Sic Semper Tyrannis

Happy New Year to Benny Gantz

"Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz marked the three-year anniversary of Operation Cast Lead on Tuesday by hailing it "an excellent operation that achieved deterrence for Israel vis-a-vis Hamas." However, he warned, cracks have emerged in that deterrence over time, and a second round of fighting in the Gaza Strip is not a matter of choice for Israel.

Such a round must be initiated by Israel and must be "swift and painful," he said, adding, "I do not advise Hamas to test our mettle.""  Haaretz

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

This famous picture of a child burnt by napalm is known to all.  Less well known is the detail that the napalm was dropped by VNAF fighter bombers trying to keep the NVA from capturing her town just outside Saigon toward the end of the war.  Awful.

In Operation Cast Lead the IDF used shells loaded with white phophorus,  WP may be even worse than napalm.  The phosphorus lights itself and burns at ambient temperature.  It burns underwater.  If you have it on you the only practical thing to do is cut it out.

The ammunition is normally used for creating smoke barriers on a battlefield to obscure the movements of friendly forces.  You may remember that on one occasion the IDF used it on a school for children, a school sponsored by the UN.

"that achieved deterrence for Israel vis-a-vis Hamas."   Did it?  Did it really?  pl

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/idf-chief-gaza-war-against-hamas-was-an-excellent-operation-1.403977

"Egypt police raid U.S.-backed pro-democracy groups" Reuters

"Egyptian prosecutors and police raided offices of 17 pro-democracy and human rights groups on Thursday - drawing criticism from the United States which hinted it could review its $1.3 billion in annual military aid.

The official MENA news agency said the groups had been searched in an investigation into foreign funding.

"The public prosecutor has searched 17 civil society organizations, local and foreign, as part of the foreign funding case," MENA cited the prosecutor's office as saying. "The search is based on evidence showing violation of Egyptian laws including not having permits."

Among groups targeted were the local offices of the U.S.-based International Republican Institute (IRI) and National Democratic Institute (NDI), a security source and employees at the organizations said.

The U.S. State Department said the raids were "inconsistent with the bilateral cooperation we have had over many years" and urged Egyptian authorities to immediately halt "harassment" of non-governmental organization staff."  Reuters

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

Yes, I know.   The seemingly incomprehensible truth that people are not waiting to be "modern" remains.  I doubt if the Egyptians are much worried about their "dole" from the US.  They know that the Israe;lis will have us give them the money so long as they stay in the treaty.  pl

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/29/us-egypt-groups-idUSTRE7BS0PT20111229

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-501713_162-57350122/egypt-rights-groups-blast-raids-on-ngo-offices/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/egyptian-security-forces-raid-offices-of-us-other-democracy-groups/2011/12/29/gIQA2jlbOP_story.html

 

Open Thread - 29 December 2011

The Iraq Lie That Needs to Die (Kill it, Kill it Quick, Before Someone Names It...)

*

Adam L. Silverman, PhD**

Even before we left Iraq earlier this month, informed observers had begun to notice the beginnings of a new lie about Iraq: that the Obama Administration, and specifically President Obama, had pulled US troops out, leaving the job undone, and therefore jeopardizing everything we had fought so hard to achieve there.  I have seen this in the press and I have heard otherwise well informed military personnel parrot it (often, for them and for obvious reasons, with a great amount of personal pain coming through).  Now I am not suprised that Ms. Rubin or Ms. Pletka have gotten this wrong, not to mention many other commenters, pundits, and even reporters.  In their cases it is appropriate to quote Upton Sinclair: "It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his job depends on not understanding it."  Unfortunately their either misinformed or willingly misinforming understanding of what actually happened to lead the US to complete a timely withdrawl from Iraq ending Operation Iraqi Freedom/Operation New Dawn after seven years is being picked up by people who need to have a correct understanding of the situation as they attempt to reach proper understandings of various problem sets and potential problem sets that the US faces in the Middle East, Central Asia, and other parts of the world.

As I have written here at SST, as well as at Foreign Policy's Best Defense (Tom Ricks' site and, like all his guest "correspondents" have NO control over the titles to their posts...), we were leaving, and have now left, Iraq because the Iraqis told us to.  They were able to do this because we transferred sovereignty back to them at the end of 2008 when our UN authorization to occupy Iraq expired and we agreed to a security agreement with the Iraqis that would allow US personnel to remain in place, with continued and increased transfer of control back to the Government of Iraq, with a complete withdrawl to occur no later than 31 December 2011.  The reasons for this are simple to follow:

 

Palestinians never miss a chance.

"A man living in a glass home ought not to throw such stones. Cantor's remarks ignored the fact that Americans engaged in genocidal violence and enslavement when establishing the United States of America. He vilifies a Palestinian "culture of resentment and hatred" yet says not a word about his own Richmond neighborhoods that still extol the virtues of Confederate leaders who fought to uphold slavery."  Ahmad Tibi

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

It is a truism that Palestinians never miss a chance to miss a chance or to "screw up."  Does Ahmad Tibi believe that those who hold power in Richmond or Virginia will be charmed by his words and be more sympathetic to the Palestinian cause?  I mean those who really hold power.  Does Tibi think that he will "win" some sort of argument and shame americans and in this case Virginians into supporting his people.  If he thinks that, then he is a fool.  Political warfare is not about winning arguments.  It is about persuasion.  Insults do not persuade.  pl

http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/oped/2011/dec/22/tdopin02-tibi-world-beginning-to-understand-palest-ar-1560551/

Egyptian society and women.

"The young woman posted a video on YouTube in which she said that after she was detained on March 9, she was electrically shocked with cattle prods, accused of being a prostitute, forced to strip in front of soldiers and then examined by a man in front of laughing soldiers.

The military doctor who conducted the test faces a Jan. 3 hearing in a military court, according to state television. A separate hearing is scheduled for Jan. 8 for three soldiers accused of running over unarmed protesters in October, when more than 26 mostly Christian demonstrators were killed in clashes with security forces." Washpost

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See, here's the mentality. Women should be subject to "Pharaonic" circumcision or in other words, removal of the clitoris "just to calm them down." If women go out in the street and demonstrate "immodestly" in politics, well, then their husbands are to blame if they did not discipline them.  If such women are unmarried, then they are either "immoral" and "whores" or extremely willful and misguided, and their exact status must be determinied because soldiers might be accused of violating virgins if they forcibly had sex with women prisoners who were not "whores."

These attitudes are widespread in Egypt except among those in the relatvely small westernised class. There are a lot of women who share these attitudes. The same women often encourage their daughters to be circumcised in order to be "respectable."

I have asked Egyptian men why they would want want that her family should "calm down" a woman they might expect to have sex with. They reply that this should be done to decent women only.

I am completely against such attitudes toward women, but can we force a change? No. Only they can change themselves. pl

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/egyptian-court-bans-virginity-tests-on-female-detainees/2011/12/27/gIQAYIzkKP_story.html

Bad Treatment of Women

"Last week, a young Israeli woman caused a nationwide uproar when she refused a religious man's order to move to the back of a bus.

In Beit Shemesh, parents in Naama's school take turns escorting their daughters into school property to protect them. The parents, too, have been cursed and spat upon.

Hadassa Margolese, Naama's 30-year-old Chicago-born mother, an Orthodox Jew who covers her hair and wears long sleeves and a long skirt, says, "It shouldn't matter what I look like. Someone should be allowed to walk around in sleeveless shirts and pants and not be harassed."" USA Today

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There is something in the monotheistic religions that if not restrained leads to madness over sex. In Christianity we have the nuttiness of men like Tertullian and Augustine. Islam and Judaism both contain fringe groups that are driven to distraction by the sight of a little girl's legs. pl

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/story/2011-12-27/israel-extremists-girl/52240554/1

Congressman Paul Material

Adam L. Silverman, PhD*

Since folks in the comments to the last Congressman Paul thread have been asking where to find the material, I've pulled together a HUGE chunk of it below.  Including links to pdfs of his newsletters (these were published together this past week at The New Republic (which highlighted the problematic sections/passages), as well as appeals written on his Congressional letterhead and signed (most likely, I would think, with an autopen) by him.  I am also including Esquire's excellent (as in interesting and informative) articles and interviews on/with him from earlier in the year, as well as the Reason article from several years ago looking into who wrote the (bulk of the) newsletters (Reason's conclusion: former Paul staffer Lew Rockwell).  I'm also including the links to the videos of Congressman Paul speaking to the John Birch Society and some interesting reporting I tripped over while pulling this together for you all about the attitudes of his constituents, as well as remarks about his attitudes made by a former senior staffer.  Read it all, or some of it and make up your own minds.  Or if you've already done so, just ignore it.

Here you go:

The Esquire Coverage:

http://www.esquire.com/features/ron-paul-profile-0511

http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/ron-paul-quotes-5593289

http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/ron-paul-on-the-fed-5593602

The Reason article:

http://reason.com/archives/2008/01/16/who-wrote-ron-pauls-newsletter

Statement from a former Paul staffer on the Congressman's actual beliefs and attitudes:

http://rightwingnews.com/election-2012/statement-from-fmr-ron-paul-staffer-on-newsletters-anti-semitism/

"What Iraq Tells Us About Ourselves" W. Patrick Lang

 

 
 

Remember this guy?  You will see him quoted (more or less) in the article which I published today in "Foreign Policy."  pat lang

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"In the four years since the United States invaded Iraq, it’s become clear that our campaign there has gone terribly awry. We invaded Iraq with too few troops; we destroyed the Iraqi civil administration and military without having a suitable instrument of government ready in the wings; we expelled from public employment anyone with a connection, no matter how tenuous, to the Baath Party—which included most people who could be described as human infrastructure for Iraq. The list of errors goes on and on. Even the vice president acknowledges that “mistakes were made” (although, presumably, not by him)."  W. Patrick Lang

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=3734

"Half Devil and Half Child" ?

"Odierno’s theme with Maliki was that the United States and Iraq have come a long way — and spilled a lot of blood — and that cooperation between the two countries must continue. He warned that Iraq was in danger of becoming a country like Lebanon, where powerful neighbors wage proxy wars and exacerbate sectarian tensions. Unless Maliki pulled the country together, Iraq would be exploited by regional powers Iran, Turkey and Saudi Arabia."  Ignatius

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

"Take up the White Man's burden--
Send forth the best ye breed--
Go bind your sons to exile
To serve your captives' need;
To wait in heavy harness,
On fluttered folk and wild--
Your new-caught, sullen peoples,
Half-devil and half-child."  Rudyard Kipling

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

Yes.  Yes.  I understand that this can be read several ways.  pl

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

Kipling is much disdained by the overly-clever and the politically correct.   Surely the world is not as he described it.  Surely?

Raymond Odierno does not know that Iraq was always inherently a country like Lebanon?

Odierno now sits in George Marshall's chair.   Is this further evidence of entropy in the universe?  It took this man years to comprehend that the insurgency in Iraq could not be defeated by night raids against Iraqi homes.  It was not such as he who befriended the "Sons of Iraq."  He merely climbed on that bandwagon when he saw that it was rolling towards success. 

They sent him to "jawbone" Maliki into "better" behavior?  Wow!  Maliki must have laughed his a-s off at that.  After all, Odierno is the man Maliki succeffully BSed for years. 

Is it not clear by now that Maliki has won in the game of Iraq?  He bided his time and built the structures of coercion needed to stage a coup against the Sunni leaders as soon as the Americans left.  Some 24/7 idiot bleated on the tube today that the Iraqis cannot stray very far from the US because they need to buy military equipment from us.  Wrong!  Have these people never heard of China, Russia, etc.?  In the Iran-Iraq War the Iraqi armed forces were largely (90%)  supplied and armed  by the Warsaw Pact countries and China.  France provided about a hundred fighter bombers that were used in maritime attacks in the Gulf.  The US "contribution" to their equipment was negligeable.  Don't bother to argue with me about this.  I was there.  Do we imagine that the memory of alternate sources of military supply has disappeared from Iraq?

The ineptitude of the US government in dealing with phenomena like Iraq continues to stupify observers. 

The attutdes described in Kipling's poem quoted above remain firmly in place in the general public and the wizards of Washington.

1-  We firmly believe that the poor benighted brown people of the world are simple folk and that inside each is an American/European waiting to be liberated so that he/she can abandon their own ways in favor of ours.  That's the "child" part.  A corollary of that notion is the belief that if "Uncle Ray" or the equivalent shows up to chide against naughtiness, all will be well.   Nuri al-Maliki is so much cleverer than Ray Odierno that the very idea amuses.

2- We are incapable of appreciating alien people on their own terms.  We are sure that their ways are the wrong ways .  We blather endlessly that "they must do it their way."  We don't believe that for a second.  What we believe is that they have to do and think our way and if they don't then they are evil and "crazy."  Mailiki is doing it his way.  We created the pre-conditions for "his way" in the destruction of the previous social order in Iraq.  Do we really imagine that Maliki and the Shia Arabs do not "know" and feel in their bones that they will return to an inferior status if the Sunni Arabs regain power?  How naive we are.

We lost our hat, a-s and overcoat in Iraq.  We gained nothing and the source of our defeat lies deep in the collective soul of the dominant culture in the United States.  pl 

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/from-iraqs-guardian-to-its-counselor/2011/12/23/gIQAtiIkHP_story.html?hpid=z5

A Christmas Present from Maureen

 

http://turcopolier.typepad.com/the_athenaeum/2010/12/dancing-dans-christmas.html

Max Blumenthal on the Syrian Rebels

"Overjoyed by the images of apparent pro-Bush nostalgia emanating from the Syrian resistance, the neocon Weekly Standard excitedly linked to Abrams' post and displayed the photo in a post entitled, "Missing Bush.""  Max Blumenthal

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

pl

http://english.al-akhbar.com/blogs/gadfly/sarcastic-syrian-rebels-dupe-neocon-delusionists

 

 

Ron Paul - No.

I have been advised that in light of Dr. Paul's "newsletters" of 20 years ago I should clarify my position about him.

1- I do not endorse him. Will I vote for Obama? Probably not.

2. I agree with his notional non-interventionist foreign policy positions.

3. I agree with his ideas about the proper role of the federal government to the extent that he would like to get the coercive power of the federal government out of our lives.

4. I do not agree with his apparent belief that the social safety net and in particular Medicare and Medicaid are unconstitutional.

5, He may well have changed but the record of his past publications is such that he should not have run for president.

pl

Christmas in Fredericksburg 1862

 

"Wartime Christmas" by Paul E. Akers, Free Lance-Star opinion page editor, Fredericksburg, Virginia

Christmas is a time, the songs say, when hearts long for home. It is so during peacetime; how much more it must be for soldiers far away from their loved ones and all the comforts of hearth and home. Often, poignant letters open windows into their hearts. One hundred forty-nine years ago, a young man from South Carolina named Tally Simpson penned these words:

Camp near Fred'burg, Dec 25th, 1862, My dear Sister

This is Christmas Day. The sun shines feebly through a thin cloud, the air is mild and pleasant, [and] a gentle breeze is making music through the leaves of at the lofty pines that stand near our bivouac. All is quiet and still, and that very stillness recalls some sad and painful thoughts…. Will another Christmas roll around and find us all wintering in in camp? Oh! That peace may be restored to our young, but dearly beloved country and that we may all meet again in happiness.

I have often read of sacked and pillaged towns in ancient history, but never, till I saw Fredericksburg, did I fully realize what one was. The houses, especially those on the river, are riddled with shell and ball. The stores have been broken open and deprived of every thing that was worth a shilling…. Such a wreck and ruin I never wish to see again…. Yet notwithstanding all this, the few citizens who are now in town seem to be cheerful and perfectly resigned. Such true patriots are seldom found. This will ever be a noted place in history.

Tally Simpson was killed at the battle of Chickamauga in 1863; his descendent Edward W. Simpson Jr. found his letters along with those of his brother, Dick, in an old chest and transcribed them. They're published in a book aptly titled "Far, Far From Home," edited by Guy R. Everson and Edward W. Simpson Jr. (Oxford University Press). How grateful we are for the record of their thoughts--and for the sacrifice of all soldiers who have spent their Christmases far, far, from home.

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

This editorial, along with the Thomas Nast illustration, appeared in my local paper. I wanted to share it with the SST committee. Merry Christmas to all and may this season's spirit of peace inspire us all to be better men and women.

TTG

http://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/2011/12/christmas-in-fredericksburg-1862.html#comments

Quo Vadis? The Future for Israel and the Palestinians By: Robert K. Lifton

After more than a year of stalled negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, it is clear that for the foreseeable future there will be no deal resolving their differences and establishing a Palestinian state. It is fruitless to blame one side or the other. In my article in the Huffington Post titled “The Very Hard Decisions Required For Peacemaking Between Israel And The Palestinians” I pointed out why the leaders of both sides face obstacles to deal making that make it very difficult for each of them even if they so desired. Simply put, for the Palestinians it is giving up the right of millions of Diaspora Palestinians to return to their former homes in Israel. For Israel, it is the ability to remove thousands of settlers from their homes in areas that would be included in the Palestinian state in a two state solution. But it goes beyond the fact that these obstacles operate to frustrate the desires of the parties. In truth, neither leader seems to desire a deal enough to make any meaningful compromise. The government of Israel, led by Mr. Netanyahu and his coalition, has shown no willingness to compromise in order to make a deal and continues to expand settlements despite international pressure to stop. And the Fatah government of Mr. Abbas, by embracing Hamas, has given Israel a legitimate reason to argue that it can’t countenance any deal with an entity committed to its destruction. 

It seems appropriate, then, to speculate on what the future holds for the parties under these circumstances of a stalemate. Here are some of the scenarios that one can project. 

Iraqi Demographics

Adam L. Silverman, PhD*

In the comments thread of COL Lang's recent post on Maliki's most recent activities vis a vis the US, WP asked about Iraqi demographics.  I was involved in several attempts during OIF 2008 to develop census protocals, specifically for Mada'in Qada, which, along with part of Wassit Province, was my BCT's OE (OE Striker).  What I developed borrowed from the last census Saddam's government had carried out (for familiarity) and from the UN's Food Security Survey of Iraq (they had THE BEST demographic questions).  We were never able to execute on the tasker, however, because of orders from higher (Division and Theater Command) that always took precedence.  One of the reasons my BCT's leadership was interesting in conducting a census was in support of the local qada (an agricultural district in Baghdad Province, but outside of municipal/greater Baghdad) government as under the CPA Mada'in had been put into Diyala Province (which is geographically where it belongs as part of the Diyala Watershed, but it has historically, in the modern period, been politically part of Baghdad Province).  As a result of having its political connections mucked about with, it was important to get an accurate accounting of population size so that the new qada leadership could back up their requests for funding.  Attached is the pdf of the UN's most recent Food Security Survey for Iraq and when I get the chance over the next day or so, I'll try to dig out where I've got the best estimations of the sectarian breakdown.

Download Wfp192521

UPDATE:

I came across this, which is consistent with most of the stuff I have seen over the past several years in estimating the sectarian breakdown in Iraq.  As COL Lang noted, they have not done an official count by sect in a long time (1957) even though the last official census was in 1987.  Basically none of the groups wants to change the official numbers by getting actual up to date official numbers.  

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

Allen, another deluded general

"Allen, the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, says the White House hasn't given him any timetable for further cuts after September 2012. That's when the last of the 30,000 "surge" troops Obama dispatched will be gone, leaving about 68,000 U.S. soldiers.

"No one has conveyed to me that at the end of September I'm going to get a number" for more withdrawals through 2013, Allen said in an interview here Tuesday. He said the president's policy, as he understands it, is for a "strategy-based drawdown" that's driven by the situation on the ground, rather than a preordained timeline.

Yes, but that's precisely what the debate is about.

According to Pentagon officials, Allen favors keeping most of the 68,000 in place until late 2013, so that the U.S. has two "fighting seasons" to bolster Afghan troops before giving them full responsibility in 2014. But Vice President Joe Biden and some other administration officials want a commitment to steady, sustained withdrawals through next year's election campaign. Allen told me that "there could be a quicker drawdown" if military conditions allow but that there is no "glide path." Some in the White House would disagree."  Ignatius

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

Somehow the present generation of general officers think they are in charge of geopolitics and national policy.  The Iraq "crowd" were sure rhey could dictate the terms of US eventual withdrawal from that "country."  Even now there is a three-star left behind in Baghdad as leader of "the three hundred" who seems to think that he can do what he likes without approval of the Iraqis.  Good luck to him. 

In Afghanistan, General Allen, USMC does not seem to comprehend that he does not have a free hand.  The American people are fed up with these two wars.  Allen is reputed to be a smart man.  He should remember that marines work for the American people like everyone else in the armed forces.  In the end, the opinion of the citizenry determines foreign policy.  Bush fils agreed to the terms of our withdrawal from Iraq because the Americnn people had turned against the war.  If the next president is a Republican, that president will inevitably be forced to accept the desire of the American people for an end there.

I have favord a CT strategy for Afghanistan with continuation of SOF operations on a personnel base of 20,000 soldiers (more or less).  I think we are past that now.  I think that is no longer possible politically either in America or South Asia.  Time has moved on. 

IMO we will go to the "three hundred" option in Afghanistan.  Pursuit operations againt dangerous extremists must continue but such operations will not be based in Afghanistan for long.  pl

http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20111222/OPINION04/712229965

"Iraq's Maliki rebuffs Biden, signals move to Shiite rule" Miami Herald

"Rebuffing a plea by the Obama administration, Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki signaled Wednesday that he's ready to gradually drop his key partner party, the largely Sunni Iraqiya bloc, and move toward a government run by the country's Shiite majority at the expense of minority Sunnis and Kurds. At a news conference where he repeatedly emphasized his own powers under the Iraqi constitution and berated his coalition partners, Maliki seemed unconcerned if some Iraqiya members quit the broad coalition, and he spoke at length about the options available to him if they did. Maliki all but ignored Vice President Joe Biden's expression of U.S. support for an "inclusive partnership government," referring to the broad coalition between Maliki's State of Law bloc and Iraqiya, headed by veteran politician Ayad Allawi. "  Miami Herald

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

Wow!  Not even I thought Maliki would move this quickly.  IMO he aims to destroy his political opposition before effective reaction to this "putsch" takes shape.  The idea being to  create a police state before there can be real opposition.  This will either work or lead to civil war.  pl

http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/12/21/2556723/iraqs-maliki-rebuffs-biden-signals.html

What's Next for Iraq? - National Security Experts 21 Dec. 2011

What's Next for Iraq? - National Security Experts.

pl

National Security Experts, 20 December, 2011

What's Next for Iraq? - National Security Experts.

"How There Came to be a North Star" by Richard Sale

 by Richard T. Sale for Carol, Christmas Eve 1987

Download How There Came to be a North Star by Richard T Sale

 

 

"A dangerous myth?" NY Times

"Friedman, a frequent critic of Israeli settlement policies, asserted that U.S. congressional support for Netanyahu was "bought and paid for by the Israel lobby."

Rep. Steve Rothman (D-N.J.), a top congressional appropriator, joined a chorus of commentators in decrying Friedman's allegation. And Israel's ambassador to Washington, Michael Oren, said Friedman had "strengthened a dangerous myth."

"This allegation is profoundly disturbing," Oren told JTA. "The term 'Israel lobby' implies the existence of a Zionist cabal wielding inordinate economic and political power. Unintentionally, perhaps, Friedman has strengthened a dangerous myth.""  JTA

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

So, the former American, Michael Oren, describes the existence of the  influence of the constellation of  AIPAC subsidiaries as "a dangerous myth?"\

And this fellow Rothman is drawing a US government salary?

Ron Paul is looking good.

Friedman is looking good.  pl

http://www.jta.org/news/article/2011/12/19/3090815/dermer-nytimes-put-down-escalation-of-war-of-words

I screwed up on "Joe at Christmas."

I only posted half the story originally.  It is all there now.  pl

National Security Experts - 19 December 2011

What's Next for Iraq? - National Security Experts.

pl

Culinary post on TA

Favorite recipes of this rowdy crew.  pl

http://turcopolier.typepad.com/the_athenaeum/2011/12/a-virtual-feast.html

 

"Iraq political crisis erupts as last U.S. troops leave" Washpost

"Iraq’s political process was unraveling faster than had been anticipated Saturday, with Sunni politicians walking out of the nation’s parliament and threatening to resign from the government even before the last U.S. troops had left the country.

The crisis was triggered by reports that security forces loyal to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, are planning to arrest the country’s Sunni vice president, Tariq al-Hashimi, and charge him with terrorism.

Those reports have fueled fears among Sunni politicians that Maliki intends to further consolidate his grip on power by moving against his rivals now that U.S. troops have gone. In recent days, the homes of top Sunni politicians in the fortified Green Zone have been ringed by tanks and armored personnel carriers, and rumors are flying that arrest warrants will be issued for other Sunni leaders.

The mostly Sunni Iraqiya bloc said it had withdrawn from parliament to protest what it called Maliki’s increasingly dictatorial behavior. Sunni ministers in the coalition government will resign unless he gives them a greater say in running the government and, in particular, overseeing the country’s Shiite-dominated security forces, the bloc warned."  Washpost

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Here we go...    GZC questions the notion that Maliki is an enemy of the US.  I don't.  He is an enemy of the United States.  He is merely a clever enemy who  told the gullible what they wanted to hear.  Arab politicians are good at that, even better than American politicians.

He has us out of the way now and will act against those who are potential threats to consolidation of his and Shia Arab rule in Iraq.  Does this make him a stooge of Iran?  No, he was always an ally of Iran and one of several men competing for the Mullahs' favor.

I think that there is better than a 50% chance that Iraq will descend into greater and greater levels of inter-ethno-religous violence in the coming months.  While that occurs the MSM will strain its "guts" to the maximum in trying to avoid calling this "civil war."  pl

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/iraq-political-crisis-erupts-as-last-us-troops-leave/2011/12/17/gIQA3aor0O_story.html?hpid=z3

Chanukah in Baghdad

Adam L. Silverman, PhD*

COL Lang asked me to find a suitable Chanuka story to post here at SST to complement the Christmas stories that he and his sister post for us for the holidays.  When I came across the one below, I was pretty sure I find the right one for the SST community.  It originally appeared in the Miami Herald (but no link as I couldn't find it online) and is about a US Army JAG, the descendant of Iraqi Jews, celebrating Chanukah in the Palace in Baghdad in December 2003.  That unlikely turn of events is enough to invoke the Chanukah invocation nais gadol - a great miracle.  And that is what is at the heart of Chanuka, a minor, non-biblical holiday built around a small scale violent insurrection to retake the Jewish Temple and resanctify it: a great miracle, because the events the holiday commemorates should not have been able to happen.  So a Happy Chanukah, a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and a Happy and Healthy New Year to all of the SST community.  And to MAJ Carr, whose piece I found at Aish.com, where they reprinted it (and hopefully he won't mind that we're putting it up here for the SST community as it really should be seen outside of just Jewish American website readers), a Happy Chanukah to you and your family as well.

Elan S. Carr's Chanukah in Baghdad

(image of then 1LT Carr lighting a Chanikiyah (Chanukah Menorah) in the Palace)

An American Jewish soldier of Iraqi descent lights the Menorah in Saddam Hussein's palace.

Banu hoshekh legharesh -- "We have come to banish darkness." Thus begins a famous Chanukah song, and no phrase better encapsulates the holiday's deeper meanings. This year, as a United States soldier serving in Iraq, I and several of my colleagues lit a Chanukah lamp and uttered those words in a place that had never before heard them: the former presidential palace of Saddam Hussein, in the capital city of a new and free Iraq.

One is hard-pressed to imagine a holiday whose themes are more resonant with the events unfolding here: A spectacular military victory, the defeat of a despot, the re-sanctification of what had been desecrated. Truly, the banishment of darkness.

Chanukah commemorates the rededication of Jerusalem's Temple in 165 BCE. Israel was then ruled by Syria's Hellenist king, Antiochus IV, a brutal megalomaniac who gave himself the title Epiphanes -- "god manifested." In a campaign of merciless persecution, he murdered members of the priesthood, outlawed Jewish rituals, and desecrated the Holy Temple.

The priestly Maccabee family led a daring revolt and defeated the Hellenist armies. After recapturing the Temple, Jewish partisans rededicated the place by kindling its sacred Menorah. To this day, Jews celebrate the relighting of that ancient Menorah, to remember the victorious freedom fighters whose courage stemmed from an abiding faith that God will cause good to triumph over evil, and light to banish even the darkest of hours.

For too many years, the people of Iraq have suffered horrors that defy imagination. Like Antiochus, Saddam thought himself to be like a god, or at least like those demigods of Mesopotamian history, Nebuchadnezzar and Hammurabi, with whom his boundless vanity inclined him regularly to equate himself. "Epiphanes" indeed -- Saddam dispensed licentious pleasure and horrible pain, life and death, with the nonchalance of one who thought himself above humanity itself.

Who Are the Arabs? by Richard Sale

By Richard Sale, author of Clinton’s Secret Wars 

I probably should have dealt with this question first.

Who or what are the Arabs?

Adherence to Islam is the criterion for any attempt at a definition.  There were many Christian and other minority sects in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine or Egypt. Millions of Muslims live in lands as remote as Indonesia or the Philippines or, nearer by in Turkey and Iran. Muslim countries used to fall themselves Arab.  Not the Egyptians. They saw themselves as Africans, the descendants of the Pharoah and, in their eyes, different from and superior to the Arabs of the desert.

But according to Middle East experts I’ve talked to, Arabs appear to be descended, without inter-marriage, from the people who lived in the Arabian Peninsula, the Bedouins who moved to place and now reside in what are called Arab countries. They were Semites. But there were also other Semites who had also been Bedouins called Hebrews, the descendants of Shem, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob.  Did these groups of Semites have a right to nationhood because of the commonality of religion or origin or culture? Rabbi Khedouri had cautioned his people that the Sephardic Jews of the Middle East and Africa have nothing more than religion in common with the Ashkenazi Jews of Europe and the rest of the Diaspora where language and culture differ vastly from their coreligionists who had been born in South Asia.

In any case, it seems to be that Israel has to be judged as a sovereign state and not on grounds of religion.

But the common ancestry of the Arab and the Jews underlines the moral that no quarrel is more bitter than a family quarrel.

But I know very little about these things. I have the Rabbis book somewhere, but Pat should take care to modify my stupidities.

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IMO the "Arabs" of the countries conquered by the early Muslims are "Arab" by language and preference.  Many of the inhabitants are genetically the descendants of all the diferent peoples who have lived in these places.  pl

An Invented People? by Richard Sale

Year	Jews	Christians	Muslims	Total1
First half 1st century CE	Majority	-	-	~2,500²
5th century	Minority	Majority	-	>1st century
End 12th century	Minority	Minority	Majority	>225
14th cent. before Black Death	Minority	Minority	Majority	225
14th cent. after Black Death	Minority	Minority	Majority	150
1533–1539	5	6	145	157
1690–1691	2	11	219	232
1800	7	22	246	275
1890	43	57	432	532
1914	94	70	525	689
1922	84	71	589	752
1931	175	89	760	1,033
1947	630	143	1,181	1,970      pl from wiki cited below

^1. Figures in thousands.

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By Richard Sale, author of Clinton’s Secret Wars 

My son once asked me about a remark by a comedian who asserted that the Palestinians were never a people, and I replied to him, “That’s an AIPAC argument. I used to see it in the writings of reflexive American far-right Israeli supporters except even the hard right in Israel (some of whom I talk to) no longer disputes that the Palestinians are and were a people. Were they a people united by language, race and a common culture like the Jews? No said AIPAC. But for seven hundred years the Arabs or Palestinians made up the majority of the population of what was called Palestine before Israel became a state in 1947 -- (that’s when the U.N. vote was taken at the U.N. in Flushing Meadow New York to partition Palestine between Arabs and Jews.) 

 The Palestinians were a village people who lived in settlements ranging from a few dozen people to a thousand. They placed their villages near springs and sited them on ground that had defensive features so that they could be safe from the marauding raids of the Bedouin tribes who were always wandering in off the desert and helping themselves to what belonged to other people. There was always a low-level of warfare between the Palestinian villagers and the Bedouin tribes. 

A Confession from Brooks

"But we have this -- we're left with this thing. We basically had centuries of stasis and stability and stagnation in the Middle East, which produced terrorism, but also produced the crushing of human capital for century after century -- 9/11 happens, the Taliban is thrown out, Saddam is deposed, people are voting with purple fingers.

And now we have a moment of turmoil. We don't know this turmoil -- it could be worse, it could be better. But it's a moment of turmoil. I think the Iraq war and the deposition of Saddam Hussein was part of the things that encouraged, instigated the turmoil. It's very messy, very complicated.

But, in 100 years or in 50 years, we will look back and see where the turmoil went and maybe we will have a better sense of how the Iraqi elections, getting rid of Saddam, getting rid of the Taliban helped lead to maybe getting rid of Mubarak, Gadhafi and all the rest."  Brooks

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

"I mean, let's be very blunt about it. Al-Qaida was responsible for 9/11. Iraq had nothing to do with it. Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction and no ability or capacity to deliver those weapons that were nonexistent.

JIM LEHRER: And you don't dispute that, David?

DAVID BROOKS: No. Well, we obviously thought what we thought back then.

But I always thought that the need to disrupt the Middle East was one of the reasons why it was necessary.

MARK SHIELDS: Unstated.

JIM LEHRER: Unstated.

And goodbye.

(LAUGHTER)"

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Laughter?  Really?  I have respected Shields and Lehrer, but that's it for me.  Only a cretin would find this funny even ironically.  Brooks is the kinder, gentler neocon on the national scene, but he is still a neocon.  His comment about the "need" above has always lain at the heart of the neocon desire to invade Iraq and reduce it to the "year zero." It never had anything to do with oil and it still has nothing to do with oil.

I hope this guy from the 3rd ID thinks this is funny.

The sadly amusing thing about the neocon present happiness at revolution across the region is that none of it has benefited Israel.  pl 

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/politics/july-dec11/shieldsbrooks_12-16.html

Iraq Analysis by Gareth Porter

"The real story behind the U.S. withdrawal is how a clever strategy of deception and diplomacy adopted by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in cooperation with Iran outmanoeuvered Bush and the U.S. military leadership and got the United States to sign the U.S.-Iraq withdrawal agreement."  Porter

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

I agree with all of this except the role that Porter ascribes to the "US Military Leadership."  The mistake there is a common one.  In fact, the US military seeks to implement the elected government's policy.  It does not originate  policy initiatives that amount to national grand strategy.  pl

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=106244

 

 

 

 

Now Iraq awaits the Mahdi

"Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki has overseen a consolidation of military force, but the core of his government is remarkably unrepresentative: it is made up of mostly pro-Iranian Shiite Islamists. The secular Iraqiya Party, which won a plurality of votes in the March 2010 parliamentary elections, has been marginalized within the cabinet and was not represented when Mr. Maliki visited Washington on Monday.

This Shiite Islamist government bodes ill for the country’s future. And unfortunately, it is a direct product of America’s misguided thinking about Iraq since the 2003 invasion — an approach that stressed proportional sectarian representation rather than national unity and moderate Islamism."  NY Times

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This Norwegian scholar has it right.  Before 2003 Iraq was basically a federation of Arabs and Kurds.  After the neocons got through with the country it was defined by Shia/Sunni/Kurdish categories.

It is significant that neither Maliki nor Talabani chose to attend the US headquarters closing although they were invited and reserved chairs were waiting for them.  pl

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/16/opinion/an-unstable-divided-land.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&src=rechp&adxnnlx=1324040403-Q1ASL+Ia4qhi3WqPLlX20A

Medal of Honor

"A senior Marine official told McClatchy that after that decision, the Marines were determined that one of their own would earn a Medal of Honor by the time Commandant James T. Conway retired in 2010. The official described Peralta’s case as a learning experience that the Marines didn’t want repeated.

The frustration may have prompted Conway’s successor, Gen. James F. Amos, to breach Pentagon guidelines against “premature disclosure” of information about Medal of Honor nominations. During a visit to Camp Pendleton, Calif., on Nov. 6, 2010, Amos announced that Conway had approved a living Marine for the decoration. While he withheld the name, the Marine Corps Times identified the Marine as Meyer two days later."  Landay

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

A sad thing but not unprecedented in any of the armed services.  pl

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/marines-promoted-inflated-story-for-medal-of-honor-winner/2011/12/14/gIQAlhYwuO_story.html?hpid=z2

 

"Duty Faithfully Performed"

“In many ways I think we can all take some satisfaction — regardless of whether you are for or against how we got into Iraq, the fact is we can take some satisfaction in the fact that we are now heading them in the right direction,” Panetta told an audience of U.S. diplomats Wednesday at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul.

In the end, Panetta described the purpose of the war as an attempt to turn Iraq into a stable, self-governing democracy after decades of dictatorship under Saddam Hussein. During his trip to Afghanistan, he did not name Hussein directly and made no mention of the failed search for weapons of mass destruction, which the Bush administration had cited as justification for the 2003 invasion."  Washpost

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"I need not tell the brave survivors of so many hard-fought battles, who have remained steadfast to the last, that I have consented to the result from no distrust of them. But, feeling that valor and devotion could accomplish nothing that could compensate for the loss that must have attended the continuance of the contest, I determined to avoid the useless sacrifice of those whose past services have endeared them to their countrymen." 

"You will take with you the satisfaction that proceeds from the consciousness of duty faithfully performed; and I earnestly pray that a merciful God will extend to you his blessing and protection."   Lee

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It seems apt.  pl

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/iraq-war-draws-to-quiet-close/2011/12/14/gIQAPEjLvO_story_1.html

The National Guard chief is in the JCS

"The conferees agreed to make the head of the National Guard Bureau a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, despite opposition from the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Gen. Martin Dempsey. The provision specifies that the leader of the Guard is there with “the specific responsibility of addressing matters involving non-Federalized National Guard forces in support of homeland defense and civil support missions.”"  Pincus

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

Walter Pincus is always well informed and informative.  There are many things in this article on negotiated reductions in budget that are of interest.  The one that most engages me is the inclusion of the Chief of the National Guard Bureau in the Joint Chiefs of Staff.  I can see why Dempsey opposed this. 

The Army National Guard is by far the oldest part of the US armed forces.  The 182d Infantry Regiment of the Massachusetts National guard was founded in the Massachusetts Bay colony in 1636 as the "North Regiment of Militia".  They fought in King Philip's War in that century and have been in every war since.  The oldest unit in the Regular Army dates from the War of Independence.  The Guard is in a real sense the "senior service."

The Regular Army has been trying to reduce the National Guard to the status of a reserve component since the 1880s.  This started when Emory Upton, a Regular officer, tried to sell  the Congress the notion of an expansible army on the German model of that time.  He failed.  Faute de Mieux, the little Regular Army decided to try to reduce the states' militia to a reserve for itself.   The effort was "sweetened" by the offer  of equipment, money for training and federal recognition of a rank for militia officers.  The title of "National Guard of the United States" was a further enducement for militia units included in the federal assistance program.  The states took some of these enducements, but not all.  The states retained peacetime primacy of ownership over these units as well as whatever other militia they wished to have.  National Guard officers have separate ranks as Militia and National Guardsmen.   National Guardsmen cannot be called into federal service for more than a fixed amount of time and are available for state employment as individuals and units whenever they are not in federal service (most of the time).

Best of all from the states' point of view,  it was possible to politically force the armed forces to accept the creation of the National Guard Bureau in the Pentagon.  This bureau is manned by National Guard people and is the focus for institutional arrangements concerning the Guard and its sometimes tense relationship to the Regular Army and Air Force.

Now the head of this bureau is a member of the JCS.  Questions of organization, legislation, decisions for federal mobilization, etc. will be substanially affected by this new fact.  pl

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/house-and-senate-agree-on-pentagon-cuts/2011/12/13/gIQAZLjksO_story.html?sub=AR

“Iran’s First Great Satan was England.” - Richard Sale

From Richard Sale, 

Stephen Kinzer did an article for the New York Times a week ago entitled, “Iran’s First Great Satan was England.”

Most of Kinzer’s article dealt with Iran’s battle over the Anglo-Iranian Oil Concession (AIOC), and used dialogue from exchanges between President Truman’s special envoy to Iran. W. Averill Harriman and the then Prime Minster Mohammad Mossadegh. Kinzer doesn’t ever identify the source of these lively  exchanges, but they cone the memoirs of CIA asset Vernon Walters, Silent Missions.

I wanted to expand a bit on Kinzer. There were a couple of critical events that would prove to be the source of deadly enmity between Iran and England and the first of these, to my mind, was the Anglo-Russian invasion of Iran in August of 1941. This occurred at 4:34 am on the 24th and without any ultimatum or any declaration of war. Then Iranian ruler., Reza Shah, sent President Franklin Roosevelt a telegram that concluded, “I can no longer see for what reason these acts aggression and for bombing without reason our cities.”

(I later journeyed to London to talk to Reza Shah’s son in law, Gen Jam, who had written the telegram because Reza Shah’s English was extremely poor. Jam also had priceless anecdotes about Reza Shah’s exile in Mauritius.)

Sharia Law is Not Closer to America than it Appears... Part VII: TV Boycott Edition

Adam L. Silverman, PhD*

The Learning Channel (TLC) has a new reality show All American Muslim, that is going to follow members of several Muslim American families.  The show has been vaulted into controversy because Lowes Home Improvement has decided to participate in an advertising boycott organized by the Florida Family Association.  The FFA, led by David Caton a man who likes to carry a briefcase full of pornography around with him, has a history of engaging in controversial protests throughout FL, specifically the Tampa Bay area (I was born and raised in Tampa and have been watching the media coverage of this guy since I was in high school.  I can't find a link to any reporting on it, but I seem to recall him being stopped for a traffic offense and the cops found his trunk full of adult videos.  I may, however, be confusing this with a traffic stop that led to the prosecution of one of the local prosecutors.  Basically Hillsborough County/Tampa, FL seems to be ground zero for some really weird stuff!).  In the past couple of years he's caused a stir in regards to the accidental death of a local Muslim woman, as well as boycotting light rail plans as immoral (please remember this is Central Florida where former Congressman Feeney once referred to taxes as Satanic, so there's local precedent).

While many of the usual sources have waded in in support of the boycott, Lowes, and the right to be anti-Muslim (warning these links will take you to Geller and Spencer's websites, so click at your own risk). Some of the opposition is based on the fact that TLC isn't going to show any extremist families, just normal ones.  Because when I'm planning to take over the country, I just love having the reality TV crew filming me - wait, wasn't this what the Palin reality show was about?).  Of course Ms. Geller also quickly concluded that the attacker in Liege today was also a jihadi terrorist, not because he's actually a terrorist (apparently he's a career drug dealer), but because he has an Arabic sounding name...To their credit the Anti-Defamation League came out and condemned both the boycott and Lowes.

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

Another example of "Stolen Valor."

"... as part of the investigation, inconsistencies arose. Paperwork, which sheriff's investigators acquired from Marine Corps headquarters, show that he served only six months in 1988. He was discharged as a private first class. His tales were tall. He never lost friends in battle, as he claimed; he was never diagnosed with Gulf War syndrome; he never was a sergeant."  USATODAY

"Lt. Col. Michael Powell, deputy director of the Marine Corps' Assistance & Investigations Division, told FLORIDA TODAY in an email that he "cannot confirm or deny any other action on this case."In his interview with FLORIDA TODAY, Walls would not discuss whether lying during the past two decades was necessary to contribute to his community and would not delve further into his military record."There are certain things Marines don't want to discuss," he said when FLORIDA TODAY pressed for further explanation. "Some things are better left not talked about.""  USATODAY

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

This creep could just as easily have been impersonating a Soldier.  Over the decades I have exposed and embarassed many similar a-----s.  These guys love to claim they were in Army Special Forces.  I usually ask to discuss their training and selection to be a Green Beret.  If this elicits a desire to hide behind secrecy, "I'd have to kill you, etc.," then we proceed to talk about units and times and places.  My wife hates that when it happens in public.  I don't care.

The world is full of cowards and emotional cripples who want to pretend they are not.  pl

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2011-12-11/derek-walls-marine/51795044/1

"Sideways " a review by Alan Farrell

Sideways. Directed by Alexander Payne. Starring… ooopsy daisy… who? Well, Thomas Hayden Church is the dumb guy from Wings; the rest of them you’ve never heard of : Virginia Madsen, Sandra Oh, Paul Giamatti, and some reeeeeeeally unlucky big fat guy who gets paid scale to run down the street naked, screen debut not sure just where I’d wanna list on that ac-toor resume (“Wagged my wahwah at world—a closeup, too—in fleeting moments of Sideways”?).

One of those films (Woody Allen’s made some) that turn on how funny you think it is to be a loser and to what extent you entertain the delusion that self-abasement will take you to Oz.

This guy Payne did Schmidt, that critically-praised sleepwalk by Jack Nicholson, whose somnambulism routinely snags him Oscar ™ bids. This film is hauling in three and a half and four stars out there from the heavy hitters for a sleepwalk by two guys (on account of two times zero is…). Brilliant, they’re calling it. Satirical, they’re saying. Satire, it turns out, of the life us soulless washouts lead, sunken in boredom and failure, consigned to solitude; still dreaming of joy but daren’t risk lunging for it when by chance it breezes by (usually packed in a pair of tight jeans, be it noted): satura, oddly enough, is Latin for “I’m brilliant; you’re a soulless washout.” We stumble into a kind of Waiting for Pinot here, where two lemons embark on a soiled and silly odyssey (Greek for “It ain’t here” and what one guy has translated “Odd, I see…”) before the one of them shuts down his life (and hope, evidently) through a half-hearted marriage to a young woman clearly bent on unriddling him. Unlikely buddies since college, Miles (Giamatti, as a mousy little man, pudgy, balding, riddled with neuroses, haunted with doubts, from which the recent abandonment by his way-too-uptown wife does nothing to detract) and Jack (Church, who plays a fading hustler and used up pretty boy, down on his luck—and down on his talent—ac-toor, who’s fallen from bit parts in the real cinee-mah to soaps to advertisements to—evidently the last stop on this line—those “paid programming” spots you see at 0200 while surfing satellite, yet still a wiseapple and still charming enough to snag the odd waitress). And that’s his plan: accede to Miles’ bachelor scheme to visit the California wine country for a few days together before that long desert of marriage but contrive at the same time one last sexual adventure for himself (though we have the impression his grip on conventional morality is such that marriage ain’t long gonna deter his self-validation through nookie, as Freud—or one of them—used to call adultery) annnnnnd get Miles’ recalcitrant and unappetizing ashes hauled at the same time, magnanimous gesture toward the lesser of the species, namely a guy with no clue how to talk Tiffany out of a bar. So, with this premise, we’re off…

"About Schmitt" a review by Alan Farrell

About Schmidt. Directed by Alexander Payne. Starring Jack Nicholson, Dermot Mulroney, June Squibb, Kathy Bates, Howard Hessman, Hope Davis.

Films in which somebody showed us something we really didn’t want to see. Basic Instinct: Michael Douglas’ sagging butt; Space Cowboys: James Garner’s wattled butt; The Bad Lieutenant: Harvey Keitel’s flaccid wahwah; Roger Rabbit: Bo Hoskins’ hairy back; Working Girl: Melanie Griffith’s gelatinous belly oozing over black undies; Heat: that thingie on Val Kilmer’s arm, whatever it was.

Now, I’m a vulgar man, as may be evident enough from these brief and overwritten reviews. A vulgar man. Yet even I wasn’t prepared for the sight of Kathy Bates (50 years old, 5’5”, 250 lbs) stark necked and worse yet: wet. I invite you to a moment of quiet reflection upon it. Done? All right then, if you’re not prepared to see on the screen for real that to which your imagination just treated you in fantasy, stay away from Schmidt. God grant us all to know when it’s time to stop wearing those tight jeans and midriff-revealing tops (hint: when you’ve got more midriff than top), when it’s time to sun-bathe in privacy on the back porch and not at the beach, when it’s time to shed that pony-tail (man or woman), when it’s time to hit that hot-tub alone, annnnnnnnd… just what even a jaded conception of art authorizes. Woof! I thought my heart was gonna stop. Usher had to administer a gummi bear I.V. before my vision cleared and I could breathe again. Fair warning!

"The Descendants" a review by Alan Farrell

The Descendants (or The Descendents… or The Descandonts… spell it as you like. It’s the New Way, World Without End.) Directed by Alexander Payne (Who? Guy who did About Schmidt—awful, see accompanying review—and Sideways—palatable if cloying over a whisper of oakum, see accompanying review). Turns out he also wrote it… as he did I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, the title of which should tell you all you need to know). Starring: George Clooney; Shailene (no, I dunno what kind of name that is) Woodley; Amara (no, I dunno what kind of name that is) Miller; and—unbelievably—Beau Bridges (Woof! Somebody left the phonebook out in the rain… time for a haircut and that Stairmaster ™ ).

Egypt on the path to righteousness.

"After the Wafd man left in disgust, my coffee shop worker turned to me and said with a smile: “Yes, I voted for the Brotherhood this time. But, they have four years to fulfil their promises. If they don't come through, we will dump them.""  Ahram

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And how will you do that?   pl

http://english.ahram.org.eg/~/NewsContent/33/100/28513/Elections-/News/Alexandria-votes-for-its-Islamist-sons,-with-dange.aspx

Gingrich follow up.

Basilisk et al

My sub-conscious has worked this through over night and decided that unless something unforeseen takes place Gingrich is the probably nominee. I know. I know. His timing is impeccable and he can rely on his conversion to clear the books for him with many. Iowa has a lot of Catholics among all those other white Chtistians. In the Catholic sense he has been born again in Jesus and washed in the blood of thr Lamb. What he was before is meaningless in that narrative. You could see it last night. "I have sought 'reconciliation.'" His two first marriages don't count. Sorry Prods. If he and Callista had been married before his conversion and outside the Church they would have been married again sacramentally after his confirmation in the Church. (equivalent of evangelical confirming faith in Jesus). He is in the clear on just about everything before his new life on th same basis. He is extremely cynical and went right up to NYC to kiss Trump's a-s although he must despise the man. He is a lot like my protagonist, Claude, a lot. I would describe him as a driven uxorious intellectual with little scruple about anything, Callista is important in this. Gingrich has a record of skirt catching and there may be others around but they can be excused on the basis of that being the "handiwork" of a different, pre-Catholic man. I'll bet she takes good care of him. We don't want any new bimbos to emerge, do we? VP? I think someone like Huntsman is looking good for the general election. p l

ps  If the Israelis believe anything he says, they will deserve what they get aferward.

Iran is an existential threat to the US - Gingrich

Gingrich had the line of the night at the Iowa debate when he said that Iran was such a threat that he used the phrase "if we survive" in connection to the Iranian threat.,  This was on a par with the willingness of Santorum, Romney, Bachmann and Perry to stand up and be counted as 5th columnists who would surrender American policy in the ME to Israel.  Watch the video.  pl

What is this? 10 December, 2011

 
We have not done this for a while.  The time of year is nearly appropriate.  pl

 

The Wogs Still Start at Calais.

The newspapers are full of the story today.  The UK has rejected the new EU financial treaty.  At the same time the British seem to think they will be allowed to remain in the political and economic entity called the European Union.  Not surprisingly the major European powers are enraged and disdainful.  Sarkosy refused to shake Cameron's hand at the end of the day.  Isn't that enough of a message?

When the UK did not adopt the Euro as its currency,  I thought the writing was on the wall for the long term viability of the UK relationship with the EU.  IMO the basic problem is that the English do not identify with continental Europeans ( or anyone else really).  There are so many English who think themselves a race apart and a superior breed that they ought actually to be Israelis.

In both World Wars the UK's forces occupied the left of the line in France.  This was closest to the Channel.  the French wll tell you that in both 1914-1918 and  1940 the English were focussed on the Channel ports if things went wrong.  Unkind?  Undoubtedly and probably unfair.  Contrary to what a lot of you ignorantly believe the French have the right to an opinion in this matter.   If you think the French did not fight well in WW1 go look at the statistics.

I will be surprised and pleased if the UK does not eventually leave the EU or be expelled.  pl

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2102019,00.html?xid=gonewsedit&google_editors_picks=true

 

"What Israel's War Against Iran Would Look Like" Sale

"According to several respected US analysts on the Middle East, such as Vince Cannistraro, former CIA head of counterterrorism, and Judith Yaphe of National Defense University, the message emanating from Israel and its right-wing US supporters is that the road to Jerusalem and an Arab-Israeli peace leads through Iran. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu contends that since Iran's support of Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon means permanent hostility to Israel's existence, the only way to achieve an Israeli-Palestinian agreement is to use brute force to prevent Iran acquiring a nuclear capability. Israel's right wing incessantly depicts a nuclear Iran as the seat of the world's evil, and calls during the last few weeks for a joint US-Israel strike against Iran have reached a crescendo of frantic anxiety."  Sale

http://www.truth-out.org/what-israels-war-against-iran-would-look/1323374542

"A dark wind is blowing through the country" Tsipi Livni

The author of this article is JP Benjamin

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The chronology could not really be clearer. In the immediate aftermath of the Knesset passage of the bill restricting funding for human rights organizations within Israel, followed by Secretary of State Clinton's criticism that was extended to condemnation of the treatment of women in Israel, and the unprecedented official protest against the Israeli policy lodged by the US ambassador, there has been a strong and harsh backlash, obviously whipped up, assailing organizations and people in the US that have been critical of the Occupation, the Netanyahu government's destruction of the peace process, and the right-wing within Israel. From the Ben Smith article in Politico on December 8 on the Center for American Progress and Media Matters for publishing critical material of current Israeli policy and its ideologues ("vitriol"), to Jennifer Rubin (who has openly called for the mass murder of Palestinians and has been protected by Washington Post editors and its publisher), to Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic (a former Israeli prison guard who has proclaimed himself the oracle on all matters pertaining to Israel and that criticism of him is ipso facto rejection of the Jewish State and ipso facto objectively anti-Semitic, encompassing perhaps his service in the Bush administration choir on links of Al Qaeda to Saddam Hussein, etc.), et al (the usual suspects), there is a broad and systematic effort to limit discussion and debate about Israel and the Middle East that reflects the campaign inside Israel, including on the following subjects: the collapsed peace process and who is responsible; the complexities of the Arab Spring; the diplomatic rather than ultimate military path towards Iran; the emergence of Turkey and its chastising of Israeli policy on Gaza, especially after the killings on the Mavi Marmara; the influence of Likud through AIPAC and other organizations on the US political process, the US media and the US Congress; the rise of the new right around Islamophobia; the influence and role of Israel on US detainee policy and the militarization of domestic policing policy; the assault on Secretary of State Clinton for her remarks on the threats to democracy within Israel, as well as the nearly complete silence in the US from the Democratic Party, liberal intellectuals and pundits, defending her and the administration, as well as freedom for human rights groups within Israel; and the effort to discredit anyone operating outside the limits set by those that insist on the narrow spectrum of discussion, far different from within Israel itself.

Please read the articles below:

National Journal Blog 7 December

What's Next for the Senate's Detainee Provisions? - National Security Experts.

Hiroshima in Iran?

That's a Catholic Church in the foreground.  FYI Nagasaki had an even larger percentage  of Christians in the population.  I generally don't sympathise with the Japanese for what happened to them in WW2.  The behavior of their army in China and the Phillipines often made the Waffen SS look like altar boys.  Anyone who thinks American soldiers were like the "banzai" crowd should compare our occupation of Japan with the Japanese army's butchery of Chinese civilians at Nanking in 1937.

Nevertheless, this was a terrible thing to do and reflective of a dread of the costs that would have accompanied invasion of Japan.  Okinawa was a warning of what that would have been like.

Gingrich was interviewed by Blitzer today and in the course of the interview he said that if the Israelis told him as president that they were going to attack Iran with conventional arms he would give them all necessary support "to keep them from going nuclear."

Well!  He is the first big time friend of Israel to raise that prospect.  Think about it.  pl