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"A hundred year old church was burned Friday by right-wing Israeli settlers, who broke a number of windows of the church and hurled Molotov cocktails inside." IMEMC
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"IMEMC?" Why haven't they been closed down yet? pl
http://www.imemc.org/article/59791
I thought that the mass attendance at the rally was a massive rebuke to the Glenn Beck temptation, plus a few more temptations like the abomination, Joe Miller.
The clowning was fun but for pantomime deprived Americans, Stewart's closing speech was worthy of the crowd. He laid down blue chips in abundance.
The Tea Parties talk incessantly about the principles of the Founding and of the Framers, but, they rarely seem to know much about those ideas or those men. Stewart's closing speech yesterday was all about those founding principles.
The head count on the crowd was something over 200,000.
Stewart may say that he is a New Jersey man, but by education and taste he is a Virginian, and I embrace him as a great patriot. pl
"President Obama’s turn on Jon Stewart’s Wednesday comedy show was a bit of bait and switch, in that the tone, the content, and the message turned out to be pretty darn serious. It was a half-hour that would have fit nicely in rotation with those Sunday morning shows – think “Meet the Press” or “Face the Nation.”" CSM
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I think this was a bad idea. Stewart is a clever man, but he is a comedian. The president of the United States should not act as a "straight man" for a comedian. Obama is trying to reach more potential voters? I understand that, but the gravitas of the office is damaged by participation in such events.
"Dude?" Stewart addressed the commander in chief of the armed forces as "dude?" The president has the actual power to order death en masse and does so order death in the form of national security "findings." Should someone with that kind of power participate in political grandstanding and clowning?
The Democratic Party may benefit from this but the republic will not. pl
It is rather remarkable that, ten years after having drawn Pakistan into its war in Afghanistan, the US is still not clear on the motivations that underlie Pakistan’s stance in this war, where they’re coming from, where they’re going. This doesn’t just apply to the self-styled ‘experts’ in Washington’s numerous think tanks; it also seems to apply, surprisingly, to administration policy makers.
Typifying this confusion is the US government’s invention of the AfPak term to describe the theatre in which the war is going on. A term that had to be hastily dropped by officials, at least for public use, after Pakistan made it clear that it wasn’t amused. However, the US still thinks of it as the AfPak war, in which Pakistan’s function is to backstop and bolster US operations in Afghanistan. The generals conducting that war find it convenient to ascribe their lack of success to Pakistan’s failure to deliver, and keep demanding that Washington do something about it.
"In terms of regional security, Iraq will have taken concrete steps to redress decades of mistrust and mutual suspicion with its neighbors. Bilateral arrangements and programs will eventually have provided the basis for noteworthy multilateral initiatives. (This year, we coined the term "rock soup diplomacy" to describe this process.) We envision that in 2025, Iraq, Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia will implement a multilateral agreement to pursue greater transparency in military affairs. Eventually, a multi-dimensional regional security organization (perhaps a trimmer version of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) may emerge to address such common regional security issues as border security, terrorism, proliferation and refugees." Raleigh
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A veritable Paean to Neocon Jacobinism, could it be more full throated and prophetic? Is this guy a foreign service officer? Sooo, if everything turns out exactly as current US policy wants to to be, then we win it all!
Grand, unfortunately nothing really develops this well. Let's hear some alternate scenarios. pl
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/22/AR2010102206113.html
NPR fired Juan Williams. Vivian Schiller (CEO of NPR) said about this later that he had been fired because he had stated an opinion about something and that such an action was incompatible with his job description as a "news analyst."
Well, pilgrims, I used to be the boss of a whole lot of analysts so I thought a lot about the nature of analytic work. In the end my opinion was that analysis is opinion with regard to the meaning of facts rather than "analysis of facts" whatever that means. This latter version is NPR's definition as stated by Schiller. Her definition implies a mathematically logical application of rules to arrive at an "objective" understanding of truth.
"News" people" now routinely express opinions with regard to the material that comes in over the internet or that flows across the teleprompter. News analysts are commentators, all of them. Their process of formulating an opinion (analysis) is no different than the process used by reporters in the field to choose the material they report and what sort of "write up" or spin to put on it.
In my opinion with regard to these facts, Williams was fired for associating with Fox News, the ideological enemy of NPR. All else in nonsense. pl
"Clinton at one point suggested a much longer time frame: "The future holds the possibility of progress, if not in our lifetimes, then certainly in our children's."" Washpost
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One wonders if the denizens of Obamaland really thought there would be a positive result from the current effort at peace in the Holy Land? As we discussed in this space all the auguries should have been negative before the attempt began. Natanyahu to the extent that he actually wanted a negotiated settlement, does not seem to control the Israeli polity enough to accept success. The Palestinians continue to insist that the general outline of a settlement should be known at the outset. The Israelis, on the other hand, seem sure that they can outwit the Palestinians if the process is esentially Hegelan in its form.
What, in this, was seen as promising? i continue to believe that the Obama Administration was simply forced into this vain effort by its liberal Zionist campaign financiers.
Very foolish. pl
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/23/AR2010102302576.html
"At a debate today for the Delaware Senate seat once occupied by Vice President Joe Biden, O'Donnell appeared to be nonplussed by the wording of the first amendment, repeatedly returning to the subject and sounding incredulous after her Democratic opponent Chris Coons attempted to explain it to her.
When Coons told her the text of the constitution prohibited government from establishing any religion, O'Donnell replied in apparent bewilderment: "You're telling me that's in the first amendment?"" The Guardian
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The Tea Party people often talk about the Constitution of the United States. O'Donnell is one of them. She claims that the first amendment does not establish a separation of religion and government in the US because the words "church and state" do not appear in the constitution. This does not appear to have been a mistake in rhetoric. She doesn't seem to have known or to accept that the first amendment erected an absolute barrier between government and religion.
She repeatedly insisted that local school boards are inherently immune from federal regulation with regard to the content of instruction. I suppose she means that control of school boards is not among the enumerated powers of the federal government. Her opponent argued that "intelligent design" is really "creationism" in disguise and to teach that is government run schools teaching religion.
To accept her view in this matter and many others is to accept a radically different understanding of basic law. pl
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/oct/19/christine-odonnell-church-and-state-gaffe
The American dilemma in dealing with the world, and especially the Muslim world, is neatly captured in two recent blogposts. The American people, by and large, espouse values and beliefs that they rightly expect should earn them the goodwill and affection of other peoples. However, many of the policies and actions of their government, ostensibly in furtherance of those same aims, result in creating resentment and dislike abroad, shading into hate and rage at the margins, which sometimes lead to attacks on the US and its people. Or, they lead to wars in which US soldiers fight in other lands, kill and are killed, maim and are maimed.
Continue reading "Love and Hate ‒ The American Dilemma by FB Ali" »
Pollard's friends are remarkably active of late. Four members of the House have signed a letter to Obama pleading for clemency for this convicted spy and traitor. They include Barney Frank, Anthony Weiner and a couple of other dummies. Their justification is the argument that such a gesture would be encouraging to the Israeli people "in this time of their need." Frank and Weiner puzzle me. I would find Frank a comic person if it were not for his obvious skill in financial legislation. Weiner? Much the same thing although I seem to remember that he wrote some nonsense about Israel's innocence in its treacherous attack on USS Liberty.
And then there is Lawrence Korb, a former assistant secretary of defense. His defense of espionage and treason against the US is simply incomprehensible. Does Pollard's betrayal of his trusted access to US Navy war plans count for nothing to Korb?
And there is also James Woolsey, the former DCI and self proclaimed "anchor of the Presbyterian wing of the neocon movement." Is he a Presbyterian? He, too, is reported in the Jerusalem Post to have asked for mercy for Pollard, that noble citizen of Israel.
Pollard should have been executed for his cold blooded and mercenary betrayal of what was once his country. If that had been done, we would not have to listen to this confusion of values. pl
"Iran has brokered a critical deal with its regional neighbours that could see a pro-Tehran government installed in Iraq, a move that would shift the fragile country sharply away from a sphere of western influence.
The Guardian can reveal that the Islamic republic was instrumental in forming an alliance between Iraq's Nouri al-Maliki, who is vying for a second term as prime minister, and the country's powerful radical Shia cleric leader, Moqtada al-Sadr.
The deal – which involved Syria, Lebanon's Hezbollah and the highest authorities in Shia Islam – positions Maliki as a frontrunner to return as leader despite a seven-month stalemate between Iraq's feuding political blocs." Guardian
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Once again, what did we win in Iraq? pl
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/oct/17/iraq-government-iran-tehran-deal
"The Los Angeles Times research of public records indicated Fiorina had failed to vote in most elections. Fiorina responded: "I'm a lifelong registered Republican but I haven't always voted, and I will provide no excuse for it. You know, people die for the right to vote. And there are many, many Californians and Americans who exercise that civic duty on a regular basis. I didn't. Shame on me."" wiki
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Yes, shame on her. I guess she was too busy business ladder climbing to bother with what the little people might or might not do.
I listened to her on FNS today. The big problem that I heard in what she said was the deeply held belief and assumption that best practice in business is applicable in government.
Successful business people segregate activities in their enterprise into the categories of "profit center" and "expense center." Expense centers are constantly watched to avoid crippling costs. Profit centers are "watered" with money and more resources of all kinds. If profit centers decline in profitability, they are "pruned" and eventually eliminated.
Well, there are precious few "profit centers" in government in the business sense. There is no bottom line at the bottom of a balance sheet for things like the Army, Social Security, Medicare, etc. The benefits are not susceptible to business school analysis. The standard for judging government activities has to be effectiveness, not efficiency.
Should government be judged? Absolutely, but not by business standards. pl
""The international community now are showing more willingness, and they're more interested, and the countries in the region are more interested. These kinds of things will help the process," he said. "What I think is most important is building trust among each other."
Rabbani, who was ousted as president in the 1996 Taliban takeover, said President Hamid Karzai has told him he is committed to pushing for peace talks.
"He said: 'I'm ready for negotiations. I'm ready to find a political solution to the problem, not a military one..." Washpost
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OK. This how it ends - the drones kill so many Taliban leaders (and assorted just plain folks) that the Talibs decide "what the hell, we can get the damned Americans out of here by making a deal with Karzai." At the same time (now) Karzai becomes profoundly tired of our moralizing nonsense and comes to the same conclusion. Even as we speak Saint David sees a way out of the maze by going along with this, and voila! We become history in Afghanistan, taking our place in legend alongside Doctor Briden, Kim and the men who wanted to be kings in Kaffiristan (Nuristan)
Ain't COIN grand? pl
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/15/AR2010101504874.html?wprss=rss_world
"Both cases appeared similar in that an FBI agent approached the Jewish target and, in the name of helping Israel, appealed for classified or proprietary data. Doxer, a 42-year-old employee in Akamai's finance department, was said to have been approached in 2007 by the FBI a year after he e-mailed an offer to the Israeli consulate in Boston. The FBI agent, who handled Doxer for 18 months, claimed he represented Israel." World Tribune
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Looks like The Bureau found itself a new tactic, namely, bust people for volunteering to serve a foreign cause. Interesting. pl
http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/WTARC/2010/ss_israel1015_10_14.asp
"The Palestinians say they cannot return to negotiations without an extension of the freeze because they are watching their future state disappear under their feet; Mr. Netanyahu says the fate of settlement construction, which has been going on for four decades and now houses hundreds of thousands of Israelis, should be part of the mix of contentious issues that the two sides negotiate, not a condition for negotiations." Ethan Bronner
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Yes. It is true. The United States wants peace between these two peoples more than either of them does. The two (or three) regional sides want peace but they want a peace that favors their group and that disadvantages the other. In typical Middle Eastern fashion the concept of a "win-win" outcome is conspicuously absent from their minds.
How much longer will the US continue to participate in this farce? The longer we maintain this humoring of the foolish behavior involved, the more danger there is that one or the other of them will succeed in having us concede something that we should not just to keep them at the table.
This is going nowhere. The Palestinian side wants to see what they are going to get. Bibi and company want to see how much of that they can avoid giving the Palestinians. This does not lead to peace. pl
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/16/world/middleeast/16mideast.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
"The U.S. Defense Department said it will abide for now by a federal court order against enforcement of the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” ban against service by openly gay soldiers." Businessweek
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As I think I have said, I don't care what orifice you like to stuff your organ into, or salivate over. Is that not what this is about?
If todays soldiers accept that in their comrades, so be it. I think such a policy would result in a force more heavily inhabited by homosexuals, but, what would that matter if maximum combat power is generated in such a force? Recruitment and retention are the story here no matter what the media might want to say. "Go home if you don't like it," the gay activists and advocates like the draft evader, Christopher Matthews say. Good! Will Matthews' children serve? I doubt it. People from rural communities serve, not people from the privileged class in Washington.
Military service is about service to the security of the Republic, not jobs for girls and gays.
Understand! I think that restrictions on the service of women in the combat arms should be eliminated. Let's do the same about the open service of gay people.
Let's see how it works. pl
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-10-14/pentagon-will-abide-by-order-against-ban-on-gays.html
"The Obama Administration wants, instead, a document that will give it whatever option it seeks to pursue vis-à-vis the Mullahs. That in-house conflict has led to a very delicate balancing act as the report has been crafted, particularly as the analysts have been unable to develop any hard information suggesting that Iran does have a nuclear weapons program." Giraldi
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A couple of things.
1- I am happy to learn that it is only "CIA analysts" who are working on this piece of s--t.
2- The National Intelligence council (NIC) which produces NIEs now belongs to the DNI and not the CIA. so, I guess we will see if Jim Clapper has any guts at all or whether or not he is still just a process person. pl
http://original.antiwar.com/giraldi/2010/10/13/the-iran-report/
"The international community can only do so much," Clinton said after a meeting in Brussels with European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who will host Friday's Pakistan conference.
"It is absolutely unacceptable for those with means in Pakistan not to be doing their fair share to help their own people while the taxpayers in Europe, the United States and other contributing countries are all chipping in to do our part." Reuters
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Remarkable. I have mixed feelings about this. We just had a "near miss" in our relations with the country through which run most of our logistics to Afghanistan. Arnaud de Borchgrave wrote a column yesterday in which he describes Pakistan as a former ally. What's the idea, to discipline the Pakistanis and make them know who is the boss? What's the chance that such a thing would be effective, or would it just irritate them further?
At the same time she is undoubtedly correct in telling the wealthy and the ruling in that bedeviled country that if they wish to be taken seriously they must act seriously. pl
"Within the CIA, the argument against a DNI was that you did not need a new organization. Instead, clarify the authority within the intelligence community of the DCI, and that person and his or her deputy could handle both jobs." Walter Pincus
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Yes. That is CIA's extremely self serving argument. Under the old set up. the CIA used their director's second hat as first among equals to suppress the work of the other agencies in the community whenever they had the chance.
NSA was always somewhat immune by law but everyone else ...
Jim Clapper is a pleasant surprise as DNI. I continue to wish him well in this terrific struggle. pl
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/11/AR2010101105499.html
"Through August, at least 125 active members of the Army had ended their own lives, exceeding the morbid pace of last year, when there were a record 162 suicides." NY Times
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This continues unabated. I understand that there is a similar problem in the US Marine Corps particularly at Camp Lejeune where the command has thus far managed to keep the media from the bad news.
So far, I have not seen examples of this phenomenon spreading to commissioned officers (Lieutenant and up). If there are such instances, please let me know.
Clearly these soldiers feel they have "had enough." Killing yourself is the ultimate form of protest against something that you don't want to do.
Alternatively, this can be seen as evidence of traumatic psychological scarring. I have a difficult time with that view. I have never known anyone so scarred by combat that they would have killed themselves over it, but I am willing to accept the possibility.
I am reminded of what I heard from two active duty officers (colonels) last year. They said that they had been required to talk to therapists as part of their return from combat processing. The "shrinks" asked if there was anything that they had seen in the wars that bothered them. So, they told them and the listeners were so obviously frightened and disturbed that they didn't do it again. pl
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/11/us/11suicides.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&hpw
Open Thread
"...the Sunni-backed secular Iraqiya bloc and a Kurdish coalition representing the oil-rich, semi-autonomous north -- responded with little enthusiasm.
A source in Iraqiya, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the party was strongly opposed to Maliki retaining his post in a new government." Reuters
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I sincerely hope that a coalition government that includes Allawi's forces and at least one major Kurdish party can be formed. That development would stabilize Iraq for a time. Whether or not the deep divisions among the peoples of Iraq would be healed by such an arrangement would remain to be seen. pl
"Eight months on, the Taliban are still here in force, waging a full-blown guerrilla insurgency that rages daily across a bomb-riddled landscape of agricultural fields and irrigation trenches.
As U.S. involvement in the war enters its 10th year, the failure to pacify this town raises questions about the effectiveness of America's overall strategy. Similarly crucial operations are now under way in neighboring Kandahar province, the Taliban's birthplace." googlenews
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As I said last spring, Marjah is a decisive test of whether or not COIN (nation building) is feasible, practical and likely as a strategy for the US and its coalition partners.
If you can't do it there, you can't do it anywhere there is a really serious and disaffected population. pl
"Just as neoconservatives were in complete denial during the Bush years about the horrors emerging from the Pandora’s box that the Administration opened after 9/11, so too are progressives currently in denial about just how awful President Barack Obama has been on the world stage." Giraldi
http://original.antiwar.com/giraldi/2010/10/06/six-more-years/
By Richard Sale, author of Clinton’s Secret Wars
The USS Liberty was a former merchant ship stationed at Norfolk, Virginia. Its sister ship, soon to become another infamous tragedy, was the USS Pueblo. Israel had begun to plan for war against a truculent Egypt and bellicose Syria early in 1967. On May 14, Soviet intelligence warned Cairo and Damascus that Israel was planning to invade them on May 17 using 13 brigades.
This report was a Russian fabrication given to Egyptian leader Nasser by the KGB in Cairo as a means of making him more dependent on Moscow. Egypt had signed defense pacts with Jordan and Baghdad. Jordan was a “friend” of America, its leader King Hussein was being paid $7 million per year by the CIA for “security,” according to a former CIA official. America wanted to keep that “friend” in the region.
" Dozens of tanker trucks carrying fuel to Afghanistan for NATO troops were torched near Quetta in western Pakistan on Wednesday, the third major attack on supplies since Pakistan closed a border crossing to Afghanistan a week ago and the first at the only checkpoint that remained open." NY Times
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Looks like someone has decided to concentrate on fuel supplies. That makes sense. High bulk, great weight, absolutely essential. This is something like the WW2 decision to concentrate on fuel and ball bearings in the air campaigns against Germany. Is the Pakistan government passively allowing this to occur as a warning? Of course. What is the actual sensitivity to interdiction of this target set? Who knows? Surely not I.
Lawrence admonished his readers to understand that such a campaign shold be conducted with attacks that involved the smallest number of men, employed at the farthest place in the most unexpected circumstance.
I expect that there will be some agreement between the Pakistan Army and the coalition, but the lesson is a powerful one. pl
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/07/world/asia/07pstan.html?_r=1&ref=world
"Some attacks are believed to be the work of criminals, who can sell much of the vehicles, clothes and other goods they carry." Zarar Khan
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Sure... That's why they shoot up the trucks and then burn them.
"Seven Pillars of Wisdom" is about insurgency, not counterinsurgency. Lawrence's great insight was that the Turks in the Hijaz could be paralyzed by attacks on the railroad and eventually imprisoned in their major garrison towns by logistical friction.
I am interested in hearing how many potential supply routes there are. At present I count four; the two in Pakistan, one out of the Stans wherever the railhead is and an air line of communications staging through Manas or the Gulf. pl
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101004/ap_on_re_as/as_pakistan
It should be no surprise to anyone that the earnings of workers differ greatly in various parts of the world and that those differences effect the costs of products and services.
It is this difference, for example, that allows China to produce products vastly lower in cost than those produced in fully developed economies. Why should anyone be surprised then, when I tell you that farmers and farm workers in rurally poor nations like Afghanistan, for example, earn only a fraction of the incomes of their richer nation counterparts.
You also won’t be surprised that everything else costs more in richer nations, from medical care to housing, education—even prison.
Continue reading "Afghanistan: Tactical Retreat or Strategic Victory? - Walton Cook" »
"...once he got home, the problems really started. Barnes started drinking, then smoking pot and then inhaling gas from compressed-air canisters. He crashed his car four times." Davenport
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Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is not a new thing. Throughout the 20th Century soldiers have been subject to blast effects from artillery, mortar fire, roadside bombs and other load noises that produce a shock wave or weapons which actually drive hard objects into one's skull.
IED's were very common in Vietnam. All roads in disputed territory had to be cleared every day and kept that way. We rode around in wheeled vehicles that had the floors packed with sandbags in a probably futile effort to mitigate blast effects.
The point? There are a lot of people out there with injuries like this from earlier wars.
Maybe this will explain why Uncle Fred was always a little strange after the war. pl
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/01/AR2010100106339.html?wprss=rss_metro
So, Sanchez discovered that a lot of people in the media are Jewish. This was news to him? My comment to him would be ---- When did you learn this?
I once allowed myself to be persuaded to appear on this man's afternoon show. Unresolved ego must have been the reason. The experience was so bad that I told his producer not to bother me again. Sanchez appeared to me to be just plain stupid. We don't need stupid people pandering to other stupids on CNN. There are already too many on all networks.
Jon Stewart (noble scion of the house of Scottish kings) on the other hand is anything but stupid. He is witty, humane, short, and very able to laugh at things like Jewish presence in the media, etc. His program is one of the bright spots of my night (or day).
Is Rick Sanchez a minority? What kind of minority would that be? He is whiter than I am. (I sunburn easily)
Is Jon Stewart a bigot? Yes, he is bigoted against stupidity. pl
http://www.postchronicle.com/news/entertainment/article_212325544.shtml
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-pity
"Around 10 gunmen attacked the vehicles when they were parked at an ordinary truck stop on the edge of Shikarpur town shortly after midnight. They forced the drivers and other people there to flee before setting the fires, said police officer Abdul Hamid Khoso. No one was wounded or killed." AP
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OK. I told them so...
The real question is whether or not this represents an actual change in strategy by Islamic militants or is it a gesture of displeasure on the part of Pakistan, a warning. Time will tell.
A second order danger in this that should now be evident to all those whose territory or airspace is necessary to the supply of NATO that they have tremendous leverage if they wish to exert it. pl
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101001/ap_on_re_as/as_pakistan
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