Sic Semper Tyrannis

"What Has To Be Said" Gunter Grass

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Günter Grass warns in the Süddeutsche Zeitung of a war against Iran. In his poem with the title „What has to be said“ the Nobel laureate in literature demands, that Israel shouldn't get the German submarines which have the capability to launch nuclear weapons.  LeAnder

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"What has to be said

Why am I silent, silent for too long,
what is obvious and was practiced in
simulation games, at the end as survivors
we at most will be footnotes.

It is the asserted right for a preemptive strike
that could extinguish the Iranian people
steered to organized jubilation, enslaved
by a braggart, since in its realm of power
the creation of an atomic bomb is suspected.

But why do I deny myself
to name the other country by its name,
a country in which many years by now –although kept silent –
a growing nuclear potential is available,
but beyond control, since not accessible for inspection?

The general concealment of this fact,
to which my silence is subordinating itself,
feels to me like a burdening lie
and coercion, holding out punishment
as soon as it is ignored;
the verdict „antisemitism“ is well known.

But now, since from my land
that over and over again is caught up and confronted
with its very own crimes
that are without comparison,
but in turn businesslike, although with swift lip
declared as reparation
will soon deliver another submarine to Israel,
whose specialty consists in its ability to steer
all annihilating warheads to where the existence
of not one single atom bomb is even proven,
but as fearful apprehension wants to be evidence,
I say, what has to be said.

But why was I silent for so long?
Since I thought, my provenance
that is tainted with a stain that can never be erased
forbids to turn this fact into articulated truth,
since I cannot expect the country Israel, I feel tied to
and want to remain so, to put up with it.

Why do I only say it now,
aged and with my last ink.
Does the nuclear power of Israel
endanger the already delicate world peace?
Since what already tomorrow could be too late,
has to be said today;
but also since we –as Germans burdened enough-could
turn into suppliers for a new crime
that is foreseeable, why our partial guilt
couldn't be blotted out by any of
the usual excuses.

And I have to admit, I am silent no more,
because I am tired of the hypocrisy of the West,
as it is to be hoped many will unshackle themselves from silence,
call on the causal agent of this discernible danger
to abandon the use of force,
likewise demanding an unhindered and permanent control
of Israel's atomic potential
and the Iranian nuclear plants
by an international authority
admitted by both countries.

Only in this way Israelis and Palestinians,
more so, all people that live in this
region occupied by delusion,
close to each other and at enmity,
and finally also all of us can be helped."  Gunter Grass 

I understand that Bibi is not happy with this.  He moans of "ultimate anti-Semitism" and speaks of Grass's WW2 service in the Waffen SS.  pl

http://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/2006/08/gunter_grass_and.html.

 

 

A Disappointing Assessment of U.S. Investment in Iraq by Dr. Christopher Bolan



Several recent events can only reinforce the assessment that after a decade of tremendous expenditures of American blood and treasure, the U.S. strategy of military invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq was ill-conceived from the start, poorly executed throughout, and ultimately has failed to advance U.S. national interests in any meaningful way.  Let's briefly review the anticipated achievements, the key developments in U.S. strategy, and the outcomes as they are manifested today.

 

Unintended Consequences

"A growing number of Afghan children are being coerced into a life of sexual abuse. The practice of wealthy or prominent Afghans exploiting underage boys as sexual partners who are often dressed up as women to dance at gatherings is on the rise in post-Taliban Afghanistan, according to Afghan human rights researchers, Western officials and men who participate in the abuse.

“Like it or not, there was better rule of law under the Taliban,” said Dee Brillenburg Wurth, a child-protection expert at the U.N. mission in Afghanistan, who has sought to persuade the government to address the problem. “They saw it as a sin, and they stopped a lot of it.”

Over the past decade, the phenomenon has flourished in Pashtun areas in the south, in several northern provinces and even in the capital, according to Afghans who engage in the practice or have studied it. Although issues such as women’s rights and moral crimes have attracted a flood of donor aid and activism in recent years, bacha bazi remains poorly understood."  Washpost

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It would be uninformed and naive to think that this practise has not been common in Afghanistan in the past. 

Nevertheless, the comment in the article,  “They saw it as a sin, and they stopped a lot of it.” should be taken seriously.  Yes, the Taliban are medievalist obstacles to the well being of many, many Afghans but they were not all bad.  You may want to remember that they cooperated with the USG in opium crop suppression and many of my contacts tell me that they offered to hand over Bin Laden's crew before we inviaded Afghanistan.

We should always try to remember that interfering in some other people's culture inevitably has unintended consequences.  This is one of them.  pl

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/afganistans-dancing-boys-are-invisible-victims/2012/04/04/gIQAyreSwS_story.html?hpid=z1

Another Reason Why We Will Never Win in Afghanistan - Foresman

One aspect of counterinsurgency doctrine which is not often talked about is trust.

In the United States Army seminal doctrinal manual FM 3-24 Counterinsurgency (December 2006) in paragraph 5.84, establishing trust is the key to successful combined action.

Combined action unit members must develop and build positive relationships with their associated HN security forces and with the town leadership. By living among the people, combined action units serve an important purpose. They demonstrate the commitment and competence of counterinsurgents while sharing experiences and relationships with local people. These working relationships build trust and enhance the HN government’s legitimacy. To build trust further, U.S. members should ask HN security forces for training on local customs, key terrain, possible insurgent hideouts, and relevant cultural dynamics. HN forces should also be asked to describe recent local events.[1]

The whole notion of fighting “wars amongst the people”[2] requires that those conducting counterinsurgency operations establish trust with the people they seek to protect and whose hearts and minds they wish to win.  Trust that cannot be won overnight, which cannot be bequeathed to the individual or the unit that follows, trust which allows those we seek to protect to identify with us as humans.

The picture at the beginning, was taken from Army Knowledge On Line.  It shows a soldier, inside a building providing humanitarian assistance items to an Afghan woman.  Good you say that what we should be doing.  Look closely at the picture what do you see.  You see a man in full battle kit.  In fact in many respect he reminds me a Stormtrooper[3] from Star Wars (picture on the below).[4]

It is my observation that the United States military has become so fixated on force protection and uniformity of appearance they have lost sight that the appearance of a man or women interacting with indigenous locals in full battle rattle does not convey a message of trust.  We are more likely seen through the eyes of the locals at the Stormtrooper and not the benevolent benefactor that we picture ourselves as being.

This is not to say we should not be concerned about force protection, and given the number of shootings of Americans in recent months by members of the Afghanistan military and police, we must remain vigilant.  However in situations where we control the environment and how the locals interact with our forces it would seem that by putting a human face on our interaction it would go a little ways towards establishing trust.  Ditch the helmet, ditch the ballistic eye wear, ditch the ballistic armor vest, keep your weapon and kit close at hand, and present a human face.

Foresman

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[1] FM 3-34, Counterinsurgency, December 2006 available at http://armypubs.army.mil/doctrine/active_fm.html. 

[2] For a full discussion of what is meant by the term “wars amongst the people” see The Utility of Force: The Art of War in the Modern World by General Sir Rupert Smith KCB (Knight Commander of the Bath), DSO & Bar (Distinguish Service Order with bar equivalent to our Oak Leaf), OBE (Order of the British Empire), QGM (Queens Gallantry Medal). 

[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stormtrooper_(Star_Wars). 

[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars. 

 

Presidential Developments

"The US private sector added 209,000 new jobs in March, as the labour market recovery continues at a slightly faster clip than expected.

According to data reported by ADP, the payroll processor, job creation beat consensus forecasts of 208,000, while February’s reading was revised up to 230,000 from 216,000."  Anji Raval

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BHO is sending interesting signals.  He seemed to issue a veiled challenge to SCOTUS with regard to their probable destruction of large parts of his health care law.  This was not a direct challenge to judicial review but it indicated that he does think that they should leave his health law alone if they wish to be thought "moderate' and not "activist."

This is an interesting role reversal.  Usually, the GOP pushes the notion that the federal courts exceed their constitutional authorities.  Since John Marshall seized the power to review law for constitutionality from an inattentive President Jefferson, this is always an intriguing argument.

Progress in the economy is slowly whittling away at the Republicans' main argument for replacing Obama.  What will they be left with by November?  pl

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/680f7aaa-7e52-11e1-b20a-00144feab49a.html#axzz1r5OF4gHW

"New Estimate Raises Civil War Death Toll" Gugliotta - NY Times

"By combing through newly digitized census data from the 19th century, J. David Hacker, a demographic historian from Binghamton University in New York, has recalculated the death toll and increased it by more than 20 percent — to 750,000.

The new figure is already winning acceptance from scholars. Civil War History, the journal that published Dr. Hacker’s paper, called it “among the most consequential pieces ever to appear” in its pages. And a pre-eminent authority on the era, Eric Foner, a historian at Columbia University, said:

“It even further elevates the significance of the Civil War and makes a dramatic statement about how the war is a central moment in American history. It helps you understand, particularly in the South with a much smaller population, what a devastating experience this was.”"  NY Times

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I have always thought the old numbers were too low, particularly for the South.  In looking at the aftermath of the war in demographic terms in rural areas I have found that whole communities were devastated to the extent that they were virtually re-settled by sometimes distant Northern male relatives who came south and claimed the widows and the young girls for whom there was no prospect of husbands.   This was particularly true in rural Virginia where extended family often existed in places like Pennsylvania.

The observaion contained in the article that people from rural areas were actually more susceptible to camp disease rings true from personal experience.  Villagers and tribesmen are often nothing like as hardy as others imagine.  In fact their bodies are full of foreign organisms that are empowered by privation and exhaustion.

The North won because it could absorb the personnel losses that the much smaller Southern population could not.  IMO the Northern victory was produced by this and not by a shortage of materiel.  pl

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/03/science/civil-war-toll-up-by-20-percent-in-new-estimate.html?_r=2&scp=1&sq=guy%20gugliotta&st=cse

HARPER: GENERAL DEMPSEY LAYS DOWN THE LAW

 
In his recent meeting with Israel's Chief of Staff of the Defense Force, General Benny Gantz, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Martin Dempsey spelled out in the most blunt language possible for a soldier why Israel must not launch a unilateral preventive strike against Iran.  According to my sources inside the Pentagon, General Dempsey made it clear that any Israeli attack would result in the deaths of hundreds--if not thousands--of American soldiers and sailors stationed in Afghanistan and the Persian Gulf.  The consequences of those unnecessary deaths on the US-Israel military relationship would be severe.
 
General Dempsey, according to my sources, reminded his Israeli counterpart that in 1991 and again in 2003, when the United States launched "coalition" warfare against Iraq, the US Administrations pressured Israel to sit on the sidelines, and pledged that the United States would guarantee Israel's safety.  Apart from a few stray Scud missiles that hit Israel in 1991, the United States fully lived up to that pledge to protect Israel at all costs.  Israel, in contrast, has no capacity whatsoever to protect the 100,000 American soldiers who would find themselves immediately in harms way in Afghanistan if Iran chose to retaliate against the Israeli strikes.  The same is true for American soldiers and sailors in Bahrain, Qatar and other Persian Gulf locales where there are known concentrations of US forces (Bahrain is the host of the Fifth Fleet and Qatar is forward headquarters for the Central Command and houses other US military special operations programs). 

 

"In the eye of a firestorm" NY Times

“They were not huge gashes,” the father said. “When he went to the doctor the next day, he said he could stitch it, but that he would have to re-cut it since it had started to heal. He may not have gone to the hospital earlier than that because he was in police custody for a while,"  NY Times

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The doctor's testimony will be significant in this matter.

This AM Starbuck Joe said on his show that the Right should not seek to defend Zimmerman.  His reasoning was that such an attitude would cost votes,  There was no mention of the truth as a consideration.  pl

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/02/us/trayvon-martin-shooting-prompts-a-review-of-ideals.html?pagewanted=7&_r=1&hp

"ZUBRIN: Obama shoots down Mars exploration"

"Perhaps the answer is provided by an examination of the core beliefs of the president’s science adviser, John P. Holdren. In his 1971 book, “GlobalEcology,” co-authored with anti-human-growth ideologue Paul R. Ehrlich (of “PopulationBomb” fame), Mr. Holdren wrote:

“When a population of organisms grows in a finite environment, sooner or later it will encounter a resource limit. This phenomenon, described by ecologists as reaching the ‘carrying capacity’ of the environment, applies to bacteria on a culture dish, to fruit flies in a jar of agar, and to buffalo on a prairie. It must also apply to man on this finite planet.”

Thus, in order to accept the constraints on human aspirations demanded by Mr. Holdren, Mr. Ehrlich and their co-thinkers (whether rationalized by alleged limits to available resources in the 1970s or by the putative threat of global warming), people must be convinced that the future is closed. The issue is not that resources from space might disrupt the would-be regulators’ rationing schemes. Rather it is that the idea of an open future with unlimited resources and possibilities undermines the walls of the mental prison the would-be wardens of mankind seek to construct."  Zubrin in Washington Times

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This is an intereswting question.  Is BHO against the space program?  For me that would be another reason not to vote for him again.  pl

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/mar/30/obama-shoots-down-mars-exploration/