Sic Semper Tyrannis

Open thread - 30 June 2011

 
Having returned last evening from the "wars" at one of the Washington area consultant companies, I lack the spirit or energy to find something to post on amuse each other for today.  pl

"Valhalla Rising" a Review by Alan Farrell

 
Valhalla Rising. Directed by Nicholas Winding Renf (who cites his middle name to distinguish from Nicholas Rodham Renf or Sarah Jessica Renf, the other Danish directors). Starring Maarten Steeveensoon, Goordoon Broown, Maads Mikkeellsseen (the evil Le Chiffre—variously pronounced and French for “Indic-cum-Arabic concept of the zero,” perhaps referring to the humor coefficient of that film… or the joy content of this one—from the latest Casino Royale and whose otherwise squinty eye has transmummified into a welded-shut eye…He’s called “One-Eye, but there may actually be one in there, just inaccessible).

"Thor" a Review by Alan Farrell

 
Thor. Directed by Kenneth Braanaaugh. Staarring Naataalie Portmaan (getting raather overexposed these daays aafter Blaack Swaan aand No Strings Aattaached aand yet still underexposed on aaccount of shows no skin in this flick and furthermore, there’s none at all unless you count Thor’s… which I for one do not. Note: When you choose the Norwegiaan paantheon, don’t be looking for skin but raather fur and armor up to here… be aadvised: evidently nobody heaard of baar saark); Chris Hemsworth (could be the next Hugh Jaackmaan); Aanthony Hopkins (mercifully swaaddled in fur up to here… aa blessing aafter his baare-butt shot in Beowulf); Stellaaaan Skaaaarsgaaaard (onliest aauthentic squaareheaad in the bunch, bless him, aand the perenniaal troubled science guy: Deep Blue Seaa, Good Will Hunting).

A response to Sydney - National Journal Blog

 
Will President Obama's Afghanistan Strategy Prove Effective? - National Security Experts.  pl

Will President Obama's Afghanistan Strategy Prove Effective? - National Security Experts

 
Will President Obama's Afghanistan Strategy Prove Effective? - National Security Experts.

"It don't matter. It don't mean nothin."

 
"Nunez swallowed his beer, let out a stream of profanity before landing on a sentence that he repeats a lot these days. “It’s worthless, and it’s never going to end.”"  Washpost

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The title of this post is something that survivors of the Vietnam War remember well.  The immortal riflemen of that war were often heard to mutter this as they passed in their weary ranks.  It expressed well the nihilism of the "blooded" combat soldier.

PFC Nunez is a lot like a soldier of those long gone days, weeks, months, years, etc.  He joined the US Army to know what war was.  Now he knows.  He has "seen the elephant."  He can go home now, if he can manage the trip.

War scars more than the body.  Doors are opened that can never be closed.  Paths are walked that can never be forgotten.  How trite such statements are, but... 

It is remarkable that discharged combat veterans cause so little trouble in civilian society among people for whom they have little remaining sense of kinship.  Whatever damage they do is usually limited to destructive things they do to themselves.

Armies are necessary because humans are not angels and cannot be trusted to behave well.  War is, and will be.

Policy?  Obama's policy?  Bush's policy?  PFC Nunez has learned well the irrelevance of policy to those who must live with the results of any leader's war policy.  For people like Nunez, policy, any policy is a sick joke no matter how well intentioned it may be.  pl

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/national-security/obamas-afghanistan-plan-gets-mixed-reviews-from-grunts-at-fort-campbell/2011/06/25/AGZyaWmH_story.html?hpid=z1

 

Ignatius on the Hidden Cost of CT

 
"What worries me, thinking about the future that Obama outlined in Afghanistan, is U.S. reliance on the harshest weapons in our arsenal — the killing machine that is America’s counterterrorism force."  Ignatius

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COIN (military led nation building in someone else's country) has been described on "Sic Semper Tyrannis" by Dr. Michael Brenner as being favored by two main American groups, "the deludeders, and the deluded."  I would describe David Ignatius over the last years as having been among the deluded.  I mean no disrespect in writing that.  I have known him for a long time and hold him in high regard, but in regard to COIN he appears to me to have accepted in the past the argument of NEOCOIN theorists that COIN is the humane form of war, the progressive form of war, a form of war that is benevolent in its intentions and largely in its methods, and a form of war that will be effective.

That has been delusion.  COIN is far too expensive, takes too long and is premised on the false idea that alien populations are "hiding" their universal human characteristics behind outmoded customs and folkways that can relatively easily be changed to ways consistent with our own and acceptable to us.  This is not a new delusion.  We tried COIN in the age of Kennedyesque romanticism in the 20th Century.  We tried it in many places.  It never worked very well.  Now we have tried reborn NEOCOINism in Afghanistan (not Iraq) and it does not work in that desolate country either. 

Has Obama decided against NEOCOINism as the "theme song" of his efforts against Islamic terrorists?  Yes, apparently he has.  For the deluders, the time has come to look for other "fields" in which to work.  Perhaps "global warming" might provide alternative careers.

Krauthammer on the War Powers Act

 
"First, formalize the recent tradition of resolutions (Gulf, Afghanistan, Iraq) authorizing the initiation of war, recognizing them as the functional equivalent of a declaration of war.

Second, establish special procedures for operations requiring immediacy and surprise, for example, notification of the House speaker, Senate majority leader and their opposition counterparts, in secret if necessary.

Third, in such cases, require retroactive authorization by the full Congress within an agreed period — but without any further congressional involvement (contra the War Powers Resolution). The Constitution’s original grant of power to Congress was for a one-time authorization, with no further congressional constraint on executive war-making except, of course, through the power of the purse."  Krauthammer

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I believe Krauthammer is right in this opinion.  The WPA was the fevered outcome of the kind of public war weariness that now afflicts the Republic.  A rationalization of the constitutional powers of the president as commander in chief is badly needed to avoid the kind of farse that we periodically endure in crises.  pl

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/who-takes-us-to-war/2011/06/23/AGwFS4hH_story.html

How much does Michelle's trip cost?

 

Yes, I know. AIDS awareness, physical fitness for children, emphasis on education, does anyone really believe that this trip to Africa is other than a family vacation at taxpayer's expense?

A cetain indulgence in such matters is not a bad thing, but if i recall correctly she went off to Europe on a similar vacation a while back.

How much does an "expedition" like this cost?

    - Airplane useage for several aircraft to include aircrew and food aboard.

    - Fuel and maintenance

    - Advance party (salaries, per diem, housing)

    - Her entourage (personal staff, secret service security, housing for the whole party)

The US is strapped for cash.  A lot of people are out of work.

The Obamas are rich. 

Maybe we should be talking about reimbursement to the US Government for such trips.  pl

 

 

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jv7byoDgcj-yaA6o7-Sr2KwLfDUQ?docId=facaf7c99868492da02dd819555eba70

Flash! Obama declares COIN dead - Again.

 
“Over the last decade, we have spent $1 trillion on war, at a time of rising debt and hard economic times,” he said in a 13-minute address that sounded at times like a campaign speech. “America, it is time to focus on nation-building here at home.” Barack Obama

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obama-to-order-home-10000-troops-from-afghanistan-officials-say/2011/06/22/AGUuRCgH_story.html

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"the reason why I don’t think we can win with a counterinsurgency strategy, is in fact because I think that, three or four years down the pike, if we apply that strategy, all you good people, and your fellow citizens across the country are going to look at this, going to say, are the Taliban, or whatever it is we’re calling the Taliban, are they really our enemies, in the sense that al-Qaeda was? Is this really what we want to do? And when that happens, I suspect that what’s going to happen is you’re going to tell your members of Congress that you’ve had enough of this, and then they will vote the end of the war as they did in Vietnam."  W. Patrick Lang at the IQ2 debate on Afghanistan policy, 6 October, 2009.

"...time to focus on nation-building here at home.”

With those words, President Obama turned America's back on the failed NEOCOIN dreams of the last decade.  As I said in New York City eighteen months ago, COIN is too hard, too expensive and takes too long to be a fruitful method of warfare unless the counterinsurgents either own the land and people fought for or hope to do so.

Afghan Endgame : Current state of play - FB Ali

The endgame continues to unfold in Afghanistan, as it has now for over a year. Writing in May last year, I had discussed the goals and objectives that the various players in the Afghan conflict (and the factions within each of them) wanted to achieve in this endgame. In this past year these goals haven’t changed, but the methods that the players are adopting of trying to achieve them have changed with the changing situation. This is an appropriate occasion to review how the endgame is being played now.

In May last year President Obama had sided with the war faction (led by Secretary Gates and the generals), and allowed them to pursue their strategy of sufficiently weakening the Taliban to permit the US to safely hand over the country to a friendly Afghan government and its army (backed by US airpower and SF). He had ruled against the ‘minimalist’ faction, led by VP Biden, that wanted an expeditious US pullout on the best terms that could be negotiated with the Taliban. Now, Obama has adopted the Biden goal as the ultimate aim, though, in typical fashion, he has compromised by letting the generals take one last kick at the can. However, he has given them firm deadlines for drawing down US forces in Afghanistan, and has clearly signalled that, for the US, the Afghan war is now finally over.

Another Reading from the Book of COIN: Iraq...

Adam L. Silverman, PhD*

Yesterday reports came in that there were two more bombings in Iraq that killed at least twenty four people.  While sporadic violence, if not escalating violence, is to be expected as the various divisions and factions, including the sectarian, continue to jockey for position and resource, the strategic failure that we leave behind in Iraq is directly tied to COL Lang's post from earlier today about Afghanistan.

In November of 2009 COL Lang and I were both panelists and participants at New York University's Center on Law and Security's Counterinsurgency: America's Strategic Burden conference.  I was on the first panel on COIN Theory and Applications.  COL Lang on a later panel dealing with the history of COIN.  Everyone else on my panel had been key contributors to FM 3-24 (Undersecretary of Defense Davidson, Dr. McFate, Dr. Crane, and LTC Nagl)**.  I was not part of that endeavor, but have contributed revisions to several related field manuals since then.  When LTC Nagl gave his remarks he zeroed right onto the upcoming Iraqi elections.  He stated they would go smoothly (they didn't), that when the new government was seated we would be able to negotiate a proper status of forces agreement and that would allow us to keep large numbers of troops in Iraq for an extended period.  I was looking out at the audience and I can only say that no description of COL Lang's expression would do it justice.  Needless to say, as the WaPo story about the bombing indicates, there will not be an extension of any significant number of US forces under the current government (and I do NOT consider 10K or so to be a significant number if that's the number of forces left to do security force advising) as the Sadrists will bring down the governing coalition.  Here's the link to the conference page and there's supposed to be video links that work at the bottom:

http://www.lawandsecurity.org/law-and-security-conferences/vw/3/itemid/61/d/20091120

(full embarrassment disclosure: I had a Freudian slip in my remarks - I was referring to a French friend whose father had been a French general.  She is several years older than me and once got very emotional while visiting and watching a documentary on Vichy France and how they did not teach that in school when she was a girl.  While referring to her being older I intended to say: as its not polite to give a Lady's age I do not want to provide a date for her and it came out as "I don't want to date her" my mouth got ahead of the brain...)

* Adam L. Silverman is the Culture and Foreign Language Advisor at the US Army War College.  The views expressed here are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of the US Army War College or the US Army

** Full Disclosure: I used to work with and for Dr. McFate as she was one of my two supervisors when I served on the PM's staff of the Army's Human Terrain System, the other COL Fondacaro was also a panelist later in the day.  Dr. Crane is now a professional colleague at the US Army War College, this event was the first time I met him.

Habakkuk on the cult of the Shoah.

In response to comments made by Babak Makkinejad in the discussion of my post on the future of the Israeli lobby, I recalled earlier observations he had made on this blog about the central role played by a kind of secular cult of the Holocaust in the post-war West.  Responding, he suggested that the implication was that this cult was superior to Islam.  So not only were powerful Christian states – 'this time in their post-Christian pretension phase' – once again confronting Muslim sentiment, and indeed Islam, on the question of the political disposition of Palestine:  the issue was once again becoming 'one inspired by religious sentiment on all sides.'

And this, he went on to argue, was a costly policy for the Western powers, 'as in essence, it tells Muslims that they are an inferior people whose concerns in regards to Palestine are irrelevant to the Euro-Atlantic states.'

I would stress that I was not, in the comments to which Babak Makkinejad was responding, making a personal judgement on the objective value of the cult of the Shoah – and certainly not suggesting it should be seen as superior to Islam, or expressing contempt for the religion of Muslims.  On the question of the wisdom, or lack of it, of creating this impression, I would not disagree with him.  It seems to me quite evidently the case that the policies pursued by Israel, and also by the United States and to a somewhat but not so far greatly lesser extent the major European states, are such as to make very many Muslims feel they are seen as inferior people professing a contemptible religion. 

And that this is not a very clever thing for Americans and Europeans to do seems to be clear. It is yet another unfortunate manifestation of the widespread inability of contemporary Western elites to grasp how important a motivator religious and quasi-religious beliefs are for most people – and indeed, very frequently, for themselves.

It is also in my view peculiarly stupid for Israelis to believe that their current superiority in power means that they can prudently treat Muslim sentiment with contempt.  And this, I think, reflects an inability to grasp that a short-term preponderance of power, however great, is something quite different from a strategic position sustainable over the long term.

John Nagl and the prospect of unending war in Afghanistan.

 
John McCain went on at length yesterday about "isolationists" who wish to turn their backs on the noble Afghan peoples fighting for the re-birth of their "nation" that never was.  Afghanistan has been a state for almost a century but it has never been a "nation."  It is many nations.  McCain tells us that if the American people continue to support the present level of NEOCOIN nation building for another year and another "fighting season" after yet another winter, then "we" will have won the game.  IMO these statements reflect the life experience of the generation that McCain and I belong to more than anything else.  We do not want to lose again.

But McCain is not the ultimate expression of the "fight to the last Talib" attitude.  No, the main man is John Nagl the retired lieutenant colonel who heads CNAS, the leading NEOCOIN "think tank" and lobby here in Washington.

As is shown in this video of last night's Newshour, Nagl is opposed to any (my judgment of his position) withdrawal from Afghanistan and firmly believes that US military engagement in Afghanistan should continue  for "many years."  His opinion matters.  He continues to advise the NEOCOIN generals.  He, and CNAS, have great influence in policy formation.

IMO he has little choice but to hold such a position firmly.  His book "Learning To Eat Soup With A Knife" was a key element in the re-birth of the much failed 20th Century doctrine of counterinsurgency (nation building).  Nagl left the US Army to become a major prophet of a doctrine that could explain the world and foreign peoples to people who are basically ignorant of anything that is not fed to them in small doses.  Such people rarely understand what they see.  The nonsense generally believed about Iraq is a case in point.  The "surge" in Iraq did not improve the situation there.  Petraeus returned to Iraq from Leavenworth with the intention of applying NEOCOIN methods there but that doctrine was not what improved the situation.  Traditional colonial methods of "divide and conquer" (the "awakening" and the Sons of Iraq) did that.  COIN had little effect in Iraq except to line many pockets in Iraq and the US.  Nevertheless,  NEOCOIN methods are being applied in Afghanistan with religious devotion.  Nagl is the chief priest of that religion and Petraeus is the anointed commander in this crusade.

Several years ago I told Nagl (after our debate on Afghanistan policy) that he reminded me of John Paul Vann, the high priest of COINism in VN.   I knew Vann.  I was wrong.  Vann loved the Vietnamese people.  I don't think John Nagl loves the Afghans.  pl

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/politics/jan-june11/afghanistan2_06-21.html

20% say they would not vote for an LDS candidate

 
"The telephone survey of more than 1,000 adults found that though a majority of citizens would support a Mormon candidate, 18 percent of Republican voters and 27 percent of Democrats would not vote for a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Indifference to voting for a Mormon has not changed much since 1967."  Nationl Journal

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The MSM, "Coasties," big city folks generally, the academically gifted and other elites in the USA do not have a problem with the idea of a Mormon president.  They shrink from even mentioning the possibility that being a Mormon might keep one from being elected president.  Well, perhaps they are wrong.

According to this Gallup poll, mom and pop out in flyover America are not so generous in their "political thinking."  Why is that?

In trying to cope with the "remote" possibility that something as "trivial" as religion might be an obstacle to national political office, the MSM babble about polygamy (plural marriage in LDS parlance).  The truth is that aside from mere titillation at the thought, most Americans could hardly care less about this issue.  After all, the LDS church gave up the doctrine in the 19th Century in return for the admission of Utah to the Union.  The handful of Mormons who are still polygamous are thought of as schismatics by the main LDS Church.

No, the main issue for all the moms and pops "glued" to their TV sets and watching Fox News is not polygamy.  It is theology.   People who are deeply and personally Christian in the way that sectarian evengelicals are know that Mormons are "Christian" only by their own peculiar definition of Christianity.  The LDS Church is not a monotheist, trinitarian religion.  Mormons believe that God the Father and Jesus are both gods but that they are separate gods who live in bodies like those of humans on a planet that they favor with their accumulated wives, family, etc.  They further believe that a virtuous life lived here on earth will lead to transformation of humans to godhood and to a future destiny as the "savior" of some other planet.  This is not anything like the Nicene Creed that defines "orthodox" Christianity.  One man"s theology is another man's fairy tale, but there are tens of millions of voting Americans who would not agree with that statement.  They are sure that they know the "truth."

Should this matter in a presidential election?  No, it should not, but it will. 20% is a big number in a close election.  I think Romney is probably the best alternative to Obama and I would vote for him, but that means nothing in terms of victory or defeat.  Huntsman seems to be a fils a papa type to me and not a serious candidate for president, but Romney is another matter altogether.

Republicans should think carefully before nominating a candidate who would carry such a burden.  pl

http://www.nationaljournal.com/more-than-a-fifth-of-americans-won-t-vote-for-a-mormon-poll-finds-20110620

"Crude Oil Falls in New York, Approaching a Bear Market as 2011 Gain Erased" - Bloomberg

 
"Oil fell to the lowest level in four months in New York, bringing its loss from this year’s peak to more than 20 percent, on speculation Greece’s debt crisis and a weakening global economy will curb fuel consumption.

Futures slid as much as 2 percent, erasing this year’s gains, as Europe failed to agree on releasing a loan payout to spare Greece from default and Japan’s exports fell. Oil traded for a second day below its 200-day moving average, a major technical-support level. Today’s low signaled a bear market."  Bloomberg

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Well, boys and girls, how low will it go?  "Peak Oil," anyone?  pl

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-20/crude-oil-falls-in-new-york-approaching-a-bear-market-as-2011-gain-erased.html

New Athenaeum Posts

A Moment in Time- FB Ali

http://turcopolier.typepad.com/the_athenaeum/2011/06/a-moment-in-time-fb-ali.html

Father's Day 2011

http://turcopolier.typepad.com/the_athenaeum/2011/06/fathers-day-2011.html

The Jews of China

Adam L. Silverman, PhD*

In the comments to Mr. Habakkuk's most recent post, commenter Dag asked if there were, indeed, Jews in China.  The answer is yes, but there are very, very few left.  Above you can see drawings of the exterior and interior of the Jewish Temple at Kaifeng, which is where the very small remnant of China's Jewish community survives.  The history of Judaism in China is long, dating at least to the 8th Century BCE, but references to what appear to be China can be found in the book of Isaiah and communities of Jews have been documented in China as far back as the 1st Century BCE, if not earlier.  I even remember once seeing a reference, while studying comparative religion for one of my master's degrees, that one of the oldest extant pieces of writing ever found was an ancient Chinese dialect written in paleo-Hebrew script found in a cave along what came to be called the Silk Road.  While that is most likely an apocryphal and mythological reference, it should provide some indication as to just how far back the group of people that would eventually become known as the Jews have been interacting with the Far East**.  Once the Jews got to China they were very successful.  Unlike most of their interactions when going west into Europe, they were far better able to enter the societies and cultures in Central, Southeast, and East Asia.  For instance, in India Jews found a way to work themselves into the caste system and became very successful members of society in Cochin and the same was ultimately true in China.***  

Jewish succes in China was partially the result of the communities acceptance by the Confucian Emperor under the restored Song Dynasty.  Imperial edict allowed the Chinese Jews to participate in the civil service and there are a number of surviving records of Jewish mandarins.  According to some traditions once the synagogue complex was built at Kaifeng the Emperor is said to have sent the community a gift: Confucian ancestor worship fire pots.  The story goes that the Jewish community, not wishing to offend the Emperor found a way to work the Confucian ritual objects into their worship by simply adapting their use.  When reciting the lines of the Amidah (The Eighteen Benedictions), the synagogue authorities would light the fire pots upon reaching the portions dealing with the Jewish patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (crisis averted...).  

Obama is wrong about the War Powers Resolution

 
"President Barack Obama decided he could continue the air war in Libya without congressional approval despite rulings to the contrary from Justice Department and Pentagon lawyers, according to published reports.

The president relied instead on the opinions of other senior administration lawyers that continuing U.S. participation in the air operations against the regime of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi did not constitute “hostilities,” triggering the need for Congressional permission under the War Powers Resolution, the New York Times reported in its online edition Friday night."  Washpost

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I support the NATO intervention in Libya.

Nevertheless, President Obama IMO is completely wrong in arguing that the US role in that intervention does not suffice to compel him to notify Congress under the War Powers Resolution.  Presdient's of both parties have resisted the war making authority of the Congress for far too long.

This the time for that to end.  pl

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/congress/report-obama-rejected-the-views-of-top-lawyers-in-deciding-to-pursue-libya-air-war/2011/06/17/AGv0ZeZH_story.html?hpid=z3

Revision of "Habakkuk on the future of 'the lobby.'"

 
"If more American Jews recover sufficient imagination to realise that the implacable opposition by AIPAC and other elements of the Israeli lobby to any attempt to shift U.S. policy away from its current unqualified support for Israeli hardliners poses dangers to themselves, the position of the lobby may crumble."  PL quoting DH

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In response to the recent post in which Colonel Lang quoted Grant Smith's observation that the secret that AIPAC is an organisation that has been breaking US laws ever since its emergence in 1963 was "now officially 'out of the bag'", "The Beaver" linked to a most interesting interview with the former AIPAC lobbyist Keith Weissman. It was Weissman who, along with his colleague Steve Rosen, was indicted back in 2005 on charges of illegally conspiring to collect and disseminate classified secrets to journalists and to Israeli diplomats – charges that were dropped in 2009, in somewhat controversial circumstances.

As Smith suggests in a commentary on the interview, Weissman's account of his role in shaping AIPAC's Iran policy, in which she portrays himself as 'a lone progressive hero fending off the Israel lobby's push for regime change from AIPAC's Iran desk' merits a rather more sceptical treatment than the interviewer, Robert Dreyfuss, gives it.

However, this in no way detracts from the very great interest of Weissman's comment that the reason he is telling his story is that:

we may be going down a path, helped along by the American Jewish community, and maybe even Israel, that is going to be worse even than the one we're on now - some sort of military confrontation with Iran. That worries me. Because they will be able to blame [it] on the Jews, to a great extent.

Irrespective of whether Weissman is rewriting the historical record, his apprehension that a war with Iran – which he says would be 'the stupidest thing I ever heard of' – could provoke an anti-Semitic backlash is quite patently genuine and deeply felt. It may also be indicative of a changing climate. 

In the triumphalist period ushered in by the retreat and collapse of the Soviet Union, it came to be widely taken for granted – in my own country, Britain, just as much as the United States – that there was some natural course of history leading to the remodelling of the world in the image of the post-war West. It also came to be taken for granted that American military power could be used as a catalyst of this transformation.

So great was the climate of euphoria – whose classic statement was of course Francis Fukuyama's 'End of History' article – that the possibility that military ventures in the Muslim world might go disastrously wrong was largely ignored by mainstream opinion, non-Jewish and Jewish alike.  The warnings of people with real expertise and experience of the societies which were supposed to be remodelled by American military might about the problems involved were disregarded, and such people marginalised. 

So there was little reason for American Jews to be concerned that these adventures might have negative effects on them – and few were.

One discordant voice came in a strange, strangulated article entitled 'Leviathan' published in the New York Review of Books in May 2003 by the co-founder of that journal, Jason Epstein – who, curiously, also happens to be the husband of Judith Miller: the title being an allusion to ‘Moby Dick’, the classic tale of a suicidal quest to eliminate evil.

Among other things, Epstein described the way many German Jews shared the then prevalent enthusiasm for war in 1914 -- recalling Martin Buber's vision of it as a "sacred spring" which would finally unite Germans and Jews in a "joint historical mission": to civilise the Near East.

And Epstein went on to quote a comment by a notable Jewish opponent of the war, the great Viennese satirist Karl Kraus. In Kraus's view, that catastrophic conflict was the product of 'a disastrous failure of the imagination and an almost deliberate refusal to envisage the inevitable consequences of words and acts...made possible above all by the corruption of language in politics and by some of the major newspapers.'

As Weissman very fairly stresses, the positions taken by AIPAC have reflected the preferences of a minority of wealthy and right-wing American Jews, sympathetic to the Likud, who provided a very large share both of the organisation's funding and of Jewish funding of political parties and candidates. As he says, their views do not reflect those of the majority of American Jews.

However, it has also to be said that – at least until very recently, and still to a substantial extent now – evidence of deeply-committed and energetic opposition among other American Jews to the directions in which the Likud and its American fellow travellers have attempted to move not only Israeli but US policy has not been abundant.  There are of course glaring exceptions – prominent among them the admirable Philip Weiss – but these have remained relatively isolated.

One of Grant Smith’s complaints against Weissman is that he shows concern for the possible impact of a war on American Jews, rather than its ‘broader potential consequences’.  However, in the real world, our impulse to rise from lethargy and try to prevent situations developing in catastrophic directions is often very directly related to the extent to which we can imagine our own interests being directly at risk.

If more American Jews recover sufficient imagination to realise that the implacable opposition by AIPAC and other elements of the Israeli lobby to any attempt to shift U.S. policy away from its current unqualified support for Israeli hardliners poses dangers to themselves, the position of the lobby may crumble – and do so quite rapidly.  David Habakkuk

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Habakkuk has revised his earlier piece to make it more complete.  pl

 

You mean the Pakistanis are NOT OUR FRIENDS?

 
"At a closed briefing last week, members of the Senate Intelligence Committee asked Michael J. Morell, the deputy C.I.A. director, to rate Pakistan’s cooperation with the United States on counterterrorism operations, on a scale of 1 to 10.

“Three,” Mr. Morell replied, according to officials familiar with the exchange.

The fate of the C.I.A. informants arrested in Pakistan is unclear, but American officials said that the C.I.A. director, Leon E. Panetta, raised the issue when he travelled to Islamabad last week to meet with Pakistani military and intelligence officers."  NY Times

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Actually three out of ten is not that bad.  Intelligence liaison relationships are always sometimes things and rather dependent on "the weather."  When interests align, they align.  When they do not...

Surely not the British!  Not them!  No?  If you say so...

Hey folks!  Pakistan is an independent foreign sovereign country not yet included in the imperium.  They are not we and we are not they.  No, it is not true that all people are basically the same, yearning to be freed of ancient "superstition" so that they can "bloom" in the bright sunlit uplands of modern (American) culture.

So, we are surprised...  No, we are "shocked!"  We are "shocked" that Pakistan finds unauthorised help given to a foreign intelligence agency to be possibly criminal behavior.  We are "shocked."

We are like children.  That is what we really are.

It is obvious that the Pakistani establishment protected Bin Laden and hid him from us.  Why?  It was because they are not we and we are not they.  Have you not ever noticed the crescent and star on Pakistan's green flag?  pl

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/15/world/asia/15policy.html

 

AIPAC violates US law.

 
"Fallout from criminal indictments of AIPAC staffers caught red-handed trafficking classified information in 2004-2005 that were quietly unwound under mysterious judicial rulings and even more DOJ acquiescence in 2009 has put AIPAC’s activities under a new spotlight.  AIPAC briefly considered a media campaign to smear US law-enforcement officials but instead cut its losses by dumping Rosen. This led to Rosen’s $20 million retaliatory defamation lawsuit which opened up shocking new insights about AIPAC.   In 2010, true to form, AIPAC let loose a salvo of pornography and prostitution charges — which succeed more in revealing AIPAC’s decrepit work environment than anything about its former top executive-branch lobbyist. But the secret that AIPAC is an organization that has been breaking US laws since its emergence from the AZC in 1963 is now officially "out of the bag."  The list of US classified documents stolen and misused by AIPAC grew larger in 2010, even as the IRS is again asked to retroactively revoke AIPAC’s tax exemption."

---------------------------

AIPAC should be registered under FARA.  The fact that it is not so registered is a mockery of American law.  If this nonsensical situation is ever to end, it will have to be Jewish Americans who end it.  pl

http://original.antiwar.com/smith-grant/2011/04/27/washington-showdown-with-aipac/

Nato? We still have that? - National Journal blog 14 June 2011

 
Will Gates's Comments Convince NATO Members to Reverse Defense Cuts? - National Security Experts.

Pawlenty for emperor?

 
"Tim Pawlenty, the mild-mannered conservative former governor of Minnesota, sidestepped several opportunities to criticize Romney's Massachusetts healthcare law, a precursor to Obama's national plan and an object of derision for conservatives."  Reuters

--------------------------------

Nah!  That wasn't Pawlenty's most memorable moment.  the best was "..this president is a "declinist."  He thinks the US is one of a number of equal countries in the world."

My dear old dad was a hard core American nationalist, but I think even he would have shrunk from that statement and all that it implies.  Those words imply a belief that the US is the New Rome, that we bestride the world as the future of mankind and that what we think is right and just must be so.  It implies that many of us really think that what we do must be virtuous becasue we do it.  Hubris used to be a popular buzz word, not so much anyomore.  Perhaps this is so because we are now so filled with hubris in the USofA that this condition seems natural to us. ("Hubris," spiritual pride that goes before a fall)

The country is perched on the edge of financial collapse, dragged towards the edge by political paralysis over; budgets, wars that we clearly cannot afford, overseas commitments that are grossly oversized and poorly thought through, entitlement programs that can be fixed by changes in the eligibility ages but that we cannot agree to repair, tax breaks for the wealthy, the truly wealthy, and a vile servitude to financial manipulators who loot the economy. 

All of that is true, and Tim Pawlenty still wants to rule the world, and for what profit?  Have we made money from Iraq and Afghanistan?  Have we made these better places?  No? Well, some of us have made money in those places or here in Washington.

NATO?  Gates is unhappy with European contributions to NATO?  The truth is that NATO has been a mere instrument of US "Pawlentyism" since the fall of the USSR.  The Europeans do not need NATO.  They know that.  In fact, their need for armies has declined to its lowest point in centuries.  They know that also.

Obama?  He is yet another apostle of "pawlentyism."  What would our ancestors say?  They left Europe in the hope of a better life.  Is "pawlentyism a better life?  pl

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/14/us-usa-campaign-republicans-analysis-idUSTRE75D3BP20110614

Mikati forms Hizbullah led government in Lebanon.

 
"Formed after five months of political stalemate, the new Lebanese leadership was welcomed by President Bashar al-Assad of neighboring Syria, another Hezbollah sponsor now beset by international censure of its crackdowns of anti-regime protests.

"This government is committed to maintaining strong, brotherly ties which bind Lebanon to all Arab countries, without exception," Mikati said at the Baabda Presidential Palace.

"Let us go to work immediately according to the principles ... (of) defending Lebanon's sovereignty and its independence and liberating land that remains under the occupation of the Israeli enemy."

Mikati was appointed after Hezbollah and its allies toppled U.S.-aligned former premier Saad al-Hariri in January over a dispute involving the U.N.-backed probe into the 2005 assassination of statesman Rafik al-Hariri, Saad's father."  Reuters

------------------------------------

Another "triumph" for US policy.  We have insisted that Hizbullah is nothing but a terrorist organization and that it is not a legitimate political force.  We have insisted that in spite of Hizbullah's strong showing in internationally observed elections.  We pulled every lever that we could to deny Hizbullah the fruits of its last victories in parliamentary elections.  This is reminiscent of our attitude towards Hamas after its electoral triumphs.  Now Hizbullah is in the "driver's seat" in Lebanon.  Can anyone doubt that this is the time to mend fences with Hizbullah?  Can anyone doubt that our past policy has been the result of Israeli influence in the Bush and Obama Administrations?"  pl

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/13/us-lebanon-government-idUSTRE75C48K20110613

PS  The Germans recognized the Libyan rebels today.  they are the 13th country to do so.  pl

There will be lies and rumors of lies.

 

"But Sen. John F. Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is among a growing number of congressional leaders urging Obama to take full advantage of progress achieved over the past 18 months by narrowing the mission’s focus.

These lawmakers argue that, at a time of fiscal stress at home, the administration should concentrate on targeting al-Qaeda and protecting other U.S. security interests in the region, rather than on maintaining the broad military deployments across much of southern and eastern Afghanistan and the costly nation-building elements of the counter-insurgency strategy."  Washpost

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/lawmakers-push-for-afghan-strategy-rethink/2011/06/10/AGtahoQH_story.html?hpid=z1

---------------------------------------

"In sum, the quick exiters get the big 30,000 or so number, and the die-harders get one last year-plus at near full strength to weaken the Taliban. Ain’t democracy grand? Officials caution that since no announcement will be made for almost a month, and since Obama is still being battered from all sides, the projected withdrawal total and end dates could change somewhat. No one, not even Obama’s most intimate national-security aides—Tom Donilon, Denis McDonough, and Ben Rhodes—can be certain of their boss’ final calculations, but key officials feel confident that the president’s secret thinking will generally hold."  Gelb in the Beast

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2011-06-11/obamas-secret-afghan-exit-formula-leslie-h-gelb-with-exclusive-details

*****************************************

Well, boys and girls.  Well. 

Obama (still a sucker for those guys in "star suits") will evidently continue to follow them down the primrose path in Afghanistan, and, just about anywhere else they want to lead him.  (irony alert) The NEW AFGHANISTAN will rise from the ashes of donkey dung fires to shine its light on the world, a third "shining city on the hill" (after Baghdad of course).  Following on the smashing success of our revolutionary efforts in Iraq, the COINistas are now well on their way to achieving the "critical mass" of transformed Muslim countries needed to change the world.  it will only take a few more decades in Afghanistan.

Leslie Gelb (usually well informed) appears to claim that Obama is deliberately deceiving ordinary Americans in this matter.  Could that be?  He also implies that Hillary Clinton is doing much the same.  Can that be?

Representative Dana Rohrbacher (?/CA?) (does it matter?) said recently that Iraq should reimburse the US for expenses incurred in the intervention, subsequent insurgency, CT operations and re-construction (of the damage we did).  The Iraqis seem unwilling to pay.  "A humiliation!"  Ah, well everything is a humiliation to them.  "The US should pay us!"  Buena suerte, amigo!, mumkin f'il mishmish.  Where do they find candidates for Congress like this man Rohrbacher? 

Ah, well, I am actually more interested in the "Waterfront Re-Development Plan" here in Alexandria.

 
BTW, for the interest of the gun people here, I bought the Henry .17 HMR.  Also, BTW.  This is a range gun for me.  i haven't hunted for a long time.

Oh, yes, once again, there are good, worthwhile and sensible wars and then, there are the other kind.  pl

 

 

New Post on The Athenaeum

http://turcopolier.typepad.com/the_athenaeum/2011/06/puyehue-cord%C3%B3n-caulles-spreading-ash-cloud.html    pl

Turkey into Syria?

 
"The White House strongly condemned the crackdown on anti-government protesters that left 28 people dead Friday, and says Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is leading his nation down a "dangerous path."

Witnesses and activists say at least 10 deaths occurred in the northwestern province of Idlib. The military shelled targets in the provincial city of Maaret al-Numan. State-run news reports said an armed group had attacked security forces in the city and set several government buildings on fire.

Meanwhile, Assad has been avoiding calls from U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. Ban tried to call the Syrian leader several times, but a U.N. spokesman said Assad would not come to the phone."

-----------------------

I wonder how long the world will be willing to accept what the Syrian government is doing to the citizens of the country.

I suggest that we stop fiddling while Syria burns.  The Syrian security services do not appear to be breaking up under the pressure of events. 

I suggest that the UN empower the Turks to enter Syria and depose the regime on the basis of its cruelty to the people of Syria.  An appropriate resolution can be written.  It should specify that Turkey must occupy the country only so long as is necessary for  a new government to be formed under UN supervision.Tthere is no reason to involve NATO in this.  The Turks are quite capable of dealing with this situation.

Yes, I know.  Arab sensibilities will be wounded by re-entry of the descendents of the Ottoman oppressors into an Arab country.  What is the alternative?  The other NATO states willl not act.  No one will want Israel to participate.  The Europeas and US already have too much "on their plates."

What is the alternative?  pl

http://www.voanews.com/english/news/middle-east/Syrian-Forces-Fire-on-Protesters-Five-Dead--123643729.html

US approaches recognition of Libyan rebels.

 
"The United States views the Transitional National Council as the legitimate interlocutor for the Libyan people during this interim period," Clinton saidduring a June 9 speech at a meeting of the Libya Contact Group in the United Arab Emirates (emphasis added).  Foreign Policy

-------------------------------

The press and many here at this space think the intervention in Libya is foolish and will be fruitless.  I do not.  War is sometimes useful.  This is one of those times.  Iraq was a foolish mistake.  The disastrous situation there in 2006 was somewhat improved by the application of traditional colonial methods of "divide and rule" and empowerment of politicians who, at least on the surface, were cooperative.  In Afghanistan the initial liberation of the country from Taliban rule was a worthwhile effort.  The attempt to build an Afghanistan that had never existed in spite of massive foreign aid during the monarchy, that was foolish.  It continues to be foolish.  This effort is beyond our strength and means, especially in bad economic times.

Libya is another matter.  Qathafi will be gone and the price is cheap.  pl

http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/06/09/clinton_edges_toward_recognition_of_libyan_rebels

Siegman on the death of the "Peace Process"

 
"Netanyahu's address to the U.S. Congress, no less than Congress's reaction to that speech, effectively buried the Middle East peace process for good. For what America's solons were jumping up and down to applaud so wildly as they pandered pathetically to the Israel lobby was Netanyahu's rejection of a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict, thus endorsing his determination to maintain permanently Israel's colonial project in the West Bank.

If Netanyahu succeeds in his objective, these members of Congress will be able to take credit for an Israeli apartheid regime that former Prime Ministers Ehud Barak, Ariel Sharon, and Ehud Olmert predicted would be the inescapable consequence of policies the congressmen cheered and promised to continue to support as generously as they have in the past."  Henry Siegman

-------------------------------------------

Henry Siegman is a good man who has labored in many vinyards in pursuit of justice.  I have known him for a long time.  His persistent pursuit of a two state solution is rooted not only in a wish to see "tikun olam" (a better world) but also in a belief that Israel cannot, in the long run, survive with a large subject Arab population. Since he does not believe that they can or should be expelled from "Eretz Israel," he long ago reached the solution that the map must be re-drawn to put them outside Israel's borders.

There have always been flaws n his theory of "the solution."  One of them is the sad problem that neither the Israelis nor the Palestinians are really resigned to the idea of the other side as co-occupants of historic and geographic Palestine.  This results in a constant effort to "out-play" the other side.  In other words, what we are really seeing on the surface of things is posturing while below the surface all is mere "tactics."  Another problem for Henry's view is that there are vitually no Palestinian Arabs, whether in the occupied territories, in the diaspora, nor among the Israeli Arabs who harbor any good will for Israel or Israeli Jews.  Druze, and the handful of Negev Beduin in the IDF?  These are not large groups.  They do not affect the situation.  Basically, Israel has no Arab friends, especially among the Palestinians.  This never boded well for agreements that could be seen as fair by both sides an the situation has not improved.

The Arab/Israeli confrontation is a catstrophe without end, a catastrophe in which the United States has been trapped by ruthless people who shrink from nothing to attain their goals.  pl

http://mideast.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/06/08/what_have_obama_and_netanyahu_wrought

Giraldi on the possibility of a hot summer.

 
http://original.antiwar.com/giraldi/2011/06/08/target-iran/

Interesting.  pl

"Afghan nation-building programs not sustainable, report says" Washpost

 
"The hugely expensive U.S. attempt at nation-building in Afghanistan has had only limited success and may not survive an American withdrawal, according to the findings of a two-year congressional investigation to be released Wednesday.

The report calls on the administration to rethink urgently its assistance programs as President Obama prepares to begin drawing down the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan this summer."  Washpost

--------------------

I told you so.  pl

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/national-security/afghan-nation-building-programs-not-sustainable-report-says/2011/06/07/AG5cPSLH_story.html?fb_ref=NetworkNews

Gone

Out of town 8 June.  pl

Who Will Speak For The Unemployed? - By: Robert K. Lifton

 
As the count down continues to the beginning of August, our nation and the rest of the world waits to see whether Congressional Republicans and Democrats, working with the Obama Administration, can come together to raise the debt ceiling, allowing the government to borrow to fund its activities.  Assuming that Congress resolves that short-term issue, still looming is the much greater and tougher problem of lowering deficits and ultimately reducing the national debt.  Democrats as well as Republicans have accepted the idea that debt reduction is a must. The President appointed a bi-partisan commission headed by Democrat Erskine Bowles and former Republican Senator Alan Simpson that studied the problem and made recommendations about how to reduce the debt.

Syed Saleem Shahzad, writer, RIP - James ben Goy

 
In the West, where modern journalism developed, we used to have writers like Saleem Shahzad . . .didn't we?  Writers completely committed to doing their job, which was foremost the exposure of the shenanigans and goings-on in and between government, the financial cabals embezzling our countries, and their military/police mafias.   Of course, we also used to have publishers who were committed to being that press explicitly identified in the First Amendment, correct?  Or, maybe we never had them at all, only a mythology.  Today we surely have neither, only talking heads, embedded flacks, and publishers wholly owned or cowed by the globalist financial interests.    

It's no accident Shahzad had to be found on the internet - see above - and let us see how long that openness continues to last.  The qualities that confined him thereto, like stones, for example, are what makes writers like him so important as points of illumination and inspiration.  To my knowledge he never made it full-time into any of the so-called major media outlets.  Until today, that is, where his murder is just another bat to beat on Pakistan. 

Farewell, Saleem, God give you peace.  I can't comment on you as a man, because I only knew you through your writing, but I will miss it, your irony, your wit, but most of all, your insights.  Speaking only to your career, you set the bar high, and your biggest irony, your final irony, was it was set in the most dangerous place on earth for your profession.  Who will step up to take your place?  And where? 

James ben Goy

Israel Kills 24 in Golan Heights, 350 Injured, Crowds in Tel Aviv March - Salem News

 
"Syrian media sources confirmed that Israeli soldiers shot and killed on Sunday 24 protesters who gathered on the Syrian side of the border of the Israeli occupied Golan Heights marking the Naksa Day, while at least 350 were injured.

Thousands of Palestinian refugees and supporters marched near the border marking the Naksa, the day Israel the illegally arrested the rest of Palestine in 1967.

The protesters were demanding their right to return to their homeland when the Israeli forces opened fire at them. At least eight of the wounded are in serious conditions."  Salem News

********************************

The original source for the news in this story appears to be the "Jewish Telegraphic Agency." (JTA) 

It has to be noted that the Syrian government has killed at least 1,500 Syrians in its current campaign of repression

Nevertheless, the willingness of Bibi's government to have its infantry use ball ammunition against unarmed Palestinian marchers is reprehensible.  They are climbing the Golan border fences?  OK  Round them up and send them back at the Quneitra crossing on the Golan Heights.  22 killed?  Maybe.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++

"At a march organized by a number of Israeli center-left groups, around 5,000 protesters marched through the streets of downtown Tel Aviv Saturday night calling for a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders.

Participants in the march and rally included non-governmental organizations Peace Now and Gush Shalom, and political parties Meretz, Labor and the Derech faction of the Kadima party."  Salem News

----------------------------------

This is the bigger story.  5,000?  Really?  What will the Israeli government do if this happens again?  Will they use the gray uniformed Border Police.  This force is heavily Druze.  They are often used against Palestinian demonstrators since this Arabic speaking minority does not identify with the other Palestinians and does not hesitate to beat and shoot them.  pl

http://www.salem-news.com/articles/june062011/palestine-uprising.php

 

HARPER: WILL BIBI AND OBAMA BOMB IRAN THIS SUMMER?

 
I have just received the following note from a friend, who is generally very well informed on events in Washington, Tel Aviv and other Middle East capitals. I pass it on for comment.

A recent article in {Ha'aretz} by Amir Oren warned
that ``between the end of June and Gates' retirement, and the end
of September and Mullen's retirement, the danger that Netanyahu
and [Ehud] Barak will aim at a surprise in Iran is especially
great, especially since this would divert attention from the
Palestinian issue.'' This warning of an Israeli military strike
on Iran's nuclear facilities at Natanz and other locations has
been buttressed by senior U.S. military and intelligence sources,
who have warned, in the past 24 hours, that U.S. military forces
have been conducting big contingency planning drills over the
past several weeks, for a U.S. intervention, following Israeli
strikes on targets in Iran. These sources say that a target date
for such a joint Israel-U.S. attack on Iran would be July and
August of this year.

 

Palin on Revere, Bachmann on Concord, N.H.

 
"He who warned the British that they weren't going to be taking away our arms by ringing those bells and, um, making sure as he's riding his horse through town to send those warning shots and bells that, uh, we were going to be secure and we were going to be free."  Palin

-------------------------

A Woman president and commander in chief?  Sure, why not, but not these two women, not that, surely? 

For Palin's information, Revere rode that noght to warn the militia and Minute Men ready companies that the garrison in Boston would march to seize militia arms and especially artillery stored out along the road to the west.  He did not ride to warn the British that they should not be naughty, and not be rough and aggressive towards the other children in the school yard.

The British Regular Army soldiers pushed the militia aside at Lexington and reached Concord Bridge farther west.  There the "embattled farmers" stood and fought a bit.  Then they pulled back.  This was a sensible thing to do.

General Jack Galvin when he was head of the Fletcher School at Tufts University took me on a tour of the route of withdrawal of the British force, their route back to Boston.  He had written a couple of books on the subject of the revolution in New England. 

As the Brits marched back down the long road, they found that the carefully selected young men of the Minute Men companies had been given enough time to reach the road. These men, excellent shots, many armed with rifles fought from ditches, buildings, canebrakes and any other shelter that let them fire at the British troops with some cover.  The British, of necessity had to keep moving down the road in the bright sunlight.  The British soldiers cleared the houses in each village one at a time and then fell back in on the road.  They lost men for every yard of progress toward Boston.  By the time they reached the city, the countryside was littered with broken American and British bodies, littered with dead and mutilated men often lying in burned houses.  There were about 200 killed and wounded on each side.

 

That is what Palin with her silly bullshit is mocking through lazy, uninterested ignorance.

Bachmann, ah, yes, she thinks the Bridge at Concord was in New Hampshire, not Massachussets.  She was stupid enough to say that in public in Concord, New Hampshire.

The men who died along that road on both sides were cousins in blood and spirit.  Surely, they deserve better than to be mocked by these foolish creatures.  pl  

http://beta.news.yahoo.com/blogs/upshot/palin-flubs-explanation-paul-revere-ride-215549982.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Revere

Soloman.

 

NM Soloman.  You are released from the "penalty box" if you wish to be.  pl

Middle East propaganda themes (memes)

 
The latest Israeli themes (memes) are : 

-  al-Qa’ida and Iran are close allies.

-  The Shia in Yemen are allies of the Iranians.

-  The tribal forces fighting to force Salih from power are AQAP in disguise and there is a serious danger that AQAP could take power in Yemen.

-  The revolution in Yemen is stalemated and Obama must be forced by the congress to abandon it. 

None of this is true.

* Al-Qaida and Iran have always been enemies.  The Shia and Sunni divide is too great for such an alliance to exist on anything other than a very temporary basis.  Iran supports Hamas. a largely Sunni movement, but they do nt do it in conjunction with Al-Qa'ida.

* The Shia in Yemen are Zeidi or Fiver Shia.  They have never had a significant relationship with the Iranians who are Twelver Shia ( a different religion) and do not have one now.

* The tribesmen fighting Salih in Sanaa are Fiver Shia.  AQAP is exclusively a Sunni movement.  They regard the Shia (any Shia) as apostates.

* The revolution in Libya is progressing nicely.  The Libyan government is crumbling.  israel wants Qathafi to remain.  They also want t odemonstrata they, not Obama, are in charge in Washington.  pl 

"... France enters the Palestinians' run to September" - A Times

 
"“We are convinced that if nothing happens between now and September, the situation will be difficult for everyone,” Juppe said at a news conference after meeting Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.

Juppe stopped short of saying his country would support the Palestinian effort if Israel turns down the French initiative, which is expected to happen, emphasizing that “if nothing happens until September … all options will be open.”"  LA Times

----------------------------------

Evidently the French are trying to gain enough leverage to persuade the Palestinians not to ask the UN General assembly for recognition and membership.

AIPAC's "apparat" is going all out to do what it can to stop this before it happens.  There are ads on television run specifically against President Obama saying that he is "siding with the Palestinians."  When did that happen?  I am hard pressed to remember the occasion.  He appears to me to be altogether on the Israeli "team." 

He said that the negotiations for a settlement should be on "adjusted" 1967 armistice lines.  Whoa!  AIPAC!  As you know that has been the basis of all negotiations for decades. 

The Likud bloc (in Israel and in the US) is so opposed to that basis for negotiations that I am led to believe that what they want is to negotiate a "Palestine" that would consist of a "spotty' series of "indian reservations" or Bantustans' within greater Israel.

The tribal cry of "never again" is so clearly the basis of all this effort that the inherent hostility of the Likud bloc to all non-Jews is beyond argument.

it apears that negotiation of a two state solution is impossible.  pl

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/2011/06/west-bank-the-race-to-september-the-palestinians-final-run.html

Open Thread - 2 June, 2011

 

Corporations as People

Adam L. Silverman, PhD*

Frabjous, in comments to the Palin at Gettysburg thread, mentioned how corporations came to be considered as people for legal purposes.  This was a major change in not only American jurisprudence, but also American political philosophy as Madison definitely did not consider corporations, nor did he want them considered, as if they were people for legal or political purposes. Back in 2002 Thom Hartmann wrote an interesting essay explaining how corporate personhood came to be.  I highly recommend his piece to the SST community.

* Adam L. Silverman is the Culture and Foreign Language Advisor at the US Army War College.  The views expressed here are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of the US Army War College or the US Army.

Karzai, another "marker" down.

 
"In demanding that the U.S.-led coalition stop all airstrikes on Afghan homes, President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday drew his government closer than ever to direct opposition to the United States presence in Afghanistan, a position that could complicate President Obama's looming decision on how quickly to withdraw American troops.

The immediate provocation for Karzai's remarks was a U.S. military airstrike in southern Afghanistan's Helmand province that killed at least nine civilians, including children."  Washpost

-------------------------------

NATO and especially the US face a major challenge to the legitimacy of their efforts in Afghanistan and all the Afghanistans that may lie in wait.

We have made a long effort to convince the Afghans, the world and most importantly ourselves that the Karzai government is sovereign.  There has been a lot of skepticism over this "sovereignty."  Widespread corruption has occurred in the employment of US funds sent to Afghanistan (and Iraq before Afghanistan).  This corruption has added to the skepticism over Karzai's government.

Lately Karzai has "reared up on his hind legs"  to defy the NATO command over its policy in the war in his country.  So far, he has been ignored.  The threat of an anti-NATO insurgency sanctioned by his government is explicit in his latest statement about the bombing of Afghan houses.  That statement took the form of a command from a sovereign government.  He has been "waved off" again.

Do we and our NATO friends really think that we are that grand?  pl

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2015198014_afghanistan01.html