of
mountains and angry locals. And the US Army isn't positioned for assault on the Iranian
border; right now, it's busily avoiding to be shot in Iraqi cities. I'm really wondering if Iran
doesn't include a land assault on Iraq in the retaliation against an airstrike; sure, they would
eventually be repelled and crushed, but that would disrupt and mess up the Iraqi occupation
to the point of unsustainability.
I'm with Steve Gilliard on this: if someone speaks of attacking Iran and sending the troops
to Tehran, you have to wonder if he doesn't want to destroy the US military.
Confirming the view of Faiza posted by Pat there is an article in todays WaPo Taking On
Sadr City in a Pickup Truck
Five armoured Humwees with GIs and a pickup with Iraq Army guys patroling in Sadr city.
They are attacked, all Iraqis die, all GIs survive. Pure cannon fodder to sustain the
occupation.
An interesting bit in the article displays the view of the GIs towards their Iraqi buddies.
Behind the Nissan, Sgt. Anthony Stewart, 31, of Sumter, S.C., sat in his
Humvee, watching the Iraqi guardsmen. Two were sitting in the rear bed of the
pickup; one was swigging water spiked with rehydration powder that the U.S.
soldiers had given him. But he was spitting the water into the dirt.
"Look at those guys, they don't know how to drink it," said Stewart. He said
later that he thought about getting out of the Humvee and walking over to
explain that they needed to swallow the powdered water for it to be effective.
Look, they even donÂ´t know how to drink!
All is calm in Iraq.
@B:
Interesting map link you posted there at 0836.
Everyone out to take a glance at it.
Damn, why is it that always the innocent have to pay for guys like Bush?
The war's littlest victim - He was exposed to depleted uranium. His daughter may be paying
the price.
It looks that as if even Republicans are becoming unhappy with Bush. A comment by the
son of former President Eisenhower.
Another View:
Why I will vote for John Kerry for President
@CluelessJoe
I don't disagree. I have to occasionally reconfirm to myself that a ground assault on Iran
remains a very remote possibility.
But as Wretchard at Belmont Club and others note: against Iran and its nuclearization
program, the administration is three down with five seconds to go.
As mentioned in Pat's post at 2:25 AM, the war against the happy talk comes from State,
CIA, and the uniformed military. That's the war I keep going back to, with no great
confidence that it's amounting to much. It's a push-back against the neo-cons, of course,
and hence against AIPAC, and for this reason alone it can't go public. It has to be fought, I
suppose, on paper--capturing funds and budgets, for example--and it also assumes the kind
of instant and accurate cross-bureaucratic traffic that Richard Clarke excels in. I persist in
thinking that it has to be coordinated, however loosely; that Powell's office is its obvious
point of convergence; that it will continue unabated past the elections; and that its main
aim, practically speaking, must be the isolation of the neo-cons. But could it also go public
at some point, showing exactly how the neo-cons have done their thing, and to what good
end? It's hard to read the invisible! Any bureaucrats among us who know how?
From cookpolitical.com:
The Debates, Iraq Last Obstacles in Bush's Path
[...]Bush is ahead and will likely win this election unless worsening news in Iraq upsets his
campaign's applecart or Kerry manages to use the debates to change the momentum of this
race. Economic news is unlikely to change the race in its final weeks, because Americans
have already chosen up sides on the economy. The same is true for health care, federal
budget deficits, and military service during the Vietnam War.
Besides the Democrats' squandering of their window of opportunity to reach voters during
the Democratic convention and Kerry's being mugged by the Swift Boat Veterans, what has
altered in this race over the past 90 days or so is that Americans increasingly see the war in
Iraq as a part of the global war on terrorism. And they are not judging Bush on the wisdom
of having attacked Iraq or on his administration's management of the war. If this view
holds, he wins. If it doesn't, he loses.
Because of the lack of a clear connection between Iraq and 9/11, the failure to find
evidence of weapons of mass destruction, and the widespread feeling in this country that
while our military did a fabulous job of invading Iraq and driving Saddam Hussein out of
power, there was no coherent plan to manage the occupation, if Bush is judged solely on
the basis of Iraq, his re-election prospects are in very deep trouble.
Last week, I heard someone ask a West Point graduate who is a veteran of two tours in
Vietnam and has recently returned from Iraq what the difference is between Iraq and
Vietnam. His answer: "Fewer trees." He went on to describe a situation that could only
charitably be described as a disaster -- an occupation colossally mismanaged.
Yet, the Bush administration's effort to weave the war in Iraq into the broader tapestry of
the war on terrorism began to work over the summer, in part because of Chechen terrorists'
deadly siege at a Russian school.
If the question is whether the news from Iraq will get better or worse between now and
November 2, the answer is that it will almost certainly get worse. The more germane
question is whether the beheadings of Americans and the increased U.S. military casualties
in recent weeks will weaken or reinforce the American public's sense that the war in Iraq is
a legitimate part of the war on terrorism.[...]
[...]Bush is ahead and will likely win this election unless worsening news in Iraq upsets his
campaign's applecart or Kerry manages to use the debates to change the momentum of this
race.
What, these debates? Fat Chance!
Posted by: Ã¦ | September 29, 2004 02:02 PM
About those beheadings...
M. Ledeen made one point recently with which I absolutely agree: The grisly videos are
aimed at an Arab audience. They are recruitment tools, and judging by rumors of brisk
DVD sales in the region, they are effective recruitment tools.
Might they be effective here at home also? Not to garner support for the kidnappers, but to
ratchet up support for Iraq as a part of the so-called War on Terror? I'm not suggesting that
Zarqawi is in cahoots with Karl Rove (though with Zarqawi on the loose and free to
produce home movies a year and a half into this clusterfuck, I won't hold it against anyone
for believing this might in fact be the case). Our resources in Iraq are alarmingly thin, split
mainly between that theater and South Asia. You can't use what's not on hand. And though
everything that we learn makes our efforts going forward more effective, those resources
can't keep up with business. This is the fault of the Bush administration and no one else's,
but the administration's failures, as manifest in the case of Zarqawi, can be valuable
reinforcers of administration claims to be fighting an essentially counterterror war in Iraq.
Zarqawi's continued visibility, and each of his subsequent victims, may help rather than
hurt Bush, as indicated in the Cook Political article. Though it increases public pressure on
the administration to at least appear to be doing something effective, this is not the same
thing as increased public pressure to wrap up and come home. (I imagine that pressure is
coming from elsewhere.)
Sorry to interrupt but I have a quick question for the open off-topic thread:
A republican friend I had long ago given up on just sent me an alarmed e-mail about drug
company mark-ups (into 1000s percentiles). Can I get a link to something really stunning
that shows the republican/pharma orgy? Some reading that might open her eyes?
There's only one thing I want Kerry to do, in expiry, in tomorrow's 'debate': renounce every
claim that Bush makes about the War as not merely a lie, but a serial persistence by Bush to
misapprehend reality.
It is still posasible to expose Bush as a megomaniacal dolt.
Poll: 2/3 of Americans favor Mideast neutrality
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------Janine Zacharia, THE JERUSALEM POST Sep. 29, 2004
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------Just less than two-thirds of Americans â€“ 64 percent â€“ feel the US should make a major
effort to be evenhanded in its approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as part of
American efforts to combat international terrorism, a new survey released Tuesday shows.
The poll of American attitudes towards global issues, commissioned by the Chicago
Council on Foreign Relations, found that only 17% of Americans believe the US should
take Israel's side in the conflict, and 74% said the US should take no side. It also found that
only 39% of Americans perceive the Israeli-Arab conflict as a "critical threat" to US
interests, a drop of 24% from a previous survey in 2002.
Overall, Americans seemed to feel safer with regard to international terrorism and other
threats, pollsters said. "The public, since the summer of 2002, seems to feel less
threatened," said Benjamin Page, a professor of political science at Northwestern
University. He said the "Middle East is not such a top priority to Americans as it was two
years ago."
The survey found very slim support among Americans for US-led democratization efforts
in the Middle East. Only 35% of Americans believe the US should put greater pressure on
Middle Eastern countries like Egypt and Saudi Arabia to democratize, versus 57% who do
not believe the US should apply pressure.
Americans have a very "limited appetite" for democratization efforts, said James Steinberg
of the Brookings Institution.
Only 14% said bringing a democratic form of governance to other countries was a very
important goal of US foreign policy, the smallest percentage in a list of goals, which was
topped by 78% saying protecting jobs of American workers, 73% saying preventing the
spread of nuclear weapons, and 71% saying combating international terrorism.[...]
THE SHEEPLE HAVE MAD COW DISEASE
And It's Terminal.
Posted by: USDA Alert | September 29, 2004 04:14 PM
Well, that's pretty impressive, that last poll. So, this means that something like 83% of the
US Congress represents the tiny 17% minority?
Pat: Well, I didn't mean to say they won't attack Iran; they may well do it. It's just that it
would be completely foolish and one of the dumbest and most suicidal moves this
administration ever did. Given their records, the odds they do it are substantial.
Beheadings: I think they have several purposes. Recruitment tool is obvious - the Algerian
islamists did this 10 years ago. Then, since it's widely aimed and distributed in the local
Iraqi market, it is a way to show the Iraqi people they're not as powerless as they feel (more
or less same reaction and purpose than showing 5-tons US bombs blasting Evil Muslims
had on the Americans traumatised by 9/11). And the last purpose is probably a warning to
every potential collaborator: work with the US and you'll end up like them. Apparently,
there are many vids that aren't shown here because they just involve Iraqi officials and
military, which confirms that most of them are aimed at the Iraqis and not the Westerners.
@Pat
You seem rather certain that Bush will claim victory in the election. Why? Awkwardly
skewed polls, Diebold, and post-debate spin suggest the most likely answers, but this
administration is losing allies fast.
anna missed asked to relay these links:
Cheney changed his view on Iraq
In the Northwest: Bush-Cheney flip-flops cost America in blood
@Citizen, Pat
The election result will be negotiated in closed court rooms. The campaigns know this and
have positioned their armies.
b - did you not open a new thread, briefly? Strange...
Have you noticed any uptick in traffic over here since Billmon's latest announcement? And
since your call for more action a month ago?
@Citizen
Kerry's a bad candidate. Wrong guy at the wrong place at the wrong time, to swipe a
phrase.
I would have liked to see the Democratic Party lose for a worthy cause, with a candidate
who straightforwardly challenges not only the Bush Doctrine, but the the established
foreign and defense policy trends that it arose from. I'd still like to see that. It could be a
loss that bears fruit.
I don't want to hear haggling over mere details; I wanna see a sledgehammer taken to the
body of ideas that have brought us to where we are now. I want to see American
interventionism, American expansionism, the bloody whimsy of American constabularism
bludgeoned in broad daylight. I want to see a presidential candidate who goes about this
business with the same seriousness, the same hard-headedness, the same matter-of-fact
ruthlessness as any soldier on any field of battle.
I wouldn't mind losing, if the battle were worth it.
Now I don't care about winning, because it's not.
Well, the Montreal Expos are coming to my on-again, off-again hometown, Washington,
D.C.
Not that Washington deserves such a fine and noble sport. (And not that anyone in my
house will stop rooting for the Yankees.)
As George Will once remarked, Washington is a football town for a reason, combining as it
does the two worst characteristics of modern American culture: violence and committee
meetings.
@ Pat:
I remember a long time ago, someone said that Washington, D.C.(where I was born) is a
place that, when you are not there, you say you're from there and when you are there you
say that you are from somewhere else. It is a beautiful city, just get rid of the friggin'
politicians. When I first played softball as a little girl (Pigtail League), my Dad took me to a
Senator's game at Griffith Stadium. A guy named Mudcat Grant was pitching. You have to
love it. Welcome back.
It is a beautiful city, beq. I sha'nt disagree with you there.
@Pat
I want to see a presidential candidate who goes about this business with the same
seriousness, the same hard-headedness, the same matter-of-fact ruthlessness as any soldier
on any field of battle.
I wouldn't mind losing, if the battle were worth it.
Damn, I just imagined that campaign. That would be fine.
And even if we had to pay by losing it would be bearable because no one would forget how
it inspired us, and we'd win in the end because we wouldn't have ever given up. It's all this
quitting without really trying that makes me want to spit out the taste of it. I'm a little
disgusted at myself.
Informations for non-US citizens.
US-bound Britons fly into security revolution - UK tourists to be photographed and
fingerprinted as American authorities extend new airport arrivals procedures to all
foreigners
@beq
re: drug companies
Marcia Angell's recent book might be worth a try -- I have not read it myself yet but have
noted it as interesting.
@Pat I don't want to hear haggling over mere details; I wanna see a sledgehammer taken
to the body of ideas that have brought us to where we are now. I want to see American
interventionism, American expansionism, the bloody whimsy of American constabularism
bludgeoned in broad daylight. I want to see a presidential candidate who goes about this
business with the same seriousness, the same hard-headedness, the same matter-of-fact
ruthlessness as any soldier on any field of battle.
Magnifique! In this matter you and I are on the same page, singing from the same
hymnbook, standing shoulder to shoulder or pick whatever metaphor you please.
furthermore (I doff my cap) you have put it brilliantly, expressing my own hunger for some
kind of truth and justice better than I have been able to express it myself. I do not want to
see equivocation or cover-ups or euphemisms -- I want to see the pernicious neocon ideas,
and the shabby little cabal of fanatics and profiteers peddling them, bludgeoned. not
physically, but publicly, in the marketplace of ideas, until every last person in the US gets
the message.
@Pat
So to take Billmons analogy of contrast gainer (miss him for these) if I were a Pat B
republican, I'd be pretty dismayed about all the outsourcing, the war in Iraq, if I were a
fiscal republican, I'd be mortified about deficits with no end in sight, if I were a military
republican, I'd just be plain worried, if I were a fundamentalist republican, I'd be calling my
parents for a loan, and if I were a Regan republican I'd be outraged at the loss of my simple
minded but pragmatically effective means and ways of uniting the nation.
John Kerry (and the democrats) by contrast, suffer not from impending fragmentation, but
rather from an essential mistrust of the power of their own base -- probably going back to
LBJ -- and to find their expression in that collective will.
I would agree with you wholeheartidly that what is now needed with clear imperative, is
the sledgehammer to all the foreign policy fantasia dreams that we are now compelled to
dream, a serious shaking slap in the face wakeup with icewater. I would disagree that John
Kerry is the wrong candidate, I dont see who else (in the field) could bring forth the real
challenge of both bringing down the house of cards and realigning the party. Whichever
party blows this election will pay a long and painful price.
I've saved some nice fireworks from the 4th to set off come November to celebrate my
choice.
@ DeAnander:
Thanks. That is just what I was looking for.
@ Pat:
Sign me up for a sledgehammer too.
@ anna missed:
I agree and besides, I want to see a real woman in the white house and not that simpering
stage prop.
Sweet.
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« Dear Comrades | Main | Crude »
Moon of Alabama: Dear Comrades
And
must
have
whiskey
Oh, you
know
why
« Billmon: Bush Cheney 2004 | Main | Open Off Topic Thread »
September 27, 2004
Dear Comrades
Through Andy Mukherjee of Bloomberg and Dr."Gloom" Marc Faber we got our hands on
a transcript of a speech held at a meeting of the Central Economic Commission of the
Chinese Communist Party. The speaker is unknown but is believed to be in a very high
party position.
"Dear Comrades,
One of the next days we will publish our paper on the "Ruling Capacity of the
Party". Let me cite three passages:
We should always put national sovereignty and security in the
first place and firmly safeguard state security.
...
Hostile forces are still pursuing their strategic attempts to
westernize and separate our country.
...
We will effectively guard against and deal with various risks from
the international economic field, so as to safeguard China's
political, economic, cultural and information security.
The US cronies at the IMF, the G-7 and the World Bank are putting pressure
on us to loosen the peg of our Yuan to the US-Dollar. If we would do so, the
US-Dollar could slowly devalue against all Asian currencies and the US
economy could move back on a sustainable path. For now we do some cheap
talk of planed revaluation to calm them down.
A week US Dollar is NOT in our interest.
The United States have fulfilled their long dream and occupied Iraq to achieve
control over Middle Eastern commodities. They are fighting our interests in
Sudan and Iran. They are engaged in various Central Asian countries at our
north western border. They are even selling German made submarines,
offensive weapons with cruise missiles, to the illegal government of our
province Taiwan.
We continue actively to buy large amounts of US securities, especially
treasuries, to keep the Yuan value bound to the US Dollar. We now have
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2004/09/dear_comrades.html (1 von 10) [16.11.2004 18:27:33]
accumulated some US$ 500 billion in such instruments. There are three major
positive effects to this:
● We enable the US Federal Reserve to keep the interest rates low in spite
of the huge US deficits and we thereby induce the US consumer to buy
more of our goods and services.
● We make the US manufacturing and service industries uncompetitive
and force them to move to Asia, teaching our workers the skills we will
need in the future.
● We make imports to our country expansive and induce our people to
save and to invest their money into our industrial build-up.
There are also negative effects, like some increased inflation here. But for now
we are able to control these by central administrative means.
There is no chance that this scheme will work into eternity. But there is a good
chance that we, the Party, can determine the point in time where a break will
occur. Until then we will use the accumulated dollars to build significant
strategic reserves of all commodities and increase the abilities of the People's
Liberation Army and especially the People's Liberation Army's naval forces.
At some point, for some reason, the US, in their quest of world domination,
will threaten us - either directly through military means or indirectly through
the oil lever. That will be the right moment do de-peg the Yuan, devalue the
US Dollar and throw the treasuries we own onto the international markets.
US treasury rates will then increase immediately to double digit values, the US
economy will falter first into recession and then into a Weimar like
hyperinflationary depression.
Then we will pick up what is left over from the US empire paying the cheap
price of some paper losses in our US security portfolio.
Comrades, lets work to keep the US dollar strong, very strong, for the glory of
the Party and the wellbeing of the people of China.â€•
Comments
@B:
You exhibit a very cutting and cunning thought process.
I imagine the Chinese are pursuing some such policy as this.
I also imagine that they have thought it all the way through.
Inscrutable yellow peril indeed.
Posted by: Sir Dennis Nayland Smith | September 27, 2004 10:42 AM
it is the general probability that the dollar MUST
fall w. respect to the yuan/
keep falling w. respect to the euro
that makes me want to shift my retirement account to euro-based investments
Posted by: mistah charley | September 27, 2004 11:18 AM
Great topic. I would like to quote myself from the Whisky Bar:
Is it possible, that the only thing that the Chinese leadership has on it's mind is
long-term (30-40 years) geo-political power? They must be aware, that they
are a dumping ground for greenbacks, but they just don't care.
They see the benefits: exports-fueled growth, transfer of know-how, transfer of
industrial infrastructure. They wouldn't want to risk stopping that, so they play
the let-me-do-the-job-for-you game. They take into account, that some day all
that green paper will be worthless.
Posted by: MarcinGomulka at February 10, 2004 02:37 PM
To parafrase Kissinger, you can not have an empire without industrial infrastructure and
base your national income solely on show business and intellectual property rights.
For companies, the transfer of production to China is a suicidal strategy in the long run. As
an example, the German fridge producer Liebherr did that. Their business partner screwed
them and is making now EXACT copies under the trademark Haier. It's the same with cars
and everything else.
Another shameless selfquotation:
there was na excellent interview with Jean-Luc Domenach, the french sinologe
and historian in the polish press. my quick translation:
What is China's policy on international arena?
- They are looking forward to the showdown with the USA. They know, that
they will have to wait 40 years for that moment, when China becomes an
economic superpower. I have no doubt about that and every discussion with
the people in power confirms my belief. The Chinese thinking is dominated by
dialectics in line with the logic, ally with whom against whom. This kind of
thinking led the Soviet Union to the Molotow-Ribbentrop Pact [ August 1939,
a secret pact with the 3rd Reich; determined spheres of influence ].
Where do these emotions come from?
- China wants a historic revenge with The West for past humiliations, for
opium wars, for everything, that we have forgotten about, but they did not.
Posted by: MarcinGomulka | August 19, 2004 04:03 PM
@Marcin;
Is that the same Liebherr that also produces these:
Link
Posted by: Caterpillar | September 27, 2004 01:12 PM
@Caterpillar - yes it is: Liebherr
From Bernhard's "intrests in Sudan" link, comes a subtle corporate confirmation of why
Cheney so craftily marketed this war to Bush:
This is because, to quote a recent Deutsche Bank report, every aspect of
China's energy industry seems to be on the rise except for oil production.
"China was a net oil exporter during the last (1991) Gulf war and was
insulated from the supply disruption that ensued," the authors said. "The US
invasion of Iraq served as a wake-up call to China."
The war was an oil grab from every perspective except from Bush's wooden puppet eyes.
That poor dolt of a leader really believes he fighting terrorists and creating democracy for
Jesus.
He is the perfect stooge for the stage.
And Cheney has pulled his strings to perfection.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Why should the book about Farber:
Riding the Millennial Storm
be selling for $150 used?
Do I need a friend in China to get me a bootleg copy?
@koreyel - Reading Faber - I can recommend his book "Tomorrows Gold" and his columns
at AME info fn
--Stefen Roach on US Dollar, China peg and the consequences in todays Collision Course
The world economy is on a collision course. The United States -- long the
main engine of global growth and finance -- has squandered its domestic
saving and is now drawing freely on the rest of the worldâ€™s saving pool.
East Asian central banks -- especially those in Japan and China -- have
become Americaâ€™s financiers of last resort. But in doing so, they are
subjecting their own economies to mounting strains and increasingly serious
risk. ...
Liebherr vs Haier - from the German point of view
Dem Liebherr-Konzern klaute sein chinesischer Joint-Venture-Partner nicht
nur die Technik fÃ¼r KÃ¼hlschrÃ¤nke, sondern auch gleich den
chinesischen Namen, Haier. Inzwischen ist Haier eine rein chinesische Firma,
hat eine Fabrik in Amerika und den Deutschen lÃ¤ngst den asiatischen Markt
abgejagt. [...] Produktklau gilt in China nicht als Verbrechen, sondern als
Kunstform. Maler, die andere KÃ¼nstler bis auf den letzten Pinselstrich
kopieren, genieÃŸen hohes Ansehen.
quick-n-dirty translation: The Chinese JV-partner stole not only the technology from the
Liebherr corporation, but also the name, Haier. Haier is now a pure Chinese company, has a
factory in America and took away the Asian market from the Germans. Product theft is not
treated as a crime in China, but as an Art. Painters, who copy other artists into the smallest
detail, receive high respect.
Art. Kind of explains it all. I do not blame the Chinese, they do what is best for them. But
the PhB suit who helped to screw his own company for short term profits is a moron. And
anybody who follows the moron..., well "...fool me twice...".
(why does this situation remind me of the corporate hack from "Aliens II"?)
as i learned in economics 101 - "supply and demand" - books are expensive when those
who have them can charge a lot to those who want them - and those who want them are
willing to pay for them
how about one thousands dollars for a pulp paperback novel? well, if it's "sisters", by mrs.
cheney, with lesbian love scenes, that's what people are willing to pay
who knows if it's good or bad?
Thanks, Berhnard, for posting the remarks by Faber. I've been in the middle of the China
currency debate from a different perspective -- the political. I've actually written some
legislation for US Congressmen, as well as legislative history, remarks, etc., all calling for
the United States to push China to float the RMB. I am continually struck by the near-total
lack of sophistication or foresight by these politicians, not to mention their complete failure
to think through the basics of international currency policy. It's quite simple, really. US
manufacturers know that production has moved to China; that China pegs the RMB to the
dollar; that lots of people say the RMB is undervalued; and that if the RMB were allowed
to float, it would rise, making Chinese exports more expensive and US products more
competitive.
I won't even start to go through all the potential fallacies in this line of reasoning. Rather,
what I find most striking is the failure of US politicians to think through the potential
consequences of what will happen if they get what they want, and the RMB floats. While
Chinese exports would become more expensive, they would not necessarily become so
expensive as to make US production competitive. At least in the short run, higher prices
means higher inflation. A stronger RMB means that the Chinese can buy US products
(primarily commodities) more cheaply, driving up their prices in the US as well. The
Chinese can also buy US assets and technology more cheaply, making them more
competitive in the long run.
Of course, if the dollar is weaker, investors are less likely to want to hold
dollar-denominated assets. This means US interest rates will rise, which will (1) make it
even more expensive for the US to finance its burgeoning current account and budget
deficits; (2) encourage the Japanese, Chinese and other foreign borrowers to cut down on
their US bond holding; (3) drive up the US federal budget deficit by increasing interest
costs; (4) pop the property bubble that has been the main source of US economic growth;
and (5) push over the economic edge consumers holding debt equal to around 200% of
GDP.
The economic consequences of forcing China to float the RMB could be profound -- and
the politicians aren't thinking about this at all. I am not an expert on the economics of
exchange rates, and will gleefully admit that I have no business making exchange rate
policy. Yet even I have given this more thought than the politicians who are making
decisions that will have lasting effects on the world economy. Fortunately, the Chinese
policy makers tend to take a longer view than US politicians do. Unfortunately, I truly
doubt that the Chinese government has the expertise at all levels to make the right choices;
I don't think there is a Chinese equivalent of Robert Rubin or Larry Summers during the
Asian financial crisis of 1998.
Sometimes economics is a negative sum game, and I have the awful feeling that's where
we're headed.
Posted by: Aigin | September 27, 2004 03:35 PM
redundant rant: liebherr is www.liebherr.de
nice speech, comrade bernhard. a chinese would have said it in such a direct manner only if
in very agressive mood and absolutely sure the resulting american rage would be of no
consequence. i dont think we'll ever hear any chinese talk like this. instead, the US will go
with a wimper and overnight the world will be confronted with china as a new superpower,
very probably - and hopefully - by far not as criminal as the americans.
and since everybody is talking in german today, my own words in front of the ZKdKPC re.
the americans would be
"lieber ein ende mit schrecken als ein schrecken ohne ende"
this translates to "better a horrible end than horror without end". just lets wait and see
grover norquist and his asshole friends downsize america while the chinese patiently wait
to step in and drown her in a toilet bowl and pump her full of gauge 12 rounds.
Posted by: name | September 27, 2004 03:53 PM
Yikes! Bernhard, that's the most shrill entry by Stephen Roach I've ever read. The latest in a
long line of shrill finger-waggings. And one of the longest. I hereby induct Mr. Roach into
the Ancient and Hermetic Order of the Shrill as a Shrill Cabalist.
Having said that, Roach has a good counter-argument against Dr. Gloom...
China is hurtling down an increasingly unstable path by mismanaging its
domestic and international finances. Inflation is now on the rise in this
overheated economy and could well continue to accelerate until China shifts
its macro policy settings (monetary, fiscal, and currency) into restraint. A
failure to do that is a recipe for the dreaded hard landing.
...Not so much against China's motivations for helping to finance the current account
deficit, but against the idea that China can patiently wait until they're ready to deploy their
diabolical dollar death-ray. And there's the fact that Japan still has foreign exchange
reserves more than 70% bigger than China - the Bank of Japan may well dump those bonds
in the future, but it'll be because the game has become unsustainable, not to punish the US.
`Òne day disaster will strike, and we we'll lose a lot of money on our bonds
and dollar positions,'' said Faber, still play- acting the part of a Chinese
official. ``This is a small penalty to pay for the transfer of technology and
manufacturing and investments into our country.''
Well, maybe this would happen if there was a big enough political crisis in Asia. But a
small penalty? How about the value of dollar assets declining by hundreds of billions of
dollars? How about a catastrophic plunge in exports to China's biggest export market? It'll
be a blood bath all around. Will it be worth the technology transfers that China could have
gotten anyway by virtue of being a huge and attractive market?
Fortunately, the Chinese policy makers tend to take a longer view than US
politicians do. Unfortunately, I truly doubt that the Chinese government has
the expertise at all levels to make the right choices; I don't think there is a
Chinese equivalent of Robert Rubin or Larry Summers during the Asian
financial crisis of 1998.
I am not so sure about ancient Chinese wisdom and the long-view and all that.
Seems to me that if you had any kind of central control on a contemporary country's
economic development, you'd want to criss-cross your country with high-speed rail. You'd
want to use your brains to high advantage to really find a solution to the fundamental
problem of transportation.
To bite into the festering apple of hydorcarbon car-culture at this late date--which
apparently the Chinese are doing most blissfully--is to set yourself up for future gastritis
willfully.
And that comment is just as valid even if Prof. Gold's theory of oil as a renewable resource
is correct.
The problem is of course global warming. Any long view that ignores that view isn't worth
a bucket of smog.
Right now--I can't even imagine the world 40 years from now as being much of a joyful
place. And I tend towards optimism.
Global warming is going to totally discombobulate this planet. Totally. You simple can't
pump that much smoke into the air year after year and not have serious repercussions.
Can't. Possibly.
To be building freeways now, laying in refineries and pipelines is a lot like trying out
coffins for softness.
Of course, I hope I am wrong.
DJ UK PRESS: Pressure Grows On G7 To Agree Dlr Devaluation
09/26/2004
Dow Jones News Services
( Copyright Â© 2004 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. )
LONDON ( Dow Jones ) --U.S. President George Bush is being urged to
signal a dollar devaluation of up to 20% to rebalance the global economy
ahead of Friday's Group of Seven and International Monetary Fund meetings
in Washington, the U.K.'s The Business newspaper reported.
Senior U.S. administration officials in Washington have over the past few days
tried to influence the White House and U.S. Treasury to put pressure on the
G7 to agree to a dollar depreciation in its final statement, the newspaper said.
Recent data have shown the U.S. current account and trade deficits running at
record levels, and economists have said a dollar depreciation is needed to rein
these in.
Fasten your seatbelt.
@koreyel
China plans 850km-long subways/light railways in cities
Sources close to the Ministry of Railways said that, during the 10th Five-Year
Plan (2001-05), the Chinese Government will pour 350 billion yuan (US$42.3
billion) into constructing railways.
Of this investment, 270 billion yuan (US$32.6 billion) will go to infrastructure
and the remaining 80 billion yuan (US$9.7 billion) will be used to buy rolling
stock.
Meanwhile, an additional 800 billion yuan (US$96.7 billion) will be used for
urban transportation, and at least 200 billion yuan (US$24.1 billion) will go to
subway construction, said Guangming Daily.
As B pointed to, China is busy building fast-trains networks. But their problem is that
they're NOT centralised and dictatorial enough anymore, so everyone and their dogs is
buying cars at an insane rate, and I suspect that upsetting too much the middle-class could
well doom the Party. The only way to do this would be a Cultural Revolution redux by
appealing to the masses, and it would be catastrophic for the economy and future
development. Basically, they're probably stuck, not because the leaders are fools, but
because most of the people are, as is usually seen in European and American elections and
polls.
As Harrow said, Japan still has the biggest reserves in the world. Which in itself is a reason
enough not to take lightly the N Korean nukes. Bush is just a friggin insane fool to have let
this issue fester that much. Halliburton stocks and oil prices won't be of any interest if
Tokyo gets nuked; it's not as if there'll be any world market anymore after that.
the US will go with a wimper and overnight the world will be confronted with
china as a new superpower, very probably - and hopefully - by far not as
criminal as the americans.
I object! Votum separatum!
The Chinese system is build not on the idea of protection of individual liberty but on the
premise, that the interest of the state is superior to the happiness of it's people. Usualy that
means the grandeur of the ruling elite. E.g., the organs of executed prisoners are used for
transplantations, a lot of poor Chinese peasants have Aids because they donated blood for
money. That is criminal!
The Chinese are only able to talk in pure power terminology, past humiliations, revenge,
coalitions, etc. They had their own Marxist-Maoist creed, but they abandoned it for pure
power. Their elite is corrupt and will prevent the emergence of democracy for as long as
possible.
Remember Martin Luther King words on America: "I have a dream that one day this nation
will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed." Liberals question American policies,
when they see that they stray away from the course and do harm in the name of good. For
instance, we question whether the Iraqis will receive the freedom they want, or only
another strongman.
Even Reagan said : â€œOur nation too has a legacy of evil with which it must deal. The
glory of this land has been itâ€™s capacity for transcending the moral evils of our past.â€•
Acknowledge your sins and don't be a sinner in the future.
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« Billmon: Bush Cheney 2004 | Main | Open Off Topic Thread »
Moon of Alabama: Billmon: Bush Cheney 2004
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Oh, you
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« Tom is Happy to Help | Main | Dear Comrades »
September 27, 2004
Billmon: Bush Cheney 2004
All is said with few words at the WhiskeyBar.
Comments
Billmon: thanks for the postcard, please write soon.
Posted by: Anon | September 27, 2004 02:51 AM
see also Billmon in Sundays LA Times:
Blogging Sells, and Sells Out
If the mainstream media are true to past form, they will treat the A-list blogs
â€” commercialized, domesticated â€” as if they are the entire blogosphere,
while studiously ignoring the more eccentric, subversive currents swirling
deeper down.Not the most glorious ending for a would-be revolution, but also
not a surprising one. Bloggers aren't the first, and won't be the last, rebellious
critics to try to storm the castle, only to be invited to come inside and make
themselves at home.
General's Hospital
Posted by: biklett | September 27, 2004 03:07 AM
@biklett Thanks for the link big question: Are the soldiers who die in the Landshut hospital from their Iraq wounds
counted as Iraq casualties? My bet is they are not and the real casulties number are much
higher than officially said.
@b
good point, today on one TV news program i see wounded figures at 7,000 on another it's
27,000,
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2004/09/billmon_bush_ch.html (1 von 8) [16.11.2004 18:27:37]
traditionally, casuality figures are killed, wounded, and evacuated from theater (no longer
able to fight) - i would think now iraq war probably on par with the general casuality ratio
of 1-12 to 1 - 15 as in ww2
korea, vietnam, etc.
don't know if shielding k.i.a. numbers, those dieing out of theater, how they would count
those, could be a longer wall than expected.
I am no sure that the postcard came for Billmon.
What if Kerry resign? In one month we can prepare a new candidate. Dean? Obama?
Hillary?
Posted by: curious | September 27, 2004 04:04 AM
It wouldn't make a damn bit of difference if Kerry resigned. Since most of the people on the
DNC and any other body likely to be consulted about a replacement if Kerry were to fall
under a bus, have much more in common with Bush and his bankrollers than they do with
the working people of the US, soldiers in Iraq or Iraqi people, we can safely assume that
any replacement would be a Tweedleda.
Posted by: Debs in '04 | September 27, 2004 04:19 AM
so billmon does a piece for la times, thats nice, he could out-write most anywhere anyhow
-- i say take a job with the times any time, but dont forget the blog -- l. rozen, chris
allbritton, etc. the wave of the future -- news that reverberates.
Thanks to Jerome a Paris for providing a link to this site. I think I'm going through the DTs
since the bar closed. I'll check back for a while and see if it helps.
Posted by: melior | September 27, 2004 04:55 AM
"not sure that the postcard came from billmon" - i agree
he may have posted it, but maybe someone else has hacked his site - it is/was his writing,
not his selection of images, that attracted us to whiskey bar in the first place
"kerry resign" - no, don't waste your time on such fantasies
kerry represents the millionaire democrat wing of the establishment party, and even though
he's no fdr - or even jfk, except in initials - his presidency would be a very significant
improvement compared to leaving the bush gang in power - kerry/edwards is the hand
we've been dealt, we've got to play it
"this is the future, we've got to LIVE it, or live WITH it" - firesign theatre
further thoughts about the death's head "loathing" image, after checking back at billmon's
and seeing it gone
i think someone is hacking billmon - it doesn't seem like him to post a shocking, crude
image
no doubt he is getting more hits on his site as a result of the la times column - but probably
billmon would want them to read some of what he wrote, i'd guess, rather than just chuckle
and/or be outraged by the picture
Not classical Billmon?
I mean, did you see this entry? Or this one? Or that one, and another one!
And it's a pity the oldest ones are apparently offline after probably a server move.
This is quite consistent with his ideas and many of his posts. He just put bluntly what most
of us think and often say in our posts. I also suspect it's not innocent this last pic appears
just in time for his op/ed in LA Times - though I won't suppose the opinion piece was
mostly designed to lure people to this pic.
About his withdrawal from blogging, which isn't the biggest surprise of the month, I'm
quite sad. IMHO, he was the best blogger, as far as analysis and writing are concerned - not
that others aren't close to him in some aspects, of course. Yet he's spot on in his LA article.
Now that he's out, I'm seriously looking for any "popular" blogger who would dare to
touche the Israel/Palestine mess, for instance. Luckily, we still have Meteor Blades who
posts from time to time on the environment at Kos...
prediction:
a TV-ad for a commercial blog in less than 1 year.
Posted by: MarcinGomulka | September 27, 2004 09:31 AM
I wish Billmon would write a book. He is only blogger (former) I would read in book form.
Posted by: jg | September 27, 2004 09:50 AM
Blogger who "touches" Israel/Palestine mess - Juan Cole at juancole.com. Don't always
agree with him, but he has a firm understanding of the Shiite Islam and isn't afraid to
breakdown the Israel/Palestine both in the Middle East and at home in the US. I read him
daily.
Posted by: conchita | September 27, 2004 10:21 AM
From the LA Times piece:
At the time, the idea of buying a blog struck me as funny, like trying to buy a
conversation. Now, having seen blogs I admired mutate into glorified
billboards, and having witnessed the emergence of the "sponsored" blog (in
which the blogger is literally an employee of, or contractor to, a corporate
owner), I can see who's likely to have the last laugh.
That's dead on.
I've read with interest the various posts on various days in regards to framing.
Here is another way the Media Masters assert their control: Purchase the conversation and
place a death mask on it. Repackage the purchase with ads that act like scrubbing sanitizing
bubbles. No germs. No virii. No danger. White-bleach the product clean of all dissent.
In effect:
Exiling those who refuse to share the Media Masters version of the world to the moon.
ok, clueless joe - you're right and i'm wrong - the goodbye postcard IS authentic and
"typical" of billmon
the commentaries at kos convince me, however, that billmon's piece in the la times about
the state of the blogosphere is too sour, and much colored by his own attitudes
may the creative forces of the universe stand beside us, and guide us, through the night with
the light from above (metaphorically speaking)
steve gilliard does a great job of refuting the burnt-out billmon - in my opinion - here
bye
Attention please! I put the "MarcinGomulka" "bye", and everybody can use the name he
wants.
Can be very dangerous.
Sorry, "MarcinGomulka" for using your name in the experiment.
@curious:
Hello C
Last curious was me.
We all have to be nice, I guess.
My mother tells me I was nice as a child.
Posted by: Pol Pot | September 27, 2004 11:47 AM
Billmon may be right but also may be wrong...Time will tell.
Some blogs will be bought some will stay independent...and there will be more new
blogsâ€¦
The need for quick and accurate information and thoughtful analyses is out there...There
will be ups and downs in attracting people's attention but I don't think blogs are to
disappear suddenly...they will be replaced with something new...
Money making...I don't blame blogers for trying to live from this job they like...but
advertisements can be harmful and yes money will certainly change whole thing in a
way...money is never innocentâ€¦
Posted by: vbo | September 28, 2004 01:57 AM
i have had few more glasses of wine tonight, on the albeit lovely banks of the hudson, but i
will say that, sober or not, i am damn sure that i would readily snap up a book or other
printed nor not-printed material by billmon immediately, without forethought, without
question, with immediate gratitude, and damn those that think otherwise and waste my/our
time posting nonsense. choose what he may, for whatever reasons, i am grateful for the
time and the artfully spoken words he has shared. i, like many others, believe he will be
back, perhaps in a different form/medium. his voice, and all that lies behind it, is sharper
and clearer than mine and many others and if we still believe in the evolution of our kind,
we can believe that genius finds its moments. it is the luckiest of us that find it in kind.
how remarkably silly to slur him! whatever were they thinking? what a collosal waste of
time. however lucky i am that i have shared a night of wine and tequila and bonding with
friends before this post, it is no less consequential.
thanks for everything billmon.
\
Posted by: conchita | September 28, 2004 02:53 AM
Billmon is OK and a little bit more. I did like to read him all tho there were few thoughts
that I couldn't share...
I mean he is talented and what I liked especially was his sense for irony and sarcasm and
his ability to "connect some dots". But I wouldn't go that far to call him "genius". Maybe
I'll need some wine to do so, haha.
Billmon is an interesting person and intriguing journalist and it really is a pity that we are
not in a position to read more of his thoughts. Hopefully heâ€™ll be back in his own
timeâ€¦ and placeâ€¦
And what might your name be, brave little troll? ;-)
That's not at all the history of Billmon. Upon deciding finally to terminate the comments
section on his own site, he promptly offered to bestow the small *surplus* he'd acquired to
anyone who wanted to pick up the ball subsequently. He wasn't *in* it for the money to
begin with, quite obviously, but did his own blogging as a labor of love and out of a
genuine sense of service to his fellow man.
I'm still NOT convinced that this LA Times editorial *is* definitely from Billmon. It's a
clever enough impersonation perhaps, but it doesn't exhibit his own writing flair at all!
(And how difficult would it be for a propagandist to float an item purporting to be from
"Billmon"? Who's to know??)
One thing Billmon was always extremely well known for for was keeping people
*informed* about his potential absences and return dates. This latest hiatus, however,
doesn't fit the mold at all. "All at Sea" -- his final post prior to that September 24 graphic -cast no insinuations of any prolonged absence, just a brief "ocean voyage". Then, POOF!
I'll reserve judgment on this, myself. I'm still *quite* concerned that Billmon may actually
be in a whole heap of trouble, or worse. This seeming "resolution" of the "Mystery of the
Missing Billmon" raises many more questions than answers, in my point of view. And the
LA Times commentary itself seems a possible effort to divide the blogosphere, plain and
simple.
Waiting for confirmation ...
"All at Sea" -- his final post prior to that September 24 graphic -- cast no
insinuations of any prolonged absence, just a brief "ocean voyage".
It could have been an quite elegant way to disappear without explanations.
People going to sail the sea sometimes disappear.
Brecht probably would have liked it.
Posted by: Finn | September 29, 2004 03:23 PM
(have just posted this at annex but feel it is appropriate here)
all that i know at this time is that i am very thankful to billmon for creating a space which
has organically allowed the annex & m o a to exist & i feel this contact we have is not
without a great degree of intimite
in my work with people - these are two tools i use implicitly- intimitÃ© & distance - & i
sense here that the mechanics of posting require the two as a matter of precision
often i am without that precision - as i'm too fucking angry & in wonderment at the collosal
disaster that the bushcheney junta has created. combined with this diabetes of mine at the
moment it sometimes feels a fatal combination - certainly leading to an exhaustion - that
can make my post a little delirant perhaps
i am thankful to the other posters i have met here & even though my work is populated
enough - the contact here is crucial
on a practical level - the work people do on the links is a concrete assistance - as i've sd it
filters the time & creates a context
but it is more than that - i am moved by the humanity & i have been moved both by the
innocence & wisdom that i have found here & at m o a
& yes, billmon needs to be thanked for that. my expertise does not exist in economics (i
think sometimes it is the absolute contrary of expertise) - so it was the broader posts of
billmon that interested me, practically
here it is easy & not comprimising to defer to the expertise here - with jÃ©rÃ´me for
example - we have differing worldviews - but i read & take pleasure with his posts. this is
true of many. & i think it has been important that the two spaces except for the beginning
have been relatively free of trolls
i miss outraged tho & wonder where that most whitmanian poster is & yes i need his
expertise
all to say, i raise a glass to billmon & to the others here who give
in friendship & force
still steel
The graphic was gone for a span of time, then reappeared, and now the bar says 'closed'.
I'd say that pretty much sums it up right there.
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« Tom is Happy to Help | Main | Dear Comrades »
Moon of Alabama: Tom is Happy to Help
And
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« Open W. Thread | Main | Billmon: Bush Cheney 2004 »
September 26, 2004
Tom is Happy to Help
â€¦ the Bush administration launches a new pre-election antiterrorism
campaign this week that will include the likely arrests of hundreds of aliens
from Middle Eastern and other countries known to be havens for terrorists.
Homeland Security has targeted for possible detention as many as 2,000
foreigners who are believed to be in violation of their visas and about whom
there is "soft intelligence" suggesting possible terror connections.
Newsweek: Homeland Security's Info: Miles from Nowhere - last graph
RING, RING, RING
TOM: Ridge here
KARL: Hi Tom, this is Karl - how are you - hey we have a problem here and I need your
help.
TOM: Sure Karl, whatâ€™s up? Need some guards at a rally somewhere?
KARL: No, no - you see, this Kerry guy is pointing all over Iraq - and says itâ€™s a mess now even the media takes note - we can't let this happen - we need to change the headlines
- but nothing like anthrax this time - thatâ€™s too negative - you know - we ARE Winning
the War on Terra - even Osama holds back for now.
TOM: Okay, okay, so you want more like positive action. Want some terrorists dead or
something more subtle?
KARL: Subtle sounds fine - sounds fine - and big - big numbers.
TOM: Hmmm big. Ahh, here's an idea: Foreigners, illegal and we have plenty of them and
they don't vote. Girly manâ€™s land is full of them and they speak Spanish - nearly as
good as screwing the French.
KARL: No, no - not the Mexicans - cheap as they come - Texas needs them - get some
others - or these nasty academics and work from there - toss in some mullahs and foreign
actors - girly man has that list - and make it big.
TOM: So you want one hundred.
KARL: I said big - you know like ten thousand or so - big TERRORIST headlines.
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2004/09/tom_is_happy_to.html (1 von 4) [16.11.2004 18:27:39]
TOM: Ten thousand? Hey I donâ€™t have room for ten thousand. The RNC still has Pier
57, but even thatâ€™s too small. Letâ€™s see, I can give you like one thousand max. That
all I can put into cells right now.
KARL: Make that five thousand Tom - four thousand - just stack them - hey, even the
Army could do that.
TOM: Two, two is all I can give you now and I canâ€™t hold them for long, you know like
six weeks or so.
KARL: Let me see my calendar - oh five weeks left - five weeks would be enough - and
two thousand is fine for now - and find some evidence - like something chemical or laptops
- you know cyberwar - just beef it up - and make it last - like, you know, five weeks - make
one headline each day.
TOM: Yeah - okay, okay - I got it. Two thousand roundup - Liberals, immigrant terrorists
and the like and stick some evidence up their asses. And daily media briefs - Consider it
done - I am happy to help - Weâ€™ll start Monday - Thatâ€™s fine with you?
KARL: Yeah, Monday is fine - gotta go and tell Dick now - see you and have a nice one bye.
TOM: Amen, bye.
spread the word
Comments
One of the many grossly wrong-headed things about focusing on "foreigners", especially
international students, for heavyhanded scrutiny and harassment is that they are potentially
our best advocates or, at least, explainers of our culture and values to audiences abroad.
OT, billmon in the latimes.
Posted by: mats | September 26, 2004 07:42 PM
So this is the best they can do for the "October Surprise"? How feeble and cynical. I was
hoping the administration would at least present us with Jimmy Hoffa or John Kerry's black
love-child, to say nothing of Osama being dragged behind the presidential motorcade in
chains. But instead we get a bunch of faceless schmucks.
As usual billmon is dead on. Also as usual money power greed corrode and eat away
anything that is creative and spontainious, free-flowing. I knew back in eighties when I saw
the first pay-toliet. Pay to shit? Yes, my peers you are the product.
Actually, I thought Billmon was right to mention rock and roll as well as hip hop getting
commercialized by money interests, but that he really mis-analyzed what that means. Sure
rock gets commercialized. But then punk, and then grunge, and then hip hop, and then...
The blogosphere is just as big a playground as music, and even if each generation gets
stuck in its own wave, blogspace will keep pulling out new 'sounds' and new voices.
The poets will keep digging up out of the shit and displaying lotuses. Its just that you can't
ever get away from the shit for long. It's where we live.
Actually, I thought Billmon was right to mention rock and roll as well as hip hop getting
commercialized by money interests, but that he really mis-analyzed what that means. Sure
rock gets commercialized. But then punk, and then grunge, and then hip hop, and then...
The blogosphere is just as big a playground as music, and even if each generation gets
stuck in its own wave, blogspace will keep pulling out new 'sounds' and new voices.
The poets will keep digging up out of the shit and displaying lotuses. Its just that you can't
ever get away from the shit for long. It's where we live.
Can't agree with Billmon.
Never was a 'Billmon is always spot-on' pundit, but in this case, Billmon may be finished
with Blogging - it is not that Blogging is finished.
Where would be today if not for the internet? In Tehran and Damascus I think.
Posted by: DM | September 26, 2004 11:49 PM
Day 1 headline result of the Rove/Ridge phone call:
Election Heightens Terrorism Offensive
Agencies across the federal government are launching an aggressive and
unusually open offensive aimed at thwarting terrorist plots before and during
the presidential election in November.
...
Counterterrorism officials concede they do not have new or specific
intelligence outlining plans for an attack, but they say they remain alarmed by
indications that al Qaeda and other terror groups might seek to influence U.S.
elections
...
The FBI, ... will focus heavily on individuals within the United States who are
suspected of having ties to al Qaeda and other terrorist groups or who
sympathize with their causes
...
Local police will be urged to run the names of suspicious people through the
federal government's terrorism watch list, even during traffic stops and other
minor encounters.
How about some traffic stops in front of (minority) voting localities where police officers
check folks against the terrorism watch list. Salon Voter terrorism
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September 24, 2004
Open W. Thread
Your links, discussions and opinions to pieces and events you deem of interest
Comments
They tried this little trick U.S. to Loan Strategic Reserve Crude Oil to keep the curde prices
from rising further. Prices did go down about $1/barrel and jumped up again the same day:
Oil Prices Rise Again As Production Lags.
The chart says $52.50/barrel end of next week. Mr. George W. Bush, your Middle East
friends do not like you anymore. Please tell us why.
Aljazeera has a new oil price article Is OPEC losing control over oil price?
Investec Bank analyst Evers agrees. "These US inventory figures tell me that
Saudi is struggling with light crude [production]. The stocks that they said
would make it to the markets just don't seem to be appearing and demand is far
far stronger than the figures say. It's a fact of life. This doesn't bode well."
...
Repeated promises of increased production by Saudi Arabia and OPEC have
failed to calm the markets. Some even doubt those production increases
have occurred at all as inventories fail to fill. OPEC has already admitted
that its members were breaking their own stipulated quotas.
Mr. George W. Bush, please tell us why crude is going to $70/barrel end of October?
While I am not mr. Bush, I will try to answer your question B. It is because speculators
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2004/09/open_w_thread.html (1 von 37) [16.11.2004 18:27:56]
have become dominant in global oil markets with their hedge funds and instruments of
speculation. They blame instability and bid the prices up, then turn around and bet prices
will go down. They make money both ways.
It is pure playing in money. Oil is being minipulated to suck the lifes blood out of the
people of the globe. Now, how many speculators are there comepared to the global
population. Not many. A minority of poeple are f------ the rest as always.
Until people rebel against Bushie and his speculative friends bend over.
These hedge funds on this scale is a fairly new thing. They are the reason the market has
been flat for four years.
my friends & comrades
unfortunately i feel quite, quite ill this night but when i see the face & hear the words of the
butcher rumsfield i feel a hatred, a pure, refined hatred as i rarely feel & have felt
i remember only two other times in my life - that of nixon announcing the bombings of
hanoi haiphong & the bombing of moncada palace with the poet leader salvador allende
assasinated
these men, whom ms klein so accurately describes are less than men - they are beasts &
they are holding the world hostage to their terror.
there is not an ounce of decency, human decency in them
they are literally & without question the scum of the earth - they merit neither our prayers
nor any respect for their words. their words, as are the words of all tyrants full of a hatred
of ordinary people because it is only ordinary people who can exhibit extraordinary courage
& beauty
the neocons are just the last in a line of people haters & be in no doubt about that - just the
physical body language of a bush a cheney, a rumsfield or rice express their open & clear
disdain for us
willy reich would have had a field day with their character armour - for they are the death
instinct articulated
but who would believe it would come to this - fools, absolute fools who cannot see this side
of next week clearly let alone a year or a decade shit all over the place including in their
own nest & from that shitty little nest fly all the halliburtons & their criminal strategists
no i have rarely felt this hatred but i feel it for them & forever
still steel
Rememberinggiap:
I'm not intending to be glib, but there are lots of reasons to dislike that smarmy fool
Rumsfeld. What exactly set you off? Was it his accidental slip about the Iraqi elections?
JDP:
I believe that oil speculation is only a small part of the rise in prices. Click here for a good
article on the issue. One of its most important points:
A near doubling of crude prices over the past 18 months amidst record OPEC
production can no longer simply be ascribed to the work of idle investment
bankers, simply turning their speculative attentions away from dotcoms and
telecoms to â€œthe black gold rushâ€•. The reality is that dramatic changes in
underlying fundamentals have gone unnoticed for years by the majority of
investors. The world is now losing more than a million barrels of oil a day to
depletion - twice the rate of two years ago - according to a new analysis
published this month in Petroleum Review, the oil and gas magazine of the
Energy Institute in London.
Gotta love that dismal science.
yes, the caligula like emarkes he made about the elections are the straw that have broken
the camels back
that permanent sneer on bush's face
the absultely stupid sub sub subhuman version of the already imbecilic gary cooper by
rumsfield
that false air of learnedness behind wolfowitz edward teller induced glare
that insufferable bully like for of cheney
those house servants rice & powell as undignified as a human can be & a mockery of the
grander of a w.e. dubois
the thug administrators garner bremer & the killer negroponte, the sociopaths amitige, ridge
& tenet
as groteseque as the worst burlesque
these people are ugly, very ugly indeed
(sorry i seem to be typing with my knuckles)
yes, the caligula like remarks he made about the elections are the straw that have broken the
camels back
that permanent sneer on bush's face
the absultely stupid sub sub subhuman version of the already imbecilic gary cooper by
rumsfield
that false air of learnedness behind wolfowitz edward teller induced glare
that insufferable bully like form of cheney
those house servants rice & powell as undignified as a human can be & a mockery of the
grandeur of a w.e. dubois
the thug administrators garner bremer & the killer negroponte, the sociopaths armitige,
ridge & tenet
as groteseque as the worst burlesque imaginable
these people are ugly, very ugly indeed
From 'Generation Reagan,' the thoughts of a young Republican, at redstate.org:
"When history records in stone and metal the impact my generation had on the world, the
monument built will be of the scope and grandeur of the World War II Memorial rather
than the depressing, infuriating, almost apologetic Wall."
Need I say that this American, in his late twenties-early thirties, is not in the military -in
other words, not a direct participant in the glorious confrontation for which he anticipates a
glorious memorial? Soldiers concern themselves with a lot of things. Future memorials are
not among them.
I visited the new WWII memorial this past summer with my maternal grandmother, my
grandfather (in fact, both of my grandfathers) having fought in that conflict. We went to
dinner afterward and she asked me what I thought of it. I thought it was hideous. A
neo-Greco-Roman monument on steroids. It is a monument to our present-day pretenses to
martial glory and grandeur, not an eloquent and moving statement on war and sacrifice and
suffering past. Not even an interesting visual statement on that particular victory. And
certainly not a compelling homage to the millions of citizen soldiers who won that war.
On the other hand, I very much like the Vietman memorial, and think it may be our finest.
Interesting, that.
You say it like it is râ€™giap. Itâ€™s what Iâ€™ve been feeling and wanting to be able to
articulate as well as you just did. Say it again and say it more often. Thatâ€™s the NLP
Iâ€™ll welcome.
Except for Iraqâ€™s 200 B barrels of proven untaped reserve, the world has hit the peak
where our energy availability, and everything that depends on it, are in a permanent (baring
an energy miracle) period of decline. The growing GNP over the era of rising oil
production is now reversing and the world is sliding down the inevitable decline slope of
the GNP and going to have to endure all the ramifications. If the our empire could only
secure Iraqâ€™s reserves we could stave off the inevitable for maybe another 5 years. This
is where I think their minds are directed.
The despots are trying to hold on and know that when the oil filled petri dish starts to
evaporate, the growing number of peasants with emptying bellies are going to start to react.
And not favorably toward them. Thereâ€™s still far more of us underlings who are being
screwed that the elite who are screwing us.
Rising oil prices are anathema to the short sighted oil elite. They hope to be able to keep us
at bay until... what then? They donâ€™t know.
But I think we do.
This to me is not totally bleak. We have developed, stored and made available the plethora
of information and wisdom gleaned and passed down for eons by our species. We have the
potential to affect the direction of this bifurcation. We here on this Moon are a part of that
whether we yet realize it or not.
Re: My 10:46 post:
The most appropriate monuments to war, of course, are cemetaries. And what cemetaries
have in common with the Vietnam War Memorial is the naming of the lost.
Pat,
I find it very puzzling in the midst of war to be ruminating about memorials to it as this
young Republican is.
After all, isn't that ONE memorial you really don't want to end up on? It seems kind of
morbid to me ... it seems more appropriate to let a war end, ponder on its meaning (in this
case, absolutely none) and then come up with an appropraite design.
I agree with you about the Vietnam Memorial Walls. Very appropriate, very powerful, very
moving. But then I may be prejudiced because it was the war of my generation and I have
friends listed there.
Posted by: SusanG | September 24, 2004 11:33 PM
Jim Kolbe the openly gay republican congressman from Arizona, on having to divert Iraq
funds from reconstruction to security:
-------------snip-------------"Reducing supplies of potable water and increasing sewage will adversely affect the health
and well-being of millions of Iraqis, but I see no alternative," said Rep. Jim Kolbe,
chairman of the foreign operations subcommittee that held the hearing.
-------------------------------No alternative but to adversely affect millions of Iraqis?
Which of course will make Iraqis more hostile.
Leading to the need for more security and less reconstruction.
And this is the leadership that is going to win in November?
As Bernhard said a while back:
Would someone please drop a brain on Washington?
Speaking of Murder Inc i.e. Bushco using NLP they've also been using visual hypnotic
methods in a way that I have thought was a little too obvious but whatever works; W's
"psychedelic" tie during his infamous press conference a few months ago. the "wallpaper"
backgrounds with repeated messages whenever they give public appearances, his opening
for miss Bush using the baseball jerseys w/41 on all of them, and way back, w/ the Gore
commerical w/ the rat in it...
too many examples to mention at the RNC but the unspeakably weird
background pattern they used during Laura Bush's speach was pretty amazing.
Even more amazing than the absence of any discussion about these methods by anyone of
importance.
@SusanG
My father was in Vietnam during the Tet Offensive. A young, forward artillery officer and
jack-of-all-trades, at the time. When he returned home the first thing his father said to him
was, "If you go back, you're a damn fool." My father didn't disagree.
He went on to serve twenty-seven more years in the Army (without another tour in
Vietnam) and was of an extraordinary generation of Army officers, determined that there
should never be a repetition of the unforgivable past.
That generation has passed flag officer rank into retirement and a new one has taken its
place.
Here we are.
Susan:
After all, isn't that ONE memorial you really don't want to end up on? It seems kind of
morbid to me ...
Not so much morbid, I think, as megalomaniacal. Maybe that's too harsh... hubristic. Kind
of like an ambitious conqueror (or as Pat points out, someone living vicariously through
soldiers) planning his glorious monument before the war has even begun. Of course, I
assumed this individual was thinking of the Iraqi-Irano-Syrian war. Luckily, for those of us
who won't die in this holy war, the Mall is running out of space for titanic, Albert Speerian
monuments. Something more somber and reflective for the Iraq debacle will be necessary.
Maybe...just maybe...
Breaking the Veil ?
Bucky Fuller said way back in 1965 that right now we have the capability to feed, house
and clothe everyone on the planet sufficiently that everyone would live like billionaires. So
why hasn't this happened? Because those at the top want remain the exlusive shareholders
of such graces. To sacrifice their exclusivity would be to sacrifice power and control. Since
fear ultimately rules these people, that fear will keep them stuck in this struggle for power.
Unfortunately for them, their days of power and control are coming to an end. Despite the
signs all around of us of increasing repression, surveillance and control, there is no way the
system can sustain itself much longer.
Aung San Suu Kyi once said "It is not power that corrupts but fear. The fear of losing
power corrupts those who wield it, and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are
subject to it."
Nothing can be solved when you exist in a state of fear.
From The Interrogators, by Chris Mackey and Greg Miller:
A few days later, when I was following up on some questions with the Runner, I brought
him a book from a collection our troops had retrieved from a house in Kandahar. They were
tourist books about Afghanistan, from the mid-1979s, older than most of the soldiers I was
surrounded by. The faded color pictures depicted an Afghanistan before Soviet
intervention. There were pictures of the Hotel Intercontintential, with its bar and pool.
There was a picture of an Afghan tour guide wearing a New York Mets hat. One photo
showed a line of Wesern tourists riding donkeys down a moutain path. Ther were also
photos of bazaars, uniformed schoolchildren, and the Bedouin-esque "belly dancer
restaurants," all relics of a formerly energetic, optimistic society. I didn't know much about
the troubles that led the Russians to invade, but the book left me with the perception that
this crappy place ahd been derailed from a brighter future.
I let the Runner look at the book while I was jotting down some information he had
provided. He was taken by it, asked me all kind of questions about it that I couldn't answer.
Long after our interrogation, when I would pass by the main cages late at night, he would
spot me and approach the wire. "Can I see the book again?" he would ask in Pashtu,
motioning his hands as if her were flipping through a book's pages. One time, in a fit of
compassion, I had the guards take him upstairs. I sat in a chair and wrote a report, unrelated
to him, while he flipped through the pages again. There was no translator, so I could not
undrestand the questions he asked me. I used that old book several other times, and it
always provoked a response that demonstrated to me these people had a desire to be part of
a real country. They wanted lights that worked and food on their plates and hotspitals with
doctors and medicines. Instead, they had gotten swatted by the wreching ball of history and
their own self-inflicted wounds. Some of them were the enemy, full of hate for Americans
like me. But often it was easier to feel sorry for even those guys than it was to hate them
back.
Is this the next minefield Bush has to cross?
Remarkably, little of Bush's dealings with Germany has received public scrutiny, partly
because of the secret status of the documentation involving him. But now the multibillion
dollar legal action for damages by two Holocaust survivors against the Bush family, and
the imminent publication of three books on the subject are threatening to make Prescott
Bush's business history an uncomfortable issue for his grandson, George W, as he seeks
re-election.
How Bush's grandfather helped Hitler's rise to power
For quite some time I have been avoiding any disscusions about the US with a friend of
mine, because her categorical response would be "all Americans are just plain stupid". Now
she has lived and traveled a lot in the US. After reading the following articles I am on the
verge of agreeing with her, it's people like you of MoA who keep me from agreeing
wholeheartedly with her.
Demonstrating that stupefying ignorance can be bipartisan, another Ohioan interviewed
for the same article said she is against the war in Iraq (news - web sites) because, like 42
percent of her fellow Americans, she thinks Iraq was behind 9/11: "We shouldn't be over
there building them back up because they didn't build our towers back up." She is wrong on
so many levels that it makes my brain hurt.
TRIUMPH OF THE STULTOCRACY
CALLER (in a very airy voice): Good morning. I'm going to vote for President Bush
because, after all, you know, God made us there, you know, in His image, free from any
black color and all [Host looks up, surprised]. The only church that Kerry can go to is
where they say the Black Mass, and that is in the Merriam-Webster Pocket Book
dictionary, where it says that that is the devil worshippers. [Host looks uncomfortably
off-camera, at producer?] I would never vote for, you know, Senator Kerry.e every effort to
give you the same booth again, or very nearSo, definitely, I would never vote for, you know,
Senator Kerry.
the rest is here
The Financial Times via NYT is debasing the myth of Zarqawi The devil America knows
apart from reports that he once lived in an al-Qaeda camp in Afghanistan, no
concrete evidence to prove Mr Zarqawi's involvement with al-Qaeda - or that
is even alive - has emerged.
Jordanian-born Mr Zarqawi and his group have undoubtedly committed
atrocities. But experts say their powers are exaggerated and a Zarqawi myth is
being deliberately created.
...
Islamist experts in London who are familiar with al-Qaeda figures say they
know little about Mr Zarqawi and regard his growing notoriety as "an
American story"
@ Fran
My parents live in one such mentioned, economically depressed counties in Ohio, that
votes resoundingly republican. While they are politically informed (& democratic) they too
are vexed. My dad has done political cartoons in the local papers since his retirement some
tears ago, and has often hit the stone wall (with the editors) on content critical of the
republican agenda -- they now just refuse, to even consider his antiwar pieces.
There is a (strong) tendency to discount this phenomena, of people voting their own
economic self interest down the river, in favor of some pie in the sky social agenda, as
being stupid muskrat trapping hicks. I think this is a wrongheaded approach, which
incidentally, only feeds the mistrust these people have developed of the educated - the elite
- those that wish to impose their values on them - from those that think that they are better.
In a nutshell, I think these people have become victimized, on probably every political,
cultural, and social level possible. From the city bound flight from the dimishing rural
(farming,mining,etc.) opportunities, the democrats abandonment of unions and regulation,
to the never ending media assault against more traditionally held values. My town back
there has also suffered the Wal-Mart melt down, or should I say burn down, as the Mart
drove the local business out, rents and mortgages cant be paid, so in came the arsonists, an
so the town just slowly burns down. All this is to say that many of these people, essentially,
have been set adrift with family life dispersed, diminishing employment, and no clear sense
of the future -- it should not be suprising that they should both seek refuge in both religion
and patriotism, no matter how misguided. In some ways itâ€™s an almost rational response
to their dilemma, if didâ€™nt only dig their hole deeper.
anna missed, thanks for your comment. I can to a certain degree emphasize when you
explain it this way: In some ways its an almost rational response to their dilemma, if
didâ€™nt only dig their hole deeper.. What is so challenging is not their digging their own
holes. I could accept that, but that they may pull us down in to their hole. I think this
creates this 'damn' feeling of helplessness, not being able to vote or influence the elections
in anyway and though, it becomes easier to declare all Americans as stupid.
As I said in my former post, what keeps me from falling in the same trap as my friend is
posts like yours and other posters here on MoA and the Annex.
Some reads from todays press:
--SEAL - the US finest soldiers: 3 Commandos Charged With Beating of Prisoners just some
beating - unfortunatly the prisoners died.
--Rajiv Chandrasekaran of WaPo takes big shot at Bremer and civilians in the Pentagon
Demise of Iraqi Units Symbolic of U.S. Errors - Rebuilding Hindered by Past Mistakes
--Experts See a Wider Threat - The network has evolved into a looser, ideological movement
that may no longer report to Bin Laden. Critics say the White House focus is misdirected.
Long compilation on the organisation of Islamic terror groups - good overview.
--More Iraqi civilians killed by U.S. forces than by insurgents, data shows
Operations by U.S. and multinational forces and Iraqi police are killing twice
as many Iraqis - most of them civilians - as attacks by insurgents, according to
statistics compiled by the Iraqi Health Ministry and obtained exclusively by
Knight Ridder.
---
It's getting even worse!
DISEASE IN IRAQ - Hepatitis Outbreak Laid to Water and Sewage Failures
War on Terra memorial? Isn't it too presumptuous? Like, say, Mussolini planning his
triumphant entrance into Alexandria, riding a white horse?
Oil: well, the really bad news is that most Chinese badly want a car, because it shows how
they're part of the rising middle-class, and even moreso it would show to everyone that
China is now a real powerhouse. They're now banning the once-ubiquitous bikes from the
major cities.
Zarqawi: I've heard that basically he was so full of himself that no Al-Qaeda leader in
Afghanistan wanted to deal with him and he quickly left in search of some areas where he
could have his own tiny group. Looks like he may just be an opportunist who found that
Iraq was one of the only places where AQ wasn't already all over the place.
Anna missed: The logic would say that these people are ripe for the communist party.
Except there's no serious communist party in the US. As you said, they have no solid
future, and this imho is one of the biggest sins of the Democratic party: they don't have a
plan, a vision of the future, except "fixing the few flaws of the current system" and
promises about a booming economy - a good economy never made a vision for the future
of a society. Of course, most of the world's Left suffers from this, it's not limited to the
Dems.
"Operations by U.S. and multinational forces and Iraqi police are killing twice as many
Iraqis - most of them civilians - as attacks by insurgents"
I suppose Bush (or Allawi) will not state the US troops are anti-Iraqi...
Posted by: Clueless Joe | September 25, 2004 07:06 AM
There we go again, the sky is falling and we are running out of oil. While we may be falling
a million barrels a day, underlying reasons exist.
First, speculators are the main reason oil prices are high. Second, many large areas of oil in
the middle east are untapped. The southwest coast of Saudi Arabia has not ben explored
completely. When Iraq is statble, which it will be someday, it has 180 billion barrels of
"known" reserves, and the rest unexplored. There could be 300 billion barrels of
recoverable oil in the canadian oil sands. That doesn't include untapped deep water sources,
the continent of Africa, on and on and on. Another reason oil is up is China is buying and
storing oil without need (they still have massive reserves), pushing
up world prices.
Peak oil is a red herring at this time. And any article saying we've hit peak is just a shill for
speculators.
Posted by: jdp | September 25, 2004 08:46 AM
re war memorials: I recently visited the new WWII Memorial and found it sterile and
lacking in inspiration. Not at all a suitable memorial. The Wall always moves me, and I
have been to it many times.
What would a suitable memorial to the Iraq war look like? Perhaps something invoking
slavery and ignorance, as many of the solidiers there are being forced to stay in the military
against their wills, in order to allow the majority here to continue on in its materialistic
empty fog.
Posted by: maxcrat | September 25, 2004 09:19 AM
@jdp - I disagree on your oil arguments
Speculators:
(I am one of them, but on a very, very small scale) can not move markets over days and
month against fundamentals. Speculators try to anticipate were markets are going and put
bets on their guesses - sometimes it works out, most the times it does not (hedge fonds in
2004 have overall lost). For a speculator a market going down is just as profitable as a
market going up - if his guess is right and if he knows his tools.
Medium Term High prices:
The reason prices are high is because supply currently can hardly fulfill demand. Oil
demand is not immediate elastic. If prices increase it takes quite a long time before demand
goes down (i.e. people shred their SUV and buy a hybrid). It even takes longer before
supply goes up, as new field development takes up to ten years. These time lags are
working now. Increased demand in China and India was not anticipated by the producers.
There was no money invested in new explorations. The consequences will be average oil
prices in the $50 region for the next 5 years or so.
Short Term High Prices:
One third of the platforms in the Gulf of Mexico are still offline due to hurricane Ivan,
some were destroyed. An important supply source has thereby been reduced and will stay
so for some weeks or month.
Another reason for high prices is increased risk through US action in the Middle East
(Iran).
One suspected reason is that Saudi Arabia has promised to increase production but has not
really done so, either because the have no spare capacity, or because they want a different
US president - both plausible - your choice.
Strategic Reserve:
The strategic oil reserve build in China has not even started. China decided to build a
strategic reserve only in spring this year. The first depot will be up next year, the other two
depots are planed for 2006. On the other side the US is still adding some 110,000
barrels/day to its reserve (without need? because the ME will get pieceful in future years?
because Irak will be stable?).
Peak oil:
It is not important if world production peaks now or in five years. It will peak in the this
decade. There are more reserves and alternatives but they come at a higher price and
thereby with a need for the economy to adopt to higher prices.
A FREE book on the positive economics of oil conservation downloadable at Winning the
Oil Endgame.
I wish the myriad sordid revelations of the Bush family's historic avarice would mean
something. For slightly most americans, everything that condemns Bush is a lie. I've spent
8 years studying media and culture, and my own foxnews-watching parents dismiss my
claims about Bush/Iraq et al. as my own baseless opinions. For them, like so many
americans, the only truth is that which can only be justified by insisting that everything else
is a lie.
We live in the most wicked times, and those for whom the 'truth' will be an increasing
harm, demand more of their own destuction. They deserve it.
Posted by: slothrop | September 25, 2004 11:52 AM
b,
I must wholely disagree with your premises. My stock broker through
Citibank/Solomon-Smithbarney stated to me in no uncertain terms that speculators have
added $10-15 per barrel to oil prices. Also, China has started storing oil. You only need to
pump the oil back into old wells. This is not rocket science. I worked the oil fields for eight
years and I saw storage practises first hand. If China isn't buying to fill reserves than their
buying to save their own reserves. Since oil on the world market is pegged to the US dollar,
China is getting a forty percent discount due to currency munipulation. I'd buy other
peoples oil at that cut rate myself.
Don't buy into bullshit bills of goods. We have been hearing the oil endgame for years.
While I agree we must concentrate on alternatives to the oil and gas society, the oil
endgame is far from over. Further, prices are being munipulated due to several other
factors. 1. Just intime inventory 2. Lack of refining capacity 3. Instability as an excuse.
The great majority of US oil comes from a few places. Canada, Mexico, Nigeria and
Venuzuela. Alaskan Oil goes to Japan. All but Nigeria have promised stable oil supplies.
Nigeria is having some trouble, but it looks like it is under control. Doesn't it seem odd to
you that after the Chavez re-election, oil speculators have moved to other excuses for
pumping up oil prices. Even after he promised stable oil flow.
Well, I have someplace to go. Good posting.
------More Rummy------"It's a tough part of the world," he said, adding that nowhere -- and certainly not major
American cities -- is entirely peaceful. "We had something like 200 or 300 or 400 people
killed in many of the major cities of America last year. . . . What's the difference? We just
didn't see each homicide in every major city in the United States on television every night."
----------------------Someone call an exorcist please.
Everytime this guy opens his mouth he spews vomit.
Obviously he is possessed.
Comparing American urban violence to Iraqi cities?
Bless his black heart.
By the way...
I did some research on Kolbe after my post up above. I was partly wrong about the openly
gay comment.
Funny how the fear of being "routed" changed his voting position too-------------snips--------------Two years later, Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.) faced a similar threat when he received word
that Advocate magazine was working on a story outing him after he voted in favor of the
Defense of Marriage Act, which bans federal recognition of same-sex marriages.
....
â€œThat I am a gay person has never affected the way that I legislate,â€• Kolbe said at the
time. â€œEven members of Congress should be allowed to have personal lives.â€•
-----------then and now-----------Kolbe was outed by journalist Kurt Wolfe after voting for DOMA; he's since
acknowledged that he's gay, and has defended his pro-DOMA vote, saying, "I also believe
that if the citizens of Hawaii believe it to be in their public interest to permit same-sex
marriages, they should be permitted to do so. By the same token, other states -- as Arizona
has done -- should be allowed to define marriage differently, and not be required to accept
the definition adopted by others."
I've mentioned this before, possibly on the old Billmon site, and I hardly ever post over
here, because I'm not nearly on the intellectual level of most of the brilliant people who
post here on a regular basis. Hats off to all of you. This site is truly a blessing. But I feel
that there is an aspect to this argument that is not mentioned enough. Perhaps I am incorrect
or off-base, but ----Regarding the oil crisis in general, have we forgotten how the Bushies and most of those in
his administration have made most of their money? Most of them are/were oilmen. I think
it's naive to believe that these guys aren't manipulating prices and swimming in profits. I
understand, of course, that there are some other factors, and they're all legitimate
(instability in Iraq and Middle East in general, supply and demand, peak oil, etc...), but
people were fooled into thinking that there was actually an energy crisis in the summer of
'02 (or was it '03?) with California and Enron. We only recently found out that they were
actually manipulating the market and supply to make a shitload of money. I think we are
seeing (at least to some extent) a encore performance here. We all know that it's not below
their moral compass to do something like that.
This group of assholes has been trying to establish a foothold in the Middle East for
decades (see this article for details on the "thirty year itch." It's pretty fascinating. Most of
you have probably already read it. Anyhoo ----Any thoughts?
Posted by: dc | September 25, 2004 01:19 PM
@jdb
Please ask your stock brocker (I hope for your financial health you are long oil companies
and short about everything else) how speculators should be able to add a premium of 45%
($15 on top of 33$/barrel = $48/barrel) on a worldwide transacted commodity. I fail to
understand that economic reasoning. Maybe my economy professors didnÂ´t teach it,
because they want to cash that money.
China setting up strategic oil reserve (7 Feb, 2004)
In an effort to reverse the growth of its dependence on foreign oil, China - a
huge oil producer and once an exporter - is establishing a 70-75-day strategic
petroleum reserve in four locations, and the first phase is scheduled to be
completed in 2007. By 2020, China is expected to import 60 percent of its oil.
Total price tag: at least US$725 million for the four locations, scheduled to be
completed by 2010 - maybe.
China is importing 2.4 million barrels per day this year (the US about 11 mb/d). To have a
meaningful reserve of some 60 days imports, like the US has, they would have to store 144
million barrels, quite a few tanker loads. How may old oil wells would you fill with this?
One just does not. You either use salt caverns to store reserves, like the US does or you
build tanks, as China will.
Manipulation:
- Just in time inventory is not manipulation of "speculators" but an economic decision of
the producer who uses this inventory
- Lack of refining capacity is not manipulation of "speculators" but an economic decision
of oil companies and investors.
- Instability is not an "excuse" its a fact. Did the risk on oil operation disruption increase
the last 2 years or did it fall?
It does not matter if US import countries are stable if there is unstability elsewhere. Nigeria
will be happy to sell to Italy if Italy is willing to pay $60/b because of trouble in Lybia and
the US only wants to pay $40/b.
Oil is a worldwide market working at economic rules. Now one may like to change that,
like the US in Iraq, but that is a different discussion.
so sorry when the syphlitic simians speak from the white house. their dementia is
deadening. literally & metaphorically.
you tell me, really if there is a qualitative difference between their maladorous ejaculations
& those within the elites in the time of nazi germany
in the same way that the dwarf goebbels could cry for total war without ever having to pay
the cost (&in his case suicide constituted yet another vanity), in the same way that speer
could speak highly of his work in war production hid the reality of slave workers dying in
their tens of thousand in the worst way imaginable, in the way that the 'intellectual'
rosenberg could speak of the 'east', the prfessor, the lawyers, the diplomats the doctors
within that elite were allowed to articulate their niezschean hatred of the herd
& so too today, the neoconservatives are given free access in their hatred of the people & of
the state
& to remind that the opposite exists the judges falcone & borsellino - became the state were
the state in absence of the state - & you can read their utterances as a love for the people. a
love for the people for which they would die - while the ganster andreotti will die in his bed
gloating over his sins
so too bush & co. they gloat. gloat like unimaginable animals that appear in our nightmares.
animals that roam through the worst aspects of our character. in this life i think the great
majority of us struggle against this venality, this corruption of the soul & because we are
not buddha - we do not succeed but these monsters drown in their own corruption
& as each week passes it appears more hallucigenic -these nightmares that these criminals
force upon us
at this moment - i apologise - for any incoherence in my posts - but i'm running from one
side of the hyperglycemic to the other with increasing does of insulin - it is so early in the
treatment that i feel like i have lived physically like a warrior for fifty years & at the
moment i feel a little caged - even without the vertiginous side effects i'm feeling for the
insulin
but as i sd these criminals seem to embody actuellement the darker feeling i am
experiencing
still steel
oh koreyel
you are so correct
hearts do not come blacker than rumsfield
perhaps only the deranged progeny of jesus christ & j edgar hoover roy cohn & joseph
mccarthy - in the form has a blacker heart
& as we all know cheney has no heart at all
& bush a spawn of something or other & possesses no recogniasable human organs
still steel
Laura Rozen at warandpiece.com offers Richard Beeston's observations on Iraq (published
in The Spectator):
So why is it that the snuff movies, which are being deliberately distributed by the killers,
are being snapped up in their thousands on DVDs across Iraq? A year ago Iraqis liked
nothing better than buying illicit pornography or video footage of Saddam Hussein's
henchmen torturing and killing their victims. It was assumed that this lurid fascination
would wear off now that, after 40 years of state television, Iraqis have access to 24-hour
satellite television.
But no, something more disturbing is at work here. In the latest video to hit the streets an
Egyptian man, accused of spying for the Americans, is paraded before a camera and has his
head severed in a matter of seconds by a powerfully built executioner. Before the murder
the video shows footage filmed from the camera of an American warplane that fires a
missile into a crowded street; and then pictures of Iraqi civilian victims of the fighting.
The unmistakable message, sent by the fanatical Tawhid wal Jihad (Unity and Holy War)
group, is clear. All non-Muslims and even their Muslim collaborators deserve to be
executed in the most brutal manner conceivable as punishment for occupying Iraq. A year
ago most Iraqis would dismiss these actions as the work of fanatics bent on plunging the
country into civil war. After all, the same group is responsible for blowing up the United
Nations building a year ago and killing scores of Shia Muslims during their pilgrimage
earlier this year in an attempt to spark sectarian strife.
Worryingly the group, led by Abu Musab al-Zarkawi, a Jordanian with links to al-Qa'eda,
is no longer a fringe movement but is finding a receptive audience for its message. This
month, when heavy fighting erupted on Haifa Street -- a main artery through central
Baghdad where the old British embassy is located -- the group's distinctive black flag with
a yellow circle suddenly sprang up on balconies and lampposts throughout the
neighbourhood. Where once the group was accused of being a front for foreign fighters
from Syria and Saudi Arabia,
now it is clear that Iraqis too are joining the call, or at least adopting the same tactics.
Beheadings and executions of Nepalese contract workers, Turkish truck drivers, American
civilians and ordinary Iraqis accused of collaborating with the Americans are now
commonplace. The lucky ones are shot, but many turn up with their severed heads bound to
their bodies.
The brutality of this struggle, which seems likely to intensify as the date approaches for the
first elections in January, completely dominates working life. Correspondents no longer
bother writing about the failure of reconstruction, electricity cuts or even attacks on
American troops. There is no reconstruction to speak of and the chronic crime, grinding
traffic and other grim aspects of life go largely unnoticed. A colleague came within a
second of being blown to pieces by a roadside bomb detonated in front of his car on a
major motorway in the city earlier this week.
The incident was simply another delay to his journey and he did not even bother writing
about it. Although several Americans and Iraqis were injured in the blast, it no longer
makes news. The car bombs, which explode almost daily and have killed more than 100
Iraqis in the past week, are barely worth a mention unless the death toll climbs into double
figures.
Today, living in Baghdad is a simple fight for survival, particularly for the small band of
Westerners who still inhabit the city alongside the Iraqi residents. In a year the response to
a foreign face in Baghdad has evolved from a smiling "hello, Mister", to a sulky stare and
the odd obscene gesture, to today's look of disbelief or even open hostility.
A Westerner walking the street in Baghdad today is a conversation-stopper...
@dc
Of course oil companies do use the surge in crude prices to increase their profits. The
quarterly profit announcements of oil companies in the next three weeks will be gigantic.
But to be able to manipulate the crude oil market into much higher prices one would need a
monopoly or cartel (Enron in California) on a world wide basis. I doubt there is one on the
oil world market except OPEC which is believed to be at maximum capacity right now.
The US gas, heating oil and natural gas markets can be sometimes manipulated into higher
prices with the excuse of higher crude prices. But at some price point "arbitrage" sets in and
some entrepreneur will import gas from Europe or elsewhere and sell it for a cent less
breaking thereby the cartel.
California is a problem in itself. They set gas standards that requires gas only two or three
refineries are able to produce, giving themself into the hand of cartels and manipulation.
@Pat
If Beestons is right, I donÂ´t doubt him, as a side effect we will soon have no reliable
reporting from Iraq anymore. Qui bono?
I am afraid these snuff movies of beheadings will create a wave of follow ups in the
western world in future years. They are distributed now on ogrish.com with huge download
numbers and no, you donÂ´t really want to watch them.
ItÂ´s all getting worse and will get much more worse than we think today.
The US did dig itself into a hole in Iraq and now it starts digging faster to come out.
The third round of US occupation troops, OIF-3, will go into Iraq "heavy" in the next two
month or so. "Heavy" means with their battle tanks and artillery which were mostly left at
home by OIF-2. This will increase civil casualties and other costs by a magnitude.
This winter Iraq will see rationated heating kerosine, lack of food with probable famines in
some places and serious desease waves with some thousands children dying. All will be
underreported because nobody will dare to use a camera anymore.
b,
Come'on, you have much more faith in the so called free market than I do. And yes, storage
does take place in salt mines such as the natural gas in Michigan mines where I live.
You really need to throw your college professors bullshit out the window. It's business and
politics. Economics has nothing to do with the current market munipulation. The oil
companies are pure monopolies and thats a fact. During the eighties and nineties only the
big boys survived.
Just in time inventory is munipulation because it's easy to create false supply disruptions.
Thus allowing speculators to bid up the commodities market. Thus creating windfall
profits.
Lack of refinery capacity does the same as above.
Instabilty is another fallacy in that Iraq's oil has been replaced on the world market by other
sources for years. Contracts are paid for oil and natural gas sometimes years in advance.
Commodities traders merely bet what it will sell for 3-6 months from now. A natural gas
supplier may have bought gas for 30 cents per CCF a year ago. But if a public service
commission lets the company, they could sell it for 90 cents.
There have been concious business decisions to munipulate gas and oil prices, and politics
has let it happen. It is nothing to do with the free market. We are back to a Standard Oil
world. Praise the new Guilded Age. We are in a political economy, not a market economy.
Zarqawiâ€™s Palestinian No. 2 Dies in US Targeted Assassination
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report
September 25, 2004, 6:54 PM (GMT+02:00)
US eliminates high value Zarqawi operative, Palestinian Omar Yusef Jumaà aka Abu
Anas, in Baghdad
On Thursday, September 23, US forces resorted to targeted assassination to dispose of Abu
Anas al-Shami, a senior aide of the Jordanian al Qaeda mastermind, Abu Musab
al-Zarqawi, in Baghdad.
His real identity, we reveal here, was Omar Yusef Jumaâ€™a, a Palestinian terrorist
operations expert from the West Bank town of Tulkarm. DEBKAfileâ€™s counter-terror
sources report that al-Shami was killed by an American missile in Baghdadâ€™s Shiite
slum district, Sadr City. However, the American military in Iraq is more sparing than Israeli
forces with the specifics of a targeted assassination, and it is not clear if the missile was
fired from a helicopter, a drone or one of the US special force units which patrol and mount
ambushes in Baghdad, Fallujah and other insurgent hotbed towns.
No one knows exactly how many lieutenants Zarqawi has, probably 4 or five. But locating
and killing a high-profile member of Zarqawiâ€™s organization a few days after the
capture of another top Zarqawi aide, known as Omar Baziyani (an alias), is a considerable
American feat in its relentless offensive against the group behind the deadly suicide
bombings and hostage-taking atrocities afflicting Iraq.
[A considerable feat. A relentless offensive. U-huh, you bet. Who demanded the op AFTER
two American beheadings made their way onto the front page? Gee, could it be that
worthless SOB Rumsfeld? Or was it Bush himself this time? Whichever. I've said it before
and I'll say it again: This administration, with its comical-tragic likeness to the al Sauds,
will respond to headlines and little else. Responding to headlines means you're a day late
getting off your ass, but what do Bush and Rumsfeld care? It's not their heads coming off,
after all.]
@jdp - thanks for discussion!
On oil price I would like to give the mic to our inhouse expert JÃ©rÃ´me
Oil is quite unusual in that it is a vital commodity for everybody (economies
would grind to a halt without it), with limited demand elasticity (i.e. demand
will not vary much with price) and a very efficient worldwide market. There
is a single worldwide price (or at least equivalent netbacks taking into
account transportation costs) and a fully liquid and solvent market which
ensures that if you have oil, you will find a buyer - with the money to pay
for it. This means that no one (except for very specific cases, for instance a
pipeline leading to a single refinery, which will have some buying power) can
set its conditions on the buying side.
Instabilty is another fallacy in that Iraq's oil has been replaced on the world market by
other sources for years.
In its majority it didnÂ´t need to be replaced. The Council of Foreign Relations says
Where did Iraq sell its oil before the 2003 war?
Domestic consumption amounted to about 300,000 barrels per day. About 1.1
million barrels per day were sold through the oil-for-food program. The
restâ€”about 400,000 barrels, according to industry estimatesâ€”was smuggled
out through Jordan, Syria, Iran, and Turkey in violation of U.N. sanctions.
We are in a political economy, not a market economy.
That hasnÂ´t changed for some thousand years :-).
perhaps only the deranged progeny of jesus christ & j edgar hoover roy cohn & joseph
mccarthy - in the form has a blacker heart - john ascroft
7 Iraqi Guard Applicants, 4 U.S. Marines and a Soldier Are Killed
The 9 killed and 16 wounded civilians bombed by the US in Fallujah didnÂ´t make the
headline but the third paragraph has them.
& the criminal conspiacy continues
the body count will mount infinitely
& the criminals will dine out in washington with their clients footting the bill & they will
laugh amongst themselves how they have swallowed the people whole
& as in the fifties all they have to do is offer them forms of information & entertainement
that empty the human soul
& rupert will be there laughing at them undertstanding that human affairs are not
shakespearean & so he wasted all that time at oxford - he understands in his dotage that
political leaders are created of cruder stuff & that it is within his power to make it cruder &
he will
`
& they wander in & out of discussions that are not worth having while the people bleed in
iraq, while the people bleed as the prick rrumsfield so rightly points out on the streets of
america & so he will give his pals in the n r a the right to semiautomatic weapons so they
that they can fill the streets with them
as in their genocide of african americans - wiping out future leaders from that community
& they will dream of their consulting jobs at the end & their invitations to cnn to speak
pompously of those that bleed
oh fuck them
fuck them all
still steel
@b
So OIF3's going heavy and six months early. Someone's not reading their rosy RNC talking
points. Armor and arty is good for one thing only in situations like this: maintaining your
perimeter.
Coverage of news in Iraq has been thin for quite some time now. The way it was working
until April or so: Newsroom editors back in the States fashion a headline and fly a reporter
out for 72 hours or a week to some secure area to put together a story to back the headline.
Whatever doesn't back the headline doesn't make the story. But thin reporting has grown
appreciably thinner due to ever-shrinking secure zones and this can have the ironic effect of
misleading the public into thinking that Iraq is something other than a place going to hell in
a hurry.
@Pat - not really 6 month early - some parts of OIF-3 are already in Iraq. Expect some
troops going in earlier than planed for the announced November attacks on Fallujah,
Ramadi etc. and the "elections" in January. Some on tour now, especially the Marines, will
have it prolonged. That will create an overlap of coming and going troops that puts maybe
200.000 pair of boots on the ground to stomp around. Not enough - when Shinkesi talked of
"several 100,000" needed he didnÂ´t mean 200,000. With the infested guerilla 500,000
could probably get an upperhand.
GlobalSecurity
As part of the rotation, OIF units will be deploying 'heavy'.
...
An article in the Wall Street Journal published on Sept. 24, reported that the
Pentagon was planning on a temporary increase in the number of US troops in
Iraq ..
...
Gen. John P. Abizaid, CENTCOM, was quoted as telling reporters on Sept.
24, 2004, that more forces were expected to be needed for Iraq , in anticipation
of coming elections there,...Such [contingency] planning would be partly
contingent on the strategy to be adopted in offensive operations to be
conducted in the Sunni Triangle, and would likely rely on extending the tours
of unit already deployed in country.
...
On Sept 23, 2004, DoD announced the death of a soldier from the 2nd
Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment in Iraq. The deployment of that unit had not
been previously noted.
There are already more troops in Iraq than the 140,000 that are officially mentioned. Also
you do have to count the 30,000 GIs in Kuweit who are essentially the supply chain for OIF
as is the air force in Incirlik and the Navy in the Gulf. The generals know that this is
insufficient as well as unsustainable.
From tomorrows WaPo: Poverty Up as Welfare Enrollment Declines
Though the number of welfare recipients continues to decline, poverty rates -particularly for single mothers and children -- have surged in recent years. Just
last month, the government reported that the number of people on welfare had
declined by 149,000 at the end of 2003 compared with 2002, while the number
in poverty rose by 1.3 million.
...
In Taylor's case, she was getting by on about $217 a month in child support
and $274 in food stamps.
Bernhard, I want you and jdp to be nice to each other now. You are both right IMO, at least
on some points. I don't claim to know the ins and outs of market and political economies
but we have to admit that we have a weird mixture of both here.
The Fat Boys are manipulators, and whenever and however they can, they will manipulate.
It has become easier to do this lately with the ballooning Orwellian public stance (war is
peace, lies are the truth) and it looks to me like we have to face the fact that things are not
necessarily as you were taught in school.
Secret agreements are made among those who should be seen as competitors, in trade, govt,
war, etc. These deals are not intended to be seen or understood by observers.
Posted by: rapt | September 25, 2004 04:52 PM
@Pat...Thanks for pointing out that armor and arty are being brought in to secure the
perimeter. WTF endgame do these assholes have in mind I wonder.
A strange melancholy pervades me to which I hesitate to give the grave and
beautiful name of sorrow. The idea of sorrow has always appealed to me, but
now I am almost ashamed of its complete egoism. I have known boredom,
regret, and occasionally remorse, but never sorrow. Today it envelops me like
a silken web, enervating and soft, and sets me apart from everybody else.
Bonjour Tristesse
French literary icon Sagan dies
Today the captain is sober
thx uncle - a realy good one.
@ Clueless Joe
" The logic would say that these people are ripe for the communist party...."
Robert Franks "What's the Matter with Kansas", would put this interesting twist to you're
statement;
In some ways, the backlash (the new fundamentalist right) vision of the world is nothing
more than an old fasioned leftist vision of the world with the economics drained out. Where
the muckrakers of old faulted capitalism for botching this institution and that, the backlash
thinkers simply change the script to blame liberalism..........
Even the rhetoric of the backlash, with all its regular- guy florishes, sometimes appears to
have been lifted whole cloth from the prolatarian thirties. The idea that average people are
helpless pawns caught in a machine run by the elite comes straight from the vulgar-Marxist
copybook, which taught generations of party members that they inhabited a deterministic
world where agency was reserved for capitalists -- or, more precisely, for capital itself. Or
consider the set of accusations against the liberal elite having to do with their unmanliness,
their effeteness, their love of all things French -- all of which we heard so much about
during the run up to the recent war with Iraq. The old - left lineage of this particular
backlash stereotype is undeniable. Here Mike Gould, the two fisted literary critic for the
Daily Worker, waging cultural war on the religious pretenses of the novelist Thorton
Wilder:
It is that newly fashonable literary religion that centers around Jesus Christ, the first British
Gentelman. It is a pastel, pastiche, dilettante religion, without the true neurotic blood and
fire, a daydream of homosexual figures in graceful gowns moving archaically among the
lilies. It is Anglo - Catholicism, that last refuge of the American literary snob.
Toss in references to the novelist's "devitalized air", his "rootless cosmpolitanism", his
familiarity with a discreet "French Drawingroom", and presto: you,ve got the latte liberal.
The Bobos. The establishment. The blue - state elite. The difference, of course is that Gold
attributed these characteristics to the lazy, denatured rich. Aldrich, Brooks, Coulter,
Limbaugh,and the rest simply turn the stereotype on liberals.
@Uncle$
have been following your tracks, just have'nt caught up enough to comment -- keep a goin'
Well, I've been corrected. I was looking at OIF as a Marine/Infantry operation, which it had
indeed become and in which armor and arty do primarily secure your perimeter. But that
isn't the idea here. The idea is to use armor as spearheads within cities, where air can't reach
and where boots on the ground are extremely vulnerable. They discovered in Najaf that an
Abrams is the best weapon/vehicle for the job. Come to think of it, the IDF came to rely on
armor for the same purpose in similar circumstances, though their main battle tank also
serves as an infantry transport. And remember Les Aspin turning down, much to his later
shame, the request for tanks in Mogadishu? The Black Hawks and Bradleys weren't cutting
it, and too many guys were exposed to fire. It's really a revalidation of tanks (and a discount
of air primacy) in operations recently thought unsuitable for them. Gotta make the tankers
happy, that. And sure as hell beats being dismounted or sitting in a Humvee or stuck in a
Bradley disabled by an RPG.
So I guess we're looking at a November/December offensive.
From IntelDump:
Saturday, September 25, 2004
Al Qaeda 4.0?
Sunday's Los Angeles Times has an outstanding article on the evolution of Al Qaeda since
Sept. 11 â€” to borrow Peter Bergen's typology, its upgrade from the organization that hit
us to Al Qaeda 4.0. By and large, the terror organization has evolved in response to U.S.
actions out of a desire to survive and perpetuate its ideology and mission. The result is a
network which is far more dispersed, loosely connected, and survivable than the one in
Sept. 2001 â€” and one which will probably be harder for us to dismantle.
"Even before the Sept. 11 attacks, Al Qaeda was a loosely organized network, but core
leaders exercised considerable control over its operations. Since the loss of its base in
Afghanistan and many of those leaders, the organization has dispersed its operatives and
reemerged as a lethal ideological movement.
"Osama bin Laden might now serve more as an inspirational figure than a CEO, and the
war in Iraq is helping focus militants' anger, according to dozens of interviews in recent
weeks on several continents. European and moderate Islamic countries have become
targets. And instead of undergoing lengthy training at camps in Afghanistan, recruits have
been quickly indoctrinated at home and deployed on attacks.
"The United States remains a target, but counter-terrorism officials and experts are alarmed
by Al Qaeda's switch from spectacular attacks that require years of planning to smaller,
more numerous strikes on softer targets that can be carried out swiftly with little money or
outside help.
"The impact of these smaller attacks can be enormous. Bombings in Casablanca in May
2003 shook Morocco's budding democracy, leading to mass arrests and claims of abuse.
The bombing of four commuter trains in Madrid in March contributed to the ouster of
Spain's government and the withdrawal of its troops from Iraq.
"Officials say the terrorist movement has benefited from the rapid spread of radical Islam's
message among potential recruits worldwide who are motivated by Al Qaeda's
anti-Western doctrine, the continuing Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the insurgency in Iraq.
"The Iraq war, which President Bush says is necessary to build a safer world, has emerged
as a new front in the battle against terrorism and a rallying point for a seemingly endless
supply of young extremists willing to die wherever they wage jihad, or holy war.
"Intelligence and counter-terrorism officials said Iraq also was replacing Afghanistan and
the Russian republic of Chechnya as the premier location for on-the-job training for the
next phase of violence against the West and Arab regimes.
"'In Iraq, a problem has been created that didn't exist there before,' said Judge Jean-Louis
Bruguiere of France, dean of Europe's anti-terrorism investigators. 'The events in Iraq have
had a profound impact on the entirety of the jihad movement.'"
Political Analysis: If the Democrats could exploit this, it could have profound implications
for the 2004 election. The most fundamental question is this: Has the Bush administration
made us more or less secure since Sept 11? A subsidiary question is: Has the war in Iraq
made us more likely, as likely, or less likely to be attacked by terrorists? To win in
November, the Democrats must turn this election into a referendum on the Bush White
House's national security policies â€” on everything from the war against Al Qaeda to the
war in Iraq and the bumbling efforts of the Department of Homeland Security. It must do so
with simple messages like this â€” the rhetorical equivalent of the old refrain about whether
you're better off today than you are four year ago. And the Democrats must find a way to
communicate points made in articles like this â€” that in fact, America may be less secure
today because of its missteps in the war on terrorism. And when you screw up as badly as
this administration has screwed up on so many fronts, you simply don't get to keep your
job. That's something that the average American can wrap his or her head around, and I
think it's the way the Dems need to package their pitch to win in November.
Why isn't the Kerry team doing this? Who knows. Perhaps it's his penchant for nuance,
honed during years of elite schooling and years in the Senate. Perhaps it's the desire to
leave wiggle room for policies after the election, should he be elected. Perhaps it's that
these issues really are complicated, and it's hard to simplify them into terms that are black
and white. Nonetheless, the Kerry team must realize two things. (1) Politics is the art of the
possible â€” if you don't win the election, nothing is possible. (2) The Bush White House is
extremely good at simplifying (perhaps oversimplifying) these things for the public into
matters of right/wrong and good/evil. Nuance simply won't cut it in response to these
positions.
Technology Transfers:
It seems that the US has acquired one of Israel's most effective weapons- Magic ordnance
that instantly turns anyone killed by it into terrorists. Other countries are desperate to
develop similar devices. Putin's Russia appears closest.
My suspicion is that it is a binary weapon consisting of high explosives and inert half
containing facile press and docile public.
@B:
Bonjour Tristesse:
Always suspected you were a lacrymose closet Frog.
@Rapt:
Thanks for pointing out that armor and arty are being brought in to secure the perimeter.
WTF endgame do these assholes have in mind I wonder.
Must be "the New,New Thing" that Rummy and Wolfie just dreamed up on the spur of the
moment.
These guys are true genuises, I have no doubt.
@Pat:
Whole "corrected" post above. Seems like it's
12 months too late. But the approach is Army doctrine, and we haven't seen too much of
that in evidence in the last three years, have we, eh? From Tora Bora on forward.
rapt@4:52pm
Nice post.
Succinct and on point re: the FatBoys machinations.
Posted by: RossK | September 25, 2004 10:57 PM
@FlashHarry
My husband's biggest constant beef with the DoD leadership is the practice of eschewing
doctrine. We have it for a reason, he says in exasperation. Try it out sometime.
"From Tora Bora forward." Indeed.
When a strongman waivers "Musharraf was less enthusiastic in his support for the U.S. war in Iraq, saying the world is
less safe in the wake of the invasion......
.....Musharraf also said that because of the situation in Iraq, he does not foresee Pakistan
sending troops to help with the effort."
- Does he lose his favors?
At the UN President (Dictator General) Musharraf of Pakistan sounds a general alarm and
pledges for new priorities:
Too many fronts have been opened, too many battle lines drawn.
...
Justice must be offered to Islamic peoples in the form of resolution of all
outstanding international disputes which affect Muslims. There is no time to
lose. Action has to be taken before an iron curtain finally descends between
the West and the Islamic World.
...
The tragedy of Palestine is an open wound inflicted on the psyche of every
Muslim. It generates anger and resentment across the Islamic World.
...
The US can and must play the role of a just broker of peace. Peace must
succeed in the Middle East; failure ... is no more an option.
Frightening
Uncle $cam wrote:
Despite the signs all around of us of increasing repression, surveillance and control, there
is no way the system can sustain itself much longer.
Thanks for that, mon. Here's hoping you are correct.
I worry, however, that even without hi-tech surveillance we will still descend into fascism
the old-fashioned way, as people's fear ratchets ever upward in response to the massive
changes peak oil is wreaking even now-Posted by: thepuffin | September 26, 2004 10:58 AM
LA Times America the Conservative - Europe is in the 21st century, but we remain locked
in the 18th
Whether President Bush is reelected or Sen. John F. Kerry prevails, the United
States will be the most conservative developed nation in the world. Its
economy will remain the least regulated, its welfare state the smallest, its
military the strongest and its citizens the most religious.
...
It wasn't always so. At the start of the 20th century, the U.S. looked
progressive compared with Europe's empires. The big difference between the
U.S. and Europe is that the U.S. kept its 18th century Constitution, while most
European countries discarded theirs. In a wave of revolutions and
quasi-revolutionary general strikes, European countries, one by one, replaced
their older conservative constitutions with ones often designed by socialist or
labor leaders.
...
The sharp racial division that runs through American society makes it possible
to castigate poor people in a way that would be impossible in a homogeneous
nation like Sweden, where the poor look the same as everyone else.
...
Increased immigration to Europe is making those societies more
heterogeneous, and we have already seen opponents of social welfare, such as
Jean-Marie Le Pen in France, Joerg Haider in Austria and Pim Fortuyn in the
Netherlands, use inflammatory anti-immigrant rhetoric to discredit generous
welfare payments. We may like to believe that human beings are colorblind,
but the reality is that American diversity has always made redistribution less
popular here than in more ethnically and racially homogeneous places.
Re: What would a suitable memorial to the Iraq war look like?
I came across this Online Memorial. Not knowing what it was for, I googled a few names.
These are 9-11 victims.
Perchance--has this been done for the Iraq War dead?
Yes, but in a tacky way:
1,000 men and women
Obviously, the first site is bare bones honest, but lacks the links of the second.
The good idea: marry the best of both sites.
Sorry...tried to shortcut those links.
First one: Online 9/11 memorial
Second one: 1000 men and woman.
You will eventually want to mute your puter at the second site.
@b
re: Musharraf...
Agreed, really frightening.
Also, have to wonder....if the Cabal survives (or is resurrected by the JebCycle)...will the
Musher be the next villain?
The Long Hunt for Osama - Peter Bergen - October issue - The Atlantic via The Agonist
Where has he been? How did we ever let him get away? Our correspondent--one of the few
Western journalists ever to have met Osama bin Laden--traces the al-Qaeda leader's
footsteps in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and describes the sometimes hapless American
pursuit.
Take some time and read this article. This is an important article if you want to stay
informed, and Bergen is one of the most legit terrorism experts out there. jnh.
Very, very interesting article.
From Bergen's Atlantic Monthly article:
"The capture of Khalid Sheikh Muhammad, in March of 2003, was the most important
al-Qaeda arrest since 9/11. However, according to Syed Mohsin Naqvi, a Pakistani
journalist who interviewed Muhammad while he was on the run in August of 2002,
Muhammad claimed that others were ready to replace him in the event he was arrested. 'We
already have so many backups,' he said, 'that the Americans can't imagine.'
"Muhammad's arrest may have brought investigators tantalizingly close to bin Laden
himself. According to American sources, when Muhammad was arrested he may have been
tortured, a not uncommon technique of Pakistani law enforcement. That may explain why
he quickly volunteered that he had met with bin Laden in December of 2002. Although
Muhammad would not reveal where the meeting took place, it was probably in Pakistan."
If torture could make Muhammad volunteer that he had met with bin Laden in December of
2002, it would also make him volunteer where the meeting took place, who else was there,
etc.
What more likely happened is this: Muhammad was taken into Pak custody upon arrest. He
would have already known, and the Pakistanis would have taken the opportunity to vividly
emphasize, that brutality is a commonplace and torture is a convention to his Pak
custodians. The maximum amount of fear, stress, and anxiety would have, without torture,
been induced in a short period of time. When Muhammad showed sufficient sign of
distress, he would have been handed over to Americans, whom he would already know do
not operate according to the same rules as their Pakistani counterparts. Then he would have
faced a choice: Cooperate and stay in US custody, or decline to cooperate and return to the
custody of the Pakistanis. Disinformation and intermediate resistence would be
discouraged, in part, by pointing out that a fellow in his position could be tried and
executed as a war criminal by the US, or granted some leniency in the event that he proved
useful. These wouldn't be the only approaches, but they'd be part of the package. (That he
gave up any pertinent information at all shows that he hadn't adopted a fatalistic mindset
upon apprehension and in his early detention, a mindset for which their is no reversal. That
I find interesting.)
Bergen writes a good article, but it's dismaying to see, yet again, the fallacy of "productive"
torture crop up.
I just found this site and cannot believe that the "Whiskey Bar" commmunity still lives. I
was an avid reader back in the spring, until the comments section was shut down, and
there's nothing else like it out there. And... here you are!
So I have a piece to contribute to this thread. It's one I just discovered today, and I think it's
one of the most important things I've read about the Iraq war so far. It's from this month's
(Sept) Harper's Magazine Baghdad Year Zero, by Naomi Klein. It's about the economic
motivations for the war and the various measures taken by the administration, Bremer, and
the neocons to try and force shotgun privatization through in the aftermath of the war. Full
of all kinds of first-hand details that are so rare from Iraq. And it sheds a LOT of light on
why certain decisions evolved as they did.
I'd love to see a discussion on this article here.
Posted by: Bea | September 26, 2004 07:39 PM
Disinformation and intermediate resistence would be discouraged, in part, by pointing out
that a fellow in his position could be tried and executed as a war criminal by the US, or
granted some leniency in the event that he proved useful.
...And any dilly-dallying by KSM could be also be dissauded by the Rumsfeld- approved
regimen of mild torture and sexual humiliation of Qaeda suspects (even though Muhammad
is in some anonymous CIA prison). But you're right, the threat of torture-by-proxy from
Pakistan would be pretty scary for even the most zealous terrorist. KSM's information was
useful, but I don't think there were any immediate plots foiled. So the torture or threat of
torture was not only unlawful (and immoral), it was irrelevant. Unproductive indeed.
Bea:
I'm skeptical of Klein's thesis.
The fact that the boom never came and Iraq continues to tremble under
explosions of a very different sort should never be blamed on the absence of a
plan. Rather, the blame rests with the plan itself, and the extraordinarily
violent ideology upon which it is based.
But the reason for sacking the entire military was to facilitate de- Baathification, not to
deliver some shock therapy to the economy. Most of the economic changes he attempted
were rescinded before they could have the kind of shock effects on society that they had on
Russia. Bushco was both unable and unwilling to institute law and order in the country the absence of a plan - and the security situation got so bad that economic growth became
impossible. The story of the soap factory seems to support this; it suffered from American
neglect, despite imperial proclamations to privatize it.
But this part made me laugh out loud:
Getting nowhere, the workers offered the ministry a simple choice: increase
their paltry salaries or they would all join the armed resistance. They received
a substantial raise.
Iraq must be one of the few countries in the world were workers could make a threat like
this and not be jailed or massacred by death squads!
Hi flies.
Just popped by the old same place.
New sign up.
I'm guessing he was waylaid by pirates.
Still,
A positive sign,
If a little grim.
Posted by: sasando | September 26, 2004 10:47 PM
@Harrow
While I'm not sure I'd go along Naomi Kleins notion of how the Year Zero group gained
preference over the Allawi "pragmatists" -- that the Chalabi group was drivin by some
revenge, on his part, for his familys loss of assets back in the 58 revolution -- I found
Kleins general overview pretty compelling. It would also account (in my mind) for the
black hole mystery of why so little of the 18 billion reconstruction money was ever spent.
They really thought it (creating a free market utopia) would fix everything on it's own
accord???
One would think, if givin only a passing glance, that it would be self evident, givin the
history and the culture of Iraq that this Year Zero plan could not stand a chance in hell of
succeeding. I don't mean to digress but, Iraq was a socialist country whose population was
(is) tribal/clan by nature, a country where some 50% of marriages are between first cousins,
where kin-folk are'nt in the habit of moving away and out of touch, they stay put and stay
close to the clan as for protection, for commerce, not to mention that their collective
religion bounds them in that connection and compells them to protect and seek revenge for
any violation to that connection -- to think that these people, on release from their dictator,
would simply throw all that history and culture to the wind for some great unknown,
untried, and unfamiliar political/economic system is truely breathtaking in its ignorance.
Shutting Up Sibel Edmonds, Again
Andrew Buncombe has an update on the Sibel Edmonds story in today's Independent. A
group of family members of victims of 9/11 are taking legal action against banks and two
powerful Saudis that allegedly aided al-Qaeda. The family members' representation, the
law firm Motley-Rice, subpoenaed Edmonds but the Bush administration is attempting to
use the "state secrets privilege" to keep her from testifying.
It's my understanding that Ashcroft has already successfully used the state secrets privilege
to foil Edmonds attempt to acquire, via the Freedom of Information Act, the controversial
documents that she claims to have seen as an FBI translator. So the Justice Department's
action this time around will likely succeed.
It's interesting that two of the defendants in this case are members of the Saudi Royal
family. In Amy Goodman's interview with Edmonds, Edmonds made the following
statement regarding the Justice Departments' previous invocation of the state secrets
privilege:
[The Justice Department says] this privilege is very rare and is asserted to prevent certain
information from becoming public or hurting diplomatic relations and I would underline
this phrase 'diplomatic relations' several times.
Couldn't "hurting diplomatic relations" mean embarrassing two members of the Saudi
Royal family?
@Harrow
"KSM's information was useful, but I don't think there were any immediate plots foiled. So
the torture or threat of torture was not only unlawful (and immoral), it was irrelevant."
Harrow, neither you nor I know the extent or ultimate value of the information provided by
KSM. That aside, do you honestly believe that an interrogation, or any method of gaining
cooperation therein, that does not lead directly to foiling a plot is irrelevant?
It is neither unlawful nor immoral to suggest to a prisoner that he may be remanded to the
custody of an authority that has a legitimate claim to him, or to bring to his attention other
likely or potential consequences of his pre-capture and post-capture actions. It is neither
unlawful nor immoral to suggest to a prisoner that he may avoid remandment and/or other
possible consequences if certain conditions are met. In neither case is he directly threatened
with death or torture, which would indeed, by our standards, be unlawful and immoral.
Hey Uncle!
You've been on top of this SEdmonds thing from the beginning.
How about contacting Bernhard and writing us a top to bottom post so that we can have
everything in one place to refer to?
Posted by: RossK | September 27, 2004 02:29 AM
@ Harrow
Not sure I agree with your major point for dismissing Klein's thesis.
Specifically, if de-Baathification as a means to an ends itself was so important why did
re-Baathification occur with such gusto a scant few months later when required.
(thanks for posting Klein's piece Bea, we'd bashed it about a little a while back before it
came on line - John MacArthur's tight fisted that way with his stuff...and great to read you
again).
In the WaPo Jackson Diehl asks, "Will it be the West Bank or Lebanon?"
From Jenin To Fallujah?
Monday, September 27, 2004; Page A19
Two and a half years ago this week, the Israeli army launched an offensive against the
Palestinian towns of Jenin, Nablus, Ramallah and Bethlehem -- which, it said, had become
havens for extremist groups and suicide bombers who made daily life in Israel unbearable.
Images of flattened houses and civilian casualties soon filled the world's television screens:
Palestinian spokesmen claimed, falsely, that thousands were being massacred. U.N.
Secretary General Kofi Annan declared himself "appalled." President Bush publicly called
on Israel to withdraw "without delay." Some editorial writers -- such as this one -- argued
that the offensive would do more harm than good.
As Americans and Iraqis now debate what to do about insurgent-held Iraqi towns, it's worth
revisiting that Israeli campaign -- because what followed offers a counter to some of the
conventional wisdom. Yes, there are innumerable differences between the West Bank and
Iraq. And yet the salient point is that through the robust use of military force, Israel has
succeeded in reducing the level of violence it faces by more than 70 percent.[...]
At lewrockwell.com, Karen Kwiatowski informs us that the courageous Al Lorenz, a Civil
Affairs NCO in Iraq who recently wrote a column explaining why we cannot win there,
may be charged with an Article 134 violation.
Roadmap for the Prosecution
by Karen Kwiatkowski
Al Lorentz is a reserve Non-Commissioned Officer currently serving in Iraq. His blazingly
clear, succinct article on Iraq has raged over the wires since it was published on
LewRockwell.com.
Al, in his civilian life, was an active member of the Constitution Party in the great state of
Texas. He worked on a ranch, served in the reserves, and when activated, deployed to Iraq.
He has something in common with our own President George W. Bush, who was also
active in a political party in Texas, worked on a ranch, and did some time in the National
Guard. Of course, President Bush hasnâ€™t served in Iraq.
Al and George might have a lot to talk about.
Al penned a factual personal assessment of what is happening in Iraq. He revealed no
classified information. Far more detail on Iraq challenges has long been provided by
respected retired military officers like Marine General Tony Zinni and former Director of
the National Security Agency William Odom. Al wrote nothing more damning than what
has already been published and released in part by the Central Intelligence Agency
regarding conditions and future possibilities in Iraq.
So what is the problem?
The problem is that Al Lorentz, "Big Al" to his friends, has something that the Bush
administration needs badly.[...]
The Guardian A European superstate is inevitable
The world's largest economy with a stable common currency and a successful
single market is ... bound to pursue policies that conflict with the interests of
the US.
That makes the two "superpowers" competitors but not enemies. It also means
that "core Europe" - the Franco-German alliance which Britain should join and
make into a troika - is certain to lead the way towards distinctive defence and
foreign policies. Only people who share the Bush belief that America has a
divine right to global supremacy can complain about that.
From TNR:
General John Abizaid, the regional commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East and South
Asia, [appeared yesterday] on "Meet The Press." Abizaid cleared his throat by admitting,
"it is hard," before proceeding to belittle the intelligence of the American people:
"So the constant drumbeat in Washington of a war that is being lost, that can't be won, of a
resistance that is out of control, simply do not square with the facts on the ground. ...
[R]emember that the enemy wants to break our will. They are experts at manipulating the
media. They have yet to win a single military engagement in that country. They have yet to
win a single military engagement against the forces of the new Iraqi armed forces that are
standing up."
Where to begin? Abizaid, who graduated from West Point during the last year of American
troop commitments in Vietnam, knows full well that an insurgency doesn't need to win
direct military engagements to win a war. It needs to win the sympathies and
self-preservation instincts of beleaguered populations, and that's exactly what it is doing in
Anbar province, Sadr City and numerous other regions of the country outside of
government control. Furthermore, to say that the insurgents didn't win military
engagements against Iraqi security forces is to ignore the desertions and defections of
April, as well as the anecdotal reports of desertions in Najaf in August, which are
buttressed in credibility by Iyad Allawi's refusal to release the figures on how many police,
soldiers and national guardsmen are actually fighting for the interim government.
Finally, Abizaid is coming very close to saying that independent journalism depicting the
chaos of Iraq is serving the purposes of the insurgents, who are "experts at manipulating the
media." Echoing a constant stump-speech refrain of the president's ("They're trying to
break our will"), Abizaid is telling the public that bad news is functionally indistinguishable
from enemy propaganda, which implies that the only reliable information is official
information.
Gott mit uns!
Onward Christian Soldiers...
For King God and Justice...
In the next few months you will likely hear quite a bit about Iranian nuclear ambition. You
will hear about the Iranian nuclear facilities at Arak and Natanz that Warblogging wrote
about in December of last year. You will hear a lot about Iranian efforts to influence Iraqi
politics. You will hear a lot about Iranian sponsorship of terrorism, including allegations
that Iran in some way supports al-Qaeda. You will hear ever more along these lines.
Those are exactly the noises we are hearing now from BushCo. The only impediments to
that action right now are the Nov 2 election and the fact that our troops are over engaged in
the hopeless "pacification" effort in Iraq. If BushCo wins, disemberment would be a very
logical step, both freeing the resources and increasing the "justification, for action against
Tehran. Do you feel that Draft?
Israel has succeeded in reducing the level of violence it faces by more than 70
percent.[...]
Two questions about this statement? Where does he get the data to support this, and does
this supposed reduction come only from robust military force or is the Apartheid Wall also
a factor?
Yeah I suppose we can kill them all, it will take a bit longer and few more of our folks will
get whacked as well but I guess that is the only path available, right? Then after millions
have died we can retreat in disgrace and go about getting on with our lives.
I hope someone is enjoying all this.
@Dan of Steele
Diehl goes on to compare the numbers of terror victims (killed) within Israel from 2002,
'03, '04. If you recall just how bloody 2002 was, then you can appreciate, even without
exact numbers at your immediate disposal, how comparatively quiet it is now.
I do not know the extent to which the wall has contributed to the drop-off in major terror
incidents - and I don't know how much of the wall has been completed to date - but you can
hunt around for analyses.
@B:
Two links follow, which could be used for a thread topic:
Hoar and Klass on Iraq
Iraq Endgame
Both well worth reading real carefully.
Posted by: Walter Crankcase | September 27, 2004 09:00 AM
Now For Something Completely Different!
Danse Macabre
Or A DAY IN THE LIFE OF BRAVO COMPANY
Or 11B Meets 92M
Posted by: Walter Crankcase | September 27, 2004 09:16 AM
@Dan of Steel et al.
Haaretz: Victors beware
as long as Israel does not eliminate the reason for the Palestinian revolt, the reality will
defy its declaration of victory.
Anna & Ross:
I guess I don't dismiss Naomi Klein's theory entirely, but in my opinion the economic
utopianism was a secondary motivation. As for the reBaathification and inability in spending the aid money, I always assumed that was because
the security situation had gotten so god-awful. But my opinion isn't set in stone - I've heard
claims that part of the reason
for the delay in aid is to give the US more leverage over the elected Iraqi government. I'm
sure movements towards free market reforms would
"clear the bureaucratic backlogs" or whatever. (Come to think of it, I likely read that first
on the Whiskey Bar!)
Pat:
You're quite right, and I was wrong: an interrogation that does not defeat an imminent plot
is hardly useless. Nor do I disagree with your conclusions, except to note that your scenario
in the original post
may be too optimistic, given what we know about treatment of al-Qaeda
suspects in Gitmo. Of course, threatening torture by Pak police and the actual application of
it by CIA interrogators might go together just fine.
@ remembereringgiap
Willy Reich indeed..the EMOTIONAL PLAGUE that Dr Wilhelm Reich spoke of
warningly in the 1930's, the same plague that swept across Europe and became the scourge
that we called fascism or nazism.Ithas now jumped the pond and it's host is aMerica
(Bushspeak).
Hitler is said to be a genius of politics. That alone should tell us what politics really is. Wilhelm Reich, "Mass Psychology of Fascism", 1933
Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which properly concern
them.
--Paul Valery-Which would seem to explain a lot about the strategy our 'conservatives' are employing.
And our place is to enlighten ourselves and then others till we realize how much these
affairs really are our business. Skillfully and patiently.
Affection and best wishes to Billmon getting his patience back.
threatening torture by Pak police and the actual application of it by CIA interrogators might
go together just fine.
Interrogators, CIA or otherwise, don't actually engage in physical contact with a prisoner.
Or, if there is physical contact, it's very, very minimal. (I don't deny rule-breaking, but only
point out how it generally, and with good reason, works.) The prisoner must see the
interrogator as the person in charge - that is, as the person who can intervene on his behalf
to bring to a halt any undesirable treatment.
Not for nothing were the worst direct offenders at Abu Ghraib MPs. Not because they're by
nature more brutal - they're not - but because their professional role and work mentality is
very different from that of an interrogator. They subdue.
Usually if an interrogator is implicated in prisoner abuse it's because he/she made unlawful
requests of the prisoner's guards/captors, not because he/she abused the prisoner
himself/herself.
Just thought I'd clarify.
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« Where Are We? | Main | Tom is Happy to Help »
Moon of Alabama: Where Are We?
And
must
have
whiskey
Oh, you
know
why
« The New Security Doctrine | Main | Open W. Thread »
September 24, 2004
Where Are We?
... a film recommendation by anna missed
The recent documentary film Where Are We? is now on DVD. Co-directed by Oscar
recipients Jeffery Friedman and Rob Epstein, the film, on the surface is a sort of
â€œroadâ€• movie, where the pair set out on an eighteen day tour of the South and the
Southwest interviewing the common people they meet without any apparent judgment.
Under the surface, as the film unfolds, there is a curious blurring of boundaries on what is
normal, what is bizarre, and what collectively might be thought of as a culture gone stark
raving mad, incapable of meaningful reflection, or direction. The common character of all
the people interviewed, as even their own words belie their own condition, is one of being
adrift in a sea of banality, anchored only by religion or patriotism.
If Fahrenheit 9-11 documented the method and consequences of unrestrained American
power, this film, in its own little way documents the amorphous cultural sediments that
enable that power.
This is a beautiful, ethereal, and terrifying look at America that recalls the â€œnormalâ€•
torment evidenced in the photographs of Diane Arbus.
Comments
Arbus:
Boy with a Straw Hat waiting to march in a pro-war parade
Thanks for the review. I have heard nothing of this film, but will see if I can find it. Sad to
say that that one of the primary venues in my area that might have shown something like
that just closed last night...Visions Cinema and Bistro in Washington, D.C. I will really
miss that place.
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2004/09/where_are_we.html (1 von 2) [16.11.2004 18:27:58]
Moon of Alabama: Where Are We?
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Moon of Alabama: The New Security Doctrine
And
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Oh, you
know
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« Banana Republic Insult | Main | Where Are We? »
September 23, 2004
The New Security Doctrine
This part of Bush's speech at the United Nation General Assembly needs to be thought
about:
In this young century, our world needs a new definition of security. Our
security is not merely found in spheres of influence, or some balance of power.
The security of our world is found in the advancing rights of mankind.
Paul Krugman says "He doesn't really believe that." because Bush doesnÂ´t live up to the
claim when he supports Russias Putin. Other see reason to be concerned.
In a letter to the NYT Editor Benjamin Solomon explains:
In the context of recent history, many will interpret this to mean the United
States' leading a group of countries to bring a version of freedom to the
designated country in accord with American interests and aims.
Such a policy would also signify a marked change in the United Nations
Charter and the prospect of unending war.
For the American body politic, such a policy declares that the conceptual
position with which the administration now defends the Iraq war will be
permanently central to America's role in the world.
Most people in this world will not agree to have their "rights of mankind" "advanced" to the
fundamentalistic faith based George Warmonger Bush version. Those who do not have the
gift of basic rights today for sure would like to have it. But what price are they willing to
pay?
Unlike during the last ideologic world struggle, the Cold War, this doctrine leaves the US
without an ideologic coalition. Has any other country a vision of advancing rights of
mankind that is compatible with Bush'? I hope not, but the power of the United States may
be big enough to intermediatly press others into this framework.
Comments
http://amsam.org/
Most honest observers would rate the Progressive movement's impact on public affairs as
"insignificant". Such judgments shouldn't come as a shock. After all, what is a
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2004/09/bushs_new_secur.html (1 von 4) [16.11.2004 18:28:00]
"progressive"? I'd imagine the dozens of answers to that question would be as diverse as the
multitude of factions that call themselves "progressive." In fact, I'd say that Progressivism
is not a movement at all. Rather, it is a plurality of special interests and radical politics that
needed a word to replace "liberal". Adele Stevenson once remarked that a Liberal was "one
who had both feet firmly planted in the air."
The various sects of Progressivism -- which include New Deal Liberalism, Socialism,
environmentalism, pacifism and anarchism -- tend to keep their goals self-centered, static,
and uncompromising. This is a shame; if these sects could cooperate and support each
other, they might be able to revolutionize our government.
Most of the ideas forged by the progressive mind are forever exiled to highbrow books,
academia, and the local coffee shop debating society. Meanwhile, Conservatives find total
unity in their never ending quest for the dollar.
Conservative philosopher Russell Kirk once wrote that Conservatism is "the negation of
ideology". Indeed, what appears as conservative ideology to a progressive is actually the
conservative's "populist" bait for the voters. The conservative is not concerned with
abortion or gay marriage, rather the conservative is interested in using those issues to gain
votes. Indeed, as a general rule, stupid people are the easiest to control and reward. Thus,
the backward message of pro-Life, anti-gay, "pro-bombing the browns" gets Republicans
elected. Like moths to a porchlight, it draws the troves of racist weak-minded dolts to vote
polls. Meanwhile, the progressives are still debating the finer points of enviromental reform
at Joe's Java.
Once the conservatives are elected, than they usually proceed with their planned orgy-like
festivals of tax breaks and corporate handouts. Since they are good businessmen, they are
also sure to throw some table scraps to their base in the form of a judicial nominations or
proposed amendments. It keeps the dogs coming back.
It's a bleak reality for progressives. Our entire movement depends upon people being
intelligent and good hearted -- and look where its gotten us: A Democratic canidate who is
tanking, the prospect of the supreme court being controlled by rightwing ideologies, a
Republican congress, and a "war president". So, I've dropped the dream of "waking people
up". I've decided to cross over to the dark side.
Unless we Progressives can learn the "dark arts of Rove", we don't stand a chance. Its time
that we learn to pluck the strings of greed, vanity, and stupidity in the electorate. But don't
fret, we just have to change our message, not our ideals -- and god forbid one of us gets
elected, we could exercise our power in the way we always knew we would have: to
advance that which is true, just, and beautiful.
"In our age there is no such thing as 'keeping out of politics.' All issues are political issues,
and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred and schizophrenia."-George
Orwell
From an LAT OpEd today Democracy in Retrograde -The Iraq war has slowed calls for
reform in Iran.
Iranians in recent months have slowed their calls for reform, that they have
indicated that they want change from within and that they have quietly and
hesitantly submitted to the rule of a more monolithic conservative polity. For a
lot of people, both among the ordinary public and the elite, the level of
instability in Iraq is an unacceptable cost to pay for political reform.
I realize that I have been citing references involving Native Americans quite frequently,
and it might not resonate w/ everybody, but Jim Lobe's latest article, Human dignity, Crazy
Mike and Indian country
alerted me to a WSJ opinion piece from Robert Kaplan, Indian Country that really should
be contextualized against the events surrounding the museum dedication in DC this very
same week.
that was me above, of course...
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« Sovereign and Just Screw Up | Main | The New Security Doctrine »
September 23, 2004
Banana Republic Insult
In a recent comment barfly Fran points to one, two remarkable articles and opines with
regard to the US election:
"the rising of the Banana Republic"
With a respectful nod towards South American entities I strongly disagree.
If there are comparisons to the US election system these are to be found in places where the
US is supporting the implementation of democracy. There, like in the US, every effort is
made to make the elections outcome as effortless as possible.
Take a look at Afghanistan, where a distinguished ambassador is continuously consulting
with all presidential candidates. In an effort to make it easy to vote, he is tediously working
to shorten the ballot list, even if this involves incuring significant expenditures.
After the hourlong meeting last month, the ethnic Hazara warlord said in an
interview Tuesday, he wasn't satisfied with the rewards offered for quitting.
New meetings are said to be scheduled. To guarantee a high voter outcome, some 10.5
million of 9.5 million estimated eligible Afghan voters are registered by now. Efforts
continue to additionally register expatriates like Mr. Rahman.
"We are a bit confused about the candidates," said Saifur Rahman, 52, a
Jalozai[, Pakistan,] resident. "Nobody knows what their plans are for our
country."
But he insists he'll vote. "I'm an Afghan, and this is my right. I will use that
right."
Another good example for a decent election process may be found in Iraq. The voters there
will have to cast the ballot on party lists of candidates. To disburden the electorate and to
reduce the costs of ballot printing, the major parties are agreeing to form one "consensus
list". The voter's arduous decision process will significantly lighten as there will be one
simple circle on the ballot that may be marked. This entitles the Iraqi voter to exactly the
same extensive variety of policy choices the US voter is demanding and given.
The democratic legitimation of the next President of the US of A, Prime Minister of Iraq
and President of Afghanistan will be on comparable levels. To liken these with Banana
Republic standards is an insult.
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2004/09/banana_republic.html (1 von 5) [16.11.2004 18:28:03]
Comments
I am not going to waste my time comparing all banana republics. Itâ€™s obvious now that
Bush is going to win and it looks like Kerry has been chosen, I repeat chosen to loseâ€¦
Your country has been hijacked by Corporations and they choose Kerryâ€¦and to make
banana republic of USA. Itâ€™s much easier and they donâ€™t feel they need to waste
time playing democracy any moreâ€¦
I donâ€™t know why and how but I hope Australia will go its own wayâ€¦donâ€™t ask
about foundation for my hopeâ€¦there is noneâ€¦
i disagree w vbo
i believe the future is still ahead, and although bush may remain in power, it is possible that
he may not - so it is NOT obvious how things are going to turn out - in my opinion
may the creative forces of the universe stand beside us, and guide us, through the night with
the light from above (speaking metaphorically)
damn b, that is some stinging satire!
Well said and oh so true.
speaking of banana republics
bbc.com finally ough to accept
that is an annexe of newscorp/foxnews
their pomposity makes me sicker than i already am
basta
still steel
Posted by: remembereringgiap | September 23, 2004 11:20 AM
"To disburden the electorate and to reduce the costs of ballot printing, the major parties are
agreeing to form one "consensus list". The voter's arduous decision process will
significantly lighten as there will be one simple circle on the ballot that may be marked."
Wasn't it, more or less, what Stalin did to Eastern Europe in the late 1940s? Not that I
would compare Bush to Stalin; at least, the war was forced on Stalin.
It is amazing how Bush's platitudes endure the burden of reality. Maybe the master
platitude is 'Americans are good people' and every utterance by Bush, like 'advancing rights
of mankind' can only refer to this closed circle of self-referential fantasy; as if there is no
exoteric meaning outside of the meytonymic loop of 'all us good americans.'
Amazing because this shit works. The guy'll be reelected. Amazing.
It is amazing how Bush's platitudes endure the burden of reality. Maybe the master
platitude is 'Americans are good people' and every utterance by Bush, like 'advancing rights
of mankind' can only refer to this closed circle of self-referential fantasy; as if there is no
exoteric meaning outside of the meytonymic loop of 'all us good americans.'
Amazing because this shit works. The guy'll be reelected. Amazing.
What would happen if Kerry an Edward resign as candidates?
Would be possible to select another candidates?
There is not alternative?
The World is waiting.
Posted by: curious | September 23, 2004 05:30 PM
At my house we've been comparing the US to 3rd world countries for a couple of years
now. I know it's also out there on the Internet. First world countries take care of their own
before waging imperialistic coups all over the world. The US slips slowly in the stats to 3rd
world status. And we here are all feeling it because we are not Bush Pioneers.
A 'citizens' impeachment! Make the repugs in the House and Senate pay! On Nov.2
Impeach Bush and the whole damn lot of them.
Posted by: pb | September 23, 2004 07:59 PM
The US has the mark of a third world country because of foriegn election monitors.
Things aren't boding well for the US. China has now moved past the US as having greatest
amount of net investment, and a new headline says Europe is starting to outperform the US
in jobs.
The decline has started and and I bet the bottom comes fast.
mistah charley, I would like to share your believes and hopesâ€¦but unfortunately I
canâ€™t.
Donâ€™t really know whatâ€™s happening there in USA but here in Australia we can
hardly notice watching news that there is an opponent to Bush in this campaign at allâ€¦
I hear from some friends that live in USA and they all say that Kerry does not stand a
chance â€¦his campaign is benign like a mint tea and it really would take a lot more to beat
Bush!
Bernhard, lately you have an amazing turn out of great posts, sometimes it is hard to keep
up with your productivity - but thanks.
Well, so much for free elections?
Rumsfeld Suggests Limited Iraq Election
Wish I had more time to comment, but am at present extremely busy with work. However I
can't resist to copy this little gem from the daily kos.
Bush press conference:
Talk to the leader. I agree, I'm not the expert on how the Iraqi people think, because I live
in America where it's nice and safe and secure.
The Afghan national army is a part of the army.
By the way, it's the Afghan national army that went into Najaf and did the work there.
I've seen firsthand the tactics of these killers.
Isn't it great, they even using the Afghan army in Iraq to make free elections possible!!!
Hesiod is blogging again, mainly about the election. Here a tid-bid to wet your taste.
"Overthrown Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, who was arrested by US forces last December,
reportedly plans to run as a candidate in the Iraqi elections scheduled for January 2005.
Saddam's lawyer Giovanni di Stefano told Denmark's B.T. newspaper that Saddam decided
during one of their discussions that he would declare his candidacy for the elections.
Stefano said that there was no law that prevented Saddam from appearing on the ballot. He
added that Saddam hopes to regain his presidency and palaces via the democratic
process."
Isn't reality much more unbelievable than fiction?
counterspin
Then there is this cartoon, not really funny, but it summs this election up pretty well.
here
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« Open (War) Thread | Main | Banana Republic Insult »
September 22, 2004
Sovereign and Just Screw Up
Two female Iraqi scientist are in custody. They are said to have worked for Saddam's
weapon programs. A group that has killed two US hostages during the last days, and still
has one British hostage, has demanded all female prisoners to be freed. It is not known
whether they referred to these women. Today there were a couple of announcements on the
scientists future.
● Noori Abdul-Rahim Ibrahim, a spokesman for the Justice Ministry, said
[Rihab Rashid Taha] will be released soon and on bail (NYT)
● The Iraqi Justice Ministry said one of the two women in U.S. custody in
Iraq, Rihab Taha, could be freed later in the day. (Reuters)
● But the U.S. embassy said later that Taha and Huda Ammash, dubbed
"Dr Germ" and "Mrs Anthrax" respectively by U.S. forces, would not
be released soon. "The two women are in legal and physical custody of
the multinational forces in Iraq and neither will be released
imminently," a spokesman said. (Reuters)
● Kassim Daoud, the Iraqi national security adviser, said that the release
would be conditional and would not happen "today, tomorrow or the
day after tomorrow." He asserted that the woman, one of three prisoners
to be released, was now in the custody of the Iraqis, not the
Americans, and that "Iraqi judges decided to release them because they
didn't have any evidence." (NYT)
● Iraqi Minister of State Kassim Daoud told journalists in Baghdad that
the Iraqi judiciary had decided that there was not enough evidence to
justify the continued detention of the scientists - Rihab Rashid Taha and
Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash (BBC)
● Iraq's Justice Minister Malik al-Hassan told the BBC that he
supported the release of Dr Taha (BBC)
● The second woman, Dr Ammash, "may be released soon", the justice
ministry said. (BBC)
● At that time both British and US officials in Iraq claimed to have been
unaware of the decision. US military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel
Barry Johnson said he had no information about a release. (Guardian)
● The U.S. military says it has two Iraqi women in custody, both
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●
●
●
●
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high-profile security detainees held at an undisclosed location (AP)
Justice Ministry spokesman Noori Abdul-Rahim Ibrahim announced
that "Iraqi authorities have agreed with coalition forces to
conditionally release Rihab Rashid Taha on bail." (AP)
But soon afterward, a U.S. Embassy spokesman ruled out any
immediate release. The two female scientists from Saddam's regime "are
in our legal and physical custody. Legal status of these two and many
others is under constant review," (AP)
Following the embassy statement, Iraq's national security adviser,
Kassim Daoud, said that Iraqi judges have ordered the conditional
release of three prisoners in U.S. custody, including one of two women
held by U.S. forces. (WaPo)
"Iraqi judges decided to release them because they didn't have any
evidence. The judges decided on a conditional release. It will not
happen today, tomorrow or the day after tomorrow," he said. (WaPo)
Representatives of the Iraqi government and U.S. coalition forces have
identified a group of about 14 high-value detainees, including Taha,
who may be eligible for release because they are no longer needed for
questioning and do not pose a security threat, a multinational force
official said on condition of anonymity. (AP)
The Iraqi government has already assented to all the names on the list,
the official said. The list has gone to coalition forces and the U.S.
Embassy for final approval. (AP)
The Iraqi government has also made a special request for the release of
Ammash on humanitarian grounds, the official said. ... her case
requires a Pentagon review. (AP)
After the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad said there would be no immediate
release of either of the two women in U.S. custody, Iraqi Prime
Minister Ayad Allawi said there were no immediate plans to free the
detainees. (AP)
Ayad Allawi, interim Iraqi prime minister, said that any releases had not
yet been decided, and that he has the final decision on any prisoners
who should be released (NYT)
Sources:
New York Times (NYT) Iraqi Officials Say Female Inmate Is to Be Released Washington Post (WaPo)
Two Dozen Killed, 150 Wounded in Iraq BBC Rift over Saddam scientists' fate Associated Press (AP)
U.S.: Iraqi Prisoners Won't Be Released Reuters Hope Fades for UK Iraq Hostage as U.S. Stands Firm
Guardian Chaos surrounds hostage's fate
Bush Iraq policy:
Keeping just how much trouble we're in quiet until Nov. 2. But these days, it
seems that part of the policy is no more successful than the rest of it. Over the
past weeks, the failure of the Bush Iraq policy has become so inescapable that
even John Kerry has noticed it.
Iraq situation gets worse -- very loudly
Spread the word please.
Comments
It's hard to think of anything new to say about the stunning dumbness Washington displays
daily in Iraq. I feel numb.
No one picks up on the following fact when I mention it, but since it means a lot to me--and
in situations like this one it certainly means a lot to me--I'll mention it once again: George
Bush, as the Governor of Texas, sent one hundred and fifty convicted men and women, one
by one, to their deaths by lethal injection. The man's a serial killer (not a merciful person).
Licensed to do so by Texas, he presided more executions than Henry the Eighth of England
(and he got his start by blowing up frogs with firecrackers). I believe that John Kerry
understands this very well--which is why he's taken to pounding Bush into the ground like
a wooden post. This kind of pounding has a benign effect: Bush, elected or otherwise, will
by despised by far too many people to govern the country.
alabama: The man's a serial killer (not a merciful person). Licensed to do so by Texas, he
presided more executions than Henry the Eighth of England (and he got his start by
blowing up frogs with firecrackers).
Said so well I felt like repeating it. One of the taglines going around from the Rude Pundit
is: George Bush wants to kills you!
His harming animals as a child is the first of the iron triangle of early warning signs for
serial killers ... now all we need to know is if he was a bedwetter (past the age of six), and
his proclivity for lighting fires. But even if he doesn't satisfy all three he still has a deep
need to be a part of the killing of many people. He's passive-aggressive as hell. Is a
documented multiple substance abuser. Alabama has it deadnuts on, even though we're told
not to diagnose from a distance. Dubya fits the bill. A book I've read many times is M.
Scott Peck's "People of the Lie". The whole book is a good read, but his chapter that deals
with what happens when this type of person gains some power is particularly illuminating.
"The Dead Zone" anyone?
Mind you I think the cabal is just using Dubya's pathologies to their advantage. I see him as
mostly a cardboard cutout, but his damaged self cannot be denied. Then we could talk
about his mommy dearest, Babs, with whom he has a love/hate relationship ... another on
the list for the developing psycho/sociopath.
Found this in my dusty quotations archives:
Senator William Fulbright, in his popular bestseller of the 1960s, "The Arrogance of
Power", masterfully described the essence of power-hungry politics as the pursuit of
power; this he conceived as an end in itself. "The causes and consequences of war may
have more to do with pathology than with politics," he wrote, "more to do with irrational
pressures of pride and pain than with rational calculation of advantage and profit."
More than Henry VIII; hadn't thought about that.
Can't we just beat the pathetic fucker to death and just forget about it.
Posted by: Neanderthal | September 22, 2004 11:01 PM
On second thought, not necessary at all, and probably excessive,redundant, and cruel:
Heroic Fighter Pilot Falls Out of Plane: Hits Head on Tarmac
Confused Pilot No Match For Naval Gunnery
Posted by: Neanderthal | September 22, 2004 11:58 PM
For disecting the psychological motivations of dear leaders, I also recommend the book For
Your Own Good by Alice Miller. Excellent post mortem analysis of Hitler's psychopathy in
one of the chapters.
Assuming Bush psychopathy, it makes one wonder about the mental health of the twins.
Posted by: gylangirl | September 23, 2004 09:29 AM
John Kerry understands this very well--which is why he's taken to pounding Bush into the
ground like a wooden post. This kind of pounding has a benign effect: Bush, elected or
otherwise, will be despised by far too many people to govern the country.
Exactly.
And as the election started to turn, as Kerry started to find his "ganas," he became willing
to polarize America.
Here is why that is so important:
Should Bush win again, you can be absolutely certain his administration will use the
partriot act and the no-fly list to go to war against ordinary dissenters.
But the more dissenters there are, the more difficult it will be for the bullies in the
administration to play that evil game.
Polarization may well prove to be Kerry's most vital role in history.
So let's hope he keeps whacking away at that nasty wooden post until it splinters.
I had a dream last night that Dick Cheney was stripped nekkid, wires attached to his balls,
and pleading for his life on videotape while being interrogated about some of the secret
orders he is known to have given.
Sorry for the nasty image ~ only a dream.
Posted by: rapt | September 23, 2004 10:22 AM
I second Alice Miller's "For Your Own Good", and also recommend her "Thou Shalt Not
Be Aware".
Posted by: Kate_Storm | September 23, 2004 10:56 AM
On reading back through this tread this morning, I realize I left out a word in my first post.
Post should read:
Can't we just beat the pathetic fucker to death rhetorically and just forget about it.
Actually, Kerry is doing a pretty good job of rhetorical pounding, all by himself.
Our help might indeed be excessive, redundant and
cruel.
Strange dreams you have there Rapt. I am so repulsed by the evil of these people (see Kate
Storm) on The People of the Lie above, that I wouldn't want to be within 20 miles of that
interrogation room. Remember that movie starring Denzel Washington and John Goodman
awhile back?
That evil spirit might get into you if you get too close.
Posted by: Neanderthal | September 23, 2004 11:11 AM
No wonder itÂ´s screwed up...
The prime minister said something very interesting a while ago and it's
important for the American people to understand. Our strategy is to help the
Iraqis help themselves. It's important that we train Iraqi troops. There are
nearly 100,000 troops trained.
The Afghan national army is a part of the army.
By the way, it's the Afghan national army that went into Najaf and did the
work there.
Transcript: Bush, Allawi Speak
on the italian hostages it seems clear to me that there kidnapping is not the work of the
resistance - there is no benefit for them in any sense & even the operational details
(unmasked, their number, location, target)would make it much more evident that it is a
death squad associated with the americans & their puppet allawi.
it is exactly like the process used by death squads in latin america
these italians were well known for their works & for their capacity to witness in extremely
dangerous situations fallujah, basra & mosul
it is clear that the americans do not want witnesses to their atrocities & they have been
consistent in that policy - another thing they have learned from latin america & especially
chile
the targets of the resistance on the other hand have all been connected to the infrastructure http://www.moonofalabama.org/2004/09/sovereign_and_l.html (5 von 7) [16.11.2004 18:28:06]
the kidnappers in their psychopathy only parallel that of the americans
this situation is also true for the french journalists - thus the extremely elliptic negotiations
even in the least conspiratorial sense - the american strategy has allowed & even
encouraged a level of criminal activity - which for its own purposed attaches 'political'
revendications
the criminalisation of resistance has also been part & parcel of an anglo american strategy
in relation to fundamentally political groups whether it was in northern ireland or el
salvador or even inside the belly of the beast itself with the black panther party
& so becomes self fulfilling
as in all the wished of this most corrupt empire
still steel
Neanderthal... one of the things Peck mentions is that when in the presence of evil, one
over the top feeling is to "get away". That is exactly what I feel when I read anything about
these US powers that be... I don't want to be anywhere near them. My instincts are good, I
think.
rgiap, the one US victim was also one known to be a fighter for Iraq reconstruction...
Makes me wonder who is actually doing the executions.
R-Giap: Indeed I have some serious suspicions. Notably, there wasn't ANY video of the
Italian hostages, which makes it likely they're in the hands of an entirely different group
than the usual culprits. The French journalists seem a bit weird too; at first I supposed they
were just kidnapped for money, then sold to the highest bidder on the hostage market, and
another group got them. Now, they've said they were released since some time and still no
news, so I'm wondering if the kidnappers weren't monitored and secretly set up by some
other shadowy group (either Allawi or directly some US covert op), who now has them
under direct guard.
Whatever, I collected a few very revealing bits of news last week in a Kos diaries, and it
seems just as relevant now than 7 days ago, alas.
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« Time Horizon | Main | Sovereign and Just Screw Up »
September 22, 2004
Open (War) Thread
Comments
Car bombs blast Baghdad
US attack on Sadr City kills 22
Suicide Bombing Kills at Least One in Jerusalem
Here the story of Scott Taylor the Canadian journalist who was kidnapped in Irak and then
released. Well, so much for being able to differentiate between the resistance and 'regular'
population.
Hostage in Iraq: Five days in Hell
Kidnapped by Ansar Al-Islam: How Scott Taylor Survived and Was Saved in Iraq
Fran
Taylor's story and today's WSJ article on Captain Nicholas Ayers (no link, subscribers
only) shows clearly the humanity of the individuals who will decide not to shoot when told
"he has a son" (kidnapper) or treat a man with greater respect because he lost a son (Ayers).
The people who order bombings of apartment buildings to "dry up the sea in which
terrorists swim," however, show no soul. This imbalance is killing off our friendships in
Iraq as it leaves fewer and fewer families who have not been directly attacked by
occupation bombs, bullets, and arrests. I admire Ayers. Too bad he has to fight all the
generals and chickenhawks who don't seem to know what it means to love your family.
Taylor gives an interview on today's Democracy Now
Citizen, I am not familiar with Ayers, who is he? Could you post some extracts from that
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2004/09/open_war_thread.html (1 von 8) [16.11.2004 18:28:10]
WSJ article?
Then there is Juan Cole at it again;
If America were Iraq, What would it be Like?
This is the last one today, time for bed here.
A distinctly European defense corps takes shape
Ayers is a 29 year old captain in the Army just returned from a year in Iraq, and has just
been appointed to teach at West Point. The WSJ article is from today, "On Ground in Iraq,
Capt. Ayers Writes His Own Playbook."
A few quotes:
"Last week, after 12 months in Iraq, Capt. Ayers returned to his home in Kansas. He's
prepared a tome full of advice for his replacement. In the book are histories of the local
sheiks and tribes, their grudges and fleeting alliances. There is a section on funeral
etiquette.
"He also wrote a section on the sheik who helped him get the machine gun back. A few days
after the incident, insurgents, angry that he had aided the Americans, murdered the sheik's
son. 'I thought if he had enough influence to get the stuff back, he also had enough
influence' to protect his families, Capt. Ayers now says, 'I was wrong.' Capt. Ayers says he
advised his replacement to handle the sheik with deference."
--- This is the work, worth more than all the experts stateside, that builds actual alliances.
But Ayers is the strongest link in the chain, not the whole chain. The Japanese occupiers of
China in the 1930s were also excellent at occupying expertly, but in the end their greatest
success was to separate and brand the wheat and the chaff among China's patriots.
"Before deploying to Iraq, he and his soldiers fought a giant mock tank battle at the
National Training Center. It wasn't helpful.
"Instead, he says, 'I guess I'd drop soldiers in a foreign high school and give them two days
to figure out all teh cliques. Who are the cool kids? Who are the geeks? he says. That
would be pretty close to what he has been doing in Iraq, he says, with one big exception:
There would also have to be people inside the high school trying to kill the soldiers."
Where did Ayers get his smarts? Kosovo.
Thanks Fran for the Ayers story. Unfortunatly the smart GIs seem to never make flag ranks.
extremely dark story in vanity fair 'path to florida' - it's become very bolshie with mr carter
long well considered articles
still steel
@R Giap:
Am glad that you seem a little better than yesterday. You said that you were to have a nurse
in your convalescence. I can of course send you a night nurse if you want--if the French
health system will pick up the tab. Just the thing to get a gentleman back on his feet, or
perhaps keep him abed for the longest time. Who Knows.
In the event, in the interest of Anglo-French solidarity, I offer my humble services in your
recovery.
I can send you pictures of my platoon of Florence Nightingales, if you wish, and you can
choose.
Posted by: Dr. Benjamin Hill | September 22, 2004 07:59 PM
OT - nothing to do with the war, but very curious!!!
God truly is angry
And here another one - the rising of the Banana Republic.
Millions Blocked from Voting in U.S. Election
For friends of Thucydides (and others) Barbara Garson has an nice OpEd in the LA Times.
... Another argument for the war was that it would pay for itself. A committee
of Sicilian exiles and Athenian experts told the Assembly that there was
enough wealth in Sicily to pay the costs of the war and occupation. "The report
was encouraging but untrue," wrote Thucydides. ...
OPERATION ENDURING MILLSTONE
It is increasingly difficult to make sense out of what is going on in Iraq.
...
[long rant]
...
How I wish I could suggest a workable and acceptable (to the US) way out.
There is only one possible solution which keeps coming to my mind. If I
mention it, I would be called as being out of my senses.
And yet, even at the risk of being called mad, let me say it. Restore Saddam to
power and quickly withdraw from Iraq. It is unlikely to happen. And so, blood
will continue to flow.
The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi
That was a great article about the Sicilian expedition.
Now, if you want even more, here are some choice quotes:
Nikias advising against the invasion:
"It would be disgraceful to have to retire under compulsion, or to send back for
reinforcements, owing to want of reflection at first: we must therefore start from home with
a competent force, seeing that we are going to sail far from our country, and upon an
expedition not like any which you may undertaken undertaken the quality of allies, among
your subject states here in Hellas, where any additional supplies needed were easily drawn
from the friendly territory; but we are cutting ourselves off, and^going to a land entirely
strange, from which during four months in winter it is not even easy for a messenger get to
Athens."
And the Athenians react:
"The Athenians, however, far from having their taste for the voyage taken away by the
burdensomeness of the preparations, became more eager for it than ever; and just the
contrary took place of what Nicias had thought, as it was held that he had given good
advice, and that the expedition would be the safest in the world. All alike fell in love with
the enterprise. The older men thought that they would either subdue the places against
which they were to sail, or at all events, with so large a force, meet with no disaster; those
in the prime of life felt a longing for foreign sights and spectacles, and had no doubt that
they should come safe home again; while the idea of the common people and the soldiery
was to earn wages at the moment, and make conquests that would supply a never-ending
fund of pay for the future. With this enthusiasm of the majority, the few that liked it not,
feared to appear unpatriotic by holding up their hands againstit, and so kept quiet."
There are also bits about the great enthusiasm for the war, with everyone in Athens being
now a self-proclaimed expert, everyone suddenly showing some kind of interest and
making maps of Sicily and how the war operations will go there (though I haven't found
them so far; they may be in Plutarch rather than Thucydides).
As is known, the whole enterprise fell apart and Athens lost something like 20.000+ men.
So, the Athenian people finally admits the quite bad news:
"When the conviction was forced upon them, they were angry with the orators who had
joined in promoting the expedition, just as if they had not themselves voted it, and were
enraged also with the reciters of oracles and soothsayers, and all other omen-mongers of
the time who had encouraged them to hope that they should conquer Sicily."
The rest of Greece's reaction is also telling:
"The winter ensuing saw all Hellas stirring under the impression of the great Athenian
disaster in Sicily. Neutrals now felt that even if uninvited they ought no longer to stand
aloof from the war, but should volunteer to march against the Athenians, who, as they
severally reflected, would probably have come against them if the Sicilian campaign had
succeeded."
(emphasis mine, for obvious reason)
"But above all, the subjects of the Athenians showed a readiness to revolt even beyond their
ability, judging the circumstances with passion, and refusing even to hear of the Athenians
being able to last out the coming summer."
Thucydides didn't write the end of the story, but Xenopho has, and here is the conclusion of
the war, here is the overall reaction when Athens had been defeated and turned into a
puppet of Sparta, deprived of navy and of fortifications:
"And so they fell to levelling the fortifications and walls with much enthusiasm, to the
accompaniment of female flute-players, deeming that day the beginning of liberty to
Greece."
Kate, if I remember correctly it was you having a discussion on Annex about NLP.
However, as I do not remember which thread it was on, I post this here. I found his link
Cheney and Bush: using NLP to hoodwink America this morning. This is frustrating as in
my work I found NLP a great tool to help people and now through headlines like these it
will be even more critized, when the problem is not the tools but the lack of integrity of
these people who misuse it..
Discussing Russias way to new stability this OpEd piece in todays Washington Post
reflects my optimistic vision: Not Another Soviet Union
Russia is joining the ranks of nascent dictatorships, and Vladimir Putin is the
executioner of Russian democracy. Right? Wrong. Russia is not a dictatorship,
and the political system Putin is trying to reshape is not a democracy. In its
transition from the Soviet Union, it never got there. More important, before we
lament the passing of Russian democracy and put the blame for its demise on
Putin, let us consider our own record of dealing with Russia since the Soviet
breakup and how the Russians themselves might see that record.
Nice find Fran!
Raed in the Middle in Iraq points to a video of a bomb killing some 30 persons walking
openly in the streets of Fallujah.
He is not amused...
Revisited - The Real Reasons for the Upcoming War With Iraq:
A Macroeconomic and Geostrategic Analysis of the Unspoken Truth
The fallujah video has been linked at prisonplanet since July and I'm sure I've posted it here
or at the annex at least once. If images like that would get wide circulation, it will influence
public opinion in the US.
-----Rummy revisited----But US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has said voting might not be possible in some
areas where militants are active and the violence is too great.
"Well, so be it, nothing is perfect in life, so you have an election that's not quite perfect. Is
it better than not having an election.? You bet," he said.
-------------------I suspect he tucks that pointy tail in his pants very carefully every morning.
Waaahooo to you Koreyel for the pointy tail comment. Perhaps it is more accurate than you
think.
Interessting article by Noami Klein - speaks for it self.
Baghdad Year Zero - Pillaging Iraq in pursuit of a neocon utopia
while we're sticking it to Rumsfeld...
There was a reuters article yesterday titled Rumsfeld Sold Stakes in Pentagon Contractors
that regenerated my interest in a thread I've been only intermittently trying to trace out re
his possible motives for 911. Rummie derived a lot of his wealth before joining the current
admin from ABB & Gilead Sciences and little things like selling nuclear reactors to North
Korea. One of his oldest friendships is reportedly w/ Frank Carlucci, with whom he roomed
at one point in college. Obviously Rummie is into schemes to increase his personal wealth,
of which he's amassed possibly more than $135 mill.
In Sept of 2001 the opposition from the military establishment that Rumsfeld faced wrt his
"transformation" plans had pretty much stopped him in his tracks. Rummie wanted more
missle defense, high-tech equip, and outsourcing to streamline the military, but he failed to
win support. 11 Sept changed everything. The Quadrennial Defense Review Report that
had been scheduled for release at the end of the month was essentially scrapped and
Rumsfeld told the team working on it to start again and "think outside the box." Instead of
naming China as the main enemy of the US (b/c naming an enemy that was preparing to
join the WTO in December and cement its capitalist intentions hardly merits unlimited
defense spending and hi-tech weapons development), the new report was rewritten in
weeks to respond to an entirely new situation, and enemy. "In the decades ahead, we will
face other threats that seem just as unimaginable to us today," he wrote shortly thereafter.
This new ambiguous enemy served several purposes. It saved Rummie and the Pentagon
from embarrasment and compromise. It could unite Congress and the public into backing
immense military funding and new product development. It justified the need for
maintaining and expanding overseas bases. And, looking at the Reuters article yesterday, it
looks like it helped increase Rummies portfolio.
Has anyone pursued this story in-depth? 'Twould be a shame to see it keep getting swept
under the newspaper at the bottom of the cage.
Some more stuff to read.
Riverbend today:
Liar, Liar...
Morford:
What's Wrong With John Kerry? Is it the hair? The lack of charisma? Or do we just wish he
was more angry and ruthless?
Herbert:
Bush Upbeat as Iraq Burns
and some fair reporting on Kerry by Dionne:
Twisting the Truth
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Moon of Alabama: Time Horizon
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« Just Guessing | Main | Open (War) Thread »
September 22, 2004
Time Horizon
From a recent StratFor piece:
Bush's view is that every alliance must be evaluated in terms of its utility for
the United States and that the United States must pursue its foreign interests,
even if an existing alliance resists it. Kerry appears to be arguing that since
alliances should be seen as permanent institutional frameworks, accepting
limitations on American freedom of action is a small price to pay for retaining
critical international institutions.
...
The real debate has always been between two schools of internationalism. ...
One school looks at the United Nations as a hindrance to the pursuit of
national interest. The other looks at the United Nations as being at the heart of
the national interest.
...
Bush represents the former view; Kerry represents the latter view.
The difference between these views has a relation to the assumed time horizon. It takes
time to build coaltions and functioning international institutions. It takes time to build trust.
Long term partners who trust each other will go along, even when there are some accute
disagreements and no short term benefits. When this trust is broken, like it currently is in
some cases, the wound is usually deep and takes a long time to heal.
benefits. Allies exchangable at hoc when needed. KerryÂ´s view relies on long term allies,
were pressure is applied by the threat of changes in long term real benefits. Most non-US
countries traditionally have a long term view.
This short term / long term divergence can be seen in other issues too. The small saving
rate in the US vs. other countries. Houses build for decades from plywood vs. build from
stone to last centuries.
Stratfor continues:
One of the things hurting Kerry is that his view has, in general, been a
minority view in the United States.
Was this the minority view after the second world war? Has this dichotomy change in
recent years? Has the US time horizon shortened?
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2004/09/time_horizon.html (1 von 8) [16.11.2004 18:28:14]
Comments
Stratfor is of very uneven quality, but this is indeed an interesting point.
Read Kagan's Of Paradise and Power. It's a good and interesting explanation of this new
tendency for the US to focus on the short term. (Kagan, while a "neocon", is a quite
thoughtful one, and he has recently expressed serious criticism of Bush's policies in Iraq).
But of course, it is strange that the US, which invented game theory, has forgotten one of
its most interesting insights, as described in Axelrod's famous Evolution of Cooperation.
Sorry, cannot comment more extensively now, but do read these two books anyway...
Thanks Bernhard for all the links and topics, thanks to all for many insightful comments
(and thanks to all that posted at the Annex)
"Houses build for decades from plywood vs. build from stone to last
centuries."
Do you have any links on this topic, Bernhard?
Stratfor is right about the differences between Bush and Kerry, although I suspect they are
differences of style and not of essence.
But Stratfor, again, misses the point. Bush's idiotic experiment in Iraq iniated an indepedent
german foreign policy. The germans didn't want it right now, but they were forced by the
"brilliant" neocon strategy. The new autonomy of Germany is irriversible, with or without
Bush.
Posted by: Greco | September 22, 2004 11:07 AM
Yes, the rhetoric of alliance, as refined by Dean Acheson and others, put the accent on
long-term structural relationships, but this rhetoric only concealed a "short-term
opportunism" of the kind revealed by the invasion of Greece, the overthrow of Mossadegh
and Arbenz, and the treatment of the British during the Suez crisis. A counter-argument
might be made for our commitments in Viet Nam, as expressing an alliance of some kind
with SEATO. But weren't those actions really driven by the mindset of the "China Lobby"
(certainly not the sort of thing that Stratfor has in mind)? I don't think we've "cooperated"
with anyone since WWI, the Versailles Treaty, and Bretton Woods. WWII, in my view,
was an American adventure, our alliance with the USSR being typically opportunistic (it
had no future after VE Day).
Posted by: alabama | September 22, 2004 11:26 AM
A guy to look into is Marshall. I've had this biography (sorry, no link, it's at home, wil ltry
to post it later) on my "to read" list for a long time, but could not get to it. He seems to have
had a major influence on US policies at the end of WWII.
If we go there, Jerome (and I agree that we should), then we'll have to differentiate between
symmetrical alliances (iwhere everyone holds roughly equivalent hands) and the kind of
"alliance" forged between occupying countries and the countries they occupy. And we
ought to entertain the possibility that the first of our Presidents to espouse a policy of
"pre-emptive" military action wasn't Bush II (in Iraq) but Harry Truman (in Greece).
"Houses build for decades from plywood vs. build from stone to last centuries."
Thus, they also need more repairs along the way, thus driving the great economic engine,
right? Same goes with crap American cars which tend not to be nearly as reliable or durable
as imports- and once again, all the parts, service and labor that goes into the vehicle drives
the service sector a bit more. The tentacles of capitalism reach pretty far.
I'd guess also it is significant that, compared to the rest of the world, we are a young and
very different sort of country than the world has seen yet, and have been pretty impulsive
and self-centered from inception.
I think part of what's behind the acceleration of our impatience post-WW2 is the concurrent
acceleration of technology and most spicifically, military and communications technology.
Computers have speeding up the pace incredibly- but then that tide should lift all the boats,
though not all the the same degree, since the spread of all this technology isn't equally
distributed.
I am not sure of the timeline idea--at least in the context of Bush and alliances.
What is going on here is much more primitive than that. There is no deep geopolitical
calculus going on in Bush's head in which he weighs the present against the future.
Bush doesn't govern from the brain but from his primeval gut.
Primordially,--what we have here is a country that has found itself militarily unopposed in
the world. Such a situation will necessarily lead to temptations. Just as being bigger and
more muscular invites bullying behavior, even so does having the largest military invite its
use.
Absolute power tempts absolutely.
Bush and his followers hate the UN, and hate treaties and alliances because they would tie
their hands--just as a bully hates his school principal.
Any sort of analysis has got to incorporate the basic human nature of a bully--BECAUSE,
that is the level of sophistication we are dealing with here.
I've seen anti-UN signs and flags across America. I've spoken with anti-UN Americans. I've
heard their rhetoric and distilled it. It all comes down to this:
Imagine a mammoth manichean cowboy pumped with muscles and hung with all manner of
weaponry.
How do you ask a bear to not use its claws or a scorpion not to use its stinger? Or such a
cowboy as that, not to swagger the globe?
There is only one answer: All the David's of the world must help Goliath to go broke.
koreyel:There is only one answer: All the David's of the world must help Goliath to go
broke.
Or grab up torches and pitchforks and reinstitute the guillotine. You said a mouthful,
koreyel. I'll admit to holding the idea that there is no way simple "voting" can fix what ails
the notion of democracy on the "Happy Planet". The system is too entrenched. It will take
something more, and hopefully replaces with something that is not just another set of
greedy dominators replacing the old bosses.
found the link to the Marshall biography, it's the one by Forrest pogue.
Alabama - I agree that the alliances were not symmetrical, but neither were they one-way
streets.
Actually, one of the reasons the US went alone in Afghanistan (without using the "article
5" offer from other NATO members) was the experience of the Kosovo campaign, where
the US took into account objections by other NATO countries (France, most of the time, as
usual) in the bombing campaign (this is what savec most of Belgrade's bridges, for
instance). Needless to say, that experience was frustrating for the US military, i.e. having to
defer somewhat to allies who did not even contribute meaningfully to the campaign.
Assymetrical alliances are still a form of cooperation, if only because you listen to the
others, even if you don't always take it into account. Bush is not not even listening.
I agree with B that timing is a neglected topic in world politics. We have all been solicited
to believe that our reactions on the moment to ongoing events have some importance, are of
relevance. In the long run it is not so.
The below is sort of along koreyelâ€™s line.
benefits.
Bushâ€™s Coalition of the Willing or the Wailing (or whatever) in the Iraq invasion are
not allies but vassals and victims of blackmail or paid-for proxies. Micronesia? Huh?
Poland? Poland obviously hoped for a lot of cash with little outlay, and loved anything that
hooked them to some anti-Communist superior power (excuse superficiality, any Poles
about?) These allies were co-opted and then and listed, at the start, only for respectability
and legitmacy as they would be viewed by the US TV public. The significance on the
ground, or for the future, was nil. It was a PR op, no more. Only the Brits counted.
Australians, more than one knows right now - that is another story.
Kerry is not different. Distanced and supposedly irresponsible for the present murderous
quagmire, he can blah about longer term, more solid, alliances. He has not had the
oppoâ€™ to forge them and in this case could not have - it is just Pol Smoke. That is all.
He has said quite clearly that alliances would (should have, hopefully will..) permit the US
to push the burden of fighting on others. How he is to manage to co-opt these proxy
fighters is a mystery.
Does Kerry think because he speaks French he will charm Chirac? Maybe Terry and
Bernadette can discuss perfume and cassoulet and all will be hunky dory? Yikes.
And, btw, alliances fo what - killing a lot of Muslims or Ay-rabs in a ressource war dressed
up as a religious-cum-cultural crusade hardly seems a worthy cause for gathering up allies.
@Grecco 11:07
"Houses build for decades from plywood vs. build from stone to last centuries."
That is my impression from watching the buildup of the Reston, Va. area 1995 to 2002 and
various travels throughout the US an Europe. Some stats are at census.gov Principal Type
of Exterior Wall Material of New One-Family Houses Completed
Brick & Stucco ~ 40%
Wood & Vinyl ~ 50%
In main European countries brick etc is about 80-90%. ItÂ´s often difficult to even get a
permit or credit for wood housing in Germany.
Houses built in plywood: Well, just look at Florida. How people can have such crappy
houses, or even worse, actually live in trailers in such a hurricane-ridden area, is beyond
me. Same with crappy houses in earthquake areas, and in tornade areas.
What you build show how far you plan and think. Egyptian pyramids are still there and
would partly survive a nuclear explosion. Most American homes are just flushed away
when the first strong wind arrives. Apparently, most Americans don't think their
civilization will last more than a couple of decades, and they don't seem to care either.
Blackie:
Australians, more than one knows right now - that is another story.
We're listening. What's the story?
Jerome, I wasn't just referring to "symmetrical" and "asymmetrical" alliances. I was
referring to the bonds of the US with its nominal "allies" in the Post-WW II period. Those
"allies" were occupied by Americans, and some still are. Other countries--Spain, for
example--didn't become allies until they agreed to be occupied by our military forces. Or,
to put it bluntly, and borrowing your own words: it would be nice if the US would listen,
but I'm really wondering whether it ever listens to anyone. Bush is only an ugly caricature
of American Presidents since Roosevelt, and the U.S. will only learn to listen when it
becomes a diminished power, truly needing the assistance of other countries. I look forward
to the day when our Secretary of State has to speak Chinese.
@ houses,
I know this is not that important but, having spent a long time in & out of building biz,
would say most current codes demand res. housing built to very high engineering and
energy standards (especially in earthquake prone areas). Most of the weak points are in the
use of materials that have poor weather resistance quality ie particle board type stuff.
Plywood is actually a very resiilent, strong and long lasting.
Trailers? Thats another thing
Re: short time (attention) spans, isn't this rather typical of nouveaux riches and shady
characters throughout the business world? The fast-moving sharks, looking for the quick
buck and the fast scam, focussed relentlessly on this quarter's earnings, skating perilously
ahead of the accounting department, hoping to pay off personal favours and get out while
the stock is still hot?
There are business sectors that think in decades (Swiss Re does, I'll bet) and those that
think in years, but most US business seems to think in quarters. Perhaps one reason for this
is the (imho lethal) shift of emphasis from manufacturing and other "real" areas of effort to
finance capitalism and a rentier/speculator economy.
There's not much point in thinking about the multi-decade future of a business if your plan
is to inflate its stock value by whatever means necessary (outright lying is favourite, it
seems), cash in your holdings and skip town. Or (alternatively) to use it as a shell,
liquidate/loot its physical plant and with a bit of quick legerdemain spirit the money off to
someplace dark and quiet and write it off as a loss (tax benefits galore).
In other words I think BushCo's appalling mannerisms and flailing style are fairly typical of
US business practise. Rove is the epitome of all that is worst in marketing departments, and
Bush of all that is worst in CEOs. America has been worshiping Business for long enough
that now it's run like one :-) nice, isn't it.
Australia is incredibly important to the US. Australia fought in every war on the same side
as the US (including Vietnam.) John Howard's Australia is 100% behind the US, although
often it doesn't look much like it, as most Australians feel the way Europeans do.
The US-Aus. free trade agreement has come into being. ANZUS -- defense alliance (which
now no longer includes US - New Zeeland) is incredibly strong and the 'Howard Doctrine'
proposes that Australia and the US protect their shared interests "beyond the nominal
commitments of a defense alliance." Afaik, both countries are working on making their
armies compatible, though I have read that there are some quarrels about how this is to
proceed.
Howard has steadily increased military spending (2 billion plus Aus. more for the next 5
years, to be spent...) Australia participates in the Joint Strike Fighter program. It supports
the US National Missile Defense system. It has joined the Proliferation Security Initiative.
There are 30 US bases in Australia; the largest US satellite ground station is in Australia
(Pine Gap), I have read.
Howard eagerly awaited the Iraq invasion.
Howard is doing a 'return to roots' (White, Western, Democratic) to the detriment of Asian
ties.
The US needs Australia to dominate the Asia-Pacific region and perhaps ultimately oppose
China (?). Australia needs the US as ... it has decided it does, for its security, much in the
way Britain did, but with far more fervor and forward planning. Then there is energy and
'terrorism'.
Corrections welcome.
The US and Australia have been fighting about wheat since the invasion. The quarrel was
about who would get to sell the most wheat to Iraq, after, of course, Iraq became less able
to feed itself and became powerless to choose from whom it would buy. This brawl has
been a flamboyant roller-coaster affair, with spectacular ups and downs. It was not bruited
about in the mainstream press - a fight between friends is often kept quiet. It continues in
its superbly camouflaged fashion, as is evident from two articles that pop up at the top of
Google News today:
Australia's AWB Won't Comment On Iraq Wheat Sale Report (i.e. the sales of
Australia to Iraq.)
Link
Rumours of US sale of wheat to Iraq
Link
Freedom wheat, anyone? Wheat is big bucks, contrary to fries.
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Moon of Alabama: Just Guessing
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« Peace Plane | Main | Time Horizon »
September 22, 2004
Just Guessing
State of the Union Address, January 2003
Our intelligence officials estimate that Saddam Hussein had the materials to
produce as much as 500 tons of sarin, mustard and VX nerve agent.
Remarks by President Bush and Prime Minister Allawi ..., September 2004
Q Right here, Mr. President, thank you. Why do you think the CIA's
assessment of conditions in Iraq are so much at odds with the optimism that
you and Prime Minister Allawi are expressing at the moment?
PRESIDENT BUSH: The CIA laid out a -- several scenarios that said, life
could be lousy, like could be okay, life could be better. And they were just
guessing as to what the conditions might be like. ...
Juan Cole asks the question every voter in the US should be asked: What if what is
happening in Iraq would happen at the appropriate scale in the US and the European Union
would say "freedom and democracy are just around the corner"?
Comments
And then, there is that word "guessing". So now we're suppose to believe the 40 billion $
CIA is "guessing", and so, how long have they been paid to be "guessing"? I thought their
problem has been "groupthink", or is that the same as "guessing"?
When are they going to run out of adjectives? I have.
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Moon of Alabama: Just Guessing
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Moon of Alabama: Peace Plane
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« Applause | Main | Just Guessing »
September 22, 2004
Peace Plane
Passenger Cat Stevens Gets Plane Diverted
A London-to-Washington flight was diverted to Maine on Tuesday when it
was discovered passenger Yusuf Islam â€” formerly known as singer Cat
Stevens â€” was on a government watch list and barred from entering the
country, federal officials said.
...
Homeland Security Department spokesman Dennis Murphy identified the
passenger as Islam. "He was interviewed and denied admission to the United
States on national security grounds," Murphy said, and would be put on the
first available flight out of the country Wednesday.
Cat Stevens - Peace Train
Now Iâ€™ve been crying lately,
thinking about the world as it is
Why must we go on hating,
why canâ€™t we live in bliss
Cause out on the edge of darkness,
there rides a peace train
Oh peace train take this country,
come take me home again
Context:
Small Kindness
Yusuf Islam
Cat Stevens Lyrics
NYT - U.S. Wants All Air Traveler Files for Security Test
Hattip to reader Harry Chapin
Comments
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2004/09/peace_plane.html (1 von 6) [16.11.2004 18:28:18]
Just a thought.....wonder if there will ever come a time when, like Nixon's Enemies List,
folks will take it as red badge of courage to have been on this fascistic Watch List?
This is pretty ridiculous.
That said, didn't Cat Stevens declared that he had no problem with the fatwah calling for
the murder of Salman Rushdie because he was blasphemating Islam?
@Clueless Joe
He did write about it Yusuf Islam Issues A Formal Statement On The Rushdie Affair (slow
site)
that is not to say I am encouraging people to break the law or take it into their
own hands: far from it. Under the Islamic Law, Muslims are bound to keep
within the limits of the law of the country in which they live, providing that it
does not restrict the freedom to worship and serve God and fulfil their basic
religious duties (fard'ayn). One must not forget the ruling in Islam is also very
clear about adultery, stealing and murder, but that doesn't mean that British
Muslims will go about lynching and stoning adulterers, theives and murderers.
He protested Bush's Iraq war, folks. If he were catholic, he'd be placed on the watch list
too. Just ask Ted Kennedy.
I think, perhaps gylangirl has it about right.
Me, I'm waiting to see what happens next time they machine read my passport, or flash that
thing in my eye like the last time I went through Toronto's Pearson on the way to Dulles for
a freaking science meeting in D.C. (I'm a cell biologist living North of the 49th, grew up in
Canada, trained in the States and have an American born kid).
If they stop me I'd consider myself in good company seeing as it happened to Margaret
Atwood recently.
Bruce Schneier is the absolute level-headed genius when it comes to security.
Here is his homepage.
Here is his op-ed on the no fly list.
And here is a link to an easily downloadable mp3 or ipod ready interview with him done by
David Kaye.
(Highly recommended. I've listened to it twice while out walking.)
And here is a couple of snips from the transcript of that interview:
-----------snip---------Bruce Schneier: I really wrote â€œBeyond Fearâ€• because weâ€™re living in a silly
security season in our country. Weâ€™re seeing so much nonsense after September 11th,
and so many people saying things about security, about terrorism that just makes no sense,
so I wanted to contribute to the debate. I wanted to write a book that people can read and
then understand security.
They donâ€™t have to agree with the conclusions; one of the things I say in the book is
that security is personal, that there often are no answers. But I wanted people to at least
understand how to ask questions, how to look at a security system, how to evaluate it
because weâ€™re being asked to take our shoes off at airports. We might be asked to live
with a national ID card. Weâ€™re being asked to support invasions of foreign countries.
Weâ€™re being asked to support all sorts of domestic and foreign policy in the name of
security, and Iâ€™d like people to ask, â€œDoes this make sense? Should we do this?â€•
-------------next snip---------Doug Kaye: Now a recurring concept in your book is probably typified by this example:
â€œA terrorist who wants to create havoc will not be deterred by airline security; he will
simply switch to another attack and bomb a shopping mall.â€•
Bruce Schneier: This is, I think, really important. I just did a hearing two days ago on
Capitol Hill about CAPS II, about airline profiling, and one of the things Iâ€™m always
struck with is how good we are at defending against what the terrorists did last year.
Weâ€™re spending a lot of money shoring up our airlines, weâ€™re now talking about
shoring up trains. And money that we spend that simply causes the bad guys to change their
tactics is money wasted.
You have a red and a blue door, and the terrorists go through the red door, and you say,
â€œWe must secure the red door,â€• so they go through the blue door the next time. What
did you actually buy?
And one of my fears is that we spend lots and lots of money securing the airlines, and the
terrorists move to the shopping malls or movie theaters or crowded restaurants or any of the
things they do in Israel; that there are just so many targets that taking the target the terrorist
happened to pick last year and securing it just sort of ignores the real problem.
------------------------------Posted by: koreyel | September 22, 2004 03:32 PM
13 million on terror watch list
Daily News Wash. Bureau, April 2004.
- U.S. border watchers are on the lookout for potential terrorists and other bad guys - 13
million of them.
The army of suspicious characters, including 20,000 identified by the State Department
since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, is catalogued in a voluminous new watch list
assembled for U.S. national security officials.
The mother of all watch lists will help officials in the State and Homeland Security
departments "identify those aliens inadmissible or deportable," President Bush wrote to the
House and Senate intelligence panels.
U.S. officials combined existing immigration and terrorist watch lists from State, the
Customs Service, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the FBI, Bush said.
The size of the watch list surprised some civil libertarians.
(...)
Link
@blackie
Let me bet I am one of these 13 million. There is forgotten parking ticket I might have got
1989 in Florida. And then there is this blog....
hey b....not to mention that you've probably visited JK.com and WH.gov a few times on the
same day.
And if you once gave $ to MoveOn, well that's the kicker. You're doomed.
Hell, I'd rather go to Maine than NYC anyway.
....or DC.
LA Times: When Really Bad Pop Stars Go Really Bad - The Cat Stevens threat looms.:
Hours after being refused entry into the U.S., 1970s recording star Cat Stevens
lashed out at the government Wednesday, vowing to resume his recording
career "immediately" as the ultimate act of revenge.
Appearing on the Arabic-language satellite TV channel Al Jazeera, a visibly
angry Stevens â€” now known by the name Yusuf Islam â€” threatened to
attack the United States with the full force of his insipid folk-rock music.
Brandishing an acoustic guitar, the erstwhile pop star warned that "no one in
America would be safe from my insidious melodies" before launching into a
spirited rendition of his 1971 hit "Peace Train."
A spokesman for the CIA said experts needed more time to study the chilling
video but that it appeared to be authentic: "We do not believe that anyone but
the real Cat Stevens remembers the lyrics to 'Peace Train.' "
On the campaign trail, Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry
blasted President Bush for the Cat Stevens incident, saying Bush's reckless
actions had resuscitated an irritating singer's long-dormant recording career.
"When George Bush took office, Cat Stevens was not a threat," Kerry told a
rally in Akron, Ohio. "Through a successful policy of containment, his music
had mainly been limited to classic rock stations. But now, thanks to George
Bush's misguided decision to provoke Cat Stevens, we may be subjected to
renditions of 'Morning Has Broken' and 'Moonshadow' and 'Wild World' for
years to come."
Aides to Kerry passed out lyrics of songs by Stevens, including this one from
1970: "I wish I knew, I wish I knew; what makes me, me, and what makes
you, you. It's just another point of view, ooo. A state of mind I'm going
through."
For his part, Bush defended the decision, telling a Denver audience, "Cat
Stevens is the first front in the war on terror, with Seals and Croft a close
second."
yes, juancole.com ("informed comment") recalls that yusuf was all for killing that
blasphemer rushdie ashcroft and "cat" deserve each other, he concludes
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« Applause | Main | Just Guessing »
Moon of Alabama: Applause
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« Nuclear Iran | Main | Peace Plane »
September 21, 2004
Applause
In todayâ€™s address to the US General Assembly Bush said:
Both the American Declaration of Independence and the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights proclaim the equal value and dignity of every human life.
That dignity is honored by the rule of law, limits on the power of the state,
respect for women, protection of private property, free speech, equal justice,
and religious tolerance.
Some delegates may have read todayâ€™s LA Times: U.S. Probing Alleged Abuse of
Afghans
The dead soldier, identified as Jamal Naseer, a member of the Afghan Army
III Corps, was severely beaten over a span of at least two weeks, according to
a report prepared for the Afghan attorney general. A witness described his
battered corpse as being "green and black" with bruises.
Alleged American mistreatment of the detainees included repeated beatings,
immersion in cold water, electric shocks, being hung upside down and toenails
being torn off, according to Afghan investigators and an internal memorandum
prepared by a United Nations delegation that interviewed the surviving
soldiers.
Some of the Afghan soldiers were beaten to the point that they could not walk
or sit, Afghan doctors and other witnesses said.
Others delegates may have read yesterdayâ€™s Guardian: After Abu Ghraib
Like most Iraqi women, Alazawi is reluctant to talk about what she saw but
says that her brother Mu'taz was brutally sexually assaulted. Then it was her
turn to be interrogated. "The informant and an American officer were both in
the room. The informant started talking. He said, 'You are the lady who funds
your brothers to attack the Americans.' I speak some English so I replied: 'He
is a liar.' The American officer then hit me on both cheeks. I fell to the ground.
Alazawi says that American guards then made her stand with her face against
the wall for 12 hours, from noon until midnight. Afterwards they returned her
to her cell. "The cell had no ceiling. It was raining. At midnight they threw
something at my sister's feet. It was my brother Ayad. He was bleeding from
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2004/09/applause.html (1 von 9) [16.11.2004 18:28:23]
his legs, knees and forehead. I told my sister: 'Find out if he's still breathing.'
She said: 'No. Nothing.' I started crying. The next day they took away his
body."
Kofi Annans Opening remarks (PDF) included the general theme of the rule of law
beginning in Mesopotamia.
Much of Hammurabiâ€™s code now seems impossibly harsh. But etched into
its tablets are principles of justice that have been recognised, if seldom fully
implemented, by almost every human society since his time:
● Legal protection for the poor.
● Restraints on the strong, so they cannot oppress the weak.
● Laws publicly enacted, and known to all.
That code was a landmark in mankindâ€™s struggle to build an order where,
instead of might making right, right would make might.
...
Yet today the rule of law is at risk around the world.
â€¦
In Iraq, we see civilians massacred in cold blood, â€¦ At the same time, we
have seen Iraqi prisoners disgracefully abused.
...
I believe we can restore and extend the rule of law throughout the world. But
ultimately, that will depend on the hold that the law has on our consciences.
Guess who received warm applause.
Comments
I listened to the entire speech on the radio, and had to run to the vomitorium immediately
after. One mind-boggling Orwellian phrase after another, along with the appropriate fundie
references like "dark valley of death" or something like it. He must have used the phrase
"human dignity eight or ten times. How anybody could listen to any of it and not jump up
screaming "FUCKING FRAUD!" is a mystery to me.
And now, having reminded myself of it, I must take a hot shower with strong soap. ICK!
ICK! ICK!
Yep, Kate. It's a shame to all the nations that no one had the guts to stand up and leave
when Bush came with this BS.
That said, Hammurabi code wasn't bad. It had some very fine ideas, like "If a house
crumbles and kills the owner, the architect will be killed. If a house crumbles and kills the
owner's son, the architect's son will be killed". It was in essence far better than most of our
Western code when it comes to deal with Big Business. If we had such similar laws, there
would be far less corporate frauds, or a lot more dead CEOs.
Question: Every soldier I talk to and thatâ€™s my own personal experience, every soldier I
talk to or marine say that itâ€™s much more frightening now, itâ€™s tougher now,
weâ€™re taking more combat now and the latest reports seem that we have less security
now than we did say a year ago.
Rumsfeld: ... At some point the Iraqis will get tired of getting killed and weâ€™ll have
enough of the Iraqi security forces that they can take over responsibility for governing that
country and weâ€™ll be able to pare down the coalition security forces in the country.
Transcript
Phil Carter at IntelDump:
Analysis: The LA Times story is quite lengthy, because it combines a lot of reporting from
the Crimes of War project with the front-page news story. But read it anyway. I have been
told that Abu Ghraib is the tip of the iceberg, and to expect additional detainee abuse
reports in the coming weeks and months. None of these will look as deviant as the Abu
Ghraib abuses, and most will not have pictures. But in many ways, the abuses are worse,
because they were orchestrated as a concerted effort to gather intelligence from detainees,
and because they were all but officially sanctioned by the U.S. chain of command. I'm not
sure when the Pentagon will release these reports; they need to be vetted and cleared by a
number of staffs first. But we have not seen the last of this issue, unfortunately. The
incident reported in today's LA Times is illustrative of what's to come.
[FWIW: I've also been very recently told that Abu Ghraib was the tip of the iceberg, and
that what went on elsewhere is more, rather than less, disturbing. With respect to the
treatment of PUCs, Lynndie England and Charles Granier will turn out to be two of the
kinder, gentler souls in either Iraq or Afghanistan.]
Bush: Both the American Declaration of Independence and the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights proclaim the equal value and dignity of every human life.
Not true. From the Declaration Of Independence:
He [George III] has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has
endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian
Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all
ages, sexes and conditions.
Now GWB is said to have a degree in History, in which case he should know that the
Declaration parses its words carefully, "that all men are created equal, that they are
endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights" etc...
Slaves and indigenous people, even women for that matter, were not included in that
definition as "men." To group the two documents together as equals, one being a document
of a herrenvolk democracy, the other striving for true inclusion of all humankind, is an
insult aimed directly at his audience. While Annan is a cultured and respectful dignitary, he
would not be out of line to have stood up for the true ideas of the value and dignity of every
human life by standing up to and uniting the majority of the member nations against the
Great White Bully. What's it gonna take?
What a sad sad day it is.
Kerry seems determined to lose this election and the shrub mocks the whole world.
Can anyone offer me something positive, tell me that we have hit bottom?
I saw some tape of the americans and brit who are dead or facing execution, poor bastards,
were they there only for the money? I want to not feel sorry for them but there was so much
fear in their voices and in their movements before being killed. I remind myself of the
thousands of Iraqi children who have been blown to bits by remote control and it makes the
beheading pale in comparison. It is however still a very brutal act.
Posted by: Dan of Steele | September 21, 2004 03:48 PM
Every process that we have observed in the universe is cyclic. (The latest
dark-energy/dark-matter cosmic ruminations of late would possibly destroy my argument,
but...)
As dark and degenerate and disgusting as our un-elected usurpers of power continually
become, the more the pressure builds to reverse their direction.
Pendulums always swing back. Everything changes.
Most of the world and at least 50% of the American subjects now realize the
criminal-Orwellian-â€œevilâ€• policy directives issuing forth from GWB and his
administration.
The opposition is gaining strength and coherence. Keep the faith and work harder to
educate more of the sleeping. Hopefully Kofi & Kerry will eventually get it.
What else do we have to keep us keeping on?
I canâ€™t believe that Kerry is as passively ineffective as we witness. Heâ€™s a sleeper
and a strong finisher a who knows heâ€™s playing this chess game against the master
Rowe. Heâ€™s holding his power pieces until he sees the red in their demonic eyes.
Wish my theory good luck.
An Islamist website has stated that the second American, Jack Henley, has been beheaded.
Videotape was released yesterday of the beheading of Eugene Armstrong.
God knows how much money going to pay for more than 100,000 U.S. troops ostensibly
fighting on "the front line of terror" in Iraq - a country the size of Texas - and we CANNOT
LAY HANDS ON THE SINGLE KNOWN TERRORIST LEADER IN IRAQ? WHAT.
THE. FUCK.
John F. Kerry, they are making your job so easy. So goddamned easy, pal. Why don't you
tell America that this administration hasn't a fucking clue and doesn't especially care? "War
president" my ass. MY. ASS. Why don't you tell the public that our hands have been tied tied by a White House that cons Americans into believing that they really will do whatever
it takes to "find these killers."
The war on terror is just so much rhetorical bullshit to this administration.
@Pat:
When I sent my ex-wife an Email regarding the reinstitution of the draft--her son is 26--she
mailed back two links about troops getting screwed, and this:
LIFE ~
Is all about ass:
you're either covering it,
laughing it off,
kicking it,
kissing it,
busting it,
or trying to get a piece of it.
Somewhat relating to your post above.
Kerry needs to KICK SOME ASS!
Posted by: Subotai | September 21, 2004 09:26 PM
It's not that they've made it easy for Kerry. It's way more complicated than Iran-Contra &
BCCI now. Somebody's going to have to start asking the pertinent questions, b/c these guys
together are taking this country even further adrift into lethal insanity, this time for all of
us. Kerry won't touch the issue of GWB and snake-handler Ashcroft not catching the
person(s) who took Anthrax from the Pentagon stash and drove home the "shock & awe"
perpetrated on the US public right after 11 Sept 2001, while conveniently tying up the
Federal offices for two months. But then Kerry helped push the farce that Saddam was
going to use the atom bomb on the USA. The key to understanding all of this is
understanding why the Dems would not contest the outright theft of the 2000 presidential
election and stick up for their constituents and disenfranchised voters, hell, even the
members of the Congressional Black Caucus had their faces rubbed in it by Gore himself.
I'm not going to pretend to have the answers, and I'm not expecting them to come from w/i
the system, but how much longer are we to put up w/ these criminals? At least get the kids
w/ the guns out of Iraq and back here so we can figure this mess out.
@b real
I'm all for bringing the kids home. I was simply pointing out that a year and a half into this
operation and one thing we might've expected for our money is the apprehension of
al-Zarqawi. We hear about him often from the CIA; we hear of him not at all from the
White House. I guarantee you there's no working plan to get him - just uncoordinated, ad
hoc efforts on the part of various groups whose flexibility and freedom to act is very, very
limited by the administration. Zarqawai isn't just one guy sawing the heads off Americans
in front of a video camera. He's become the head of a successful conglomerate within Iraq,
a local Terror, Inc. Three times before OIF the DoD approached the NSC with plans to take
him out in the northern no-fly zone. Three times they were turned down by this
administration, which - it cannot be repeated too many times - treats counterterrorism as a
kind of optional, extracurricular activity.
Nothing that we actually see has shit to do with a War on Terror. And what we don't see is
just downright frightening in its lack of seriousness and urgency.
Where is OBL? Where is al-Zarqawi?
If it mattered that much to the White House, we would have had them by now. But it
doesn't, and we don't.
As a simple matter of justice, if nothing else, they must be captured or killed. But the
administration is hardly consumed with matters of justice, unless seeking to outrun and
evade it themselves.
Sorry, b real, for my grouchy response.
I don't have the answers either. Just a lot of angry questions and a truckload of fury,
disgust, and frustration.
From the Rumsfeld transcript--a a mind-boggling attempt at putting a positive spin on the
Iraq-mess:
-------snip--------QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, our mayor here in Waynesville, a Lieutenant Colonel in the
Army Reserve, is one of the thousand of service members who have been activated for duty
in Iraq and that was his first activation in nearly three decades since he was on active duty
in Vietnam. Could you comment a little bit on your views on how the reserve and guard
components fit into total force picture since it appears thereâ€™s not going to be a major
expansion of the regular active duty forces? Are we moving toward a model like Israel or
other countries that extensively and regularly use reserves?
RUMSFELD: Well, first of all, if you see the mayor tell him thank you for his service we
appreciate it. You say it was his first activation or mobilization in 30 years?
QUESTION: (Inaudible) serves in Iraq.
RUMSFELD: Heâ€™s there now?
QUESTION: Yes.
RUMSFELD: Well, thatâ€™s terrific.
----------------When was the last time anybody checked to see if rummy has cloven hoofs?
Rumsfeld: ... "At some point the Iraqis will get tired of getting killed and weâ€™ll have
enough of the Iraqi security forces that they can take over responsibility for governing that
country and weâ€™ll be able to pare down the coalition security forces in the country
How the hell can an Iraqi or anyone else get "tired" of getting killed?
Posted by: pb | September 22, 2004 01:45 AM
"What a sad sad day it is.
Kerry seems determined to lose this election and the shrub mocks the whole world.
Can anyone offer me something positive, tell me that we have hit bottom?
Wil this help somewhat?:
Latest Zogby poll:
President Bush 241 electoral votes
Senator Kerry 264 electoral votes
Arkansas 7 possible
Florida 27 possible, Too close to call.
LINK
Well I guess Kerry has finally found out that he can call the cops -- KEYSTONE -- and the
people will laugh.
And it's about time, after reading the above posts & that link on the open thread, the one
about Yusuf Islam ,that known follower of the Muslim faith, founder of the Muslim School
in London, and outspoken critic of terrorism, has been denied entry into the United States,
you know him, CAT STEVENS....whew that was close.
The nail is begging.......to be POUNDED
Inquiries Into Deaths in U.S. Custody
The Army is investigating the deaths of three Iraqis and an Afghan Army
recruit who were in American custody or came into contact with American
forces, military investigators said Tuesday.
In Baghdad, the First Cavalry Division announced that it had charged two
soldiers in connection with the deaths of three Iraqis, Reuters reported, but the
Army gave no details about the incident, including whether the Iraqis were
detainees.
Separately, the Army's Criminal Investigation Command said Tuesday that it
had reopened an inquiry into the death of an 18-year-old Afghan Army
recruit...
Press reaction to BushÂ´s UN speech:
NYT EditorialPresident Bush's Lead Balloon
Mr. Bush delivered an inexplicably defiant campaign speech in which he
glossed over the current dire situation in Iraq for an audience acutely aware of
the true state of affairs, and scolded them for refusing to endorse the American
invasion in the first place.
LA Times Editorial Making Nice at the U.N. ...Unfortunately, kind words can't erase past
slurs â€” or current ones out on the campaign trail â€” against the U.N. and "Old Europe,"
and hope is not enough to change the disaster on the ground.J. Freedland in The Guardian
Still no votes in Leipzig
So we ought to hold America to its word. When George Bush spoke to the UN
yesterday, he invoked democracy in almost every paragraph, citing America's
declaration of independence which insists on the equal worth of every human
being. Well, surely equal worth means an equal say in the decisions that affect
the entire human race.
That 1776 declaration is worth rereading. Its very first sentence demands "a
decent respect to the opinions of mankind": isn't that exactly what the world
would like from America today? The document goes on to excoriate the
distant emperor George for his recklessness, insisting that authority is only
legitimate when it enjoys "the consent of the governed". As the world's sole
superpower, the US now has global authority. But where is the consent?
Cartoon in the Telegraph
@Pat...It is time to focus your anger. Bushco is the enemy, it is the terrorist. AlQaeda is a
patsy; Bushco has never intended to apprehend "him" as he is an essential part of the global
scam. Etc.
Get real here. It is way too late to hang your hopes on a solution crafted/executed by the
USA. We have been compromised beyond salvation (as b real pointed out, Kerry is simply
another puppet to step in when it becomes too hot for the Dub) so time to back off on the
struggle. I am reminded of a diver who loses his orientation due to pressure and nitrogen
narcosis and dives deeper in his effort to escape. Fruitless and lethal.
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« Nuclear Iran | Main | Peace Plane »
Moon of Alabama: Nuclear Iran
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« Thread Open | Main | Applause »
September 21, 2004
Nuclear Iran
Just as I start to write about Iran and the IAEA, George Monbiot of The Guardian comes up
with much better writing in Proliferation treaty .
Here is the world's most nonsensical job description. Your duty is to work
tirelessly to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons. And to work
tirelessly to encourage the proliferation of the means of building them. This is
the task of the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed El
Baradei.
...
His agency's motto - "Atoms for Peace" - wasn't always a lie. In 1953, when
Eisenhower founded it with his famous speech to the United Nations, people
really seemed to believe that nuclear fission could solve the world's problems.
...
The nuclear powers, he said, "should... make joint contributions from their
stockpiles of normal uranium and fissionable materials" which should then be
given to "the power-starved areas of the world", "to provide abundant
electrical energy". This would give them, he argued, the necessary incentive to
forswear the use of nuclear weapons.
...
Now there are about 20 countries which, as a result of foreign help for their
civilian nuclear programmes, could, if they choose, become nuclear weapons
states within months. When Russia shipped uranium and the technologies
required to build a bomb to Iran, it not only had a right to do so: under the
non-proliferation treaty, it had a duty to do so.
It's not yet clear whether Iran has stepped over the brink. It is plainly enriching
uranium and producing heavy water, which could enable it to build both
uranium- and plutonium-based bombs. But both processes are also legitimate
means of developing materials for nuclear power generation.
...
Both the US and the UK have abandoned their own obligations to disarm, and
appear to be contemplating a new generation of nuclear weapons. Both
governments have also suggested that they would be prepared to use them
pre-emptively. Iran is surrounded by American military bases, and is one of
the two surviving members of the axis of evil. The other one, North Korea, has
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2004/09/nuclear_iran.html (1 von 5) [16.11.2004 18:28:26]
been threatening its neighbours with impunity. Why? Because it has the bomb.
If Iran is not developing a nuclear weapons programme, it hasn't
understood the drift of global politics.
Let me add some links to further the point. The International Atomic Energy Agency was
setup after EisenhowerÂ´s speech to the UN General Assembly. Any sovereign country
may sign the IAEA statute and join or leave the organization at its will.
The US pressure on the IAEA and Iran is ridicules, when the US supports Israel not only by
harmless giveaways like 5,000 smart bombs but also by not discussing Israelâ€™s nuclear
weapons at the IAEA. The US also refrains from pressure on South Korea that has, unlike
Iran, broken its IAEA obligation at least twice in recent years.
Other friends of the US suspect of military nuclear ambitions are Japan and Taiwan.
Iran today announced to restart work on machines for enriching uranium. There are legal
duties for IAEA members to support this. There is no legal ground to hinder Iran by any
means.
When Eisenhower initiated "Atoms for Peace", the promise was to help countries to
develop civil nuclear capacity while the military nuclear powers would diminish their
arsenals. Part one of these promises were fulfilled, part two never got traction.
This is the reason why there are Bush Aides Divided on Confronting Iran Over A-Bomb.
There are no good options until the US restrains itself from the US plan for new nuclear
arsenal and gets equal handed and serious about proliferation.
Comments
Well, the original officiali list of nuclear power is easy: the 5 permanent members of
Security Council, USA, Russia, China, France, UK. Add to that the shadowy member of
both clubs (thanks to current US policy for SC and to past French policy for nuclear tech),
Israel, and the new members from late 90s, India and Pakistan. Add also the widely
suspected N Korea.
We may want to consider the wannabes now, which is apparently made up of up to 20
members that are very close and mostly lack the will and a quick massive funding, and up
to 20 more if we add all those who considered it once or are considering it now and have
enough to get there in a few years. That make a pretty interesting list (I included those that
are known to have seeked nukes, or have/had a nuclear civilian program decent enough to
have the stuff and basic knowledge to go quite far; having a decent economy helps, which
explains why countries that are quite minor but industrialised are in â€“ in fact I could've
put every European nation with more than 4-5 mio people).
- Iran (obviously)
- Japan
- S Korea
- S Africa
- Argentina
- Brazil
- Germany
- Italy
- Spain
- Poland
- Ukraine (hosted Soviet nukes but had to give them up)
- Mexico
- Canada
- Algeria
- Netherlands
- Taiwan
- Australia
- Belgium
- Switzerland
- Turkey
- Saudi Arabia
- Egypt
- Nigeria
- Indonesia
Not on the list at the moment (recently withdrawn but able to make a comeback): Libya and
Iraq
As I said, I suppose I may consider countries like Hungary, Portugal, Sweden, Kazakhstan.
The mess is so big and worsening I wonder if countries like Peru, Sudan and Vietnam
shouldn't be included.
Well Sweden canceled its nuclear weapons program in the fifties when because it was
funnier to use all those money on building the welfare state. And it became clear that
Sweden could count on Nato nuclears if invaded by USSR. Since then Sweden has taken
the moral high grounds: We chose not to make nuclear weapons for the sake of mankind
and so on... :)
And I think this points to the way of making the world safer from nuclear proliferation: No
more wars, so that nations doesnÂ´t need to feel threathened. Where is that Kellogg when
you need him?
Posted by: A swedish kind of death | September 21, 2004 10:36 AM
The unpleasant but seemingly inevitable prospect for the next century is widespread
proliferation of nuclear weapons: presumably the technology required for separating the
fissionable isotopes becomes more efficient,
less expensive, and more widely known with each passing year. Furthermore it is not
unlikely that we will see instances of
national nuclear arsenals being dispersed as could well have happened with the collapse of
the Soviet Union. Motives for such proliferation could be either purely mercenary or
ideological solidarity against
a common perceived enemy (most likely the United States). It requires an act of sublime
faith to believe that such circumstances can lead to a stable peace rather than nuclear
holocaust. Feynman and other physicists foresaw all of this from the beginning. The
attempt to pre-emptively destroy budding nuclear programs has already been tried (by
Israel), but it's hard to believe that a policy of pre-emptive air strikes and selective
assassination will be successful in the long term. But then, as Keynes put it, and never more
aptly than in this case,
"in the long run we are all dead".
The connection between the Iran program and the Israel/US bomb deal Eyeing Iran
Reactors, Israel Seeks U.S. Bunker Bombs
The United States plans to sell Israel $319 million worth of air-launched
bombs, including 500 "bunker busters" able to penetrate Iran's underground
nuclear facilities, Israeli security sources said on Tuesday.
an increasingly interesting question as consequence of the many voices which predict the
collapse of the US in the near future is, what will happen with the giant ABC arsenal of the
US when there are no resources and no organization to secure it ?
one has just to look at the eyeball series at cryptome.org to wonder who and with what
resources will be able to secure the giant bases when there is no "us army" there anymore
with the capability to keep looters and other criminal elements away from all this
dangerous stuff.
Posted by: name | September 21, 2004 11:24 AM
I copied this list a while back from a book I was reading, and I know it is missing more
recent administrations, but I found it quite revealing.
US contracts to build nuclear reactors
=========================
Duration // Administration // Country
1957-1988 // Eisenhower // South Africa
1958-2002 // Eisenhower // Israel
1959-1979 // Eisenhower // Iran
1963-1993 // Kennedy // India
1969-1999 // Nixon // Argentina
1972-2002 // Nixon // Taiwan
1972-2002 // Nixon // Brazil
1973-2002 // Nixon // South Korea
1974-2002 // Nixon // Portugal
11:57 post above was me
Opinion piece in the International Herald Tribune Israel's nukes serve to justify Iran's
to persuade Iran to forgo nuclear weapons is a laudable objective. But for the
United States, Britain and France to insist on it is hypocritical.
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« Thread Open | Main | Applause »
Moon of Alabama: Thread Open
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September 20, 2004
Thread Open
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Comments
Morgan StanleyÂ´s Stephen Roach in When Politics Matter sees the strategic risk the US in
inviting with itÂ´s dependency on foreign capital. You canÂ´t bully the world savers and
expect them to finance your debt.
In my view, Campaign 2004 has barely paid lip service to Americaâ€™s
biggest economic problem.
The elephant in the room that the politicians continue to sidestep is the
profound shortfall of national saving â€” the sustenance of future growth and
prosperity for any economy. The numbers speak for themselves: The net
national saving rate â€” the combined saving of households, businesses, and
the government sector â€” fell to a record low of 0.4% during 2003 and has
since rebounded to only 1.9%.
...
Lacking in domestic saving â€” but still wanting to grow in a world where
saving always equals investment â€” the US must import surplus saving from
abroad. That means America has no choice other than to run large
current-account and trade deficits to attract that capital. A record 5.7%
current-account deficit in 2Q04 hammers that point home. It is not an accident.
Nor is it traceable to unfair global competition, as the Democrats maintain.
Nor can it be swept aside as merely a by-product of the worldâ€™s growth
deficiency, as the Republicans argue. This is, first and foremost,
Americaâ€™s problem â€” a direct outgrowth of our own homemade saving
gap.
...
Perhaps the toughest economic challenge in the next four years will come in
managing the delicate interplay between Americaâ€™s external funding needs
and its political relationship with foreign creditors. At present, this
increasingly tenuous disequilibrium is being finessed by open-ended buying of
dollar-denominated assets by foreign officials and investors. The glue that
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2004/09/thread_open.html (1 von 17) [16.11.2004 18:28:34]
binds this contract together presumes that the rest of the world has
subsumed its national interests â€” both political and economic â€” to
those of the United States. This is the real â€œcoalition of the willing.â€•
History warns against complacency in taking such mutual interests for
granted. Thatâ€™s especially the case for a world that has become
increasingly disenchanted with US hegemony and destabilized by mounting
economic imbalances and rising geopolitical tensions. No matter who wins the
White House this November, the next President is likely to be faced with
growing tensions between Americaâ€™s economic and foreign policies.
Thatâ€™s when politics could matter most.
As expected: Blogging not leading to financial prosperity
On the inherent fallibility of phone survey data:
Breslin original
Counterpunch commentary
KerryÂ´s speech on Iraq today
My impression: The sentences are getting crispier, but the speech is too long with too many
redundancies and unclear structuring.
His ideas on Iraq:
- immediate international conference to get help
- increase training for security forces dramatically
- quick impact reconstruction projects with Iraqi firms
- get troops from other countries to protect UN during election efforts in Iraq
Sounds better the Bush, but the question that any foreign country will ask before lifting a
finger: What is your endgame/exit scenario?
What will Kerry answer?
Amazing the decline of the average lifespane in the US.
Twenty years ago, the US, the richest nation on the planet, led the world's longevity league.
Today, American women rank only 19th, while males can manage only 28th place,
alongside men from Brunei.
--This decline is astonishing given America's wealth. Not only is it Earth's richest nation, it
devotes more gross domestic product - 13 per cent - to health care than any other
developed nation. Switzerland comes next with 10 per cent; Britain spends 7 per cent. As
the Boston group - Alicia Munnell, Robert Hatch and James Lee - point out: 'The richer a
country is, the more resources it can dedicate to education, medical and other goods and
services associated with great longevity.' The result in every other developed country has
been an unbroken rise in life expectancy since 1960.
--Jacobs and Morone state: 'Check-ups, screenings and vaccinations save lives, improve
well-being, and are shockingly uneven [in America]. Well-insured people get assigned
hospital beds; the uninsured get patched up and sent back to the streets.' For poor
Americans, health service provision is little better than that in third world nations. 'People
die younger in Harlem than in Bangladesh,' report Jacobs and Morone.
This brings up the question - what in the US is not declining?
Lifespan crisis hits supersize America
All aboard!
Pursuant to America's Ill-Health
"In other words, as the nation's middle-aged fatties reach retirement age, more and more
will start to die out. Life expectancy in the US could then actually go into decline.
The voice of God says: the article is here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1307954,00.html
Matthew says: killing off the poor fatties with cheeseburger diets is also a cool way of
insuring that they never live long enough to collect on their social security so we have more
money to give away to halliburton
The voice of God says: plus, buy stock in McDonalds!
Matthew says: yes, with privatized social security, americans can have their assets
forceably invested in corporations that take steps to make sure they never live long enough
to claim the benefits
The voice of God says: frankly, you have to admire the brilliance of it on some, sick level.
Matthew says: yeah
The voice of God says: on the other hand, it's another reason not to smoke, if you care to
think about it. cheeseburger or cigarette, you don't have the financial means to manage your
condition, but that Hummer owner you were behind at a stoplight yesterday sure does.
Matthew says: well, all of government is really a scam to get the resources of poor bastards
into the hands of rich bastards
Matthew says: it's really strikingly obvious but it took reading about how the English did
this sort of thing to the Indians and Africans to drive it home for me
Matthew says: I mean, if we could go out every day and hunt/gather what we needed, who
would give a fuck, right? Since we can't, the society that took that ability away from us
owes us something
The voice of God says: well, i'd say that's true of somebunall governments. For example,
while there's not doubt some degree of that in, e.g. Holland, it's consideribly less so than
here.
Matthew says: but really, the that's the whole point - making subsistence impossible by
virtue of the need to pay taxes in currency and then squeezing the money out
Matthew says: take halliburton
The voice of God says: sure, and get a good state religion going to convince people that it's
all going to better after they're dead... again- it's sick but it's not stupid.
Matthew says: a bunch of poor fucks get money taken from them (out of their checks), and
it gets given to halliburton, who writes a big check to dick cheney
The voice of God says: dick cheney before cheney dicks you, baby!
(TVoG = Ã¦; Matthew = my buddy Matt; We're trying to help each other quit smoking,
BTW. Next goal for me after the degree.)
Gee Fran...you left out the most svelte paragraph of all:
Their paper is one of a recent swathe of studies that have uncovered a
shocking truth: America, once the home of the world's best-fed, longest-lived
people, is now a divided nation made up of a rich elite and a large underclass
of poor, ill-fed, often obese, men and women who are dying early.
Do you suppose burgers and fries are the opiate of the masses?
If so, then the key to control is making sure Pringles stay around a dollar a can.
And if all that is true... do we need to update the metaphor "the great unwashed" to "the
great ill-fed over-fed"?
And if that is so... when will "the great ill-fed over-fed" finally get fed up with their federal
government?
Or is the really moral of the story here-- revolting bodies are incapable of revolting?
@Fran 2:25
Debt is not declining.
But with shorter lifespan the social security cost will sink dramatically as will the pension
costs for companies. This could help to turn around the debt situation too. If the lifespan
sinks further unemployment may also decrease.
What could happen if Kerry resign, for any reason?.
Would be possible to change the candidates?
with Kerry and Edwards is imposible to win next november.
VODKA ANYONE?
Machine Gun Kelly Meet Osama Bin Laden
Americans are greedy and refuse to and have been brainwashed into putting their money
into high yield mutual funds instead of local banks and bonds that fund local projects (muni
bonds).
Foriegners aren't as greedy and are willing to take the 3-5% return on bonds backed by the
American taxpayer. We have thus become slaves to foriegn bond holders.
Further, there has been a drastic shift in spending priorities from domestic spending during
the Clinton years to military spending that only benefits states that have bases and
contractors.
Also, when you hear a financial analyst talk about how deficit spending doesn't hurt the
economy if stays at a certain percent of gross domestic product, that is plan bullshit. When
there was a balanced budget during the Clinton years, that meant money was looking for
investment opportunities instead of going into bonds. The economy took off and private
investment boomed in the late 1990s.
Now, everyone will say there was a stock bubble. I disagree. What happened is Bushie with
his deficit spending and tax cut on capital gains burst the market bubble and money fled to
housing and government bonds. Safe harbors that wouldn't attract that money there if the
government weren't borrowing so much money. Further, the fed manipulated the market by
contracting the money supply causing the shift to other financial instruments and safe
harbors such as real estate.
Tell me where I'm wrong.
Finally, the media amplify his character into our moral weather report. He becomes the face
of our sky, the conditions that prevail. How can we sustain ourselves as the United States of
America given the stupid and ineffective warmaking, the constitutionally insensitive
lawgiving, and the monarchal economics of this president? He cannot mourn but is a figure
of such moral vacancy as to make us mourn for ourselves.
E. L. Doctorow
couldn't have sd it better doc
still steel
r'giap, I've only just been reading up on some of the posts I missed, and I read about your
diabetes. I'm very sorry. But you sound great, oh steely one.
Posted by: teuton | September 20, 2004 07:23 PM
teuton
thank you, i am awaiting a short hospitalisation & then visit by a nurse until the situation
regulates & like all grave sicknesses here - it is covered 100% by ministry of health - it is
only the second week of injecting myself & i have been taught a very quick lesson in
mortality
tho i gave one guilty pleasure that i can now confess as i've stopped - as an anti-imperialist
of good standing with the comrades - i have had an addiction to the odd can of coca cola &
for this sin - i am now punished - a little too severely i might add
though my instance is qualitatively different from that being lived by jÃ©rÃ´me - it was so
sudden & without warning - i am neither overweight nor am i genetetically disposed - &
the gravitÃ© of my situation was revelealed to me by the doctors & the changes necessary
immediately are like a hurricane in my life
but like many of us i'm a bit of a head fascist - my brain or what passes for one is the boss
& has allowed this poor body of mine to wear the wars
& it corresponding more or less with the beslen catastrophe - & with the increasing bad bad
news of the war of the flea in iraq & the bouncing ball of american polls & the
demonisation of the petit bourgeois journalist rather - but i shall now call my pancreas dick
cheney -so i can remember the historical context of my sickness
& this week health & state of affairs a little worse with that pompous caricature of a
caricature blair promising new crusades does not exactly put colour in my face
for your thoughts, force et tendresse
still steel
John McCain says:
"We're not going to have those national elections until we get rid of the sanctuaries. We've
got to go in there, we're going to have to sustain tragically some more casualties and the
longer we delay with these sanctuaries, the more difficult the challenge is going to be and
the more casualties we will incur and the Iraqi people will suffer."
Juan Cole says:
John, you ignorant slut.
Experience and common sense say:
Guerilla movements cannot be effectively countered by conventional forces. What do we
have a lot of in Iraq? Conventional forces. OTOH, the job in Iraq is just too large for
unconventional forces. Where does this leave us? In a bad place.
Christopher Allbritton at Back to Iraq is finishing up a Time magazine story and heading
off on a two-week vacation. "Iraq is now a powder keg," he writes. And while he hopes it
doesn't blow, if it does he wants it to wait until he's back in town to cover the eruption. A
good reporter is like that and we can at least be thankful that a few continue to exist.
Shit. So far, not being genetically predisposed for diabetes has been my excuse for having
all the sweets I like. Seems I must rethink that one...
Good Night.
There is a very interesting interview with Seymour Hersh up at Salon.com referencing his
new book.
Hersh sees the current Iraqi debacle as equal mixtures of utopianism, fantasy, and
incompetence on the part of the Neoclowns that run defense policy in this administration.
About the best analysis I have seen in 3-4 months.
When you decide to pick easy low-hanging fruit from trees, and don't know anything about
the nature of orchards, a debacle is what you get.
Well worth a read. I think readers can get a free day pass over there.
Posted by: J. Appleseed | September 20, 2004 08:29 PM
Do me a favor, all.
Follow this link to ASZ, cut and paste the letter portion of the post, and email it to everyone
in your address book. It's that important. Don't wait or you won't do it. It'll take you 30
seconds. For Kate and me, please do it now. :-)
THANKS!!
Posted by: Richard Cranium | September 20, 2004 08:34 PM
@koreyel, 4:00
you just made me choke on my cheeseburger
R'giap,
I've not been a regular visitor to the site for some time so I missed knowing about your
diabetes. So sorry to hear about it, hope all goes well.
You mentioned Jerome. What happened to him?
Hello to all the barflies. I've missed talking to yall. It's been a busy time here.
Posted by: Sassybelle | September 20, 2004 08:51 PM
Al Lorenz is a Civil Affairs NCO in Iraq. (Those guys, almost all reservists, are worth their
weight in gold.) At lewrockwell.com he tells us Why We Can't Win the War:
...First, we refuse to deal in reality. We are in a guerilla war, but because of politics, we are
not allowed to declare it a guerilla war and must label the increasingly effective guerilla
forces arrayed against us as "terrorists, criminals and dead-enders."
This implies that there is a zero sum game at work, i.e. we can simply kill X number of the
enemy and then the fight is over, mission accomplished, everybody wins. Unfortunately,
this is not the case. We have few tools at our disposal and those are proving to be wholly
ineffective at fighting the guerillas.
The idea behind fighting a guerilla army is not to destroy its every man (an impossibility
since he hides himself by day amongst the populace). Rather the idea in guerilla warfare is
to erode or destroy his base of support.
So long as there is support for the guerilla, for every one you kill two more rise up to take
his place. More importantly, when your tools for killing him are precision guided
munitions, raids and other acts that create casualties among the innocent populace, you
raise the support for the guerillas and undermine the support for yourself. (A 500-pound
precision bomb has a casualty-producing radius of 400 meters minimum; do the math.)
Second, our assessment of what motivates the average Iraqi was skewed, again by
politically motivated "experts." We came here with some fantasy idea that the natives were
all ignorant, mud-hut dwelling camel riders who would line the streets and pelt us with rose
petals, lay palm fronds in the street and be eternally grateful. While at one time there may
have actually been support and respect from the locals, months of occupation by our regular
military forces have turned the formerly friendly into the recently hostile.
Attempts to correct the thinking in this regard are in vain; it is not politically correct to
point out the fact that the locals are not only disliking us more and more, they are growing
increasingly upset and often overtly hostile. Instead of addressing the reasons why the
locals are becoming angry and discontented, we allow politicians in Washington DC to
give us pat and convenient reasons that are devoid of any semblance of reality.
[There's more.]
Richard,
I went to your letter and it hits the nail on the head. The bills are by democrats though and
the reason is Rangel wanted attention paid to the Vietnam era and how people like Bushie
got out of the draft. Inner city kids and poor farm boys fought that war.
I sure don't want a draft because I have children 20, 18, and 14. I will be pissed and I will
throw an absolute fit if a draft is reinstated.
Frat boys freinds that are in his rich boys club surely would be exempt. I could see the
language of the bill Bushie would produce.
US Draft Resolution 1,000,001 dead.
Whereas, I am a frat boy who used my daddys influence to get me into the National Guard,
and
Whereas, I used Coke and boozed it up while all those poor boys were drafted to Vietnam,
and
Whereas, I feel it is the duty of all rich boys with influencial daddys to buy their children
out of serving in the US military.
NOW BE IT THEREFORE, I decree as King George Bush that only poor rural boys and
girls and inner city boys and girls will be eligible to be drafted, and I do decree that anyone
who contributed to my campaign does not have their children drafted.
Thats our Georgie.
Jim Henley at Unqualified Offerings:
(H)ere's a short history of the future in which we launch our drive to retake "rebel-held
areas of Iraq" right after the November elections.
Tacitus writes something rueful but stirring, full of sorrow that this necessary step was so
long delayed but grimly reassured that at last the country is meeting its responsibilities.
Even I am moved, briefly. Dan Darling [at Regnum Crucis] posts an impressive-looking
order of battle followed by vatic pronouncements about the certain doom facing the enemy.
Someone named Trent Telenko appends 50 comments about how we "Jacksonians" are
going to end up having to kill all the Muslims anyway, not that the idea gives him any
pleasure, you understand. The newspapers all report that military spokespeople announce
that hundreds/thousands of insurgents/terrorists/guerrillas/anti-Iraqi
forces/deadenders/rebels have been killed. Some newspapers pick the wrong term from the
list of options in an article or two and Glenn Reynolds links to 50 bloggers expressing their
outrage. The [weblog] Command Post goes into overdrive, and does an excellent job of
posting breaking news. Foreign news sources have the bad taste to show dead bodies,
proving that they are not patriotic Americans at all. Somebody stops to add up the Fermi
numbers of enemy casualties and compares it to public estimates of the size of the
resistance back in Fall 2003. This person does not get linked by Glenn Reynolds. Mark
Steyn reprints his annual column about how the press is ignoring the good news from Iraq.
Military spokespeople announce that they believe they might be very close to capturing or
killing someone who may be either Abu Zarqawi or a popular female impersonator come to
Anbar province to perform at an anniversary party in the desert. Most importantly, military
spokespeople announce that we're winning, and soon thereafter, that we've won. Iraqi
police and army units are bused into recaptured towns with great fanfare. We actually
capture or kill Abu Zarqawi. Cries of triumph ring from NRO to Little Green Footballs.
And then it unravels over the next few weeks and months, on schedule. The inside pages of
the nation's newspapers note that some of those Iraqi police and army units aren't showing
up for work every day, and a few of them may, may you understand, be supplying weapons
to the rebels. Oh yeah. It turns out there are still rebels out there. Some IEDs go off. A few
suicide bombs. A brief quiet becomes decidedly less so. Some version of an election is
held, at the end of which various personages pronounce themselves unsatisfied. None of
these people work in the White House. It dawns that arrangements to turn security over to
"Iraqi army and police units" amount to reestablishing No-Go zones. Military spokespeople
caution reporters that there may be a spike in violence in the runup to the inauguration of
the new government since "that's what the insurgents most fear." Hawks darkly mutter that
they'd have gotten away with it too, if not for those treasonous doves.
Then the whole cycle starts again, because that's how hell works. [Google 'Sysiphus.']
The E.L. Doctorow piece is here at Common Dreams. It is very fine, called "The Unfeeling
President".
@Kate Storm:
Thank you for the link to R. Giap's reference.
Doctorow is a very powerful writer.
What better indictment of Bush could there be than that.
I read mostly history. Will have to catch up on the last 35 years of literature. I'll start with
D.
Thanks
Posted by: J. Appleseed | September 21, 2004 12:04 AM
I do not agree much with Kerry's foreign policy, still I consider him better than Bush, there
are even some things I agree on with him. I have been reading about how he is letting down
the people, that is the democrats. But lately I have been thinking along the line that maybe
'Kerry is not letting down the democrats, its the democrats letting down Kerry'! I have
been thinking to post about it. Well, I do not have to write about this anymore as Michael
Moore says it much better than I could.
Put Away Your Hankies...a message from Michael Moore
Christopher Preble at the Cato Institute says A Democratically Elected Government in Iraq
May Not Be Friendly to the US:
...The Bush administration hopes that Iraqis will replace Saddam Hussein's secular
socialism with a new breed of secular liberalism. This ideal government would be
committed to free enterprise, respect the rights of women, be tolerant toward ethnic and
religious minorities, be favorably disposed towards Israel, and open and hospitable for
American diplomats and businessmen.
But what if Shi'a Muslims, who comprise over 60 percent of the total population of Iraq,
elect a leader with ties to Iran - a democracy, but one in which religious mullahs dominate
political life, suppress dissent, are building nuclear weapons, and fund terrorism? What if
ethnic Kurds, emboldened by their relative autonomy from the last 12 years, choose leaders
committed to full-fledged statehood, independent of Iraq? What if a host of candidates split
the votes of Shiites and Kurds, while minority Sunni Muslims unite behind a former Baath
Party official?
In short, if a democratic election, reflecting the honest and freely expressed wishes of the
Iraqi people, produces a leader deemed insufficiently committed to Washington's goals, the
Bush administration will be forced to affirm or reject its alleged attachment to the principle
of democracy.
When protesters at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago taunted their
opponents with the chant "The whole world is watching," there was more than a little
hyperbole in their claim. Thirty-five years ago television was prevalent in the United States,
but it was just beginning to blanket the globe.
Times have changed. Today, hundreds of millions of television viewers in the Arab and
Muslim world watch live broadcasts from sympathetic satellite news networks that didn't
exist even 10 years ago. And if the Bush administration engineers an un-free election in
post-Hussein Iraq, limited to candidates pre-approved by Washington, many will see this as
confirmation of their long-held suspicions that this entire war had nothing to do with
spreading democracy.
The whole world is watching.
US spy agencies believe strikes on Iran wouldn't work: report
WASHINGTON (AFP) Sep 19, 2004
US spy agencies have played out "war games" to consider possible pre-emptive strikes on
Iranian nuclear facilities, and concluded that strikes would not resolve Washington's
standoff with Tehran, Newsweek magazine reported Sunday.
"The war games were unsuccessful at preventing the conflict from escalating," an unnamed
Air Force source told the magazine in its latest issue.
The Central Intelligence and the Defense Intelligence Agency played out the possible
results US strikes, the magazine reported.
Hawks within President George W. Bush's administration have advocated for regime
change in Tehran -- through covert operations or force if needed, Newsweek said.
But with US-led forces facing almost daily attacks in Iraq, no one in Bush's cabinet has
taken up the cause, the report said.
Bush can not and will not win the war in Iraq for one simple reason, he is not Arab. If he
wants the oil or just wants to protect Israel, his army will be there forever. Another 300,000
troops and equipment will be needed for Iran, 100,000 and equipment for Sudan (If he
wants to keep the chinese away from their oil). Then there's Syria, Lebanon, and if he
pisses off Turkey a little more and what if Pakistan decides they have had enough of his
bullshit. And. What about the coalition of the un-willing; France, Germany, Spain, Canada,
Mexico, most of south America, China, Russia, ( You are either with us or against us!)
Jeez.. I forgot North Korea and holy shit even South Korea has been sneaking in some
unaccounted for nuclear research and developement.
I guess i'm a little carried away here, but,is this man nuts or what?
Krugman The Last Deception
The point is that by winding down America's military presence, while
promising aid to those who don't harbor anti-American terrorists and
retaliation against those who do, the U.S. can probably leave behind an Iraq
that isn't an American ally, but isn't a threat either. And that, at this point, is
probably the best we can hope for.
Pat-- you're on fire, would pay a whole lot more than money to see JC play the Akroyd to
McCain's Curtain call.
Sassybelle - Jerome has had some tragedy in his own life to deal with--details at the annex.
Richard-- great letter, put the slammed the disraeli gears into low to ramp the spinzones
tires up that mountain.
.....Anybody still weeping go to Zogby, the cat is dead, with rigormortis, and it is not
bouncing.
....Finally, don't forget the only thing Rovians can do successfully is TV....any minute now
real events will smack them upside the head to good effect (hopefully it will not be a tragic,
but instead a comic, event).
Goerge Will in WaPoDubious Dreams About Iraq
After "This Week" arranged with Allawi's office for Sunday's interview, the
State Department called ABC to say that the office of U.S. Ambassador John
Negroponte in Baghdad had decided that the interview would not happen until
this coming Sunday, after Allawi's U.S. visit. This attempt by the U.S.
Embassy to exercise sovereignty over the prime minister raised interesting
questions about just what was actually transferred on June 28 when
sovereignty was supposedly given to the Iraqi government. The White House
recognized the inconvenience of such questions. The interview occurred.
U.S. to sell Israel 5,000 smart bombs
hmm - not really "sell". The US taxpayer will also be served the bill.
The United States will sell Israel 5,000 smart bombs for $319 million,
according to a report made to Congress a few weeks ago.
The funding will come from the U.S. military aid to Israel, and the bombs
range from airborne versions, guidance units, training bombs and detonators.
...
Government sources said the bomb deal, one of the largest weapons deals of
recent years, did not face any political difficulties, despite the use Israel has
made of U.S.-made F-16s in some of its assassinations in the territorie
...
The government sources said Israel will not be asking for any new weapons
systems or purchases until after the upcoming November elections.
@ Albert Camus & Sysiphus
Albert, have you noticed how my president has taken your mentor Sysiphus, and his task,
and used it for himself? And how he has taken his own rock, and made it one for us to
bear?
Albert, your absurdist hero Sysiphus, in his eternal project, of raising the rock, captured the
glint of consciousness, a light in the darkness, as the rock rolled down again in failure,
giving him some measure of contentment. Our president now, has assumed your rock, and
has givin us the mission to uphold his pleasure in the task of Sysiphus. With the promise of
eventual enlightenment, he has givin us the itenary of realizing this, in steadfastness,
strength, and singleminded unwavering dedication to the task, and blinding us to
consequences. In his view, failure is always the harbinger of victory, and of light.
So Albert, As I observe the presidents way, are you confident that in the final outcome, the
moral ideals that I uphold as my connection to the human fraternity gain in some
realization, from the pain of this task, or will the pain of this task, emerge as the work of his
pain?
some lyrics;
If we lived in a world without tears
How would bruises find
The face to lie upon
How would scars find skin
To etch themselves into
How would broken find the bones
How would heartbeats
Know when to stop
How would blood know
Which body to flow outside of
How would bullets find the guns
How would misery know
Which back door to walk through
How would trouble know
Which mind to live inside of
How would sorrow find a home
Lucinda Parker
Bill Gertz has a piece at the WaTimes on the potential for an al Qaeda strike within the US
between now and the inauguration. His sources are generic and he has no new information
to add. It's like the WH coming out and "predicting" that violence will increase in Iraq and
Afghanistan in the time period leading up to one or another "milestone event."
The anonymous author of Imperial Hubris points out (as does Juan Cole) that al Qaeda
doesn't have to carry out an attack within the US to bolser its position. The war in Iraq - and
failures in Afghanistan - have done that already.
But what al Qaeda would be seeking to do is to drive home the "lesson" of Iraq and
Afghanistan (that is, our powerlessness) on American soil. I can think of no more painful
blow. I don't think anyone else can either.
R-Giap: I'm sad and sorry about your illness. I hope you'll manage to get on with a decent
life without too much of trouble in the daily life (even if it looks like you have to give up
Coke for mineral water).
5.000 bombs for Israel: Ah, so that's Sharon's secret plan to end the occupation in Gaza.
That be Lucinda Williams (above)
sorry
Juan Cole thinks
I have a sinking feeling that the American public may like Bush's cynical
misuse of Wilsonian idealism precisely because it covers the embarrassment
of their having gone to war, killed perhaps 25,000 people, and made a perfect
mess of the Persian Gulf region, all out of a kind of paranoia fed by dirty tricks
and bad intelligence. And, maybe they have to vote for Bush to cover the
embarrassment of having elected him in the first place.
quite plausible psychology.
clueless joe
i thank you for your thoughts & at the moment not so good - am having enormous shifts extremely high & extremely low on the same day - i imagine the hospitalisation is to
regulate that but i am resisting it - like most of us i am a little scared of hospitals
& my body is experiencing so many changes including what they call 'transitory blindness'
& as i have only one eye that functions in any case(perhaps that explains my
unreconstructed althusserianism)& don't feel i have a lott of room to manouevre - gave a
seminar today on james agee's 'let us now praise famous men' & in the middle of it i
experience a feeling of losing conciousness as if i have fallen off a bike - in any case - i am
a little frightened & a little in wonder at the lessons my body is teaching me
if anyone here knows anything or know any links with diabetes 1 - i would be very thankful
- as i think my ignorance of what is happening is not helping matters & perhaps causing
unnecessary irritation
soory to male this call here - but some days i'm a little close to panic & my doctors are a
little too elliptic for the moment
still steel
RGiap: Are they calling your diabetes "LADA" "late onset autoimmune diabetes of
adulthood"? I Googled for it, and found a few. Here's one: LADA
@rÂ´giap
ItÂ´s not that easy to train the right amount and timing(!) of providing insuline and calories
to the body. ThatÂ´s why a few days in hospital will help. Tip from my father: Allways
carry a piece of sugar in your pocket. If it feels as if you faint it is usually to little sugar in
your system - take a piece and you will be fine in just a few minutes.
Diabetes Insight seems to be a good start - lots of links (left menue "www-links", then top
menue "new and summary)
International Diabetes Federation partly industry funded, but some links.
National Diabetes Information Clearinghouse
thanks kate & b
thanks for the tips & the links
don't know whether its the diabetes or just surges of clarity but just listend to a part of bush
before u.n. & can imagine how mao tse tunf coyld not have imagined in his worst
nightmare or erotic dreams - a principal enemy so venal, so thoughtless, so ignorant, do
damnably cruel
i am reminded again of brecht when listening to kofi annan that when brecht appeared
before the house of unamerican activities - someone sd it was like einstein being
interrogated by apes
as rhetoric - it was truly beautiful what kofi sd - i just wish he would follow it up with a
degree of action - its what iraq needs, its what the world needs but above all it is what
america needs
alabama many months ago corrected me on the comparison between this time & the time of
mccarthy using the experience of the sinologist owne lattimore - but it does seem to me the
level of silence in relation to the criminals in the white house is not dissimilar - even
including this don rather situation
again & again i am reminded that this empire not just happy with winning & bringing the
dark ages with it - but that there is a level of vengeance against any progressive impulse
that has become established in the last thirty years
perhaps i am a little delirant but it seems clear to me
still steel
i have done a quick scan kate & b
it will really be a great help
still steel
US health.
Immigrants outlive U.S.-born residents by years
Life expectancy higher despite lower standard of living, report finds. MSNBC, May 2004.
Excerpt:
Immigrant black men live nine years longer than black men born in the United States,
according to an analysis by a National Institutes of Health researcher.
Link
RGiap, all my thoughts, wood knocking, better yet, steel clanging..
one OK general info - link (in French):
Link
Can't Let the Cat In
Posted by: Harry Chapin | September 21, 2004 11:53 PM
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Moon of Alabama: Battle Ready
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September 20, 2004
Battle Ready
You donÂ´t have to agree to send troops into a battle zone, but if troops are send to a battle
zone they should be in a state that serves the purpose. Thomas E. Ricks reports in WaPo
about a battalion of the South Carolina National Guard that yesterday left for Iraq. Their
task in Iraq will be to escort support convoys, i.e. riding shotgun for KBR trucks, in
northern Iraq.
This is an artillery battalion ("They donÂ´t know friend from foe, just valuable targets.")
filled up with a hodgepodge of personal from other units. The last two month they were
retrained to military police and infantry tasks.
During this time they:
- were on duty and training 7 days a week usually more than 12 hours a day
- had only one leave of 36 hours total on Labour Day
- were not allowed to wear civilian cloth, even when off duty
- had fights between soldiers
- were barred to leave their rooms when off duty since Labour Day
- had a high rate of AWOL and other incidents.
The share of National Guards and Reserve troops in Iraq will increase during the current
rotation with more call ups for Guard troops coming. Moral of troops in Iraq is already low
and with these new troops coming in, it will sink to the bottom. How can you expect these
troops to fight in a classic guerrilla war? You can not and sending them is a crime in and of
itself regardless of the any underlying reason for the war.
Comments
Have you seen ROBERT NOVAK's trial balloon?:
Quick exit from Iraq is likely
No, he doesn't speak about Kerry, he speaks about a second Bush term.
Whether Bush or Kerry is elected, the president or president-elect will have to
sit down immediately with the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The military will tell the
election winner there are insufficient U.S. forces in Iraq to wage effective war.
That leaves three realistic options: Increase overall U.S. military strength to
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2004/09/battle_ready.html (1 von 10) [16.11.2004 18:28:39]
reinforce Iraq, stay with the present strength to continue the war, or get out.
Well-placed sources in the administration are confident Bush's decision will be
to get out.
The rats abandon the shipwreck.
Well under these circumstances I would go AWOL too, more likely I would never have
joined the army. It's so frustrating, I knew it was going to be bad even before the war
started, but I never imagined that it would get this bad.
Abduction, murder, mayhem in the week the peace was lost - As the spread and severity of
violence increases, Patrick Cockburn in Baghdad finds the Iraqi government's position
more hopeless than ever
@Fran
It just started and it will get much much worse than today before it ends.
From your link:
The struggle for power in Iraq is only beginning - and it will be fought with guns, not at the
ballot box.
Have 1,000 U.S. Souls Died for Oil?
But is the conventional wisdom correct that the United States needs to
exchange blood for oil? Many economists donâ€™t think so. Before the first
Gulf War, two Nobel laureates in economics-Milton Friedman on the right and
James Tobin on the left-stated that no war for oil was needed.
In fact, the Persian Gulf countries need to sell oil more than the United States
needs to buy it. Oil accounts for between 65 and 95 percent of the exports of
Persian Gulf nations. In contrast, oil makes up only about 7 percent of U.S.
imports. Thus, most states, whether their governments are friendly to the
United States or not, have a huge incentive to export oil into the world market.
Even when oil prices are periodically high, adverse economic effects are vastly
overstated. The economic stagflation of the late 1970s was falsely attributed to
rising petroleum prices originating from the 1973 â€œoil crisisâ€•. Instead bad
economic policies of the U.S. government-for example, price controls and
excessively lax monetary policy-were more to blame than high oil prices. In
fact, economist Douglas Bohi has estimated that the petroleum shocks of the
1970s reduced the U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by only .35 percent.
More recently, according to Donald Losman of the National Defense
University, although Germany faced a crude oil price increase of 211 percent
between the fourth quarter of 1998 and third quarter of 2000, it experienced
economic growth with falling unemployment and inflation.
The United States imports roughly 20 percent of its oil from the Persian Gulf.
From the Far East, America imports about 80 percent of
semiconductors-another product that is crucial for the U.S. economy and
national security. Yet Washington never worries about shortages of or high
prices for East Asian circuits and does not intervene militarily to make
supplies of them secure.
So even oil, the most defensible of the potential unstated reasons for invading
Iraq, doesnâ€™t turn out to be very defensible at all. Could 1,000 Americans
have died in vain?
Bulgaria rejects Polish proposal to relocate troops in Iraq to more dangerous zone
Coalition of the not-so-willing?
That Eland piece ("Have 1,000 U.S. Souls Died for Oil? ") ignores what Wallerstein,
Chomsky and countless others have been saying since day one -- the US picked on a
weakened country it assumed it could squash to give the Bush Doctrine legitimacy and
scare the bejeesus out of the rest of the world. If you're going to talk like madmen, you
should also act like madmen. Besides, even the documents that came out of the Cheney
energy plans showed that the US was not planning on significantly increasing the oil
imports from that region. One can control resources for other purposes, such as blocking
exports to states deemed threats to the superpower status. Eland is quite disingenuous to
leave these points out of his commentary. But then, when he wraps up w/ a classic logical
fallacy re semiconductors, it's almost as if he doesn't even want to be taken seriously...
my choice of phrasing at the end of my comment above might be confusing...I am not
aware of any classic logically fallacies regarding semiconductors, though I wouldn't be
surprised to hear someone trot one out ;-) My observation was centered on how Eland uses
attempts to seal his argument.
Can we retrack all Iraq comments? ItÂ´s over folks.
Quick exit from Iraq is likely Robert Novak - neither Bush nor Kerry would stay in Iraq both would redraw quickly.
Problem - I donÂ´t believe Novak or do I?
An argument I saw the other day (a comment on L Rozen blog?) was the Bush
administration was tacitly admitting to failure in Iraq, and so also their implicit intention of
an early withdrawl, by their stubborn refusal to spend any of that 18 billion reconstruction
money - that the're not going to throw all that money into a circumstance they are/will lose
control of.
The obvious counter, that security must come first belies the 50% unemployment situation,
and the insurgency is an equal opportunity employer.
Karzai and Allawi will be at the UN this week, as will Bush. There will be high flying talks
of successful democratisation all over the media. Important times to point to the real news.
THE POLITICAL WAR George Packer in The New Yorker
War, unlike budget forecasts and campaign coverage, is quite merciless with
falsehood.
In refusing to look at Iraq honestly, President Bush has made defeat there
more likely.
Web Site: American Hostage Killed in Iraq
Iraq, Afghan Leaders Hailed in U.S., Threatened at Home
U.S. soldier killed in Iraq
3 Dead, 7 Hurt in Iraq Suicide Car Blast
Senior Sunni clerics assassinated in Iraq
Ukrainian Company Under Investigation Over Iraq Deals
No NATO Agreement On Iraqi Training Mission
Turkish company says 10 employees held hostage in Iraq
Senior Afghan Official Survives Roadside Blast plus two US soldiers killed.
In this canadian ctv media player video between 2:42 to 2:57 a M1 tank or M2 Bradley gets
blown up. I have seen no other reports of this.
A contrarian opinion on Iraq - Spengler of Asia Times Bush, Marshal Foch and Iran
Washington's strategic position in the Middle East is stronger than it has ever
been, contrary to superficial interpretation. With much of central Iraq out of
US control and a record level of close to 100 attacks a day against US forces,
President George W Bush appears on the defensive. The moment recalls
French Marshal Ferdinand Foch's 1914 dispatch from the Marne: "My center
is giving way, my right is in retreat; situation excellent. I shall attack." To be
specific, the United States will in some form or other attack Iran while it
arranges the division of Iraq.
@B, 5:18 PM:
Yeah. And they'll pull the troops they need out of Douglas Haig's ***hole.
Posted by: Franchet d'Esprey | September 20, 2004 05:52 PM
To return to Bernhard's original post above, this seems to support the view that a draft or
conscription of some sort will be necessary next year. Even if the election winner in
November decides to pull out of Iraq as rapidly as possible, it will take several months to a
year to accomplish that. And without reinforcements, the resistance will continue to hit
U.S. forces while they are in retreat.
I am skeptical that Bush would decide on a pull-out because I think one of his primary war
aims has been to establish substantial permanent U.S. military bases in Iraq.
Found the following, and thought I'd pass it along:
Getting Out?
... My guess is, Novak's column is a foil, designed as a feint to get the White House past the
election. Once safely re-elected, Bush's new team (sans Colin Powell, of course) can
ratchet up the pre-emptive war strategy once again, and relaunch its Iraq offensive. Just in
the past few days, the U.S. military in Iraq is leaking news that it is preparing a city-by-city
offensive for November and December 2004 to search and destroy Fallujah, Ramadi,
Samarra and other Iraqi strongholds of the resistance.
Yes, four Republican senators -- McCain, Lugar, Hagel and Lindsey Graham -- yesterday
blasted the Bush administration for bungling in Iraq. But they are calling for more
engagement, not less. "No, I don't think we're winning. We're in trouble, deep trouble in
Iraq," said Hagel. But they don't seem to be wanting a pullout. "We're going to need more
people [in Iraq] over time," said Graham. McCain, bloodthirsty as always, said that the
United States has to take out Fallujah and the other "sanctuaries" of the insurgency, and he
called for 90,000 more U.S. troops. And Lugar said that Iraqi government forces aren't
ready to do the job, implying that it will take more U.S troops.
So I'd guess Novak is blowing smoke. ...
-------------Judging from the "sacred cow" treatment Novak has received in the Plame Affair grand
jury investigation -- consisting thus far of grilling and harrassment of virtually every
*other* potentially knowledgable journalist around, while Novak himself has yet to receive
even a subpoena (as far as anyone knows) -- I'd guess he's right!
Bob Novak is so far in bed with this regime, he probably snores in perfect synchronization!
He was the willing conduit for an utterly illegal leak that exposed a CIA agent merely for
vengeance sake. So it's doubtful he'd balk at assisting in the "leaking" of this excessively
optimistic, utterly fantastic, and ultimately unindictable fairy tale oft the "good news about
the Bush plan".
If "a little bird told him", its species was very likely Dickus cheneyi. I wouldn't believe a
word of it myself, insofar as Bush and his NeoConNazi minders are concerned. (*Kerry*
might have the good sense to pull out of Iraq, if need be; Dubya has yet to *demonstrate*
any sense at all! Besides, to him it's strictly OPM -- Other People's Mortality -- he's playing
with.)
Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, .... You're not gonna fool me again!
-- G.W. Bush
Posted by: JMFeeney (USA) | September 20, 2004 09:32 PM
Found the following, and thought I'd pass it along:
Getting Out?
... My guess is, Novak's column is a foil, designed as a feint to get the White House past the
election. Once safely re-elected, Bush's new team (sans Colin Powell, of course) can
ratchet up the pre-emptive war strategy once again, and relaunch its Iraq offensive. Just in
the past few days, the U.S. military in Iraq is leaking news that it is preparing a city-by-city
offensive for November and December 2004 to search and destroy Fallujah, Ramadi,
Samarra and other Iraqi strongholds of the resistance.
Yes, four Republican senators -- McCain, Lugar, Hagel and Lindsey Graham -- yesterday
blasted the Bush administration for bungling in Iraq. But they are calling for more
engagement, not less. "No, I don't think we're winning. We're in trouble, deep trouble in
Iraq," said Hagel. But they don't seem to be wanting a pullout. "We're going to need more
people [in Iraq] over time," said Graham. McCain, bloodthirsty as always, said that the
United States has to take out Fallujah and the other "sanctuaries" of the insurgency, and he
called for 90,000 more U.S. troops. And Lugar said that Iraqi government forces aren't
ready to do the job, implying that it will take more U.S troops.
So I'd guess Novak is blowing smoke. ...
-------------Judging from the "sacred cow" treatment Novak has received in the Plame Affair grand
jury investigation -- consisting thus far of grilling and harrassment of virtually every
*other* potentially knowledgable journalist around, while Novak himself has yet to receive
even a subpoena (as far as anyone knows) -- I'd guess he's right!
Bob Novak is so far in bed with this regime, he probably snores in perfect synchronization!
He was the willing conduit for an utterly illegal leak that exposed a CIA agent merely for
vengeance sake. So it's doubtful he'd balk at assisting in the "leaking" of this excessively
optimistic, utterly fantastic, and ultimately unindictable fairy tale oft the "good news about
the Bush plan".
If "a little bird told him", its species was very likely Dickus cheneyi. I wouldn't believe a
word of it myself, insofar as Bush and his NeoConNazi minders are concerned. (*Kerry*
might have the good sense to pull out of Iraq, if need be; Dubya has yet to *demonstrate*
any sense at all! Besides, to him it's strictly OPM -- Other People's Mortality -- he's playing
with.)
Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, .... You're not gonna fool me again!
-- G.W. Bush
Apologies once again for the duplication. That one is really strange, because I *swear* I
only posted once, and never got *any* error message.
Am watching most attentively on this one. (If it comes out twice this time, it isn't me doing
it.)
Other blogs have speculated that the Novak assertion that Bush may pullout of Iraq is a
message to the voters who maybe on the fence and are leaning toward Kerry because of his
(Kerry's) stated goal to pull the troops out. It's a "look don't worry about the draft, not
gonna happen, bush is planning on bringing the troops home too" ploy. It's not coming
from the bush campaign it's coming from master-leak receiver Novak. The voters who
might be getting wary of Bush could take this as a sign of reassurance. Anyway that's what
others are speculating.
My own personal thoughts on this are:
Bush will institute the draft if he is reannointed. Anything he may say now is just to get
votes. I don't think he or any of the neocons have any intention of moving away from Iraq,
Iran, ect. They've got their plan and are sticking to it. They haven't taken the advice of or
listened to any of the intelligence that has come across their desks that doesn't fit into their
scenario. I seriously doubt that they are capable of changing their course now.
Posted by: sukabi | September 20, 2004 09:39 PM
I think the Asia Times article interesting. That the US is loosing now is obvious and must
be to the top brass. After the election there probably will be a president looking for a way
out of the present situation. And what hasnÂ´t been discussed much is what way out he will
chose. Draft is a possibility to try to get those 500 000 soldiers the Pentagon wanted to
pacify Iraq from the beginning. Another one might be to carve up Iraq.
Letting the Kurds go before they also get pissed at the US has good odds of having a nice
little client-state filled with army bases.
At the same time the US could pull back all troops from the now independent Sunnitriangel
with all those truoblesome Sunni communities.
The problem is what to make of the southern part, I will call it Shialand (capital Basra). I
donÂ´t (contrary to the article) think there is any willing puppets who have any power whit
the Shia population.
But assuming that such a ruler could be found, step two (according to the article) would be
to attack Iran. Such an attack would then be launched from Kurdistan, Shialand and
Afghanistan.
Though the US has bases in most countries neighbouring Iran I donÂ´t think the other ones
could be used for a ground attack. At least the big ones - Turkey and Pakistan - would get
way to much trouble from their own population.
And if the US would be to attack Iran from the sea I would direct your attention to exileÂ´s
warnerdÂ´s article about the wargame "Millenium Challenge '02".
With nothing more than a few "small boats and aircraft," van Ripen managed to sink most
of the US fleet in the Persian Gulf. [...]
He was given nothing but small planes and ships-fishing boats, patrol boats, that kind of
thing. He kept them circling around the edges of the Persian Gulf aimlessly, driving the
Navy crazy trying to keep track of them. When the Admirals finally lost patience and
ordered all planes and ships to leave, van Ripen had them all attack at once. And they sank
two-thirds of the US fleet. [...]
But what about Iran? The Iranians aren't cowardly slaves like the Iraqis. They're smart,
they're dedicated, and they hate us like poison. Imagine how many "small aircraft and
boats" there are along the Iranian coastline. Imagine every one of those craft stuffed full of
explosives and turned into kamikazes. Now add all the anti-ship missiles the Iranians have
been able to buy on the open market. If you really want to get scared, add a nuke or two.
Suppose the Iranians use van Riper's method: send everything at once, from every ship,
plane and boat they've got, directly at the carrier. Give the Navy the benefit of the doubt
and say they get 90% of the incoming missiles. You still end up with a dead carrier.
Thus the scenario is an attack by land (with massive airsupport). I donÂ´t think it is
plausible though as two of the US home bases (Shialand and Afghanistan) would become
extremely hostile and even more uncontrolable the day US attacked Iran. And I donÂ´t
even think chopping Iraq in pieces would free that many soldiers as long as the US likes to
stay in the south.
Then again Bush is a risktaker. And his administration has done some remarcably stupid
things. So it wouldnÂ´t surprise me if they at least carved up Iraq.
So to conclude the choices the elected president will have is draft, get out quick or carve up
Iraq and let the Sunni part go. Any other suggestions what he might do?
Sukabi,
I think you are right. And they might then in a year or two attack Iran. Bush without a
future election to fear will probably be at least twice as reckless as what we seen this far.
@A swedish kind of death
I don't think that, after the Iraq fiasco, the Americans can defeat Iran in a conventional war.
They don't have have the forces to invade, they don't have secure bases, and what are they
going to do with 70 million Iranians?
Aerial bombing will not work either. Iran can strike hard in this case, it can close the
Straights of Hormouz.
Only the nuclear option is available.
Bush as Foch? Foch was a good military, W is a crappy leader, on par with Mussolini as far
as war operations are concerned. And the article forgot to mention that the Marne saved the
entire country from another humiliating occupation by German Army (that spanking was
postponed until May 1940). French were fighting for something close to survival, not for
fancy oil and unknown reasons, which is what American troopers are fighting for in Iraq or
would be in Iran. Therefore, you simply can't count on a similar high morale, and US Army
won't put up a desperate and resolute fight. Iran won't be America's last stand, the way the
Marne offensive was.
And of course I'm with Greco. Iran isn't a weakened Iraq. It's 3 times bigger, 3 times as
populated, and is surrounded by hot dry mountains. Its army is bigger, better equipped, and
the country has sold plenty of oil and bought new stuff these last 10 years, as opposed to
Iraq starved to near death by a decade of sanctions.
In fact, a part of me would like to see Bush attacks, just to see a 1812-redux there.
Iraq was many things and was attacked for many reasons, which all contributed to the final
decision. As b real said, kicking major ass after 9/11 was one of them, to show who's the
only superpower left. Which is also one of the reasons why it was a very very bad decision.
If you want to show your might, pick a worthy opponent whose demise will frighten any
would-be new major power; beating a weakling won't impress much. In fact, if you lose or
tie against a solid opponent, it's not that humiliating; if you lose against a weakling, you'll
show everyone your true weaknesses, and you should expect everyone else to take
advantage of them. USSR stopped by Afghan goatherders was a major humiliation for them
and may have convinced Eastern Europeans that revolt was doable. Indochina was the
death of the French colonial empire.
Yesterday Colonel Hackworth of Soldiers for the Trueth came up with an article on Rape of
female American soldiers
By April 2004, rapes and assaults of American female soldiers were epidemic
in the Middle East. But even after more than 83 incidents were reported during
a six-month period in Iraq and Kuwait, the 24-hour rape hotline in Kuwait was
still being answered by a machine advising callers to leave a phone number
where they could be reached.
Also yesterday Rumsfeld Warns Military, Contractors on Trafficking - sexual relations
between the forces and outsiders, but so far has no word for the trouble inside of the
military.
Is there a scandal waiting for publishing?
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Moon of Alabama: Tips for More Tip
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« Jim Toweys Insurgency | Main | Battle Ready »
September 20, 2004
Tips for More Tip
Science based lesson for my stepsonÂ´s after school job. When serving in a restaurant:
● make sure you are seen as an individual
❍ wear something that makes you distinguishable from other waiters/waitresses
❍ introduce yourself to your guests by name
❍ entertain the customer with simple jokes or puzzles
● recognize customer as individual
❍ call customers by name
❍ squat next to the table so you are on eye level and more intimate with the
customer
❍ repeat customers order, slightly mimicry customers tone and behaviour
❍ briefly touch the customer, preferable at the shoulder
● tips increase with bill size, so itÂ´s sell, sell, sell
❍ suggest appetizer
❍ check during dinner for new rounds of drinks
❍ suggest dessert
● make paying the check enjoyable
❍ forcast good weather
❍ write Thank You on check
❍ draw little pictures on check
❍ use tip trays with credit card emblem
● give customers candy or chocolates
Megatips (PDF)
Comments
How about campaigning for some proper labor laws and fair wages.
Posted by: DM | September 20, 2004 08:36 AM
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2004/09/tips_for_more_t.html (1 von 2) [16.11.2004 18:28:41]
Moon of Alabama: Tips for More Tip
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http://www.moonofalabama.org/2004/09/tips_for_more_t.html (2 von 2) [16.11.2004 18:28:41]
Moon of Alabama: Jim Toweys Insurgency
And
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whiskey
Oh, you
know
why
« Chain of Evil | Main | Tips for More Tip »
September 19, 2004
Jim Toweys Insurgency
by anna missed
For those watching the radar screen on the movements of our own religious insurgency
stateside would have noticed that GWBushes own â€œgeneralâ€• Jim Towey, director of
the White House Office of Faith Based and Community Initiatives, has received $1.5
billion war chest funds through GWBâ€™s own Executive Order.
Towey has put these funds to work, opening offices now in the Deptâ€™s of Commerce,
Education, Health and Human Services, Urban Development, Justice, Labor, Agriculture,
Veterans Affairs, and the Agency for International Development, and the Small Business
Administration. He also has revised Dept. of Labor rules that exempt religious
organizations from provisions of the Civil Rights Act that forbid discrimination in
employment based on religion. One could presume that the infiltration of government
ministries with that other kind of ministry may preclude a sneak attack on the 1st
Amendment.
While we know Towey gave opening remarks, last year to Reverend â€œthe separation of
religion and politics, is what satan likes bestâ€• Moonâ€™s Unification Churches 3 day
God and World Peace celebration -- a lesser known interview with televangelist Robert
Shuller may be more telling -- as to future tactics.
At Shullers Crystal Cathedral Ministry:
J.Towey, â€œover the decades there was this idea that there should be this
strict separation of church and state, that what we banished the faith based
organization, the faith voice from the public squareâ€•.
R.Shuller, â€œthat is a face of extremismâ€•
J.Towey, â€œyes sirâ€•
R.Shuller, â€œextremismâ€•
...
R.Shuller,â€•well I think thereâ€™s loads of possibilities and opportunities for
this church, which is so powerful at the freeway hub of one of the great
counties of the world to do more than itâ€™s ever done, we have always been
undercapitalized, with running a television program and buildings, all of
which is history for us now. We are facing our next 50 years now and we want
to become the most effective church in really changing our society where there
really hurting, so lets work together, okay?â€•
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2004/09/jim_toweys_insu.html (1 von 6) [16.11.2004 18:28:44]
J.Towey,â€• that's a great idea, thank youâ€•
And it should also be mentioned that Shullers Crystal Cathedral Ministries â€œHour of
Powerâ€• church services has recently been chosen by the US Armed Forces Radio and
Television Network to be broadcast to cities and bases in over 165 countries worldwide and
to all ships at sea.
Among the many implications set forth here, I wonder, if the last man to leave Iraq and
then seek help for PTS at the local VA-- will simply be given cab fare to the nearest annex
of the Crystal Cathedral?
Comments
I don't know much about these "faith-based and community services" offices or exactly
what they are supposed to do. It wouldn't bother me actually to see certain kinds of
religious charitable organizations get funding if they are providing social services in places
where they're needed, as long as this is not limited to funding only christian organizations,
and as long as they are prohibited from proselytizing. But reading the connection with the
Shuller apparatus is disturbing.
Maxcrat...
I am not sure if the following will change your mind. I've not seen this idea anywhere else,
and was actually thinking of fleshing it out with some research into an editorial:
Suppose my taxes go to fund a social program run by some church. The church then uses
my taxes to help others.
Local newspapers then report the wonderful work such-and-such a church did helping
such-and-such victims.
The church then gets all the credit and positive press when in fact it was my money that
helped the victims.
If the government is going to give my money to churches to help people, I, THE
TAXPAYER, WANT CREDIT FOR THE GOODNESS BEING DONE.
Does that sound small of me?
Well sorry.
But if it is my money, and if I am going to fund a social program, give credit where credit
is due.
In other words, this is all part of the Texas Taliban's plan to put the church in good favor
and government assistance in bad.
It is sinister, it is ugly, and it is repugnican.
If its true that 20 - 30% of the current republican base is made up of the christian right -
those that have enabled the erosian of their own economic interests with the promise of a
christian social agenda from the white house - it should be no suprise, that the office of
faith & community based initiatives can be seen as the conduit of government grant money
that flows back to that very base. Ironically, the christian right, in exchanging economic
power for social values, has drivin itself back into the arms of the (big) government it has
promised (in its republican alliance) to defeat.
The office of jim towey, saddly, only acts to complete the fish - hook effect of this power
alliance loop, placing those who have victimized their own interests, right back in the den
of further victimization.
So if this election goes down with a republican win, in the total ignorance of the real issues
facing the nation, then somebody better figure out not only "whats the matter with kansas"
but whats the matter with America.
And I thought John Dillinger was a pretty good bank robber.
I can't think of words to describe these people--guess Koreyel's "Texas Taliban" is good as
any.
We really need to beat Bush in November.
Posted by: J.C> | September 19, 2004 08:20 PM
Down here on the other side of the world a documentary was shown on TV about some
faith based iniative to combat teenage pregnancy in the US called 'The silver ring thing'.
The doco which from memory was a BBC one showed that the main strategy for teaching
high school kids to stay unpregnant was to teach em to "Just say No'. Considering how
ineffective that approach was with drugs I have no doubt that celibacy will not prove to be
very effecaious in combating teenage pregnancy in the US. The doco went on to point out
all the obvious stuff like if you don't teach kids anything but say no, if they don't say no
then they have no knowledge of how to prevent STD's etc.
Anyway the truly interesting stuff was watching the organisation in action. It was headed
up by some bible basher on the make who was building his empire courtesy of the taxpayer.
He was shown organising some sort of self-aggrandising 'conference' the keynote speaker
of which was some fundie sob-sister. I can't for the life of me remember who that was. I
don't think it was Dr Laura of celeb x internet fame but it may have been. Anyway when
the keynote speaker was having a bit of trouble organising her itinary, the good reverand
kept saying "Look don't worry we'll charter a jet" The celeb guest was obviously
discorncerted about how this would play if the left wing media got hold of it and kept
saying "No No I don't think we should do that" Meanwhile the silly vicar who had got so
locked into showing off his new found power and wealth to the foreign film crew got quite
insistent.
All of this was being paid for by taxpayers in a country where old people starve to pay for
their medicine and poor people have to work at minimum wage jobs for welfare, leaving
their children in dangerous situations that will almost certainly lead some of these children
into unwanted pregnancy.
It would be comedic if it weren't so tragic. This is probably where the BushCo stategy is so
dangerous. Paying out the special interest groups with taxpayer dollars has always been a
tactic of the left and did a great deal to implement strategies that a government would have
had difficulty getting past a legistlature as a totally state operated program whilst providing
careers for activist sympathisers and hopefully keeping program overheads low. Bush has
taken this strategy and used it to pay out his sympathisers but the strategies have outcomes
that resist qualitative measure. In this instance it will be easy to count the number of silver
rings distributed but impossible to measure how many teenagers didn't get pregnant. In best
dodgy program tradition the processes are measured not the outcomes. That means any
failure to reduce the number of teenage pregnancies can be blamed on anything from lack
of resources to the work of the devil.
If I were living in the US and seeing my tax dollars being used in this shaneful fashion I
would adopt the tactics that conservatives the world over have used against social
programs. That is use the audit process to expose wastefulness and avarice and keep
hammering away in the media that these holy rollers have their snouts in the trough
courtesy of everyones tax dollars.
Posted by: Debs in '04 | September 19, 2004 09:16 PM
oops above should read 'resist quantitative measure'
Posted by: Debs in '04 | September 19, 2004 09:18 PM
The separation between Church and State.
RAT OUT A CHURCH HERE
::ENDING RADICAL LEFT-WING POLITICS IN THE PULPIT::
Neither your name nor your address will be revealed. The information will be examined
and appropriate letters will be sent to the offending party and to the Internal Revenue
Service.
(...)
â€œWilliam J. Murray, the president of the Religious Freedom Action Coalition, a social
conservative group, announced the formation of a group to monitor traditionally liberal
churches for political activity. The new group, Big Brother Church Watch, functions
primarily through its Internet site at www.RatOutaChurch.org!
The newly formed organization has already placed monitors in politically active
Metropolitan Community, Unitarian/Universalist, and AME churches. AME churches are
predominately African-American and their pastors frequently endorse liberal Democrat
candidates from the pulpit. Volunteer workers will also be monitoring Internet sites of
Democratic candidates and following them to churches where they have announced they
will speak. If pastors allow the Democrat candidates to speak and do not invite their
opponents for equal time, the church will be reported to the Internal Revenue Service as a
"violator."
"When Big Brother turns a church in to the IRS we will have documented proof that it has
assisted a political candidate or a political party," said the new groupâ€™s leader. â€œWe
have established a state of the art Internet site to gather the information from our volunteer
monitors.â€•
â€œMurray says that a pastor would not even have to mention a candidateâ€™s name, for
example Senator John Kerry, in order for a complaint to be lodged with the IRS. He stated
that the monitors will be watching closely for liberal â€œcode words.â€• "If a pastor tells
the congregation to vote 'pro-choice' or for candidates that back nationalized health care or
"taxing the rich" he is really telling them to vote for Democrats. If a pastor uses the words
'racist' or 'confederate,' referring to any Republican, he is telling the congregation to vote
Democrat. If the pastor tells the congregation to go see Fahrenheit 9-11 or says he
appreciates the work of Michael Moore, he is telling them to vote Democrat.â€•
Link
On another page, the site endorses The houses of worship free speech restoration act. (HR
235)
â€œ....But the right to peaceably discuss matters of morality, politics and public policy is a
right which is indispensable to a free society. It is the very kind of speech above all which
the founders wanted to protect, and it is the one least protected today. (...) The THIRD and
very important reason HR 235 needs to be passed is that the current law is unfairly and
unequally enforced. Every election year, we watch liberal Democrats march into black
churches across the nation, to openly ask for votes while the pastor endorses them. Itâ€™s
not uncommon for campaign funds to be collected right then and there. (...) Whatâ€™s
very wrong, though, is that the law is selectively enforced against conservative pastors,
especially those who speak up for pro life issues and defend traditional heterosexual
marriage.â€•
Etc. etc.
No comment.
What the US has needed the most for these last 250 years is mandatory atheism. Submit the
US people to it for 2 centuries and you'll see a lot of nice and good changes.
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« Chain of Evil | Main | Tips for More Tip »
Moon of Alabama: Weekends Open Thread
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September 17, 2004
Weekends Open Thread
Suggestive Content: Use at Your Own Risk!
Comments
I just posted some news over at the Annex: Terror, Life and Death". I'd like to hear from
you.
Jim Henley at Unqualified Offerings (www.highclearing.com):
The Wrong Way to Remake Hogan's Heroes Remember how higher-ups in the Stalag system were always threatening their subordinates
with transfers to the Russian front?? Now the Army has caught Colonel Klink Envy:
"Hundreds of soldiers from the 3rd Brigade Combat Team were presented with that
message and a re-enlistment form in a series of assemblies last week, two soldiers who
spoke on condition of anonymity told the newspaper.
'They said if you refuse to re-enlist with the 3rd Brigade, we'll send you down to the 3rd
Armored Cavalry Regiment, which is going to Iraq for a year, and you can stay with them,
or we'll send you to Korea, or to Fort Riley (in Kansas) where they're going to Iraq,' said
one of the soldiers, a sergeant.
"The second soldier, an enlisted man, echoed that view: 'They told us if we don't re-enlist,
then we'd have to be reassigned. And where we're most needed is in units that are going
back to Iraq in the next couple of months. So if you think you're getting out, you're not.'"
I have an Army source, nameless for now, who has confirmed to me directly that he
attended one of these assemblies and got the "offer" described:
"The story was true. I was offered the option to re-enlist (or extend) until 2007, or face
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2004/09/weekends_open_t.html (1 von 28) [16.11.2004 18:28:58]
going to an Iraq-bound unit."
The hell of it is, it's a transparently bad deal, since, with an official unofficial Iraqi
"involvement" of six years now on schedule, your chances of being sent back to Iraq
multiple times over the three years of your new commitment approach certainty anyway.
But let's not bury the lede here. THE ARMY BRASS THREATENS SOLDIERS WITH
DEPLOYMENTS TO IRAQ. What more would you like to know about troop morale, how
the people actually enmeshed in the situation view it, and all the "good news" from over
there that we're just not getting.
Jim Henley, 10:18 PM
jÃ©rÃ´me
i am thinking of you & yr family this night
i too feel a proximity indeed an intimitÃ© with the other posters though we are connected
only by words & wires
in the same week as the beslen crisis i found out that i had diabetes type 1 & up to this
point i have never been limited by my health & i have lived a tough life
with the announcement of the diagnosis - all went in turmoil - materially & metaphysically
- you are brought back to yourself
as you are broguht back to yourself & your family & that intimitÃ© which has to be fought
for also
the suddeness of events both in our intimate lives & that of the world hurtles at a shocking
pace - a relentless surge it feels sometimes but what we are doing here & at moa & in our
lives i hope brings us back to be better as people as activists as communicators
you have given a great deal here over the last six months - you have given of yourself &
when things happen like the sickness of your child - the whole damn circus seems very
cruel, needlessly cruel
as you know jÃ©rÃ´me, i do not believe in god or gods but as an old althusserian i believe
in people & i believe in their absolute & magnificent mystery that is based in their
materiality
& i believe from that materiality comes miracles - & i think if you concentrate the efforts of
your heart as i know you must - there will be hope for your child & his & your futures
your gift of giving here - is i imagined lived in your life & that will go to your family &
that will create the miracles
on hearing the news of my diagnosis - which is evidently rare in a person of my age &
habitudes - i felt defeated - constrained - as if in a certain sense - the life before the
diagnosis had no limit & that since the diagnosis - the insulin injections themselves
constituted a limit, a constraint
as in your moment with your child - in the middle of the worlds crisis - you feel so angry,
so dark & you turn against yourself - at least that's what i felt - but that is a useless & sordid
path & one must walk quickly away from that path
& one way of walking away from that path is our 'devoir' to others whether it is our family
our our community
no it does not make us feel immediately better & no it does not change the material
conditions in the first instance - but change it does & often, most often for the better
because we are capable of transformations, incredible transformations
i know that is true of you
& your family
toute ma force et tendresse jÃ©rÃ´me
still steel
At The Agonist, also at Drudge:
Kerry Accuses Bush of Hiding Troops Plan
Mary Dalrymple | Albuquerque | September 17
Associated Press - Democratic Sen. John Kerry on Friday accused the Bush administration
of hiding a plan to mobilize more National Guard and reserve troops after the election
while glossing over a worsening conflict in Iraq.
The Statement of Re. John Murtha (D-PA):
I have learned through conversations with officials at the Pentagon that at the beginning of
November, 2004, the Bush Administration plans to call up large numbers of the military
guard and reserves, to include plans that they previously put off to call up the Individual
Ready Reserve.
I have said publicly and privately that our forces are inadequate to support our current
worldwide tempo of operations. On November 21, 2003, a bipartisan group of 135
members of the House of Representatives wrote to the President urging an increase in the
active duty army troop levels and expressed concern that our Armed Forces are
over-extended and that we are relying too heavily on the Guard and Reserve.
We didn't get a reply until February 2004, and now as the situation in Iraq is deteriorating,
it seems that the Administration will resort to calling up additional guard and reservists,
again with inadequate notice.
By Sean Paul in USA: Campaign 2004 on Fri Sep 17th, 2004 at 02:49:03 PM PDT
Please read and comment JÃ©rÃ´meÂ´s post at the Whiskey Annex.
--A essential impression on the war on Iraq from Salon:
Turning point A journalist who was embedded with the U.S. Marines in Fallujah explains
how the Bush White House lost the key battle of the Iraq war.
May be old but itÂ´s good:
How many members of the Bush Administration are needed to replace a
lightbulb?
The Answer is TEN:
1. one to deny that a lightbulb needs to be changed,
2. one to attack the patriotism of anyone who says the lightbulb needs to be
changed,
3. one to blame Clinton for burning out the lightbulb,
4. one to tell the nations of the world that they are either for changing the
lightbulb or for darkness,
5. one to give a billion dollar no-bid contract to Haliburton for the new
lightbulb,
6. one to arrange a photograph of Bush, dressed as a janitor, standing on a step
ladder under the banner "Lightbulb Change Accomplished",
7. one administration insider to resign and write a book documenting in detail
how Bush was literally "in the dark",
8. one to viciously smear #7,
9. one surrogate to campaign on TV and at rallies on how George Bush has
had a strong light-bulb-changing policy all along,
10. and finally one to confuse Americans about the difference between
screwing a lightbulb and screwing the country.
The posts go on, the war goes on, the world goes on and we all keep on trying to keep
going on. As a parent whoâ€™s whole life at 63 revolves around seeing my progeny
making it and procreating and continuing keeping on, my heart bleeds from your wound.
I have loved your communications and friendship albeit cyber. My thoughts and heart are
with you and yours. May grace lighten your load.
For what it is worth I will share some of your heartbreak and worry.
Is this true?
If so, it takes the breath away.
Green Zone is no longer totally secure
@Koreyel:
Of course it's true. No intelligence whatsoever. If the Iraqis were historically inventive,
they could probably smuggle 20-30 Trojan Horses into the Green Zone too.
is there an OT in an OT thread? I've got a question for you guys that are history buffs,
especially on the US military. Take a look at these pictures. When did the military start
wearing the US flag patch backwards? I spent 3 years in the army from 75-78, my ex spent
17 years in, got out in '92, he was in the first gulf war. They didn't wear the flag backwards
then. When did this change and why?
The last picture is of meds they are wearing the flag patch in the proper orientation.
Posted by: sukabi | September 18, 2004 02:16 AM
@sukabi
Is the flag 'backwards' on soldiers' sleeves?
By Lisa Burgess
Stars and Stripes European edition
Saturday, February 28, 2004 ARLINGTON, Va.
Why do American soldiers wear the U.S. flag insignia "backwards" on the right shoulder of
their utility uniforms, with the canton (the rectangle with the stars) on an observer's right?
It's a question that soldiers hear frequently as they travel through civilian airports, or talk to
members of other services. And it does look "wrong," because U.S. federal code calls for
the canton to always be positioned to the left. The soldiers aren't wrong, however, and
neither are their tailors, Lt. Col. Stanley Heath, an Army spokesman, explained in a Friday
telephone interview. The Army actually has two authorized flag patches, one to be worn on
the left shoulder, with the canton facing left, and another "reverse field" patch worn on the
right, with the canton facing right. The two different orientations are mandated because
Army regulations call for the flag "to be worn so that to observers, it looks as if the flag is
flying against a breeze," Heath said. What does a stiff wind have to do with this custom? In
fact, the rule is a nod to the U.S. Army's early history, when wars were fought as a series of
carefully choreographed battles -- two armies meeting on a field, clashing head-on until one
side emerged victorious. In those battles, both mounted cavalry and infantry units would
always designate one soldier as "standard bearer," to carry the Colors into the fight. As the
standard bearer charged, his rapid forward momentum would cause the flag to stream back.
And since the Stars and Stripes is mounted with the canton closest to the pole, that section
would always be forward. So if a soldier is charging into the battle, the flag would give the
appearance of forward motion. For the right shoulder, the flag only appears "backward."
And that's why soldiers wear the flag patches on the right shoulder "backward." Because
retreat in battle, as any soldier will tell you, is not the Army way.
That's the official pr spin, when was it changed, and why do the medics still have the
proper orientation?
jÃ©rÃ´me, a wise man once said to me "peace isn't shelter from the storm , it's shelter in
the storm" I wish that for you.
Because They Own Your Body; Because They Own Your Life
Universal National Service Act of 2003 and House Bill H.R.163:
The Service Act of 2003 - Declares that it is the obligation of every U.S. citizen, and every
other person residing in the United States, between the ages of 18 and 26 to perform a
two-year period of national service, unless exempted, either as a member of an active or
reserve component of the armed forces or in a civilian capacity that promotes national
defense.
Amends the Military Selective Service Act to authorize the military registration of females.
To anyone who will be between the ages of 18 and 26 during the next 5 years: if you think
that College will exempt you from being drafted, think again. If this bill becomes a law,
your induction into the military would be delayed no longer than the end of a current
semester.
The SSS has already recruited 2000 "Selective Service System Local Board Members",
who are -- to put it more succulently-- the people who will decide who goes to war. While
they deny that they are moving towards reinstating the draft, the memory hole has
recovered the SSS's erased "Defend America" website. You can be the judge.
Why isn't anyone talking about this bill? Charles Pena, senior analyst with the
Washington-based Cato Institute said, "I don't think a presidential candidate would
seriously propose a draft -- but an incumbent, safely in for a second term â€” that might be
a different story."
Mr Pena continued, "When you crunch the numbers, you understand why you hear talk
about a draft. You only have to look at troop levels to realize we don't have the numbers to
do the job in Iraq properly."
Of course, the SSS, DOD, and Pentagon all insist that none of this has anything to do with
reinstating the draft. But they haven't commented on it for a year. The situation in Iraq has
gotten signifigantly worse since November 2003. I think we need to all be thinking very
carefully about this.
And if that isn't enough to let you know that you and yours are a tool to the Government
how bout this:
Does the U.S. Chamber of Commerce support any limits at all on the use of schools for
advertising or marketing? wait there's more : The U.S. Chamber of Commerce says that its
conference on â€œbusiness-education partnershipsâ€• is to help create â€œopportunities for
companies seeking to improve their support for K-12 education.â€•
While nearly all would agree that most schools need more â€œsupport,â€• much of what is
called â€œbusiness-education partnershipsâ€• really is plain old corporate marketing,
sometimes dressed up with nominal gifts; or else it is public relations, in using schools to
boost a corporationâ€™s sagging public image.
Regrettably, in the last fifteen years, corporations have increasingly rejected the notion of
philanthropy, in which they give money to schools because it is the right thing to do.
Instead, business groups like yours are touting â€œbusiness-education partnershipsâ€•
which often involve using schools as public relations props or as marketing arenas to
address a captive audience of children. The purpose is not so much to improve education,
as it is to increase the sales of junk food and drinks such as Coca-Cola and Pepsi. It is the
opposite of philanthropy, but it seems to be the dominant model for so-called
â€œbusiness-education partnerships.â€•
Craptacular! that was me above...
@Sukabi
The Stars and Stripes article refers to the "reverse field" patch as an Army one. The medics
in the photo aren't wearing Army BDUs; I believe they're Marines.
I don't know when the patch was changed.
@ Pat, my other post got eaten, so I'll try again. In the photos from the link above you can
see in some of them that the soldiers are only wearing the flag patch on the right shoulder
and not on the left. The article says that there are 2 patches one to be worn on the left and
the reverse to be worn on the right. So why are they only wearing it on the right shoulder
displaying only the reversed image?
The flag patches are not worn on both shoulders. The right shoulder is for combat patches
and troops deploying to a theater sew the flag onto that shoulder, although by Oct of next
year all Army soldiers, deployed and not, will have the reverse field patch on the right
shoulder. Supposed to be a reminder to all that "we are an Army at war," whether "back
home" at Ft. Hood or the Pentagon, or in lovely Kabul or Tikrit.
I don't know in what cases the flag patch would be worn on the left shoulder; perhaps in
operations other than war.
My husband doesn't wear a uniform on deployment so I'm really not up on these things.
it's kind of interesting given that reversed symbols have a satanic history. Here is a link to
US Flag Rules and Regulations
@sukabi
Doubtless there are plenty of Iraqis, Afghans, and other Muslims who see it as a satanic
symbol no matter which way the flag is facing.
@Uncle: Amy Klein's "No Logo" has at least a chapter on "business-education
partnerships.â€• It's been a while since I read it.
But, I came here to vent tonight: another stellar conversation earlier on. Discussion was
about wanting to "do good" - a recently graduated international law student and another
well-educated Caribbean.
The former is looking for a job, and turned down a footsoldier position with NATO's new
secretary general. He stated that he'd rather work "with the poor in Africa," with the UN,
Unicef, or the like. The latter retold her story of living in Southern Africa: Zimbabwe,
Rhodesia, South Africa, and her dramatic experiences of corruption and malfeasance.
Roads being built almost overnight, as oil or uranium had been found by the almighty US
of A.
And here I'm thinking that these two "smart" local people should worry much more about
their own Caribbean island, the place I chose as my new home. The place that nurtures me
and keeps me smiling...
I brought up some examples of corruption and malfeseance that take place and have
happened for years right beneath their noses. Why - I asked - don't you use your knowledge
of the culture, the people, the politics, the things that should be close to your heart, to solve
some of the local problems. Why is it that you focus on a faraway place?
If you have all these skills and contacts, and young ambition, why don't you sign up with
OAS or CARICOM, IMDB, or even a local institution? No: nobody is starving here yet,
but what prevents you from kicking down the doors right in front of you. Simple example:
nine years ago this place was struck by a massive hurricane, our premier tourist hotspot was
levelled. The resort is still in shambles today because a rich Iranian developer (former
minister under Reza) with close ties to Texan Oil won't come to an agreement with the NY
Upper Eastside villa-owners.
Anyway, we're stuck between a rock and a hard place but the young guns want to "do
good" in Africa. WTF? Do they expect to raise the average mortality age in Kenya (44)?
I just can't figure it out!
fb
PS: rememberinggiap
I wish you strength and wisdom, even more than you already have. When you rely on your
mind and body to be still steel in any situation and it feels as if the foundation crumbles
under your feet with no forewarning, even then - don't let your thoughts be clouded. While
your body is your carriage, your travels stem from the mind.
PPS: And no, although I had planned to, I did not partake of a Hot Dog, or Bun today.
Posted by: fiumana bella | September 18, 2004 04:56 AM
Assaults continue on Ramadi, Fallujah; U.S. snipers hit ambulances
Sep 14 - In incidents reminiscent of last Aprilâ€™s fighting in Fallujah, the general
director of Ramadi Hospital reports that US forces targeted civilian ambulances and
medical teams in the Sunni city west of Baghdad, killing ambulance drivers and medics
fb
merci, vraiement, merci
& uncle $cam is correct
one searched for a shelter in the storm
fortunately last night i talked with a friend - a great brazilian percussionist who lives here who has diabetes 1 & he has helped to stabilise the ship of my life with common sense
but i thank you
force et tendresse
still steel
What about the Rapture
At http://www.tompaine.com/articles/journalism_under_fire.php is Bill Moyers' 9-11-04
speech that includes an explanation of the Rapture, a belief held by Bush or that he is
playing to.
It involves chaos. Could be that chaos everywhere is Bush's intent. That would explain his
dismantling everything that holds things together. Administration lying is useful in
promoting chaos.
Some blog commenters say that Bush is seeking chaos intentionally in Iraq. I think at the
beginning of W's administration Nelson Mandela asked Bush I to intervene with W because
W was "spreading chaos."
If the Rapture is what's running things then the chaos is by design, with the added benefit
that it lines cronies' pockets for the here and now. I don't know.
Moyers:
"How do we explain the possibility that a close election in November could turn on several
million good and decent citizens who believe in the Rapture Index? Thatâ€™s what I
saidâ€”the Rapture Index; Google it and you will understand why the best-selling books in
America today are the 12 volumes of the "Left Behind" series that have earned
multi-millions of dollars for their co-authors, who, earlier this year, completed a triumphant
tour of the Bible Belt whose buckle holds in place George W. Bushâ€™s armor of the
Lord. These true believers subscribe to a fantastical theology concocted in the l9th century
by a couple of immigrant preachers who took disparate passages from the Bible and wove
them into a narrative millions of people believe to be literally true.
"According to this narrative, Jesus will return to earth only when certain conditions are
met: when Israel has been established as a state; when Israel then occupies the rest of its
â€œbiblical lands;â€• when the third temple has been rebuilt on the site now occupied by
the Dome of the Rock and Al Aqsa mosques; and, then, when legions of the Antichrist
attack Israel. This will trigger a final showdown in the valley of Armageddon during which
all the Jews who have not converted will be burned. Then the Messiah returns to earth. The
Rapture occurs once the big battle begins. True believers 'will be lifted out of their clothes
and transported to heaven where, seated next to the right hand of God, they will watch their
political and religious opponents suffer plagues of boils, sores, locusts and frogs during the
several years of tribulation which follow.'
"Iâ€™m not making this up. Weâ€™ve reported on these people for our weekly broadcast
on PBS, following some of them from Texas to the West Bank. They are sincere, serious
and polite as they tell you that they feel called to help bring the Rapture on as fulfillment of
biblical prophecy. Thatâ€™s why they have declared solidarity with Israel and the Jewish
settlements and backed up their support with money and volunteers. Itâ€™s why they have
staged confrontations at the old temple site in Jerusalem. Itâ€™s why the invasion of Iraq
for them was a warm-up act, predicted in the 9th chapter of the Book of Revelations where
four angels â€œwhich are bound in the great river Euphrates will be released â€œto slay the
third part of men.â€™ As the British writer George Monbiot has pointed out, for these
people, the Middle East is not a foreign policy issue, itâ€™s a biblical scenario, a matter of
personal belief. A war with Islam in the Middle East is not something to be feared but
welcomed; if thereâ€™s a conflagration there, they come out winners on the far side of
tribulation, inside the pearly gates, in celestial splendor, supping on ambrosia to the
accompaniment of harps plucked by angels.
"One estimate puts these people at about 15 percent of the electorate. Most are likely to
vote Republican; they are part of the core of George W. Bushâ€™s base support. He knows
who they are and what they want. When the president asked Ariel Sharon to pull his tanks
out of Jenin in 2002, more than one hundred thousand angry Christian fundamentalists
barraged the White House with e-mails, and Mr. Bush never mentioned the matter again.
Not coincidentally, the administration recently put itself solidly behind Ariel Sharonâ€™s
expansions of settlements on the West Banks. In George Monbiotâ€™s analysis, the
president stands to lose fewer votes by encouraging Israeli expansion into the West Bank
than he stands to lose by restraining it. â€œHe would be mad to listen to these people, but
he would also be mad not to.â€• No wonder Karl Rove walks around the West Wing
whistling â€œOnward Christian Soldiers.â€• He knows how many votes he is likely to get
from these pious folk who believe that the Rapture Index now stands at 144â€”just one
point below the critical threshold at which point the prophecy is fulfilled, the whole thing
blows, the sky is filled with floating naked bodies, and the true believers wind up at the
right hand of God. With no regret for those left behind. (See George Monbiot. The
Guardian, April 20th, 2004 .)"
the URL for the Monbiot article is
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,5673,1195727,00.html.
The Rapture Index--today at 151--and other Rapture-related program activities are at
www.raptureready.com
Posted by: emereton | September 18, 2004 02:57 PM
From the Telegraph, a P.J. O'Rourke exerpt:
...As of early 2004, America didn't seem to have the answers for postwar Iraq. Then again,
what were the questions?
Was there a bad man? And his bad kids? Were they running a bad country? That did bad
things? Did they have a lot of oil money to do bad things with? Were they going to do more
bad things?
If those were the questions, was the answer "UN-supervised national reconciliation" or
"rapid return to self-rule"? No. The answer was blow the place to bits.
A mess was left behind. But it's a mess without a military to fight aggressive wars; a mess
without the facilities to develop dangerous weapons; a mess that cannot systematically kill,
torture, and oppress millions of its citizens. It's a mess with a message - don't mess with us.
As frightening as terrorism is, it's the weapon of losers. When someone detonates a suicide
bomb, that person does not have career prospects.
And no matter how horrific the terrorist attack, it's conducted by losers. Winners don't need
to hijack airplanes. Winners have an air force.
This is an edited extract from Peace Kills: America's Fun New Imperialism by P J
O'Rourke (Atlantic)
************************************
I generally like P.J. O'Rourke and find him funny, often uproariously funny, even when I
disagree with him. Kinda like the way I feel about Al Sharpton. In the above exerpt
O'Rourke isn't so much funny as helpfully candid (which he does usually strive to be).
O'Rourke writes that Iraq is a mess, yes, but it is a mess with a message: Don't mess with
us.
Being a long-time reader of National Review and a not-so-long reader of the Weekly
Standard, I can trace the "don't mess with us" argument for Iraq back to its curious
beginning: the autumn of 2003, when it was sinking into the public consciousness that
David Kay and the Iraq Survey Group were on a fool's errand, and so perhaps were our
troops, who had, after all, just removed a regime in order that Mr. Kay could do what UN
inspectors hadn't - namely, disarm Iraq of unconventional weapons. Not only was that
sinking in, but the bombing of the UN headquarters in Baghdad; the first stage of what was
then a Ba'athist insurgency; and other unhappy news had cast doubt upon the Mission
Accomplished statement and was causing people to do what they are inclined to do in such
circumstances: Question the wisdom of the whole enterprise. That's when the young(er)
Republican pundits trotted out a defense of OIF that was so incredibly stupid one had to
realize, if one hadn't already, how dangerously, miserably unserious about foreign policy
the rising generation of Republicans really is.
The REAL reason we went to war in Iraq, if you must know, is that after 9-11 we needed to
kick the shit out of someone, anyone, to demonstrate our fury and our power and to impress
upon terrorists and potentates alike that we will not be messed with. We couldn't kick the
shit out of Afghanistan because, as Rumsfeld famously remarked just hours after the
terrorist attacks of 9-11, there's not much shit there to kick. Not enough demonstration
value in it. And didn't the Soviets do poorly there, getting themselves tortured and raped
and picked off by goatherders in pajamas before beating their ignomious retreat? What we
needed to do was take a flattening swing at the two-bit bully nearest to hand - the bully
with more loot in his pockets and more priors on his record than those dirt-poor, hayseed
Taliban - so that the other bullies on the grade school playground would fear and respect us.
(This was Jonah Goldberg's illustration of the theory; others were more sober- and
complex-sounding.)
Now, of course, we are not feared and respected but loathed and snickered at, which does
not do us much good at all.
The puerile recklessness and sheer idiocy of responding to an actual attack upon Americans
by deliberately striking out at the uninvolved - on the premise that this will dissuade all
other potential challengers - will likely go unrevealed to the young, cubicle-haunting,
laptop-toting Republicans enamored of and enthralled by sleek bombers and flinty warriors.
But at least we can know that their ideas are patently ill-suited to guide the actions of these,
and that, tragically, their admiration of the military does not extend so far as protecting it
from wanton use and needless sacrifice.
Iraq is a mess, yes, but it is a mess with a message: Go home. Now.
The message was intended:
Telegraph reports: Secret papers show Blair was warned of Iraq chaos (free reg. req.)
Tony Blair was warned a year before invading Iraq that a stable post-war
government would be impossible without keeping large numbers of troops
there for "many years", secret government papers reveal.
The documents, seen by The Telegraph, show more clearly than ever the grave
reservations expressed by Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, over the
consequences of a second Gulf war and how prescient his Foreign Office
officials were in predicting the ensuing chaos.
...
Mr Straw predicted in March 2002 that post-war Iraq would cause major
problems, telling Mr Blair in a letter marked "Secret and personal" that no one
had a clear idea of what would happen afterwards. "There seems to be a larger
hole in this than anything."
Most of the US assessments argued for regime change as a means of
eliminating Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, Mr Straw said.
"But no one has satisfactorily answered how there can be any certainty that the
replacement regime will be any better. Iraq has no history of democracy so no
one has this habit or experience."
...
They told the Prime Minister that there was a risk of the Iraqi system
"reverting to type" after a war, with a future government acquiring the very
weapons of mass destruction that an attack would be designed to remove.
U.S. Plans Year-End Drive to Take Iraqi Rebel Areas (NYT)
November 3rd:
- callup for 60.000 National Guards and Reservists
- introduction of draft
- mini nuke on Fallujah
On Bernhard's Secret Papers and Blair, plus Bush's intentional chaos in Iraq and elsewhere:
My response is Well, Duh.
How can one even now continue to treat Bush's and Blair's excuses for invading as any
more than a bullshit line. Most of us knew at the time that they were bullshit lines, meant as
sloppy verbal cover for an invasion that had no semblance of legitimacy.
That all were such suckers and let them do it is the scary part. You cannot say now that
"Gee we didn't know. Look here's some evidence I just found that shows they weren't being
honest!"
They should have been strung up by the balls then and the same is true now, squared. I
want to suggest a more severe punishment but in the interest of civility...
Pat:
Now, of course, we are not feared and respected but loathed and snickered at, which does
not do us much good at all.
Agreed, this idea is perhaps even shallower than the "flypaper" strategy. As for O'Rourke,
he knows very well that you can get more flies with honey than vinegar (or carbonic acid,
in the case of some rightist pundits). I once pulled one of his books off of my conservative
uncle's bookshelf and read the whole thing and ended up with a grin on my face. Not that
he made me a convert, though.
But in this case, O'Rourke's indulging in wishful thinking:
But it's a mess without a military to fight aggressive wars; a mess without the
facilities to develop dangerous weapons; a mess that cannot systematically
kill, torture, and oppress millions of its citizens.
The third point is complete nonsense - I'm sure everyone remembers those American
soldiers who observed Iraqi prisoners being tortured by agents of the Allawi government
(and were ordered to turn a blind eye). The first and second only apply as long as the
Americans can exert strong control. When that willpower begins eroding, you can bet
whatever Iraqi government there is will rebuild a large military with its oil wealth, and
maybe even biochem weapons. After all, Israel, Syria, Iran and Saudi Arabia have them
too.
Stanley Kober at the Cato Institute:
The Bush administration's doctrine of preemption is based on the assumption that American
power is irresistible. That assumption is now being challenged, just as it has been
challenged when it was asserted by other great powers throughout history. Like Napoleon,
the Bush administration launched a preventive war and now finds itself confronting a
hostile population resisting occupation. Allies are defecting as casualties mount. Victory
appears increasingly uncertain.
Yet even if the U.S. ultimately prevails in Iraq, the aura of invincible American power has
been shattered. The unexpected difficulties encountered in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the
stress on American military forces, undermines the threat to use those forces again, which
is the very basis of our superpower status. "U.S. rulers are often liable to overestimate their
own strength, and underestimate the challenges and problems they face," China's People's
Daily noted last May. "They can be described as `the higher they climb, the harder they
fall.'"
Ironically, a war that was supposed to cement America's military superiority is now being
viewed as an example of American weakness. It is an outcome the proponents of
preemption never envisioned. They wagered the cards of Providence, but Providence is not
being as obliging as they had hoped.
It rarely is.
Bill Kristol at the Weekly Standard:
Come home, America! Kerry will bring our troops home from this latter-day quagmire. Yet
to come home from Iraq, to withdraw from Iraq, would be to surrender to the terrorists
against whom we're fighting.
Now, Americans don't like the prospect of surrendering to terror. That's why Kerry trails in
the presidential race. But it isn't over. Kerry could still win the election if he convinces the
American people that we are losing the war in Iraq, that Iraq is hopeless. So the best thing
the Bush administration can do over the next six weeks is explain the importance of Iraq in
the war on terror, and explain that we are on a path--a difficult path--to victory in Iraq.
But the key, of course, is not just to convince the American people that we're winning the
war in Iraq. It is to make sure we're doing everything we can to win the war. The terrorists
have every incentive to make October miserable for American and allied troops in Iraq, and
for that matter for American and other civilians. The administration therefore needs to be
on the strategic offensive--and while that can include tactically defensive and operationally
quiet maneuvers, it would be good for the strategic offensive to be visible. The American
people will accept casualties if we are on a course to victory. They will rebel at casualties
taken if we seem to be in a preelection defensive stall. Trying to play it safe in Iraq over the
next month is politically and strategically dangerous. Let Kerry make the case for an
America that comes home. Let Bush lead an America that fights and wins.
--William Kristol
[Did you get that? In order for Bush, during this campaign season, to reassure Americans
that we are on "the strategic offensive" - "the path to victory," as it were - the strategic
offensive needs to be visible, needs to get on the nightly news and the front pages of the
morning papers. This means, of course, that it's not a strategic offensive serving a valid
military objective, but rather a strategic offensive serving a domestic, political one. Ring
any bells? Marine Gen. Conway might say, "Blow it out your ass, Bill, you grinning sack of
shit." These people throw away lives as if they were nothing. NOTHING. That Bill has the
confidence to say aloud what used to be discreetly kept from the public, just goes to show
in what deep, deep trouble we are in.]
Oops - Saudi Arabia probably shouldn't be included in that list.
i detest the corrupt facilty of p j o' rourke to spill ink over those who shed blood. writers
like him are a dime a dozen - he has given nothing at all to this world except the coarse
laughs of men & women who should know better
someone who has lived deeply, a faulkner or an agee has a right to irony but this two bit
scribbler, this bastard child of hunter s thompson, this scribe fro rolling stone & atlantic
who has given laughs to those who do not deserve them & i remind you of brechts dictum he who laughs has not yet heard the terrible news
it has not surprised me that charlatans whether it is jim jones in guyana or an embedded
'reporter' in iraq - the real damage of the left in the last thirty years has been the space
allowed to petty criminals like him
i have read mr o' rourke since that time - & like most cruel people - he chooses easy targets,
he has nothing new to say & he is congenitally incapable of offering anything of substance
except for sneers
i think i am a tolerant man but i cannot tolerate fools - the great gore vidal can write in one
sentence what it takes o' rourke ten books to say & he says it again & again & again like the
tired comic he is - but even as comedy it is paltry stuff - but yes he is right for the bush
imperium - shallow laughs for cruel, shallow people
& like king leopold of belgium before him these people can never hide their greed for
money & their lust for power - even if that power is to be a commentator in journals that
are neither more or less than a very modern & very american form of prostition - his
masters - the waughs i would imagaine, the taki's, the jackanapes who piss ink into the
urinal of their empty culture
& as i sd some time ago - america will find its own stalingrad in iraq & like the nazis
before them they will pour more & more of their countrymen into a trap that will become
all enveloping - that may swallow a generation whole - the very anarchy of the resistance makes it clear that in the future, the immediate future ;- they will create a frightening
solidity - that will kill young men & women who do not deserve to die in a war for oil, for
the men who laugh off their sacrifice & that the cheneys's of this world surely do, they have
no respect for the other - their own goals are too important - as the prick cheney actually sd
- he has other priorities - oh george might cry into the beer he keeps hidden from his
assasin wife laura - but he will cry for himself - this man who can discern no difference
between managing a sports team or running a country. no these sadist, as others who are
borne to cruelty, it is inherent in their pathologies, they think only of themselves
& writers like o' rourke, who would shit his pants if he was confronted really with the
horror of this world outside of a bar - will always enjoy sitting at the table of the tyrants
he is not the first he will not be the last mr william shawcross & mr bob woodward - both
scribblers who claim high & loft aims are redused to caricatures in the sixth circle of hell
satire in the hands of a defoe is something to behold, even a l f celine has his moments in
castle to castle (a novel i would suggest has very close parallels with the current
administration) but the sneers of o'rourke are not even worth the spit that falls from my lips
i have often wondered at the ultrademocracy of the left & libertarians who allow the small
minds whether it is an ayn rand or o'rourke to speak their darker sensibilities
oh you will say - there goes that old stalinist rgiap again but of this absence of tolerance i
am proud
still steel
remembereringgiap: on the news of your diabetes, I can only say that my thoughts are with
you. I can't wish you a speedy recovery, because there isn't one, and advice from someone
who doesn't have diabetes is downright impertinent, so there's no relief to be found in
telling you what to do. I certainly hope the chemistry works out, and that the daily
management of the thing becomes manageable.....As for P. J. O'Rourke: the only words I've
ever read by the man are to be found on this very thread. Judging from what you say, he
must be very bad, and so I won't by reading any more words from him. If he was raised as a
certain kind of Roman Catholic, he may have been bombarded with sermons extolling
sacrifice and martyrdom, and if so, then he must feel very threatened indeed by the martyrs
in Palestine and Iraq. He is otherwise completely incoherent.
We all sat down to watch a movie this evening and all through the movie I kept thinking
about Bill Kristol and what he wrote (it's somewhere in a post above this). What he's
calling for - I'll put it the way my husband put it - is the assassination, the destruction by
treachery, of US troops in the advancement of an electoral campaign. A "visible" strategic
offensive choreographed for the voters back home, so that they might know that George W.
Bush is "on a course to vicory." And he's calling for it openly.
Have we hit rock bottom yet? Because if this isn't rock bottom, I really, really don't know
what is. What bothers me far more than that this administration is unpredictable enough to
swing in just about any direction in any given week - and take the shockingly abominable
advice of Kristol and others - is that Kristol could come right out and say it in the first place
and the reaction, the outrage, just isn't there. 48 hours later and not a peep from anyone.
ANYONE. If I were on the half-baked, half-assed (it's so like Iraq and Afghanistan in that
way, you know) Kerry campaign, I'd have taken Kristol's words and had some suitably
bloodthirsty surrogate beat the Republicans black and blue with them. It doesn't matter that
Kristol isn't a member of the administration. I'd tie him around their scrawny, yellow necks.
He's a member of the party's new intellectual leadership. He's a neocon thug, a monster in
jacket and tie, whose words have influence and indicate direction. My God, that man
appears regularly on Fox news. You know Fox news - the station with all the flags and
noisy patriotism and war boosterism. The station that supports our troops without ever
showing you the faces of the fallen or telling you their goddamned names or where they
were from or how far they'd gotten in life. Fox news, that sick cartoon of television
journalism.
If this isn't as bad as it gets, I don't care to look down.
@Pat
Its late here, so as a nitecap. I once was in a c123 flying over Vietnam, in the night, in a
raging thunderstorm, plane pitching all over the place, with about a dozen other guys.
Everyone was a little catatonic, probably with fear and airsickness, when one guy turned
around and looked out the little round window, then looked back at everyone else, who
were now stareing at him, and said the propeller had stopped. Sure enough, everyone
rushed to the little windows and, sure enough the propeller in the lightning flashes was as
stationary as a cross in a graveyard. Yours truley is here now, because that pilot had the
skill and good sense to limp that plane with one prop back to the base from which it came.
The governors of Virginia, West Virginia, New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona, Oregon,
Washington, Alaska, Hawaii, Montana, Colorado, Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, New York,
Texas, Nebraska, Vermont, Massachusetts and California as the Nevada Department of
Corrections have been attacked by letters that go up in flames when opened.
Twenty of the fifty governors of the United States are attacked within one week. Only some
local newspapers carry the story. Terrorism is the US No. 1 problem?
MercuryNews
Iraq is getting better: Britain to cut troop levels in Iraq
The main British combat force in Iraq, about 5,000-strong, will be reduced by
around a third by the end of October during a routine rotation of units.
Paranoia really seems to be reigning over big parts of the US. Here Raeds story, seems he
was applying for a visit in the US. He brings up a fact I have forgotten.
After some days of work on my Visa to the States, people in the organization that invited me
changed their minds.
Why?
Because they think I am â€œanti-Semiticâ€•
:*)
How can I be â€œanti-Semiticâ€• when I am Palestinian?
I meanâ€¦ I AM Semiticâ€¦
Fun Fact of the Day:
Arabs ARE Semitic
Another Fun Fact:
When you search for the meaning of Semitic in the dictionary, youâ€™ll find â€œArabs
and Jewsâ€•.
here the rest
I'd like to add a point to Pat's post above on the reasons for the Iraqi war. I agree that it was
a war for revenge - kicking some ay-rab ass after 9/11. I'd add that it was a terrible sign of
weakness on the part of that administration: we don't go after our real enemies, we go after
the most convenient enemy/bogeyman, and we go after the easiest target (toothless, already
contained and demoralised, no allies, etc...)
And yet, the USA cound lot pull it off. Can you imagine the messages this carries?
- we're vindicative
- we don't care about others
- we're scared of those that show actual strength
- we're weak
and now
- we're universally hated
- we've turned some Western ideas into ridicule all over the world (you know, rule of law,
tolerance, etc...), if they ever existed
- we've bred a whole new generation of dedicated enemies
- our real enemies are arming, going nuclear, etc
and
- we're in debt like never before, to possibly unfriendly regimes
- the oil markets have tightened like never before
- we (that is, US citizens) may vote for "more of the same"
Quite a feat.
Posted by: Jérôme | September 19, 2004 07:20 AM
alabama,
thank you & a little note of information - o' rourke' is considered the great american satirist
of the late twentieth century. owes his early credibility to a connection with hunter s
thompson & a desire by those on the left & liberals to be ridiculed by a bully. i think he
was a columnist with rolling stone in the first instance -being impressed with his alcahol &
drug intake
he had many fans - but i was never amongst them - i like my humour a little more layered
& perhaps a little crazier than that - robin williams - for example is at his best a love filled
man who explodes in front of you - there was courage in his work. there is no courage of
course in o'rourke
theres' a certain kind of humour this century which is essentially cruel, which targets
simply, which celebrates a nietzshean misanthropy
to paraphrase a great mayakovskian poem to the poet yesenin, who had suicided -that to be
cruel is easy, it does not take talen or courage - but to love the people, fundamentally is a
constant & quotidian work - that is fragile by its very nature
they are bullies & they have no heart
they have dollars & the sad influence of their ejaculations
@pat, as with alabama, your posts are so precise sometimes - when your really speak - i am
touched by them though i know we must be on opposite sides of the bridge
still steel
(i suppose o'rourke would see his influences as mencken, groucho marx or dorothy parker
but really alabama he is but a pimple somewhere up their ass)
No comment!!!
Bush 'pleased with the progress' in Iraq
First Person: For whom did my son die in Iraq?
& a desire by those on the left & liberals to be ridiculed by a bully.
Ain't it the truth.
Truly, what my "Ready. Aim. Focus." post was teasing at... and truly, what this Ben
Sargent potical cartoon is pointing at.
I didn't know if to put this in here or in the good news thread, I mean this means new
investments and equipment that needs to be bought, should improve US economy numbers.
Kellogg Brown & Root alone has lost 46 employees in the conflict over all, including 16
truckers. Over just two days during the height of the insurgency in April, 211 of its trucks
were damaged or destroyed in attacks, seven of its truckers were killed and two more are
still missing, said Keith Richard, who is regional project manager for the company's
transportation mission and who recently defended the company's execution of its contract
in testimony on Capitol Hill.
The rest is here: CONTRACTORS - In the Desert, Wrecks Tell of Those Who Don't Wear
a Uniform but Die Too
@Fran 12:15
Looking at that truck graveyard I can tell Mercedes, Scania and probably a Renault or
MAN. New investment and equipment that needs to be bought: in Sweden, Germany and
France.
The aura of invincible power of the US was pulverised in the toxic smoke of 9/11. Any
country that is incapable of defending itself against such an attack, be it instigated by
â€˜terroristsâ€™, foreign powers, or internal rogue criminal elements (or a combination of
the three) cannot hope to recover by kicking ass. The only people who believe this are
American innocents who think that Saddam ordered 9/11, and American bullies, who
naively believe that a murderous parade of strength, shallow in its trappings, hapless in its
aims, doing nothing much but lining the pockets of the corporations that own the state, will
â€˜show themâ€™, etc. Killing impressive amounts of people becomes an end to itself, and
the only one.. After the elections, the US will take Fallujah, even it they have to raze it.
Victory over the â€˜insurgentsâ€™ or â€˜terroristsâ€™ or â€˜Baathist remnantsâ€™, etc.
will be proclaimed.
The US military weakness is a given in the situation. Kicking ass belongs to the world of
turf wars and corporate take overs (even if the as kicking varies in its methods) not to 20th
century geo-politics. (Well, that is perhaps too rosy a vision..)
True power knows when to stay its hand. True power knows how to analyse situations,
identify enemies, catch culprits, exact retribution. True power also knows how to admit
defeat, garner maximum benefits from the defeat, and re-coup. A benevolent power does
even better, it ensures win-win outcomes so that enemies are neutralised. A great power
goes one step further and cares about the little children ..I suppose we'll have to wait for
that.
blackie
what we are witnessing is the most corrupt & inept empire since caligula
vision in america(even within their own inherently sadistic constructs) left when j k
galbraith lost his way
that generation, studs terkel, howard zinn ,will not come again because that kind of wealth
is not being cultivated & if truth be the way perhaps it really never was & that people like
that were exceptions
is it not an irony that in all the human, physical & social sciences - the genius of america
was always proudly of the left or extreme left
perhaps that time has gone & gone forever & alll you can expect of "excellence' today is
the incomppetentent middle management of a jay garner or a bremer, the polemical
stupidities of a kristol, perle or wolfowitz or the take it & run economics of the prick
cheney
they are incapable of benevolance
still steel
Blackie: The aura of invincible power of the US was pulverised in the toxic smoke of 9/11.
Don't kid yourself. The so-called aura of invincible power was pulervised in Vietnam. I
don't know your age cohort, but the powers that be now have been planning for more than
20 years... I've watched it. Don't be fooled. The end of the US in Vietnam signaled the
precursor to the end of US imperialism... the Neocons just think they can revivify the early
Vietnam years -the bogus Domino Theory thing. They're idiots with power. The worst of
the worst of combinations for elected and appointed "administrators".
Just got back from an Oktoberfest in a nearby town. It was pleasant enough - no real
German beer, though the wienerschnitzel and wurst were very nice - but what we really
wanted on a sunny, breezy, late-summer day was just a quiet beer garden in a park
someplace, maybe one we could ride our bikes to and sit reading the Sunday papers with
tall glasses of weizen. Ah, memories.
I turned to my dad and asked if he thought, thirty years from now, American towns and
cities would be holding Iraqi-American festivals. If, thirty years from now, American
servicemembers and their families would be vacationing at Basra and living in the suburbs
of Baghdad. Would the mayors of Talil and Samarra give yearly speeches to the local
Iraqi-American Friendship Clubs, recalling the liberation of Iraq and extolling the virtues of
alliance and cooperation and cultural exchange? Would U.S. troops stationed there go out
on huge, two-week-long, yearly maneuvers in the Iraqi countryside - er, desert? Would
American children be graduating from John H. Abazaid High School in Ramalla, as I
graduated from Alexander M. Patch High School in Vaihingen, Germany?
He just laughed.
Here some humor to start the week with - or maybe not.
Baghdad Bob and Bulls*** Bush
Bush will lose if, and only if, the people who put him in office decide to take him out, and
I'd like to believe that something of the sort is currently in the works, if only because (1.)
high-profile military figures are going public, commenting on (2.) the leaked (very timely,
this!) July intelligence estimate, even as (3.) high-profile Republican senators speak out
against the Administration, while (4.) Kerry agrees to focus the rest of his campaign on
Iraq, and (5.) Jim Baker agrees to let Bush hang out to dry through three (3!)
90-minute-long debates. As always, the Plame thing ought to go public fairly soon, more
TANG material is forthcoming, and who knows what Kerry's planning to do in NYC
tomorrow and Tuesday, even as Bush pretends to be an international leader at the
Waldorf-Astoria?
@alabama
I take it you read Josh Marshall's Plame post.
Sean-Paul Kelley at the Agonist:
Iraq Update September 20
Sean-Paul Kelley | San Antonio | September 19
The Agonist - The United States currently has three options before it in Iraq. The situation
is grim. Reconstruction and nation building have not come off as quickly as we lead
ourselves to believe. Whatever the rationale for the war was in the beginning it has now
evaporated like water in the Iraq desert. Whether we wish to admit to the truth or not Iraq
has become the central front in the war on terror. We are now engaged in a struggle that
will determine the course of American foreign policy for at least a generation. The stakes
are grave. Each option should be weighed on its strategic merits and demerits. Domestic
political considerations, as much as possible, should not be a factor. I am advocating no
particular option. I am simply attempting to dissolve the fog which lay before us.[...]
From Kevin Drum at the Washington Monthly:
Monday, September 20, 2004
BRINKSMANSHIP IN IRAQ: Here's a telling quote from the best reporter in Iraq, John F.
Burns:
"Visiting Dr. Allawi at his sprawling residence is a short course in just how bad the
situation has become for anybody associated with the American purpose in Iraq. To reach
the house is to navigate a fantastical obstacle course of checkpoints, with Iraqi police cars
and Humvees parked athwart a zigzag course through relays of concrete barriers. An hour
or more is taken up with body searches and sniffing by dogs, while American soldiers man
turreted machine guns. A boxlike infrared imaging device can detect the body heat of
anybody approaching through a neighboring playground. The final security ring is manned
by C.I.A.-trained guards from Iraqi Kurdistan. If Dr. Allawi were Ian Fleming's Dr. No, no
more elaborate defenses could be conceived.
"This is the man who has been chosen to lead Iraq to the haven of a democratic future, but
he is sealed off about as completely as he could be from ordinary Iraqis, in the virtual
certainty that insurgents will kill him if they ever get a clear shot."
It's hard to add anything to that. But here's one point that I don't think has been made
enough. Who is ultimately responsible for the security of Iraqis? Surely the coalition. Yet,
even while we try hard to train a new Iraqi army and police force, it is indisputable that
we've failed to protect innocent Iraqis from grotesque and mounting violence. This is awful
in itself - but also integral to our failure to move the political process forward fast enough.
Was this unavoidable? That's a question worth asking.
SOMETHING POSITIVE: I'm not saying this was ever going to be simple. But the
reckoning is surely coming. We have to flush out at least Fallujah and Ramadi soon - or
lose the ability to hold national elections in January (if we haven't already). And the
mayhem that maneuver will unleash is not one we can easily stabilize without more troops
and resources or a miracle in the capabilities of the Iraqi police and military. Before too
long, a draft may become a very big topic on Capitol Hill. Big increases in military
spending - over and above what we are already planning - will become necessary. What I
worry about is a country that re-elects a president on the basis of denial about Iraq, and then
turns on him with a vengeance when things get far worse. So let's get it all on the table now
and see what we need to do. That's in the president's long-term interest as well as the
world's.
- 1:55:33 AM
Pat,
But the reckoning is surely coming. We have to flush out at least Fallujah and Ramadi soon
- or lose the ability to hold national elections in January (if we haven't already).
Flush out of whom? The Iraqi citizens? Because that is what it will end up being - the
resistance are Iraqi's, at least the majority of them. And then the other question, who says
that there was ever an election planned and the election talk isn't just smoke an mirror?
Sorry. That last post is from Andrew Sullivan, whose blog I reached through a link
provided by Kevin Drum at the Washington Monthly. Last I knew, Kevin Drum was for the
war - on the same grounds as almost anyone on the left who's for the war: Humanitarianism
(removing a brutal regime, ending oppression, establishing democracy and the rule of law,
etc). I had a couple of frustrating e-mail exchanges with him on the subject last fall.
Andrew Sullivan's an opponent of GWB (due to the administration's opposition to gay
marriage) but he's a supporter of OIF.
@Fran
I believe he means flush out the insurgents. Problem is, the insurgents are protected by the
inhabitants who are not direct members of the insurgency.
A few months ago, it would have been possible to do a cordon and search of Falluja.
Evacuate women, children, the old and the infirm. Make known the consequences of
deciding to stay. Then sweep the place. (I don't mean kill everyone left.)
The elections are important because the introduction of democracy is the only objective
(rationale) left for OIF. Well, removing Saddam was an objective, but that's been achieved.
So what're we hanging around for? To make registered voters of everyone. It's very
important to the administration domestically, and we can't get away (if we are to get away
at all) with postponing elections in Iraq for any length of time. The Iraqis, I think, have
given up on improving security and economic situations. The elections are a different
matter, with a different psychology behind them. We have to get this one out of three. Bush
has to be able to say "See? We did it. Mission accomplished."
But who says anyone in Falluja or Ramdi has to vote?
What to make of Marshall's post, Pat? He tells us he's a player in the uncovering of the
yellow-cake scam, that he and his friends brought a prize Italian to the U.S. to be debriefed
by the FBI, and that the FBI wasn't interested in doing so--indicating, as Marshall would
have us understand, that the FBI wishes not to explore the yellow-cake scam.....meaning
what, I wonder, about the Plame affair? That the FBI isn't out to rectify the "scandal of the
seventeen words" in any way, shape or form? But we already knew that! It's out to nail
some folks who happen (perhaps) to have broken a law by divulging someone's metier to
the press, and then again (perhaps) by lying about it to the FBI. I suspect that those folks
are Cheney and Rove, and if so, then you don't need any stuff from Rocco the Italian in
order to nail them. You need stuff, it seems, from Judith Miller and her pals. And I'd guess
that the FBI, simply by sticking to its game-plan, has wounded Marshall's narcissism along
the way (it's easily wounded along the way). Any thoughts about this?
Oh, and one other thing, Pat: if ever we "flush out Fallujah," I'd like to see Andrew
Sullivan, Kevin Drum and Josh Marshall "embedded" with the first wave of American
Liberators. Better yet, I'd like to see them escort our Marines in broad daylight down the
back alleys of Fallujah. Their files would make for a splendid read......
@alabama
I wanted to post a correction: Marshall's post begins with Plame but really concerns itself
with the related but distinct Niger business. Obviously I didn't.
I was thinking about Judith Miller just the other day. I still can't get over - really, I can't how many more and less important people trusted her and relied on her backround. The
extent to which it was really, truly, whole-heartedly believed, instituionally, that Iraq had
WMD - and that various European countries that opposed the war probably had a hand in
on their development. And Judith Miller herself believed this, which made it all the more
convincing. She was useful to some entity or another, at least, wasn't she?
The source of the Plame affair can't escape punishment. But I'm not holding my breath that
it will matter in the scheme of things.
Their files would make for a splendid read......
LOL. Yes they would, wouldn't they?
Pat, I am sorry all this Saddam crab and bringing democracy to Irak was and is just lies to
me. Agreed Saddam was bad, but so are many others who received and still receive money
and support from the US. The longer the more, I am convinced the Bush Administration
doesn't give a damn about elections, except it being good election PR.
I looked up the word insurgence, interesting here we use the equivalent of meaning
resistance. I don't think Iraqis can be split into insurgency and 'normal' population. My
guess is that the majority of Iraqis is behind the resistance, this was confirmed for me in the
this interesting article this morning.
Sgt. Curtis Neill remembers a rocket-propelled grenade attack on his platoon as it passed
some shops one hot August day. When the Marines responded, the attacker fled, but they
found that he had established a comfortable and obvious position to lie in wait.
There, in an alleyway beside the shops, was a seat and ammunition for the grenade
launcher â€” along with a pitcher of water and a half-eaten bowl of grapes, said Neill, who
was so amazed that he took photos of the setup.
"You could tell the guy had been hanging out all day. It was out in the open. Every single
one of the guys in the shops could tell the guy was set up to attack us," said Neill, 34, of
Colrain, Mass. "That's the problem. That's why I'm bitter toward the people."
Then there are the hostile glares that adults in the community give to passing U.S. military
patrols, and treachery from high-profile allies, such as the provincial police chief who was
arrested last month amid strong suspicions that he was working with the insurgency.
Attacks disillusion Marines
@Fran
You can separate locals who lead, organize, supply, actively collaborate, and shoot from
those who are sympathetic or 'agnostic.' But a successful resistance movement does indeed
rely upon significant tolerance by the local population.
Well, Pat, I tried holding my breath about the Plame affair last April, and finally exhaled in
mid-July (and no, the scheme of things hasn't been changed at all)....As for Ms. Miller:
she's a creature of the NYT as confected by Howell Raines and "Pinch" Sulzberger--then,
as now, an organ of AIPAC (you may have seen, for example, their weekend editorial
about nuclear proliferation: they're very worried about North Korea, Pakistan and Iran, but
had nary a word to say about Israel. And why would they worry about Israel? Israel, from
where they sit, is our fifty-first state, and who's ever called the United States a nuclear
threat to anyone?).....It's always been Miller's claim, by the way, that she sleeps with the
sources that really counted--Holbrooke, Chalabi, and who knows whom else
besides?....Proving exactly what? That by pleasing your sources as well as your employers,
your station in life will be forever secure (provided, of course, that you tell those folks
exactly what they want to hear)..... And because the NYTimes cannot but confound the
credibility of the journalist with loyalty to their tribe, I doubt that Ms. Miller will ever be
fired.
my guess is, 5 months after 1st fallujah, 2ed fallujah goes as unexpected due to steep
learning curve + infiltration of all levels of new iraqi army = corresponding counter attacks
on known weak links removed from fallujah say, green zone,supply lines,oil lines, etc.
showing lumbering giant to be blind to where enemy actually is, convincing more
population to get behind the ultimate winner, as elections fade away.
2ed fallujah operation, likely big booby trap
@anna missed
Where's our smart pilot when we need him?
(On the waiting room wall of a psychiatrist is the handsomely framed, needle point,
contrary saying: Help is NOT on the way.)
A useful quote:
"(T)here are no secret rooms where you open the door and step inside and find nothing but
competence."
The Interrogators, by Chris Mackey and Greg Miller
"You could tell the guy had been hanging out all day. It was out in the open. Every single
one of the guys in the shops could tell the guy was set up to attack us," said Neill, 34, of
Colrain, Mass. "That's the problem. That's why I'm bitter toward the people."
-------------I feel for you for you partner.
Because both of us know that helmet you wear is really a white hat. And that vicious
machine gun you wave around is really a frontier rifle. And that Humvee or Stryker you
drive is really a white horse. And that all you want to do is free the countryside of savage
Injuns.
Yea... I feel for you... because I grew up watching all those movies too.
But I must admit... I'd probably even fell more sympathetic if you would change your name
to George Custer.
Have you thought about that?
late response...
RGiap wrote: .. is it not an irony that in all the human, physical & social sciences - the
genius of america was always proudly of the left or extreme left ..
What you say is very true of social / human science in the US, today it is in catastrophic
shape. The shame is that US criteria and grip are affecting many world-wide, through
funding mechanisms, the slashing of public education and research, economic imperatives
(so called), the IMF, etc. Many just bow down to the American way, or what is called for or
required by them. Exactly why and how this happens is interesting to analyse -- I have no
three-line summing up.
Kate wrote: Don't kid yourself. The so-called aura of invincible power was pulervised in
Vietnam. (...)
I am no historian and am a rooted-in-the-present sort of person. In Europe - particularly in
Switzerland, which has always been very pro-US, a legacy of Cold War anti-communism,
vanished today - the perception that the Vietnam War was hopefully the â€˜lastâ€™
misguided US colonial-type adventure was very common. US interventions in Grenada,
Panama, (etc. the list is too long..), as well as the recent Gulf War I, and the disgusting
Yugoslav mess were often either unknown, ignored, or accepted, even supported (Gulf War
I, ex-Yugoslavia.) So that perception held, until Iraq, as it was taken for granted that the US
would kick ass somewhere, that they did so in Afghanistan seemed natural.
Historically you are probably right - however the perception of the world, blinkered by its
own head-in-the-sand mechanisms, says that Iraq is a step down from Vietnam. The straw
that breaks the camelâ€™s back. Or something. Bush makes a ready scapegoat.
For example:
The sober higher-level RIGHT-WING paper here (“Le Temps”) very exceptionally ran a
cartoon on its FIRST PAGE, upper center slot on 11 Sept. 2004. I can’t remember another
occasion - about twice a year, they run a nice picture or drawing there, e.g an artistic
rendition of Jesus on 25 Dec.
This paper also has one page in English every few days - from the New York Times.
See Chapatte
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Moon of Alabama: Chain of Evil
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« Weekends Open Thread | Main | Jim Toweys Insurgency »
September 18, 2004
Chain of Evil
Moon-fly Emereton cited in the Weekend Open Thread Bill Moyers speech at the Society
of Professional Journalists conference. Moyers explains the danger of the Rapture
believers.
These true believers subscribe to a fantastical theology concocted in the l9th
century by a couple of immigrant preachers who took disparate passages from
the Bible and wove them into a narrative millions of people believe to be
literally true.
According to this narrative, Jesus will return to earth only when certain
conditions are met: when Israel has been established as a state; when Israel
then occupies the rest of its â€œbiblical lands;â€• when the third temple has
been rebuilt on the site now occupied by the Dome of the Rock and Al Aqsa
mosques; and, then, when legions of the Antichrist attack Israel. This will
trigger a final showdown in the valley of Armageddon during which all the
Jews who have not converted will be burned. Then the Messiah returns to
earth.
Bin Laden, as many others in the Middle East, sees a connection.
OBL tape Feb. 2003 (BBC)
We are following up with great interest and extreme concern the crusaders'
preparations for war to occupy a former capital of Islam, loot Muslims' wealth,
and install an agent government, which would be a satellite for its masters in
Washington and Tel Aviv, just like all the other treasonous and agent Arab
governments.
This would be in preparation for establishing the Greater Israel.
The Iraq occupation, in preparation for establishing the Greater Israel, has happend. Step
2 is starting now.
The petition, which termed evacuating settlements "a crime against humanity,"
a "national crime" and "a clearly illegal act," urged soldiers to "listen to the
voice of their national and human conscience."
...
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2004/09/chain_of_evil.html (1 von 5) [16.11.2004 18:29:02]
land, merely because they are Jews. ..."
Rightists say evacuation is a crime against humanity (Haaretz)
Leon Wieseltier discusses this in Extirpation (TNR - free reg. req.)
It has been argued, and persuasively, that the movement to settle and hold land
captured in 1967, in particular the West Bank and Gaza Strip, has changed
Orthodox Judaism more profoundly than any event since the Holocaust.
Respected rabbis based in New York have issued Halakhic decrees forbidding
any Jew from ceding even an inch of soil of the Old Testament land of Israel.
...
The parallel talk of Holocaust and Armageddon has sparked debate within
Israel on the dangers of disengagement versus the risks of a concussive Jewish
backlash.
...
"We sense that the level of threat to the Temple Mount from the standpoint of
extreme and fanatic Jewish elements carrying out a terrorist attack in order to
'reshuffle the cards,' to serve as a catalyst to a change in the entire political
initiative [the disengagement process] - this level has risen in recent months
and more so in recent weeks."
...
Speaking of the extremists dream to remove the "abomination" as they call it,
from the Temple Mount, [Shin Bet chief Avi] Dichter declared that Jewish
terror could pose a significant strategic threat to Israel as well as the Jews of
the Diaspora, "turning the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians into a
confrontation between 13 million Jews and one billion Muslims around the
world."
Is Jewish terror next? (Haaretz)
Osama agrees with Avi.
OBL tape Jan. 2004 (BBC)
There is also the fierce attempt to destroy the al-Aqsa Mosque and destroy the
jihad and the mujahideen in beloved Palestine by employing the trick of the
roadmap and the Geneva peace initiative.
The Americans' intentions have also become clear in statements about the need
to change the beliefs, curricula and morals of the Muslims to become more
tolerant, as they put it.
In clearer terms, it is a religious-economic war.
The occupation of Iraq is a link in the Zionist-crusader chain of evil.
The second World War can be seen as a fight between one fanatic ideology against the rest
of the world. Now we see a devolping conflict between three fanatic religious ideologies.
Two of these are in a temporary coaltion against the third one which probably has the larger
base. The ideologic religious geographic stripline between the camps coincidents with the
economic striplines of control over oil and water. The chances to stop this
religious-economic war may be small. But we better try to break this Chain of Evil.
Comments
Better try... yep... 3000 years (and most likely more) of irrationality put under the pressure
plate of ever-growing population makes for global-wide cultural insanity. Fromm said as
much in the mid-20th C., as have many other "watchers". Some humans made a valiant
attempt to stem the tide during the Enlightenment. I'm sure they thought, as I've thought in
the last 30 years that certainly, given the information and knowledge available, more people
would see the folly of it. But they were disappointed in their lifetimes as I am in mine.
I wish I could sign on to an idea that the dominating, irrational belief systems can be
mitigated. I can't because deep down I don't think it is possible. I think many catastrophes
and regressions will have to take place in order for any of us to see change. My husband,
never one to mince his words, puts it this way: "It's a shit species, what do you expect?"
Believe it or not I see more potential than he does, but not much more.
A grand and adventurous experiment -- human civilization while it lasts. [sigh]
Praise Allah!
What are the odds of a Powell resignation in October? He must be weighing the outcome,
at least in terms of his own reputation?
A thought not a prediction
Well, it's time for reasonable people to come to the obvious conclusion: it's time enough
that mankind get rid of these 3 monotheisms once and for all.
For one, I welcome the creation of a 4th power in the coming fight, whose express purpose
will be to cleanse this friggin planet of these abominations.
Laura Rozen at the War and Piece blog has been covering this and has some worthwhile
things there.
each day & every night we can feel our world turning imperceptily madder more furious something coming off its axis
& it is stupidity which has led us there - the stupidity & the venality of the bush cheny
junta, the sad, pathetic misperceptions of mr blair & co about the role of their doddering,
clumsy & inept empire. they are like bothe servant & master in that film by joe losey 'the
servant', berlusconi is the spwn of the mafia chieftan g. andreotti otherwise known as
beezlebub, that political pygmy john howard whou would have been better off as a
principal of a down & out catholic college in the outback of australia, the absolutely corrupt
& self serving eastern europeans who are wandering peacefully into the massacre
chirac shroeder, annan - crying in the corner but witnessing the damage being done in the
worlds name & the prince of darkness himself rupert murdoch laughing all the way to china
at the sorry state of affairs he profits from
it surprises me not at all that there are those within these junta who would believe in the
metaphysics of imbeciles - that their god or gods will save only them - what a sordid little
world these sad creatures must create around themselves in the vast lossness of space that
we will call america - where someone is piling his room with cans of baked beans for the
afterlife, where he collects all his semi automatic weapons in one room to do gods bidding,
where the imbecile priests stand outside abortion clinics reproducing their criminal
imbecility for the benefit of foxnews & the rest
what world is this - am reminded of that grat joke in endgame by beckett aaboput the man
who goes to his tailor & who is resisted week after week, month after month with
alterations until the client can take no more & says to the tailor
"do you understand sir, that god made the world, the world in six days & you are bloody
well not capable of making me a pair of trousers in three months"
to which the tailor replies
"but my dear sir, my dear sir, just look at the world & look at my trousers"
unfortunatel what we are living through is not comic & it is much too sordid to be called
tragic
it is an everyday catastrophe, an everyday massacre
still steel
land, merely because they are Jews..."
Holy moley! It's all so clear now! Ariel Sharon is the Antichrist, and his, uh, Likudnik
minions will overrun and destroy Israel! He's also a self-loathing, anti-Semitic librul!
It's interesting that New York Orthodox rabbis are the ones issuing decrees that Greater
Israel is totally inviolable. I've heard that some, maybe many, Orthodox clergy in Israel
have decided that the principle of preserving life is so important that some Biblical land can
be ceded if it reduces killings. Actually living in the Promised Land must make them more
cautious than armchair holy warriors in the West.
jesus christ and pass the butter
Posted by: annie | September 19, 2004 04:18 AM
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« Good News | Main | Weekends Open Thread »
September 17, 2004
Kick Ass
New Blood at Heart of Kerry Campaign reports The Washington Post. The media echo on
the Kerry campaign is slightly better now, so this may have been the decisive. At least there
are some punch lines:
"Dick Cheney got $2 million. What did we get?" the ad's narrator says. "A
$200 billion bill for Iraq, lost jobs, rising health care costs. It's time for a new
direction."
"You deserve a president who will not play politics with national security, who
will not ignore his own intelligence while living in a fantasy world of spin ..."
Still Kerrys speech style is terrible.
Sentences - too long, thought chains - too long, wording - pompous. This will not win Joe
Sixpack and Larry Lawnmower over BushÂ´s good/evil - with us/against us style.
Campaigning is marketing, not an Oxford debate.
Explain KerryÂ´s position on Iraq in three short sentences? Impossible. What the f... is the
campaign staff doing? Is Kerry listening to them?
All Bush enemies try to help
● The CIA sends an unrequested National Intelligence Estimate to the White House
and leaks the content to the press.
●
Annan emphasizes the war was illegal
●
David Kay saying "we were almost all wrong" and the final reports come without
WMDs in Iraq
General Conway accusing the administration to have screwed the marines in
Fallujah.
But this is still not enough and it is uncoordinated.
●
On the other side the messages stick. Next week Prince Allawi (or as koreyel suggests The
Thug (formerly known as Prince) will address Congress and the UN. Rove will make sure
that the right 10-seconds-points are made on TV. Only a real big incident in Iraq could
spoil their effect. Then comes the October surprise - Iran? Syria? A terror incident? Who
knows, but for sure there is an ace somewhere.
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2004/09/open_off_thread.html (1 von 4) [16.11.2004 18:29:05]
Kerry is much too presidential. Âáy man, set the champagne glass aside and grab a beer.
Kick ass!
Comments
Kerry must learn to lose the gentrified, eastern establishment patrician meter and
phraseology, while still showing that he armed with a vocabulary and is not afraid to use it.
I don't know why his "handlers" haven't worked on this with him so that it's evident now.
It's very simple. They need to tell him to stay smart, quit "booming", and "talk" to people as
he would talk to someone sitting in his "family room".
Kate,
Your exactly right. In the midwest he needs to say a few ahhs. Like how have you been
ahh?
In the corn belt he needs to learn to chew and talk about soy beans and corn. He sounds to
much like Bushes father, that Northeastern stuffiness. Someone should pull that stick out of
his ass.
He has to do something, I can't take four more years of Bushie.
put this on the end of a thread a few days ago still would advocate going this far.
Well I could'nt agree more, like the bartender once said "fight fire with fire". A firm
measure of decisive, in your face, clearly thought out, and dispatched like a freight train
indignation would work wonders at shattering the flip/flop liberal elite woose the rePugs
have so carefully painted over him. Clearly-- he needs to shock the American people to
their senses, that, 4 more years of this -- is four more years of this in an unknown quanity,
plain and simple.
And if fear is to overshadow all issues and all sense amongst the sheeple, then give em' the
old LBJ mushroom cloud vision, economic collapse, full scale war in the mideast, Iran,
North Korea, and the looming spector of facism right here on mainstreet.
People need to be scared shitless -- and then givin a clear alternative -- cause it could all
happen.
One of Bernhard's links is to a must read Guardian piece.
In case you can't find the time... enjoy this snip:
----------snip---------"An army of pompous phrases moving across the landscape in search of an idea" was the
criticism applied to speeches by Warren Harding - one of only two senators to make it to
the White House. The aphorism, unfortunately, applies to too much of Kerry's rhetoric.
----------end snip---------Kerry lurches along sonorously--totally tonally atonal.
@Anna Missed:
He needs to call in Rude Pundit(ASZ got a link to him over there). Most all flame throwing
work needs to be done by surrogates.
Then the debates for the final eviseration and vivisection.
Just thoughts.
Would be possible to change the prez candidates?
Would be possible to change the prez candidates?
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September 17, 2004
Good News
GOOD NEWS!
CNN: Ford ups guidance
MSNBC: Ford raises earnings outlook
Reuters: Ford lifts profit forecasts
Newsday: Ford Raises Quarter, Full-Year Outlook
Bloomberg: Ford Boosts Third-Quarter Earnings Forecast to 10C-15C/Share
That is interesting. Should I add Ford to my portfolio?
The Ford Press Statement is upbeat, but in their presentation slides there are some small
caveats.
● Volume has grown, but less than expected
● External environment has deteriorated
● Jaguar sales have not lived up to expectation
But on the financial side, earnings forecast is 10c/share* higher for the quarter and the year.
Total earnings in 2004 will be about $1.95* per share. In the Q2 report Ford expected
earnings for 2004 to be only $1.85**. That is a positive trend.
But what are these asterisks?
*excluding special items of 25c per share
**excluding special items of 8c per share
Oh, guidance in the Q2 was $1.85 minus 8 cent special items. Guidance in Q3 is $1.95
minus 25 cent special items. The boost Bloomberg headlines is minus $0.07 per share.
Ford is loosing money with each car they make. Profits come only from lending to
consumers. With rising interest rates, record consumer debt, problems with Jaguar and 4%
lower earnings projections maybe thatÂ´s not a BUY. But then:
Ford shares added 37 cents, or 2.7%, to $14.32 in premarket trading Friday.
Sigh!
Comments
So the question is not if, but when the (still) overrated market will come down - and how to
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2004/09/good_news.html (1 von 4) [16.11.2004 18:29:08]
make the best out of a worst case scenario. We've had this before, I think, but I find your
specific remarks enlightening, Bernhard. Danke (einmal mehr).
Jaguar sales have not lived up to expectation
Sadly, I can't deny I wish I could help them out with this.
The Prius looks like butt, and the promised SUV hybrids seem to me to be missing the
point. Besides which, it is generally wise to see how new technologies unfold- I can
imagine service bills on hybrid engines are pretty high, and there is so far naturally a dirth
of mechanics who can deal with them, anyway.
The Mini is appealing, but pricey and I hear there are waiting lists. Are SmartCars destined
for the American market anytime soon?
Berhnard
BBC: Ford closes Jaguar plant
Posted by: Cloned Poster | September 17, 2004 12:44 PM
@Ã¦
We plan to launch a variant of the smart forfour onto the US-American market
in 2006. However we are not planning to introduce the current model range
(smart city-coupÃ©, cabrio, crossblade, roadster, roadster-coupÃ©) and smart
forfour there. Decisions will be reached concerning each specific vehicle in
relation to the US launch of future smart models which could be available on
the market after 2006.
smart
We plan to launch a variant of the smart forfour onto the US-American market in 2006.
great! I hope my '92 Corolla can make it that much longer... that thing is a frikkin Energizer
Bunny, I'm dead surprised to say.
For once, I think I actually made the right decision. I've owned Ford since 2002, thinking
that it had to go up. I decided a couple of weeks ago that its fundamentals just weren't good,
so I sold it for a modest profit. Given the uncertainty over the future of gasoline prices (an
uncertainty we Americans have been doing our best to ignore), the precarious perch of the
dollar (another thing we try not to think about), and the certainty that, sooner or later, the
bills from the Bush Administration's criminally derelict economic policy will come do, I'm
not sure about the near-term future of any business selling big ticket items to consumers. I
give the economy until mid-2006 if Bush is re-elected. Sooner or later, though, investors in
the rest of the world will face reality. That won't be a good time to be an American.
yeesh- that was me.
Ã¦
double yeesh- in a different thread. the whole 'remember personal info' thing is being weird.
Ã†:
I decided a couple of weeks ago that its fundamentals just weren't good, so I sold it for a
modest profit.
I think you made the right decision, although the markets have an annoying habit of making
my predictions look no better than those made by monkeys banging on keyboards. Still,
you and Bernhard are right to point out future problems that could bring down the car
companies.
I believe the day of reckoning will come long before mid-2006, and it won't matter which
candidate becomes president. The economy has become too grotesquely distorted and
continues to worsen. When the recession comes and a financial crisis hits, the so-called
"Big 3" will be in serious trouble with their only profit-making divisions sinking like a
stone.
NYTÂ´s Gretchen Morgenson looks at the Good News Texas Instruments had last week.
Sure, investors are looking for positive results from their companies. But there
is a difference between good news from actual operations and good news from
gimmicks. Sooner or later, gimmicks run out.
personally this "good news" has me confused, as the NYT reported recently (two-three
weeks ago?) that Ford and GM were cutting production. Oh, I forgot, silly me! whenever
companies cut personnel and production, they look better to Wall Street! THAT's why we
have 3 million jobs lost, not just because we have a lousy current President who may well
be re-elected by those who are still doing well in their portfolios ...
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« Ready, Aim, Focus | Main | Kick Ass »
Moon of Alabama: Ready, Aim, Focus
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« Just In Time | Main | Good News »
September 17, 2004
Ready, Aim, Focus
by koreyel
Bob Herbert of the NYT continues to smash the Bush Administration with nearly divine
inspiration.
His latest seems almost like an artful montage of paragraphs borrowed from the Moon of
Alabama.
It is rare to see a columnist be so deadly blunt:
Although he died bravely, Lieutenant VandeGeer's death was as senseless as
those of the 58,000 who died before him in the fool's errand known as
Vietnam.
And then this:
Since we learned nothing from Vietnam, we are doomed to repeat its agony,
this time in horrifying slow-motion in Iraq.
Fool's errand... We learned nothing... we are doomed to repeat its agony.
Wow. Herbert's pen is as far from elite as it is from effete. He can flat out write when he
gets irked up.
Along these lines I sense that the rage at Bush's Iraq-mess is regaining traction. The reality
that the war is going badly is leaking with a steady hiss into the mainstream. Anger is
redoubling. People are wearing red on Fridays because they are seething red everyday of
the week.
Anger is a powerful human force. It can move elections.
damning the very names of Bush and Cheney. That's a lot of semi-focused consciousness.
group of powerful mantras. I suspect... Bush-Cheney would break out in hives, if not
shrivel up and blow away. As it is, our semi-focused rage may be enough to sweep these
criminals into history's ashcan.
So keep on keeping on. Wear red. Feel red. You have the right and the duty to be enraged.
Focus your anger like a laser beam on the right foreheads. They've earned your wrath, your
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2004/09/ready_aim_focus.html (1 von 7) [16.11.2004 18:29:12]
disgust, and your condemnation.
Be beautifully furious. Justice may depend upon your rage.
Comments
I sense that the rage at Bush's Iraq-mess is regaining traction
Hopefully the media will exoand what they started over the last few days. Next week
Allawi will be in town to address Congress and the UN. ThatÂ´s a mistake Rove made - it
will keep the attention on Iraq and with the speed of operation the various insurgencies are
using like today the headlines may not be pretty.
ItÂ´s so have to "wish" for bad headlines with all these people dying.
Prince Allawi is coming to America?
Hasn't the "Prince" lost his star power? Perhaps it is time for him to do a name change.
How about: The Thug (formerly known as Prince)? That might capture a few hearts and
minds in Washington.
Or for that matter, given the news today,
U.S. troops were also caught in gunbattles with militants on a main Baghdad
thoroughfare, Haifa Street, after U.S. and Iraqi forces carries out raids on
suspected insurgent hideouts there.
how about we refer reverentially to him as: "The major of the Green zone"?
Thanks for the link to wearing red. I just changed my outfit.
Directing anger toward a positive action, like wearign red or registering voters, is good. It
is also important to remember that the mind is very powerful. When we send hateful
thoughts [laser beams on the foreheads]it makes things worse. In this way, what you resist
persists.
Vote them out of office if we can. Rather than send them hateful thoughts which magnify
their impairment, send them healing thoughts which is what they desperately need. It is
what we desperately need to happen to them, especially if they remain in office after
November 2nd.
damning the very names of Bush and Cheney.
That's a lot of semi-focused consciousness.
group of powerful mantras.
for example:
"I now imagine Dick Cheney surrounded by divine healing and light, creating in his heart a
sense of profound joy and contentment and peacefulness. All fear and want are washed
away by the healing light brining a realization of oneness with the universe. No need to
take, to hide, or injure. No desire for more power, more money, more anything. Only divine
peace and understanding that all his needs are always met, that he is profoundly loved, and
that he no longer needs to struggle for those things. Fear is gone, leaving only profound
love passing around and through him to others. And so it is. Amen."
Now, if three million people focused their consciousness on Cheney in this way, what
result of such a profound change of heart would that bring to the world?
sorry, forgot to add my name that time, wish there was an edit function
I say sic 'em with the Turkey Curse:
TO PERFORM THE TURKEY CURSE-Take a foot stance as if you were John L. Sullivan preparing for fisticuffs. Face the
particular grey-face you wish to
short-circuit (e.g. a street preacher), or towards the direction of the negative aneristic
vibration that you wish to neutralize
(e.g. the White House). Begin waving your arms in any elaborate manner and make
motions with your hands as though you were Mandrake feeling up a sexy giantess (Dr.
Strange imitations are fine). Chant, loudly and clearly:
GOBBLE, GOBBLE, GOBBLE, GOBBLE, GOBBLE!!
The results will be instantly apparent
Importantly, I advise cursing both Bush and Kerry in this way.
err... Cheney would have you deported after a while? Bush would make sure that you go
through the rapture with him? Halliburton would use the energy your body produces to
make a profit? ;-)
Halliburton would use the energy your body produces to make a profit? ;-)
ROFL! After they get their hands on water, our own personal energy is next, no doubt. I
imagine a Matrix-esque scenario here, hundreds of thousands of bodies hooked up and
running giant computers &c.
Actually, that's not very funny, is it?
"Herbert's pen is as far from elite as it is from effete."
Hey Koryel, your pen if pretty damn sharp as well....keep up the posts!
@koreyel and ae:
Wow, I can wear red and perform the Turkey Curse, all on the holy Discordian Friday.
Hail Eris! All Hail Discordia! Her work in the world is most apparent and growing day by
day. Let us sing for the chaos that leads us to a state of greater complexity and organization.
What will you tell your children
Why is there war?
when they ask you
Why do people go to war?
What will you tell your precious children
When they ask you
Why mama, why daddy, why must there be war?
(Child of mine, thatâ€™s a hard, hard question.)
How will you know
What to tell them
When you hear so many different stories
From so many different sources?
(Oh my little ones, how can I help you
Understand this hard world?)
when they ask you
when they ask you
Why mama, why daddy, why must there be war?
Will you tell them war is fought for freedom
Will you tell them war is fought for security
Is war a battle between good and evil
Or a power play to boost the economy
Should they risk their lives for liberation
Do they owe their duty to God and nation
Or to the profiteers and corporations
Should they avenge the ones who bleed
Should they trust the men who lead
Will you tell them people fight to save their lives
Will you tell them people are fighting
for brazen lies, fear and misunderstanding
Or will you tell your children
when they ask you why
People go to die
when they ask you
(There must be a better way...)
Youâ€™ve got to:
Talk to the people
Reach out to the people
Work with the people
With your heart wide open
Dance with the people
Listen to the people
Share all youâ€™ve got
With the people
With your heart wide open
And then we'll tell our children
With our hearts wide open:
We wonâ€™t study war no more.
Posted by: catlady | September 17, 2004 12:59 PM
finally, a good reason to go shopping for your country
and also, i have, in conversation with friends, who would love to see things in iraq go
horrorably wrong, so bush's policy(s) would become discredited, have often asserted to
them; in the end, it does not matter so much what we think, in terms of wishing for bad
news -- on the outcome of the iraqi project.
it is true and good to point out the mental wrongheadedness of the project of the war,
morally, ethically, and pragmatically --as a means to an end.
it is right to show and emphasize the utter failure of how that project has and is carried out.
and it is noteworthy to recall that all bushes people pushing this project have no history, or
self evident inclination in achieving success in such a project.
i for one, would gladly eat crow (under glass even) if by my own missunderstanding and
resistance to this project is (was) shown to be wrong -- if by some miracle this whole thing
were to be embraced and absorbed by the iraqis themselves -- that they, the iraqis would
come to see in parallel, bushes vision as there own.
in other words, a hard look all the facts would show the project doomed without any
wishing and hoping that it would do so -- no need hoping a cut tree will fall.
thank you koreyel & agree with rossk - yr not a bad hand yrself - one link like that cleans at
least some of the shit out of the system
still steel
Quote:
I'm really certain that we'll see that lots of us wearing red for freedom - because we are the
majority.
Whoa, let me restate this: one group of people wants to show the rest that they are
overwhelming them in numbers? Like, maybe to intimidate them?
I have two words for ya: brown shirts.
You should know that wearing gang colors is a really bad idea. Unless you really want to
see all republicans reply with their own colored gear.
What about the independents? They will be the loosers in any such scheme. Can you
imagine what it is like to be the only person in a crowd of red or blue wearing people? They
would have to conform to one of the sides.
Billmon already discussed this:
it's easy to imagine some creative GOP hack developing a standard t-shirt (let's
say with a red, white and blue color design) for those troops to wear.
If the t-shirt design catches on, then some other party hack might well develop
a proprietary patriotic logo - something distinctly identifiable as a Republican
Party symbol - to go on those t-shirts.
In Los Angeles that's called showing "gang colors". I find this almost too ironic to keep
from smirking.
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« Just In Time | Main | Good News »
Moon of Alabama: Just In Time
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« Hope as a Budget Item | Main | Ready, Aim, Focus »
September 16, 2004
Just In Time
BBC Annan Interview
Q: So you don't think there was legal authority for the war?
A: I have stated clearly that it was not in conformity with the Security Council
- with the UN Charter.
Q: It was illegal?
A: Yes, if you wish.
Q: It was illegal?
A: Yes, I have indicated it is not in conformity with the UN Charter, from our
point of view and from the Charter point of view it was illegal.
Comments
They do pay attention:
BBC adds:
.. a former Bush administration aide, Randy Scheunemann, branded Mr Annan's comments
"outrageous".
As Sean-Paul Kelly of the Agonist says in his signiture If you're not outraged you're not
paying attention!
Why is Randy, director of PNAC and president of the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq,
paying attention? The United Nations are irrelevant.
Another illustration of the Golden Rule:
Whoever ends up with the gold will make the rules.
(And Bush has got ten legions to prove it.)
Old news directly from the mouth of the Horse's Head:
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2004/09/just_in_time.html (1 von 4) [16.11.2004 18:29:16]
Thursday November 20, 2003
The Guardian
"International lawyers and anti-war campaigners reacted with astonishment yesterday
after the influential Pentagon hawk Richard Perle conceded that the invasion of Iraq had
been illegal.
In a startling break with the official White House and Downing Street lines, Mr Perle told
an audience in London: "I think in this case international law stood in the way of doing the
right thing."
Thus, perhaps Mr. Scheunemann should be simultaneously outraged and ecstatic that the
more recent statements of Kofi A. fully support the ideological underpinnings of the
Admin's simultaneous morally repugnant/illegally pragamatic policies of death, destruction
and simulcast cable network-assisted mayhem.
Perle: "I think in this case international law stood in the way of doing the right thing."
Ross, classic PNAC arrogance right out there for all to see and hear, eh? Of course, I think
it's long past time for the Perles of the world to be "shown" just how "irrelevant" they are in
the "big picture", and shown the door or the guillotine.
Right you are Kate.
Perhaps should have said 'straight from the Orifice of the Horse's Ass'.
Interestingly, both Perle and David Frum are currently being rightfully pilloried up here
north of the 49th because of their quisling acts for our own worst nightmare, Conrad
Black(heart).
The point is that international laws always stands in the way of doing the right thing but
also doing the bad thing. It weights a state's sovereignty above other nations opinion on the
domestic issues of that state.
That is why we have Kofi to tell us what is right and to suspend sovereignty through voting
in the Security Council.
BTW, North Korea 1953: " Sixteen member states would provide troops under a United
Nations Joint Command. This United Nations force was primarily dominated by America
even to the extent of being commanded by an American general â€“ Douglas MacArthur.
The United Nations received much support for taking robust action against an aggressor
nation. South Korea regained its independence and continued to be supported by America."
UN Resolution 1441 is the often cited validation for the United States' military actions in
Iraq. Has anyone in charge actually read this resolution? It states that Saddam Hussein must
not produce weapons of mass destruction or missiles to launch them and Iraq cannot give
WMDs to anyone else. It says that Iraq must send a report to the UN verifying its arsenal
and it must let inspectors in to verify that there are no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
Failure to compy would result in serious consequences, though the actual consequence is
not named in the resolution. Since Iraq did not have WMDs and did not give them to
anyone and since Iraq did hand in over 1200 pages of details on its armaments to the UN
and did let inspectors into Iraq, is it fair to say that Iraq did comply with UN Resolution
1441 and therefore the military action against Iraq was indeed illegal?
Posted by: SME in Seattle | September 17, 2004 12:17 AM
Note: Iraq submitted a 12,000 page document detailing it's nuclear and weapons
capabilities on December 7,2002.
Posted by: SME in Seattle | September 17, 2004 03:37 AM
scott ritter has maintained for a long time that iraq was not in violation of 1441, now that ka
has come out, after blix, now how about kay?
also, never really saw any analysis of the 1200 pg iraqi document, only that they (iraqis)
couldn't prove the actual destruction of wmd -- little like killing the sobered drunk, because
he forgot where the bottles were.
george?
Gee - the war ON Iraq is illegal? Bush better call his lawyer! OOPS! He already used that
excuse.
12/22/03 - At a photo op after a cabinet meeting, a reporter asked Bush if such punitive
steps squared with international law. "International law?" Bush answered, with an edge of
sarcasm. "I better call my lawyer. He didn't bring that up to me."
This whole mess o'potamia was entirely predictable - if anybody had cared to examine the
history. What a disaster! See: http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3706598
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Moon of Alabama: Hope as a Budget Item
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« Tin Foil Hat in Jail | Main | Just In Time »
September 16, 2004
Hope as a Budget Item
Last year the US Congress answered the administrationÂ´s "urgent request" by agreeing on
$18.4 billion non military spending for Iraq. By now $1.14 billion have been urgently
spend. Yesterday the administration asked Congress to move $3.46 billon of the US
pledged money to security - that at least is what you will hear in the news.
In a first step the Senate Foreign Relation committee yesterday moved $150 million dollar
from the Iraq pot to "help victims of violence and famine in the Darfur region of Sudan".
This may pay for the American military personnel working with African Union monitors in
the Sudanese region of Darfur to help bring the attacking militias under control and
restore security to the area - i.e. for illegal interference in a foreign sovereign country by
military means.
The actual State Department request has some details not reflect in the news.
- Water and sewer treatment projects will be reduced by 45%.
- Electricity project funding will be reduced by 20%.
- Refined Oil Purchases, i.e. subsidy for private Iraqi gas and petroleum needs, will be
reduced by $450 million.
This will make for some happy Iraqis this winter - sitting in the dark, no petroleum in their
heaters and sipping cold tea made with contaminated water.
But there is hope. The money will now be spent more wisely.
$1.8 billion will go to security - 45,000 additional police, 16,000 new border control and
20,000 additional Iraqi national guards. The capacity for the 8 week training course for new
policemen is planed to double to 5,300 academy slots. Sometime from now 31,800 per year
may be able to receive training.
Oil capacity enhancement - urgently needed to turn down the insurgency - will get
additional $450 million. Questions about these new contracts shall be directed to the Vice
PresidentÂ´s office.
Unspecified economic development goes for $380 million, accelerated employment gets
$286 million and democracy and governance can be bought for $180 million.
A nice chunk of $360 million will go to debt reduction. Sounds fuzzy? ABC news explains:
Some $360 million will be set aside to cover the "budget cost" of forgiving 95
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2004/09/hope_as_a_weapo.html (1 von 4) [16.11.2004 18:29:19]
percent of Iraqi debt to the United States incurred during the Iraq War.
Citibank would be proud of this scheme.
During the Congress hearing Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Iraq, Ronald
Schlicher, claimed the DoDÂ´s prize for the best new weapon technology.
"In short, one of our main weapons against the insurgents is the hope and the
creation of more hope," he said. "When Iraqis have hope for the future and real
opportunities, they will reject those who advocate violence."
Hope is now an official budget item.
Comments
Bernhard: $1.8 billion will go to security - 45,000 additional police, 16,000 new border
control and 20,000 additional Iraqi national guards. The capacity for the 8 week training
course for new policemen is planed to double to 5,300 academy slots. Sometime from now
31,800 per year may be able to receive training.
Doesn't this mean that $1.8 billion will go to training insurgents (excuse me, anti-Iraqi
forces)? Do we have any idea how many of the new Iraqi police and National Guard are in
fact insurgents? This is just one more example of the Bush Administration's utter
cluelessness about the reality on the ground in Iraq.
*** OFF TOPIC ***
...
@ bernhard: if you find it outrageous of me to post this here, you may as well move it to
another thread :-)
moved it to OffTopic Thread
b
Well the US has 'privatised' (stolen) the Iraq economy, and much good that does anyone as
no one will invest, and without security and at least some infrastructure, nothing will come
of that. I read that in many parts of Iraq today there is no electricity at all - or only maybe 2
hours out of 24 every two days. Big surprise.
I have read that between 1 and 2 (closer to 2) of the original 18 billion is already missing,
completely unaccounted for. So knock that off also.
Nobody seriously imagined that the US allocated money to be spent on Iraqis, come on.
Listen, this only proves that guys like Douglas Feith are freakin loosers in the regime
change business.
Blinded by ideology, Bremer gave tax-cuts to people who wanted jobs & security. Well, let
me only say that people who have a job, are at work for like 8-10 hours. They DO NOT
have much time for past time pleasures in the form of insurgency, holy wars & stuff.
In fact, jobs DO reinforce security, because everyone, who is not at work in a legal
business, probably has something suspicious going on. But in a 70% unemployment zone
you just can not separate the good seed from the bad seed.
It would be so easy to close the border for some foreign goods, employ Iraqis at the
Customs and make them all consume what they can produce. A little protectionism. But no,
'we must have a free market! consumer choice triumphs!'
I think we could ourselves come up with a better government takeover scheme then the
neocons. One of Machiavellian quality, which does include real elections.
As you probably know, the guy with more money usually beats the one with none at all.
People like pretty campaign billboards. They prefer optimistic TV spots to doom-preaching
angry heads.
As a draft please consider Italian elections 1947-1948 and the OSS 'sponsorship' of
right-wing christian parties against the socialists.
Why were there no elections in Iraq in the summer of 2003? It would be so easy to
outspend the al-Sadrs, al-Sistanis. It would be so easy to fund the little couch-parties,
socialist, liberals, whatever, just to split the field between everyone who thinks he is the
better politician.
There even is a organisation which is in the business of 'sponsoring democracy abroad'. It is
called the National Endowment for Democracy (often accused to be a CIA front). And if
you in a bizzarre way fund parties with OPPOSING political platforms, then you can not be
accussed of lobbying a partisan side. Dig it? You are only supporting an emerging
democratic environment. More parties means voters can choose, doesn't it?
Remember AIPAC? They have a rule. They fund the opponents of politicians who said
something bad about Israel. This works much better then directly funding strong Israel
supporters. Why not meet the Al-Sadrs at the ballot box, where you have the 'dollar
advantage'?
Why so little faith in a democratic campaign process?
Marcin: The Italian scenario can't work in Iraq because Iraqis are occupied and oppressed
on a daily basis, and the US isn't allied to the Iraqi mafia - insurgents are allied, or rather,
they merged with what could be considered as the local mafia, as is common in such a
situation.
Blackie: 1 or 2 months ago, 8 billions were missing from the total bill on Iraq. That is really
a lot of money, and they can't blame Chalabi for all of it.
Why so little faith in a democratic campaign process?
:)
At what point will Americans see themselves as others see them?
Doesn't this mean that $1.8 billion will go to training insurgents (excuse me, anti-Iraqi
forces)?
Heh, indeed... aspiring mujahedin can get two months basic training from the Americans,
then advance to the Fallujah Finishing School to complete their jihadi education!
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Moon of Alabama: Tin Foil Hat in Jail
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« Ivan Lashes the Gulf | Main | Hope as a Budget Item »
September 15, 2004
Tin Foil Hat in Jail
In July I wrote a piece Tin Foil Hat Required about "Jack" Idema and friends torturing and
running a private prison in Kabul, Afghanistan.
Today Idema and his folks were sentenced to 10 years in comfortable Afghan prison cells.
Soj of Flogging the Simian has researched and written extensively on the issue. The story
makes most spy / terror / comedy fiction look like scientific papers. Take some time to
follow her trail.
Comments
Wow. What a comprehensive story she pieced together - really impressive. And astonishing
too. As she noted, makes one wonder how many more of these guys are out there?
Sorry to be the barrer of bad tidings, but i have now changed my position (flip-floped) to
believe that Kerry is toast.
He is using Shrum who is again running the most innept campaign since Dukakas. They are
getting their asses kicked at all facits of the campaign.
Bush is the most flawed f----- idiot in history of WH occupancy and Kerry is getting his ass
kicked.
I have e-mailed the DNC to attack Bushie, attack that drug addict Limbaugh. Attack,
attack, attack. This whole campaign should be a referendum on Bush, yet, it has become a
referendum on Kerry. My god, what the hell id the DNC doing?
Man, I sure don't want another four years of Bush. I am sad, and pissed at the same time.
The middle class will shrink somemore and Bushies rich buddies will get preferential
treatment. That piss head frat boy is ruining our country faster than it can be corrected, with
the concurrence of that asshole Delay, and the big asshole Frist.
We are f----- for four more years.
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2004/09/tin_foil_hat_in.html (1 von 8) [16.11.2004 18:29:24]
Afghan court jails US bounty hunter who claims to have tracked down Bin Laden
O/T but ...
Some people think (and I am leaning towards them lately) that it should be much better if
we have Bush 4 more years, to fuck -up things completely (nationally and
internationally)...they say it must lead to a change...big change...grand scale...(I am not sure
what the exact price would be in lives and money etc.)
If we have Kerry for next 4 years, things will degenerate slowly and this agony will last too
long.
I am one of the ones whom think Bush needs to win. We will never rid this planet of
primates like his ilk if we don't let his kind show their madness. This afterall is the year of
Kali. Kali the destroyer.
We (humanity) needs a movement to a higher state of consciousness for humans, a higher
vibrational frequency for the planet, and a new "Golden Age" on the Earth. The aspects of
destruction and war we are now undergoing are a kind of clearing of the way. A birthing
process with all the blood and guts and discharge and mucus we can stand. From the
Jungian perspective, it is a projection of the unintegrated shadow of the human psyche into
material form. By 2012, the shadow must be fully seen and integrated.
Yeah, well, I'm all for cleansing this planet of morons like W. The bad news is that we
simply can't let them on the commands in the hope they'll show how bad they are and the
rest of mankind will wake up. They will run the planet into the ground and destroy it way
before people are aware enough to react.
I mean, way back in 2000, there were a sizable part of the leftists who said "Let Bush rule
for 4 years, then people will flock to the left because they'll see how bad he is". Well, we're
in 2004 and now people say "Give him more rope to hang himself". What will they say in
2008? "Well, in 20 years, people will have learned"? In 1932/33, people said "Let Hitler
rule, so that people will see how incompetent he is; then they'll vote Communist".
Let's face it: most people are friggin morons and vote badly. That won't change just because
Bush is president. Insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results: here, we
had 50% people thinking Bush was a great guy in 2000, and 50% people thinking Bush is
still a great guy in 2004; hoping that people will turn on the Reps in 2008 after giving them
4 more years of free rule is wishful thinking.
Sometimes, you have to wonder which side people really are on, with mankind, or with the
Evil Empire?
jdb & vbo & Uncle$cam
For what it's worth (absolutely nothing) - I think it is going to take a lot longer than 4 more
years of degeneration to fuck things up to a point where there will be any substantive
reaction - let alone the prospect of a new Golden Age.
I havenâ€™t read any Jung in the last 35 years - but talk of states of consciousness - along
with the general undertone of "spiritual beings" shite that is often promulgated by otherwise
intelligent and aware individuals in these threads â€“ I think only adds to the cancer of this
age.
The modern era was born from the Age of Enlightenment. I will stand corrected by any
serious historian, but my understanding of this is that in reality, it was the birth of
humanism, reason, and logical analysis.
The fact that in the 21st century were are engaged in a re-run of the medieval crusades, in a
world where religious shit is gaining ground rather than being consigned to the trashcan of
history, seems to me to be a colossal failure on the part of the â€œintelligentsiaâ€• (for
want of a better word) â€“ to live up to the heritage bestowed on them by the men who
forged the modern era.
All of the greats of Western Philosophy were finally left to rest in peace by the seminal
work of Bertrand Russell in the early part of the 20th century, yet here we are in the 21st
century, where there are few (in any) willing or able to take any stand against the Torah, the
Bible, or the Koran.
New Age nuts probably led the charge of the anti-intellectual assault. People of such
timorous and fearful nature, that they would embrace anything from the Upanishads to the
Book of the Dead, to magic crystals or sacred trees, anything â€“ except embrace an
understanding that they are mortal and without any cosmic significance.
I was brought up as a Protestant (in a non-American, agnostic fashion). I note this only
because we are all molded regardless of how much we think of ourselves as individuals.
But as a moderately educated â€˜thinking personâ€™ â€“ I am almost numb with
incredulity that these perverse middle-eastern religions are the centerpiece of a
comic-tragedy that may yet lead us to a new Dark Age.
4 more years? This sounds like eternal optimism â€“ a belief in the American Way â€“ that
after just 4 more years you will be able to dump the jerk and itâ€™s back to Happy Days.
I fear not.
Uncle $cam rightly said this before on WA:
Quote:
"NONE OF THIS HAS ANYTHING TO DO WITH RELIGION, ITS ALL ECONOMIC!
But they use Religion as a front."
---------And this to be applied anywhere anytime...
Quite a few people are morons and even more of them are rotten (even intellectuals)â€¦We
canâ€™t change peopleâ€¦no one canâ€¦but atmosphere can be changed and thinking can
be channeled.
I am just not sure if itâ€™s going to take millions of dead and half of the planet destroyed.
this is totally off-topic but isn't there some way we can get in touch with billmon? we know
his full name is bill montague, formerly of usa today, and now senior financial writer at
salomon smith barney's consulting group.
ehehe, i know this would be terribly intrusive but couldn't we call him up at work, and say
"hey moses, please don't forget your tribe"? i love the guy as much as anyone else out here,
but the sense of frustration and disappointment at his long absence is not dissimilar to that
which one feels when one's ex or one's best friend no longer writes or calls. people move
on, and others suffer for it. (if that makes any sense.)
on second thoughts, i know that most people are too civil to do something like calling him.
i also know that billmon really doesn't owe us anything; indeed our debt to him is far far
greater. still i would love it if the sonofabitch came back if only for a day and just put us
out of this misery.
it would have been better if he had said a month ago - "i am sailing off and never coming
back." even that would have been more acceptable than the "back in a week" promise that's
caused so much heartache.
Posted by: zm | September 16, 2004 10:32 AM
As much as I respect and enjoy Billmons writing I personally don't need a moses to lead me
anywhere. I resonate much w/his prose, but as the saying goes "If the followers lead, the
leaders will follow."
Their are no saviors, save yourself smuck!
Uncle: "If the followers lead, the leaders will follow."
Hail, yes!
jdb, vbo, Uncle $cam
I enjoy and learn from your posts, and although I sympathize with your despair over the US
electorate and its choices, I have to say that change at a point of near balance is always
preferable to change after holocaust.
If we are doomed to suffer that holocaust, then we will have to face that. But let's not go
down welcoming the blows to our eyes and our gonads. The only way to lose your
humanity is to welcome the attack on you.
jdb, vbo, Uncle $cam
I enjoy and learn from your posts, and although I sympathize with your despair over the US
electorate and its choices, I have to say that change at a point of near balance is always
preferable to change after holocaust.
If we are doomed to suffer that holocaust, then we will have to face that. But let's not go
down welcoming the blows to our eyes and our gonads. The only way to lose your
humanity is to welcome the attack on you.
Previewed once and sent once. Not sure why I'm getting doubles here. My apologies.
Citizen, while I appreciate your point of view and I waver on mine somewhat, (mostly out
of distress)meaning, I go back and forth with my thoughts on my theory of voting bush.
It is an honest struggle. I'm reminded of systems thinking and organizational change theory.
After reading Sir Karl popper's THE OPEN SOCIETY AND ITS ENEMIES I feel different
in knowing that organizational change theory and systems thinking holds the key to a better
future. Afterall, watching the kelptocrat's both repub and demo fleese our nation for the last
thirty years continually, stratify and compartmentalise us against each other and ourselves
watching the demo move further and further to the right while the right move even futher,
where
the system is starting to eat itself.
Which is a classic symptom of a closed society.
Open systems are freqently capable of change and resist entropy. They can be said to
practice creative self-destruction. open systems which is what we certainly haven't had in a
long time, are neglected until the system breaks-down or discentagrates. Trying to change a
system (like our political system) by changing its content is called First Order Change. In
this case, people try to change what an individual element does, try to reorganize a specific
organization, or change the people who work for an organization. These types of change
alter only the look of the system, not its actual behavior. It is called "rearranging deck
chairs on the Titanic." However you arrange the chairs, the ship will still sink.
Homeostasis is an unconscious process by which systems seek to maintain the status quote.
All elements within the system interact to keep the system from changing. Any effort
toward system change will result in homeostatic responses from within the system to block
the change.Which is what I feel is the left/right Bush/Kerry binary logic. Most system
change strategies tend to fail because they do not address the interactions within the system.
When a change effort fails, (which it has again and again)the most common response is to
try the same (or the same type) of strategy again.A forever feed-back loop that stagnates
and falls anyway.
To understand a system, study its content, to change a system study its context. I feel what
the good intentions of the progresives and open minded people here at the bar and
elsewhere seem to get caught up in is study of content and not it's context. How long must
we play this lessor of two evils game? Until the world falls apart?
Addendum : House votes to give itself pay raise these people are so out of touch it's not
even funny. Lets have a show of hands , how many here knew that the "leaders" don't pay
into social security, nor do they care about it. How many people know that the "leaders"
spouses continue to get their partners pay even after they die. How may people know that
the executive branch gets their pay for life even after leaving office. Just wondering...
Tell me is this truely a system "of and for an by the people"
America's Board of Directors
I'm only 50 pages into Zbgniew Brzezinski's "The Grand Chessboard" and one thing
quickly becomes apparent to the perceptive reader: just how irrelevant democracy is in
America.
I like your posts of early this morning Uncle. Anyone with a modicum of inteeligence
knows by now that our beloved system is crashing around us as we gaze in confusion. No
way to stop it, not that I would want to.
Let me propose that even though the crash may finalize itself sooner with another Bush
term, the pain it causes could be much greater too, and more permanent. Whatever its
details, the agenda of the current regime includes a lot of death and destruction. We know
this.
There are better paths to the future, even if one of them has to wind through Kerry and the
Dems for awhile.
Yes I hear the rationale that one should give them free rein so they have a chance to prove
how bad they are. I don't buy that argument at all; the end will come in any case and it is
better if bushco is not in charge when it happens.
@ Uncle $cam
Tell me is this truely a system "of and for an by the people"
I'm about 3/4's of the way through "The Creation of America : Through Revolution to
Empire" by Francis Jennings which makes quite clear that the answer to your query is a
definitive NO because it was never intended to be so, unless the use of the term "people" is
qualified as being a white gentry/merchant/slaveholder. Just thought I'd through this
reference into the mix b/c, as you say, context is the key. Great links!
@Uncle $cam
I agree that politicians of both parties are revoltingly arrogant (a pay raise, now? yeesh).
But when I used to go to bars alone in Seoul, I would always make friends with the biggest
soldier there who had an air of calm assurance, and no matter what happened in the bar I
was always in the right place, always okay. There are always allies to be found when you
are clear about avoiding ignorance and hot tempers (own included). Kerry and the Dems
have problems, but they look like the ally in this bar, tonight.
@b real
Excellent contexting.
But about context, as important as it is to know the context, it is probably a fool's mission
to expect to change the context in a single step. Rather, we can change ourselves, we can
make and transform our immediate friends and enemies, and then this grows big enough to
start becoming the context. So my first question (in my wise moments) is - how do my
plans change me? That is why I am suspicious of wishing for the greater of two weevils to
win, because it would pervert me. And that seems to be the surest path to missing my goals,
to betraying what matters, to choosing the wrong friends and wrong contexts.
Short version: If I hang out with the jerks at the bar, I will get what's coming to them.
I may be too late for this thread, but I wanted to respond to one of Uncle $cams points
above.
"How may people know that the executive branch gets their pay for life even after leaving
office?"
Not exactly sure what you are getting at there, Uncle, but political appointees in the
executive branch do not get their pay once they leave their job, and may or may not get
some sort of retirement/benefit payment out of it down the road. The way they really make
their money is when they cash in after leaving office and become lobbyists or otherwise go
work for the industries they previously regulated or otherwise oversaw while in the
government. (Tom Scully is a good example.)
Career executive branch employees in the federal civil service, a/k/a "faceless bureacrats",
of which I am one, have a pretty decent pay scale and benefits package, but
notwithstanding the the bad rap we have with the public, a lot of us actually do work for it.
You are correct, I stand corrected. As of 1983 the exectutive branch does indeed pay into
social securtiy.But It looks like is some cases they can draw up to 80% of their pay as
pension. Nice, that one.
Democracy Now spends the hour today [2004.09.23] on the Idema case and the questions
surrounding the trial, w/ Fogelnest back in the States & in the studio.
And here's a link to part 19 of the ongoing Soj updates.
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« Ivan Lashes the Gulf | Main | Hope as a Budget Item »
Moon of Alabama: Ivan Lashes the Gulf
And
must
have
whiskey
Oh, you
know
why
« One Month Ago ... | Main | Tin Foil Hat in Jail »
September 15, 2004
Ivan Lashes the Gulf
Reuters:
Ivan, a large storm, started to lash the Gulf, disrupting the regions oil and
natural gas production and import.
Ivan the Terrible was
a man who believed himself chosen to save the souls of his people, but who
brutally put thousands to death ...
...
Ivan had huge ambitions for his new Imperial dynasty. He launched a holy war
... showing no mercy to these Muslim peoples and decimating their cultural
heritage. Ivan's conquest ... gave birth to a ... personality cult glorifying him as
the Orthodox crusader.
Please stay away from various Ivans.
Comments
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2004/09/ivan_lashes_the.html (1 von 3) [16.11.2004 18:29:26]
Ivan - approx 70 deaths.
Bushco - approx 30,000.
Ivan is an amateur.
Posted by: NEPAJim | September 15, 2004 09:49 AM
We have never seen a hurricane of this size come into Alabama," Gov. Bob Riley said, who
earlier asked President Bush to declare much of the state a disaster area.
A horrible act of God.
And made even more worse by the fact that Our Father Yahweh surely meant to send this
storm into the heart of Al-Abama.
Yeah... I know, I am incorrigible.
But all that was just to provide a segue: I wonder how our alabama is doing?
I hope it's heading straight for Crawford.
Now we have Jeanne and Karl lining up to smash Florida some more. "George? God here. I
am pissed." Take that.
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« One Month Ago ... | Main | Tin Foil Hat in Jail »
Moon of Alabama: One Month Ago ...
And
must
have
whiskey
Oh, you
know
why
« Off Topics - Open Thread | Main | Ivan Lashes the Gulf »
September 15, 2004
One Month Ago ...
... Billmon went "to be off on a boat for a week or so". I have no idea what happened to
him since - letÂ´s just hope he is well.
This site was created to carry comments on BillmonÂ´s posts after he turned off comments
at the Whiskey Bar. Here well used Open Threads were added, as were some posts from
fellow bar flies and my rants. This morning someone commented:
seems like less and less posts lately. i'm not on the same scale of intellect as
most of you but i wanted to let you know i check this site several times daily
and do really appreciate your insight. some of the best links to info also.
thanks!
The Whiskey Annex has hardly traffic anymore and here at the Moon Of Alabama traffic
dropped from some 1,200 hits per day to less than 1,000. Worse, comments to hits ratio has
halved from some 8% to 4%. Without Billmon or more active participation from the bar
flies this site looses its purpose.
I do not have the talent, cultivation, knowledge, background and time to create the content
needed to keep this side running all by myself. If you see value in keeping the Moon
shining please contribute.
You may want to write several short pieces a week and post them here. Drop me a note and
you will have a posting account. You may like to write a piece just once a while and have it
posted - send it via email and I will take care of it (address on the About page).
If writing posts doesnâ€™t fit you, please comment. Letâ€™s know your thoughts and
feelings, drop some links, suggest discussions - itâ€™s what keeps this site going. And if
you find something valuable here, let it be known elsewhere too.
However, thanks for visiting and your participation.
Comments
Bernhard,
As a constant reader of the Whiskey Bar, I was thrilled to see this site come alive after
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2004/09/one_month_ago.html (1 von 17) [16.11.2004 18:29:37]
Billmon turned off comments. I too check this site several times a day and appreciate all
input, as well as many informative commenters. Keep up the good work. From a booth in
the back of the Bar, thanks and I raise my glass in a toast to you all.
It is indeed difficult to turn out worthwhile analysis and information on a daily, or even
weekly, basis. So thanks to Bernhard, Billmon, and JÃ©rÃ´me for attempting the
impossible and enlightening many of us in the process of doing so. Although there are
plenty of worthwhile offerings on the Web, few seem to match the consistently high level
observable at these three watering holes. One of the pleasures of visiting here is to find
folks who are "pointing out" non-standard sources and opinions, often with an implicit
"Can you believe this?" tacked on for good measure (and good counsel). In that vein, and
trusting in the capacity of the patrons of this locale
to judge for themselves independently of received opinions, I submit the follwing link.
Laura Rozen over at War and Piece has turned on the comments, and some interesting
Iranian discussion, amongst others.
Posted by: Cloned Poster | September 15, 2004 11:57 AM
As one of the exploiters of the MoA who gets far more out of it than he contributes, I
would also like to stress my continuing joy in this thing. During my little breaks I try
always to look at what's going on at the MoA - the Whiskey Annex is obviously waiting for
its metamorphosis into Le Speakeasy. So please continue the good work, but I haven't got
the time to write anything that should be published (here). Thank you all for your efforts,
and I imagine that closer to Nov. 2nd, traffic might go up. Good information and
stimulating online debates are precious these days.
I am also sad that Bilmon has gone on such an extended vacation. Lets hope we hear from
him soon.
Here is a link to a special site put up by LexisNexis (database where you can read news
etc.) This link is freely accessible.
Campaign 2004 - links to articles, websites, editorials, etc. Much food for thought and
perhaps comment here.
my personal take - a bit convoluted
i started to get interested in american politics in earnest after 911, which was a shock to me
and everybody i know. i was on the job when the daugher of my colleague called to say that
a small plane had crashed into one of the towers. we tried
to find out what had happened, but the internet was dead, of overload as we found out later.
by the time we came thru, cnn had posted the pics of the second crash and the radio was
frantic. it was the only time ever i saw my boss giving any hint of humane feelings. i
myself was so sick that i had to take off several days.
before that, i was not more interested in american politics than the average political aware
person here in europe. before that 2000 elections i said to somebody that if bush was
elected we'd have war, and generally, that bad stuff would happen. i was dismissed, and
soon i forgot about that comment and took part in the general merriment about the stupidity
of the new american president. how fucking wrong everybody had been who had laughed at
the sick fuck, and how on spot my first hunch had been.
three years later, i've learnt lots about politics and what i see is no encouraging. back in
2001 i was elected to a small position in local politics here. i took part because i thought i
would be able to do something of value for society, but my experience and all what i
learned while looking for answers to the horror of that day, i'm convinced that party politics
are fucked up badly, for reasons which need more energy to explain than i currently have.
one of my political activities was to read and participate in various political forums - blogs
- interestingly all american. hosted, initiated, kept ... by americans and dealing mostly with
american politics. blogs are interesting because you can compare the blogsphere with the
redlight district of any major city, but instead of whores and whorehouses you have the
same configuration with poets and discussion salons, literature coffees and reading parlors
... for all tastes. in this sense, the american political scene, while often not of my taste,
resembles a fashion mile: lots of it but not for the masses, but rather configured like one
boutique next to the other. one exclusive discussion club next to the other, as far as the eye
can see.
while the american bloggers - atrios, steve gilliard, billmon, kos, and others - do an
admirable job at putting their fucked-up corporate media to shame, there are some points of
criticism which should be mentioned: bloggers speak to a minority, a growing one, but still;
bloggers have attained some influence in politics, but only at the cost of having allowed
politics to coopt them - the spectrum goes from kos who gives obscure province candidates
their 5 minutes in the spot to gilliard, who has become as staunch a partisan hack as can be,
to the agonist, who sees no evil and suspects off-the-beaten-path opinions. it escapes me
why somebody educated and somewhat politically aware would endorse either kerry or
bush who i see both as bringers of ruin to the US, it is probably their privilege as americans
and owners of their respective blogs to run after delusions of their liking.
my more fundamental criticism of the american blogs - from my view as european, are
other issues. first, they do not deal in issues interesting to europeans, second (and i repeat
myself here), they have no real influence beyond what the political establishment wants to
give them. as such, the blogs absorb energy which would be better spent elsewhere (i'll
come to this later).
but my more fundamental problem is with the american political system per se, the one on
which bloggers and other discussion fora have no influence at all. it is plain for anyone to
see how corrupt and far from the needs of common americans the main political parties in
the US are. this not only reflects in the torrent of lies and disinformation spewed thru the
media, but in the american economy and other issues of importance to any country. the
american economy is a terminal case, and right now the elites are taking it apart and selling
it plank by plank, like a decomissioned war ship. bleeding the US of jobs like a cow at the
butchery and at the same time allowing millions of illegals into the country plus total
deconstruction of the legal system plus destruction of the health and social care systems are
actions which in their totality amount to war against americans. the generals conducting
this war are the heads of all the well-known corporations, their behind-the-lines units would
be the dem and rep parties headed by you know who.
it may be arguable whether americans would be able to defend their country against an
old-style invasion, but fact is that americans are singularly ill-prepared to defend
themselves, their nation as a functioning commonwealth against the kind of attack they are
experiencing right now. estimated 40% of americans belong to the wacky "born-again"
variety of nutjob religions which turns them into smiling morons incapable of thinking
beyond what their hierarchy tells them. of the rest, only a minority are politicized and could
say to have some insight into how their country works. americans as a collective are
exceptionally ignorant of the world in which they live, most of them have no idea what is
going on outside the US and still think that their wars are somehow morally justified.
the collective depolitization of americans plus their exceptional ignorance plus plain bad
education of the masses are factors which all stand in the way of americans stopping the
rampage of their criminal elite and taking back their country. for americans to raise in arms,
they would have to be able to know, to think, and to see where their interests as a collective
and as individua are. i doubt that many americans have this kind of insight. americans have
already lost this war which they themselves are - without realizing it - fighting against
themselves in the name of their enemies because they are incapable of realizing that there is
a war against them in the first place. because americans seem to be too fucking dumb to
realize what is being done to them - and i say this without schadenfreude or the intent to
insult - they will become prisoners in their own country, they will continue committing
atrocities around the world "in the name of freedom fries", they will go to concentration
camps and find it ok, they will continue paying tribute to the jews and do nothing against it,
they will morph into the equivalent of a beehive, with a worker class, a warrior class and a
minuscule ruling class.
when - and if - americans try to get rid of their zionist parasites and their friends, they will
find some nasty surprises laying in the waiting: debts being recalled, attacks from the new
allies and friends of the zionists who will now be in posession of all those secrets and cool
weapons which the americans thought were being made to defend them against these
enemies. to most people who, like me, are in position to look at this from a rather detached
position and who know about the crimes ameica has comitted against humanity, the demise
of the US from the world political scene will be greeted with cynic smirks, but that is too
simple, and misleading. the tool of evil, having been spent, will be tossed aside like
yesterdays newspaper. but the criminals will be on their way looking for new tools to
commit new horrors.
next in row for the butcher is europe. the parasites are already increasing their activities,
probably in order to suck this continent dry before the grace shot, not unlike what is going
on in the US right now.
the consolidation and expansion of the EU is but one step on the way to disaster for europe.
most people are noticeably worse off after introduction of the euro, and the additional layer
of bureaucracy on brussels, an imperial court as corrupt as possible and not answerable to
anybody, will in all probability put to shame the shenanigans of washingtonian politics in
the near future.
i'm tired now (and hungry). will try to continue this if its not too boring to everybody.
that - the long post - was me. your site is somehow eating the personal info :-(
will try to continue this if its not too boring to everybody.
You sure ain't boring me.
Sorry if I have not been posting much.
Big family worries. Hopefully better news in the near future.
I still read the site, just no energy to contribute.
@Jerome:
Best wishes for whatever problems you are having at home.
We all loved your comments on the oil threads;
And what you are doing over at the WA.
The best to you and yours.
Posted by: A Friend | September 15, 2004 05:46 PM
JÃ©rÃ´me, good to hear from you. Be well, and all the best to you and your family.
name, I agree with koreyel.
as i've mentioned - i've not posted lately - time being consumed by consultation, tests &
entretiens for the newfound diabetes 1 has taken a whack from me si i've not been in the
mind to contribute as i've thought necessary
also thoughts dark, sometimes too dark to share but i read every day - as you know many
poster here - seem as friends to me especially alabama but also many others including pat
koryel - many who touch me
deeply
moa/whisky annex - a necessity humane & human
burning
the thoughts here bring multiplicities that are essential
the linking by those more rigorous than i with computers are a crucial filtering for me some days -often - it is the links here which direct me to a proper reading of what
newspapers there are left to read
in force & friendship
still steel
& jÃ©rÃ´me
as woody guthrie once sd
take it easy but take it
Billmon has let us down..........so far, he wrote with a passion and with truth that cut
through the bull from the GOP.
I miss him.
That's my two cents.
this is a great site
Posted by: dk | September 15, 2004 07:51 PM
I am another who checks this site almost daily (and Whiskey Annex too), but rarely
comments. I'm enriched by it, and hope the virtual community can find a way to keep this
going. My knowledge of most things is the classic "mile wide-inch deep" variety, so
usually I am happy to sit and listen, not comment too much. (You know the old saying,
"keep your mouth shut, and others may think you are a fool; open it and they'll be certain.")
However, I'll try to comment and contribute something more from time to time.
Bernhard, I have found this site most valuable and perhaps even more valuable than the bar
perhaps partially because of itâ€™s, for me, digestible size. I check this site several times a
day and only post infrequently because I recognize the wealth of intellect and talent here
that dwarf my own and so I hesitate with my mediocre offerings.
It would truly pain me if this site were to desist. I learn something every day and keep up
on important issues that would never even come to my attention were it not for this site. (I
miss NEMO. Where are you NEMO?)
Ditto most all of the above posts on this thread.
Donâ€™t quit. In a world that shows few signs of sanity and heart, I find both here. I have
come to love and respect many of the souls that post and probably even those that lurk here.
But I sincerely miss Billmon's enlightening posts and would gladly only lurk just to savor
his insights again.
everything Juannie said in her two posts.
many thanks, Bernhard.
Posted by: ByteB | September 15, 2004 09:59 PM
Pater noster, qui es in caelis, sanctificetur nomen tuum. Adveniat regnum tuum. Fiat
voluntas tua, sicut in caelo et in terra. Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie, et
dimitte nobis debita nostra sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris. Et ne nos inducas in
tentationem, sed libera nos a malo. Amen.
Time for a truce. Let's do it and forget about it!
Posted by: Dr. Arnold | September 15, 2004 10:37 PM
This is a great site. Things come and go, bigger isn't necessarily better. I love to check this
site a couple of times a week and maybe even post now and then. Hope it stays around.
Posted by: rcrux | September 16, 2004 12:33 AM
Things fall apart.
We know that. Nothing lasts forever.
The amazing thing has always been that humans find the courage to keep on keeping on.
Somehow we do.
I know remembereringgiap will.
That JÃ©rÃ´me will.
And that even this site will.
For it is not about the will to power, but rather: the will to flower.
Thus we spread our sepals in an electronic wind--like the family Compositae:
Florets of links and inflorescences of opinion.
Will things blow apart?
In due time every dandelion does...
Until then,
It's the keeping on that matters.
All I can add is thank you Bernhard for your tremendous effort, which I appreciate very
much and that I hope this site will continue.
Also my best wishes to JÃ©rÃ´me and RGiap.
Me, thanks to you all, got myself blogradicalized and am trying to do what you do in an
effort to hold up the current neandercon government on Canada's Left Coast to the
appropriate scrutiny it deserves (won't whore here, anybody who wants to have a look can
e-mail and I'll send you the URL).
Thanks all... and will try to post more Bernhard.
With no evidence/inside info whatsoever, suspect one of two things for Billmon....either
he's fighting hard to get the monkey off his back (am sure he must have spent untold
family-crushing hours on his 1500 posts) or he's moved on to something new and
interesting in a different guise.
Actually, now that I think of it the two things aren't necessarily mutually exclusive.
Oh don't you dare to give up on this site... Please.
All tho I frequently DO NOT â€œhesitate with my mediocre offerings" I don't post too
much because I feel kind of desperate and exhausted very often lately...then I avoid TV and
Internet and politic as suchâ€¦I am afraid thatâ€™s whatâ€™s happening with Bilmon and
numerous others that we all loved to readâ€¦ Still I want to have this place when I need
itâ€¦and I know Iâ€™ll need it very much in futureâ€¦Stay open and people will come back
when time comesâ€¦Maybe this is â€œcalm time before stormâ€•â€¦
Being a picture oriented (v art) person (and not so much a word person)I will admit to
avoiding the computer screen up till some 12 months ago, when the frustration of not
getting any information on the Iraq war from any other media source led me to explore the
flat screen world. Much to my suprise,after trying this and that, I found a place of some
comfort and repieve at the Whiskey Bar (what a perfect name) and some fine bar snacks,
and then to some unexpected wisdom from so many barflies. Then, like my best teacher
used to say "Jack, good things never last very long" those comments went away. So then, as
a new Moon of Alabama arose to absorb those pieces of wisdom, the bartender himself
checks out (?), and Bernhard left with keeping the whole place going himself.
So I would suggest, in some unknown fashon, we find some way to pony up, and fly our
own plane -- if not for the sheer pleasure of it, we'll avoid another void.
I'll raise my glass to the moon, hoping Billmon is keeping up the struggle in some format or
fashion. Thank you Bernhard (and the Annex team) for keeping the spirit of the community
alive. These two sites are fine, fine reservoirs of broad knowledge & informative topical
resources replete w/ engaging dialog. Here's to hoping it persists. And that any feelings of
intellectual intimidation that might prevent contributions dissolve into the realization that
intellect is collective.
I must throw in my own $.02 on keeping this site alive.
A discussion forum like this is the only thing we have left to keep up with the destruction
being practiced all around us. I apologise for being so negative; at least it is worth it to stay
as informed as possible, and how else?
OK, just a short comment on Name's long post above. The plan, whatever its details, has
been in the works for over fifty years, perhaps a hundred or more, and we are all lucky
enough to see the final results in the next ten or so years. We still don't know what it is (the
plan) or what its objective is, but the details are blinking out in the open faster and faster as
the end approaches. More important than ever to stay abreast and informed.
The power behind this thing is kept well hidden but not quite hidden enough, in spite of all
the brainwashing we have all experienced throughout our lives and the lives of our parents
and grandparents.
Don't go the easy way and call it "just human nature" or "politics" or "greed". You've been
conditioned to accept this as normal but it really isn't. Time to open up and accept that most
things are not as they appear.
In the 60s I noticed the projection graphs of phenomena like population growth, biosphere
depletion etc., and I thought at the time, "Wonder what it will be like when we reach those
infinite spikes and stability goes all to hell? If I survive that long." We're there folks, right
on schedule, and the standard reaction is to expect more stability as if it is a god-given
right. Not.
More recently I noticed that some of these trends are driven not by nature or some
benevolent force, but by something else that aims to cripple and even kill humanity as we
know it. (The comment about drowning the economy in the bathtub comes to mind here.)
No it isn't just politics or self-preservation instincts at work and the sooner you and I and
everybody else come to terms with that the better. It means discarding, modifying a lot of
the stuff you've had fed into your brain for a long time. Not easy I know. And it means
learning and sharing more than ever too.
thank-you for this site. i miss billmon too.
everyone around me is a bush drone, even my family. it is very lonely and crazy-making
not to have like-minded people to share with. this site and its other links are a release valve
for me. i read every day altho i don't always post.
sometimes i wonder if this country goes to hell, and it seems to be on that road, what would
i do? i think i would emigrate. canada ireland sweden or france i think. i often think i
should learn swedish, they seem to have a better situation for women and families, but that
could be a myth, i really don't know. and if the u.s. crumbles can the e. u. be far behind?
i also wonder what it was like for women in the pre-'first wave' era, or for blacks in the
slavery and jimcrow eras. i would have gone mad with despair. but they somehow made it
through with a vision for the future, those suffragists and those abolitionists. they didn't
reap the benefits, but they worked tirelessly for them. how did they keep from despair? how
do the third world people that my government screws all around the world keep from
despair?
on reflction, i realize two things:
1. the suffragists and abolitionists weren't losing rights they had already gained.
2. i can express gratitude that i am not really alone, i'm not in the third world, and i do have
suffrage and i do have options if hell comes.
3. most of human kind had no control over their governments and peace can be found in the
little things in life, like glorious fall foliage and a cup of tea.
Thanks to all those who have worked to keep this site (and the Whiskey Annex) up and
going. If they are feeling strain, well we should help however we can...
I think there is not too much to worry about. These things go up and down, who knows why
exactly. As long as some people enjoy the thoughts and virtual company of others it will
survive, that is all that is wanted. One shouldn't be too self conscious.
I prefer both the sites to the previous Comments on Billmon, although I appreciated
Billmon's posts. Perhaps one could send him an e-mail?
JerÃ´me, je pense Ã toi, j'espÃ¨re que tout se resolvera.
Hey allFirst, especially given Billmon's extended (perhaps permanent) absence, the Moon must
keep rising. It may wax and wane, but as long as it's here, I for one quite enjoy the insights
posted by folks. Some of you all (and I think you know who you are) have quite a level of
historical depth and acumen concerning the present that I'd quite miss- indeed, when
Billmon closed down the comments I was quite dismayed initially. So: Let's keep it going,
even if it is sometimes sporadic.
Second, I haven't been a big contributer, I know. Most recently it was because I was putting
all my effort into finishing my doctorate, but I defended that two weeks ago and so my time
has eased up again. But even with all the time in the world, I'm not really much for
generating the postings. I'm happy to comment and co-bitch about things, but really, my
expertise is in Cognitive Psychology and in particular speech perception and
psycholinguistics, not Economics, World History, or Politics. I've picked up a lot reading
here, though, so that's another reason I'd hate to see this thing go down.
Finally, I'd just like to thank Bernhard for doing this, again. I know it is a lot of time, but
I'm sure you've seen over 31 posts in this thread that it is widely appreciated. It is especially
nice to me that this forum draws a European perspective. Though of course, it'd be nice to
hear from some folks in other places, too.
cheers, then-
sorry, that last comment was me
Posted by: Ã¦, ph.d. | September 16, 2004 05:39 PM
gylangirl: "if the u.s. crumbles can the e. u. be far behind?"
Hey, wait a minute! Europe has got one massive advantage: We are not united (perhaps
will never really be), and we have this habit of doing things in a number of different ways,
which may also be a protection from all kinds of things. We will probably crumble, but far
less than the best country God has ever declared her favourite. We are also too weak
militarily to play the role of the world's most hated bully.
And Sweden is a lovely country indeed.
Hey a.e.
Congratulations!
i have written many times here of the importance of constructing 'communities of
resistance' - the more multiplicitous the better
these sites (moa/whixkey annexe) are a real & honourable attempt to do that without
resorting to happy mutual infantilism
i agree with a post this week here which spoke of the age of enlightenment & i couldn't
agree more - the thoughts of the old nazi carl jung & mysticism will not get us out of the
hole
we have to live absolutely our materiality - to take responsibility for that materiality - & as
a man(if kate storm will forgive me)to do this manfully - without whining, without seeking
any conditions of acceptance from the ruling class - which is what they are - no matter the
crudity of the appelation
capital is the sam today as when marx spoke - in its essential character - it is brutal & it is
in essence - antihumanist
& what brings me here is the humanity which is so evident in the other posts - look i am
probably the last althusserian in existence & my ideas are expressed without elegance - but
there are many here who are both elegant & economic in the service of communicating
as i've sd this week - my diabetes type 1 - is a stranger to me - i have neither been
overweight nor a consumer of an alimentation that would normally lead to this disease - it
has come as dante sd in the midst of life - when i have through struggle & work been able
to construct a form of love that i consider real & material
i think before this point - even in my best work in poetry theatre or cinema - i sought
vengeance - & there was a hatred which was borne of compassion - in defence of the
vietnamese people - which had become poisoned - as it often does in cultural milieu - by
implicit forms of nihilism. in france for the last fifteen years i have sought & fought for a
common humanity - without conditions - contingent or otherwise
so the 'sickness' hit me where i am - as are many others - the most vulnerable - in the body
but the work i do here & the writing for you & especially from reading the post of others
here is an important construction of the humanism i speak of
i as others here - & especially in this time - where even in france - where the hitlerian reign
of bush appears to be able to survive every onslaught of the truth - material & otherwise - it
is easy to fall
i hope that i am not fallinf as koreyel has pointed out but there are times mechanically
where it is not possible to post with consistency & i think the integrity of this sight does not
require that consistency - because i think there is a real sharing of the burdens - material &
metaphysic by the other posters - so when i cannnot write here - i always read - & read with
great attention
the work here is rarely schematic & very often it is evident the cost of communicating here
- i do not think it arrives easily for aanyone here - or anyone tout court
it has been my work for nearly fourty years to communicate & it is still difficult - it still
requires another form of precision to speak the truth
of course i am maladroit & i have the misfortune to write often with ten narratives going at
the same time - a legacy of my work on the cultural front i imagine but even in the last two
weeks when i have neither felt well in my body or my spirit - i have tried to write
something here - because i see it as a duty to the the others who have given & those who
have written directly to me
it is not out of politeness that i than these people - but i hopÃª it is with a comradely arm
arounb their shoulders sharing something that is so small yet so crucial - the more i work on
the cultural front & the more struggle & success - the more i trust in the little things - it is
the little thing which create grandeur
& that is something so easily forgotten - because i work with the disinherited - i am
fortunate to witness the grandeur in small steps - but here also there are moments of great
luciditÃ© & great sagesse
but above all of a substantial humanity - i am not a very ha ha ha sort of feloow being the
lovechild of joseph stalin & lucille ball - but there have been moments here when the
humour of a flashharry has opened the door to other more serious questions
all this to say - bernhard - it is important, crucial, elemental - what is happening here & i
feel in the coming time we are going to be in ever greater need for it
i will contribute as i can but i wanted to take this moment to express the gratitude i feel
with others here especially in this difficult time for me
venceremos
still steel
i have foregone claritÃ© in these posts in the hope that you can feel a little of the heart that
informs this mind of mine
& that what happens here is of a capital importance
tho we may feel tired & even defeated as koreyel suggests there is much more fight in us what i wanted to say is that in the small things there is grandeur - & the ruling class though
it insists with great brutalitÃ© on its mastery - it posesses neither grandeur or grace
it is our small efforts which are substantial & sometimes magisterial. it is the rulers
brutality that exposes the bitter fact that they are small men - smaller than they imagine & i
do not believe there has been a group of leaders in the world who are more sordid in their
smallness & it is the small things that we attempt here that fights concretely to create forms
of decency that are durable
still steel
@ teuton
well, thank goddess for political disunity. but I was thinking economically: if Bush
collapses the u.s. under crushing debt a la the soviet union, would the european economies
not be affected by it? and is there not also a creeping fundamentalist theocracy and a new
fascism attempting a comeback in european countries?
I'm not bothered by the use of "as a man" rememberinggiap ... however, "as a human
being" would have just as much, if not more, meaning I think, eh?
Your words are well heard by me, RG ...
"Perhaps one could send him an e-mail?"
Blackie: I had sent Billmon an article excerpt, and then a direct email on September 9,
asking if he was okay.
Thus far I haven't heard back, nor has any post appeared on his web site. (I think I simply
asked him to "ring in", so we'd know.) I must say, I find this extremely troubling. It's not at
ALL like Billmon to just "vanish" in such a manner, as most people probably well know.
I do sincerely hope he's alright!
"Perhaps one could send him an e-mail?"
Blackie: I had sent Billmon an article excerpt, and then a direct email on September 9,
asking if he was okay.
Thus far I haven't heard back, nor has any post appeared on his web site. (I think I simply
asked him to "ring in", so we'd know.) I must say, I find this extremely troubling. It's not at
ALL like Billmon to just "vanish" in such a manner, as most people probably well know.
I do sincerely hope he's alright!
Oops! Sorry, I got that "short amount of time" error, and thought the idea was to just
re-post after a few seconds (or whatever). But by doing so, I see now that I duplicated the
entry. Apologies.
Hi, I'm a long time lurker. Everything I read here gives me better insight. thanks
fb Presente!
Unless I'm thoroughly wasted and angry or feel that my mediocre comments could enrich
the discussion, I read learn and keep quiet.
Thank you Bernhard.
Tis an ill wind that blows no minds. - Sri Syadasti
Posted by: fiumana bella | September 17, 2004 01:32 AM
rememberingg said:
"...what brings me here is the humanity which is so evident in the other posts"
Agreed.
The quality of the dialogue and the give and take exhibited by the posters is what brought
me out of the lurkosphere on the Whiskey Bar threads and it continues here and at the
Annex (and the AllSpinZone and Blondesense and others emerging - that, I think is a very
good thing the blooming of all these humanist-based sticky sites).
If you need a stark comparison have a look at the threads on, oh say, Atrios (not that they
are not without merit, its just that the humanity is cryptic in the extreme).
Ross
Agreed, this is one of the more "human" sites in the blogosphere. This is also what is
bringing me out of the background to share whatever I have. Also props to ASZ,
Blondsense and others. Billmon, just say "I am OK leave me alone." Many humans are
concerned.
quoth fiumana bella:
Tis an ill wind that blows no minds. - Sri Syadasti
Hail Eris! The presence of Discordians is just another reason I like to lurk (and sometimes
comment) here!
and to RossK- thanks! It was a grind.
Posted by: Ã¦ | September 17, 2004 11:56 AM
I'm commenting on the long post by "name" at Sept 15 3:15 PM.
To judge from what is said, "name" is a European, and has harsh words for Americans (of
which I am one). To my sorrow, I agree with many of the sentiments.
However, there is an aspect of the viewpoint expressed that I find rather disturbing - the
anti-semitic angle. I agree with Juan Cole's analyses of the American contribution to the
lack of peace in the Middle East. I don't doubt the power of the Israel lobby in American
politics, or the Likudnik sentiments of the NeoCons who control American war policy. But
I do doubt the analytical usefulness of categories like "zionist parasites". The Jews in
America are not extraneous to our country - they are an integral part of it - for good and for
bad. I speak as an AngloSaxon (mostly) Protestant by origin, now regularly attending
Catholic services with my Hispanic wife. I believe there are MANY conspiracies operating
in the world today, each intended to maximize various goals relevant to the groups
involved. Certainly those who own things, those who tell other people what to do, and
those who tell other people what to think, intend to continue doing so.
But ideologies, nationalisms, and material interest groups, while cooperating along some
lines, disagree along other lines - and I don't think the Jews - despite how smart and rich
they are - are the only smart and rich people trying to run things. It's possible to be too rich,
too thin, and too paranoid - and while I do not wish poverty, obesity, and naivete upon
"name", I try to steer to the middle way myself.
As that Jew Einstein reportedly said, "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but
not simpler." Seeing "The Jews" as a monolithic entity, pulling all the strings behind the
scenes, is making things too simple. In my opinion.
Let me finish this by pointing to a Jew's reminder to his fellow Jews, and the rest of us,
that, as the Jew Bob Dylan (real name Zimmerman) put it in one of his songs, "Dear
Landlord" - "I know you have suffered much, but in this you are not so unique" - David
Himmelstein's remembrance of Folke Bernadotte at http://www.counterpunch.org/
mistah charley
your luciditÃ© is precisely why i come here & another is a stpidly titled leader in the age
in australia syndicated from new york times with heading 'iraq had clear intent' but when
you read article you realise there is absolutley nothing of substance - what i believe in
anglo saxon law is called hearsay - extremely insubstantial interpretations of interviews
with scientists - letters from political leadership in iraq - in essence words - nothing else yet it is trumped as something. it is nothing. absolutely nothing. these so called journalists
are clowns or whores
i don't know - i suppose i read between 15 - 20 journals on internet & most of them
especially the english language press is a complete & utter waste of time. they should all
drop thier malevolant pretence of 'objectivitÃ©' which would be comic if it was not so
tragic & do as murdoch does with all his papers - big tits & flying saucers
it is here that the links lead me out od that wasteful maze & there are posters here who i
implicitly take on trust - to be here is an economic use of time & a great contextualiser of
the darkness going down
my own darkness at the moment - i will be hospitalised for the diabetes so they can get my
levels correct - i read george wilhelm friederich hegel & henning mankel nightly - but all
this medicine is a mystery to me - so if i do not write it is not for absence of interest but of
access but perhaps the modern french hospital allows for internet access
congratulations also ae & i'm glad to see rossk - as i've sd one of the pleasures of the text
here is the affinity with people who allow for disagreements & do not look for an
affirmation that would not last
bernhard, i hope you are reconciled to maintaining site because it breathes
still steel
remembereringgiapthanks, and i hope that procedure works out- bon chance!
mistah charleyagreed; I'd sort of skimmed that post (due to it's length), but reading it in detail, I get the
same sense. It would be unwise to dimiss Israel's role in the current situation, but it is no
good at all to start throwing the term 'Zionist' around like that.
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Moon of Alabama: Off Topics - Open Thread
And
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« As Stupid as It Gets | Main | One Month Ago ... »
September 15, 2004
Off Topics - Open Thread
for you convenience ... please share your news and views
Comments
waiting for ivan here in new orleans.will be helping at campain headquarters next week.if
ivan
does hit i can use that to my advantage,lots of
people will need help and a nudge.hungry? how about a john kerry cupcake?
Posted by: onzaga | September 15, 2004 06:45 AM
Thank God, that finally someone is paying attention to and taking care of the really
important things in this world.
On the same day, The New York Times informed us that in California, Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger signed a new law banning sex with the dead. I am glad that at least one
state legislature is addressing the real problems its citizens face. So be fairly warned; if
you have any impulse to disinter Ronald Reaganâ€™s corpse and have a go at it, you are
now looking at an eight-year felony.
The rest of the article No sex, no scandal - Sex, after all, is what our media are most
comfortable with is interessting too.
Juan Cole explains the bin Laden strategy:
From the point of view of al-Qaeda, the Muslim world can and should be
united into a single country. They believe that it once had this political unity,
under the early caliphs.
From al-Qaeda's point of view, the political unity of the Muslim world was
deliberately destroyed by a one-two punch. First, Western colonial powers
invaded Muslim lands and detached them from the Ottoman Empire or other
Muslim states.
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2004/09/off_topics_open.html (1 von 14) [16.11.2004 18:29:47]
Second, they formed these colonies into Western-style nation-states, often
small and weak ones, so that the divisive effects of the colonial conquests have
lasted.
Bin Laden sees the Muslim world as continually invaded, divided and
weakened by outside forces.
Al-Zawahiri then hit upon the idea of attacking the "far enemy" first. That is,
since the United States was propping up the governments of Egypt, Israel,
Jordan, Saudi Arabia, etc., all of which al-Qaeda wanted to overthrow so as to
meld them into a single, Islamic super-state, then it would hit the United States
first.
Likewise, al-Qaeda was attempting to push the United States out of the Middle
East so that Egypt, Jordan, Israel and Saudi Arabia would become more
vulnerable to overthrow, lacking a superpower patron.
Another goal is to destroy the US economy, so weakening it that it cannot
prevent the emergence of the Islamic superpower.
Al-Qaeda wanted to build enthusiasm for the Islamic superstate among the
Muslim populace, to convince ordinary Muslims that the US could be defeated
and they did not have to accept the small, largely secular, and powerless
Middle Eastern states erected in the wake of colonialism.
Bin Laden had to do a big demonstration project to convince them that another
model is possible.
Ironically, however, the Bush administration then went on to invade Iraq for
no good reason, where Americans faced the kind of wearing guerrilla war they
had avoided in Afghanistan.
Al-Qaeda has succeeded in several of its main goals. It had been trying to
convince Muslims that the United States wanted to invade Muslim lands,
humiliate Muslim men, and rape Muslim women. Most Muslims found this
charge hard to accept. The Bush administration's Iraq invasion, along with the
Abu Ghuraib prison torture scandal, was perceived by many Muslims to
validate Bin Laden's wisdom and foresightedness.
If Iraq goes Islamist, that will be the biggest victory the movement has had
since the rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan. An Islamist Iraq might well be
able ultimately to form a joint state with Syria, starting the process of the
formation of the Islamic superstate of which Bin Laden dreams.
If the Muslim world can find a way to combine the sophisticated intellectuals
and engineers of Damascus and Cairo with the oil wealth of the Persian Gulf,
it could well emerge as a 21st century superpower.
Bin Laden's dream of a united Muslim state under a revived caliphate may
well be impossible to accomplish. But with the secular Baath gone, it could be
one step closer to reality. If you add to the equation the generalized hatred for
US policies (both against the Palestinians and in Iraq) among Muslims, that is
a major step forward for al-Qaeda.
If I remember correctly, there have been, on and off, comments that it might be good as a
catharic process to vote for Bush. Monford has a nice post on this.
Love Masochism? Vote BushCo! - Could four more brutal years of the Dubya nightmare
actually be good for America?
It must be US election time when Israel breaks all rules:
Israel will ditch road map, says Sharon
The Chinese have oil contracts with Sudan? Maybe we need to can stir that pod up a little
bit.
US Military Personnel Advise African Union Monitors in Darfur
American military personnel are working with African Union monitors in the
Sudanese region of Darfur to help bring the attacking militias under control
and restore security to the area, Secretary of State Colin Powell told a student
audience at Georgetown University September 10.
...
"We believe that the best solution is to continue to press the Sudanese to bring
the Jingaweit and the other militias under control and to meet their
responsibilities, and we'll help them. We'll help them with the African Union
peacekeepers. There are some American military personnel in there working
with the monitors," he said.
They didnÂ´t ask for help, they rejected outer interference, but Powell will help them
anyhow....
Today's writing assignment:
Compare and contrast big media's coverage of cocaine abuse by Marion Barry and GW
Bush.
@biklett:
Marion's back, imagine that!
Te He He.
Don't quite know what Marion might think of the disparity.
Someone ought to ask him.
Precious remarks there, biklett.
Available at antiwar.com, a very good Asia Times piece on US Impasse Over 'Nuclear'
Iran, by Eshan Ahrari:
"Washington's non-proliferation community lives in a make-believe world of addressing
heady issues without injecting a heavy dose of reality into that discussion. There are issues
related to Iran that, when not viewed from the viewpoint of realism, portray a different - or
even an incorrect - picture. One such reality is the conventional wisdom in that Iran, by
going nuclear, presents a serious threat to Israel. Needless to say, Israel plays a leading role
in making sure that such conventional wisdom not only stays alive, but that it constantly
drives America's policy that ensures that Iran never becomes a nuclear power. No one
bothers to ask why a nuclear Israel is not a threat to Iran, or why a nuclear Iran's paramount
purpose would be to threaten Israel, knowing full well the implications of such threats for
its own survival.
"The fact of the matter is that, as a nuclear power since the 1960s, a primary purpose of
Israel's policy is to disallow other Middle Eastern neighbors the option of going nuclear. So
the real purpose underlying Israel's policy has little to do with threats to its security. The
ultimate objective is that Israel does not want to lose its nuclear monopoly over other
Middle Eastern states. That fact is applicable as much to Iran, which is regarded as an
unfriendly state, as it is on Egypt, which has not only been at peace with the Jewish state
since 1979, but also has diplomatic ties with it.
"If one were to examine the history of US behavior toward nuclear proliferation, one would
easily find a powerful precedent of Israel's current proclivity regarding its nuclear status.
The United States also did not want the former Soviet Union to break its nuclear monopoly
by becoming a nuclear power. The stated purpose of the Baruch Plan, presented by the US
in 1946, was to "create a world without nuclear weapons". It called for the creation of "an
international agency that would be responsible for fostering the development of atomic
power programs in other countries, licensing and regulating those programs, and ensuring
that no country developed atomic weapons". It "advocated the use of automatic sanctions if
countries were found to be in violation of the agency's terms". However, the USSR rightly
interpreted the real intent of that plan: that it was aimed at prolonging, if not permanently
forestalling, its emergence as a nuclear power. Consequently, Moscow promptly rejected it.
Israel is pursuing the very same type of policy, but in an era when the chief purpose of US
non-proliferation policy is to deprive the so-called 'axis of evil' states (Iraq, Iran and North
Korea) of nuclear weapons. That makes Israel's job of maintaining the current status on
nuclear non-proliferation quite easy."
I am not an Israel-basher, and I find myself, with greater frequency, wondering about those
who spin themselves into the ground over 'Zionist conspiracies.' They are mostly on the
Left now, though once they were on the Right.
Having said that, America's strategic relationship with Israel (which includes a defense
treaty, hefty military and economic subsidies, etc.) is a legitimate subject of debate. Israel
can be seen as serving a role similar to that of NATO - that is, an extension by formal
alliance of American power and influence abroad. But whereas western Europe began to
chafe under US hegenomy and resent its subsidiary position well before the end of the Cold
War - showing all the signs of resurgent independence in what was, for the most part, a
time of peaceful development - Israel has grown more dependent upon the US and more
fearful of abandonment by it, in what is arguably an atmosphere of chronic crisis.
I read recently that that crisis now includes, in the minds of many or most Israelis, the
specter of a nuclear-capable Iran. 'Something must be done very quickly after the US
election,' said one Israeli expert on Middle East affairs. But as the author above points out,
the what and the why are not really obvious. Israel has extraordinary retaliatory (that is,
defensive) capabilities against all nations in the region. And yet much of the country
remains convinced of the presence of a potent and permanent existential threat, as if those
overwhelming retaliatory capabilites did not exist. Why?
Believe it or not, until very recently memories of the Holocaust played an insignificant role
in Israel's vision and understanding of itself. Strength and independence, rather than a fixed
sense of victimization and persecution, informed the the spirit of the new state. The
slaughter of Jews like so many animals was, to the Israeli mind, a shameful episode in the
history of the diaspora. This was callously unfair to the memory of its victims, but the
rejection rather than embrace of suffering that it entailed was absolutely vital. Now there is,
within its population, the not uncommon perception that Israel and its Jewish population
are the Eternal Victims, regarded with loathing and contempt by a world that will never
acknowledge its achievements, will always reject it and be inclined more than not to look
on passively, even gladly, as it is attacked and destroyed. (European cheer-leading for and
UN indulgence of anti-Israeli terrorism contribute to this view.) There is the perception
that, although Israel may have the means to fend off serious challenges, the world does not
fully grant Israel the most fundamental right of any state: the right of self-defense. To many
Israelis, it is always 1936. Recall Ariel Sharon's furious public response to Bush's demand
for Israeli restraint in the aftermath of the Passover bombings of 2002: "Israel will not be
another Czechoslovakia."
All of this makes for a degrading and destructive psychology of weakness and persecution,
abetted by the dependence upon the US for so much. It is instructive, I think, that that
dependence only really began in earnest in the mid-1970's, when the US first initiated large
and regular outlays to the country. Israel has known life without our material support.
There is a lot more to say on the subject but I think I've wandered far enough afield for
now.
An article via Juan Cole about ethnic flux in northern Iraq:
Officials monitoring the influx estimate some 72,000 refugees, mainly Kurds,
have arrived in and around the city in the past 18 months. Smaller numbers of
expelled Turkmen and Assyrian Christians have also erected camps in Kirkuk
and surrounding villages. Some 50,000 others, mainly Arabs encouraged to
migrate here under Saddam, have fled.
This is looking a lot like the political time bombs that Stalin's ethnic cleansing left in the
Caucasus. Saddam forcibly expelled so many people around the country, especially Kurds,
and now in the absence of any law and order the fuse is being lit. I hope this part of Iraq
doesn't turn into a repeat of the catastrophe in Armenia and Azerbaijan just to the north.
Who Would Have Thunk It:
LINK
Posted by: Learning Curve | September 15, 2004 11:22 PM
Pat:
All of this makes for a degrading and destructive psychology of weakness and
persecution, abetted by the dependence upon the US for so much. It is
instructive, I think, that that dependence only really began in earnest in the
mid-1970's, when the US first initiated large and regular outlays to the
country.
Intriguing article you posted. But honestly, it sounds like a cranky conservative trying to
justify to his skeptical fellow conservatives why to take Israel off the dole: because it's
turned into a dependent welfare queen. A reason they can truly appreciate.
But maybe there's a much simpler one. As I understand it, the sense of strong
"victimization" did not start in the 1970s. After 1973, there was a feeling of shock and
dismay at how close the war had been, and a realization that Israel had to come to some
kind of agreement with its neighbours. After the new intifada began, dozens of attacks were
penetrating the hearts of Israel's biggest cities, killing hundreds of civilians without
warning. The present mood is probably due to the prolonged feeling of terror, rather than
short, sharp wars interspersed with low-level strife.
It's also possible the author Ahrari is full of crap and Israel has always been a prickly,
defensive country.
Some interessting links:
Far graver than Vietnam
Nuclear talks stall as US hardens line on Tehran
And once more the link to Riverbend who posted again yesterday.
Fahrenheit 9/11...
One really wonders what is up, if Paul Wolfowitz is OpEd-ing in the New York Times
about an Indonesian court case on the freedom of press.
(The issue is described in Wind of change blows prior to 'Tempo' verdict and elsewhere)
But then one finds these nudgets
Our own Declaration of Independence doesn't speak of elections but rather
about the rights of all human beings to certain "inalienable rights," in
particular "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." And it is a fundamental
principle of our Constitution that citizens cannot be deprived of those rights
except by due process of law.
hmmm...
Well, Fran, Sid Blumenthal [Far Graver than Vietnam] certainly does add to the
already-crowded bulletin board of deeply pessimistic assessments by retired senior military
personnel and sundry defense and security experts. The bulletin board of optimistic
assessments, on the other hand, is remarkably short of fresh, rather than dusty and fading,
material.
I wonder at what point the worry in the White House becomes frantic, as I take it for
granted that the bad news to which a spectating public is privy, is but a minor fraction of
that confronting the Secretary of Defense and the President. If what anyone reading the
paper each day can know is a bad and worsening situation, the situation must be by many
degrees more critical still.
The AP reports that Arab League Chief Amr Moussa said Tuesday, â€œThe gates of hell
are open in Iraq and the situation is getting more complicated and tense.â€•
The gates of hell are open, yes, and George W. Bush and his Secretary of Defense, who are
determined to carry out a war in Iraq as though (one retired general quoted by Blumenthal
puts it) we were fighting in Iowa, cannot reverse the trend of events without doing what
they won't be dragged kicking and screaming to do: fight as though we were in Iraq.
It will be quite something when George W. Bush is re-elected as a resolute, tenacious "war
president" determined to "do whatever it takes" in Iraq, only to have us withdraw because,
from the very beginning, he didn't.
As Jonah Goldberg once said of one government agency or another: Their motto is 'Doing
Everything Possible But That Which Is Actually Necessary.' It's no way to run a war, but if
the war in question was unnecessary to begin with, I guess there's a kind of complimentary
logic to it.
The campaign against al Qaeda, however, is a whole 'nother story, and failure stemming
from Everything But That Which Is Necessary will hurt more than just our pride and
reputation.
Four more years will not be kind.
The Nation suggests and finds some clues that Bush skipped his air force medical exam in
1972 because of extensive use of cocaine and alcohol.
Aljazeera
Israel appears to be a multi-party democractic nation. You can choose between the
right-wing nutcase Likudites - or the new right-wing fascist alternative.
The party was launched in Jerusalem on Saturday night.
Taking part in the ceremony were many leaders of the officially outlawed but effectively
tolerated Kach group such as Baruch Marzel and Hen Ben Elyahu.
Kach is a violent Jewish militia made up of Jewish activists who reject democracy and
advocate the expulsion or, if necessary, annihilation of Arabs from what they call Eretz
Yisrael (Land of Israel).
According to some Jewish religious authorities, Eretz Yisrael encompasses mandatory
Palestine, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Cyprus, and parts of Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Turkey.
Since the outbreak of the second Palestinian intifada or uprising four years ago, Kach
terrorists have killed scores of Arab civilians.
Those caught by the Israeli authorities usually received symbolic or light prison sentences.
The bulk of the perpetrators are allowed to remain at large.
Look, I realize that we are trying for an elevated level of discourse here, but hopefully it is
acceptable to speak with force while maintaining decorum.
It is extremely frustrating to read about the entire Bush National Guard scandal and the
faithful attempts to prove something historically when it is perfectly clear that we are
validating a sideshow. Our tolerating this discussion as one of the most important topics of
the day simply lends our support to the idea that the current failures to "do his duty" are
irrelevant.
To be specific, our response to the National Guard scandal would be more effectively stated
this way: My opinion about whether this man performed his service honorably comes from
his current actions. When Bin Laden's team attacked the U.S., our president and his
administration spent the first two days ensuring that every Bin Laden family member
escaped from the United States and from my country's legal purview. On the third day,
after two days rescuing our enemy's family, he finally turned his attention to American
families.
In Afghanistan, the military strategy seems virtually designed to create escape routes for
Bin Laden while killing American and Afghani soldiers. Again, the Bin Ladens were fed,
and we and our children were ground up for the meal.
When has he EVER served the people of the United States before serving its parasites?
Who is this war now serving? Not the Iraqis and not us. On 9/11, clearly we were all
feeding the Bin Ladens. Which parasites does our blood feed now?
We need to grasp this National Guard issue for the comfortable Rorschach blot that it is,
and move the conversation to where it hurts.
comment by name moved from other thread
*** OFF TOPIC ***
well, hope is what abductees need most, and that is my lame excuse for posting this here.
dunno if anybody here got the news that two americans and a brit were abducted in
baghdad. i found via whatreallyhappened a link which gives the names of the people and
the company they were working for. i ran them thru google and came up with some
interesting afiliations.
the company who employs these guys is called GSCS:
http://www.gscsgulf.com/home.html
go to their website and check out what they do and who their clients are. looks like the
classical mercenary and/or war profiteering racket, albeit with a more "humane" face.
The first guy is called Jack Hensley. See:
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/news/2004/03/mil-040310-usa01.htm
Quote: "Staff Sgt. Jack Hensley, 2nd squad leader for Co. Bs 3rd platoon"
The second guy is called Eugene Armstrong. Check
http://www.access.gpo.gov/int/int024.html
Quote: "Eugene Armstrong, Ames Damage Assessment Team, Central Intelligence
Agency"
The brit is called Ken Betley according to the website, which sources to al-jazeera, but i
found nothing interesting under that name. the two american guys look like enjoying some
well-payed aftermath to years of tight salaries on govt payroll.
if the iraqis who caught them are smart, they'll probably want to connect the balls of these
guys to some surplus electrodes from a local hospital and have them sing a bit.
BIG DISCLAIMER: I dont know if the persons referenced at the links which i present are
the abductees, but i speculate that the profile and (past ?) affiliations would tend to connect
them to a mercenary / war-profiteering outfit.
@ bernhard: if you find it outrageous of me to post this here, you may as well move it to
another thread :-)
John O'Sullivan writes about A Tall Order in the Sept. 27 edition of National Review:
...If bloodshed is to be avoided, the Middle East must learn liberty and democracy under a
suitable tutor, in conditions that prevent its different tribes and sects from fighting to
impose their own beliefs on one another. This is presumably the president's democracy
project. It is based (though not admittedly) on the insight of Seymour Martin Lipset that
countries that had been colonized by the British were more likely to be democracies than
those colonized by others. The Bush plan does not require the U.S. to be (as the British
Empire had been) the sovereign power in the region. It merely needs to exercise enough
power to ensure that liberty gradually advances in these societies under more or less
friendly regimes. But there is a second half to this insight: The longer countries had been
British colonies, the more likely they were to be democratic. Bush is embarking on a
project that will require, say, 60 years of tutorship.
He is therefore asking the American people to bear a very significant burden. In doing so he
risks running up against historically strong currents in American opinion â€” isolationist
and anti-imperialist currents that draw support from the right as well as the left. For his
commitment to a decades-long struggle to foster democracy in the Middle East, even if it
rests on sovereign independent governments rather than on colonies, is still an exercise in
liberal imperialism. (Perhaps the term should be liberal neo-imperialism; pun intended but
not the whole point.)
That is not a political outlook with deep roots in American history â€” but it is one that
makes considerable demands on a society. As Max Boot has argued, it would require some
novel American version of the British Colonial Office with its own cadres of technical
experts, soldiers, and political advisers to develop and standardize the techniques of
nation-building, civil construction, training in democratic governance, and assistance to the
civil power. Such a body is needed so that each exercise in extending liberty to another
nation does not repeatedly surprise us with the same problems. Some of this stored
experience already exists in institutions such as the National Endowment for Democracy,
but these are modest organizations compared to the magnitude of the likely tasks. A U.S.
Colonial Office â€” call it the Democracy Department â€” would have to be supplemented,
moreover, by considerable private-sector investment in the skills that a democratic
neo-imperialism needs. That means not just the expansion of military "outsourcing"
organizations such as Halliburton but also new schools at Harvard and Stanford
specializing in the language, culture, and history of the recipient societies, and even the
general adoption of a new social outlook by Americans. A career spent in Baghdad or the
Gulf would need to carry as much prestige as, if less income than, one on Wall Street or in
Sullivan and Cromwell...
Once the U.S. government commits itself to a major project, however, it brings to bear
enormous human and economic resources. It may therefore be able to shape any
transnational project to advance democracy in its own libertarian direction. It would thus
become a program to extend the blessings of American liberty, rather than one to impose
the European Union's vision of demo-bureaucracy. Even then, however, the president
would still be asking Americans to join him in a formidable historical endeavor. Do they
really want to go down such a potentially rocky road?
Mickey Kaus, the moderate-liberal commentator, argued against me in a recent radio
debate that Kerry's last chance was to convince the voters that Bush was offering them
more history than they wanted to consume. If Iraq continues to fester â€” and in particular,
if it begins to look like the unwinnable quagmire that liberals have always secretly believed
it to be â€” then Kaus could be right. Americans might reject the democracy project
because they lack the neo-imperial mindset that it requires. If they don't reject it, however,
they are volunteering to "pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any
friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty."
Better luck this time.
If they don't reject it, however, they are volunteering to "pay any price, bear
any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure
the survival and the success of liberty."
You are of course assuming we the American public have a choice in the manner. As you
have said Kerry will no more withdraw from Iraq than Bush will. Kinda looks to me like
we are getting screwed but maybe get to choose who is doing the screwing.
Millions of people have already rejected this war and have been shrugged off as "focus
groups". I read that about 500,000 people protested the war in New York during the RNC
but that didn't even make the nightly news.
Choice indeed.
Posted by: Dan of Steele | September 16, 2004 03:38 PM
A word about John O'Sullivan's Tall Order:
This is the kind of vast, untethered, ominously ambitious talk for which the Left was once
famous. Rather, notorious. On what grounds can a party that professes to believe that the
federal government is ill-suited to deliver health care and pensions, among much else,
claim that that same government is a suitable vehicle for the transformation of the Muslim
world? How can the party that stresses its objection to growing government interference in
the lives and day-to-day business of American citizens, at the same time advocate one of
the grandest schemes of aggressive government meddling in the lives of those who do not
even fall under its domain? How can a party that expresses anxiety over the attrition of
national sovereignty by the energetic and imaginative offices of vast international
bureaucracies, dare submit that our own energies and imagination be turned toward the
same end? How can a party that wages the "culture wars" on the side of religion, tradition,
and the invariability of social constructs, argue for a "neo-imperialistic" campaign against
these same pillars of Middle Eastern and Muslim societies?
Extraordinary.
Millions of people have already rejected this war and have been shrugged off as "focus
groups". I read that about 500,000 people protested the war in New York during the RNC
but that didn't even make the nightly news.
But there is leekage.
Bit by bit, and micro-iota by kilobyte.
The Iraq-mess does seem to be crawling back into public consciousness.
Tenaciously if not secretly...
Bullet by bullet, and wound by boom by gloom.
This is a mysterious world we live in.
And democracy--however diluted and looted ours may be--has a way of springing surprises
upon the most crestfallen breast.
So heads up!
It ain't over yet. Just as every boom must have its doom...so too..every gloom eventually
gives way to bloom.
Which is to say:
There may yet be a quorum of well-placed and well-faced individuals who sense the utter
debauchery of our burgeoning Iraq cemetery.
And...
who have decided to do something about it.
So again--It ain't over...even when you think it is over.
I sense something secretly slouching towards the truth...
@pat On what grounds can a party that professes to believe that the federal government is
ill-suited to deliver health care and pensions, among much else, claim that that same
government is a suitable vehicle for the transformation of the Muslim world?
A very good question, but Bush is not in that party. Bush is for big government - strong
regulation on helth care and pensions, but in favor of big capital. The small government
libertarians are screaming at this and the war.
@b
Someone said of Bush, correctly, that (undiscerning) Republicans accept him as a
conservative because... well, because he says he is.
Small government libertarians - or classical liberals, take your pick - have largely passed
the point of horror and despair (that process would've commenced with Reagan's first term)
and count their blessings as the uninvolved, if melancholic, spectators to madness.
Mr. Wolfowitz is voicing his concerns about democracy in Indonesia (where he played a
glorious role as ambassador during the glorious presidency of Suharto, AFAIK).
Cry wolf.
War On Terror Has Cost More Civilian Lives Than Terrorism
From The Agonist:
Woman arrested after interrupting Laura Bush's speech
John P. McAlpin | Hamilton, N.J, | September 16
AP - Police escorted Sue Niederer of Hopewell out of the rally after she demanded to know
why her son, Army 1st Lt. Seth Dvorin, 24, was killed in Iraq. Dvorin died in February
while trying to disarm a bomb.
[I don't even know what to say, except that "defending and promoting freedom" has
become an enormous evil pretense.]
Times Reporter Ordered to Testify in Leak Case
A federal district judge in Washington has ordered a reporter for The New
York Times to testify before a grand jury investigating the disclosure of the
identity of a covert C.I.A. officer.
In a decision dated Sept. 9 and released yesterday, the judge, Thomas F.
Hogan, said the reporter, Judith Miller, must describe any conversations she
had with "a specified executive branch official." The judge said Ms. Miller had
received subpoenas issued by a special prosecutor investigating "the
potentially illegal disclosure of the identity of C.I.A. official Valerie Plame."
This happened on Friday, 28 January, 1972, according to the UPI at the time: "A woman in
a singing group caused an embarrassed moment at a White House formal dinner tonight
when she waved a placard and called to President Nixon to stop the bombing in
Vietnam....The incident occurred as the dinner guests, assembled to pay honor to Mrs. and
Mrs. DeWitt Wallace, founders of the Reader's Digest, went into the East Room and sat
down for some entertainment....As the Ray Conniff singers prepared for their first number,
the young women, later idenitifed as Miss Carol Feraci of Los Angeles, suddenly pulled a
sign written on cloth from the top of her dress that read 'Stop the Killing.'... (more)
...At the same time she called out to Mr. Nixon, seated with his wife in the first row,
'President Nixon, stop bombing human beings, animals, and vegetation....You go to church
on Sunday and pray to Jesus Christ,' she said. 'If Jesus Christ were in this room tonight you
would not dare to drop another bomb.'....After the group sang the first number, Ray Conniff
told the discomfited audience 'The beginning of this program was as much a surprise to me
as everybody.'....At that the audience shuffled and there were additional groans, boos and
the shout 'You ought to throw her out.'....Mr. Coniff told Miss Feraci it would be better if
she left, and she did."
Nice one ala-Funny nobody pulled her hair, knocked her down, or kicked her while she was on the floor.
Chuckie Colson and the Plumbers not withstanding, I guess this is a pretty good
micro-scale indication of just how far neothugological evolution of the Cabal has advanced
down the road towards the Eve of Destruction.
(tell me over and over and over and over again....)
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Moon of Alabama: As Stupid as It Gets
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« Hole in the Pocket | Main | Off Topics - Open Thread »
September 15, 2004
As Stupid as It Gets
Talafar in north western Iraq is primarily inhabited by Turkmen, an ethnic minority in Iraq.
The city of some 155,000 was under the Northern No-Fly Zone US and British forces set
up after the first Gulf War to protect Northern Iraq from SaddamÂ´s Air Force. From May
2000 on, after receiving some anti-aircraft artillery fire from around Talafar coalition forces
started to drop bombs.
On 16 June 2001 a missile hit a soccer field in the town while a game was under way
killing 23 people. Iraqis blamed the coalition forces, US military sources said the explosion
was not due to a US-British airstrike, but an errant surface-to-air missile.
The US forces around Talafar are allied with the Iraqi Security Forces, which in the north
are nearly exclusively Kurdish Peshmerga fighters. As Juan Cole reports :
The US wanted the TÃ¼rkmen security forces of Telafer [obviously they are
governing themselves] to make searches in some houses. The TÃ¼rkmen
security forces rejected this since they knew the people, who were also
TÃ¼rkmen. Upon US insistance on the operation, the security chief of Telafar
stepped back and the US appointed a Kurd, Hurshit Hasso as security chief,
who immediatley started the operation using support of Kurdish troops from
Zaho and Erbil. These troops participated as Iraqi Security forces. Now much
of the civilian population is in the Kamber valley and are afraid that the Kurds
will bring their families along, settle for good and thus change the balance for
the national census in Iraq, which is to be held on Oct 12.
From the Turkmen and Turkish perspective this is a power and land grab scheme of the
Kurds, supported by US forces. In the last two weeks the US forces put TallÀfar under
siege and bombed parts of the city. Some 100 people are reported to have died and some
50,000 have fleed from the city to the country side. The US troops than barred the refugees
from returning to the city.
The Washington Post describes how an obviously Kurdish informer is leading US troops to
harass the Turkmen population.
The Iraqi known as "The Source" slipped the borrowed U.S. military fatigues
over his clothes in the back of the armored personnel carrier. He donned a
black ski mask that covered everything but his eyes.
He stepped out of the back of the vehicle and addressed the interpreter who
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2004/09/as_stupid_as_it.html (1 von 7) [16.11.2004 18:29:52]
would in turn address the company commander who would lead the search for
terrorists this day.
"The village. He wants you to arrest all the men in the village," the interpreter
told Army Capt. Eric Beaty, commander of Company C, 5th Battalion, 20th
Infantry Regiment.
"They're all bad?" Beaty asked.
The interpreter consulted The Source. "Yes, all bad," he said.
...
"You have the right to remain silent," one soldier told an uncomprehending
detainee in English. "Anything you say will result in a punch in the face."
...
"All of the village, they are terrorists," The Source told two journalists after he
finished.
Asked how he knew, he said: "I have one guy here, and he passed along the
information to me."
Asked how he could be sure, he said: "Yes, they are terrorists. They all have
the long beard. They had the beard, but some of them they shaved."
The Source declined to give his name. He then asked: "Is the commander
going to pay me any money? If you are an informant, they are supposed to
give you money."
The Turkish government has send a strict ultimatum to the US saying if operations continue
in Talafar "Turkey's cooperation on issues regarding Iraq will come to a total stop" and
"Of course we wonâ€™t limit ourselves to words. We never shy away from carrying out
whatever is necessary.â€•. Such a step would deny the US the important use of the airbase
of Incirlic in Turkey and stop any supply coming through Turkey to US troops in northern
Iraq. The Turkish opposition parties have taken an even harder stance. The US now caved
in to this and Turkmen people are allowed back to Talafar.
The complete lack of knowledge of the US commanders to the obvious power schemes and
ethnic sensitivities is incredible. Aside from that, the dependency on Turkish support is a
sine qua non to their further operations in northern Iraq. To endanger this support is as
stupid as is gets. The atmosphere in the command ranks of course trickles down the ranks
leading to the maddening behaviour of the troops on the ground and the loss of any support
in the population.
Lord, please let it rain brain.
Comments
Turks furious at US Tal Afar attacks via Aljazeera.
Also I just had a chat with the Turkish grocery owner at my corner. He is furious as were
others in the shop. The US has hardly any support left in Turkey.
The socialdemocratic Turkish daily Milliyet opines:
The U.S. Earns Suspicion
[Foreign Minister Abdullah] Gul told me that it would also benefit Turkey if
the US gains more friends in the region but that the US is instead winning
enemies.
Following the Sept. 11 attacks, Americans asked why people hate the US so
much. The answer to this could fill volumes. However, the US can find a
simple answer by looking at Iraq.
The US wanted to increase its sway over the Middle East by invading Iraq.
However, instead suspicions and criticisms of it have grown, even among its
friends and allies. The US said that it would establish democracy and shake
the despotic regimes in the region. However, instead it created ethnic and
religious terrorism. The US should see that the arrogance of thinking
â€˜Iâ€™m the most powerfulâ€™ is its Achillesâ€™ heel.
What I noticed was that the American attack on the city ended the day after Turkey made
this threat. So the resolute War President blinked. Yet again. What is this, the fourth time?
All the more amusing in light of Turkey's prior threats to invade northern Iraq if the
Americans don't do more to stop Turkish-Kurd rebels taking refuge there.
Maybe if Bushco had done proper post-war planning, the Americans wouldn't have to rely
on greedy charlatans. I wonder how many of the "precision strikes" in Falluja are triggered
by Iraqi informants settling old grudges.
@ Harrow
I wonder how many of the "precision strikes" in Falluja are triggered by Iraqi informents
settling old grudges.
I have wondered about this many times also, and judging from the reports of poor US
intellegence and the hospital reports following such attacks, this would not be suprising. It
could also be a functional tactic for the insurgents. They could ironically, I suppose , pass
"intellegence" to the US that would lead to an air strike on their enemys (US collaboraters)
homes, and/or businesses.
Stage Three in Iraq by William S. Lind
By invading Iraq, the United States in effect took Fallujah and much of the rest
of Anbar Province from Saddam and gave it to Osama bin Laden. If that is
George Bushâ€™s definition of victory, it would be interesting to know what
he would consider a defeat.
From the standpoint of our forces in Iraq, the main problem the third stage in
the war there presents is that we have no one to talk to, no one to make deals
with. As we saw in Fallujah in April, it was possible to make a deal with the
Baâ€™ath â€“ a deal the Baâ€™ath genuinely wanted to carry out, though it
proved unable to do so. Mullah al-Janabi and the thousands like him will have
no interest in talking with us, unless we tell them we need their assistance in
converting to Islam.
BLOCKQUOTE>He donned a black ski mask that covered everything but his eyes.
Yeah, the classic mask, an indispensable tool for successful collaborators. In Greece during
the occupation they didn't dare talk, because they feared that somebody could recognise
them. They just showed people with their finger.
Posted by: Greco | September 15, 2004 01:55 PM
He donned a black ski mask that covered everything but his eyes...
Meanwhile in America, Okra Whimpy was giving away 276 cars:
Squeals and screams of delight erupted as the audience went hysterical, with Okra herself
yelling, "Everyone gets a car, everyone gets a car!"
Oh Brave New Wolrd!
Who says there is such a thing as a reality disconnect or the dumbing down of the
electorate?
Sometimes the insanity is enough to make me drool, go cross-eyed, and chant:
Orgy-porgy...Orgy-porgy...elect our president and call him Georgie...
Orgy-porgy...Orgy-porgy...elect our president and call him Georgie...
Materialistic infants...
Goo-goo gaa-gaa...
Goo-goo gaa-gaa...
Pfffttttttt.....
Ack...
(insert flat-line video and tone here)
Far graver than Vietnam Sidney Blumenthal in The Guardian cites high level militaries
saying Iraq is lost.
General Odom said: "This is far graver than Vietnam. There wasn't as much at
stake strategically, though in both cases we mindlessly went ahead with the
war that was not constructive for US aims. But now we're in a region far more
volatile, and we're in much worse shape with our allies."
Terrill believes that any sustained US military offensive against the no-go
areas "could become so controversial that members of the Iraqi government
would feel compelled to resign". Thus, an attempted military solution would
destroy the slightest remaining political legitimacy. "If we leave and there's no
civil war, that's a victory."
General Hoare believes from the information he has received that "a decision
has been made" to attack Fallujah "after the first Tuesday in November. That's
the cynical part of it - after the election. The signs are all there."
...
General Odom remarked that the tension between the Bush administration and
the senior military officers over Iraqi was worse than any he has ever seen
with any previous government, including Vietnam. "I've never seen it so bad
between the office of the secretary of defence and the military. There's a
significant majority believing this is a disaster. The two parties whose interests
have been advanced have been the Iranians and al-Qaida. Bin Laden could
argue with some cogency that our going into Iraq was the equivalent of the
Germans in Stalingrad. They defeated themselves by pouring more in there.
Tragic."
The NYT has a report about a National Intelligence Estimate that has the same tone U.S.
Intelligence Shows Pessimism on Iraq's Future
Where is Kerry?
This area is one of the parts of Iraq where some democratic procedures were already
established.
The day we start destroying the legitimacy of the government in regions that are already
run democratically is the last day that Democrats have any excuse for quietly accepting
arguments that we have placed our soldiers there in the interests of Iraqis and of
democracy.
The U.S. occupation destabilizes existing democracy in Iraq. Or, since we've always known
this "fight for democracy" crap was a Trojan horse, let's talk about the real issue.
U.S. military bullets and bombs are under the orders of Iraqi ninjas. WTF? This country
and its armies have been betrayed into the control of gangsters and enemies.
Please disagree. I would prefer to be wrong.
This area is one of the parts of Iraq where some democratic procedures were already
established.
The day we start destroying the legitimacy of the government in regions that are already
run democratically is the last day that Democrats have any excuse for quietly accepting
arguments that we have placed our soldiers there in the interests of Iraqis and of
democracy.
The U.S. occupation destabilizes existing democracy in Iraq. Or, since we've always known
this "fight for democracy" crap was a Trojan horse, let's talk about the real issue.
U.S. military bullets and bombs are under the orders of Iraqi ninjas. WTF? This country
and its armies have been betrayed into the control of gangsters and enemies.
Please disagree. I would prefer to be wrong.
my comment above
Citizen, that's a superb post at 12:34.
But my husband says you gotta include an 'O' at the end of WTF. As in, "What the fuck?
Over."
Keep on truckin'.
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« Hole in the Pocket | Main | Off Topics - Open Thread »
Moon of Alabama: Hole in the Pocket
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« Unblurred Slogan | Main | As Stupid as It Gets »
September 14, 2004
Hole in the Pocket
U.S. Q2 current account deficit widens to $166 billion
The U.S. current account deficit widened to a record $166.2 billion in the
second quarter from $147.2 billion in the first quarter, the Commerce
Department estimated Tuesday
The deficit increased to a record 5.7 percent of gross domestic product during
the June quarter
The current account deficit is the broadest measure of the nation's economic
balance sheet with the rest of the world. It encompasses both trade and capital
flows.
Thanks to the US of A for the transfer of $166 billion in U.S. financial assets, stocks,
bonds, etc to foreign countries. LetÂ´s hope they will use it wisely.
Usually forgotten in the comments and calculations - the interest, dividends, and capital
gains earned on these assets in subsequent years will go to foreigners and will therefore
largely escape US taxation.
This years new transfer to foreigners will be over $600 billion. Even if foreigners may only
get a meager 3% dividend on this, there will be $18 billion of US generated profits per year
in the forseeable future that will not be taxed in the US but will help other nations budgets.
There is a big hole in the pocket of Uncle Sam and someone will need to fix this.
Comments
Thanks to the US of A for the transfer of $166 billion in U.S. financial assets, stocks, bonds,
etc to foreign countries. LetÂ´s hope they will use it wisely.
Sweet and succinct. Like a Rocky Marciano uppercut.
But is there a silver lining?
Yes and no. Perhaps and maybe.
I suspect there is more going on here than meets the eye. For now, let me confine myself to
one corner of this spendthrift puzzle. As such, here is a series of questions I need answered:
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2004/09/hole_in_the_poc.html (1 von 4) [16.11.2004 18:29:55]
Suppose interest rates rise. Bond coupons follow suit.
What happens to bond prices? They sink right? Given that the Chinese govt. is heavily
invested in US treasury bonds purchased at these historically low coupon rates... what
happens to their assets when the prices of their purchased bonds drop through the floor?
Are they happy or sad?
How happy? How sad?
I guess electricity and sewers will not be going back to pre-war levels any time soon, eh?
The US of A will have to default on those binds someday. So don't let your financial
advisor sell you on bonds.
Further, if people would put their money in local independently owned banks and Credit
Unions this country would boom. Pull out of the market and all it's trappings. This house of
cards is about to fall. Am I chicken little? No, just being cautious.
Does the NYT Editorial finally sees some light? Taxes for an Ownership Society
When President Bush talks about an "ownership society," hold on to your
wallet. The slogan, like "compassionate conservative" before it, is sufficiently
vague to mean many things to many people, and the few details that Mr. Bush
has provided - bolstered home ownership and new tax-sheltered savings plans
- seem innocuous enough. But in tax terms, "ownership society" means only
one thing: the further reduction, if not the elimination, of taxes on savings and
investments, including taxes on dividends and on capital gains on stocks,
bonds and real estate. That, in turn, means - by definition - a shift in the tax
burden onto wages and salary - or, put more simply, a wage tax.
...
In 2004, take-home pay as a share of the economy dropped to its lowest level
since the government started keeping records in 1929.
All of this would make the drive for a wage tax laughable, if only it were a
joke. And yet, when he says "ownership society," a wage tax is exactly what
Mr. Bush is driving at.
In a metaphor borrowed from Paul Krugman: Wile E. Coyote has stopped running in
mid-air, and he is now looking down. He will soon look at the beholders and gulp loudly
before he starts falling downwards, out of view, causing a cloud of smoke when he hits the
ground.
Toon logic: After a moment of serious physical damage, he will climb unharmed out of the
hole in the shape of his body. Oh please, oh please...
Posted by: teuton | September 15, 2004 08:52 AM
Concatenate a quote time:
That, in turn, means - by definition - a shift in the tax burden onto wages and
salary - or, put more simply, a wage tax on wage slaves.
Any raising of consciousness must necessarily follow the vocabulary.
Call a wage slave a wage slave.
Differentiate the spectrum this way:
Alpha-plus wage slaves thru Gamma-minus wage slaves.
That should make at least one Huxley smile. Although, he would be shocked to hear that
soma is so thouroughly banned in our dull brave new world:
Eighty-one percent of large employers now require preemployment drug
testing, up from 21 percent in 1987. Among all employees, the rate of testing
is highest in the South...
~Barbara Ehrenreich in Nickel and Dimed.
Do you suppose America's Ruling Class¹ did a study showing that alcohol impairs a wage
slave's performance much less than pot? Or are they just knee-jerking jerks who can't stand
the idea of mild euphoria without a hangover?
¹ Showing the proper reverence here by using uppercase.
Koreyel: at least it's fine to see people seeing the light and calling the current economic
system by its real name: capitalist slavery, as opposed to the pre-industrial slavery of old.
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Moon of Alabama: Unblurred Slogan
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« Russia Centralizes | Main | Hole in the Pocket »
September 14, 2004
Unblurred Slogan
Rush Limbaugh Becomes Official Unpaid Advisor to Bush-Cheney '04
I have become, and have been for a while, an official, unpaid advisor to the
Bush-Cheney '04 campaign, and we decided to go public with this because
there's no problem with it whatsoever.
...
There's no conflict here. There's absolutely no conflict whatsoever. The line
has been successfully blurring now for years and years and years.
Please help Rush in his old/new unblurred capacity. Find a special line for his old/new
unblurred poster. Submit your entries in the comments section and you'll have a chance to
win todayÂ´s grand prize - an all-expenses-paid three night stay at Abu Ghraib (cold water
showers standard, warm water is extra).
May the best win.
Comments
The line was blurred when W snorted it.
shit, didn't see the prize. :-)
Ahhh, good old Rush Limblowhard. What a bastion of the democratic way. This is the
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2004/09/unblurred_sloga.html (1 von 2) [16.11.2004 18:29:57]
Moon of Alabama: Unblurred Slogan
same asshole that says you have no right privacy. The same asshole who says the rich know
best.
The DNC need to tell it like it is. Limblowhard is a oxy addict that bought prescriptions
drugs through an intermediary on the street. Lied about it, then went to rehab, and now is
back preaching his moral message. Speaking of morality, isn't he on his third divorce. Now
is this the type of person the fundies want teaching sunday school?
The DNc and Kerry's hatchet men need to attack, attack and again attack Limbaugh.
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http://www.moonofalabama.org/2004/09/unblurred_sloga.html (2 von 2) [16.11.2004 18:29:57]
Moon of Alabama: Russia Centralizes
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know
why
« Election Campaign | Main | Unblurred Slogan »
September 14, 2004
Russia Centralizes
Putin is severly tightening the central grip on the 89 entities that make up todays Russia.
Putin proposed, first, to scrap direct gubernatorial elections, replacing them
with a system in which the president submits nominees to regional legislatures
for approval. He also called for doing away with first-past-the-post contests
for the State Duma; instead, the lower house is to be composed exclusively of
candidates elected from party lists. (Moscow Times Report and Editorial)
Putin sees the ramified democratic and federal structures as endangering the state. As a
consequence he is recreating the traditional centralism of Russia and seems to do so within
the consens of the majority. He has also inititated two additional major policy changes.
First
Putin appointed his confidant and Cabinet chief of staff Dmitry Kozak as the
head of a new federal commission that will try to get at the roots of terrorism
by tackling poverty and poor education in the North Caucasus.
and second
Putin, reiterating threats by senior military officials last week, said the military
is ready to carry out preemptive strikes on terrorist bases anywhere in the
world.
The first measure will be positive, if Putin manages to put enough money behind it and if
he is able to this over long years. The second is a clear warning to the US. Stay out of our
sphere, or we will hit back - chess is our national sport, we know how to play it.
Is all of this positive? My gut feeling is yes. The Russian people were disenfranchised by
the breakdown of the Sowjet imperium. The Yelzin wodka induced anarchie did put
Russias wealth into the hand of a small class of oligarchs. Live expectations did sink from
65.0 years in 1987 to 57.3 in 1994. Infant mortality did increase from 17.6 per 1000 in 1990
to 20.3 in 1993. The state nearly dissolved and crime took over.
Since 1999 the economy is back on track and the state stabilizes. Fortunatly the Sowjet
Union dissolved without much bloodshed, relations with neighbor states are tolerable. The
next step Russia will have to take is to consolidate its strategic independence and clean the
internal social mess. It chances to do so are quite good as it is economically self sufficient
and the low birth rate insures imperial ambitions are contained.
In the typical Russian family all sons are equal. Emmanuel Todd sees this as the base of a
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2004/09/russia_centrali.html (1 von 5) [16.11.2004 18:30:01]
Russian universalism in contrast to the individualism most western cultures have
developed. Maybe it is also the inherited base for the steps Putin is taking now.
Comments
Absolute power corrupts absolutely. How can you flame Bush yet not see Putin's dictatorial
aspirations? They're both power-hungry anti-democratic fascists.
There is an article on counterpunch: The Problem of Chechnya - European Islam & the
Caucasian "War on Terrorism".
It tries to pick apart the powerplay and chess "games" behind the wars in the caucasus - a
central part of Russian policy.
Noting of the sort... it just the overt moves of "THE GRAND CHESSBOARD"
@Uncle:
It's just Geostrategic Reality. It's no secret.
And I doubt, that things will go so well in the 'Stans, Chechnya,etc., as Bernhard believes,
for Czar Putin. Humpty-Dumpty broke is hellacious hard to put back together again. And
all the former subject peoples have a history and race memory of the likes of czars, Stalin,
and Putin.
Not looking good for Czar Putin, on this one.
Posted by: zbig | September 14, 2004 08:53 PM
Strategy, thy name is Zbigniew! If you have not read Uncle's link to "The Grand
Chessboard" in the last few years, the time is right.
Hey, Unc ... I got a wry grin reading about Putin this morning. Nuttin' like beating the
"security drums" to whip up enthusiasm for absolutism, eh?
@Kate:
I read it all. I understand. But I am, just a Realist. It's the world we live in.
Sadly,
Posted by: zbig | September 14, 2004 10:14 PM
seems like less and less posts lately.i'm not on
the same scale of intellect as most of you but i
wanted to let you know i check this site several
times dailey and do really appreciate your insight.some of the best links to info also.
thanks!
A portrait of Basayev, the Chechen terrorist/freedom fighter, in the NYT The Chechen's
Story: From Unrivaled Guerrilla Leader to the Terror of Russia
Well, if Putin had talked and listened to Cheney, he woulden't have to go through the
trouble of reorgenizing Russia. The rest of Europe better listen. :^)
Talking about European nations and the war on terror, Cheney said, and I quote: "I think
some have hoped that if they kept their heads down and stayed out of the line of fire, they
wouldn't get hit. I think what happened in Russia now demonstrates pretty conclusively that
everybody is a target. That Russia, of course, didn't support us in Iraq, they didn't get
involved in sending troops there, they've gotten hit anyway."
The rest is here
@ zbig
You state that you are a Realist, so perhaps I can glean some insight from you on this view.
My understanding of Realism is that it "views international politics as an anarchic order in
which competing states conceived as rational actors pursue their security interests."
I have copied notes from a book I read earlier this year by Alex Callinicos wherein he
offers up two serious analytical inadequacies of Realism to comprehending the economic
and geopolitical components of the "Grand Strategy of American Imperialism," esp w/
relation to Brzezinski's "Eruasian Balkans."
I. Realism tends to ignore the role that ideological representations play in motivating
political action in both the domestic and the international arena
II. In treating states (conceived as unitary entities) as the sole significant international
actors, realists fail to integrate into their analysis the capitalist economic context on which
both Marxists and liberal enthusiasts for globalization lays much stress. The capitalist
economic context w/ which states operate gives them both resources to pursue their
geopolitical objectives and further motives for taking action w/i the interstate system in
order to advance the interests of the capitals based in their territory. Hegemony is better
understood as the capacity, always relative and contested, of the most powerful state in the
world system to get other states to support it in pursuing its objectives thanks to...its
structural power, which derives from advantageous positions w/i the various dimensions of
the International system.
Callinicos prefers the filter of the Marxist theory of Imperialism ("in the course of the 19th
century two hiterhto relatively autonomous processes - the geopolitical rivalries among
states and economic competition between capitals - increasingly fused") b/c "it
conceptualizes the Int'l system in broader terms than Realists do, w/o falling into the
wishful thinking characteristic of liberal enthusiasts for globalization," providing the "best
framework for understanding the contemporary American war drive."
So what is the advantage of the filter of Realism in understanding what is going on WRT
the Grand Chessboard specifically and US Imperialism more generally, if it is indeed a
limited analysis that fails to include the broader roles of ideologies and economic contexts?
I have yet to be convinced that competing states are rational actors, so perhaps you can
shed some insight or resources w/ which to grasp the benefit of having a Realist filter in my
toolbox.
For a portrait of Putin in line with my gut feeling take a look at A different view of Putin
Anatol Lieven is a writer at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
"Vladimir Putin is a convinced reformer, dedicated to modernizing Russia and integrating
in into the world economy. Both his language and his actions leave no doubt about this.
Equally, it is obvious that Mr Putin is not a sincere or convinced liberal democrat. At least
not for Russia in its present state or for many years to come."
(I didnÂ´t read Lieven before, so he didnÂ´t shape my opinion.)
@B:
Enjoyed that analysis on Putin.
The group might also enjoy reading a review of:
The Choice: Global Domination or Global Leadership
by Zbigniew Brzezinski
A lot of things can change on that old chessboard in 7 years.
LINK
Posted by: Zbig | September 16, 2004 10:45 AM
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Moon of Alabama: Election Campaign
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« Baghdad Fighting | Main | Russia Centralizes »
September 13, 2004
Election Campaign
Thucydides comments about the election campaign:
Words had to change their ordinary meaning and to take that which was now
given them. Reckless audacity came to be considered the courage of a loyal
ally; prudent hesitation, specious cowardice; moderation was held to be a
cloak for unmanliness; ability to see all sides of a question, inaptness to act on
any.
...
The advocate of extreme measures was always trustworthy; his opponent a
man to be suspected. To succeed in a plot was to have a shrewd head, to divine
a plot a still shrewder; but to try to provide against having to do either was to
break up your party and to be afraid of your adversaries.
...
The fair proposals of an adversary were met with jealous precautions by the
stronger of the two, and not with a generous confidence. Revenge also was
held of more account than self-preservation.
...
The cause of all these evils was the lust for power arising from greed and
ambition; and from these passions proceeded the violence of parties once
engaged in contention.
...
Meanwhile the moderate part of the citizens perished between the two, either
for not joining in the quarrel, or because envy would not suffer them to escape.
The History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides
Comments
The aptness of Thucydides words for our
present epoch is striking, just as we still don't have a better framing of the clash between
"civic duty" and "higher morality" than in Antigone . It's difficult not to fear that Bush's
hubris has unleashed the Erinys, and that America has yet to pay the full price of its
overweening pride. Non-Yankee deaths don't count in the U.S. electoral economy.
Dear "Quote about the war of politics,"
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2004/09/election_campai.html (1 von 9) [16.11.2004 18:30:07]
I'd like you to introduce you to a friend of mine:
"Quote about the politics of war"
----------snip---------"Am I afraid of being bombed? Of course. Everybody is. But within reason. I know I
certainly wouldn't leave Los Angeles if the Japanese were to attack it tomorrow. No, it isn't
that. ... If I fear anything, I fear the atmosphere of the war, the power which it gives to all
the things I hate -- the newspapers, the politicians, the puritans, the scoutmasters, the
middle-aged merciless spinsters. I fear the way I might behave, if I were exposed to this
atmosphere. I shrink from the duty of opposition. I am afraid I should be reduced to a
chattering enraged monkey, screaming back hate at their hate."
--Isherwood wrote this in his diary on Jan. 20, 1940, scant months after arriving in America
with his lifelong friend and sometime collaborator W.H. Auden.
----------end snip---------Posted by: koreyel | September 13, 2004 12:15 PM
It's quite scary that he's so valid even now, and it's quite sad since it means that people
didn't learn, and that people now can't see what's going on, even though it's been laid bare
2400 years ago.
If W goes after Iran, there'll be entire chapters from the Sicily's expedition that could be
copied, with just the names changed.
And of course there's the Melian dialogue that is as prescient as ever. In fact, rereading it, I
find it freaky that it's even more accurate than what my memory led me to think. Just keep
in mind he doesn't put in his own ideas and doesn't quote what was actually said, he writes
what the real goals, thoughts, opinions and goals of both sides were.
So, here are some choice quotes:
Bush: Since the negotiations are not to go on before the people, in order that we may not
be able to speak straight on without interruption, and deceive the ears of the multitude by
seductive arguments which would pass without refutation...
Iraq: Your military preparations are too far advanced to agree with what you say, as we
see you are come to be judges in your own cause, and that all we can reasonably expect
from this negotiation is war, if we prove to have right on our side and refuse to submit, and
in the contrary case, slavery.
Bush: We shall not trouble you with specious pretences and make a long speech which
would not be believed, since you know as well as we do that right, as the world goes, is
only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they can and the weak
suffer what they must.
Iraq: And you are as much interested in this as any, as your fall would be a signal for the
heaviest vengeance and an example for the world to meditate upon.
Bush: The end of our empire, if end it should, does not frighten us: a rival empire is not so
terrible to the vanquished as subjects who by themselves attack and overpower their rulers.
Iraq But we trust that the gods may grant us fortune as good as yours, since we are just
men fighting against unjust.
Bush: When you speak of the favour of the gods, we may as fairly hope for that as
yourselves; neither our pretensions nor our conduct being in any way contrary to what men
believe of the gods, or practise among themselves.
Josh Marshall has just posted a sober, impassioned screed on the disaster of Iraq and the
failure of the Kerry campaign to hold the Bush Administration accountable-- proposing, in
the process, that this may partly account for the Kerry campaign's lack of traction thus far.
But Marshall says nothing about the neo-cons, or AIPAC, or their death-grip on the
discourse of the Democratic Party and its presidential candidate. Go and read this thing,
dear friends, and marvel for yourselves at Marshall's unyielding ellipsis.
Link for alabamaÂ´s tip
@alabama
Marshalls reasoning and consequence the key to winning an election is often simply a
matter of bringing to the surface of the public consciousness what voters already really
know. They know Iraq is a disaster. They know it's President Bush's fault. is right in my
view. Bringing up the neo-cons, AIPAC etc. is much to complicate for a campaign.
But then - why doesnÂ´t Kerry have a alternative Iraq politic? My conclusion is that he has
the same goals as Bush has on this issue and there is no other way to reach the goal.
Stay in Iraq whatever it takes and squeeze the oil producers and oil consumers of this world
to further the US project of worldwide supremacy. The economical, military and moral
supremacy of the US are gone. The only way to keep the "good life" up now is pure force.
Clueless Joe...
I like it.
Especially imagining those words coming from Bush's fly trap of a mouth.
Who knows, maybe he really speaks like that in secret:
Matthew 6:5-6:
"And when thou speaketh well, thou shalt not be as the liberal effete are: for they love to
speak glibly standing on tv soapboxes and in the corners of the streets, that they may be
seen of men....when thou speaketh well, enter into thy closet and when thou has shut thy
door, speaketh well to thy ministers and enemies which is in secret...."
In other words, the stammering and illogical switchbacks are just a ploy to mindmeld with
a stuttering and spluttering public.
Perhaps he really is an evil genius.
Certainly what's happened to our world the last 3 years does not belie it.
Mark Twain said something I love:
"History may not repeat, but it certainly rhymes."
b, Marshall isn't writing a speech for Kerry or a policy paper here, he's claiming to offer a
serious analysis of the stakes involved in the election. So why wouldn't he bother to
mention the neo-cons, and the urgent need to get them out of office? At the very least his
omission undermines his claim to a serious analysis, and might even lead us to think that he
wishes not to offend them. And if so, why not? Can you, for that matter, point me to a
single place where he speaks out directly against the neo-cons? I've tried to do my
homework, and I'm certainly teachable about these things.
@alabama, Marshall doesnÂ´t speak out against anybody. He didnÂ´t speak out against the
war either. I guess he is trying to keep his view as a historian - some good, though not
always complete, analysis and a total lack of engagement.
Marshall debated Richard Perle last year at the Hudson Institute and televised on CSPAN,
probably b/c he's not much of threat to them. Can't find the CSPAN link, but I found this
mention of it.
In all good humor, b, let me mention that Juan Cole is also an historian, and that if it
weren't for Juan Cole, I for one would know a lot less about Iraq than I do. Cole's also
forthright about the Likudites--as is Billmon in his verbal intervals--and he says his piece at
a price, because historians opposing LIkud, within and without the academy, are subject to
intimidation. And I'll even hazard the following guess about Marshall: either he's been
intimidated by the Likudites, or he's had no fundamental disagreements with them from the
start. If the latter, it would have been helpful of him if he'd said so, because it's downright
unhealthy not to say so: it tells us that the climate in Washington doesn't just encourage the
kind of frivolity denounced by Somerby, it actively discourages any forthright
conversations about the neo-cons. And no one's untouched by this, least of all you and I.
@Koreyel:
From the SF Chronicle piece on Isherwood:
Isherwood brought to friendship a formidable conversational talent. There's a great glimpse
of him in his friend Gore Vidal's memoir, "Palimpsest, " in which Vidal modestly
announces "I am American literature." Isherwood dryly replies, "I feared as much."
Now that's about the funniest line I've read in a week. They could both have been
comedians too.
Thanks for bringing it to my attention.
Posted by: Monty Python | September 13, 2004 07:32 PM
I first had the pleasure of reading Thucydides as a college freshman in the 1965-66
academic year, in the equiv. of "Western Civ." I was very impressed that it applied to
"contemporary" times, i.e. the Vietnam War.
May the Creative Forces of the Universe have mercy on our souls, if any.
Jim Henley at Unqualified Offerings opines that, in addition to the motive power provided
by "National Greatness Conservatism" (not the same thing as neoconservatism, which was
influential but not decisive), we went to war in Iraq because with the collapse of the Soviet
Union we could intervene more freely in the world. (One need only look back at the
post-Soviet 90's for verification of this.) In other words, we went to Iraq, at least in
significant part, for "the same reason a dog licks its balls."
I like this explanation, however incomplete. And I can easily imagine a frustrated battalion
commander saying to his XO, "Okay, Jeff, remind me again. Why are we here?" And the
XO, well-rehersed, answers, "Why does a dog licks its balls, sir?" Oh yeah. Easily.
Josh Marshall has indeed spoken up about the neocons. He has actually been a good guide
and referrer to essays about those gentlemen in the US administration and its advisor
groups. He knows the neocons by name and affiliation and ideology.
As noted he does bait and has debated Perle. I watched his linked video of their panel, last
spring I think. Marshall was shackled by a cold, Perle devastated him with characteristic
blatant powerful arguments. I'd like to see a rematch, Marshall has a PhD in history and can
think. And Perle he must think is his opposite.
I disagree with Perle but he has the passion of his convictions and is very slick. Very slick.
Too slick for me.
I'm troubled by Marshall's naivete when the recent Bush document controversy surfaced.
This is CBS's Dan Rather revealing documents leaked to them, my favorite is the "CYA
memo" -- clearly authentic, from one Killian, Bush's late commanding officer I think.
Marshall, on vacation, fell for an attack on the authenticity of the documents based on the
possiblity they had been poorly forged using a computer, instead of simply being copies of
manually typewritten authentic menos.
Okay, he blew that one. Criticised for it as well.
This is a confusing point for me, that the Washington Democrats do and say things that
make absolutely no sense to me here on the periphery.
Why did Josh Marshall even speak up on something he had no idea about, out of the loop
as he was. Maybe just didn't want us to know he was on vacation. Since apologised for,
recently a post about his girlfriend and his dog on the beach.
The field of confusion extends to this John Kerry candidate, great quote on Babelogue from
Steve Perry, "Who is this Kerry Edwards?"
He doesn't post often enough for but I guess busy editing a newspaper, Perry's blog is at
Steve Perry Babelogue.
Still and all I did hear some good advice over the last little while, "eyes on the prize". Who
knows what a Kerry presidency might do, I have to imagine that it cannot come close to the
outright criminality I see under the current one. I of course hope he can actually pull it off
and do a good job.
Being inarticulate myself I have sympathy for Kerry, no quote I've read denies his obvious
intelligence and comfort in speaking well. Not sure what's up with the sports, he reminds
me of a friend from the same part of the country -- it's a little embarassing but Kerry can do
things at 60 plus that I'll never do, windsurfing for one. That takes strength and skill.
After rereading the thread, I am responding to Alabama. You ask why Marshall doesn't
attack the neocons and ask for references where he has. He may be subtle but I read clearly
his opposition to the "hawks." There is a seminal article in Washington Monthly, Practice
to Deceive from I guess last year some time. Seminal for me, anyway. My introduction to
the Feiths and Perles of this world.
"The audacious nature of the neocons' plan makes it easy to criticize but strangely difficult
to dismiss outright. Like a character in a bad made-for-TV thriller from the 1970s, you can
hear yourself saying, "That plan's just crazy enough to work."
He almost admires them. Likewise John Perry Barlow's defence of fellow Southwesterner
Dick Cheney, as Barlow credits Cheney with the crazy Mexico tactic -- driving erractically
to intimidate crazy Mexican truck drivers. Barlow says this is the only rational explanation
for Cheney's support of MAD or the missile shield or some such, the possible nutcase at the
wheel of the US big switch may have caused the USSR to spend itself dead.
Barlow is known as a lyricist for the band The Grateful Dead and also active in the EFF,
Electronic Freedom Foundation I think. That's a good one, no sarcasm. I really disagree
with the guy but he says Cheney is the smartest guy he's ever met except maybe Bill Gates.
He might mean powerful, manipulative or maybe just smart, who knows. I'm in no hurry to
meet any of them. I don't like people like that.
So as for the election, I strongly urge you to vote for Kerry. It is the only choice to change
the track of the US.
If you don't do that, vote for the craziest mo you can find, myself I voted Green recently
'cause I liked their platform locally and I heard they had a shot.
I'm not such a looky-lou that I want to see another Bush term. He's kind of a loser politician
so I say get rid of him and let's see what the other guy can do.
Posted by: jonku | September 14, 2004 05:14 AM
I remember reading "Practice to Deceive," Jonku, and re-reading it now at your suggestion,
I can see what bothers me about Marshall. He has no quarrel with the neo-con vision of
things, provided it works. He's skillful at passing over its ethical problems--the sign, I
believe, of his fundamental agreement with its aims. The same point holds for Brad
DeLong, by the way: both of those guys are giving the neo-cons a free pass, ignoring the
wicked violence of their designs while scolding them for the incompetence of their
execution. This is just downright unhealthy--affecting the health of you and me.
@alabama
I would agree with your point, but it is interesting that the left also is admonished for, not
its implicit goal (spreading democracy), but its impotence or incompetence at achieving
that goal. This little juncture lies at the eye of all the hurricane rhetoric concerning Iraq and
the middle east, and has contributed greatly to the intractablity of the problem by allowing
failure to compound and then using that failure to escalate the the effort. It seems the
neo-cons have created a sort of left/right fusion that bonds together some "noble" cause like
spreading democracy&freedom, with some "effective" means, like total military
domination. As such, any meaningful criticism from the left or right is muted almost
automatically -- as so evidenced by John Kerry or John McCain. Niether will challenge the
central presuppositions of the neo-con argument, so on the train will go, fueled by its own
momentem, until the track runs out.
Quite so, anna missed, and a real challenge to our sense of humor. I'm a Democrat, and
democratic in my ideals, and so the arrogance of our misdeeds in Viet Nam came as mighty
shock to all that carefully cultivated moral narcissism (cultivated, especially, through the
experience of the civil rights movement). But we kept on trucking after Viet Nam, with the
self-preserving (and self-serving) notion that we'd learned from our mistakes. And now,
when younger people make those very same mistakes all over again--well, I find it very
trying, and just hope that the "track" runs out sooner rather than later!
Is Kerry alive?
I don't mean politically...but rather physcially?
I haven't seen him or heard from him in days.
He'd better reload and revitalize himself in a hurry--chuck the qualudes and swallow some
stiff uppers... because there is one thing democrats are sure good at: shooting each other in
the foot.
I can feel his campaign teetering on the edge of implosion. Fingers are already starting to
point...and the republicans are cachinating over the corpses like hyeanas.
What can be done to save the day?
Whatever it is... it has got to be drastic.
How drastic?
Well how about this... Kerry should come out and say that this is the Dumbest. Election.
Ever.
And that he is SICK of it.
And that he isn't going to play anymore.
That he wants the election to be about ISSUES. Where he and Bush stand on Iraq, the
National Debt, healthcare, exporting jobs, stem cells, etc.
He needs to come out in a press conference and kick the ass of the press, kick the ass of the
republicans, and even kick the ass of the democratics for devolving this campaign into an
ugly food fight.
He should say he is embarassed about what America has displayed about itself this election
season, and that he wants to be a source of change.
He needs to MAKE NEWS my sticking his foot into the very face of the NEWS.
He needs to get angry and passionate about that.
Otherwise...bury him with his sneakers on...he is dead.
@Koreyel
Well I could'nt agree more, like the bartender once said "fight fire with fire". A firm
measure of decisive, in your face, clearly thought out, and dispatched like a freight train
indignation would work wonders at shattering the flip/flop liberal elite woose the rePugs
have so carefully painted over him. Clearly-- he needs to shock the American people to
their senses, that, 4 more years of this -- is four more years of this in an unknown quanity,
plain and simple.
And if fear is to overshadow all issues and all sense amongst the sheeple, then give em' the
old LBJ mushroom cloud vision, economic collapse, full scale war in the mideast, Iran,
North Korea, and the looming spector of facism right here on mainstreet.
People need to be scared shitless -- and then givin a clear alternative -- cause it could all
happen.
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« Baghdad Fighting | Main | Russia Centralizes »
Moon of Alabama: Baghdad Fighting
And
must
have
whiskey
Oh, you
know
why
« DoesnÂ´t Rank Up | Main | Election Campaign »
September 12, 2004
Baghdad Fighting
Here are pictures from todayÂ´s morning fights in Baghdad. 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.
The pictures were taken by Gaith, a friend of Iraq Blogger Salam Pax (old blog, new blog).
Gaith reports 20 dead and 48 wounded. According to AljazeeraÂ´s report, an Iraqi
photographer working for Getty Images were also wounded slightly by flying shrapnel.
Gaith looks ok though. Good, we need these pictures.
Yesterday Gaith made a picture showing AllawiÂ´s hand bandaged because he broke his
hand when he banged a table during an argument with an aid. Was he talking with
Negroponte? Maybe, but then, that aid relationship is supposed to be the other way round.
Comments
More on the fights: Baghdad Explosions Kill 25, Injure 100
Nice article by RICHARD REEVES.
All that, I think, must have been way back in the Presidentâ€™s mind when he branded his
war a "castastrophic success". It is, without doubt, a successful catastrophe.
WHAT IF WE HAD NOT GONE INTO IRAQ?
It's not only Bagdhad fighting!
Turkey reacts with fury to massive US assault on northern Iraqi city
Reuters has a summary of Sundays fighting: New Spasm of Violence Sweeps Iraq, Killing
110
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2004/09/bahgdad_fightin.html (1 von 14) [16.11.2004 18:30:16]
DonÂ´t know how this will be played in the US - probably not at all - but internationally
this is a PR catastrophy.
Shooting into weaponless crowds from helicopters while TV cameras are running is not
good.
Changing the rational for this from "we couldnÂ´t leave the tank for them to plunder" to
"the did shout at the helicopters" is stupid.
Attacking a Turkmen city when your most needed NATO partner is Turkey is dumb
beyond understanding.
Key General Criticizes April Attack In Fallujah in WaPo says he was ordered to attack
Fallujah after the four mercenaries got killed there in March against his rational and he was
ordered to stop fighting after three days again against his rational. The blame is put on
Washington.
Everybody wearing uniform must hate their civilian leadership by now.
Could someone drop some brain on Washington?
As unfortunate and monsterous as all this is, it all part of the plan. .
@Uncle
So this is what "to know a veil" means.
a late night thanks
Libertarian tinfoil-hat conspiracy theories? *yawn*
It's totally absurd.
Newsweek: Lost in the Green Zone
The Green Zone is certainly a world unto itself. Women in shorts and T shirts
jog down broad avenues, and the Pizza Inn does a brisk business from the
parking lot of the heavily fortified U.S. Embassy. Near the Green Zone
Bazaar, Iraqi kids hawk pornographic DVDs to soldiers. Sheik Fuad Rashid,
the U.S.-appointed imam of the local mosque, dresses like a nun, dyes his hair
platinum blond and claims that Mary Mother of Jesus appeared to him in a
vision (hence the getup). On any given night, residents can listen to karaoke,
play badminton or frequent one of several rowdy bars, including an
invitation-only speakeasy run by the CIA. At the Green Zone Cafeâ€”where
contractors toting 9mm pistols smoke hookahs while an Iraqi drummer
provides entertainmentâ€”a sign on the door warns customers to empty their
weapons before consuming alcohol.
To some, the Green Zone feels like a vast isolation chamber. One recent night
at a saloon called The Bunker, a resident contractor asked, "So, what's going
on out there in Iraq anyway?" He hadn't left the Green Zone in six months.
"It's like Plato's republic in here, all of these well-meaning, smart people who
want to do the right thing," says one security contractor and Green Zone
regular. "But they never leave here and they have no idea what's happening in
the country they're supposed to be building. It's totally absurd."
Want to see the US commit another War Crime?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/media/broadband/bb_iraq22_hawley12.ram
Sowing the seeds for another 911
Posted by: Cloned Poster | September 13, 2004 08:32 AM
Bernhard: The US have been taken over by Dadaists. It's the only logical explanation.
"imam of the local mosque, dresses like a nun, dyes his hair platinum blond"
I know where the next season of "Queer eye for the straight guy" will be shot.
As for all these fools living there, ruling the country without going out, I'm just reminded of
"Mene, Tekel, Pheres" written on Babylon's wall.
"It's not the fall that matters, it's the landing."
A bit like that species of spider, that forms a little air bubble around itself, so it can descend
to the bottom of the pond to feed.
The project of lobotomizing Iraq into a lassiez-faire capitalist democracy, stands about the
same chance as making lassiez-faire American capitalists into tribal Muslims.
Zero
Justin Raimondo at antiwar.com:
(W)hile hardly anyone was looking, the U.S. lost Iraq to the rebels. The Seattle
Post-Intelligencer, along with Juan Cole and Pat Buchanan, were among the few who
noticed.
Ramadi and Samarra are lost. Fallujah was never taken, and neither was the teeming ghetto
of Shi'ite Muslims loyal to Muqtada Sadr, just outside Baghdad, known as "Sadr City." The
alleged "transfer" of sovereignty to the "interim" Iraqi government has gone well beyond
farce, all the way to pastiche. The present script reads like David Halberstam's The Best
and the Brightest, retold in the style of The Simpsons.
The Sunni Triangle is a de facto independent state, with absolute control of Fallujah, for
example, ceded to something that calls itself the "Mujahideen Shura Council," which
executes "American spies" (30-plus so far), collects the garbage, and rules according to the
many strictures of Islamic law.
The leader of the Shura, Sheik Abdullah al-Janabi, is a conservative Sunni cleric who
opposes the American occupation on the grounds that the famed "weapons of mass
destruction" proved nonexistent, and hence the American presence has no legitimacy.
Although the Bushies are still sticking to the line that the principal armed opposition to the
occupation is engineered by "Saddamites," Sheik Abdullah was banned from making
speeches in the mosques in the old days for predicting that Saddam was provoking an
American invasion. This administration used the plight of people like him to tout the
invasion as a "liberation," but the Sheik's answer to them, recorded in this recent interview,
is sternly matter of fact.
ROSS COULTHART: So do I take from that that you believe that the fight against the
Americans is a good fight?
SHEIKH ABDULLAH AL-JANABI: In my opinion, it's only natural that you would want
to fight invaders and drive them out of your country.
ROSS COULTHART: When the Americans liberated, as they say, Iraq from Saddam
Hussein, were you not a supporter of that?
SHEIKH ABDULLAH AL-JANABI: Not only me, but most Iraqis initially gave credence
to what they were saying, but after the Americans occupied Iraq, they changed the tune,
and instead of hunting Saddam Hussein, they were here fighting terrorism. They ruined our
country, committed human rights abuses, violated our cultures and traditions. All these
things negated any credibility they once had.
Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, admits that it could be months
before the U.S. and its Iraqi sock-puppets would even attempt to take the rebel cities:
"Part of that strategy is that Iraqi security forces must be properly equipped, trained and led
to participate in these security operations, and then once it's over, can sustain the peace in a
given city."
Myers is full of it. As the Seattle P-I tartly observed: "That appeared to be a tacit
acknowledgment that even if the Americans regained the cities by force, the Iraqis would
not be able to control them." When Sheik Abdullah's boys carried out a sentence of death
against the local Iraqi National Guard commander, the PI reports that "the entire National
Guard contingent, estimated to number several hundred, fled the city." The much-touted
"Fallujah Brigade," which, the Wall Street Journal assured us, was supposed to eventually
have responsibility for ensuring security in the city, blew away like so much vaporware.
Their commander claims sabotage by the U.S. military, as extended negotiations between
the de facto government of Fallujah and the U.S.-backed regime of Prime Minister Iyad
"Shoot 'Em Up" Allawi drag on.
The "transition" is in tatters. No sooner had the U.S. military handed over the Fallujah
administrative center to the Iraqi police when 23 were killed in a guerrilla assault, and
Sheik Abdullah stepped up to the plate, ready to take a swing at the American occupiers:
COULTHART: What if, even under a new Iraqi government, the Americans are still here
in two, three, five years' time?
SHEIKH ABDULLAH: Well, the new government will be slaughtered first, then the
Americans.[...]
(without name): "Libertarian tinfoil-hat conspiracy theories? *yawn*"
If you are going to use the tinfoil hat discounting technique, at least have the balls to post
your name.
(W)hile hardly anyone was looking, the U.S. lost Iraq to the rebels. The Seattle
Post-Intelligencer, along with Juan Cole and Pat Buchanan, were among the few who
noticed.
That hardly gives many of people posting here any credit.
Many of us have been impugning against this repugnant war ere the war ever got to going.
What's so strange is that--right before our eyes--a winnable war became intractably lost.
Bush and his minions could have said:
• No WMD; that's a VICTORY for us.
• Saddam gone; that's a VICTORY for us too.
And gone home and paraded and cheered and prayed to the goodness and greatness of their
deed.
But instead they got greedy.
Either greedy for democracy in Iraq if you swallow the rhetoric, or greedy for oil if you are
cynical.
And so here we are...in a unwinnable war that is only going to bleed American of her
treasury and a president whose greatest election attribute is that he will "stay the (losing)
course."
I've not seen such sheer madness in my lifetime.
How about you Pat? Anyone else?
That would be my loud typing at 4:18 with no name... Murphy's Law in action. ROFLMAO
on myself!
What's so strange is that--right before our eyes--a winnable war became intractably lost.
Koreyel, what makes you thing this war was ever winnable? With out exception, the people
I know (me included) were convinced from the very beginning that the war on Iraq would
be a desaster. We knew the US would be strong enough to occupy, but never to pacify the
country. That was one of the reasons so many of us participated for the first time in their
life, in a demonstration, the one against the Iraq war, even before its beginning.
@ September 13, 2004 05:34 AM
Here, my shadowdy friend, is this difference between Libertarian tinfoil-hat "conspiracy
theories" and a mind that has no firewall:
"Belief in the traditional sense, or certitude, or dogma, amounts to the grandiose delusion,
"My current model" -- or grid, or map, or reality-tunnel -- "contains the whole universe and
will never need to be revised." In terms of the history of science and knowledge in general,
this appears absurd and arrogant to me, and I am perpetually astonished that so many
people still manage to live with such a medieval attitude."
I don't believe anything I write or say. I regard belief as a form of
, brain damage, the death of intelligence, the fracture of creativity the
(B.S.)atrophy of imagination. I have opinions but no Belief System .
" Don't believe anything. Regard things on a scale of probabilities. The things that seem
most absurd, put under 'Low Probability', and the things that seem most plausible, you put
under 'High Probability'. Never believe anything. Once you believe anything, you stop
thinking about it. The more things you believe, the less mental activity. If you believe
something, and have an opinion on every subject, then your brain activity stops entirely,
which is clinically considered a sign of death, nowadays in medical practice. So put things
on a scale or probability, and never believe or disbelieve anything entirely."
-Robert Anton Wilson
@koreyel
It's interesting. Among the people I know who saw a bad thing coming before the first set
of treads ever crossed the border into Iraq - and I wasn't among those who did - there was
not deep suspicion regarding the administration's motives for going to war. What there was,
was a frank questioning of the administration's judgment - or, even more frankly, its sanity
- in choosing to do so.
It's clear to me now that many, perhaps most, servicemembers, to include planners,
fervently hoped and to a significant degree expected that once the regime was out, the
whole kit-n-kaboodle would be handed over to the care of Jay Garner, who would swiftly
engineer an Iraqi transition and we'd be home for Thanksgiving turkey and medals. There
was the belief that this was at least possible, which is better than not. But of course Jay
Garner lasted all of 72 hours and the extreme brevity of his tenure remains something of a
mystery. (Major, untimely changes are the hallmark of this whole effort in Iraq, going back
to the build-up stage.) Why, 72 hours isn't long enough to really piss anyone off, let alone
convince them of one's incompetence. Besides, Garner could have been replaced without
replacing the plan that landed on the tarmac with him. Someone prevailed upon the
president to adopt a radically different post-war design. Whoever that was - be it one
person or ten - deserves everlasting ignominy. What boils the blood is that they're still
drawing a paycheck.
At antiwar.com, Anonymous says it's Time to be Honest About Iraq:
The 1,000 Americans who have lost their lives so far in Iraq are unnecessary deaths in an
unnecessary war. But it is not too late to remember their sacrifice with the respect and
dignity they deserve. To do so requires the wisdom to end the U.S. military occupation of
Iraq and bring home the 140,000 American troops now stationed there. With more than 70
percent of Iraqis viewing U.S. forces as occupiers, not liberators, we have clearly
overstayed our welcome. If we insist on staying longer, we run the risk of being forced to
leave at a later date under conditions that weaken us militarily and politically. The danger is
that â€“ as happened in Vietnam â€“ the U.S. military will be blamed for a war gone bad,
even though it was the result of faulty decisions made by U.S. policymakers. That would
compound the tragedy.
G. or, in his real name Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, the photographer, is writing in the Guardian
about the Baghdad incident on Sunday:
One of the three men piled together raised his head and looked around the
empty streets with a look of astonishment on his face. He then looked at the
boy in front of him, turned to the back and looked at the horizon again. Then
he slowly started moving his head to the ground, rested his head on his arms
and stretched his hands towards something that he could see. It was the guy
who had been beating his chest earlier, trying to help his brother. He wanted
help but no one helped. He was just there dying in front of me. Time didn't
exist. The streets were empty and silent and the men lay there dying together.
He slid down to the ground, and after five minutes was flat on the street.
Christopher Allbritton at Back to Iraq says It's Worse Than You Think:
I donâ€™t know if I can really put into words just how bad it is here some days. Yesterday
was horrible â€” just horrible. While most reports show Fallujah, Ramadi and Samarra as
â€œno-goâ€• areas, practically the entire Western part of the country is controlled by
insurgents, with pockets of U.S. power formed by the garrisons outside the towns.
Insurgents move freely throughout the country and the violence continues to grow.
I wish I could point to a solution, but I donâ€™t see one. People continue to email me,
telling me to report the â€œtruthâ€• of all the good things that are going on in Iraq. Iâ€™m
not seeing a one. A buddy of mine is stationed here and theyâ€™re fixing up a park on a
major street. Gen. Chiarelli was very proud of this accomplishment, and he stressed this to
me when I interviewed him for the TIME story. But Baghdadis couldnâ€™t care less. They
donâ€™t want city beautification projects; they want electricity, clean water and, most of
all, an end to the violence.
And in the midst of all this violence, most of the Iraqi Interim Government is out of town.
Security Advisors, heads of important ministries and the chief of the new Mukhabarat are
all mysteriously absent. The Iraqi security forces are a joke, with the much talked about
Fallujah Brigade disbanded for being feckless and â€” worse â€” riddled with insurgents
who were being paid and trained by the U.S. Marines.
Thousands of Iraqis are desperate to get a new passport and flee the country. These are
often the most educated Iraqis â€” the have the money to get new passports and travel â€”
so the brain-drain will accelerate.
The poor and the disenfranchised are finding their leaders in the populist and
fundamentalist Shiâ€™ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr or in the radical Islam of the jihadis, who
are casting a long shadow on this formerly secular country. Iraq has its own home-grown
Wahhabists now, something it didnâ€™t have 18 months ago.
In the context of all this, reporting on a half-assed refurbished school or two seems a bit
childish and naive, the equivalent of telling a happy story to comfort a scared child. Anyone
who asks me to tell the â€œrealâ€• story of Iraq â€” implying all the bad things are just
media hype â€”should refer to this post. I just told you the real story: What was once a hell
wrought by Saddam is now one of Americaâ€™s making.
Posted by Christopher at 01:03 AM
I think it was Tarik Aziz who said just before the war, "if you invade Iraq, you'll end up
chasing shadows"
And after last S

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