6509. PelleNilsson - 12/2/2004 3:29:05 PM
Good to see that you are catching up, jay.
6510. jayackroyd - 12/2/2004 3:32:21 PM
Another interesting thing with respect to the other major problem--oil revenue--is that the best thing, in general, to do with the oil revenue is also the best way to minimize the ethnic conflict. More than one analyst has suggested that some of the revenue (preferably a substantial "some") should go directly to Iraqi citizens, as in Alaska.
Aside from the obvious benefits of getting some of the money out of the hands of the government, this smooths out the negotiations of who controls what territory, to the degree there is regionalization.
And, again, if I thought the Americans were acting in good faith, in pursuit of a stable democracy rather than a reliable client state, I'd feel a lot better about the possibility of this happening.
6511. Wombat - 12/2/2004 4:18:44 PM
Kurds serving in the "new" Iraqi army did take part in the Fallujah fighting.
6512. jexster - 12/2/2004 9:05:00 PM
From the recently published Report of the DOD Task Force on Strategic Communication....
1.2 The New Strategic Communication Environment
Perceptions of public diplomacy in crisis. Since the Defense Science Board’s October
2001 Task Force study, more than 15 private sector and Congressional reports have examined public diplomacy:
There is consensus in these reports that U.S. public diplomacy is in crisis.5 Missing are strong leadership, strategic direction, adequate coordination, sufficient resources, and a culture of measurement and evaluation. America’s image problem, many suggest, is linked to perceptions of the United States as arrogant, hypocritical, and self-indulgent.
The White House has paid little attention.
6513. jexster - 12/2/2004 9:10:39 PM
35
But this is no Cold War. We call it a war on terrorism -- but Muslims in contrast see a history-shaking movement of Islamic restoration. This is not simply a religious revival,
however, but also a renewal of the Muslim World itself. And it has taken form through many variant movements, both moderate and militant, with many millions of adherents
-- of which radical fighters are only a small part. Moreover, these movements for restoration also represent, in their variant visions, the reality of multiple identities within Islam.
If there is one overarching goal they share, it is the overthrow of what Islamists call the “apostate” regimes: the tyrannies of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Jordan, and the Gulf states. They are the main target of the broader Islamist movement, as well as the actual fighter groups. The United States finds itself in the strategically awkward — and potentially dangerous — situation of being the longstanding prop and alliance partner of these authoritarian regimes. Without the U.S. these regimes could not survive. Thus the U.S. has strongly taken sides in a desperate struggle that is both broadly cast for all Muslims and country-specific.23
This is the larger strategic context, and it is acutely uncomfortable:
6514. jexster - 12/2/2004 9:11:15 PM
U.S. policies and actions are increasingly seen by the overwhelming majority of Muslims as a threat to the survival of Islam itself. Three recent polls of Muslims show an overwhelming conviction that the U.S. seeks to “dominate” and “weaken” the Muslim World.24 Not only is every American initiative and commitment in the Muslim World enmeshed in the larger dynamic of intra-Islamic hostilities — but Americans have inserted themselves into this intra-Islamic struggle in ways that have made us an enemy to most Muslims. Therefore, in stark contrast to the Cold War, the United States today is not seeking to contain a threatening state/empire, but rather seeking to convert a broad movement within Islamic civilization to accept the value structure of Western Modernity — an agenda hidden within the official rubric of a “War on Terrorism.”
But if the strategic situation is wholly unlike the Cold War, our response nonetheless has tended to imitate the routines and bureaucratic responses and mindset that so
characterized that era.
In terms of strategic communication especially, the Cold War
emphasized:
• Dissemination of information to “huddled masses yearning to be free.” Today we reflexively compare Muslim “masses” to those oppressed under Soviet rule. This is a strategic mistake. There is no yearning-to-be-liberated-by-the-U.S. groundswell among Muslim societies — except to be liberated perhaps from what they see as apostate tyrannies that the U.S. so determinedly promotes and defends.
6515. jexster - 12/2/2004 9:59:05 PM
Yes the Peshmerga fills a good number of the ranks of the only remotely effective Iraqi combat unit ...
With small steps like that, the Iraqi Interior Officials Ten Year estimate of exit begins to look reasonable that is until you look at the Regilous Shiite Election Platform...
a widespread attitude among Shiites:
' "This election, for me, will be the happiest moment in my life, because it means we will end the occupation," said Ahmad al-Asadi, who sells mobile phones from a little store alongside the Kadhimiya mosque, a Shiite shrine. That's how Shiite leaders are pitching the vote: as a chance to end America's military presence in Iraq peacefully, through the ballot box. It also is a chance for Iraq's long-downtrodden Shiites, who account for 60 percent of the population, to throw off centuries of oppression by the Sunni minority and take a commanding role in the country's government. '
It does seem likely that if the US beats down the Baathists enough to permanently defang them, the Shiites may simply to toss the Americans out after they take power (assuming that there is a real election, and Allawi is not simply installed as a US puppet [again]). Cole
Fine by me!
6516. jexster - 12/2/2004 10:00:55 PM
Piss on the Pesh...Krap on the Kurds and their Mossad bagmen....Kosova for the Kosovars...death to Slerb Sheep Fuckers
6517. jexster - 12/3/2004 12:09:47 AM
Delayed Stockholm Syndrome: Israel shocked by image of soldiers forcing PAL violinist to play at roadblock
As I informed the late great Rustler of Yids, I no longer honor free Holocaust Discount Cards of Der Ewige Jude...
Do the crime, do the time Schlomo just like every other nigger has to...
I long for the days when the Mote was well-stocked with concentration camp capos....
6518. jexster - 12/5/2004 1:07:15 PM
Sample of headlines tells the story....
Arab/Kurdish, Sunni/Shiite Violence Flares, Killing Dozens -Cole
30 Die in Tsunami of Insurgent Attacks Cole
Sunni Pols Step Up Campaign for Election Delay
UN Officials Declare Conditions Unsuitable to Election
6519. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 12/7/2004 10:55:31 AM
6520. wonkers2 - 12/7/2004 11:39:56 AM
It should be clear by now to all but the most ardent Bushies that invading Iraq was the most colossal mistake since Vietnam. See today's reports on the CIA Iraq station chief's conclusions that the situation in Iraq is worsening, not improving.
6521. jexster - 12/10/2004 9:33:41 PM
Kurds and whey...
Key IraQ Ally Balks at Election
The head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, long one of the staunchest advocates for going forward with Iraq (news - web sites)'s January elections, said Thursday that he would be forced to reconsider his position if Kurds were not allowed to re-establish their ethnic majority in the strategic city of Kirkuk.
6522. robertjayb - 12/12/2004 5:30:13 PM
No gasoline, no gas in Riverbend's Baghdad Burning...
To brief you on a few things: Electricity is lousy. Many areas are on the damned 2 hours by 4 hours schedule and there are other areas that are completely in the dark- like A'adhamiya. The problem is that we're not getting much generator electricity because fuel has become such a big problem. People have to wait in line overnight now to fill up the car. It's a mystery. It really is. We're an oil country and yet there isn't enough gasoline to go around...
.................................................
Cooking gas has also become a problem. The guy who sells us the gas cylinders isn't coming around because apparently he can't get the used cylinders exchanged for full ones. People are saying that it costs around 10,000 Iraqi dinars to buy one on the street and then, as usual, you risk getting one that might explode in the kitchen or be full of water. We're trying to do more and more of our 'cooking' on the kerosene heater. We can't turn on the water heater because there just isn't enough electricity.
.................................................
6523. robertjayb - 12/12/2004 5:32:07 PM
More Riverbend:
We're also watching the election lists closely. Most people I've talked to aren't going to go to elections. It's simply too dangerous and there's a sense that nothing is going to be achieved anyway. The lists are more or less composed of people affiliated with the very same political parties whose leaders rode in on American tanks. Then you have a handful of tribal sheikhs. Yes- tribal sheikhs. Our country is going to be led by members of religious parties and tribal sheikhs- can anyone say Afghanistan? What's even more irritating is that election lists have to be checked and confirmed by none other than Sistani!! Sistani- the Iranian religious cleric. So basically, this war helped us make a transition from a secular country being run by a dictator to a chaotic country being run by a group of religious clerics. Now, can anyone say 'theocracy in sheeps clothing'?
.................................................
Ahmad Chalabi is at the head of one of those lists- who would join a list with Ahmad Chalabi at its head?
6524. robertjayb - 12/12/2004 5:32:40 PM
test
6525. jexster - 12/12/2004 10:04:03 PM
6526. jexster - 12/13/2004 9:22:32 PM
6527. Ronski - 12/14/2004 7:47:38 AM
I think he got the part about the Arabs not wanting the Israelis there right.
6528. jexster - 12/14/2004 11:14:10 AM
6529. alistairconnor - 12/14/2004 11:51:36 AM
This, Ronski, is an injustice that we Westerners heap on the heads of Palestinians, and Arabs in general :
Keenly aware that our forebears were often guilty of racism and ethnic hatred of the worst sort against Jews, we make the mental leap of assuming that Palestinian hatred of Israelis is of the same nature...
The reality is that it is of the same nature as Israeli hatred of Palestinians. The hatred of both groups is amply justified by the events of the past sixty years : if the indiscriminate hatred of a group is ever justified.
That's the secret, Ronski : it never is. The Likud member's poisonous message of racism is his own : I can disapprove of it without hating Israelis, or Jews. But when you seek to justify him by saying that Arabs (i.e. all Arabs) want Israelis gone, you bring yourself down to his level.
6530. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 12/15/2004 4:41:17 PM
To see ourselves as others see us - some sobering words in this read . . .
World Tribunal on Iraq
by Niloufer Bhagwat
Opening statement before the Iraq tribunal hearings at Tokyo,
6531. alistairconnor - 12/16/2004 10:37:50 AM
Friedbrains still has lucid moments ...
The third Arab Human Development Report, dealing with the need for reform in governance, is being held up by the US... because it criticises the Iraq war.
Corrupt and inefficient Arab governments will breathe a sigh of relief if it's never released.
6532. PelleNilsson - 12/18/2004 3:42:02 AM
Likud and Labor agree to form coalition government. Shas may join later.
Haaretz article
This paves the way for the Ghaza evacuation.
6533. Wombat - 12/18/2004 9:20:08 AM
As the Labor party marginalizes itself further. Why is Shimon Peres still permitted to run things?
6534. jexster - 12/18/2004 1:42:33 PM
Thursday evening an Arab-Swiss MPA grad student gave his final presentation on the budget of the ICRC. He had worked with them in Lebanon during the Butcher of Beruit's invasion inspecting Israeli jails....
This appeared in the Guardian today...he spoke about some of the budgetary implications of issues discussed in
Caught in the crossfire
The Red Cross says it will not remain silent while the war on terror undermines its famed neutrality - and threatens not only its staff but its very existence. Annie Kelly reports.
6535. alistairConnor - 12/18/2004 3:43:07 PM
As the Labor party marginalizes itself further.
You think so? I'm starting to think that a Labour/Likud coalition is the right government to make a major historical compromise with the Palestinians. If Abbas can really swing public opinion behind him, and create a climate where terrorism doesn't look like a smart option, then maybe there are two partners, and a chance of major movement in a few months from now...
if, if, if. Lots of stuff could go wrong.
6536. Ronski - 12/18/2004 6:58:33 PM
So far, so good though.
6537. jexster - 12/22/2004 2:39:17 PM
Here's the road map...
From the lead essay in this month's Harpers, "Saving Israel from Itself: A Secular Future for the Jewish State"
Bernard Avishai, on the faculty at Duke Bidniss School, spent most of the 70's and 80's living in Israel. He returned in 2002 to hitch up with a new bride who teaches at Hebrew U...
Not that Israeli's aren't hearing arguments [about the nature and future of their political system]...
The most common, whihc is widely considered hard-headed, agrues that the occupation has pesented Israel with a "demographic threat". Maintain the occupation, the argument goes, and Israel must become either an apartheid state or a binational state - a "Jewish state" or a "democratic state" but not both.
Less commonly asserted, and widely considered hard-hearted, is an argument about Israel irrespective of its occupation. A Jewish state cannot be democratic, the argument goes, because a state in which the world's Jewish people and Jewish religion have exclusive privileges is inherently discriminatory against non-Jews. Some kind of binationalism, if not inevitable, is preferable.
Both arguments are made by people in and around Israel. Only the former is made by people in and around the the Israeli government
6538. PelleNilsson - 12/22/2004 3:45:19 PM
Maybe Avishai should learn to spell before he expresses his platitudes in print.
6539. jexster - 12/24/2004 11:58:53 AM
Maybe I didn't transcribe it correctly.
Maybe you haven't read his essay.
Maybe you should not comment on things about which you know nothing
6540. jexster - 12/24/2004 12:01:48 PM
6541. jexster - 12/24/2004 9:49:46 PM
The Harper's essay is excellent.
Avishai is a Canadian jew who, when he was a freshman at McGill, left to volunteer in the 6 day war arriving just as it ended. His father was a Zionist Boy Scout in Bialystok in the 1920's, a Zionist leader in Montreal, and a founder of Kibbutz Kfar Menachem where the young Bernie wound up when there was no war to fight. As I mentioned, he has lived on an off in Israel for about 20 years since his first trip in 1967
The essay is lively, long, and penetrating in its insights into Jewish culture and politics in Israel
I recommend highly
6542. wonkers2 - 12/28/2004 9:48:49 PM
The first settlement voted to accede to Sharon's proposal to move out of Palestine. It was a small and relatively affluent group. They are being villified and worse by other illegal settlers.
6543. wonkers2 - 12/28/2004 10:03:04 PM
[According to news reports.]
6544. jexster - 12/29/2004 7:19:27 PM
Maginot Minds in Washington Gloss Over Truth of IraQ War
But in only the last two weeks, American generals and civilian officials are, in fact, admitting that they have their own similar Maginot Line problems. ... American generals now admit that almost all of them are Iraqis; we have created the Iraqi terrorists who were not there before.
Take only the astoundingly candid analysis, based in part on an interview with Gen. John Abizaid, the senior U.S. military commander in the region, by CNN's excellent Pentagon (news - web sites) correspondent, Barbara Starr, on television last Sunday.
Starr reported: "Senior U.S. military sources in the region tell CNN the city of Mosul has been wracked by violence for weeks. Local Iraqi security forces have virtually melted away, say those officials. One senior U.S. officer tells CNN, we have no Iraqi police force up in Mosul today.
"The problem in getting Iraqis to fight the insurgency may be deeper across Iraq. The military assessment now is that the U.S. miscalculated Iraqi tribal and religious loyalties and did not realize Iraqis are likely to fight only for their brethren ... So in cases like Mosul, they simply will not fight the intimidation of the insurgents, the U.S. now believes."
And remember, until now Mosul was one of our success stories!
The truth no one really wants to deal with is that this war could very easily be lost by the United States. All the insurgents have to do is hang on another year. All we have to do is what the French and the British did in their colonies: Let themselves be exhausted and finally destroyed by their hubris, their delusions and their arrogant lack of understanding of the local people.
6545. jexster - 12/29/2004 8:21:00 PM
Follow the Money!!!
Stayin the Course of course.
THE SPOILS OF INSURGENCY: Given that senior administration officials have abandoned hope that next month's election will drain the insurgency of its momentum, it's worth considering what effect conditions of persistent emergency have on government officials. The Financial Times gives a clue today, reporting that Iraq's trade ministry has transferred $400 million of Iraq's food-ration budget to Lebanese banks that are, as the paper puts it, "favoured for their secrecy." This represents about 14 percent of Iraq's $2.8 billion annual budget for food rations, upon which 60 percent of the 25-billion population is dependent, according to the United Nations. The interim trade minister, Mohammed Jabouri, is claiming that his noble intentions--expediting the delivery of food rations for Ramadan by bypassing Iraqi Trade Bank protocols--are being maliciously interpreted by "political parties who have come after the war." It doesn't exactly inspire confidence that, under Saddam Hussein, Jabouri
headed the State Oil Market Organisation (Somo), which sold Iraq's oil and distributed coupons for oil sales prior to the war. His deputy, Fakhridin Rashan, was a senior official in the trade ministry. Both were suspended after the war following investigations into contracts they had pursued, but were reinstated after the transition to Ayad Allawi's interim government in June.
And, mysteriously, the FT reports that more than a month later, those Ramadan food rations still haven't arrived for the 60 percent of Iraqis who rely on them. Get ready for a lot more of these sorts of stories: As Iraq faces dire and fundamental threats over the next year requiring urgent attention from its new and untested leadership, officials will find ample opportunities to plunder its already-beleaguered treasury.
6546. jexster - 12/29/2004 8:22:40 PM
Better put Stormin Norman Coleman on the case.
6547. jexster - 12/30/2004 8:42:38 PM
Recommended reading How Israel Lost - The Four Questions by Richard Ben Cramer, a journalist who won the Pulitzer Prize in 1979 for his coverage of the Middle East in Newsweek..
Engaging style, full of jewish humor and penetrating insight...
and did I mention Jewish humor?
Recalling his days in Hebrew school..
6548. jexster - 12/31/2004 1:37:55 PM
Speaks volumes all by itself..
6549. jexster - 12/31/2004 9:42:45 PM
Platform of the United Iraqi Alliance
The Iraqi newspaper "al-Adalah" published on Dec. 23 the platform of the United Iraqi Alliance, the mainly Shiite coalition sponsored by Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani. It was translated by BBC World Monitoring. Since this party very likely will dominate parliament, it is worth looking at the platform:
As for basic principles:
6550. jexster - 12/31/2004 9:42:55 PM
I'm not sure most Americans realize that the biggest and most important party coalition in Iraq, which will almost certainly form the next government, has explicitly stated in its platform that it wants a specific timetable announced for withdrawal of US troops from the country.
An independent foreign policy is promised, as is membership in the Arab League and the Organization of the Islamic Conference. [This plank implies non-recognition of Israel until there is a global peace settlement accepted by these two organizations).
I think we are looking at the policies of the new Iraq. They aren't what Mr. Bush and Mr. Rumsfeld and Mr. Wolfowitz imagined.
posted by Juan @ 12/31/2004 06:23:07 AM
6551. wonkers2 - 1/1/2005 8:32:32 AM
"The U.S. is hated across the Islamic world because of specific US government policies and actions. That hatred is concrete not abstract, martial not intellectual, and it will grow for the forseeable future...America is hated and attacked because Muslims believe they know precisely what the U.S. is doing in the Islamic world. They know partly because of bin Laden's words, partly because of satellite television, but mostly because of the tangible reality of U.S. policy. We are at war with an al Qaeda-led, worldwide Islamist insurgency because of and to defend those policies, and not as President Bush has said, "to defend freedom and all that is good and just in the world."
Michael Scheuer, "Imperial Hubris"
The Truth About Terrorism
6552. jexster - 1/1/2005 12:55:48 PM
What If IraQ Taps Pro-IraN Leaders
Ali G asked James Baker whether it wouldn't be a good idea to make IraQ change its name so that Americans wouldn't get confused...
Americans like GWB
6553. jexster - 1/1/2005 1:29:05 PM
6554. jexster - 1/10/2005 1:29:55 PM
News that Bush hasn't heard yet.
88% of IraQis Will Not Vote if There's ED Violence - US Poll
6555. PelleNilsson - 1/17/2005 12:04:40 PM
Israelis cut all ties with Palestinians
JERUSALEM Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Friday ordered all Israeli officials to cut ties with the Palestinian Authority and said the Gaza Strip would be sealed until Palestinian leaders act to curb terrorism, a day after militants killed six Israelis on the Gaza border.
Soon we will hear Abbas being declared "irrelevant" and Sharon will lament the absence of a credible partner to carry the peace process forward.
It is all so depressingly predictable and familiar.
6556. Jenerator - 1/19/2005 3:50:00 PM
Speaking of prisoner abuse, I read an interesting report that said the detainees have to be tied and occasionally hooded because of the stunts they pull.
I also heard from a friend of mine who just returned from Iraq that the report I heard was and is true.
It seems that the Iraqis, if left with feet untied, will poop in the dirt and then kick it up in the soldiers' eyes.
When their faces are not covered, they spit on others.
-------
I know for a fact then when prisoners in US prisons do this kind of stuff, they, too, are hog-tied, hosed, or put in solitary confinement.
I bet that some of the prisoners are deliberatly pushing the limits to see if a soldier will so much as put his hand on the prisoner's shoulder, and then the prisoner can charge abuse.
What should the soldiers do if the prisoners are doing this?
6557. Wombat - 1/19/2005 4:12:53 PM
What would an Iraqi have to do to be waterboarded? To be beaten? To be made to simulate oral or anal sex? To be raped? To be attacked by dogs? To be paraded around naked?
6558. Jenerator - 1/19/2005 4:14:36 PM
None of those scenarios is acceptable, and notice that I wasn't defending them and that none of them were mentioned in my post??
I was speaking strictly about the restraining and hooding of prisoners.
6559. Wombat - 1/19/2005 4:22:18 PM
It appears to me that your rationale gets you moving down the slippery slope. What do the Geneva Conventions have to say about it?
6560. Max Macks - 1/19/2005 4:24:49 PM
My impression is that many Iraqi's
were sent to that prison not because
they had been caught fighting against the Bush Army
but
because" they were suspected" of being "terrorists"
6561. Jenerator - 1/19/2005 4:28:16 PM
Wombat,
Not sure what the Geneva Convention says about what to do when a prisoner is spitting in your face or is tossing shit in your eyes. Does it suggest that we politely ask him/her to stop? When they don't stop, then what? Serve them a cup of tea?
Get real.
6562. judithathome - 1/19/2005 4:35:31 PM
Well, we might start by releasing some of them, since nothing has been found to link some of them to terrorism and they have provided nothing in the way of information.
I wonder what sort of tricks you would devise, Jen, had you been held for more than a year with no representation and treated in subhuman ways, all because of the color of your skin or because of your nationality or religion?
6563. Jenerator - 1/19/2005 4:39:02 PM
I am not talking about the guys who have been held indefinitely. I am talking about when they first capture enemy combatants.
----
As for tricks I would devise, I would be lucky to survive the rapes and beheading - given that I am a female American.
6564. judithathome - 1/19/2005 4:42:23 PM
Would you prefer they be shot when they were first captured?
One day, when every dirty thing about Bush's little war comes to light, I will be very proud to say I was against it from the start.
6565. wonkers2 - 1/19/2005 5:11:30 PM
Jen, I assume it says "Step back out of range!"
6566. Jenerator - 1/19/2005 6:33:40 PM
I want a serious answer, guys.
If you captured 20 enemy soldiers and took them to a temporary holding facility and there they spit in your face and threw poop in your eyes, what would you do? How would you make them stop? Would you try to restrain them in any way??
6567. Jenerator - 1/19/2005 6:36:22 PM
wonkers,
I assume it says "Step back out of range!"
How is that enforced when the space is minimal, and the prisoner ration is high? Do you just let them all run around loose and stand back 20 feet hoping they can't kick stuff through the fence?
What about when it's meal time - do you serve them on robotical trays so as to not get too close?? Then, what if they don't follow the rules?
6568. Wombat - 1/19/2005 8:22:45 PM
If they are prisoners of war, then they are subject to the Geneva Convention. They are not obliged to answer questions, and are subject to certain standards of treatment. Obviously, when prisoners are resisting capture, they may be restrained. Once their status has been adjudicated, they are typically confined in compounds, with guards on the perimeter to prevent escape. Disciplinary action may be taken against them for violation of camp rules, which they must be made aware of. Disciplinary action is usually loss of priviledges, or a term of confinement away from the general camp population.
6569. Wombat - 1/19/2005 8:25:19 PM
My impression is that in some prisons in the US, such actions are commonplace, and guards learn to ignore or avoid prisoner provocations.
6570. Wombat - 1/19/2005 8:26:34 PM
As for feeding them, you toss MREs over the fence, well out of range.
6571. Jenerator - 1/19/2005 8:51:08 PM
That all sounds reasonable.
Wombat,
I heard that prisoners can claim abuse if we (US soldiers) don't make adequate attempts to meet their dietary preferences.
6572. Wombat - 1/19/2005 9:42:52 PM
The Geneva Convention stipulates that PoWs must eat the same food that their captors eat. I would think that deliberately feeding Muslims pork products would constitute abuse. The US has now had several years of experience providing for the dietary needs of incarcerated Muslims. No big deal.
6573. concerned - 1/19/2005 9:45:08 PM
I don't know how many feel this way, but I'm interested in how seriously the average Iraqi will take the upcoming elections. After all, this will be the first approximation to a popular referendum in their memories, certainly the most important one. Their reaction, if properly estimated, should give a good idea of how good the chances are of the success of a representative democracy in Iraq, and to a lesser degree, what needs to be fine tuned to guide the electoral process to greater acceptance.
6574. Wombat - 1/19/2005 9:54:15 PM
I am sure the Shiites will take the elections very seriously. The Sunnis are also taking them seriously, but not in a positive way.
There is unlikely to be anything resembling a representative democracy as we understand it. At best, you will have Iran-lite in a loose alliance with the Kurds, who will be turned loose on the Sunnis as soon as the United States leaves. There will be little gratitude, and little congruence with US policy goals.
6575. Jenerator - 1/19/2005 10:12:08 PM
I agree.
6576. concerned - 1/19/2005 10:13:06 PM
Sometimes progress is slower than desired. Despite all the commotion over the French revolution in 1789, the French people weren't ready for a Republican form of government until the Prussians kicked their asses nearly a century later.
6577. jexster - 1/19/2005 11:02:44 PM
The French Revolution!
Don't try to make me laugh clown...your Glorious Leader has me in stiches already...
I might just have an aneurism and die on you.
6578. jexster - 1/19/2005 11:10:53 PM
The worst foreign and security bungle in US history...were you thinking about the Terror or the Great Terror? No the Duke of Brunswick?
Wave of Guerrilla Attacks
5 Bombs Shake Baghdad Wednesday Morning
Condi Assures Senate Everything was Handled Properly and Everything will be All Right Juan Cole
A new Los Angeles Times poll showed that US support for the Iraq war had sunk to new lows, such that only 39% of Americans now believe that the situation in 2002 and 2003 was bad enough to warrant a war with Iraq. The news that there were no weapons of mass destruction appears to be gradually filtering down into even the Red states. AFP points out that the majority of the US public has been disaffected with the war in Iraq for some time, putting the lie to Bush's notion that he won a mandate to go on with the same policies there.
In the US, Dr. Condaleeza Rice appeared before the Senate in confirmation hearings on her nomination by Bush to be Secretary of State.
I was alarmed at how doctrinaire all her answers were, and how she consistently refused to take any responsibility for misleading the American public into an unnecessary war. Her notion that the US cannot afford to let failed states fester is something that could be debated. But Iraq was not a failed state in 2002.
6579. jexster - 1/19/2005 11:13:35 PM
If anything Condi Rice has helped turn Iraq into a failed state. If it is undesirable for the US to let failed states fester, surely it is even more undesirable for the US to use false pretences to turn countries into failed states. She either doesn't get it, or doesn't have the elemental courage and integrity to admit that she was wrong. Her deputy Stephen Hadley, by the way, was the one who over-ruled the CIA and authorized the phrase about Iraq buying uranium from Niger in the 2003 State of the Union address. Condi is responsible for her subordinates.
If you just went through and made a quotation table of everything she said about Iraq in the first term, it would be hilarious to read now.
Now I have to disagree with the Good Doktor on that last...I think about what would have happened had that Bitch hack told the truth about the war about the risks, about the foreseeable costs and about the dubious reasons for entering..we wouldn't be there now
And we wouldn't be having stupid conversations about crackpot historical analogies
6580. alistairconnor - 1/20/2005 4:52:13 AM
Message # 6576 Despite all the commotion over the French revolution in 1789, the French people weren't ready for a Republican form of government until the Prussians kicked their asses nearly a century later.
Had the USA been surrounded by powerful monarchies determined to crush the nascent republic in the 1780s, then it might well have been a century before democracy prevailed there, too.
6581. alistairconnor - 1/20/2005 4:57:45 AM
A better analogy for Iraq, Conn :
Italy. Bonaparte invaded, conquered, and set up a bunch of republics there. It didn't work terribly well. Took a hundred years for democracy to take, and it was finally achieved by throwing out the various foreign masters.
6582. Wombat - 1/20/2005 10:11:12 AM
Concerned would be better off taking his analogies from the post-colonial age.
6583. robertjayb - 1/21/2005 10:58:49 AM
Danes too? Danes?
COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - A Danish intelligence officer and four military policemen have been charged with abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Danish headquarters in southern Iraq (news - web sites), the Danish army said on Friday.
Reserve Capt. Annemette Hommel and the four other soldiers could face up to one year in prison if found guilty of breaking military law during interrogations last year, the army said in a statement.
Hommel was sent home in July from Iraq, before her tour of duty was up, after former unit colleagues complained about the way she interrogated prisoners. She has denied the abuse.
6584. robertjayb - 1/21/2005 9:51:27 PM
Iraq to arrest Ahmad Chalabi?
Fri Jan 21, 6:15 PM ET
DUBAI (Reuters) - Iraq (news - web sites)'s interim defense minister said on Friday the government would arrest Iraqi National Congress (INC) leader Ahmad Chalabi after the Eid al-Adha holiday on suspicion of maligning the defense ministry.
6585. Wombat - 1/21/2005 11:02:16 PM
Bet Rumsfeld wishes the U.S. had laws like that.
6586. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 1/22/2005 11:12:56 AM
This is a chilling account by a French hostage in Iraq:
Four Months on Planet bin Laden
6587. robertjayb - 1/22/2005 2:58:41 PM
Riverbend has a bleak Eid...
It's the third day of Eid. Eid is the Islamic holiday and usually it’s a time for families to get together, eat, drink and celebrate. Not this Eid. This Eid is unbearable. We managed a feeble gathering on the first day and no one was in a celebratory mood. There have been several explosions- some far and some near but even those aren't as worrisome as the tension that seems to be growing on a daily basis.
................................................
It's amazing how as things get worse, you begin to require less and less. We have a saying for that in Iraq, "Ili yishoof il mawt, yirdha bil iskhooneh." Which means, "If you see death, you settle for a fever." We've given up on democracy, security and even electricity. Just bring back the water.
6588. wonkers2 - 1/22/2005 3:04:19 PM
6589. wonkers2 - 1/22/2005 3:08:06 PM
6590. robertjayb - 1/24/2005 11:56:08 AM
BBC has resumed its Daily Iraq Log.
6591. robertjayb - 1/24/2005 5:38:10 PM
$80 billion more for Bush's Iraq sinkhole...(MSNBC)
WASHINGTON - (Reuters) - The Bush administration plans to announce as early as Tuesday that it will seek about $80 billion in new funding for military operations this year in Iraq and Afghanistan, administration and congressional sources said Monday.
6592. Magoseph - 1/26/2005 8:48:21 AM
CNN--31 marines killed in transport plane.
6593. Magoseph - 1/26/2005 8:56:55 AM
31 Marines killed in Iraq chopper crash
4 Marines, 1 U.S. soldier killed in separate incidents
Wednesday, January 26, 2005 Posted: 8:55 AM EST (1355 GMT)
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A U.S. Marine Corps helicopter crashed early Wednesday in west Iraq, near the border with Jordan, killing 31 Marines, military officials said.
The CH-53 Stallion crashed near Ar Rutbah in western Iraq at about 1:20 a.m. local time (5:20 p.m. Tuesday ET). It was carrying personnel from the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing and the 1st Marine Division.
Military officials said a search and rescue team was at the site and an investigation of the crash was under way. It was not immediately known if the helicopter crashed or was shot down.
6594. jexster - 1/27/2005 12:06:44 PM
Message # 2297 in thread 161
Back in Washington, the neo-con gang of adventurers who pushed us into this war is starting to come unglued. Leading neo-cons now nip at Mr. Rumsfeld’s ankles. Conservative ranks abound with rumors, with more hope than evidence behind them, that once Iraq holds its elections, the White House will declare victory and pull out. One senses political careers at risk, with players setting themselves up to say, “Who, me? I didn’t want this war.”
If we cannot say Afghanistan is coming unglued, that is only because it was never glued to begin with. Panglossian accounts of “springtime for Karzai” notwithstanding, American-occupied Afghanistan is now the world’s premier narco-state. We can, of course, take on the poppy cultivators and opium traffickers, but if we do we will find ourselves facing a wider war and losing all the sooner.
Most significantly, if we look at the larger world, we see ever more states coming unglued, which is the root phenomenon of Fourth Generation war. The Saudi regime is in trouble, and its replacement will not be parliamentary democracy. Pakistan’s General Musharraf is one bomb away from his destiny, at which point al Qaeda will have nukes (if it doesn’t already). Russia’s President Putin is acting to strengthen the Russian state because he knows the state’s existence is on the line in Russia. In West Africa, the state is almost gone, and it is going in the rest of Africa. Most interestingly, as the next few months will likely show, the state is fracturing in Israel, a modern, Westernized country. That is how Fourth Generation war works: it pulls the state apart at the moral level. Soon, just as Arab is fighting Arab, Jew will be fighting Jew.
6595. jexster - 1/29/2005 12:35:01 PM
Zogby: 9% of Sunnis Will Vote
Stong Majority of Iraqis Wants US Out
Borzou Daragahi of AP reports an Iraqi poll that shows that the Shiite United Iraqi Alliance coalition will do best in Sunday's election, but won't get a majority. The Iraqiya list of interim PM Iyad Allawi comes in second. The united Kurdish list will also do quite well (Kurds will almost certainly be over-represented in the new parliament). The poll says that no other list seems likely to get more than about 3% of the vote. In a 275-member parliament, that would be about 8 or 9 seats. If the poll is borne out by events, Iraqi politics will look an awful lot like Israeli politics in its dynamics, because the parliamentary electoral system works the same way. If the UIA can't form a government on its own, it will need a coalition partner-- either the Allawi list (which would give it a comfortable majority if that one does well) or a set of four or five small parties, each of which might have special demands and which might threaten to leave the majority coalition if they don't get their way.
Daragahi reports that Iraq's atmosphere is fearful and as though it is under siege.
Reuters says 17 persons have been killed in car bombings and other attacks in the lead-up to the elections. Electricity and polling stations are being targeted. Among the dead on Friday were at least 5 US troops, and possibly more as a US helicopter crashed and the fate of its crew remained unknown.
Zogby International did a poll of 805 Iraqis between January from January 19 to 23, 2005 in the cities of Baghdad, Hilla, Karbala and Kirkuk, as well as Diyala and Anbar provinces.
Results:
Sunni Arabs who say they will vote on Sunday: 9%
Sunni Arabs who say they definitely will not vote on Sunday: 76%
Shiites who say they likely or definitely will vote: 80%
Kurds who say they likely or definitely will vote: 56%
Sunni Arabs who want the US out of Iraq now or very soon: 82%
Shiites who want the US out of Iraq now or very soon: 69%
Sunni Arabs who believe US will hurt Iraq over next 5 years: 62%
Shiites who believe US will hurt Iraq over next five years: 49%
Shiites who want to hold elections on Jan. 30: 84%
Kurds who want to hold elections on Jan. 30: 64%
Sunni Arabs who want to postpone elections: 62%
Sunni Arabs who consider guerrilla resistance against the Americans legitimate: 53%
Iraqis who would support a religious government: 33%
posted by Juan @ 1/29/2005 09:37:22 AM
6596. robertjayb - 1/29/2005 2:38:52 PM
U.S Embassy rocketed...
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- A rocket hit the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad late Saturday, killing two Americans who worked there and wounding four others on the eve of Iraq's landmark elections, a U.S. Embassy official said.
The rocket fell into the Embassy's compound, near the building itself in the heavily fortified Green Zone in central Baghdad, according to the embassy official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
A civilian and a Navy sailor, both assigned to the embassy, were killed in the rocket attack, a military official said, also on condition of anonymity.
6597. wonkers2 - 1/29/2005 2:48:44 PM
Our newspapers are reporting that the Iraqis want us to stay.???
6598. PelleNilsson - 1/29/2005 2:55:41 PM
I think the results of the elections will be a surprise to everybody and in particular to Juan Cole.
6599. wonkers2 - 1/29/2005 8:48:51 PM
If I recall the figure correctly, 280,000 ex-patriot Iraqis are voting many from the U.S. and a whold lot from Michigan. Our local bank manager, an American citizen who moved to the U.S. at age three, told me yesterday that she voted. She is a Chaldean Christian. We have a large contingent of Iraqi Muslims and Christians in the Detroit area. According to yesterday's paper the community is split over whether they should be voting in the Iraq election, particularly those who have no intention of ever returning to Iraq and have been American citizens for many years. Others are legal immigrants waiting to become citizens. I have never heard the rationale for allowing them to vote. The woman from the bank said she had no documentation of her birth in Iraq other than her U.S. passport. That was sufficient for her to vote.
6600. alistairConnor - 1/30/2005 6:17:51 AM
The rationale is clear enough : those who fled a despotic regime should have a say in the new constitutional arrangements. Instinctively, it seems to me that the fact that the assembly will found a new constitution is what justifies non-residents voting. This should be a once-only thing : for an ordinary election, it should be residents only.
So says me. I am still on the electoral register in New Zealand, although I emigrated nearly 20 years ago. I have only voted in national elections once, when I happened to be in the country -- I don't consider I have any legitimacy to do so otherwise.
(though I did cast an absentee vote in the recent municipal elections. Because the incumbent was horrible, and the challenger excellent. and because I felt I had reconnected with my city in recent visits.)
6601. alistairConnor - 1/30/2005 6:19:33 AM
Though of course the political rationale for making voting easy for expatriate iraqis is clearly different : they are presumed to be more pro-US than resident Iraqis, on average.
6602. Ronski - 1/30/2005 10:49:45 AM
It's hard to think of the Iraqi election as anything but out of the ordinary. I'm glad the Chaldeans are voting.
6603. PelleNilsson - 1/30/2005 12:08:27 PM
In fact, as I understand it, the eligibility rules have nothing to do with the present situation. They are governed by the 1957 election law which is based on the principle 'once an Iraqi always an Iraqi'.
6604. wonkers2 - 1/30/2005 1:24:22 PM
Interesting point.
6605. alistairconnor - 1/31/2005 4:44:28 AM
Well, it appears that anyone who can show that they have one parent born in Iraq is allowed to vote :
With a warmheartedness I had never encountered anywhere I had gone to tend to my bureaucratic matters, they told me to sit down, perused my grandparents' transit papers, stamped "Exiting without possibility of return," and were surprised that the only thing I know how to say in Iraqi Arabic is "How are you?"
[...]
I had decided two days earlier who I would vote for, but then, alone behind the divider, I was genuinely distressed for the first time: The enormous form contained 111 names of the lists competing in the elections, all written in Arabic whereas I, unfortunately, can read only Hebrew and English.
6606. alistairconnor - 1/31/2005 4:45:12 AM
Come on Pelle you tease.
Tell us what our big surprise will be.
Not much time left, you know.
6607. jexster - 1/31/2005 11:10:48 AM
Juan Cole has two on the election today.
A Roundup Summary of Reports on the "Shiite Tsunami", the Sunni Boycott and Ayatollah Sistani Implications
and
Sunni Anxieties and the Rise of Shia Power
6608. PelleNilsson - 1/31/2005 11:40:10 AM
I think Cole has passed his best before date. Certainly the Sunni turnout will be more than the paltry 9% he quoted the other day. Let us remember two things.
First, the task of the newly elected parliament is to draw up a constitution which will be put to a referendum 15 October. If any three provinces vote aginst with a 2/3 majority it will not pass. This provision was put in to protect the Kurds but it also works for the Sunni.
Second, concerning the Sunni-Shia divide the Kurds are Sunni and they will certainly join their Arab counterparts in rejecting any Iranian-style theocracy.
Much can happen between now and then but I'm cautiously optimistic that the Iraqis will get their act together.
6609. Wombat - 1/31/2005 12:53:58 PM
Pelle:
I tend to agree. I think Cole had a lot riding on a poor outcome; I find that I lapse into similar thinking when considering anything that George W. has something to do with.
6610. jayackroyd - 1/31/2005 3:15:04 PM
It's very promising that this has gone better than most people seemed to expect. It reminds me of the Ukraine. People really do seem to want to have a role in choosing their governments.
It also seems to illustrate that the size of the armed opposition is pretty damned small. It's not Viet Nam.
6611. thoughtful - 1/31/2005 3:20:04 PM
Well, I certainly hope this all goes well and works out for the best. I hope the iraqis can run their own country sooner rather than later and that we'll be able to get out.
Of course, I also hope it will be sunny and in the 70s tomorrow.
The fact that the us is building permanent bases in iraq tells me we'll be there for many years to come. The fact that this process is at a minimum a year long just to try and reach a constitution tells me this is a years long process.
That means, between now and then, whenever then is, more people will die, more money will be spent, more money will be lost and more unforeseen problems are yet to come.
I hope I'm wrong.
I fear I'm not.
6612. jayackroyd - 1/31/2005 3:24:09 PM
Wrong again, I guess. This from Kevin Drum, a 1967 NYT article:
U.S. Encouraged by Vietnam Vote
Officials Cite 83% Turnout Despite Vietcong Terror
by Peter Grose, Special to the New York Times
WASHINGTON, Sept. 3-- United States officials were surprised and heartened today at the size of turnout in South Vietnam's presidential election despite a Vietcong terrorist campaign to disrupt the voting.
According to reports from Saigon, 83 per cent of the 5.85 million registered voters cast their ballots yesterday. Many of them risked reprisals threatened by the Vietcong.
....A successful election has long been seen as the keystone in President Johnson's policy of encouraging the growth of constitutional processes in South Vietnam. The election was the culmination of a constitutional development that began in January, 1966, to which President Johnson gave his personal commitment when he met Premier Ky and General Thieu, the chief of state, in Honolulu in February.
The purpose of the voting was to give legitimacy to the Saigon Government, which has been founded only on coups and power plays since November, 1963, when President Ngo Dinh Deim was overthrown by a military junta.
Or, perhaps, right on the larger point--that people want to have a say in who governs them.
6613. jayackroyd - 1/31/2005 3:26:00 PM
The fact that the us is building permanent bases in iraq tells me we'll be there for many years to come.
This is, to me, a central issue and one I am surprised is not more widely discussed either in the traditional media or the blogosphere. Do Americans just take it for granted that they are allowed to have military bases in other people's countries?
6614. jayackroyd - 1/31/2005 3:26:48 PM
I mean, can you imagine the uproar if Brazil was building a base in Georgia?
6615. alistairConnor - 1/31/2005 4:22:36 PM
It strikes me that the unexpected joy we all feel at the iraqi elections is tainted with a certain naivety.
Who, exactly, is going to guarantee the sincerity of the results?
Not the foreign observers... understandably, given the security situation, there are none to speak of.
The man in charge is a certain Negroponte. He has a record of consolidating pro-US regimes, in Central America in particular, but not by democratic means.
6616. thoughtful - 1/31/2005 4:50:51 PM
Don't even get me started on how frustrating it is to see that even in iraq they get paper ballots with a paper trail!
I don't understand why it isn't a bigger deal in the states that we have no accountability around elections here...especially when the solution is so simple...after all they do it in grocery stores across the country.
Vote electronically, receive a receipt with a carbon copy. You keep one copy, you put the other in a ballot box which can be used for a hand recount if necessary. How tough is that???
6617. thoughtful - 1/31/2005 4:54:03 PM
AC, there can be no sincerity of results when you have candidates who are afraid to put their name on the ballot.
6618. jexster - 1/31/2005 9:10:42 PM
Days of Reckoning
Turkey has warned that it could take action if Kurdish attempts to take control of Kirkuk in northern Iraq plunge the oil-rich city into ethnic turmoil.
In comments published in a newspaper interview on Monday, Turkey's Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul renewed concerns that more Kurds than those expelled under Saddam Hussein's rule had settled in Kirkuk.
"We are observing that the situation has reached dangerous proportions," Gul told the English-language Turkish Daily News.
Gul added the demographic structure of the city, which is also home to large numbers of Turkmens, a community of Turkish descent backed by Ankara, had been altered.
"Now our fear is the possibility that these gross changes in the demography of Kirkuk could trigger an ethnic confrontation, which has not been seen so far."
'Clear borders'
"If our brothers (Turkmens) are not treated well, if they are subjected to oppression, such developments will hurt us deeply, and in a democratic society administrations cannot remain indifferent, or merely spectators, to such developments," Gul said.
"Now our fear is the possibility that these gross changes in the demography of Kirkuk could trigger an ethnic confrontation, which has not been seen so far"
Abdullah Gul,
Turkish foreign minister
The minister did not say what action Turkey could take but stressed that Ankara had no territorial ambitions over Iraq and respects its borders.
"Our borders are clear. We have no territorial designs. We have no territorial demands on any country. When we talk about the integrity of Iraq, we mean the internationally recognised borders of Iraq," Gul said.
Ankara says that many of the Kurds who moved to Kirkuk after the US-led occupation of Iraq in March 2003 and who voted in Sunday's elections have no bonds with the city and sees the influx as part of a Kurdish design to take control of the city and make it the capital of a future independent Kurdish state.
Media blitzing Barzani
Many Turkish newspapers on Monday ran front-page reports quoting Kurdish leader Massud Barzani, who heads one of two Kurdish factions controlling the north, as saying that Iraqi Kurds would one day have their own independent state.
"The elections end, their mask comes off," said the daily Aksam, referring to the Kurds, while the Vatan daily headlined "Barzani challenges Turkey."
Turkey fears Iraqi Kurds will try
to form an independent state
Kurdish independence is a nightmare scenario for Turkey, which fears that such a development will fan separatism among its own restive Kurds in the southeast of the country and create turmoil in the region.
6619. jexster - 1/31/2005 9:13:00 PM
It seems rather straightforward...the Kurds turned out for Kurdistan, the Shiites and the few Sunnis for IraQ and an end to the Occupation...
Those Kurds will screw things up
6620. alistairconnor - 2/1/2005 5:37:27 AM
They have managed to build a relatively functional state in the past ten years, with a lot of foreign aid and US military protection.
It's understandable if, from their point of view, a strong unified Iraq looks like a losing proposition.
What's in it for them? Concretely, what benefits have they received from the end of the Saddam regime?
Do the instruments of sovereignty of the future independent Iraqi nation exist in Kurdistan? One suspects not ...
I mean, when a crisis comes, who are the police going to obey, a Shiite interior minister, or the local Kurdish authorities?
6621. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 2/1/2005 10:00:37 AM
6622. PelleNilsson - 2/1/2005 10:51:56 AM
This is not the time to declare an independent Kurdistan and antagonize Turkey, Iran and Syria. I think the Kurds understand that.
Another thing. I think the Baathists will dump Zarqawi and his thugs. It's a new phase now and chopping off heads may no longer be the optimal strategy to win friends and influence.
6623. jexster - 2/1/2005 11:30:00 AM
The Shiite earthquake
With non-Sunni Muslims poised to take power for the first time, a new Iraq is being born. Will it survive its infancy?
- - - - - - - - - - - -
By [Obe] Juan Cole
Feb. 1, 2005 | The elections held on Jan. 30 in Iraq were deeply flawed as a democratic process, but they represent a political earthquake in Iraq and in the Middle East. The old Shiite seminary city of Najaf, south of Baghdad, appears poised to emerge as Iraq's second capital. For the first time in the Arab Middle East, a Shiite majority has come to power. A Shiite-dominated Parliament in Iraq challenges the implicit Sunni biases of Arab nationalism as it was formulated in Cairo and Algiers. And it will force Iraqis to deal straightforwardly with the multicultural character of their national society, something the pan-Arab Baath Party either papered over or actively attempted to erase. The road ahead is extremely dangerous: Overreaching or miscalculation by any of the involved parties could lead to a crisis, even to civil war. And America's role in the new Iraq is uncertain.
Flames engulf a car following a car bomb blast Friday in Baghdad, left; and residents of Baghdad's Shiite enclave of Sadr City wave posters of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani on Monday.
6624. jexster - 2/1/2005 11:46:19 AM
Obe Juan's Roundup...
Radical Islamist violence is spilling over into Kuwait
This is a worrisome development. There are rumors that the guerrillas in Iraq are selling their munitions abroad, and one wonders if the turmoil in the Sunni Arab areas of Iraq is beginning to spill over onto neighbors....
Speaking of various media, gluttons for punishment can find my recent appearance on C-Span here on the Web.
Apparently I even have views on Squarepants Spongebob, who I am sure is straight.
6625. PelleNilsson - 2/1/2005 11:52:59 AM
Cole is done for.
6626. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 2/1/2005 12:04:15 PM
'Be most slow to believe what you most want to be true.'
6627. PelleNilsson - 2/1/2005 12:09:10 PM
Exactly. That's where Cole went wrong.
6628. thoughtful - 2/1/2005 2:41:31 PM
Oh man!
USAF playing cat and mouse game over Iran
By Richard Sale
UPI Intelligence Correspondent
Published January 26, 2005
NEW YORK -- The U.S. Air Force is playing a dangerous game of cat and mouse with Iran's ayatollahs, flying American combat aircraft into Iranian airspace in an attempt to lure Tehran into turning on air defense radars, thus allowing U.S. pilots to grid the system for use in future targeting data, administration officials said.
"We have to know which targets to attack and how to attack them," said one, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The flights, which have been going on for weeks, are being launched from sites in Afghanistan and Iraq and are part of Bush administration attempts collect badly needed intelligence on Iran's possible nuclear weapons development sites, these sources said, speaking on condition of strict anonymity.
6629. judithathome - 2/1/2005 3:14:27 PM
Jesus H. Christ. So "democracy" in one country is not enough. Now we have to conquer another country and wreck our own economy even more.
6630. PelleNilsson - 2/1/2005 3:32:28 PM
And the Iranians just keep quiet about it? Not bloody likely.
6631. thoughtful - 2/1/2005 3:48:01 PM
Now, now. You know the young Iranians really want to get rid of their govt and they only need a catalyst like the US to take the first step. They are really ready to roll to create a new elected govt in their place. They would already be greeting the planes with hearts and flowers if they could reach them. That within a matter of weeks and at the cost of only a couple of billion dollars it will be "mission accomplished" all over again!!! Freedom is on the march!!!
6632. wonkers2 - 2/1/2005 5:21:10 PM
Juan Cole on the Iraq election Here.
6633. robertjayb - 2/1/2005 7:42:47 PM
CIA attempts a mulligan on Iraq weapons...
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The CIA is preparing retrospective reports to officially revise what proved to be faulty intelligence on Iraq's weapons capabilities before the 2003 invasion.
Among them is a document no more than a dozen pages entitled ``Iraq: No Large-Scale Chemical Warfare Efforts Since Early 1990s,'' said an intelligence official familiar with the process, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The report concludes that former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein gave up his chemical weapons program after the 1991 Gulf War.
6634. alistairconnor - 2/2/2005 5:00:53 AM
I'm not familiar with the term "Mulligan".
But you might say that the existence of Iraqi WMD was the McGuffin of the Iraq war.
6635. thoughtful - 2/2/2005 8:33:05 AM
Mulligan: A golf shot not tallied against the score, granted in informal play after a poor shot especially from the tee.
6636. wonkers2 - 2/2/2005 10:00:01 AM
Bill Clinton has been criticized for frequently taking mulligans.
6637. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 2/2/2005 10:41:14 AM
6638. robertjayb - 2/7/2005 12:31:37 PM
February 7, 2005
Israel, Palestinians to Declare Truce
Filed at 12:12 p.m. ET
JERUSALEM (AP) -- The Israeli and Palestinian leaders will declare a formal end to more than four years of fighting at Tuesday's Mideast summit, both sides said Monday. Israeli and Palestinian negotiators finalized the agreement during last-minute preparations Monday.
``The most important thing at the summit will be a mutual declaration of cessation of violence against each other,'' said Saeb Erekat, a Palestinian negotiator.
An Israeli government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the cease-fire agreement, adding that the deal would also include an end to Palestinian incitement.
6639. concerned - 2/9/2005 10:46:27 AM
Pelle:
I tend to agree. I think Cole had a lot riding on a poor outcome; I find that I lapse into similar thinking when considering anything that George W. has something to do with.
Aha. The murder's out.
I've always told people who were anxious to prejudge to coalition effort in Iraq negatively to wait until at least the January elections before developing any final conclusions.
6640. concerned - 2/9/2005 10:53:09 AM
...prejudge the....
6641. PelleNilsson - 2/9/2005 12:13:32 PM
That quote is not from any post of mine. Wombat's, I think.
6642. concerned - 2/9/2005 1:02:54 PM
That's correct. Whether this all is worth the cost will likely remain arguable among some, barring less than ideal results. And partly due to this cost, there's been plenty of belt tightening (read: layoffs) among DoE funded labs, for instance, such as where I work.
6643. wonkers2 - 2/9/2005 6:54:12 PM
As they say, it ain't over til the fat lady sings. I hope the insurgents give up and democracy flowers. But I'm not betting the farm on it, to use a second cliche.
6644. Max Macks - 2/10/2005 8:21:54 PM
Just came from library , read the latest issue
of the New Yorker Magazine...
should have noted the date.
Long article about Abbas or whatever new PLO Pres name is
and
that fat slobbo Sharon.
Pretty dismal situation.
Until someone replaces what even one of Shron's
aides is said to have called him " blood letter"
doubt the truce will hold
the wall is continued to be built and
most of the settlements in the West Bank will remain.
and most Americans seem oblivious to the
truth of the Israeli occupation of Palestine.
6645. iiibbb - 2/12/2005 5:54:30 PM
Austrians sold 800 sniper rifles to Iran; U.S. protests
6646. wonkers2 - 2/12/2005 6:01:05 PM
Free enterprise at its worst. But Colt and Winchester are doing the same thing right here in the good ole USA!
6647. iiibbb - 2/12/2005 6:50:42 PM
It's just interesting because I thouoght Europeans were 'negotiating' with Iran....
We're nearly exempt from criticism because as Pelle says... we're 150 years out from being civilized anyway so we're just acting within our nature... but Europe is supposivley 150 yrs ahead of us.
6648. arkymalarky - 2/12/2005 7:55:31 PM
Sounds between here and the International thread that there may be some cost after all to not bothering to work more cooperatively. I look forward to seeing how Rice conducts herself through the minefield (so to speak) that US foreign policy seems to be turning into of late. Maybe our success in the Iraqi elections has other nations gearing up in paranoia that they're next.
6649. robertjayb - 2/12/2005 8:22:40 PM
Baghdad Burning: Riverbend's post-election report...
6650. robertjayb - 2/13/2005 1:11:05 AM
Here comes Ahmed...(NYTimes)
Vilified in the United States as the man who fed exaggerated reports of Saddam's weaponry to intelligence agencies, and often listed as one of the most unpopular people in Iraq, Mr. Chalabi is now all but assured a seat in the National Assembly. Over the past several days he has begun maneuvering to become the country's prime minister.
6651. jexster - 2/13/2005 6:27:22 PM
Election: Shiites, Kurds, win Big
Bush Loses
Distribution of Seats in Parliament
Cole Calculates Religious Shiites Short 1 or 2 Votes of Prevailing on Most Issues
But its the one's that they can't prevail on that really matter..ie those requiring 2/3 supermajorities....
Big stalemate, big MessOpotamia
6652. jexster - 2/13/2005 6:29:29 PM
United Iraqi Alliance (Shiite): 133 seats/*
Kurdish Alliance: 71
Iraqiya (Allawi = Secular Shiites) 38
Iraqiyyun (al-Yawir= Sunni Arabs) 5
Turkmen Front of Iraq 3
Cadres and the Chosen (Sadrist Shiites) 3
People's Union (Communist) 3
Kurdish Islamic Coalition 2
Organization of Islamic Action (Shiite) 2
Democratic National Alliance (Abd Faisal Ahmad) 1
National Mesopotamian List (Christian) 1
Welfare and Liberation Bloc (Mash'an al-Juburi, Sunni) 1
Caucus for Iraqi National Unity (Nahru Muhammad Abdul Karim, Sunni) 1
Independent Democrats (Adnan Pachachi, Sunni) 1
Iraqi Islamic Party (Muhsin Abdul Hamid, Sunni; had withdrawn) 1
Islamic Dawa Movement (splinter of Dawa, headed by Adil Majid) 1
Iraqi National Caucus (Husain Muhammad Abdullah) 1
Constitutional Monarchy Movement (Sharif Ali b. Husain) 1
Royal Iraqi Hashimi Caucus (Sharif Ma'mul al-Naysan) 1
National Democratic Alliance (Malik Duhan al-Hasan) 1
Democratic Iraqi Caucus (Ahmad Jabir Abdullah) 1
National Front for Iraqi Unity 1
* per Al-Hayat [Arabic link], AFP caculates 140
6653. jexster - 2/13/2005 6:49:13 PM
Muhammad is the apostle of Allah. and those who are with him are strong against Unbelievers, (but) compassionate amongst each other. Thou wilt see them bow and prostrate themselves (in prayer), seeking Grace from Allah and (His) Good Pleasure. On their faces are their marks, (being) the traces of their prostration. This is their similitude in the Taurat; and their similitude in the Gospel is: like a seed which sends forth its blade, then makes it strong; it then becomes thick, and it stands on its own stem, (filling) the sowers with wonder and delight. As a result, it fills the Unbelievers with rage at them. Allah has promised those among them who believe and do righteous deeds forgiveness, and a great Reward.
Quran 48:29
6654. jexster - 2/13/2005 7:59:23 PM
As faceless politicians scramble to control a government that for all intents and purposes doesn't exist, IraQ remain trapped in a terrible vice between ruthless insurgents and unloved occupiers
6655. jexster - 2/13/2005 8:46:39 PM
Mission Accomplished
what the US and Britain have yet to acknowledge about the past two years in Iraq is the searing humiliation brought by their occupation. It is helping fuel the insurgency and is turning even moderate Iraqis against the western forces who once promised liberation. It has turned the country into a fearful melting pot of Islamic radicalism and given cause to a new generation of militancy across the region.
A gulf now divides the occupier from the occupied.
6656. jexster - 2/13/2005 10:28:41 PM
George W. Bush - First Bitch of the Islamic Republic of IraQ
Sistani - Religious Leader Who Won IraQ Elections Without a Vote
The Religious Authority, Grand Ayatullah Sayyid Ali Husayni Sistani
6657. jexster - 2/14/2005 10:48:47 AM
Dexter Filkins, NyT Baghdad correspondent, makes the very same observation about the election that I did yesterday in his article today - Split Verdict in Iraqi Vote Sets Stage for Weak Government
You have to ask yourself "What's wrong with this picture?"
There's no government, no state in the first place. Yes it would be a weak government under normal circumstances. But this is hardly normal. This is chaos not a society.
Which leads to a second question on the very day that Bush is asking Congress for another $81 Billion to pour down a rat hole, $81 Billion that he says he shouldn't count as an expenditure in his budget...
Do you think that Al Qaeda might have put LSD in the nation's water supply and we don't know it?
6658. jexster - 2/14/2005 10:57:35 AM
Cole never predicted a "poor outcome" whatever that means.
Search and ye shall not find
6659. jexster - 2/14/2005 11:03:53 AM
Is this a poor outcome?
Depends on where you sit doesn't it!!
Cole is a Shiite-o-phile. That's his area of expertise. He always advocated the elections. Even when the US balked, he urged early elections and he consistently urged improvements in the Temporary law to make them more effective and to avoid the ethnic cleavages we now see. He's urged in fact a coalition with the Kurds and is decidedly anti-Baathist, good Shiite that he is.
So be careful little naifs. A little knowlege is a dangerous thing.
The New Baghdad-Tehran Axis
Robin Wright of the Washington Post points out that an electoral victory of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq and the Dawa Party, both of them close to Tehran, is not what Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and the Neoconservatives had been going for with this Iraq adventure. The United Iraqi Alliance is led by Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, a Shiite cleric who lived over 2 decades in exile in Iran. I point out that the likely coalition partner of the United Iraqi Alliance is the Kurdistan Alliance, led by Jalal Talabani, who is himself very close to Tehran. So there are likely to be warm Baghdad-Tehran relations.
Likewise, it is worth pointing out that the new Shiite government in Baghdad will support the Lebanese Shiites, including Hezbollah.
One of the Neoconservatives' goals had been the installation of a pro-Israel government in Baghdad. But at Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution rallies and Friday prayers services, crowds have been known to chant "Death to Israel!"
Good news? Bad news? or just news
6660. jexster - 2/14/2005 11:06:09 AM
I am needless to say constrained to disagree with Pelle and Wombat.
I'd worry if I found otherwise
6661. jexster - 2/14/2005 12:07:56 PM
Wilsonian naifs are especially susceptible sad to say
More Election Ju-Ju
Bands played, children sang, millions of Iraqis turned out to vote and the whole world hailed Iraq’s election as an historic epiphany. Success in the voting process means that Iraq will emerge as a peaceful, democratic state. America has won its war.
Sorry, but I don’t buy it.
The problem in Iraq is still exactly what it was before the election: there is no state. Elections alone do not create a state, as we saw not long ago in Afghanistan. An occupying American army can protect an election, but it cannot create a state.
I rather think what we see here in from Wombat/Pelle Axis of Naivete is a very clear bias for Rosy Scenarios..
Wow damn big Motes in your eyes guys
6662. PelleNilsson - 2/14/2005 2:17:58 PM
Yes, working for 13 years in the ME really stimulates ones naivite.
6663. jexster - 2/17/2005 11:34:11 AM
Cutting Thru Election Ju-Ju
Juan Cole:
Engelhardt and Hiro on Iraq's Fault Lines
Tom Engelhardt is a national treasure and always worth reading. Whenever I think that Russell Jacoby might have been right about the passing of the "last intellectuals," I think of Tom and conclude "not yet." This week he introduces veteran journalist Dilip Hiro's essay on the way that the recent Iraqi elections exacerbated ethnic fault lines....
The whole piece should be contemplated by anyone concerned with the Middle East.
6664. Wombat - 2/17/2005 12:31:49 PM
Jex:
See post 6574.
6665. Wombat - 2/17/2005 12:35:28 PM
And I managed to arrive at that conclusion without reading Juan Cole!
6666. wonkers2 - 2/18/2005 7:50:42 AM
Ariel Sharon is going soft. Here.
6667. jexster - 2/25/2005 1:05:55 PM
Desperate Efforts to Salvage Coalition of the Failing
6668. jexster - 2/26/2005 6:10:09 PM
On War #105 - Opportunity Knocks
By William S. Lind
The February 15 Washington Post carried as a front-page story that most valuable of war reports, an in-depth look at our enemy in Iraq. It was the story of an insurgent named Abu Shaiba, who was killed on December 17 in Fallujah in a firefight with U.S. forces.
Abu Shaiba was not some kid high on Islamic fervor. He was 39 years old, a father of nine children. Why was he fighting us? Because on October 11, U.S. troops had shot and killed his 13-year old son. He came from a culture that demands revenge. Abu Shaiba sought death in Fallujah, and found it, because when he left the city to take his family to safety, other insurgents thought he had shown cowardice. His culture demanded that he die to prove he was no coward, so he did. To the degree the U.S. military regards opponents like Abu Shaiba with contempt, it makes a grave mistake.
What is most interesting about the Post piece is its suggestion that Abu Shaiba, and others like him, could be our allies instead of our enemies – providing we stop killing their children.....
A number of Marine Corps officers contacted me after my recent column on the progress of the FMFM 1-A, Fourth Generation War, asking if they could get involved in helping write it (the answer is yes, to anyone who wants to help – it is an open process). One of them, an infantry major recently back from Iraq, said, “I’m where Colonel Mike Wyly was after Vietnam. I don’t know what will work, but I know what we are doing now is not working.”
The Post’s story of the life and death of Abu Shaiba offers a way that might work. We should be fighting alongside the Abu Shaibas, not against them. A good first step would be to find Abu Shaiba’s widow and children and offer them some help, as testimony that the U.S. military honors brave opponents it would rather not have to fight.
6669. jexster - 2/28/2005 8:37:23 AM
6574 - dead on Wombat...might add that 2/3 supermajority may guarantee permanent gridlocked, constituent assembly government...
The Kurds will do what the Kurds have always been doing..setting up their autonomous region and telling the ret of the country to piss off.
I still say tho that the country's best hope is that opposition to the occupation will forge a Shiite-Sunni nationalist alliance...
The Shiites have a lot of fence mending on account of their acquiesence as the US flattened major Sunni areas.
6670. jexster - 3/1/2005 12:22:43 PM
Juan Cole has an excellent treatment of Lebanon Realignment and Syria on his site today.
Longish, historical Wisdom of Obe Juan....
6671. PelleNilsson - 3/1/2005 3:13:55 PM
I could have written that, and better. Cole's statement that the French "carved off what is now Lebanon and gerrymandered it so that it had a Christian majority" is just ridiculous. The French took the sanjak of Beirut, inhabited mostly by Maronites and Druze and added to it areas in the northe and south that were dominated by Sunni and Shia respectively.
And what Cole fails to mention is that the Karami government resigned yesterday after massive popular demonstrations in central Beirut.The police were present in force but did nothing to break them up. This is unprecedented in the Middle East.
Other cmmentators have been quick to link these events to the elections in Iraq and Bush's push for democracy in the ME. I'm not so sure about that. Lebanon is not easy to fit into any mold.
In my opinion this has to do with Hariri's status as a self-made man who made it to the top commercially and politically. The people of Lebanon, I think, are dead tired of their old and increasingly useless political clans. There is no end to the number of Franjiehs, Gemayels, Karamis, Jumblatts and others who, for generations, in ritual dance circulate in and out of profitable political positions.
Hariri was his own man, not faultless, a bit corrup perhaps, but not part of the tired old system. He got killed. The people got angry. The ramifications will be interesting.
6672. judithathome - 3/1/2005 3:41:12 PM
Bushies are claiming the victory...it matters not what the real reason might be so long as Bush can be exalted as the leader who changed the world.
6673. jexster - 3/1/2005 7:07:54 PM
Pelle I am sure you could have done better but what you didn't do was read Cole's post yesterday, Breaking News: Lebanese Government Resigns in Face of VideoClip Revolution actually a post I found interesting for its description of the use of music video at the rally you claim he failed to mention.
Now as for
When the French conquered Syria in 1920, they decided to make it easier to rule by dividing it. They carved off what is now Lebanon and gerrymandered it so that it had a Christian majority. In 1920, Maronite Catholics were probably 40 percent of the population, and with Greek Orthodox and others the Christian population came to 51 percent. The Shiites were probably only about 18 percent of the population then. Both under the French Mandate (1920-1946) and in the early years of the Lebanese
If it walks like a gerrymander, if it talks like a gerrymander, it ain't Swedish
6674. jexster - 3/1/2005 7:17:30 PM
Now for the most important part of Cole's post, which you also failed to notice (but could have done better we are all sure)
The Syrians made a big mistake in growing attached to Gen. Emile Lahoud, their favorite Lebanese president. When his 6-year term was about to expire last fall, the Syrians intervened to have the Lebanese constitution amended to allow him to remain for another 3 years. Across the board, the Lebanese public was angered and appalled at this foreign tinkering with their constitution.
Rafiq al-Hariri resigned over the constitutional change. He was replaced as prime minister by another Sunni, Omar Karami of Tripoli in northern Lebanon.
The assassination of Rafiq al-Hariri, the popular multi-billionnaire Sunni prime minister (1992-1998 and 2000-2004), angered a broad swathe of the Sunni community, convincing them it was time for the Syrians to go. Despite the lack of any real evidence for the identity of the assassin, the Lebanese public fixed on the Syrians as the most likely culprit
Not being Lebanese, not having like Cole lived there and married there, and not having played one on TV, considering only motive and opportunity like any lawyer, prosecutor, poleese, 2 suspects:
1. Syria
2. ha-Mossad le-Modiin ule-Tafkidim Meyuhadim
Consider Syria...if Cole is correct that Syrian interference extending Lahoud's term 3 years outraged the Lebanese public, what possible motive could they have to further inflame the situation by assassinating Hariri? Wouldn't it have been obvious to any casual observer of Lebanese affairs that Syria would be blamed for it?
Of course, people do irrational and stupid things all the time...look at IraQ! Yet still there is the second suspect to consider...
Try
6675. jexster - 3/1/2005 7:23:05 PM
Yo Pelle!
UM has the 5th ranked History Dept in the US...
and you have a future in Amerika...
contact
Juan R. Cole
Associate Chair of Department;
Professor
jrcole@umich.edu
1029 Tisch Hall
734-763.....
6676. jexster - 3/1/2005 7:24:23 PM
Allah knows that the last thing I want out what remains of this life is to get enmeshed in academic bitch fights
6677. jexster - 3/1/2005 7:28:28 PM
As if on cue...enter stage left..
US claims Syria terrorists for Tel Aviv attack..why only 3 days ago an unnamed source in Israel said they planned a big EuroOffensive with "secret intel" proving Syrian involvement
My oh my
6678. PelleNilsson - 3/2/2005 12:45:16 AM
Gosh, one would have thought I attacked Jesus or something.
But I want it to be understood that although Syria has claims on Lebanon, these are spurious. The ceentral portion of Lebanon was never ruled from Damascus. It made up the autonomous sanjak of Beirut which was ruled directly from Constantinople. The French added areas in the north and south with Muslim populations. They did not anticipate the demographic changes that took place over the next several decades. Note also that all population figures for Lebanon are largely conjecture because there has been no census since 1932.
6679. alistairconnor - 3/2/2005 6:59:17 AM
The problem with Cole is that he is as black-and-white as the Neocons themselves :
I don't think Bush had anything much to do with the current Lebanese national movement except at the margins. Walid Jumblatt, the embittered son of Kamal whom the Syrians defeated in 1976 at the American behest, said he was inspired by the fall of Saddam. But this sort of statement from a Druze warlord strikes me as just as manipulative as the news conferences of Ahmad Chalabi, who is also inspired by Saddam's fall. Jumblatt has a long history of anti-Israeli and anti-American sentiment that makes his sudden conversion to neoconism likely a mirage. He has wanted the Syrians back out since 1976, so it is not plausible that anything changed for him in 2003.
So according to this Juanker, the only people who can be "inspired" by the fall of Saddam are Neocons, pro-Israelis and pro-Americans.
So, what has changed in the last couple of years which has made this current wave in Lebanon possible ?
It seems to me that Jumblatt is more than a "warlord" : he's become something of an elder statesman. And, crucially, sectarian differences seem to be receding in the face of genuine Lebanese nationalism.
I think recent examples of street-power in other countries are likely to have been hugely influential : Georgia and the Ukraine in particular.
But there is another element. Anti-Syrian feeling has been strong for a long time : how come the Lebanese dare to defy the Syrians now?
The fact that the Neocons are foaming at the mouth and straining at the leash, begging to tear some chunks out of Syria, is, on balance, quite likely to have something to do with it...
... We don't like to acknowledge such an unpalatable prospect, do we Jex?
6680. alistairconnor - 3/2/2005 7:04:30 AM
In the current climate, Syrian repression of the Lebanese demonstrations would quite likely lead to American bombing. Which would get a good press, at least initially.
Another unpalatable truth : it seems clear that Syria is backing the Iraqi insurgency, providing them with safe bases, a porous border etc. Is Assad permitting this in order to use it as a bargaining chip with the Americans, or has he just got no control over his dad's old Baathist cronies?
Either way, the spotlight's on him, and he knows that if he makes a false move he's cooked.
6681. alistairconnor - 3/2/2005 7:09:33 AM
Hey Jex, here's some more for you and Juan to gag on :
U.S. and France Join to Urge Syria to Pull Out of Lebanon
uh what... the French have gone neocon too?
I'm confuuuuuused.
6682. jayackroyd - 3/2/2005 9:33:57 AM
The action by the masses in Lebanon reminded me more of the Ukraine than Iraq.
6683. Wombat - 3/2/2005 11:36:15 AM
Syrian aid to Kurdish insurgents in Turkey ended when Turkey moved a large military force to the Syrian border. Rumblings from the United States along similar lines would certainly speed a Syrian pull-out from Lebanon. Unless such a move was accompanied by "carrots" from the United States, however, Syria would continue or increase its tolerance/support for Iraqi insurgents.
The other question to be asked is whether a weak and ethnically fractured Lebanese democracy will be able to meet its internal and external security obligations. I do not see the situation as any better than it has been for the last 30 years in terms of the divisions within Lebanese society. The presence of a leader who can rule across these divides seems essential; unfortunately one such leader was just killed.
6684. PelleNilsson - 3/2/2005 1:17:03 PM
Wombat rightly warns against a too optimistic view on Lebanon. There are indeed fundamental problems of governance that have been papered over. But I visited several times in 1994-97 and noted a quite relaxed interaction beteween the different groups. You may object that what I see is not representative of the sentiments in "the street", and you would be right. On the other hand I worked with the same strata of people when I lived there in 1974-75 and relations were more reserved then. I think there are grounds for hope.
Concerning Syria, I think the regime is slowly crumbling. Give it 3-4 years at the most. Bashir Assad is not the kind of ruthless and undisputed leader his father was. He has no power base. Nobody owes him anything. There are bound to be open rivalries in the top echelon and the Hariri killing might have been the result of one such.
6685. jexster - 3/3/2005 12:57:58 PM
Thank God Europe is in Charge
In major policy punt, Bush backs Euro on IraN
As reknown Israeli military historian Martin van Creveld wryly observed:
6686. jexster - 3/3/2005 1:00:19 PM
Oh shit Pelle, I am full of Christian charity toward attacks by post-modern Swedish atheists when it comes to Jaysus that is...Jesus is a matter of belief. Obe Juan, a matter of fact
Juan Cole - Twelfth imam
6687. jexster - 3/3/2005 1:01:24 PM
Yes, it seems that Assad fils is not exactly a chip off the old block
6688. jexster - 3/3/2005 1:12:51 PM
Alastair...not for nothin that inside the Raygun admin they were known as "the crazies"
I seriously doubt that turnout in any election in the middle east for the next fifty years will have been affected by the invasion of IraQ!
Now as to the issue at hand - Lebanon-Palestine I gaur-goddamn-tee ya that IraQ had less than nothing to do with anything.
Palestine? Not only have they had an election before, they happen to have really really wanted for a really really long time a state of their own.
Lebanon? That's not democracy. That is a street demonstration that reflects pent up hostility toward Syria which as Cole notes found an opportunity, a flash point in Syria's n11/04 diktat and Hariri assasnintation, resulting what Cole claims to be the first time that Sunnis have joined Druze and Christians in a major national purpose since 1943 (end French Mandate)
Well I guess we can just leave it at -
NEWSFLASH! People don't like having their countries invaded and occupied.
WOW!
6689. jexster - 3/3/2005 1:42:42 PM
Continuing the heavy small arms fire at AC's post hoc ergo propter hoc spuriously reasoned notions of ccausation and, as for the Wisdom of Obe Juan on democracy in the middle east, it is quite one thing to advance the causuistry that you and your neo-fascist brothers are...quite another to say that the West can do nothing to encourage democracy in a region whose "street" would I think very much enjoy an Islamic Republic in Iraq, a sovereign, REAL state in Palestine, and a democratically elected Moslem Brotherhood control of Egypt.
His most recent, The Downside of Democracy, appeared last Thursday in the LA Times. An excerpt:
6690. jexster - 3/3/2005 1:52:17 PM
Iran's emergence as the Regional Hegemon is the single most important long term consequence of the invasion of IraQ.
Though I have no feel for the dynamic of sectarian civil violence, Sunnis in the region are apparently somewhat fearful that a band of Shiite governments will emerge from IraN to Lebanon...I have no idea how likely myself, completly miss the point of why either group is so bothered..my evidence though comes from the mouths of people who do..Sunnis in power
Do fights breakout at Haj?
6691. jayackroyd - 3/3/2005 2:04:03 PM
There is frequently violence during the Hajj. The Kuwait Times reports that 50,000 Saudi troops are being deployed to prevent violence. This story discusses some of the issues. Of course, everything has been ratched up by the Islamist movement.
6692. jexster - 3/3/2005 2:07:50 PM
PS...I don't believe that Ronald Raygun was even a remote cause of the collapse of communism either
6693. jexster - 3/3/2005 2:11:27 PM
I mean between Sunnis and Shiites..do they segregate them? Put riot troops between the tent encampments...
Jihad Watch eh?
Guess what the biggest long term consequence of the 1980 Russian invasion Afganistan and US support of its opposition was???
6694. jayackroyd - 3/3/2005 2:45:39 PM
It's partly that it is just so damn many people. 251 people killed in a stampede
6695. jexster - 3/3/2005 8:42:24 PM
I did a quick start to finish vicarious pilgrimage via Discovery Channel.....4 pilgrims progressed..
Allah better give you a plenary indulgence or whatever the equivalent is for enduring that hell hole, but they all claim to have experienced deep spiritual awakenings and movements.....Allah's ways are indeed Mystery
6696. jexster - 3/5/2005 9:36:20 PM
Here you go AC ...as you peuple say le plus ca change
http://www.emayzine.com/lectures/usmeddling.htm target=new>US Engineered Lebanese Elections of 1957
The demo dominoes been falling in the ME ever since
6697. PelleNilsson - 3/6/2005 6:42:37 AM
And in 1958 the US marines landed...
6698. jexster - 3/6/2005 11:16:37 AM
And it seems the US is at it again...The TAL under which the Iraqi government is "operating" is a vertitable Endora's box of mischief...
Constitutional Issues
This is the more or less complete picture for what 2/3 votes are needed for, according to the Transitional Administrative Law, in the National Assembly and for what 50% + 1 majorities are enough. [Many journalists seem confused on this issue], since most won't read and try to understand the TAL itself. Almost every one of these provisions is important, and potentially very contentious.
But they do not amount to a consociational or even consensus structure of governing. Setting up government is another matter. But once it is set up, the Prime Minister can (because of his ability to dismiss ministers with the support of a simple majority) convert any coalition extorted through consensus requirements into a minimal coalition as long as it has 50% and is itself cohesive. The assembly under him can freely legislate within the TAL, though it can change the TAL only through the impossible 3/4, or repudiate it only extra-legally, but arguably legitimately--if very dangerously....
The post goes on to list the provisions of the TAL that require 2/3+ votes and those thing that may be accomplished by simple majority.
The stalemate and the mischief take on added importance because, as in the previous post, a series of recent polls report that Public Support for IraQ War is Collapsing
6699. jexster - 3/7/2005 12:13:25 PM
Obe Juan is sure to set off more controversy with this length historical survey..
Bush Got One Thing Right: Foreign Occupation - Not Islamic Religion or Culture - has Produced Radical Muslim Terrorism
6700. jexster - 3/7/2005 12:21:53 PM
Moreover, if democracy means majority rule and the expression of the general will, then it won't always work to the advantage of the US. Bush administration spokesmen keep talking about Syrian withdrawal being the demand of the "Lebanese people." But 40% of the Lebanese are Shiites, and 15% are probably Sunnis, and it may well be that a majority of Lebanese want to keep at least some Syrian troops around. Hizbullah has sided with Syria and Shaikh Nasrallah has called for a big pro-Syrian demonstration by Shiites on Tuesday.
For true democracy to flourish in Lebanon, the artificial division of seats in parliament so that half go to the Christian minority would have to be ended. Religious Shiites would have, as in Iraq, a much bigger voice in national affairs. Will a Lebanon left to its own devices to negotiate a social compact between rightwing Christians and Shiite Hizbullah really be an island of stability?
I'm all for democratization in the Middle East, as a good in its own right. But I don't believe that authoritarian governance produced most episodes of terrorism in the last 60 years in the region. Terrorism was a weapon of the weak wielded against what these radical Muslims saw as a menacing foreign occupation. To erase that fact is to commit a basic error in historical understanding. It is why the US military occupation of Iraq is actually a negative for any "war on terror." Nor do I believe that democratization, even if it is possible, is going to end terrorism in and of itself.
6701. jexster - 3/7/2005 9:33:15 PM
Prof Hassan Abu Kahlil on the NewsHour and his counterpart from the Brookings Saban Center agree....
The euphoria in the West is misplaced. Lebanon today looks more like the start of the civil war than the Ukraine.
Kahlil - the Lebanese have more than just a willingness to pull outside powers be it US, Israel, Syria or France into their internal messes. It is more like a compulsion.
6702. alistairconnor - 3/8/2005 3:29:31 AM
Today should be interesting -- it's Hezbollah's turn to get people into the streets. Supposedly to thank big-bro Syria and to warn against foreign interference!
The size of the turnout could be telling -- it doesn't strike me as a very motivating theme.
As the last of the militias -- the others supposedly have disarmed -- their attitude is obviously crucial. But so is the attitude of their constituency. Isn't it time for something other than religion-based political entities?
6703. jexster - 3/8/2005 11:03:45 AM
Today won't be as interesting as tommorrow...looks like Prof Abu Kahlil knows his cedars...
Hizzbolah Draws Vast Pro-Syrian Crowds
6704. jexster - 3/8/2005 11:04:49 AM
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Hundreds of thousands of flag-waving Lebanese flooded central Beirut Tuesday for a pro-Syrian rally called by Hizbollah that dwarfed previous protests demanding that Syrian troops quit Lebanon
6705. jexster - 3/8/2005 11:05:29 AM
How do we like THAT "democracy"?
6706. jexster - 3/8/2005 11:39:21 AM
The other interesting thing Abu Kahlil mentioned was that he didn't think Assad was running the government. He believes that elements of the military and intel service are in charge. Assad's recent speech was, in his view, the most public of a series of attempts on his part to engage the US in an open strategic dialogue. If he does not succeed, there may be a coup by these other forces who are opposed to such a dialogue
6707. jexster - 3/8/2005 12:44:44 PM
Bush Demands Syria Out of Lebanon by May
You and what army?
6708. jexster - 3/8/2005 12:46:54 PM
Looks more like the eve of the civil war than anything else
Tuesday's rally was far bigger than the more than 70,000 anti-Syrian protesters who filled nearby Martyrs' Square on Monday. That was the biggest rally yet of anti-Syrian furor, as demonstrators waved Lebanon's cedar-tree flag and thundered, "Syria out!"
There were no independent estimates of Tuesday's crowd, but at least 500,000 people crowded Riad Solh Square and nearby streets. The Lebanese army blocked the road between the two squares with an armored carrier.
6709. jexster - 3/8/2005 2:45:04 PM
6710. PelleNilsson - 3/8/2005 3:28:55 PM
The Lebanese army blocked the road between the two squares with an armored carrier.
That's the most ridiculous and misleading thing I've read in a long, long time. Marryr's Square and Riadh Solh Square are two names of the same place. And there is no way it (including "nearby streets") could hold 500,000 people. I know this because my office in 1974-75 was just off that square.
6711. jexster - 3/8/2005 7:50:38 PM
Were you there for the Civil War?
6712. jexster - 3/8/2005 7:55:08 PM
Was talking to my PLO grocer and he knows this guy...from CSU Stanislaus...NorCali
6713. jexster - 3/8/2005 7:57:42 PM
6714. jexster - 3/8/2005 9:59:29 PM
BEIRUT, Lebanon, March 8 - Shouting anti-American and anti-Israeli slogans, hundreds of thousands of Lebanese poured into central Beirut today in a show of strength by the militant Muslim Shiite party Hezbollah, which opposes the withdrawal of Syrian forces from Lebanon.
The enormous crowd, in which many had been bused in from the Shiite slums of southern Beirut, was far larger than the anti-Syrian demonstrations of recent weeks that have drawn broad international support...
The participants at today's demonstration here were, by and large, a very different Lebanon from the educated, better-off Christians and Sunni Muslims who have captured the world's attention since Rafik Hariri, the former prime minister, was assassinated Feb. 14 by a huge car bomb.
While the anti-Syrian opposition movement has been called the Cedar revolution, a reference to the Lebanese national tree, it has also been called the BMW revolution. Today's demonstration included far more women with covered heads and men in traditional dress.
NyT
Whose side does little Georgie want us to be on?
Sign me up.
6715. PelleNilsson - 3/9/2005 1:18:21 AM
I was there for the first nine months of the civil war.
6716. thoughtful - 3/9/2005 9:29:34 AM
Not one to seem like sour grapes, and I am happy if all this 'freedom breaking out all over' in the mideast actually works, I'm bothered by all this gushing vindication over w and wolfie. It's as if the lebanese assassination and arafat's death had nothing to do with it. As if the changing sentiment in other mideast nations wasn't already there such as among the younger generation in iran and the shift in elections away from the ultra conservatives, elections in yemen in 1999, or kuwait's elected nat'l assembly. And of course the parallel assumption that the 'elections' in afghanistan mean a democratic government that has somehow left the country better off when in fact it's no better, if not worse, than it was prior to the taliban.
I mean, isn't it just a wee bit early to be judging iraq from an historical perspective????
6717. PelleNilsson - 3/9/2005 10:15:40 AM
As Chou-En-Lai reportedly replied when asked about the significance of the French Revolution: "It is too early to say".
Personally I think Ukraine was at least as important for events in Lebanon as Iraq.
6718. jexster - 3/9/2005 11:21:45 AM
The simplistic master narrative constructed by the partisans of President George W. Bush held that the January 30 elections were a huge success, and signalled a turn to democracy in the Middle East. Then the anti-Syrian demonstrations were interpreted as a yearning for democracy inspired by the Iraqi elections.
This interpretation is a gross misunderstanding of the situation in the Middle East....
The Lebanese have been having often lively parliamentary election campaigns for decades. The idea that the urbane and sophisticated Beirutis had anything to learn from the Jan. 30 process in Iraq is absurd on the face of it. Elections were already scheduled in Lebanon for later this spring.
Moreover, the anti-Syrian protests were not a signal that the Lebanese wanted to be like American-occupied Iraq.
Hundreds of Thousands of Shiites Stage Pro-Syrian Demonstration in Beirut
6719. jexster - 3/9/2005 11:27:28 AM
Personally I think the Mossad capitalized on the ill-advised intervention by the Syrians in November 04
6720. alistairconnor - 3/9/2005 11:46:44 AM
From Cole : The main exhibit for the relevance of Iraq to Lebanon is Druze warlord Walid Jumblatt's statement to the Washington Post: "It's strange for me to say it, but this process of change has started because of the American invasion of Iraq. I was cynical about Iraq. But when I saw the Iraqi people voting, eight million of them, it was the start of a new Arab world."
Jumblatt is a whore. I saw him on French TV the other night, hitting all the right notes for a French audience ... obviously, he didn't say anything like the above quote.
Still. It's neither here nor there whether Bush convinces Americans that he is bringing democracy to the middle east. It doesn't change the facts on the ground.
6721. thoughtful - 3/9/2005 12:26:08 PM
but, ac, in this new reality where they (bushies) believe they create the reality, what's happening on the ground is absolutely irrelevant. all that matters is perception as that's what drives voters. irrelevant to slash taxes for the poor as long as you sell the perception of being compassionate conservative. irrelevant to run record deficits as long as you sell the perception of being fiscally conservative.
Truly wag the dog.
6722. jexster - 3/9/2005 12:30:36 PM
Thoughtful...
You miss the Great Irony...If Bush has unleashed anything it is Shiite power from Iran to Iraq to Syria to the streets of Beruit, the poor and the long-oppressed Shiite's, either majorities as in Iran/Iraq or substantial minorities as in Syria, Lebanon are rising up!
GWB, champion of the poor and the down trodden, First Bitch of the Islamic Republic of IraQ
6723. thoughtful - 3/9/2005 1:22:08 PM
jex, i didn't miss it...the question is, is he making the middle east more us like? or the us more mideast like...i.e. same theocracy, different religion?
6724. PelleNilsson - 3/9/2005 1:45:20 PM
So the Shiites make up a poor and long-oppressed minority in Syria? Laughable. Assad and his gang are Alawites, a branch of Shia. Plese don't opine about things you know nothing about.
6725. concerned - 3/9/2005 5:03:42 PM
My name is Raghad Hussein and mine is a hard-luck tale. I grew up in the kind of fabulous wealth and privilege you just can't fucking imagine. I was the Paris Hilton of Baghdad. Daddy was a psychopath but he had his moments. My brothers Uday and Whozzit were animals. Let's face it, I'm the only normal one in the bunch, like Marilyn Munster.
My husband was a Baathist thug but he was my thug until Daddy killed him. And then that stupid Supreme Court elected George Bush, and, well, you know the rest. Now I'm stuck in Amman, which is frankly a pit toilet.
Can you believe people are criticizing me because I recently had a boob job, a tummy tuck, a nosejob, & a facelift?? Or because I love $hopping and doing the stairmaster and having my hair coiffed? Do you say coiffed?
Yes, I asked Mr. Ashcroft to return the jewels from our 5000 presidential palaces, but that is our rightful property. A girl has to eat. As Chelsea Clinton would say, Don't hold my Daddy's sociopathy against me. If any agents are reading this, I could use a big fat book deal. Also I do a little singing and tap dancing. Perhaps that grotesquely obese honorary Baathist Michael Moore could get me some exposure.
I could make it worth your while, Mr. Moore. Hell, I've done worse.
6726. PelleNilsson - 3/11/2005 2:19:06 PM
Intelligence on Iran inadequate, report to Bush says
A commission due to report to President George W. Bush this month will describe American intelligence on Iran as inadequate and not complete enough to allow firm judgments about that country's illicit weapons programs, according to people who have been briefed on the panel's work.
The commission's sharp indictment of U.S. judgments on Iran follows a secretive 14-month review by the panel. Bush ordered it last year to assess the quality of overall U.S. intelligence about the proliferation of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.
Didn't we read a couple of months ago that the US had intelligence teams on the ground in Iran? What became of them?
6727. jexster - 3/12/2005 10:48:07 AM
They were converted?
That Didn't Last Long
Iran Tells Bush to Piss Up a Rope
6728. jexster - 3/13/2005 8:14:12 PM
Cole:
Some Iraqis find it ironic that President Bush called for a withdrawal of foreign troops from Lebanon before the elections, but that elections were held in Iraq under conditions of foreign military occupation. Some quotes from the Knight Ridder story:
6729. jexster - 3/13/2005 8:47:13 PM
The BMW Revolution Has Engine Trouble:
Hizbollah Turns Another Couple Hundred Thousand
NABATIYEH, Lebanon (Reuters) - Hundreds of thousands of people turned out for a Hizbollah rally against the United States on Sunday, even as a U.N. envoy met the Lebanese president to press demands for a Syrian pullout.
Reuters Photo
AFP
Slideshow: Some Syrian Troops to Withdraw from Lebanon
Hizbollah Prepare Pro-Syrian Rally
(Reuters Video)
Washington, leading the calls for Syria to withdraw its forces from the country, said it welcomed promises by Damascus to do so but wanted to see deeds and not just words.
Many placards at Hizbollah's demonstration in the southern town of Nabatiyeh said "No to foreign intervention," but were aimed at the United States and Israel, not Syria.
"America out!" yelled supporters of the Syrian-backed Shi'ite Muslim group, mocking the chants of "Syria out" at opposition demonstrations in recent weeks.
It was the second time in a week the Hizbollah guerrilla group, Lebanon's most powerful political organization and the only one with weapons, had flexed its muscles.
Hundreds of thousands of people gathered in central Beirut on Tuesday to support Hizbollah's right to bear arms and to thank Syria for its role in Lebanon, where Damascus has kept troops since intervening in the country's civil war in 1976.
Waving Lebanese flags, the crowd chanted "Death to America, death to Israel" at the rally organized by Hizbollah and the smaller Shi'ite Amal party. A few burned U.S. and Israeli flags.
6730. Magoseph - 3/14/2005 5:02:44 AM
I wonder if the announcement today that Al Qaeda is planning attacks on soft-targets in the US reflects the conception that they are losing on the international stage. It must be obvious that if you can get a suicide bomber to blow himself up in Iraq for a $25,000 payment to his family, our open borders have to be attractive. Perhaps, the Bush Administration would have to make a choice between their cheap labor border policy and the safety of our population.
6731. jexster - 3/14/2005 12:23:24 PM
The BMW Revolutionaries Find Spare Parts Dealer!
800,000 Jam Beruit in Oppo Rally
6732. jexster - 3/14/2005 12:26:12 PM
No Mago I don't think Al Qaeda was much interested in international popularity....they wanna recruit in the Muslim world and perhaps a few weirdos like that guy in Oreygun..I think that perhaps bombings in the US get more bang for the buck so to speak than blowing up your own people
But then again..that's just me
6733. jexster - 3/14/2005 1:21:10 PM
It is hard, amidst the din of the Bush spun twaddle, to get an accurate reading on the impact that the Occupation has had in the ME..
So we turn, for guidance, to the One Who Sees Clearly the Face of Allah..
Bush Shiitizing Politics of Arab East
Those of you interested in following the Lebanon situation should consult Helena Cobban's web log. Cobban is a veteran reporter who has spent substantial time in Beirut and was there last fall.
She points to this 3/12 al-Hayat article:
Salama Ni`mat writes from Washington: "As the White House and the State Department deny any change in American policy toward Hizbullah, an American official expressed his anxiety at the possibility that Hizbullah will exploit the curtailment of Syrian influence in Lebanon to reinforce its own military and political position in Lebanon, in cooperation with Iran and at the expense of the Lebanese Opposition. The official, who requested anonymity, said that Hizbullah "Might prove able to sweep the Lebanese elections, if they are held without foreign interference, and to fill the vaccuum that the Syrian withdrawal will leave behind." He clarified that Hizbullah, which was yesterday a Syrian ally, might tomorrow be its successor, whether by resort to weapons or by dominance at the ballot box.
Paraphrase: He pointed to Israeli anxieties about the rise of Hizbullah, saying it was among the best-armed and best-trained terrorist organizations in the world, with strong connections to several similar organizations, including Iran's Revolutionary Guards.
He maintained that Hizbullah had played an important role in recruiting fighters to go fight the Americans and the Iraqi government in Iraq. [Cole: This is a vast exaggeration; there is no evidence of any significant number of Shiite Lebanese fighters being captured in Iraq, and the guerrillas are almost all Sunnis.]
etc.
This official seems to me not well informed, and just full of typical Washington propaganda. Hizbullah cannot sweep the elections, because the Taef Conference set a 50/50 split of seats in parliament between Christians and Muslims. And the tradition has been for the president to be a Maronite Christian, and the prime minister a Sunni Arab. The most that could happen would be that Hizbullah defeats the other Shiite party, AMAL, and takes over the Speaker of the House position.
With regard to Hizbullah's paramilitary, last I knew it was only 5000 men or so. Contrary to these assertions, I know of no good evidence that Hizbullah has been involved in international terrorism for many years-- since about 1997 I think (though I'm glad to be corrected). Its main activity was getting the Israeli occupiers back out of Lebanon, in which it succeeded.
Hizbullah is a party of the poor, is puritanical and often frankly fanatical. I wouldn't want to live under it. But it probably represents a good 1/3 of Lebanese politically and is a force to be reckoned with. It cannot simply be ignored or dismissed as a terrorist organization.
Hizbullah isn't that different from the Dawa Party or the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, which the US just helped to power in Iraq. The three will almost certainly become fast friends in the new Shiite crescent that Washington is creating.
It used to be said that the British Empire was acquired in a fit of absent-mindedness. It might equally be said that the Bush administration is Shiitizing the politics of the Arab East (mashriq), whether it means to or not.
posted by Juan @ 3/14/2005 06:16:00 AM
6734. jexster - 3/15/2005 2:22:02 PM
Motive + Opportunity = The Mossad Murdered Hariri - Zogby Poll
The country appears deeply divided over how much presence Syria should have in Lebanon, and on where to place the blame for the death of former PM Hariri. a recent scientific poll by Zogby International, half of Maronites and Druze blame Syria for Hariri's death. Only 14% of Shiites do, while 70% of Shiites blame the US and Israel. Shiites are probably over 40 percent of the Lebanese population, while Maronites are probably only about 20 percent (Lebanon may now be as much as 70 percent Muslim if Druze are counted in that group).
6735. thoughtful - 3/15/2005 2:44:20 PM
Well we know the mideast situation is going to improve with hughes in charge. Her sweet talk, like the way she likened abortion with terrorism, is sure to win the hearts and minds of the muslim world...especially once she lets her xtianity show and she sounds like Boykin. Of course I could be wrong. Man, I hope I'm wrong.
6736. PelleNilsson - 3/15/2005 3:15:21 PM
Since parliamantary elections in Lebanon is coming up in a couple of months I would like to amplify Cole's statement that the allocation of seats is 50/50 between Christians and Muslims. That is true, but things are more complicated than that because there are subdivisions:
Maronite Christian 34
Greek Orthodox 14
Greek Catholic 8
Armenian Orthodox 5
Armenian Catholic 1
Protestant 1
Christian Minority 1
Sub-total 64
Sunni Muslim 27
Shi’a Muslim 27
Druze 8
Alawite 2
Sub-total 64
Currently Hizbollah shares the Shiite allocation with Nabih Berry's Amal party. I don't remember their precise numbers of seats but I think it is about half or a bit more. Amal is the traditional party of the Shiite establishment. In any case, even if Hizbollah makes a clean sweep it can not receive more than 27 out of the 128 seats in parliament.
6737. jexster - 3/18/2005 1:41:30 PM
It WAS All About the Oil!
Last night, BBC Newsnight ran a special investigative report detailing internecine conflicts in the Bush Regime pitting NeoCon Ideologues with their secret plan to privatize IraQi Oil v. the State Dept./Big Oil Co. opponents who thought the Bushies were playing with a couple cards short of a full deck..
We had an EXTENDED discussion, some would say Spamussion, about this very subject before Bush's War on IraQ began...now the details are coming out..
You can Watch for 24 hours..
Secret US plans for Iraq's oil
The Bush administration began to make plans for war before 9/11 attacks, BBC Newsnight reveals.
6738. jexster - 3/18/2005 3:45:50 PM
Know O Believers That Either the Landlord Will Die or His Dog Will
6739. thoughtful - 3/18/2005 3:53:16 PM
Hah! I said it was all about oil from the very beginning and no one would believe me.
6740. thoughtful - 3/18/2005 3:53:43 PM
As deep throat said, follow the money.
6741. jexster - 3/18/2005 6:49:21 PM
Damn Pelle...if 70% of the country or more are Muslim of one stripe or the other as some say..
Then that's a recipie for civil war!
as deep throat said, follow the schekels
6742. Marc-Albert - 3/18/2005 9:38:22 PM
Hah! I said it was all about oil from the very beginning and no one would believe me.
They were right. It was not at all about oil, despite what you, Jexster or this fellow Palast say.
6743. jayackroyd - 3/19/2005 2:49:59 AM
I agree with you, M-A. I think it was about establishing a secure base in the mideast and about making Israel more secure.
However, I read an article a couple of months ago where the author pointed out that both world wars were won because the winners had access to oil that the losers did not. His claim was that Britain's post WWW1 policies and the US's post WW2 policies were driven by a desire to ensure free flowing oil in the event of a large conflict. Do you have a reply to that argument?
6744. jexster - 3/19/2005 11:19:26 AM
Eurasia Insight:
IRAN STANDS TO BENEFIT FROM POLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS IN IRAQ
Bush Says "US More Secure Because He Invaded Iraq"
6745. jexster - 3/19/2005 11:20:44 AM
"The election is seen here in Tehran as an endorsement of the [Iranian] government's policies in the Iraqi theatre,” said an academic in Iran who closely monitors Iraqi events. “It is also the first time in over two centuries in which the map of the area is changing in Iran's favor."
6746. PelleNilsson - 3/19/2005 1:17:26 PM
It is bold step to assume that the UK and US post-war policies had anything to do with the causes of war.
6747. jayackroyd - 3/19/2005 5:06:31 PM
I assume this is in reference to my question to Marc-Albert. I recalled the reference--it's to a brief article in this month's Atlantic, where the author says a central geopolitical goal of every major state since ww1 is to a secure supply of oil in the event of conflict. But I find your response cryptic. Which war? Post which war?
6748. jexster - 3/19/2005 7:30:45 PM
6749. jexster - 3/19/2005 7:32:24 PM
I was going to say...GWB is bold leiter er..leader
6750. jexster - 3/20/2005 10:34:32 PM
Either the landlord will die or...
TULKARM, West Bank (Reuters) - Israel's handover of a second West Bank city, intended as a gesture to strengthen Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, may be delayed after talks hit a snag Sunday over security arrangements.
6751. alistairconnor - 3/21/2005 4:42:05 AM
Hah! I said it was all about oil from the very beginning and no one would believe me.
But that's because you're well-known as a paranoid far-left Cassandra, Tful.
It was not at all about oil -- that's what I thought too, most of the time...
No rational person could have conceived of control of Iraqi oil as an objective for the war; because effective long-term US control of Iraqi production was never a likely outcome.
But I think it really was a motive for those who pushed for war. You've got to bear in mind, M-A, that they are not rational people, but (to coin a phrase) fucking crazies.
6752. jexster - 3/21/2005 10:54:44 AM
Or the dog will...
Israel to EXPAND Major W. Bank Settlements
6753. jexster - 3/23/2005 3:03:34 PM
I trust that the moderator of this thread is doing his homework
it is 20:05 in Goteburg
6754. wonkers2 - 3/27/2005 10:00:26 AM
Richard A. Clarke on Iraq/Iran
6755. jexster - 3/28/2005 10:16:56 AM
Breaking the Cedars of Lebanon
It is the proper time to speak of Resurrection - But I am not sure this is what George had in mind when he "engineered" the cedar revolution spin
Jittery Lebanese re-arm amid spree of bombings
The bright new Lebanon heralded by the much-vaunted Cedar Revolution is starting to feel ominously like the bad old Lebanon of the bitter past.
and there's also a Bushie Revolution going down in Bahrain. You don't hear about it the Fascist coordinated US media. That's because Bahrain is run by corrupt shieks, allies of the Bush Familia, La BushaNostra(and has a huge US Naval Base).
So you won't hear much spun Bush crap about the Massive Demonstration Against the Tyranny of His Royal Highness Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa
Aux guillotine!
Yea right
6756. jexster - 3/28/2005 10:53:55 AM
Where Sharon's Ass is There You'll Find Bush Lips
Call me a conspiracy theorist Peter but if it walks and talks like a Swedish goose...
(an Olde AMERICAN saying)
Sharon: Bush Endorses Perpetual Occupation of West Bank
6757. PelleNilsson - 3/28/2005 11:37:03 AM
Wasn't it always thus?
6758. jexster - 3/28/2005 12:30:53 PM
Certainment..le plus ca change as BMW Revolutionary and sometime Green Frog AC might say
I was talkin to the Dear Friend, Senator's Son, Fortunate One a few weeks ago and he recalled a visit with Shamir with his Daddy..he asked "Will Israel ever leave Judea and Samaria"?
"NEVER"
6759. jexster - 3/29/2005 2:12:35 PM
Juan Cole still ain't buyin my suspicions about the Zionist Entity's involvement but reports this:
6760. robertjayb - 4/5/2005 10:10:51 AM
Is chutzpah the word?
JERUSALEM (AP) -- Israel will ask the United States for money to help with the Gaza withdrawal, Israeli Vice Premier Shimon Peres said Tuesday ahead of a trip to Washington.
Peres spoke as Gaza settlers sought higher compensation for their homes and demanded to be moved to Israel as a group -- a sign that many have resigned themselves to the pullout after initially threatening a fight to the finish.
Settler leaders met Tuesday with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to discuss compensation and resettlement, ending months of angry refusal to talk.
6761. jexster - 4/5/2005 12:18:59 PM
Stating the Obvious, Not the Spin
Let's Give Bush All The Credit That is His Due
AMMAN (Reuters) - In a long-awaited report, Arab intellectuals and reformers say they have seen no significant advances toward democracy in the Arab world past year.
The third Arab Human Development Report (AHDR), released on Tuesday under U.N. auspices, said most reforms were "embryonic and fragmentary" and did not amount to a serious effort to end repression in the region, which has some of the world's most authoritarian governments.
The United States, which says it aims to promote democracy in the region, contributed to an international context that hampered progress through its policy toward Israel, its actions in Iraq and security measures affecting Arabs, the report said.
6762. jexster - 4/5/2005 7:18:56 PM
Lebanon Baloney
By William S. Lind
On Tuesday, March 29, Syria informed the U.N. that it would withdraw all of its troops from Lebanon before that country holds elections later this spring. The neo-Jacobins are celebrating Syria’s eviction from Lebanon as another great victory for democracy and the Rights of Man. But given what the removal of Syrian forces from Lebanon is likely to mean, they are slicing the baloney a bit thin. It is too easy to see through it.
6763. jexster - 4/5/2005 7:23:13 PM
As Washington now conveniently forgets, America and the rest of the world welcomed the entry of Syrian troops into Lebanon. Why? Because they came to put an end to Lebanon’s 15-year civil war, which raged from 1975 to 1990. Now, the departure of those same troops has an excellent chance of reigniting that civil war. Already, three bombs have gone off in Christian neighborhoods. The “democratic” forces Washington is supporting are Christian-led; with the expulsion of Syria, they see a chance to re-establish Christian domination of Lebanese politics. Hezbollah will be willing to fight to prevent that from happening. As usual, the neo-cons are smoking in the powder magazine.
Here is where they have cut the Lebanon baloney too thin. The likelihood of a renewed Lebanese civil war is sufficiently great that no one can overlook it – including the neo-cons themselves. They are ignorant of the world, but not that ignorant. So the key question becomes this: why would the neo-cons and the Bush administration they dominate want a renewed Lebanese civil war?
I suspect the answer is to be sought less in Washington than in Tel Aviv...
Ah indeed Mr. Lind...are you lurking the Mote?
Well if you are...Mozeltov!
6764. jexster - 4/5/2005 7:33:03 PM
we are the schlimazel’s schlimazel
6765. alistairconnor - 4/6/2005 3:38:35 AM
Lind is blathering :
The “democratic” forces Washington is supporting are Christian-led
Ah yes. Those well-known Christians, Hariri and Jumblatt.
Lind and Jex believe that Israel wants to ignite a new civil war in Lebanon. Lind, being smarter than Jex, recognises that this is not actually in Israel's best interest :
The irony here is that destabilizing existing Middle Eastern governments will not improve Israel’s security. Quite the contrary, it will greatly benefit the non-state entities such as Hamas, Hezbollah and al Qaeda that are Israel’s and America’s far more dangerous opponents (if Lebanon does return to civil war, Hezbollah will win it).
... but thinks that Israel is stupid enough to do it anyway.
Where is the evidence of this? Israel often makes bad strategic decisions when driven by ideology, fanaticism and paranoia. But a pragmatic, Machiavellian, obviously disastrously bad strategic decision? I can't see any precedent for that.
A stable Lebanon under Syrian domination was just fine with Israel : no rockets in Galilee. They might well feel threatened by an independent Lebanon which would be too weak to keep Hezbollah on a tight leash. So, one might imagine that Israel might act as Syria's objective ally, taking covert action, not to provoke a civil war, but to counter the threat of a Syrian withdrawal.
Only I can't believe that they would be so stupid.
Assad, yes. Assad is a stupid man.
6766. jexster - 4/6/2005 9:36:43 AM
I never said it was in Israel's best interest...I said it was the SOP of the Likud and Sharon...
Hariri last time I checked might be leading the late Pope
And Jumblatt is allied with the Maronites...
It is Christian/Druze/Sunni v. Hezzbolah..
Again the stronger case points to Israel...
Funny thing is...no one has even bothered to lay out the case for Syria..
6767. jexster - 4/6/2005 9:39:44 AM
But if we ask who benefited from it, the answer is Israel, not Syria. Could the whole thing have been a Mossad operation? The choreography of the anti-Syrian reaction, including Washington immediately jumping on board, suggests it could.
We are the schlimazel’s schlimazel
6768. jexster - 4/6/2005 9:41:14 AM
Ah the uncomfortable question for the alliance of "schlemiels and schlimazels"
6769. jexster - 4/6/2005 9:42:38 AM
Mozeltov
6770. jexster - 4/6/2005 9:52:24 AM
AC don't turn AmeriKan on us..you're so much more charming as a Frog
Huhn? The Real Iraq
The unfortunate tendency in the United States to evaluate all statements about Iraq with regard to whether they are "optimistic" (i.e. pro-Bush) or "pessimistic" (i.e. anti-Bush) makes it difficult for those who just want to understand what is going on. I get slammed by the Jeff Jarvis's for reporting bad news (shouldn't it be reported?) or I get cited by rightwing bloggers when I say things like that the Sunni Arab guerrilla movement cannot win.
If you spend any time reading Arabic newspapers, the main conclusion you draw about Iraq is that it just isn't like the typical American imagination of it....
6771. alistairconnor - 4/6/2005 10:21:14 AM
It is Christian/Druze/Sunni v. Hezzbolah..
There you have it. A new national pact vs. a non-state entity.
6772. jexster - 4/6/2005 10:47:59 AM
New national pact?
More like civil war...
As I said..somebody kiss the Prince and turn him back into a frog..
I nominate Mago
6773. PelleNilsson - 4/7/2005 9:51:35 AM
Iraq now has a president and two vice-presidents, a prime minister and a speaker of parliament. Contrary to the hysterical predictions of some so called experts and their uncritical acolytes it does not have theocracy, nor chaos.
6774. jexster - 4/7/2005 11:34:52 AM
Here's one bit of stablility Likud/Mossad may have wanted to upset...
The emerging Shiite Arc..as this LA Times review of the mess that is Iraqi provinicial government discloses
Muqtada Sadr's Party Controls Basra
6775. concerned - 4/7/2005 1:56:55 PM
That sound you hear off in the distance is tens of millions of Euroweenies and jexster munching on their chapeaus.
6776. jexster - 4/7/2005 7:29:23 PM
Why?
6777. alistairconnor - 4/8/2005 4:40:54 AM
Here's one bit of stablility Likud/Mossad may have wanted to upset...
The emerging Shiite Arc
... would be seriously weakened if a new national pact emerges in Lebanon, which includes (or undermines) Hezbollah.
The emergence of the "Shiite Arc" is favoured by weak or puppet governments and low-level civil war, which strenthens ethnic and religious identities at the expense of nationalism. There is no way in the world that the killing of Hariri, a Sunni who knew how to work with Lebanese Shiites, was going to weaken the "Shiite Arc". Likud and Mossad know this.
6778. alistairconnor - 4/8/2005 4:45:34 AM
Of course, US policy in the region has only a marginal effect on the situation in Lebanon. Syria is weak, perhaps close to implosion, but that's not Bush's doing. International pressure has helped chase the Syrians out, but there, France has probably been more influential than the US : as the former colonial power, still engaged with both Syria and Lebanon.
6779. jexster - 4/8/2005 10:51:30 AM
Cairo Blast at Khan al-Khalili
The analysis of the bombing of a tourist area of Cairo, which killed 4 and wounded 18 on Thursday given by the Egyptian social scientists interviewed by China's Xinhuanet seems to me quite sophisticated. They pointed to increased wealth stratification (social contradictions) in Egypt-- where the poor have stayed poor and the rich have gotten a bit better off during the past 25 years. They also pointed to the destabilizing effect on the region of the Iraq War and other American policies.
The bombing was likey the work of Ayman al-Zawahiri's al-Jihad al-Islami, which is part of al-Qaeda. That Bush wimped out on destroying Bin Laden and al-Zawahiri and instead poured $300 billion into the Iraq quagmire has left the jihadis free to plot and act. Egypt gets billions of dollars every year in revenue from tourism, which helps prop up the Egyptian government. The al-Jihad al-Islami wants to overthrow the Egyptian government, so it is trying to deprive it of the tourist revenue. The tactic works, but it has the disadvantage of making all the other Egyptians, who depend on the tourist revenue, angry at the jihadis and unwilling to support them politically.
posted by Juan @ 4/8/2005 10:21:00 AM
6780. jexster - 4/8/2005 10:55:10 AM
Arabs I know would wholeheartedly agree with the neo-con spinmeisters that the Middle East will never be the same...
That's about the end of their agreeement
6781. jexster - 4/10/2005 11:02:55 AM
Friedman's Slander of Middle East Studies and How it is Wrong and Ignorant - Cole
6782. jexster - 4/12/2005 11:57:01 AM
What the Muslims think is Really Happening in Jerusalem But the US Media Won't Report
The far-right Israeli extremists who demonstrated in Jerusalem were not just protesting the plan to remove Israeli colonists from Gaza, as was reported in the Western press.
Rather, they were threatening to invade the al-Aqsa Mosque. The Muslim world understood this threat as an intention to destroy the third-holiest shrine in the Islamic world.
For historical background on the Temple Mount or al-Haram al-Sharif, see this excellent piece by Oleg Grabar
(Swedish persuasion or Norwegian?)
...
Now, maybe Revava never threatened to destroy the mosque. I don't know. They don't appear to be humane, level-headed people, so maybe they did make the threat. But it is a gross dereliction of duty for the US press to neglect to even report that this threat is what had alarmed the Muslims around the world.
How can we possibly fight al-Qaeda and understand the Muslim world if our press does not even report what Muslims think is at issue in incidents like this? And note that no Western press article appears even to have rounded up the reaction in the Muslim world. They are invisible to our public, even when they are outraged.
6783. PelleNilsson - 4/12/2005 12:58:32 PM
The al-Aqsa connection was well reported here and no doubt in the European press in general. The difference in press coverage is one reason why the average European is infinitely better informed about the ME than the average American.
"Oleg Grabar" sounds estern Europe, most probably Russia.
6784. jexster - 4/12/2005 1:33:15 PM
Latvia, Lithuania?
No quarrel at all on the sorry state of US media...which is why I read British papers and Juan Cole's ME coverage (for its summaries of Arab language papers)
While I suspect that European media had a quality edge over US product especially international before, the situation has become scandalous since 9/11....There is only one TV news show worth the time - PBS NewsHour...The 24 hour nets have gone Fox-Fascist, the papers, even those of record (Nyt, WaPo), haunted by ghosts of Vietnam, are sticking close to the Official Propaganda Lines on any issue with remote connection to Iraq, WOT,etc...
It is horrible and it is probably the most significant reason (all but ignored) that Bush won the election. Three years of high quality grey/black propaganda saturation...
6785. jexster - 4/13/2005 6:33:02 PM
First Bitch of the Islamic Revolution..The Emperor Cries to Allah's Ayatollahs for Mercy (or new cannon fodder)
All Praise to Allah's Newly Annointed Hegemon
Bush Says Diplomacy With Iran Is Best
45 minutes ago Top Stories - AP
By ANNE GEARAN, AP Diplomatic Writer
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration on Wednesday reaffirmed its commitment to diplomacy as the best way to stop Iran from developing a nuclear weapon while Israel's leader ruled out a military strike to destroy Tehran's nuclear program...
Damn what if they had nukes..Must we wait for the Raputure on a mushrooming cloud?
Save us Allah
6786. jexster - 4/17/2005 7:27:50 PM
WaPo has a so-so feature on Mid East reform movements in which I discovered to my horror that Bush's War on Iraq may have played a key role in one instance..
In Egypt, outrage over the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and American policy toward the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians spurred some reformers to take to the streets to protest against President Hosni Mubarak, whom they view as a U.S. ally.
TD, that sound you hear is me eating my hat with a slice of crow pie for desert..
You were right!
6787. jexster - 4/19/2005 10:44:56 AM
Al-Hasani's representative in the holy city of Karbala, Sayyid Diya' al-Musawi, said,
6788. jexster - 4/19/2005 10:46:08 AM
As salamu alaikum.
6789. jexster - 4/21/2005 1:48:07 PM
His Master's Voice - Sharon Tells Bush to Get Bent - Again
Le plus ca change....As salamu alaikum.
6790. PelleNilsson - 4/29/2005 12:19:22 AM
Chalabi is vice prime minister and acting oil minister in Iraq's new government. Talk about setting the fox to guard the henhouse!
6791. alistairconnor - 4/29/2005 1:52:53 AM
Guardian of US oil interests, is the obvious interpretation.
Naaaaaah. Tooooo obvious.
6792. Marc-Albert - 4/29/2005 5:54:48 AM
Guardian of US oil interests, is the obvious interpretation.
Could you explain, in concrete $$$ terms, in which way US oil interests (whatever that is) are affected one way or another by the American presence in Iraq?
I know you say "Naaah, Too obvious" but I'm just a dumb provincial Québécois and as such, needs the obvious to be explained to him.
6793. alistairconnor - 4/29/2005 6:06:55 AM
I'm inclined to agree with you, M-A, that there's no clear and obvious advantage for the US in directly controlling Iraq's oil production (unless they had managed to actually confiscate ownership of it... which perhaps they intended but failed to get away with).
Certainly, having a minister who is inclined to negotiate sweetheart deals with American companies (e.g. inflated KBR maintenance work, etc) is not of overweening importance for the US's strategic interests, but is not without (large, cash) benefits for the companies of the US energy sector; and this has been a common thread in Bush administration policy for years.
One of the manifest motives of US intervention has been increasing Iraq's oil production, in the interests of limiting world oil prices. This is not of sole benefit to the US, and is an astonishingly short-sighted policy anyway, but there it is.
6794. PelleNilsson - 4/29/2005 10:12:51 AM
In addition, there are exploration contracts signed with French and Russian companies to be renegotiated (read cancelled) and reawarded to the most competent (read American or British) bidders.
6795. concerned - 4/29/2005 5:06:10 PM
I'm inclined to agree with you, M-A, that there's no clear and obvious advantage for the US in directly controlling Iraq's oil production (unless they had managed to actually confiscate ownership of it... which perhaps they intended but failed to get away with).
Watch out! AC's radioactive tin foil hat has cooked his synapses.
6796. concerned - 4/29/2005 5:13:18 PM
One of the manifest motives of US intervention has been increasing Iraq's oil production, in the interests of limiting world oil prices. This is not of sole benefit to the US, and is an astonishingly short-sighted policy anyway, but there it is.
As opposed to your supposedly 'far sighted' policy of jacking oil prices sky high, sending the world economy into a tailspin?
I hear them Froggy neurons a-frying like bacon.
6797. concerned - 4/29/2005 5:18:00 PM
What's jexster trying to say? Ass Salami - I like'em?
Get them marbles or whatever the hell your sucking on out your mouth, boy.
6798. jexster - 5/1/2005 10:32:35 AM
The War on Terror and Huey Long - What Bush Hath Brought On
6799. concerned - 5/1/2005 11:49:36 PM
Dunno about anybody else in this forum, but I'm glad that we took care of any 'insignificant' Al-Qaeda cells found in the US in the wake of 9/11.
6800. jayackroyd - 5/2/2005 1:01:25 AM
Huh?
6801. jexster - 5/3/2005 10:25:12 AM
Beacon of Democracy Gives Purple Middle Finger
by summer of 2002 Bush had already decided on war regardless of Saddam Hussein's actions; democracy promotion was not even mentioned in passing as a reason for the war; postwar reconstruction was an issue of no concern; and, as Andy Card tacitly admitted even at the time, the "marketing campaign" for the war was deliberately timed to coincide with midterm elections.
Free Press Under Govt Attack in IraQ
6802. wonkers2 - 5/4/2005 3:38:10 PM
A different view of the conflict: "The Jihad is a civil war. The West is only a bystander. Here.
6803. concerned - 5/4/2005 4:13:25 PM
by summer of 2002 Bush had already decided on war regardless of Saddam Hussein's actions
disclaimer for above: author's opinion only.
6804. jexster - 5/5/2005 3:10:44 PM
The Facts and the Intelligence Were Shaped to Fit the Policy aka Bush Lied - As salamu alaikum.
Author's opinion that the evidence is clear and compelling that Bush lied to the American people...
an opinion now shared by 50% of the US public and for good and sufficient reason:
6805. jexster - 5/5/2005 3:20:49 PM
His Puppet Master's Voice
Likudite Entity Spy Charged
6806. jexster - 5/7/2005 1:06:25 PM
6807. robertjayb - 5/7/2005 4:41:58 PM
Iraq's 9-day death toll passes 300...(The Hindu)
MANAMA: The whirlwind of violence sweeping across Iraq has claimed 17 more lives, taking the death toll beyond 300 following last week's announcement of a partial Cabinet line-up by Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari.
The deaths occurred after a car bomb exploded next to a security convoy of four vehicles at a busy intersection in central Baghdad. The blast killed at least 13 Iraqis, and four foreigners. The nationalities of the foreigners have not yet been established, but they are believed to be working for an American security firm.
6808. robertjayb - 5/7/2005 4:48:44 PM
Marine's death pushes U.S. toll toward 1,600
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- A U.S. Marine was killed by a bomb Saturday in central Iraq, the military said.
The Marine died of injuries caused by an explosion during combat operations in Karmah, 50 miles west of Baghdad, the military said in a statement. The Marine was assigned to Regimental Combat Team-8, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force.
The name of the Marine was not released.
At least 1,593 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
6809. jexster - 5/8/2005 5:04:53 PM
BAGHDAD, Iraq - An explosion of insurgent violence in Iraq killed seven U.S. servicemembers over the weekend...
More than 300 people, including American forces, have been killed in a torrent of insurgent attacks since Cabinet was sworn in April 28
6810. jexster - 5/9/2005 10:02:19 AM
What is going on in Sunni Iraqi cities, which might account for this violence (which is typically reported curtly and in a shadowy fashion by the US military and American press)?
Al-Zaman has a report today (it gives joint credit to Reuters and AFP) that might shed some light on it. Al-Zaman says Ramadi and some of the towns around it were gripped by a civil rebellion on the part of virtually all the townspeople on Saturday and Sunday. It comes in response to the Friday prayers sermons in the city's mosques and calls by the city's clergy, who called for a strike to protest against the US encirclement of the city and against what they called random arrests, which have resulted in the imprisonment of many young men of Ramadi. Everyday life has ground to a standstill. The streets are empty of passers-by, shops are shuttered, and bazaars are closed. Schools, universities and government offices are likewise closed. The US military has addressed the population with loudspeakers mounted on cars, calling on them to end the civil strike and to refuse to obey the armed militias in their midst.
The council of Sunni clergy in the city spread around a pamphlet that complained that ever since the US occupied the city, virtue and honor no longer had any value. The practices of the illegal Occupation were aimed at achieving its illegitimate aims, from daily killings to attacks and round-ups to the imprisonment of free persons in a forest of jails. The latest outrage was the encirclement of the city, cutting it off and isolating it from its environment through barricades, such that all have been grievously harmed. It called on townspeople to protest these practices with a two-day strike over the weekend
If the Al-Zaman report is at all accurate, it suggests that the counter-insurgency campaign in Ramadi to date is a political failure, whatever its tactical successes.
The Washington Post says that US military commanders are putting more emphasis now on combating the foreign jihadis. Seems to me like they should begin with making friends of Ramadi and Mosul, instead.
JC
Some ministers of the outgoing Allawi government are fleeing Iraq in anticipation that they will be investigated. Charges of irregularities swirled around former defense minister Hazem Shaalan in particular....PM Ibrahim Jaafari presented several Sunni Arab ministers to parliament Sunday. Less than half of the parliamentarians bothered to show up.
6811. jexster - 5/9/2005 12:04:53 PM
"We're making good progress in IraQ" GWB
But GWB is a liar..ever "fixing facts to fit the policy'
Saved by the Carrots...Riverbend
6812. jexster - 5/10/2005 4:35:17 PM
IraQ's Slide Into Chaos
Bomb found at Sistani's Home
Shiite Tensions Rise over Killings
and even as Al Qaeda Is Growing in Kuwait
it is time to examine The Price of Bush's Failure in Iraq
6813. robertjayb - 5/10/2005 5:35:32 PM
U.S. will halt recruiting for a day to discourage recruiters from emulating the lying and cheating behavior of their commander-in-chief...
(CBS) CBS News has learned that the Army will halt recruiting for one day later this month to re-instruct its recruiters on what they may and may not legally do to persuade young people to enlist.
With casualties mounting in Iraq, recruiters have been unable to meet their goals for three months now. The so called "stand down" follows a rash of complaints that recruiters are resorting to unscrupulous tactics to enlist new soldiers, reports CBS News Correspondent Bob McNamara.
6814. robertjayb - 5/10/2005 5:43:06 PM
Isn't this the war that was going to pay its own way?
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Congress approved an additional $82 billion for Iraq and Afghanistan and combating terrorism worldwide on Tuesday, boosting the cost of the global effort since 2001 to more than $300 billion.
6815. jexster - 5/10/2005 6:26:28 PM
The news from Iraq is bad and getting worse with each passing day. Iraqi insurgents are stepping up the pace of their attacks, unleashing eleven deadly bombings on April 29th alone. Many of the 150,000 Iraqi police and soldiers hastily trained by U.S. troops have deserted or joined the insurgents. The cost of the war now tops $192 billion, rising by $1 billion a week, and the corpses are piling up: Nearly 1,600 American soldiers and up to 100,000 Iraqi civilians are dead, as well as 177 allied troops and 229 private contractors. Other nations are abandoning the international coalition assembled to support the U.S., and the new Iraqi government, which announced its new cabinet to great fanfare on April 27th, remains sharply split along ethnic and religious lines.
But to hear President Bush tell it, the war in Iraq is going very, very well. In mid-April, appearing before 25,000 U.S. soldiers at sun-drenched Fort Hood, in Texas, Bush declared that America has succeeded in planting democracy in Iraq, creating a model that will soon spread throughout the Middle East. "That success is sending a message from Beirut to Tehran," the president boasted to chants of "U.S.A.! U.S.A.!" from the troops. "The establishment of a free Iraq is a watershed event in the global democratic revolution." Staying on message, aides to Gen. George Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, later suggested that U.S. forces could be reduced from 142,000 to 105,000 within a year. The Quagmire
6816. robertjayb - 5/10/2005 6:29:32 PM
Is it true that a fish rots from the head down? Just asking...(AmericanFreePress.com)
Several recruiters have admitted they have concealed mental health histories and police records of those they have recruited, and have even falsified documents, including high school diplomas. They have been providing potential recruits “cheat sheets,” wallet-sized cards that are slipped to the applicants before they take the military’s aptitude tests.
The Army’s own admission indicates that there were 320 unsubstantiated cases of recruitment improprieties in 2004, up from 199 in 1999.
Recruiters have also been reportedly lying to applicants by making false promises that if they join up they will not be sent to Iraq.
In 2004, there were 1,118 cases of recruiter wrongdoing, which amounts to about one in five recruiters. Some senior Army officers have said that for at least every improper recruiting act discovered there are at least two more that are never discovered.
..........................................
This is just another indicator that ultimately the Pentagon will have to turn to a draft to fill its dwindling ranks. Local draft boards are currently being staffed to undertake drafting American youth for the military, despite claims by President George W. Bush and leaders of Congress that they have no plans for conscription to maintain military manpower.
6817. jexster - 5/10/2005 11:13:16 PM
We Don't Do Body Counts?
Well they just started.
Wonder why?
the Marines have said they have killed dozens of guerrillas in the biggest U.S. offensive since November's storming of the rebel bastion of Falluja, eastwards downriver toward Baghdad.
Let's ask the Oracle of Ann Arbor:
Oh Wise Obe Juan, enlighten us!
The Marines are reportedly surprised by the degree of preparation the guerrillas are showing. They also seem to have specialized knowledge of how best to fight the Americans. (This datum suggests that someone in the Iraqi army or government let them know the US was coming. Everyone knows that the police, national guards and security apparatuses are extensively infiltrated by the guerrilla resistance).
The remarkable thing about the operation was the claim by the US to have killed 100 guerrillas, a new move in the propaganda wars. The US military had been deliberately avoiding announcements of numbers of guerrillas killed. But this strategy, which comes from the scandals about over-estimates of Viet Cong killed in the Vietnam War, had left the guerrillas free to generate headlines such as "300 killed in bombings during the past week." Nothing the US had done could compete with that sort of number, which I believe explains why we now get a number. The problem with giving out such numbers, however, is that sooner or later there will be another scandal.
For instance, are all 100 (a suspiciously round number) really guerrillas? Or are some innocent civilians who got caught in the crossfire? How would you tell, if all you have is a dead 16-year-old male body?
The other problem with this operation is that it may raise false hopes. Probably less than ten percent of the guerrillas are foreign fighters, so even if the US could weaken their Qaim-area bases substantially, it would not stop most of the attacks. And, the Syrian-Iraqi border is so long and rugged that the foreign infiltrators will just develop new routes. One remembers the conviction that if only Fallujah could be reduced, the bombings would stop. It didn't happen then, it won't happen now.
6818. alistairconnor - 5/11/2005 2:27:41 AM
Robert :
Taking the King's Shilling
The members of a recruiting party were all quite motivated in convincing say a young weaver or labourer to join as each was paid handsomely for each recruit they brought before the army surgeon for inspection and got attested by a Justice of the Peace. If the potential recruit hesitated to enlisted, deception was applied. A recruiting sergeant recounted:
…your last recourse was to get him drunk, and then slip a shilling in his pocket, get him home to your billet, and next morning swear he enlisted, bring all your party to prove it, get him persuaded to pass the doctor. Should he pass, you must try every means in your power to get him to drink, blow him up with a fine story, get him inveigled to the magistrates, in some shape or other, and get him attested; but by no means let him out of your hands.
The price of empire?
6819. PelleNilsson - 5/11/2005 4:02:46 AM
Next step: Press Gangs
6820. arkymalarky - 5/11/2005 9:27:10 AM
They recruit students in the public schools, and it makes Bob and me both furious. They seem to target students who are not going to college and are struggling to get through high school or come from poor families and need decent jobs right out of school.
6821. wonkers2 - 5/11/2005 9:31:40 AM
Next step: outsourcing. That is, hire under paid people from poor countries, luring them with high wages and a promise of citizenship if they survive their tour in Iraq.
6822. PelleNilsson - 5/11/2005 9:45:44 AM
Well, the Brits have done that for a long time. Consider the fearsome Gurkhas.
6823. jexster - 5/11/2005 10:55:33 AM
Constitution-Drafting Subcommittee Excludes Sunnis - Jordan to Pardon Chalabi
6824. jexster - 5/11/2005 10:57:29 AM
The Friday Follies Redux
Obe Juan...
A propos of my caution yesterday against the figures of enemy dead being given out by the US military in Baghdad, James Janega of the Chicago Tribune, embedded at the front, writes,
"Though military commanders in Baghdad announced that 100 insurgent fighters were killed in the early fighting, along with three Marines, [Col.] Davis' figures were lower. He said "a couple of dozen" insurgents had been killed in Ubaydi, about 10 at another river crossing near Al Qaim, and several who were killed by air strikes north of the river. Other commanders said they had recovered few bodies but had seen blood trails that suggested insurgents were dragging away wounded or dead fighters." In other words, the claim of 100 guerrillas dead may or may not be true, but probably wasn't at the time it was given out.
6825. jexster - 5/11/2005 8:01:27 PM
6826. jexster - 5/13/2005 2:09:01 PM
Iraq More Divided Than Ever
Patrick Cockburn, London Review of Books
6827. jexster - 5/13/2005 9:08:30 PM
6828. jexster - 5/13/2005 9:21:37 PM
Here's one bit of stablility Likud/Mossad may have wanted to upset...
The emerging Shiite Arc
... would be seriously weakened if a new national pact emerges in Lebanon, which includes (or undermines) Hezbollah.
The emergence of the "Shiite Arc" is favoured by weak or puppet governments and low-level civil war, which strenthens ethnic and religious identities at the expense of nationalism. There is no way in the world that the killing of Hariri, a Sunni who knew how to work with Lebanese Shiites, was going to weaken the "Shiite Arc". Likud and Mossad know this.
Oh really AC?
Lebanon: Shiites Express Political Identity
Amal Saad-Ghorayeb
is Assistant Professor at the Lebanese American University. She is the author of Hizbullah: Politics and Religion (Pluto Press, 2002)
Despite its reactive origins, the recent mobilization of the Shiite community in Lebanon does not seem to be an ephemeral episode, but rather a new chapter in an ongoing epic of communal consciousness and activism with far-reaching political implications. .... A recent poll by Zogby International reveals that 90 percent of all demonstrators claimed their motive for joining the demonstration was “support for Hizbollah.” The survey also reported that the large majority of protestors denounced Resolution 1559 as well as the U.S. and French roles in producing it, thereby voicing their rejection of the perceived internationalization of the situation.
The March 8 demonstration drew between six hundred thousand and one million protesters, mainly Shiites, to the heart of Beirut. ..
The colossal size of the demonstration and the common motives of its participants, coupled with other indications of communal marginalization and discontent, illustrate the unique political identity shared by Shiites, which transcends the secular-religious divide as well as the cleavages of political affiliation and social class. When the components of this identity—resistance to Israel, anti-imperialism, politico-cultural Arabism, and Shiite empowerment—were called into question by certain elements in the opposition movement, this was perceived as a threat to Shiite identity.
These communal dynamics signal the eruption of a war of semantics through which different interpretations and definitions of highly charged concepts such as freedom, sovereignty, independence, nationalism, and terrorism are deconstructed and reconstructed by various sects. The Shiite community's reconstruction of these concepts takes the form of communal support for the resistance. Protecting the resistance is identical to the preservation of the Shiite political identity. Viewed from this perspective, the resistance's role in confronting Israel cannot be divorced from its capacity as the Shiites' communal guardian—a role that is never publicly acknowledged but is nonetheless etched in the collective Shiite subconscious. Thus, the resistance functions as a form of political compensation for Shiite political underrepresentation; although an estimated 40 percent of Lebanese are Shiite, the community is allotted only 21 percent of parliamentary seats.
Accordingly, any plan that seeks to disarm the resistance will be construed as a form of communal disempowerment and will render the Shiites a potentially destabilizing force, eager to upset the political status quo. The community might no longer content itself with the political configuration laid out in the Taif Accord and would seek to redress the imbalance by pursuing the abolition of political confessionalism.
When it comes to destroying the civil structure of his neighbors, Sharon has a bit of a history AC..and a history of creating countervailing resistance
6829. alistairConnor - 5/14/2005 6:55:11 AM
OK Jex, your thesis is now that Sharon had Hariri assassinated in order to strengthen the Shiite arc? ... because, as your new girlfriend illustrates, that is the net effect. Hariri was, as is increasingly apparent, the only one who had some chance of managing some sort of coalition deal including the Shiites... the likely outcome now, is for a semi-autonomous and heavily armed Shiite southern Lebanon, without the Syrians to keep them under wraps... a nightmare for Israel.
If this is what Sharon wanted, as you seem to imply, perhaps you could explain why he would want that?
6830. jexster - 5/14/2005 9:16:19 AM
Nope..ex post facto..that he is afraid of it...preemptive strike..they can deal with Hamas but they realize that, while they are the short term beneficiaries of the War on IraQ, the growth of another oil rich stable Shiite power in the Gulf spells big trouble for the Jewish Entity
6831. jexster - 5/14/2005 9:19:58 AM
One thing about you whitebread liberals..at the very mention of peaceful democratic revolution you bois go all soft and cuddly.
Not us disadvantaged democrats!
6832. jexster - 5/14/2005 9:21:39 AM
any plan that seeks to disarm the resistance will be construed as a form of communal disempowerment and will render the Shiites a potentially destabilizing force, eager to upset the political status quo.
Could this be what they're thinkin?
Like I said, Sharon has history and not very smart history either..but it is the MO for the Likudites and their Neocon butt boy Bush
6833. alistairConnor - 5/14/2005 1:36:48 PM
Message # 6830 Didn't understand a word of that. I thought we were talking about Lebanon?
Message # 6831 Can't argue with that. Except that my bread is brown (and organic)
6834. jexster - 5/14/2005 5:05:04 PM
Went right over your head...
Lemme splain, and preface by saying ...I have noticed this tendency among persons here of like SES and political bent..
First, you rightly were pretty well down the line an opponent of the current regime that rules the Jewish entity and highly suspicious of their motives..
But as soon as the Beemer drivers (or do you own a Peugeot"?) saw their fellow petit bourgeiosie takin it to the streets, suddenly you channel Sharnansky!
/s/
Partisan Poor and Proud
PS..Banner of the Party of GOD, you pagan
6835. jexster - 5/14/2005 5:13:49 PM
6830..the Likud leaders of the Jewish entity have as a Standard Operating Procedure, the encouragement of disorder among any actual or perceived adversaries by aggression...
AKA best defense ..good offense
This they share with their proteges, the NeoJacobin revolutionaries in the Bush admin..
So they way they see things, the best way to confront an emerging Shiite arc is to attack, cause distracting instability, and let the day after tommorrow take care of itself....
That's what Bush did in Iraq...strategery on the fly and on a wing and a prayer to YHWH
6836. judithathome - 5/15/2005 12:23:07 PM
Look at the shit being peddled today:
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made an unannounced trip to Iraq on Sunday, urging patience for the country's fragile new government and offering encouragement to American troops.
Rice, making her first visit to Iraq as secretary of state, spoke to hundreds of U.S. troops and diplomats in Baghdad.
"I want you to keep focused on what you are doing here," Rice told the diplomats and troops who gathered in one of Saddam Hussein's former palaces. "This war came to us, not the other way around."
"The United States, along with the rest of the free world, believed somehow for a number of years that people in this region didn't care about freedom," she said. "We cared about stability. And what we got was neither. We got a malignancy that was growing that came to haunt us on the fine September day" in 2001.
6837. PelleNilsson - 5/15/2005 12:40:29 PM
Jexster has joined the venerable Order of the Conspiratistas.
6838. jexster - 5/16/2005 11:00:49 AM
No Pelle, I believe that when inferences from cirucmstances are plausible they should be considered as such and as grounds for futher investigation. They should not be dismisseed as "conspiratorial" and never again mentioned.
I also believe that the charges against Syria they were behind the murder of Hariri also are based circumstantial evidence but the inferences from that evidence are weaker than those arising against the Jewish Entity.
I believe therefore that when someone who is confronted repeatedly with a reasonable argument that Israel was the more likely culprit, simply dismisses those arguments out of hand without more than an ad hominem attack on the messenger is no longer credible when speaking on the subject.
In other words Pelle, you are full of shit
6839. jexster - 5/16/2005 11:07:37 AM
Who is Behind the Resistance in IraQ?
Thanassis Cambanis of the Boston Globe absolutely nails it:
' Sadiq al-Mossawi -- a secular politician not tied to the Ba'athists who tried unsuccessfully to persuade resistance groups to band together under a restored monarchy -- said that Ba'athists who are committed to the old party ideology now dominate the insurgency. Ba'athists have money they sequestered before Hussein fled and can draw on legions of former intelligence and military officers with tactical expertise, as well as immense weapons caches . . . Five US Embassy officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, have expressed doubt that any single political group such as the former Ba'athists has widespread influence over an insurgency they describe as fractious. But the Iraqi politicians and officials who have met with Ba'athists and have seen captured documents said that such a view misses the mark. These people say that although the Ba'athists aren't united, they share fundamental political goals and beliefs and have decades of experience working together, despite internal disputes. Rival branches of the Ba'ath Party have met to elect clandestine command structures. The political group met in Baqubah in June 2004, according to Mossawi. A more militant, pro-Syrian group met in October 2004 in the Syrian town of Hasaka, according to a Kurdish official who cited informant reports. Thataccount was confirmed by a senior US official . . . Fighters and documents captured in Fallujah last November showed that Ba'athists and former officers with Hussein's intelligence agency, the Mukhabarat, ran many insurgent cells . . . '
Give that man a prize. This is what is really going on in Iraq. The neo-Baath is setting things up for a comeback and the Third Coup. That is why the recent operation at Qaim and Ubaidi will have very little effect on the guerrilla war. The foreign jihadis are just being used as the equivalent of canon fodder (see the report on the Saudi volunteers, below.)
Patrick Cockburn reports that "Iraq is a bloody no-man's land," and that only the paucity of reporters on the ground allows the Bush administration to maintain anything different.
6840. jexster - 5/16/2005 12:02:34 PM
Speaking of the Secret Order of Mystics - Conspiracy Lodge now is as good a time as any for this topic of discussion.
In response to an article by Professor Ephraim Karsh, University of London, that appeared recently in the New Republic I wrote the following.
As most folks do not subscribe to TNR on line and to save space, Karsh's "review" of Juan Cole's Informed Comment is posted in Lies. Some may note a similarity betweeen Pelle's 6837 and Karsh's piece.
6841. jexster - 5/16/2005 12:11:06 PM
I should read what I write..
Campus Watch published his Cole slam on it's website five days before The New Republic
The Likudist Spetsnaz Unit, Campus Watch, is free
6842. PelleNilsson - 5/16/2005 1:10:26 PM
I also believe that the charges against Syria they were behind the murder of Hariri also are based circumstantial evidence but the inferences from that evidence are weaker than those arising against the Jewish Entity.
That's nothing but anti-semitic bullshit. Israel had nothing to gain from killing a real-poltitik guy like Harriri. Syria also didn't have but they didn't realize because their politcal and security elite inhabit a stasis box where yesterday's realities govern today's politics.
When will you ever learn anything about ME poltics beyond the empty sloganeering? Do you even want to, given that it may upset your favourite prejudices? If so turn to me for fatherly advice.
6843. jexster - 5/16/2005 5:00:17 PM
We have a discussion!
Who has the motive?
Is Syria just dumb or is Israel once again out to disrupt Lebanon and in the bargain disarm the Army of God
Once you get past all the crap.."anti-semitic" "dunno squt - something to talk about..
Will do that...later
6844. alistairconnor - 5/17/2005 4:25:54 AM
1) It's not "Syria" who's dumb, it's Bashar. He simply hasn't got anything like the control or judgement his father had. He's yet another illustration of the inherent inefficacy of hereditary power systems.
There are many converging accounts that Bashar tried to rein in Hariri's anti-Syrian activities, and threatened his life; also that Hariri considered himself in danger.
Did Bashar actually believe that killing Hariri would end the anti-Syrian agitation? If so, he miscalculated big time. But perhaps he simply felt honour-bound to follow through on his threat. Either way, it is characteristic of his poor judgement and general loss of control.
2) is Israel once again out to disrupt Lebanon and in the bargain disarm the Army of God
Disrupting Lebanon has never been, per se, an Israeli objective. They invaded southern Lebanon because, as a failed state, it was unable to restrain attacks by Pals and sympathisers into northern Israel. Syrian occupation actually suited them fine, because it brought stability to that northern border. The death of Hariri, coupled with the Syrian exit, opens up a danger for them : a return to the "failed state" of affairs, and no restraints on the actions of the Pals and the Hezb. Look for attacks and retaliation on the Israel/Lebanon border in coming months.
Why would the Israelis seek to provoke this instability in Lebanon? About the only motive I can think of for Sharon to desire this, is that it would create a sideshow to distract attention from the Gaza withdrawal. If so, then it would function as a pretext to abandon the withdrawal (nation in danger etc). Not completely implausible, but the general analysis is that Sharon genuinely wants to withdraw from Gaza.
6845. Magoseph - 5/17/2005 9:13:25 AM
I’m really perplexed by the lack of attention to what I perceive as a catastrophe brewing between Iran, Israel and theUnited States. My own view is that Iran is controlled by unstable elements at the least and sacrificial religious fanatics at the worst. I ponder the almost unbelievable thought that these maniacs could inflict a nuclear attack on Israel in a belief that they obtain heavenly rewards for it.
Bush has stated to the world that he will not tolerate a nuclear Iran, but he has thrown away his army and apparently, the Mullahs see him as weak enough to call his bluff. Meanwhile, they have managed to isolate us by obtaining commitments from both China and Russia to veto any UN resolution.
In addition, Israel has also stated they will not permit Iran to go nuclear--which means to me that they propose to knock them out before they can be hit. My question is—is there any possible solution to this enigma?
6846. alistairconnor - 5/17/2005 9:45:06 AM
I ponder the almost unbelievable thought that these maniacs could inflict a nuclear attack on Israel in a belief that they obtain heavenly rewards for it.
No immediate prospect of that... it might conceivably be a long-term risk, but the real, concrete danger is a pre-emptive strike by Israel. Bear in mind that the balance of terror in the region is unilateral : Israel wishes to maintain its nuclear monopoly.
In any case, the mullahs will have lost their control before Iran's nuclear potential matures into deliverable weapons. The coming presidential elections should clarify things : the return of Rafsanjani, as a compromise candidate acceptable to the mullahs and to the liberals, will probably open an era when the religious authorities will be eased into the background. They are just too far out of synch with the aspirations of society.
The "nuclear option" is used as a populist gimmick to cover up domestic problems, and things will settle down after the elections.
6847. Magoseph - 5/17/2005 10:39:06 AM
I am really profoundly grateful for your post, Ali—I was very concerned and upset about this matter and I'm much relieved now.
6848. alistairConnor - 5/17/2005 12:12:57 PM
hey you shouldn't go believing anything I tell you... ask someone who knows!
6849. Magoseph - 5/17/2005 12:50:33 PM
It does make sense, Ali.
6850. jexster - 5/17/2005 11:38:28 PM
Espionage Indictments Against AIPAC Officials Near
Neocon Spy for the Likudik Entity Previously Charged with Leaking Classified Infomation
My advice - put in a call to Ahmed Chalabi
6851. jexster - 5/18/2005 1:27:05 PM
The Wages of Bush:
WAR
and a failed state
Today's Chicago Tribune features
Kurd violence rises in Turkey, raising fears of renewed war
You've sent 1600 American soldiers to their deaths on a pack of lies - George Galloway
6852. jexster - 5/18/2005 2:08:21 PM
Chaos, Pelle
Chaos from Tejas
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A top Sunni Muslim cleric publicly accused the militia of the main Shi'ite political party on Wednesday of assassinating Sunni preachers, in the latest sign of sectarian tensions that have raised fears of civil war.
ADVERTISEMENT
"The parties that are behind the campaign of killings of preachers of mosques and worshippers are ... the Badr Brigades," Harith al-Dhari, head of the influential Sunni Muslim Clerics Association, told a news conference.
"Badr forces are responsible for the escalating tensions," he said
6853. jexster - 5/19/2005 10:25:13 AM
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Gunmen killed an Oil Ministry official on Thursday and escalating violence claimed at least 18 more lives, fueling fears Iraq may be moving toward civil war.
"moving"?
Already there
6854. jexster - 5/19/2005 12:35:32 PM
The Case Against Sharon - The Case Against Assad
Coincident with my debate with Pelle, PBS Frontline the other night featured a former US ambassador's daughter who had grown up in Syria and spent most of her adult life in Lebanon. She returned...
Frontline WORLD: Dispatches from a Small Planet : Lebanon and Syria 2005
It important to point out again, since Pelle seems just a bit forgetful, what I contend and what I do not contend.
I DO NOT contend that Israel is responsible for Hariri's murder.
I DO NOT contend that Syria should not be considered a prime suspect.
I DO contend that as between the two, Israel presents the more likely culprit.
I ALSO contend that it is possible for neither party to have been involved. Especially among the fractious Arab elements, any number might have concluded that they could advance their position against Israel, against Syria or against a domestic Lebanese rival
I DO contend that, especially among the Likudnik partisans in this country and elsewhere, that there is a deliberate effort to prevent a serious and open investigation of Israel's role in this matter. True to form, these people condemn their critics as "anti-Semitic"
Now for the facts:
6855. PelleNilsson - 5/20/2005 8:52:39 AM
I DO NOT contend that Israel is responsible for Hariri's murder.
I DO NOT contend that Syria should not be considered a prime suspect.
I DO contend that as between the two, Israel presents the more likely culprit.
Why? You fail to establish any convincing motive for Israel promoting instability in Lebanon.
In one form or another, Syria has exerted its influence over Lebanon for nearly a century.
It is ahistorical statements like this that disqualify you from opining on the ME beyond day-to-day events.
6856. alistairConnor - 5/20/2005 11:39:09 AM
Well Pelle, at least he's been doing some reading on the subject... perhaps there's hope for him.
6857. PelleNilsson - 5/20/2005 12:44:46 PM
Inshallah...
6858. jexster - 5/20/2005 3:53:16 PM
Pelle are you THAT fucking dense that I have to connect the dots?
Resolution 1559 - requires the disarming of Hizbollah...elections coming up..Shiite power..
and of course, there's Syria...it became obvious to all after Assad's big bungle in Nov ..a strategic opportunity opened for Israel (and for others with the ability, the means, the movtive) to disrupt Lebanon.
And how is a stable Lebanon in Israel's interest?
6859. jexster - 5/20/2005 4:00:17 PM
Welcome to the Middle East Mr. Pelle!
You're almost as swift as Condimima..who claims that Iran is out of step with events in the Middle East.
Shiite ARC of POWER
Meet the new Hegemon..
Israel has!
Iran flexes its 'soft power' in Iraq
In a sign of warming ties, Iran's foreign minister finished a high level, three-day visit to Iraq Thursday
6860. jexster - 5/20/2005 4:02:01 PM
I PREDICT that there will be no credible evidence of who killed Hariri
6861. alistairConnor - 5/20/2005 4:32:20 PM
And how is a stable Lebanon in Israel's interest?
As I have repeatedly said ... no missiles, rockets, raids into northern Israel.
Why do you think they invaded southern Lebanon? It wasn't just for jollies. It was because Lebanon was so fucked up by civil war that nobody could restrain the Pals who lived there.
Why do you think that Israel wants Lebanon to return to that state? Why is a destabilised Lebanon interesting for Israel? Answer me that.
6862. PelleNilsson - 5/21/2005 12:29:28 AM
That 1559 requires the disarming av the Hezbollah has not had and will not have any practical consequences whatsoever.
If you think that Hezbollah can somehow "do an Iraq" and grab power through the upcoming elections you have not understood Lebanon's political system.
6863. PelleNilsson - 5/21/2005 3:02:17 AM
I tried to explain the Lebanese system a couple of months ago. I'll do it again. The seats in parliament are allocated first according to religious affiliation and then according to party. The allocation looks like this:
| Denomination | Seats |
| Maronite Christian | 34 |
| Greek Orthodox | 14 |
| Armenian Orthodox | 8 |
| Armenian Catholic | 5 |
| Protestant | 1 |
| Christian Minority | 1 |
| Sub-total | 64 |
| Sunni Muslim | 27 |
| Shi’a Muslim | 27 |
| Druze | 8 |
| Alawite | 2 |
| Sub-total | 64 |
| Grand Total | 128 |
6864. jexster - 5/21/2005 8:36:09 AM
Deputy Secretary of State Robert B. Zoellick, meanwhile, told reporters during a World Economic Forum regional meeting in Jordan that Syria must pull its intelligence agents out of Lebanon and accused Iran of funneling "millions of dollars per month" to Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas.
6865. jexster - 5/21/2005 8:39:44 AM
I am saying the US and Israel...and in fact, the Lebanese commenator above agrees with me..
Disarm Hizbollah, bye bye Taif
, the resistance functions as a form of political compensation for Shiite political underrepresentation; although an estimated 40 percent of Lebanese are Shiite, the community is allotted only 21 percent of parliamentary seats.
Accordingly, any plan that seeks to disarm the resistance will be construed as a form of communal disempowerment and will render the Shiites a potentially destabilizing force, eager to upset the political status quo. The community might no longer content itself with the political configuration laid out in the Taif Accord and would seek to redress the imbalance by pursuing the abolition of political confessionalism.
Amal Saad-Ghorayeb
is Assistant Professor at the Lebanese American University. She is the author of Hizbullah: Politics and Religion (Pluto Press, 2002)
Thanks for your hard work thought Pelle
6866. jexster - 5/22/2005 4:29:55 PM
print close
Sun 22 May 2005
Scotland Sunday:War on terror runs into Afghan sand
THE war on terror is not prospering: in an analogy with the Second World War, it might be seen as bogged down around Tobruk. In fact, it is bogged down around Iraq and, we reveal today, the situation is deteriorating in Afghanistan.
Clear-headed but apprehensive supporters of American foreign policy - among whom we count ourselves - are beginning to fear that the United States is reverting to former type: trying to fight wars at arm's length while compromising on its original principles.
When America first committed itself to the liberation of Iraq and Afghanistan from two very different, but equally tyrannical, regimes, knee-jerk critics both here and abroad condemned it as a new US imperialism. In reality, the Bush/Rumsfeld doctrine represented the energetic implementation of a political phenomenon that, in this country, never progressed beyond being a limp aspiration of Robin Cook: an ethical foreign policy.
The principles were impeccable: to spread multi-party, universal-suffrage parliamentary democracy to every corner of the globe. But, from the beginning the resources were inadequate. The world's sole remaining superpower tried to do democracy on the cheap and, like all false economies, it is paying for it now.
There were never sufficient US troops committed to Iraq, and this was compounded by the decision to fire the entire Iraqi army immediately after the country was liberated. Whole swathes of the country were thinly patrolled, leaving them to become breeding grounds and sanctuaries for insurgency. That insurgency remains rampant, despite the success of the country's elections and the formation of a government in Baghdad. If all had gone to plan, the coalition should now be addressing the question of an exit strategy. But all has not gone well.
Worse still, in Afghanistan, where the assumption was of a mission accomplished, Western forces have been forced onto the defensive. The Taliban is still strong in the south, where it has linked up with rebel commander Gulbadeen Hikmatyar, while conflicting warlords, with endlessly fluctuating alliances, make the country a nightmare to deal with. Fresh allegations of American mistreatment of prisoners and insulting the Koran do not help to win hearts and minds. Now it emerges that Ministry of Defence officials are making secret plans to dispatch 5,500 British troops to this region.
That is a massive potential deployment, in terms of today's greatly reduced British Army. It would stretch public - and Labour backbench - opinion to breaking point. Although the terms of our presence in Afghanistan are quite different from Iraq, that conflict has muddied the issue and polarised opinion. What is the solution? It is for America to roll up its sleeves and pursue the war on terror with implacable resolution and increased resources. Britain has given to the optimum of our ability; we and the rest of the world have the right to expect the US to make its commitment absolute.
That also means maintaining a consistent support for democracy. But the US has truckled with Uzbek dictator Islam Karimov, in a style reminiscent of the days when the Shah was "our" tyrant and Saddam Hussein a valued ally against Iran. Libya has been let off the hook, after contributing little more than rhetoric to its rehabilitation.
Saudi Arabia is tinkering with local government elections; Egypt is going further, but not much; Tunisia has rigged its election. The green shoots of democracy have prospered best in Georgia and the Ukraine, where "bottom-up" revolutions have succeeded. Most worryingly, the US has painted itself into a corner which allows the rogue states of Iran and North Korea, both nuclear powers in all but name, to thumb their noses at the west.
If the US wants to revert to realpolitik, it has the right to do so; but it should come clean about it and then the rest of us can go home. But its clear duty, before history and humanity, is to pursue the righteous course on which it has embarked with total dedication and all necessary resources to attain victory.
6867. jexster - 5/23/2005 11:50:45 AM
The UN Security Council on April 7 ordered an outside inquiry after a UN fact-finding mission, led by Irish Deputy Police Commissioner Peter Fitzgerald, concluded that Lebanon's own probe into the killing had
"serious flaws" and could not reach a credible conclusion.
German Prosecutor Named to Head Hariri Investigation
Good luck..first two choices refused the job
6868. jexster - 5/24/2005 8:35:06 AM
CAIRO (Reuters) - Opponents of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Tuesday rejected U.S. First Lady Laura Bush's interpretation of Egyptian politics, saying they could not even see the progress she was praising.
"There are no reform steps at all. The regime is still following the dictatorial and repressive method toward the Egyptian people and opposition," said Mohamed Habib, deputy leader of the opposition Muslim Brotherhood.
6869. jexster - 5/24/2005 4:41:54 PM
Another X in the Mossad Column
6870. jexster - 5/24/2005 4:57:21 PM
Remember Pelle this is NOT an indictment - yet
This is just our recommendation for investigation, a memo to Dr. Dumbeldorff or whatever the name of the German prosecutor who is investigating the Mossad's role in Hariri's murder
6871. PelleNilsson - 5/24/2005 11:32:18 PM
I you had read the AlJazeera piece you linked to you would have known that his name is Detlev Mehlis.
6872. jexster - 5/25/2005 10:01:01 AM
Not a Harry Potter fan I see.
6873. jexster - 5/25/2005 10:03:33 AM
Sometimes You are Just Screwed
6874. jexster - 5/25/2005 10:20:40 AM
Juan,
I'm not sure if he's still advocating it, but you may have heard him advance it on PBS. Brzezinski proposed a phased withdrawal schedule about a year ago, at about the time the CPA transfered power to Allawi. His reasoning is still sound today in my view ie to announce such a timetable gives credibility to what is now only rhetoric that the US does not have designs on Iraq. It gives the Iraqis incentive to get their acts together. It gives the American public .(whom you forget in your piece today) confidence that there is a plan. It gives the Congress a plan which it can monitor when it gives Bush his blank checks annually. Zbig also admitted that his proposal was risky, but answered that criticism by saying that if the timetable could not be met, that would be fine for at least we would know where it failed and why.
and like any plan, could be adjust.
I do not believe that it is realistic, given the steady deterioration of the situation in Iraq over the past 2 years to think that either the US can ever suceed there or that US public support will sustain an effort for as long as it takes to reach the outside chance that order will eventually be restored.
As a long time friend and manager of large construction projects is fond of saying "if you fail to develop a plan, your plan is to fail.". That is certainly the case here. Bush has no plan. It is time that the Congress began to debate the range of planning alternatives. Simply to accede to the grim reality without more, is a plan for failure because that is Bush's "plan".
6875. jexster - 5/25/2005 10:21:27 AM
RE: The Zbig Solution
6876. jexster - 5/25/2005 11:59:48 AM
X - Mossad
BINT JBEIL, Lebanon (AFP) - The head of Lebanon's Shiite Muslim movement Hezbollah said it possessed more than 12,000 rockets that it could use to hit northern Israel.
"Some people think we have 12,000 rockets, Katyushas or other ones. I tell you, we have more than 12,000," Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah told a crowd of tens of thousands of supporters in Bint-Jbeil, a Shiite town near the Israeli border.
"The whole of the north of occupied Palestine as well as its settlements, airports, fields and farms are within the firing range of the fighters of the Islamic resistance," he said, referring to northern Israel.
6877. jexster - 5/25/2005 8:06:13 PM
X - Mossad
Message # 7021 in thread 155
Rozen, a perceptive reporter who has been following this story from the start, gives us the essential context of the Franklin affair by showing that he was very much a part of a small, tightly-knit network inside the Pentagon dedicated to provoking war not only with Iraq but also igniting a regional conflict including Iran, Syria, Lebanon, and beyond. She does a very good job, in her piece, of showing how Franklin was at the center of this group's covert machinations: he had a penchant, as she puts it, for "showing up at critical and murky junctures of recent history":
"He was part of the Pentagon's Office of Special Plans, which provided much-disputed intelligence on Iraq; he courted controversial Iraqi exile politician Ahmad Chalabi, who contributed much of that hyped and misleading Iraq intelligence; and he participated with a Pentagon colleague and former Iran/contra arms dealer Manucher Ghorbanifar in a controversial December 2001 meeting in Rome – which, in a clear violation of US government protocol, was kept secret from the CIA and the State Department
6878. jexster - 5/25/2005 8:07:43 PM
You Euros act like Lebanon is some Cote d'Azur annex or something..
It is in the Middle East folks
6879. jexster - 5/25/2005 8:08:40 PM
Those white bread Verts and SAAB driving Swedes get hot flashes at BMW Revolutions...tends to blind them
6880. jexster - 5/25/2005 8:26:14 PM
Concerned, Shall I warm up that slice of crow pie?
GWB - Bringing the Arab Street to Power
With no weapons of mass destruction found and nothing to tie Saddam to Sept. 11, the White House has justified the war as America's way to democratize Iraq and, through it, the Arab world.
Exhibit A in the White House case is the January elections. Kurds and Shi'ites courageously voted for an assembly to write a new constitution. Dispossessed Sunnis, under death threats, stayed away. Result: the first Shia-dominated regime elected in an Arab country in history, though another is right next door in Iran.
Last week, Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi arrived in Baghdad. Unlike Condi Rice, Kharrazi had no need for a flak jacket or helmet and was received in Najaf by Ayatollah Sistani, who has yet to meet an American representative
Query: How much blood and treasure should Uncle Sam invest in a war to bring about free elections, if the result is to replace autocrats with Islamists who favor looser ties to America and closer ties to fellow Islamists?
6881. PelleNilsson - 5/25/2005 11:09:56 PM
You Euros act like Lebanon is some Cote d'Azur annex or something..
It is in the Middle East folks
That's rich. May I remind you, my dear fellow, that I have lived and worked in the ME for thirteen years of which two in Beirut. I was there during the Yom Kippur war. I was there when the Lebanese airforce bombed the Palestinian camps in Beirut, and I was there during the first phase of the civil war.
6882. jexster - 5/26/2005 9:46:49 AM
From al-Qaida's point of view, Bush's Iraq policies have arguably produced a confluence of propitious circumstances: a strategically bogged down America, hated by much of the Islamic world, and regarded warily even by its allies.
Iraq could serve as a valuable proving ground for 'blooding' foreign jihadists, and could conceivably form the basis of a second generation of capable al-Qaida leaders ... and middle-management players Institute of International Strategic Studies
6883. jexster - 5/26/2005 9:47:56 AM
That just means you have a more advanced case Pelle ;)
Drive a late model SAAB?
Maybe THAT's it!
6884. jexster - 5/26/2005 9:48:55 AM
Kidding aside, that must have been exciting. I'd a loved it..but then again, I like earthquakes
6885. PelleNilsson - 5/26/2005 1:13:27 PM
Yes, it was exciting. More in Escapes.
6886. concerned - 5/26/2005 10:09:27 PM
Last week, Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi arrived in Baghdad. Unlike Condi Rice, Kharrazi had no need for a flak jacket or helmet and was received in Najaf by Ayatollah Sistani, who has yet to meet an American representative
Ah, yes, Sistani, the ayatollah jexster persistently agitates for. How ingenuous of him.
6887. jexster - 5/29/2005 4:05:58 PM
Hey Sistani's Bush's Saviour..the only fella between the Moron's Legion and the Helicopter skids..
And they say my hatred obscures my judgement!
Can I help it that Bush has achieved what Raygun and Poppy worked so hard to avoid?
_ civil war in Iraq
- The Shiite Arc of Power
- the Islamic Republic of Iraq
- Iranian Nukes
- The Hegemony of the Ayatollahs
- and last but not least
Risk of Civil War Spreads Fear Across Nation
By Jeffrey Fleishman
The Los Angeles Times
Many worry that strains between Sunnis and Shiites could ignite a conflict that would overwhelm US troops and the government
GOOD WORK GEORGIE - BRING ON A NEW FRONT! (where's the old one?)
NEWSWEEK BE FREE
ALL PRAISE TO ALLAH
6888. jexster - 5/29/2005 5:47:16 PM
And to His Twelfth Imam Obe Juan of Ann Arbor!
Syria revealed on Thursday that it had arrested 1200 persons who were trying to pass through its territory on the way to iraq. Syria has been annoyed at US claims it is not doing enought to stop infiltration of radical Muslim militants from Syria into Iraq. Syria has been arresting such persons all along, but is now making the fact public as part of its tiff with Washington. The Bush administration appears to believe that it can get cooperation from the Syrian government at the same time that it is openly dedicated to overthrowing it. That time has passed.
That was Friday...
This is today
US Warns Syria to Stem Flow of Insurgents Into Iraq
Report: Syria Arrests 300 Saudis Headed to Iraq
6889. alistairconnor - 5/30/2005 3:49:58 AM
From the first link : Inevitably, US officials revel in the discomfiture of President Jacques Chirac over today’s French referendum on the EU constitution.
That's what I've been telling people for months. Nobody believed me.
Two happy men today : Bush and his poodle Blair.
For different reasons, mind.
6890. jexster - 5/30/2005 5:41:32 AM
Ashhadu 'an la 'ilaha 'illah Allah
I bear witness that there is
No God But God
6891. jexster - 5/30/2005 5:44:36 AM
BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. troops detained the head of Iraq's largest Sunni Muslim political party on Monday, according to party officials, police and the man's wife. South of the capital, two suicide bombers attacked a crowd of policemen in Hillah, killing 20 and wounding nearly 100.
Iraq's president condemned the arrest of Mohsen Abdul-Hamid, head of the Iraqi Islamic Party, and demanded his immediate release.
The arrests came on the second day of Operation Lightning, a massive Iraqi-led anti-insurgent offensive in Baghdad that Abdul-Hamid's party opposes, believing security forces will trample on innocent people's rights.
Abdul-Hamid was taken from his home in the western Baghdad suburb of Khadra at about 6 a.m., along with his three sons and four guards, said party-secretary-general Ayad al-Samarei.
Al-Samarei accused American soldiers of raiding Abdul-Hamid's home and confiscating various items, including a computer. U.S. military officials could not immediately confirm the detentions. Iraqi officials were also reluctant to talk about the issue.
"This is a provocative and foolish act and this is part of the pressure exerted on the party," al-Samarei said.
"At the time when the Americans say they are keen on real Sunni participation, they are now arresting the head of the only Sunni party that calls for a peaceful solution and have participated in the political process," he added.
Allaahu Akbar!
6892. jexster - 5/30/2005 5:48:40 AM
If Bush is indeed rejoicing and he well may be, it proves what fucking idiot he is and provides some more insight into how the US got into such a mess for whether he is uncomfortable or whether he is in office makes no difference in French policy in the Middle East nor will it change the facts on the ground or better in the quagmire
6893. Macnas - 5/30/2005 9:16:23 AM
re 6885
I was never in Beirut, but I never cared for the delightfully named Brashit.
6894. jexster - 6/6/2005 12:27:40 PM
Another X in the Mossad Column
Hizbollah polls win bolsters defiance on arms
Anybody happen to hear when Herr Schickelgruber's planning to interrogate the jews?
and speaking of the Zionist entity, yesterday was Israel in the Park day here in SF. A lovely time was had by all, until a large group of folks carrying PAL flags appeared accross the street.
The TV interview was interesting....They grabbed a tall blonde jewess from Tel Aviv first
"I am embarrassed. I did not expect anything like this here! I came on vacation and look these people disrupt by beautiful vacation picnic"
Violins please...anyone have spare kleenex!
Then to the demonstrators...but the PALS for once showed some PR savvy..they didn't put any ole Hassim forward, their spokesman was a JEW!!
and he laid into Israel
MOZELTOV to the brave Palestinian people!
6895. jexster - 6/6/2005 1:42:34 PM
Agent provocateurs? The CIA? The Mossad? Justin Raimondo, "The American Conservative"
6896. jexster - 6/6/2005 1:53:50 PM
6897. jexster - 6/6/2005 11:19:42 PM
The Arab Spring and The Army of God
Obe Juan Does the Levant
X Mossad??
Certainly NOT Syria! Could it be that Israel is looking to lend a helpin hand?
Note that the outcome of the Lebanese election so far does not look very much like the "Arab Spring" promised us by the Wall Street Journal. Hizbullah is a strong ally of Syria, though it did not insist on Syrian troops remaining in Lebanon. In fact, with the Syrians gone, and given the weakness of the Lebanese Army, Hizbullah is primed to become the most important military force in the country. Although some of the Lebanese Forces (rightwing Maronites) politicians have called for Hizbullah to be immediately disarmed, no one else agrees with them-- not Saad al-Hariri, not Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, not pro-Syrian Christians.
Naaaww....not the ISRAELITES!
Get up in the morning, slaving for bread, sir,
so that every mouth can be fed.
Poor me, the Israelite. Aah.
Get up in the morning, slaving for bread, sir,
So that every mouth can be fed.
Poor me, the Israelite. Aah.
My wife and my kids, they are packed up and leave me.
Darling, she said, I was yours to be seen.
Poor me, the Israelite. Aah.
Shirt them a-tear up, trousers are gone.
I don't want to end up like Bonnie and Clyde.
Poor me, the Israelite. Aah.
After a storm there must be a calm.
They catch me in the farm. You sound the alarm.
Poor me, the Israelite. Aah.
Poor me, the Israelite.
I wonder who I'm working for.
Poor me, Israelite,
I look a-down and out, sir.
6898. Magoseph - 6/8/2005 6:43:53 AM
Islamic leaders, 2 others held in California terror probe
(CNN) -- Federal agents searched the homes of two Islamic leaders in Lodi, California, and have made four arrests since Sunday, part of an ongoing terrorism investigation, according to the FBI and witnesses.
Two of those arrested are top Muslim leaders in Lodi, including one who publicly condemned the September 11, 2001, terror attacks and issued a declaration of peace with Christian and Jewish leaders in Lodi three years ago.
The other two are a father and son, identified as 47-year-old Umer Hayat and 22-year-old Hamid Hayat. The son allegedly lied about his attendance at an al Qaeda training camp in Pakistan, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Details of the investigation by the Joint Terrorism Task Force based in Sacramento will be made public Wednesday morning and until then officials are saying little about the case.
More...
6899. jexster - 6/8/2005 9:39:35 AM
Another broken-back insurgency?
KABUL (Reuters) - Insurgents launched a mortar attack on a U.S. military base in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, killing two members of the U.S. armed forces and wounding eight, the U.S. military said.
Taliban guerrillas claimed responsibility. Twelve U.S. soldiers have been killed in a wave of clashes, blasts and rebel ambushes in Afghanistan since late March.
6900. jexster - 6/10/2005 9:30:56 AM
Things Are FAR Worse Than You Think
[Cole]Anthony Shadid and Steve Fainaru explain why the new Iraqi Army is unlikely to take over security duties effectively any time soon. The last sentence of the report is chilling:
6901. jexster - 6/10/2005 9:38:47 AM
BAIJI, Iraq -- An hour before dawn, the sky still clouded by a dust storm, the soldiers of the Iraqi army's Charlie Company began their mission with a ballad to ousted president Saddam Hussein. "We have lived in humiliation since you left," one sang in Arabic, out of earshot of his U.S. counterparts. "We had hoped to spend our life with you."
6902. jexster - 6/10/2005 9:53:54 AM
Amir Omar, a 19-year-old Iraqi corporal, patrols in Baiji, a desolate oil town where "the people have been destroyed."
6903. jexster - 6/10/2005 10:00:21 AM
6904. jexster - 6/10/2005 10:48:33 AM
Palestinian State?
JERUSALEM (AFP) - A new poll showed support for the Gaza Strip pullout is ebbing, as the former head of Israel's domestic security service warned that a Jewish suicide bomber could target Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to stop the withdrawal.
When it comes to the middle east, the surest sign that Bush is lying is that his lips are moving
6905. jexster - 6/11/2005 1:36:45 PM
Diverse Afghan Groups Behind Unrest - CSM
6906. jexster - 6/12/2005 5:20:11 PM
This is going to be interesting...Cole said the final parliament should be apparent after this vote..I venture it doesn't look so hot...
X Mossad
BAABDA, Lebanon (AFP) - The opposition alliance which led the campaign to force Syrian troops out of Lebanon in April suffered a major reverse at the polls, conceding defeat in every Christian seat up for grabs.
Veteran Damascus foe Michel Aoun's unlikely alliance with longtime Syrian allies, such as the family of Defence Minister Michel Murr, swept the board in consituencies reserved for Chrstians in both the central Mount Lebanon region and the eastern Bekaa Valley, the alliance conceded.
"I acknowledge that he won," said Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, who was himself re-elected unopposed in his fiefdom in the Chouf mountains.
"The Christian extremists have vanquished the moderates," he said, accusing Aoun of serving Syrian interests, even though Damascus forced him to spend 15 years in exile and he only returned home last month.
6907. Dora - 6/15/2005 12:26:38 PM
Pelle, I really didn't want to get into any more discussion in the other place and I don't really want to do so here. But I just wanted to tell you as follow up to what I said, that whatever I had to say about Israeli Arabs, does not hold true for Palestinians in the occupied territory whose status is unconscionable.
6908. PelleNilsson - 6/15/2005 1:04:29 PM
OK, Dora.
6909. jexster - 6/15/2005 2:13:51 PM
In 1996, Daniel Jonah Goldhagen published Hitler's Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust. His thesis is that the mass murder of Jews was not done on the quiet by a few Nazi fanatics. Instead, Goldhagen writes, by their complicity, ordinary Germans were willing participants in the slaughter.(a skosh more than that I LOVE GOLDHAGEN!)
How much more shame and complicity will Americans allow Bush and his neocon brownshirts to shovel onto their shoulders before Americans say "enough!" and remove from office the war criminal who has sullied America's good name?
Enabling Evil
by Paul Craig Roberts
Dr. Roberts is John M. Olin Fellow at the Institute for Political Economy and Research Fellow at the Independent Institute. He is a former associate editor of the Wall Street Journal and a former assistant secretary of the U.S. Treasury. He is the co-author of The Tyranny of Good Intentions
6910. jexster - 6/15/2005 2:27:01 PM
Ich liebe Daniel Goldhagen
6911. jexster - 6/15/2005 2:36:18 PM
6912. jexster - 6/17/2005 3:34:18 AM
Professor Adel Saffy of Bahcesehir University in Istanbul compares the Bush-Blair agreement in April, 2002, to get up a war against Iraq through the manipulation of their publics to the Sykes-Picot agreement between Britain and France during WW I that led to the Middle East being carved up into small weak states (and involved the British duplicitously promising Syria both to the French and to Sharif Hussein of Mecca, the ancestor of Jordan's King Abdullah II).
[Via Cole]
6913. jexster - 6/19/2005 12:12:38 PM
Iraq isn't a partisan issue(???); it's a national security issue
By Anne-Marie Slaughter, Dean Woodrow Wilson School of Public Policy, Princeton
We can’t “stay the course” in Iraq unless we know what the course is. This is the point that links a number of seemingly disparate reactions that I have to the debate about what we should do in Iraq. Swopa linked to a New York Times Memorial Day article that said U.S. veterans would not fight today in Iraq nor tell their sons to because it is simply not clear “what we are doing over there,” e.g. what we are actually fighting for. If, deep down, our troops don't know and believe in what they are fighting for, how can they train and motivate Iraqis? And why should anyone else believe us?
Continued....
6914. alistairconnor - 6/20/2005 4:27:07 AM
and it's one, two, three what are we fightin' for?
Don't ask me I don't give a faq
Next stop is...
6915. jexster - 6/20/2005 5:09:28 AM
Yesterday, Barzhani demanded the Parliament recognize Kurdish control over Kirkuk
IRBIL, Iraq - A suicide car bomber killed 20 traffic policemen and wounded 100 Monday outside the unit's headquarters in this northern Kurdish city, police and hospital officials said.
Iraq's insurgency appeared unfazed by two massive U.S.-Iraqi military offensives against militant smuggling routes and training centers west and north of Baghdad, mounting attacks that have killed at least 75 in the past two days — including 30 people on Monday.
Oh say can you see
CIVIL WAR
Bush ain't goin nowhere...cept to the "bully pulpit" to try and salvage a rapidly declining approval of a public that thinks he's a liar
6916. jexster - 6/20/2005 5:16:24 AM
Chuck Hagel just skewered Bush in US News...slammed him really...
Two Buch Chuck recognizes reality when it bites him in the ass..
"US is losing in Iraq"
No shit Chuck.
Facing Facts in Iraq
There are four ever widening gaps that are threatening a successful outcome of George W. Bush's war in Iraq. The first is between what Sunnis, Shi'ites, and Kurds want for Iraq's future, especially in the all-important matter of Sunni inclusion. Sunnis are under-represented in the Iraqi government because many boycotted the January elections. But the only hope for ending their blood-soaked insurrection is to bring them fully into the political process. The length of time it has taken to reach any compromise is discouraging...
The third is the growing gap between the Bush administration and the American people. For the first time, according to a Washington Post-ABC poll, more than half of Americans don't feel that the Iraq war has made them safer. The truth is that the Iraq war has made them decidedly less safe, distracting us from the real war on Islamic extremism and creating a magnet for Jihadi fanatics. According to a Gallup poll, 57 percent now say Iraq was not worth invading.
But the largest gap of all is the reality gap between what the Bush administration says and what is really happening on the ground in Iraq. Vice President Cheney, against all evidence to the contrary, famously said that the insurgency is in its ''last throes." To this Biden says: Go see for yourself.
Washington says it has enough troops in Iraq, but battle commanders on the ground are saying privately they need more men.
A former Pentagon official, journalist, and president of the Council on Foreign Relations, Leslie Gelb, a man with considerable political and military knowledge, came back from a fact-finding trip in Iraq talking about the ''gap between those who work there, who were really careful of every word they uttered of prediction or analysis, and the expansive, sometimes, I think, totally unrealistic optimism you hear from people back in Washington."
In a report to the council, Gelb was scathing about America efforts to train an Iraqi army. ''If you ask any Iraqi leader, they will tell you these people can't fight. They just aren't trained. And yet we're cranking them out like rabbits." As for plans to train a 10 division Iraqi army by next year, Gelb was scathing. ''It became very apparent to me that these 10 divisions were to fight some future war against Iran. It had nothing to do, nothing to do," with taking Iraq over from the Americans and fighting the insurgents.
Americans have statistics for everything in Iraq, yet little of it reflects reality. ''The information seeps in, and you wonder" about its reliability," Gelb said. " You wonder if you really know what's going on, because essentially what you have are the statistics. It reminds me so of the Vietnam days
Richard Clarke also got revenge in a NyT Op Ed to the same effect
6917. jexster - 6/20/2005 5:19:21 AM
Cole: The United Nations Strategy as a Resolution of the Iraq Crisis
The United States has failed militarily in Iraq, and the situation there is deteriorating rapidly. A protracted guerrilla war is increasingly becoming an unconventional civil war. The US can mount operations against infiltrators on the Syrian border, but cannot permanently close off those borders. The US can prevent set piece battles from being fought by militias. It cannot prevent night-time raids. Seven bodies showed up Sunday in East Baghdad, executed. They were almost certainly victims of this shadowy sectarian war....
RIP..That one died about July 2003...who in the hell is gonna follow GWB anywhere
6918. jexster - 6/20/2005 5:25:43 AM
Bush Helps Hardliners
Neoconservative Ahmadinejad in Lead
6919. jexster - 6/20/2005 7:02:39 PM
Experts: Bush Remarks Spurred Iran Voters
6920. jexster - 6/20/2005 7:05:19 PM
6921. jexster - 6/21/2005 6:18:09 PM
The US war with Iran has already begun
by Scott Ritter
Americans, along with the rest of the world, are starting to wake up to the uncomfortable fact that President George Bush not only lied to them about the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq (the ostensible excuse for the March 2003 invasion and occupation of that country by US forces), but also about the very process that led to war.
On 16 October 2002, President Bush told the American people that "I have not ordered the use of force. I hope that the use of force will not become necessary."
We know now that this statement was itself a lie, that the president, by late August 2002, had, in fact, signed off on the 'execute' orders authorising the US military to begin active military operations inside Iraq, and that these orders were being implemented as early as September 2002, when the US Air Force, assisted by the British Royal Air Force, began expanding its bombardment of targets inside and outside the so-called no-fly zone in Iraq.
These operations were designed to degrade Iraqi air defence and command and control capabilities. They also paved the way for the insertion of US Special Operations units, who were conducting strategic reconnaissance, and later direct action, operations against specific targets inside Iraq, prior to the 19 March 2003 commencement of hostilities.
President Bush had signed a covert finding in late spring 2002, which authorised the CIA and US Special Operations forces to dispatch clandestine units into Iraq for the purpose of removing Saddam Hussein from power.
The fact is that the Iraq war had begun by the beginning of summer 2002, if not earlier.
The violation of a sovereign nation's airspace is an act of war in and of itself. But the war with Iran has gone far beyond the intelligence gathering phase.
This timeline of events has ramifications that go beyond historical trivia or political investigation into the events of the past.
It represents a record of precedent on the part of the Bush administration which must be acknowledged when considering the ongoing events regarding US-Iran relations. As was the case with Iraq pre-March 2003, the Bush administration today speaks of "diplomacy" and a desire for a "peaceful" resolution to the Iranian question.
But the facts speak of another agenda, that of war and the forceful removal of the theocratic regime, currently wielding the reigns of power in Tehran.
6922. jexster - 6/21/2005 6:22:19 PM
America and the Western nations continue to be fixated on the ongoing tragedy and debacle that is Iraq. Much needed debate on the reasoning behind the war with Iraq and the failed post-war occupation of Iraq is finally starting to spring up in the United States and elsewhere.
Normally, this would represent a good turn of events. But with everyone's heads rooted in the events of the past, many are missing out on the crime that is about to be repeated by the Bush administration in Iran - an illegal war of aggression, based on false premise, carried out with little regard to either the people of Iran or the United States.
6923. jexster - 6/22/2005 10:51:10 AM
6924. PelleNilsson - 6/22/2005 2:11:09 PM
Is Bush getting serious about the peace process?
Henry Siegman of the Council of Foreign Relations and a former head of the American Jewish Congress, a staunch critic of Sharon's policies and Bush's support of them detects a change in the American standpoint:
For the most part, both supporters and detractors of President George W. Bush's handling of the Middle East peace process missed the significant change in U.S. policy - at least on the rhetorical level - expressed by Bush when he met with Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, at the White House on May 26.
In a press conference, Bush declared that it is U.S. policy that permanent-status negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians must begin at the 1949 armistice line, popularly referred to as the pre-1967 border or the Green Line. He stated explicitly that no changes can be made in this border without Palestinian agreement. "This is the position of the United States today, and it will be the position of the United States at the time of final status negotiations," he said.
Bush also called on Israel "not to undertake activities that contravene road map obligations or prejudice final status negotiations." It was the first time that he applied that stricture specifically to Jerusalem, where Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is doing his best to preclude the possibility that any part of the city will belong to a future Palestinian state
6925. jexster - 6/24/2005 6:33:22 PM
Iranian hardliner heading to shock presidential victory
If the NeoCrazies are cruisin for a bruisin, they've not far to look.
6926. jexster - 6/24/2005 6:37:12 PM
Pelle...you still don't get it do you?
6927. Marc-Albert - 6/25/2005 6:15:47 AM
Pelle is away for a while, so you can pursue your soliloquy with even less minimal interruption than usual.
6928. jexster - 6/25/2005 11:02:34 AM
By all means, Marc...what do you think of the landslide victory?
What more could Iran ask for than an enemy like GWB?
6929. wonkers2 - 6/27/2005 7:21:17 AM
Iraqi-American support for Bush Drops Sharply Here.
6930. Magoseph - 6/27/2005 7:56:44 AM
In all the recent polls, Bush still has a healthy percentage concerning his ability to protect us from terrorism--it is hard to understand why this is.
6931. wonkers2 - 6/27/2005 8:06:12 AM
Too many people Rely on Fox and Rush for their news.
6932. alistairconnor - 6/29/2005 7:18:10 AM
Simple : there have been no turrist attacks on US soil.
And now it can be revealed : how the CIA forestalled a dastardly Al Qaeda plot!
Remember those security alerts in 2003?
CIA analysts forced 30 flights to be cancelled and raised the US terror alert from yellow to orange because they thought that al-Qaida was sending hidden messages through the headlines of the Arabic television news channel al-Jazeera, it has been revealed.
According to a report by NBC, CIA experts thought they had decoded messages that they believed gave dates, flight numbers and geographic coordinates for targets that included the White House, Seattle's Space Needle and even the small town of Tappahannock, Virginia, which has a population of 2,000.
"These credible sources suggest the possibility of attacks against the homeland around the holiday season and beyond," said the homeland security chief, Tom Ridge, at the time of the incident in December 2003.
You can decode all sorts of hidden messages from TV. Depending on what you've been smoking.
6933. jexster - 6/29/2005 10:06:45 AM
With a secret decoder ring.
6934. jexster - 6/29/2005 10:08:20 AM
Ahmadinejad and Bush: Separated at Birth?
Despite the growing likelihood of confrontation between their two countries, U.S. President George W. Bush and Iranian President-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad share a number of remarkable similarities.
Juan Cole [HIS NAME BE PRAISED!], a prominent blogger and Middle East historian at the University of Michigan, noted last week that the two men's campaign tactics suggest that they are "soul mates," particularly in their populist appeal, their criticism of a government of which they are a part, and their reliance on right-wing religious forces for their electoral success.
But even in terms of personal history, their lack of interest or concern about the outside world, and their Manichaean outlooks in which friends and enemies and good and evil are clearly delineated, the two men share a great deal in common.
6935. jexster - 7/1/2005 10:39:37 AM
Mood of Anxiety Engulf Afghanistan as Anxiety Rises
Reflecting the shifting popular mood, President Hamid Karzai has publicly criticized the behavior of American troops and called for closer cooperation when Afghan homes are raided.
The Taliban's spring offensive has sounded an alarm for the United States military and the Karzai government, both of which had said that the Taliban were largely defeated and that the nation was consolidating behind its first elected national leader.
"We were wrong," a senior Afghan government official acknowledged, saying of the Taliban, "It seems they were spending the time preparing." He insisted on anonymity because of the delicacy of the subject within the government...
With parliamentary elections approaching in September, the issue of the American military presence is already emerging at the forefront of political debate. Foreign diplomats are forecasting that the election will deliver a Parliament divided on ethnic lines and largely anti-Karzai, with a strong element of jihadi leaders and Islamists.
6936. jexster - 7/8/2005 1:05:46 PM
London Terror Mystery
What did Bibi know –
and when did he know it?
by Justin Raimondo
6937. jexster - 7/8/2005 7:44:02 PM
Wanna Cry?
Ask the Iraqis for a Kleenex
"And the contrast couldn't be clearer," quoth Dubya, "between the intentions and the hearts of those of us who care deeply about human rights and human liberty, and those who kill – those who have got such evil in their heart that they will take the lives of innocent folks."
Well, not exactly.
Who Has Killed More?
George W. Bush is probably more responsible for more innocent deaths than any of the others, although Putin, with the brutal suppression of the Chechen insurgency, might be a bit ahead. As a direct result of Bush's orders, preceded by intransigent and uninformed stubbornness, thousands of Iraqi civilians have been killed. It is unclear exactly how many of them were killed directly by American troops, but there is no question that quite a few – probably in the thousands – fall into that category.
"Collateral damage" say the military euphemists, but those people were living, breathing human beings who were precious in the eyes of God. They are just as dead as if they had been killed by a car bomb. If George W. Bush has the human decency to have lost any sleep over the deaths of these innocents, the news has not penetrated into the world beyond the White House.
The notion that murder and killing can be sanitized and made not just moral but admirable if it is done in the name of the State – or that maybe it shouldn't really weigh on your conscience if it is done by the sons and daughters of people who weren't born as fortunate ones – is one of the more pernicious falsehoods of our time. Those who order wars, especially wars of choice rather than wars of necessity (as all concerned, including most war supporters, acknowledge the war on Iraq was) have no business trumpeting their moral superiority, even to terrorists. This is not an apology for terrorists at all, simply an attempt to make it clear that they are not the only ones responsible for killing innocent people who had done nothing but try to get on with their lives.
Last Sunday, we prayed for Yasser Salihy at Mass. Do you think GWB knows who he was?
Do you?
6938. jexster - 7/8/2005 7:44:52 PM
Wanna Cry?
Ask the Iraqis for a Kleenex
"And the contrast couldn't be clearer," quoth Dubya, "between the intentions and the hearts of those of us who care deeply about human rights and human liberty, and those who kill – those who have got such evil in their heart that they will take the lives of innocent folks."
Well, not exactly.
Who Has Killed More?
George W. Bush is probably more responsible for more innocent deaths than any of the others, although Putin, with the brutal suppression of the Chechen insurgency, might be a bit ahead. As a direct result of Bush's orders, preceded by intransigent and uninformed stubbornness, thousands of Iraqi civilians have been killed. It is unclear exactly how many of them were killed directly by American troops, but there is no question that quite a few – probably in the thousands – fall into that category.
"Collateral damage" say the military euphemists, but those people were living, breathing human beings who were precious in the eyes of God. They are just as dead as if they had been killed by a car bomb. If George W. Bush has the human decency to have lost any sleep over the deaths of these innocents, the news has not penetrated into the world beyond the White House.
The notion that murder and killing can be sanitized and made not just moral but admirable if it is done in the name of the State – or that maybe it shouldn't really weigh on your conscience if it is done by the sons and daughters of people who weren't born as fortunate ones – is one of the more pernicious falsehoods of our time. Those who order wars, especially wars of choice rather than wars of necessity (as all concerned, including most war supporters, acknowledge the war on Iraq was) have no business trumpeting their moral superiority, even to terrorists. This is not an apology for terrorists at all, simply an attempt to make it clear that they are not the only ones responsible for killing innocent people who had done nothing but try to get on with their lives.
Last Sunday, we prayed for Yasser Salihy at Mass. Do you think GWB knows who he was?
Do you?
[link]
6939. jexster - 7/11/2005 4:42:30 PM
Jerusalem and Terrorism
The Ariel Sharon government in Israel has announced that it will build a huge wall on someone else's land through Jerusalem, cutting off 55,000 Arabs from the city (they'll have to go through nasty Israeli checkpoints every day to get into their own city!)
This is land theft on a massive scale. Worse, it is theft on a stage of sacred space that affects the sentiments of over a billion people. Whether Westerners like it or not, Jerusalem is considered by Muslims their third holiest city, and Israeli theft of the whole thing drives a lot of them up the wall. A partitioned Jerusalem where the Arab east is connected to the West Bank is the only route to peace. Sharon in his usual aggressive, grabby way, is trying to make that forever an impossibility.
And, folks, this sort of thing, which the Washington Post didn't even notice, may very well get you and me killed. I think what Sharon is doing is morally and politically wrong to begin with. But I sure as hell resent the possibility that I or my family is going to get blown up because of it.
You want to know what causes terrorism....
That is why our press and politicians do us an enormous disservice by not putting the Israeli announcement about the Jerusalem Barrier on the front page. This sort of action is a big part of what is driving the terrorists (and of course Sharon himself is a sort of state-backed terrorist anyway). The newspapers and television news departments should be telling us when we are about to be in the cross-fire between the aggressive, expansionist, proto-fascist Likud Coalition and the paranoid, murderous, violent al-Qaeda and its offshoots.
Eisenhower called up DeGaulle and told him to get the hell out of Algeria, on a short timetable, or else. I wish Bush had Eisenhower's spine when it came to dealing with Ariel Sharon.
And they want us to pay 2.2 Billion for them to leave someone else's land (Gaza)!
Chutzpah!
Where's the leash Bush took off of that fat bastard.
6940. PelleNilsson - 7/13/2005 10:43:23 AM
"Eisenhower called up DeGaulle and told him to get the hell out of Algeria, on a short timetable, or else."
Source?
6941. jexster - 7/13/2005 1:05:26 PM
You might try the presidential papers at the Dwight D. Eisenhower institute for starters
6942. jexster - 7/13/2005 1:07:53 PM
Martin Kramer a colleague of yours Pelle or do you just enjoy sucking his butt?
6943. jexster - 7/13/2005 5:36:37 PM
On reconsideration..JFK was Prez when de Gaulle skeedaddled..not Ike
6944. PelleNilsson - 7/14/2005 1:17:59 AM
Never heard of Kramer. It seems that he is associated with Daniel Pipes whom I dislike much more than Cole.
6945. jexster - 7/14/2005 5:23:30 AM
I did a Lexis search in answer to the Great One's Call to arms...He was head of the Dyan Center at Hebe U for a long time...made several appearances here UofChicago and Georgetown...odd thing is in the dozen or so articles that came from Israeli press out of the 50 hits only the Jerusalem Post quoted the guy and they did so extensively.
There is some sort of network that ties Likud extremists and our ruling NeoCon "elite"...scary...armed and dangerous
6946. jexster - 7/15/2005 11:06:53 AM
AIPAC's Overt and Covert Ops
by Juan Cole 8/24/04
6947. jexster - 7/18/2005 10:11:29 AM
SILENCE Swede!
The Obe Juan Speaketh
Scott Horton's radio interview with me is now on the web.
6948. jexster - 7/21/2005 10:09:33 AM
Pelle - you especially will enjoy and appreciate the latest from Chris Allbritton, Back to Iraq 3.0...he is a reporter who is now freelancing and blogging out of Baghdad. In The Plot he describes the Arab conspiratorial mind perfectly - I have a PAL friend who thinks EXACTLY this way - and shares some of the frustration he experiences as reporter. The title taken from Robert Fisk reports from Lebanon who remarked that The Plot should have a table at every meal because it is the topic in every dinner time conversation.
Just my friend Charlie..drives me bats...these folks believe that the US and Israel are omnipotent. They can never fail and everthing then is the result of some US or Israeli inspired plot. I can appreciate how difficult it might be for a reporter who has to cut through all the bullshit to find out what really is going on.
Good read
6949. PelleNilsson - 7/23/2005 2:34:20 AM
That reminds me of a story I may have told before. I was having a beer with some Jordanian colleagues and when they fell to plot talk I thought I should contribute something so I said "I have heard that Arafat is an Israeli agent". This was met with derisive laughter: "But everybody knows that, Pelle!".
6950. jexster - 7/23/2005 5:06:28 PM
Why everybody seems to be saying the same thing to the Warrior king..
Sharon to Condi: F-- You!
and why not? Arik got what he wanted...our ass stuck in a quagmire....he ain't goin no where fast...and they'll take an extra 2.2 billion this year, thank you very...
Shalom suckers
Haaretz reports on US Secretary of State Condi Rice's visit to Israel:
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spent Thursday in Jerusalem, where she met with Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom. Rice told Shalom that coordinating the pullout plan with the PA [Palestinian Authority] was critical and must be continued. She said it was important to be able to use the withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and part of the northern West Bank to strengthen Abbas. Rice said she would like the disengagement to form the basis of a renewed diplomatic process and help boost Abbas' regime. '
While US Secretary of State Condi Rice was meeting with the Israeli foreign minister to encourage Israel's adherence to the "Road Map" toward Israeli-Palestinian peace and Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was out assuring the Israeli colonists on the West Bank that he was going to unilaterally annex even more Palestinian land, along with the holy city of Jerusalem, permanently.
6951. jexster - 7/25/2005 5:15:12 PM
Could the Likudnik Enitity's Agenda Be More Clear?
They jumped the Mayor of London for not kowtowing sufficiently.
Holocaust free and discount passes have expired assholes. You pay full fare like everyone else on the planet.
Israel Angry at Pope Over Terror Comments
Pope Benedict XVI faced the first major conflict of his 3-month-old papacy when Israel summoned the Vatican envoy Monday to express outrage that the pope "deliberately failed" to condemn terrorist attacks against Israelis.
The pontiff also said in separate comments Monday that he didn't see any anti-Christian motive in recent attacks blamed on Muslim extremists and urged dialogue with the best elements of Islam.
The German-born Benedict, who has consistently reached out to Jews since assuming the papacy, was criticized by Israel for remarks Sunday from his Alpine vacation retreat in northwestern Italy.
He prayed for God to stop the "murderous hand" of terrorists and referred to the recent "abhorrent terrorist attacks" in Egypt, Britain, Turkey and Iraq, but did not mention attacks in Israel.
"The pope deliberately failed to condemn the terrible terror attack that occurred in Israel last week," a Foreign Ministry statement issued in Jerusalem said.
A July 12 suicide bombing in the seaside city of Netanya killed five Israelis. Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility.
"We expected that the new pope, who on taking office emphasized the importance he places on relations between the Church and the Jewish people, would behave differently," the Israeli statement said. It called on the pope to condemn attacks "against Jews in the same way he condemns terror attacks against others."
Later, Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom appeared to soften the criticism, saying he hoped the failure to mention the attack in Netanya "was a mistake and not a deliberate omission."
Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls, accompanying Benedict on vacation, issued a one-line statement saying the papal envoy "has already replied to the Israeli government." It did not elaborate.
Later, Navarro-Valls released a second statement in which he noted that Benedict's words expressly referred to terror attacks in "recent days."
"It's surprising that one would have wanted to take the opportunity to distort the intentions of the Holy Father," Navarro-Valls said in the statement. "Obviously the other week's grave attack in Netanya referred to by Israel falls under the general and unreserved condemnation of terrorism."
6952. jexster - 7/25/2005 5:47:02 PM
Just took a while for the Official LIne to arrive from Jerusalem.
US Right turns on Blair for being 'soft on terror' - UK Telegraph
6953. alistairconnor - 7/26/2005 4:08:20 AM
There is actually something in that.
England has truly been a land of free speech and safe haven for political activists of all stripes. In practice, this includes tolerance of hate speech and harbouring of terrorists.
France, which is much more pragmatic about such liberties, has only a few weeks ago finally obtained the extradition of Rashid Ramda, alleged mastermind of the Paris metro bombings that killed half a dozen people ten years ago this week.
The reason the English courts wouldn't extradite him earlier, is that some of the evidence against him was apparently obtained under torture.
But the British model is being called into question...
Jim Pinkerton, a former White House aide, told The Observer that Britain needed to learn from France and America following the events of 7 July: 'The British are reaping the consequences of this radical experiment in multiculturalism. It is different in America. We have a very patriotic process of assimilation. Nations don't survive without common symbols.
'This bombing should mark the end of the open borders notion. Britain should adopt the French model of assimilation, where you hammer away at everyone until they think they are French.'
I don't necessarily agree. I think it's admirable to live in a glass house.
6954. concerned - 7/26/2005 8:26:41 AM
6955. concerned - 7/26/2005 8:44:49 AM
6956. alistairconnor - 7/26/2005 8:57:40 AM
Message # 6954 So, Con, you are smugly satisfied that Britons are living in fear and Americans are feeling safe? Is that the point of the cartoon?
6957. concerned - 7/26/2005 9:09:45 AM
AC -
That cartoon predates the London bombings - I just thought it was humorous.
6958. alistairconnor - 7/26/2005 9:17:55 AM
Perhaps it was, before the London bombings.
6959. jexster - 7/26/2005 10:05:20 AM
In the Islamic Republic of Iraq..surprise, surprise
Islamic Law Governs 
US Kurd "Ally" Talabani Grins from the al-Sistani Podium
Ain't Allah Akbar TD!
6960. jexster - 7/26/2005 10:17:48 AM
To the Victor Belong the Spoils
Iraqi Official Demands Timetable for Withdrawal
by Aaron Glantz
The following interview with Iraq's minister of civil society activities, Ala'a al-Safi, was conducted July 20, 2005, after Iraqi Premier Ibrahim al-Jaafari's historic visit to Iran. In the interview, al-Safi explains how the Iraqi government is endeavoring to warm relations with its neighbors and push the Bush administration into setting a timeline for U.S. withdrawal. We started by talking about Prime Minister Jaafari's visit to Iran....
There's the missing ingredient. Chalabi had been reported(al-hayat via Cole) to be leading a withdrawal faction in the government...apparently those reports were accurate
6961. jexster - 7/26/2005 10:19:32 AM
TD glad you're in the mood for laughs
6962. jexster - 7/26/2005 10:24:19 AM
Who knows what the future may hold. The whole is just as likely as not to blow up into one huge ball of nuclear fire but at least as likely if not more so, an Iran/Iraq alliance....with all that erl money....at the sky prices Bush and Texan oil chums had been hankerin so long for funding attacks on Israel.
Bought and paid for by US tax dollars...310 billion of em and counting..
And that's the GOOD outcome
6963. concerned - 7/26/2005 10:51:39 AM
Islamic Law to Live By for Jexster, from 'Ask the Other Imam':
Q: I need to know what is the fatwa for passing gas from the front in women?
A: Pussy farts do not invalidate the Wudhu if they are silent. However, they are a sign of disrepect in the wife, and she should cut down on the falafel. If it continues, she should be beaten or given Pussy Beano or something.
Q: When we bought our Nike clothes, we did not know that Nike meant Greek god. What should we do with these products we have?
A: You should remove all logos from sporting apparel which refer to false gods, such as "Nike" or "Favre." In addition, if you own a Mercury automobile, you should remove its logos, and fill in with bondo. You might also consider a 3" chop and frenched headlights, and a Gene Winfield fade. Not only is this Deen, you will soon have a bitchin' Merc lead sled which is holy in the eyes of Allah, peace be unto him.
Q: I am hearing that Princess Diana had accepted Islam before she passed away. What is your opinion?
A: It is possible. Although it is said that the last thing to pass through her head was her hind parts.
Q: Is it permissible for me to ask my wife to pierce her navel strictly for my pleasure only??
A: Belly piercing is so like 10 minutes ago. It is Haraam, as are trucker hats.
Q: What are the positions allowed for intercourse? Can wife sit on top of husband?
A: An Aayat of the noble Qur'aan states, 'the wife who is on top of husband is okay, except for a Cleveland steamer.'
Q: I have to make a choice whether I should work with jews. Is it allowed or should we decline?
A: If there are other job opportunities besides this one, we suggest you give preference to another job. If not, accuse the jew of stealing office supplies.
Q: I have a bad habit of watching gay pornography. Please help.
A: Pornography is Haraam (strictly prohibited). To be gay is also Haraam. Send me this gay pornography so I may dispose of it properly. Also, send some Conhusker Lotion.
Q: I look like a famous person in England called David Baddiel (he is a comedian). People call me Dave all the time. It is really annoying & depressing. I don't understand why Allah would give me this curse.
A: Remind the people around you that you are not a kafir & you are a Muslim faithful to your Deen. Also, cut off the kafir comedian's head, as this will reduce your confusing resemblance.
Q: I would like to ask that does the size of the penis matter? If so what size should it be? because i am worried.
A: If the penis is small but normal, it does not matter. If the penis is abnormal, for example, cut off, then that matters. It matters to me, anyway.
Q: Is it permissable to read the quran cross legged?
A: Yes. But it is not permissable to read the quran while doing the splits, or while playing Twister.
Q: Is it permissible to read a book or newspaper in the toilet?
A: Why would you be in a toilet? Rather than browsing a book it seems you should be desperately trying to get out. I suppose if the book was "How To Get Out of Toilet," that might make sense.
Q: Is there a prohibition against whistling?
A: It is not permissible to whistle. If there is a need to call a taxi, you should scream or pound on the taxi top. Better, you should use telephone and call my cousin Hassan at A-1 Permissible Taxi, for fast dependable taxi service.
Q: Ive read on da mosque board dat one of da sins r da pants below da ankles? from which hadith is this?
A: Somebody pantsed u? LOL, dude u r OWN3D.
Q: During lunch break, I warm up my food in the same microwave that everybody uses. Please let me know if it is alright.
A: It is permissible to share a microwave with non-Muslims, because microwaves are Allah's natural death rays against kufir cooties. It is not permissible to share a refridgerator with non-believers, because they are notorious breeding grounds of blasphemous sandwich materials. Go to Costco, they have good deals on Igloo coolers. Also, do not use George Foreman grill.
Q: Do we have to shave scrotum? What exactly is 'hind parts' that we have to shave?
A: One has to shave the scrotum. By hind parts is meant the circle around the anus, as faeces could get attached to any hair present there. Dingleberries make baby Mohammed cry.
Q: I masturbated a few days ago & my auntie died few days later. Is this my fault?
A: Firstly, masturbation is not permitted in Islam. Second, Allah probably killed your auntie because she masturbated, not you.
6964. jexster - 7/26/2005 12:35:28 PM
What do the Americans think about that? You have this new relationship with Iran. America is describing Iran as a terrorist country.
"The Americans – if they like it or don't like it – we don't care. That's their internal issue. Now we are asking for the Americans to draw a timeline of leaving Iraq, and we will make it a priority too, if they force us to make a bad relationship with our neighbors."[Iraq's minister of civil society activities, Ala'a al-Safi]
6965. jexster - 7/26/2005 1:26:44 PM
6966. jexster - 7/27/2005 8:59:40 AM
Draft Consitution of the Islamic Republic of Iraq
Para 2: "Islam is the official religion of state, and is the fundamental source of legislation. It is impermissible to pass legislation that contradicts its essential verities or its laws"
Paragraph 15 says "The [Shiite] religious leadership [i.e. Grand Ayatollah Sistani and his successors] has an independent character and a function of giving guidance insofar as it is an exalted national and religious symbol."
He who laughs last
Laughs best, TD
6967. jexster - 7/27/2005 9:38:31 AM
the Tehran Times reported,
"{Jaafari} called the late Imam Khomeini the key to the victory of the Islamic Revolution, adding, 'We hope to eliminate the dark pages Saddam caused in Iran-Iraq ties and open a new chapter in brotherly ties between the two nations.'"
and thanks for getting rid of Saddam, now take your little crusader boiz home..do not let door hit you on way out TD
git it
got it
good
6968. jexster - 7/27/2005 9:41:34 AM
Ha'aretz informs us that the Israelis are already eagerly anticipating our next move, lobbying for an escalation of what is fast turning into a civilizational war on Islam:
"'After the war in Iraq [writes Ha'aretz], Israel will try to convince the U.S. to direct its war on terror at Iran, Damascus and Beirut. Senior defense establishment officials say that initial contacts in this direction have already been made in recent months, and that there is a good chance that America will be swayed by the Israeli argument.
Put another X by Mossad
6969. Magoseph - 7/27/2005 3:18:27 PM
We are now advised that troops may very well be leaving in the spring. What has changed? If anything, the situation in Iraq has deteriorated.
Could it be that it has become apparent to the Bush administration that if we are still in Iraq as the election approaches, they could be swept from office?
6970. Magoseph - 7/27/2005 3:19:28 PM
By the election, I mean next year in November.
6971. wonkers2 - 7/27/2005 3:30:17 PM
Watch what Bush does, not what he says.
6972. jexster - 7/27/2005 3:37:59 PM
Mago..c'est tout chez lies ma cherie!
6973. jexster - 7/27/2005 3:41:15 PM
Message # 3473 in thread 161
God knows the US media is asleep at the switch....The Axis of Allah do not want us there any more...thanks for getting rid of Saddam, and don't let the door hit TD's ass on the way out
He has trouble enough thinking as it is
6974. jexster - 7/27/2005 3:50:59 PM
3-4 days ago the Pentagon said, in a report, that they had no idea how long it would take for the Iraqis to take over their own defense.....a few days before that, the entire bunch were denying Brit leaks of a plan to leave..then Jaafari went to Tehran....then Jaafari sent his Minister of Civil Affairs off to an exclusive interview with anti-war.com in which he said among other things:
6975. jexster - 7/27/2005 6:05:39 PM
You see this...
Rumsfeld pressures Iraq as general mulls pullback
Last week the headlines announced that the Pentagon had NO idea when the Iraqis would be able to take over..there were only 3 batallions they could count on to work as SUPPORT for US troops....
What we have here is a major embarrassment
6976. jexster - 7/27/2005 6:16:05 PM
Message # 6963
Islam Dominates Iraq's Draft Constitution
6977. jexster - 7/30/2005 1:38:58 AM
With its war in Iraq and its talk of promoting democracy, the Bush Administration has begun to transform the Middle East--but not always in ways it may have intended. We have asked four leading experts on the Middle East to offer their assessments of the consequences of the Administration's policies for the region and for America's standing within it. The four are: Helena Cobban, who writes the weblog JustWorldNews and is a columnist for the Christian Science Monitor and Al-Hayat (London); Juan Cole, a professor of history at the University of Michigan, who writes the weblog Informed Comment; Nir Rosen, a fellow at the New America Foundation, who is completing a book on the Iraq War; and Shibley Telhami, Anwar Sadat Professor for Peace and Development at the University of Maryland. --
Wars often have unintended consequences. How has the Iraq War affected the political landscape of the region and America's standing therein?
Brent Scowcroft would have felt right at home....he punched fucked Bush, steel fist, velvet glove the other night on PBS....it was an awesome sight to behold...the damage he inflicted in fewer than six brief sentences.
Cobban: The war has obviously pushed more people in the region further into the anti-American camp. This includes many of the area's democrats and moderates--the kind of people who would previously have been prepared to give Washington a chance. It has also undermined the longer-term strategic objectives the Bush Administration seems to have had in mind. There is enough documentary evidence to conclude that Bush and Cheney wanted to establish a solidly pro-US regime in Iraq that would provide basing rights for the US military for decades to come. That position would then enable Washington to threaten military action against both Iran and Syria. But as a result of the insurgency, Washington lacks the capability to utter a credible threat against Iran or Syria--other than possibly some small-scale "needling" operations.
Cole: Helena is correct that the Iraq War has propelled negative feelings toward the United States--not just in the immediate region but throughout the Muslim world. Between the summer of 2002 and spring of 2003, the number of Indonesians who viewed the US favorably fell from 61 percent to 15 percent, according to the Pew Research Center. Although Muslims already faulted the United States for lack of evenhandedness on the Arab-Israeli dispute, in recent years their estimation of the US has plummeted. According to Zogby, from summer 2002 to summer 2004, those who viewed the US favorably in Egypt fell from 15 to 2 percent. And respondents generally believed that Iraqis were worse off under American occupation.
Another consequence of the war has been that more Sunnis in Iraq and elsewhere are turning away from Arab nationalism, which has been discredited, to Salafi revivalism, a very conservative form of Islam. Although most Salafis are "quietists," in that they do not enter into ordinary politics, they are also the recruitment pool for radical groups. It has also strengthened Iran's position in the region. In 1982 Ayatollah Khomeini created the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq for Shiite expatriate groups, whose members included Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, the current SCIRI leader, and Ibrahim al-Jaafari, Iraq's current Prime Minister. Khomeini dreamed of putting them in power in Baghdad. Bush and Rumsfeld have fulfilled that dream.
Rosen: Instead of creating a democracy, we have replaced one dictatorship with another that is growing increasingly abusive and that is settling scores with the Sunni class. That and the chaos the war has created have given the dictatorships of the region a powerful argument against regime change, since nobody wants to live in Iraq, and it is better to have any government than to live in the hell that Iraq has become. Equally worrying, Iraq has convinced many Muslims around the world that the United States, and perhaps the West, is their enemy. It has made the "clash of civilizations," a previously absurd and baseless theory, closer to a reality. It has united Islamist movements around the world with a common bond of feeling oppressed at the hands of the United States and its allies. In Falluja, I found men fighting in honor of slain Palestinian leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin. In Saudi Arabia, Al Qaeda fighters who killed foreign workers have named their group after Falluja. And even in Mogadishu, Somalia, there are now shops named in honor of Hamas and Falluja.
Telhami: No one in Washington would have imagined that with all the human and financial costs of the war, the United States would find itself supporting a government headed by an Islamist, Mr. Jaafari, whose power is dependent on the blessing of a most influential clergyman, Ayatollah Sistani--a government that has close ties to Iran and that would conclude a military agreement with Tehran for the training of Iraqi forces, even as nearly 140,000 US troops remained on Iraqi soil. Nor would they have imagined the broader strategic consequences of the war to which Helena alluded: that Iraq would become the new breeding ground for Al Qaeda and for those who share its aims and methods; that in the Middle East and in much of the world, the United States would be perceived to be weaker in the short term than it was before the war; that its leverage vis-à-vis states like Iran and North Korea would have been reduced because US forces are stretched too thin in Iraq; and that because of the difficulties in Iraq, the United States would need others in the international community more, including governments it is trying to influence, such as those in Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
6978. jexster - 7/30/2005 1:45:10 AM
Unintended Consequences: A Forum on Iraq and the Mideast
6979. wonkers2 - 7/30/2005 7:18:55 AM
Good article! Also, the one in #6976.
6980. jexster - 7/30/2005 9:21:01 AM
They sure are..try a little experiment ....pick up 3 high circ newspapers and watch one newshour show each from a CableNews or network offering, and compare with the information found in each article ...see how fucked up US media coverage of the BungleInBaghdad is...
6981. wonkers2 - 7/30/2005 9:38:45 AM
Sad, but true. Visited your fair city last week. Wish I could afford to move there. Our 4-bedroom two-story brick house in a nice neighborhood in Michigan would buy us a small fixer-upper in a Berkeley or Oakland slum!
6982. jexster - 7/30/2005 10:00:57 AM
You gotta think French there Wonk...trade the Caddy for something tastefully modest ...AustinCooper mini is socially acceptable..and get rid that Suburban manse..so 1960's
could put you in a nice LiveWork Loft 1 bdrm in SF for <400K..whaddya need all that space for in Mich anyway...you're moving toward Assisted Living land so live large and prosper...this is the land of the Eternal Real Estate Bubble...buy now...get rich...
I was talking to a LiveLoftyWork owner the other day who being young wants a house..sell the loft...
"but you've only been here 18 months does that make sense?"
"Like I said, I have lived here 18 months"
6983. jexster - 7/30/2005 10:05:10 AM
Of course living large would be easier were it not for the International Conspiracy of the Blood Cursed Ones..
Did you know...
Of course you didn't...
U.S. Financial Aid To Israel: Figures, Facts, and Impact
Summary
Benefits to Israel of U.S. Aid
Since 1949 (As of November 1, 1997)
Foreign Aid Grants and Loans
$74,157,600,000
Other U.S. Aid (12.2% of Foreign Aid)
$9,047,227,200
Interest to Israel from Advanced Payments
$1,650,000,000
Grand Total
$84,854,827,200
Total Benefits per Israeli
$14,630
Cost to U.S. Taxpayers of U.S.
Aid to Israel
Grand Total
$84,854,827,200
Interest Costs Borne by U.S.
$49,936,680,000
Total Cost to U.S. Taxpayers
$134,791,507,200
Total Taxpayer Cost per Israeli
$23,240
The Cost of Israel to U.S. Taxpayers: True Lies About U.S. Aid to Israel
6984. Marc-Albert - 7/30/2005 12:14:57 PM
What's always been a mystery to me, and to some Jews as well, is why American goyim are such Jewry cocksuckers. I could understand Europeans to kowtow to Jews and Israel in a gesture of atonement, but why Americans?
6985. jexster - 7/30/2005 12:22:12 PM
Conversations With Cole
Epitaph for those Caught Betwixt Iraq and a Hard Place
.
6986. jexster - 7/30/2005 12:30:30 PM
Amen...Alphonse...it is a supernatural mystery indeed.. the Evil One, peut etre?
Or maybe something as simple as a wise man's advice to me long ago..
Need a lawyer? an accountant? Don't be a schlemiel..hire a jew
6987. Magoseph - 7/30/2005 1:29:31 PM
What's always been a mystery to me, and to some Jews as well, is why American goyim are such Jewry cocksuckers. I could understand Europeans to kowtow to Jews and Israel in a gesture of atonement, but why Americans?
In my opinion, the present enchantment with Judaism in the US can be traced entirely to the born-again Christian movement and the Christian religious fanaticism created by the election of Georges Bush, which many of these followers see as a sign from the above of a new coming of the savior.
Since the Old Testament—the book of revelations, etc.—plays a big part in the new radical Christian movement, a fascination has developed amongst the faithful in Judaism, Israel, and Jews in general.
6988. Magoseph - 7/30/2005 1:30:05 PM
Toys, Jex!
6989. Magoseph - 7/30/2005 1:30:42 PM
Reposting :
What's always been a mystery to me, and to some Jews as well, is why American goyim are such Jewry cocksuckers. I could understand Europeans to kowtow to Jews and Israel in a gesture of atonement, but why Americans?
In my opinion, the present enchantment with Judaism in the US can be traced entirely to the born-again Christian movement and the Christian religious fanaticism created by the election of Georges Bush, which many of these followers see as a sign from the above of a new coming of the savior.
Since the Old Testament—the book of revelations, etc.—plays a big part in the new radical Christian movement, a fascination has developed amongst the faithful in Judaism, Israel, and Jews in general.
6990. wonkers2 - 7/30/2005 3:26:06 PM
"Why have American goyim been such Jewish cocksuckers?"
American goyim have not been "Jewish cocksuckers. Actually they have exhibited a lot of anti-Jewish prejudice in housing, club membership, etc. Rather, the Democratic and, more recently, the GOP have catered to Jewish voters. Why? MONEY, i.e. political contributions. As Mags noted above the fundamentalist Christians have recently been cozying up to Jews because they perceive them as allies on some of their so-called moral values issues. For the most part they are mistaken in this perception, in my opinion. Jews are natural Democrats and most feel uncomfortable in the same room with ignorant fundy Christians.
6991. jexster - 7/31/2005 8:37:49 PM
6992. wonkers2 - 7/31/2005 8:43:49 PM
Another factor in U.S. Israel relations is that the U.S. values Israel as a strong and dependable ally in the Middle East.
6993. jexster - 7/31/2005 9:51:18 PM
I still haven't a clue Marc....
"bastion of democracy" "America's greatest ally"
merde.
Disengagement's Foreplay
Historic days in Israel: a showdown between the government and the settlers. Though the sides do negotiate behind the scenes, this time it does not look like the cat-and-mouse games for the media a few years ago, Prime Minister Barak's favorite dissimulation, when a few settlers were filmed dragged from some unmanned West Bank outpost after signing a confidential agreement with the government assuring their return once the cameras were gone. This time it's serious.
One can understand why so many soldiers disobey orders in the evacuation's foreplay – apparently more than soldiers refusing to partake in the atrocities of occupation. Whereas the latter refused to fight what had always been defined as the enemy, the former simply fail to adapt to the sudden change-of-heart that turned the settlers from allies to opponents. After all, only total outsiders (or paid and unpaid Israeli propaganda agents) can believe that the Israeli army is a neutral organ that impartially enforces law and order on everyone in the occupied territories. As every soldier, settler, and Palestinian knows, the Israeli army is there for the settlers (and vice versa). For decades, soldiers have been trained not only to protect the settlers from the Palestinians (and not vice versa) and to back (or at least turn a blind eye at) every settlers' transgression; Israeli soldiers also serve as bodyguards, drivers, and even nannies for individual settlers and their families. The mental shift that turns allies into opponents is not an easy one to stomach.
Spoiled Thugs
This mental and practical shift has strange repercussions. The settlers are perhaps the most ludicrous example. Their slogan, coined specially for the expected eviction, is "a Jew doesn't deport a Jew." Note on one hand the honest, blatant racism of the slogan – a Jew may well deport non-Jews, say Arabs, as Israel has been doing again and again, with settlers' help; but deporting Jews – oh no, that's un-Jewish. On the other hand, note the demagoguery in using the term "deportation," even more apparent in their slogan "No to Transfer": Israeli citizens, who moved to a land knowing it was under occupation – actually, they moved there precisely because of its controversial status – are now moved back to their own country by their democratically elected government, which also compensates them generously. These people now hypocritically compare themselves to Palestinians deported in war, by their enemy, to foreign countries, losing not only their entire possessions without any compensation, but usually also their political and civil rights.
The AJC was reported recently to have issued a directive the substance of which was how vital it was that Israel and its overseas agents - Senators, congressmen, lobbyist, spies, most of the top foreign policy fucks of the Bush regime - be visibly and strongly supporting 
's
"crusade for democracy" in the middle east....
7003. jexster - 8/1/2005 4:58:02 PM
OOOLala Qu’est que c’est?
7004. jexster - 8/1/2005 5:00:31 PM
7002..I think that somewhere on Sistani.org you can point this out to the Grand Ayatollah of the Islamic Republic of Iraq..would be the right neighborly thing for a Bushevik Liberator to do and win you big points with the Big Man
But when he invites you to Najaf and you have to change planes in Saddam Hussein Intl..don't bother looking for a bar
7005. jexster - 8/1/2005 5:02:13 PM
Beauty Operation ( 1 )
No: 1
Question:Please could you let me know if a plastic surgery is permissible in Islam?
Answer:It is permissible.
7006. jexster - 8/3/2005 3:42:28 AM
GOOD NEWS Concerned!
Iran will help build a new airport for the holy city of Najaf, about an hour's drive south of Baghdad. Potentially, thousands of pilgrims could be coming from Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and other countries with Shiite populations every year, and the pilgrimage trade will likely be worth half a billion dollars annually in the near to medium term. Najaf, to the grand ayatollahs of which several Shiite religious parties dominating parliament defer, is now spoken of as Iraq's "second capital."
But you better be careful about. Allah is not a happy camper...
On top of everything else, the Iraq War is now threatening us with infection by a deadly bacterium that is impervious to antibiotics.
7007. jexster - 8/3/2005 3:46:23 AM
7008. Macnas - 8/4/2005 7:38:23 AM
44 soldiers killed since July 24, 14 killed in one bombing today.
"Bring it on" is very easy to say when you're sitting in the whitehouse.
7009. jexster - 8/4/2005 8:00:32 AM
JERUSALEM - Israel announced plans Thursday to expand a settlement near Jerusalem, its latest effort to consolidate control over parts of the West Bank even as it prepares to withdraw from the Gaza Strip.
The plan to build 72 housing units in the Beitar Illit settlement are liable to put Israel on a collision course with the U.S. government, which opposes settlement expansion. The announcement immediately angered Palestinians, who claim the West Bank as part of a future state.
7010. PelleNilsson - 8/4/2005 8:13:03 AM
... Palestinians, who claim the West Bank as part of a future state.
Do they, indeed?
7011. jexster - 8/4/2005 8:44:42 AM
Cole Reports...
7012. jexster - 8/4/2005 8:51:10 AM
Yea Pelle the same state that Bush claims he supports..the West Bank, you where that is don't you? It the place that Condi Rice, two weeks ago, again demanded in a speech in Jerusalem that the Israelis stop expanding settlements in, whilst across town at the very same hour, Sharon was promising to expand settlements and never surrender..
That West Bank that we American cocksuckers of Jewry pay billions each year..
There may be a different name on the Secretary of State's door, but the same doormat on the floor
Cut the bastards off without a scheckel
7013. jexster - 8/4/2005 8:52:12 AM
Let Swedes take em...plenty of room on the tundra
7014. jexster - 8/4/2005 9:04:42 AM
To be precise Pelle...
7015. PelleNilsson - 8/4/2005 10:01:30 AM
So what is your considered opinion about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, assuming that you have one (considered, that is)? What shape, in your view, should an eventual peace agreement take?
7016. jexster - 8/4/2005 10:16:16 AM
So you don't like the idea of re-diasporing to Sweden eh?
Not surprising from someone who encouraged the US to invade Iraq whilst sitting in front of the fire in Sweden...
De-sloganize...get the word out that "Israel as bastion of democracy" and "America's best ally" is a crock of shit.
CUT THEM OFF and demand the total and immediate withdrawal of all jews from the west bank and the internationalization of Jerusalem...
I might even go right of return
for now
I don't know what to do
. All I know is that first you've got to get mad.
You've got to say, 'I'm a HUMAN BEING, Goddamnit! My life has VALUE!' So I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window. Open it, and stick your head out, and yell,
'I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!'
7017. jexster - 8/4/2005 10:32:14 AM
U.S. to announce new charges in AIPAC/Israel Spy Probe
26 minutes ago
U.S. prosecutors plan to announce additional charges on Thursday against a Defense Department analyst accused of illegally disclosing classified defense information, and to charge two former officials of a pro-Israel lobbying group, government sources said.
The additional charges involve Lawrence Franklin, a Pentagon analyst already accused of giving the information to two former employees of the influential American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the two sources said.
They said prosectors planned to announce charges against Steve Rosen, formerly AIPAC's policy director, and Keith Weissman, formerly its senior analyst.
In Alexandria, Virginia, where the case has been pending, U.S. Attorney Paul McNulty scheduled a news conference at 2 p.m./1800 GMT) for an announcement "related to a major national security prosecution."
7018. jexster - 8/4/2005 11:43:41 AM
Let Sweden pay em
7019. PelleNilsson - 8/4/2005 1:18:38 PM
I asked you a serious question and you give me shit. Why am I not surprised?
7020. alistairConnor - 8/4/2005 3:10:44 PM
Oh come on Pelle...
you got about two and a half lines of serious response.
This may be a record.
7021. concerned - 8/5/2005 5:09:55 PM
Speaking of 'serious', I've got just the thing for jexster. You've heard of 'Jews for Jesus', right? Well, I'm starting a new religious organization I'm calling 'Muslims against Muhammad', and I'm inviting jexster to be the first member.
7022. jexster - 8/5/2005 5:13:17 PM
Here They Go Again
Fool me once, shame on you
Fool me--can't get fooled again
The bizarre report by Jim Miklaszewski of NBC news that US military sources are saying Iran is the source of more sophisticated bombs used by Sunni Arab guerrillas in Iraq seems so unbelievable because it is. Poor Jim is the victim of a high-level Department of Defense black psy-ops operation (or perhaps such an operation has been supplied by a sub-contractor). You wonder if it is Doug Feith's parting gift to the American people-- laying the groundwork for a war with Iran.
This is the give-away sentence:
7023. jexster - 8/5/2005 5:40:25 PM
So what is your considered opinion about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, assuming that you have one (considered, that is)? What shape, in your view, should an eventual peace agreement take
I asked you a serious question and you give me shit. Why am I not surprised?
Why am I not surprised that you are not suprised
- Cut the bastards off NOW...no more military aid no more aid of any kind
- Demolish every settlement
- Israel to withdraw from the entire West Bank
- Make Israel pay the PALS for West Bank Water
- Internationalize Jerusalem - dual capital - Swedish run municipal government
- Israel to withdraw immediately from Golan - with no quid-pro quo, no precondition
- Israel to destroy all nuclear weapons, weapon manufacturing facilities, and put dual use nuke tech under IAEA inspection..
-
7024. Ulgine Barrows - 8/5/2005 7:37:36 PM
It's too much.
Honestly - it is too much for an August assignment.
7025. Ulgine Barrows - 8/5/2005 7:41:20 PM
blqh blah beedeeop, yeah
I'm in love with jexster!
7026. Ulgine Barrows - 8/5/2005 7:43:14 PM
dang. I thought that would work.
ok, then.
7027. Ulgine Barrows - 8/5/2005 7:51:41 PM
unsuccesful in sales, as well as getting rid of the bold
7028. jexster - 8/5/2005 10:56:02 PM
You poor thang..7023
7029. jexster - 8/6/2005 5:16:03 AM
Threat to Divest Is Church Tool in Israeli
Fight - Presbyterians Join Anglicans and Other Denominations
Hit the Jew Where It Hurts
The Presbyterian Church U.S.A. announced Friday that it would press four American corporations to stop providing military equipment and technology to Israel for use in the occupation of the Palestinian territories, and that if the companies did not comply, the church would take a vote to divest its stock in them.
The companies - Caterpillar, Motorola, ITT Industries and United Technologies - were selected from a list of several dozen possibilities by a church investment committee that met Friday in Seattle. The Presbyterians accused these companies of selling helicopters, cellphones, night vision equipment and other items Israel uses to enforce its occupation.
In an effort to appear even-handed in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the church committee also included Citigroup on its list of targets, alleging it had a connection to a bank accused of having a role in funneling money from Islamic charities to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers. The church said it included Citigroup because it was mentioned in an article in The Wall Street Journal.
A spokeswoman for Citigroup called the church's assertion "an outrage," a reaction echoed at several of the other corporations.
The Presbyterian Church U.S.A. is in the forefront of a campaign now spreading to other mainline Protestant churches to use corporate divestment as a tactic in the Middle East conflict, a tactic that is roiling relations with Jewish groups.
The Episcopal Church U.S.A., the United Church of Christ, two regions of the United Methodist Church, as well as international groups like the World Council of Churches and the Anglican Consultative Council have all urged consideration of divestment or economic pressure in recent months, though the tone and emphasis of each resolution varies. The Disciples of Christ passed a resolution last month calling on Israel to tear down the barrier it has built to wall off the occupied territories, and other churches are considering similar resolutions.
Some Jewish groups accuse the churches of singling out Israel for blame and failing to address the Palestinians' role in perpetuating the violence. Several have even said they see anti-Semitism behind the churches' moves.
The Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church U.S.A., said in an interview: "It's not a campaign to divest from the state of Israel. We're fully committed to the state of Israel. But it is a campaign to divest from particular activities that are doing damage and creating injustice and violence, whether that's the building of the separation barrier, construction related to the occupation, or weapons and materials that lead to suicide bombings."
Many American churches used divestment in the 1980's to pressure the South African government to end apartheid. But applying the tactic to Israel has alarmed many American Jewish groups and caused a breach in what has been a long-term alliance between Jews and mainline Protestant churches, like the Presbyterians, that have leaned politically liberal. In decades past, Jewish and Protestant groups have worked together on a range of social issues, from racism to global poverty to women's rights.
"This is a brilliantly organized political campaign to hurt Israel, and it's not going to help a single Palestinian," said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish watchdog group based in Los Angeles. "When you look at the list of companies, this is basically a recipe for Israel to disarm."
Rabbi Cooper said the Protestant churches were ignoring the current "reality on the ground" - that Israel is preparing to withdraw this month from Gaza and remove settlements there. "Instead of divesting, these churches should be investing," he said. "There is so much humanitarian need on the ground in the Holy Land. We're not telling them: 'Stay out of it. It's not your business.' There's a ton of work to be done."
He called the churches' actions "functionally anti-Semitic." But he said that after attending the conventions of the United Church of Christ and the Disciples of Christ this year, he concluded that the resolutions were being "rammed through" by denominational leaders and were not reflective of the churches' grassroots membership.
I say fuck you Schlomo
This bus no longer honors Holocaust Passes for Free or Discount Rides and no longer stops in front of the Simon Weisenthal Guilt Forever Emporium
Pay full fare like the rest of the fucking planet..
We're big, we're bad, we are the United States of America, not your shickse bitch
7030. wonkers2 - 8/6/2005 8:28:41 AM
Led by the Presbyterians, mainline Protestant churches threaten to divest investments in companies (Motorola, Caterpillar, ITT Industries, United Technologies) which supply arms to Israel. This type of action helped bring down the apartheid regime in South Africa. Here.
7031. jexster - 8/6/2005 11:27:21 AM
Kiss some Ayatollah ass...Bushevik Brown Shirts Pucker Up
Bush's salvaton! What Iran couldn't get in 8 bloody years of war, Bush delivered on gold plate...
Iran Rulz and Bush droolz..Iran would be lucky to have the Sayyid runnin their show too...He fucked Bush royally and he didn't say a single word in anger...didn't fire a shot..prays and reads all day long..we should be so blessed
7032. jexster - 8/10/2005 11:11:23 AM
COUP IN BAGHDAD
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Aug. 9 - Armed men entered Baghdad's municipal building during a blinding dust storm on Monday, deposed the city's mayor and installed a member of Iraq's most powerful Shiite militia
7033. jexster - 8/10/2005 11:17:05 AM
7034. Magoseph - 8/10/2005 11:38:26 AM
If this is correct, Jex, it means to me that the whole Bush scenario projected in Iraq has collapsed—there is no validity to any government formed in Iraq under the mantle of Islamic law. Bush will be forced to face this crisis and repudiate this group or admit to total feature in Iraq.
7035. Magoseph - 8/10/2005 11:52:56 AM
Jex, will the threat of a Sharia type of government bring about civil war?
7036. jexster - 8/10/2005 2:52:07 PM
There's already a civil war...
It isn't the Islamic part that causes the mess..
It is the Bush part and the sh'ia part that are doin the dirty..
The hoo haaa about Islamic law is just as everything else about Bush's Iraq fantasia, is driven by domeestic politics...
People will soon realize that the war was lost along time ago and that Iran was the winner....
THAT is a huge problem for the WarParty crowd
7037. jexster - 8/10/2005 2:55:11 PM
Someone asked a sunni cleric about the Islamic law provisions of one of the drafts which also stated that Islamic law would applied with the advice of the Sayyid, the Grand Ayatollah in Najaf...
He quipped, "But we do not have a Grand Ayatollah"
All he's got is a country that has been sliding deeeper and deeper into chaos...thanks to George W. Bush
7038. jexster - 8/10/2005 9:57:08 PM
Mago...check this out
Anthropologist Bill Beeman explains what an Islamic Republic of Iraq actually would entail. I agree that some degree of Islamic law will be implemented. I am not as sanguine about its consequences as Bill is. But, then, Israel and Lebanon have religious personal status law and no one jumps up and down about that.
Cocksuckin goyim...take that!
7039. jexster - 8/10/2005 10:29:37 PM
What's always been a mystery to me...is why American goyim are such Jewry cocksuckers
New Jewish settlements are going up near the wall in eastern Jerusalem.
Oh but Georgie and Condi told Arik
Now I dunno about GI Georgie (perish the thought!) but I hear that Condi can suck golf balls through a garden hose.
7040. jexster - 8/11/2005 1:38:54 PM
ATTENTION
Lefties for Mohammed, Sodomites for Saddam, and Busheviks for Christ (Concerned, cell sturmbannfuehrer) are proud to announce the REAL reason for Bush's War of Aggression against the sovereign nation of Iraq and why Cindy Sheehan's child (and shitload of other mother's children) had to die...
George W. "Bring It On" Bush is Fighting for Islamic National Socialism in Iraq
See why the Sharia is such a big issue Mago?
This farce has never had anything to do with anything other than the aggrandizement of GEORGE W. BUSH and power to the GOP power elite...
Not one damn thing other than that..start to disastrous finish..not one damn thing
7041. jexster - 8/11/2005 1:50:35 PM
Brought to you as a public service by...
The views expressed therein do not necessarily represent those of this station...
7042. wonkers2 - 8/11/2005 1:53:40 PM
Cap'n Dirty sez, "Er chrome off'n a trailer hitch."
7043. jexster - 8/11/2005 2:10:53 PM
The killer for Bush is not so much the substance of the article as its source
Inquiring minds are just dying to know!
The United Church of Busheviks for Christ and Freepers of AmeriKa...
They run another banner...
Which flag did you fly on 9/11, TD..
OR
7044. jexster - 8/11/2005 2:11:13 PM
7045. jexster - 8/12/2005 5:34:02 PM
Israel OUT of America!
JERUSALEM (AFP) - US President George W. Bush refused to rule out the use of force against Iran over the Islamic Republic's resumption of nuclear activities, in an interview aired on Israeli television.
When asked if the use of force was an alternative to faltering diplomatic efforts, Bush said: "All options are on the table."
7046. jexster - 8/13/2005 3:14:17 AM
WMD-Free Middle East
Israel’s Nuclear Puzzle Resolved: But To What End?
The BBC’s striking revelations regarding the secretive and disconcerting British role in making an Israeli nuclear bomb possible, deserves more than a quick pause and a few dozen news reports. It obliges a thorough investigation coupled with a complete reversal in the double standard that views Israel’s fully-fledged nuclear capabilities as a trivial concern.
The BBC program, Newsnight, broadcast on August 3, confirmed that Britain was in fact the original source of heavy water, the crucial ingredient that allowed Israel to transform its generic nuclear reactor in Dimona in the Negev Desert – initially developed with French help – into a proficient nuclear manufacturing plant.
It was always assumed, following the dramatic disclosures made by former Dimona technician, Mordechai Vanunu to the British Sunday Times in 1986, that the 20 tons of heavy water originated from Norway. Norway chose complete silence regarding the nature of the deal.
But according to the BBC broadcast, the well-guarded deal made with Israel was concealed as a resale to Norway of a heavy water consignment that was of no use to Britain. In turn, the shipment was dispatched to Israel, who, within three years has apparently exhausted much of the 20 tons of heavy water. In 1961, according to the report, Israel asked for more, but the uncovering of Israel’s nuclear ambitions by the Daily Express newspaper seem to have made any additional sales a complicated matter.
Many years later, thanks to the audacity of Vanunu, the world had a chance to grasp the extent of Israel’s perilous experimentations with deadly agents: hundreds of nuclear warheads, by modest counts, which, according to Western experts, place Israel as one of the world’s leading nuclear powers; number six to be exact.
7047. Ulgine Barrows - 8/13/2005 3:28:06 AM
it all dries up and blows away
7048. Ulgine Barrows - 8/13/2005 3:30:03 AM
toys
got some change left over, yet
7049. Ulgine Barrows - 8/13/2005 3:30:40 AM
7050. alistairconnor - 8/17/2005 8:54:17 AM
Bush lowers expectations
7051. jexster - 8/18/2005 3:28:16 PM
7052. concerned - 8/19/2005 12:57:19 PM
The Saudi government is paving over the prophet Muhammad's home with the Jabal Omar parking lot (peace be upon it).
7053. concerned - 8/19/2005 12:59:05 PM
7054. jexster - 8/19/2005 3:32:14 PM
Why Casey Sheehan Was Killed
by Aaron Glantz
7055. jexster - 8/20/2005 11:05:40 AM
Pity the poor thieves who stole land and built beautiful homes with beautiful views overlooking the Mediterranean and the hovels of those from whom they stole. Pity the poor Jews and give their government 2.2 billion of your money America.
The politics of upheaval is dead ahead. Americans died in Iraq for Ariel Sharon. Cut the scum off without a scheckel and see how fast they scurry from the hilltop homes on the the West Bank.
Gaza Evacuation Should Be Americans' Last Straw
As I watched the extensive, plainly sympathetic coverage of Jewish settlers being evicted from their Gaza homes, I couldn't help but take note once again of the striking double standard applied by American news media as well as the U.S. government.
I cannot recall any sympathetic coverage of Palestinians being evicted from their homes. No interviews with weeping mothers or fathers. No discussions of whether the evictions were right or wrong. This is obviously a deliberate policy on the part of America's television networks, for after all, they had 4,170 opportunities to report on Palestinian evictions since September 2000. That's how many homes were destroyed, and, of course, doesn't count the orchards and olive trees bulldozed by the Israeli army or Israeli settlers.
Of course, Palestinians were not evicted by sympathetic soldiers or promised huge amounts of money to relocate. No, they were brutally told to get out of their houses, which were then blown up or bulldozed into rubble by decidedly unsympathetic Israeli soldiers. What little they had was destroyed, and they were offered nothing except verbal abuse by the Israelis and invisibility by the American media.
One idealistic American girl who tried to stop an Israeli bulldozer from destroying a Palestinian home was crushed to death by the bulldozer. Naturally, the United States government did nothing, and the American media obediently either ignored her death or accepted the Israeli excuse that the driver couldn't see her, which is bull. She was killed in broad, sunny daylight while wearing a blaze-orange jacket and standing atop a pile of dirt.
7056. jexster - 8/20/2005 11:55:20 AM
Message # 7053
If it walks like a duck...
Bush Gives in to Islamists on Iraqi law - 13 minutes ago
It must be Bikey W., Concerned Fuehrer
Allah knows if we gave a timetable to end the disaster, the Ay-rabs might think we're desperate, and they'll wait us out!
EARTH TO BUSHWORLD
7057. jexster - 8/20/2005 12:31:14 PM
7058. Magoseph - 8/20/2005 2:01:00 PM
More of the same all over the media.
Bush Says U.S. Must Honor Troops' Sacrifice, Finish Job in Iraq
Aug. 20 (Bloomberg) -- President George W. Bush said the U.S. will prevail in the battle to bring freedom to Iraq as anti- war protesters outside his Texas ranch demand that he bring the troops home.
``We must finish the task that our troops have given their lives for and honor their sacrifice by completing their mission,'' Bush said in his regular Saturday radio address. ``We can be confident in the ultimate triumph of our cause, because we know that freedom is the future of every nation.''
Public opinion polls show the administration losing support on Iraq as attacks by insurgents have mounted. Six U.S. soldiers were killed in combat in Iraq this week, bringing total U.S. deaths there to 1,861. Critics say Bush needs to shift his strategy.
``There is no strategy to win,'' former Senator Max Cleland, a Georgia Democrat and veteran who lost three limbs in the Vietnam war, said in the Democrats' weekly radio address. ``Our military is completely over-extended. Iraq is still not secure and we don't have the forces there to make it secure.''
The president, who is spending August at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, linked the conflict in Iraq to the broader war against terrorism that began with the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the U.S.
``We're fighting the terrorists in Afghanistan, Iraq, and around the world, striking them in foreign lands before they can attack us here at home,'' Bush said.
The troops deployed overseas know they are fighting ``to protect their fellow Americans from a savage enemy,'' he said.
Protests at Home
The protest near Bush's ranch began two weeks ago when Cindy Sheehan of Vacaville, California, angry over her son Casey's death while serving in Iraq, camped out and demanded that Bush meet with her. Bush declined, instead sending two aides to talk with Sheehan, who says she wants Bush to bring U.S. troops home from Iraq. The president's aides note Bush already met with Sheehan, along with other relatives of soldiers killed in Iraq, last year.
Hundreds of other protesters joined Sheehan in Crawford and others held candlelight vigils across the country on Aug. 17. Sheehan, 48, left Texas the next day for California after her mother suffered a stroke and those at the site said they would continue their demonstration until she returns.
Bush travels next week to Utah and Idaho for speeches on national security and the war on terrorism. He has rejected calls for setting a timetable for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq and said last week he hasn't made a decision on increasing the force levels before the next round of Iraqi elections scheduled for December.
Members of the interim Iraqi government face are working to present a draft constitution to the parliament on Aug. 22, seven days after missing their original deadline for the document. The constitution will be the basis for electing a new government.
Bush said Iraq also represents the U.S. effort to spread democracy in the Middle East.
Approval of Bush's handling of Iraq fell to 38 percent, the lowest level ever and down from the low- to mid-40s earlier this year, according to an Aug. 1-3 Associated Press-Ipsos survey of 1,000 adults nationwide.
``Like previous wars we have waged to protect our freedom, the war on terror requires great sacrifice from Americans,'' Bush said today.
The U.S. has about 138,000 military personnel in Iraq and about 18,000 in Afghanistan.
7059. jexster - 8/20/2005 2:25:10 PM
That shit didn't flush in June...
Mortgaged to the House of Saud 8/10/05
The only evidence you need that President Bush is losing the "war on terror" is this: On Sunday, the foreign minister of Saudi Arabia said that relations with the United States "couldn't be better."
Tell that to the parents of those who have died in two wars defending this corrupt spawning ground of violent extremism. Never mind the ugly facts: We are deeply entwined with Saudi Arabia even though it shares none of our values and supports our enemies.
Yet on Friday, Bush's father and Vice President Dick Cheney made another in a long line of obsequious American pilgrimages to Riyadh to assure the Saudis that we continue to be grateful for the punishment they dish out.
"The relationship has tremendously improved with the United States," Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al Faisal told a news conference in Riyadh. "With the government, of course, it is very harmonious, as it ever was. Whether it has returned to the same level as it was before in terms of public opinion [in both countries], that is debatable."
Well, score one for public opinion...The Floodgates Have Opened
7060. robertjayb - 8/20/2005 2:26:41 PM
As an antidote to the bush blather Magoseph reports above, I suggest Georgie Anne Geyer's column on Cindy Sheehan.
...she picked exactly the right staging. By placing her protest (against the war) and her demand (to bring the troops home immediately) outside the president's Crawford, Texas, ranch on these August dog days, she has underlined the plausible image of a lazy, out-of-touch commander in chief riding his bike while Baghdad burns.
.................................................
...in a country increasingly dying for clarity about what its self-isolated president is really thinking, Cindy Sheehan has arisen as a kind of tribal truth-teller who reads the stones. The stones and sand particles of Iraq are finally beginning to reveal that this war has been waged for nothing.
(Universal Press Syndicate)
7061. jexster - 8/20/2005 3:01:34 PM
The Little War Criminal's gonna have to do better than "Make the Pyre Higher"
Some of us actually REMEMBER THE ALAMO
7062. jexster - 8/20/2005 3:35:29 PM
NBC Pentagon Correspondent reprts that officials expect a massive wave of attacks next week to coincide with the draft constitution (was sposed to be this dontcha know)
Well I throw in the trash all Friday Follies reports from the Bush SHitters but this was significant...
At the same time, some Pentagon officials now acknowledge that the two-and-a-half-year insurgent war has turned Iraq into a terrorist training camp.
See video after a Cadillac STS commercial Here
7063. jexster - 8/21/2005 7:33:59 PM
"There is no law, there is no order, and the police are scared of the tribes. Badr is not afraid, and it can face those threats."
My corps
Your corps
Our corps
7064. jexster - 8/21/2005 7:47:45 PM
Where's my Holiday Inn towel TD....I'm not a corpsman, I don't play one on TV, but I slept in a Holiday Inn and stole a towel!
My Corps..TD - Your Corps...
The Prospect of Islamic Law in Iraq
A secular Muslim reader writes on the reactionary implications of implementing Islamic canon law in Iraq
7065. jexster - 8/22/2005 11:38:52 AM
7066. jexster - 8/23/2005 9:48:17 AM
Coup in Baghdad
Unfinished Constitution Presented, vote Delayed
According to the interim constitution, the permanant constitution should have been presented to parliament and passed by August 15. There should have been two readings of it, two days apart, before the vote. Otherwise, parliament should have been dissolved and new elections called. Parliament avoided this fate with a last-minute amendment of the interim constitution, allowed if by 3/4 vote, though the nicety of two readings of the amendment two days apart was dispensed with (arguably, unconstitutionally, though it is a relatively minor affair). The amendment stipulated that the new constitution would by passed by August 22, with other conditions unchanged.
The new constitution, with blank passages, was presented to parliament just before midnight on August 22. But parliament did not vote on it, and a "three-day delay" was announced.
Announced?
The rule of law is no longer operating in Iraq, and no pretence of constitutional procedure is being striven for. In essence, the prime minister and president have made a sort of coup, simply disregarding the interim constitution.
The unfinished draft of the constitution presented was hammered out by community leaders like Jalal Talabani (the Kurdish president of Iraq) and Abd al-Aziz al-Hakim (Shiite leader of the United Iraqi Alliance parliamentary bloc). The constitution drafting committee in parliament appears to have been superseded. The Sunni Arab delegates complained of being frozen out. A partial deal was struck between Shiites and Kurds. Now they will take 3 days to complete the bargain and then lobby the Sunnis to accept it. ("Have we got a deal for you!") The Sunni Arab members of the drafting committee, not recently consulted on the draft, rejected the entire process and much of the language with some outrage.
It could matter. Any three provinces can reject the constitution by a 2/3s margin in the October 15 referendum. I'd say Anbar and Salah al-Din are in the bag for a no vote at the moment. Since Ninevah, Diyala Baghdad, and Babil are mixed, though, it isn't clear whether the Sunni Arabs can muster a 2/3s "no" vote elsewhere. Maybe if the Turkmen and Chaldeans/Assyrians join them in Ninevah. Or if the Sadrists join them in Baghdad Province.
In insisting on this veto privilege, which Grand Ayatollah Sistani always rejected, the Kurds may have hoisted themselves on their own petard-- giving the Sunni Arabs a means of rejecting the loose federalism they advocate.
I don't know how this very loose federal system will work, and the granting of the right to form provincial federations seems to me dangerous. And I have a sinking feeling that rigid interpretations of Islamic canon law may end up trumping some of the beautiful human rights otherwise promised.
Back in the real world, all of Iraq's petroleum production was knocked out on Monday.
7067. Magoseph - 8/24/2005 7:55:53 AM
7068. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 8/24/2005 11:29:12 AM
Abu Ghraib General Lambastes Bush Administration
. . . Karpinski said that General Shinseki briefed Rumsfeld that "he can't win this war, if they insist on invading Iraq, he can't win this war with less than 300,000 soldiers." Rumsfeld reportedly ordered Shinseki to go back and find a way to do this with 125,000 to 130,000, but Shinseki came back and said they couldn't do the job with that number. "What did Rumsfeld do?" Karpinski asked rhetorically. "If you can't agree with me, I'm going to find somebody who can. He made Shinseki a lame duck, for all practical purposes, and brought in Schoomaker. And Schoomaker got it. He said, 'Oh yes sir, we can do this with 125,000.'"
. . . Karpinski reveals that there was "no sustainment plan" because "there were a lot of contractors - US contractors exclusively - who realized they could make a lot of money in Iraq." At the Coalition Provisional Authority, Karpinski "saw corruption like I've never seen before - millions of dollars just being pocketed by contractors. Everything was on a cash basis at that time," she said. "You take a request down - literally, you take a request to the Finance Office. If the Pay Officer recognized your face and you were asking for $450,000 to pay a contractor for work, they would pay you in cash: $450,000. Out of control."
7069. Jenerator - 8/24/2005 11:38:10 AM
Is there an Al-Qaeda mandate against brushing one's teeth?
7070. Jenerator - 8/24/2005 11:40:00 AM
Someone needs to tell Sadr that no such fatwa exists!
7071. jayackroyd - 8/24/2005 12:37:09 PM
toys test
7072. jayackroyd - 8/24/2005 12:40:15 PM
Now?
7073. jexster - 8/24/2005 4:14:05 PM
It's Sadr v. Badr
"Constitutional" Violence Erupts in Najaf and Baghdad
7074. jexster - 8/24/2005 8:09:07 PM
Seminar, ME History Since 1700, Selected Topics
TD...you still have that Holiday Inn towel?
Arkoun, Rethinking Islam
Ahmed, Women and Gender in Islam
Esposito, Islam the Straight Path
Esposito, Makers of Contemporary Islam
Keddie, Modern Iran
Mernisi, Islam and Democracy
Smith, C. Palestine and the Arab Israeli Conflict
Plus another book's worth of e-reserve materials
Plus Course paper bibliography
Juan Cole's guest lecture 10/21!
7075. jexster - 8/25/2005 7:48:58 AM
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Parliament will not meet Thursday to decide on Iraq's draft constitution, and no date for a new session has been set, a spokesman said.
7076. jexster - 8/25/2005 8:16:17 AM
Let the mighty Eagle SOAR Amen
7077. jexster - 8/26/2005 8:16:47 AM
Bush Grovels Before the Ayatollahs
I love it. Where's TD?
Must be wearin my towel by now.
The dominance of the drafting process by the religious Shiites was underlined on May 24 when Sheik Humam Hammoudi, a cleric, was appointed chairman of the committee. He is a member of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, a Shiite religious party that admires the Iranian model of governance. With his white turban, austere face, graying beard and brown robes, he is a ringer for the mullahs who run Iran, against whom Iraqis fought a bitter eight-year war.
7078. jexster - 8/26/2005 1:49:33 PM
Q&A from the Erstwhile Warmongers at Daily Telegraph UK
Iraq on the Brink of Meltdown
I sure hope Dubai Vol took my advice and has prepared an exit strategery from the Emirates
If not, may Allah have mercy on his soul.
The Mighty Mahdi Army is mobilizing
100,000 Shiites Hit the Streets to Protest Bush-ie-tution
7079. jexster - 8/28/2005 6:17:48 PM
A Kurd in Whom There is No Guile
BAGHDAD (AFP) - Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said in remarks that he would not sign a death sentence against his ousted predecessor Saddam Hussein even if it costs him his job.
"Once his (Saddam's) interrogation is over, he will go before a tribunal," Talabani told Dubai-based Al-Arabiya news channel in an interview.
Should a death sentence be issued against the former dictator, "I will not sign it," he said.
"I am a man of principles. I cannot forego my principles for the sake of my post. If there is a clash between the post and the principles, I will give up the post and keep the principles," Talabani said in a snippet aired in advance of the full interview broadcast.
7080. jexster - 8/29/2005 2:36:17 PM
MEET THE NEW BOSS
Iran Claims New Nuclear Breakthrough
7081. PelleNilsson - 8/31/2005 5:04:54 AM
At least 600 Shia pilgrims dead as rumours of a suicide bomber causes a crowd of thousands to panic on a bridge over Tigris. Earlier, grenades had hit pilgrims outside a mosque.
7082. jayackroyd - 8/31/2005 8:39:38 AM
Sorry about the persistent toys problem. In trying to fix it, I deleted 6995-7002, which was one cartoon, and several attempts to shut off the toys.
It turned out that 6994 had an open anchor tag followed by a bold tag. Deleting that post resolved the problem.
7083. jexster - 8/31/2005 9:06:14 AM
While US politicians fiddle fuck with their legacies, their power, their lies and their incompetence...
FOCUS | Clarke: Al Qaeda Morphing Into Worldwide Movement
7084. jexster - 8/31/2005 9:13:41 AM
Now 1000 dead...
All that sacrifice
for nothing in Iraq NY Daily News
Except for the final body count, the war in Iraq is over.
We lost.
Islam won. Islam won when it was codified into the new constitution as the guiding North Star of Iraq's future.
This was not startling. After we righteously stormed into Afghanistan and kicked some butt, we abandoned the search for Osama Bin Laden, who killed those 2,700 people in downtown Manhattan, for a bait-and-switch invasion of Iraq.
Who Will Say "NO MORE!"?
7085. jexster - 9/1/2005 2:00:20 AM
Framing IraQ's Constitution: 7 Questions
Juan Cole
Foreign Policy
7086. jexster - 9/7/2005 7:58:57 PM
Just back from ME History Since 1700 Selected Topics seminar where tonight's topic was Iran up to the Constitutional Revolution of 1905-06..
Lemme tell ya, I thought Bush's democratic revolution was a crock before I took this course....and not just BS...dangerous BS
IRAQ: US Influence "Too Much"
LONDON, Sep 5 (IPS) - U.S. influence in the process of drafting a constitution for Iraq is excessive and "highly inappropriate", a United Nations official says.
"It is a matter of public record that in the final weeks of the process the newly arrived U.S. ambassador (Zalmay Khalizad) took an extremely hands-on role," Justin Alexander, legal affairs officer for the office of constitutional support with the United Nations Assistance Mission to Iraq (UNAMI) told IPS. "Even going so far as to circulate at least one U.S. draft."
Alexander, who oversaw the recent proceedings in Baghdad added: "This involvement was highly inappropriate for a country with 140,000 soldiers in country."
Zaid al-Ali, a legal expert who also oversaw the drafting process in Baghdad, made a similar case at a meeting at the International Association of Contemporary Iraqi Studies in London.
"There are three ways in which the occupation intervened in the context of Iraq's constitution-writing process," he said. "Firstly, the occupation authorities selected and affected the makeup of the commission that was charged with drafting Iraq's transitional law, and its permanent constitution. Second, the occupation determined the limits and parameters within which the constitution was to be drafted. Third, the occupation authorities intervened directly in order to safeguard its interests in the context of the constitutional negotiations."
7087. jexster - 9/11/2005 11:21:02 AM
The Marc-Albert Question: America's Juden Frage
Why are American goyim such cocksuckers for Israel?
Israel must decide whether to pursue U.S. aid in light of Katrina
By Haaretz Service
It is up to Israel to decide whether to pursue its aid request for Negev-Galilee development - which was slated to be part of an aid package to offset the cost of the disengagement - or exercise restraint in light of the high costs of Hurricane Katrina, outgoing U.S. Ambassador to Israel Daniel Kurtzer said Friday.
Citing unnamed White House officials, Army Radio had previously reported that the scope of the disaster relief the U.S. government is preparing for the areas hit by the hurricane was likely to reduce the amount of American aid to be transferred to Israel.
After returning from his tour of the New Orleans region earlier this month, U.S. President George W. Bush immediately signed a $10.5 billion disaster aid package passed by Congress - an amount Kurtzer said could end up 10 times as high.
In July, Israel requested funding to develop the north and south of the country, which was to be part of a $2.25 billion package for the disengagement plan. The Bush administration had been expected to submit its request to Congress for approval of the aid in December.
"The question has been raised as to whether Israel should exercise some restraint with regard to this aid request now," Kurtzer, who ends his four-year term next week, told Israel Radio on Friday.
"The government may or may not decide to pursue it right now, in view of the fact that the costs to the American taxpayer of [Hurricane] Katrina are likely to be enormous in the period ahead," he said. "I've seen estimates in the press that exceed $100 billion. But this is a decision that the Israeli government will take, whether it seeks to move this issue now or not."
Kurtzer also said Friday that the United States expects Israel to fulfill its commitment to remove unauthorized outposts in the West Bank, and trusts Israel to do so. He did not set a deadline for the outpost removal, saying the U.S. doesn't "put a gun to Israel's head."
"We still expect as a country that Israel is going to fulfill its commitment," Kurtzer said. "This has now been concretized in writing - [Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's adviser] Dov Weissglas to the then-national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, now the secretary of state - and so we're waiting for Israel to fulfill that commitment."
Comment from MSN World We Live In
What the hell is the state of Israel thinking that it would even dare to consider asking for aid from America at this grave time of crisis for our poor people in Louisiana and other coastal states so viciously hit by Hurricane Katrina? It's about time Israel stands on its own because it has been recieving aid for decades and now Americans hit by Hurrican Katrina need every dollar they can get from our own fellow taxpayers to rebuild. When I read this article, it made my stomache churn in disgust. .,..we are under no obligation to help Israel out from its own stupidity and greed to steal lands belonging to others:
7088. robertjayb - 9/11/2005 1:16:54 PM
Riverbend has eletricity and water woes, weighs the difficulties of natural and manmade disasters, and brands the new constitution a poor cut and paste job. Baghdad Burning
7089. jexster - 9/14/2005 8:05:44 AM
Even as Bush is speaking to the UN General Assembly urging support for his "democracy" crusade....
Iraq slams U.S. detentions, immunity for troops
Iraq's justice minister has condemned the U.S. military for detaining thousands of Iraqis for long periods without charge and wants to change a U.N. resolution that gives foreign troops immunity from Iraqi law.
Speaking to Reuters, Justice Minister Abdul Hussein Shandal also criticized U.S. detentions of Iraqi journalists and said the media, contrary to U.S. policy in Iraq, must have special legal protection to report on all sides in the conflict.
"No citizen should be arrested without a court order," he said this week, complaining that U.S. suggestions that his ministry has an equal say on detentions were misleading.
"There is abuse (of human rights) due to detentions, which are overseen by the Multinational Force (MNF) and are not in the control of the justice ministry," said Shandal, a Shi'ite judge respected for standing up to Saddam Hussein on the rule of law.
Killings and unjustified arrests of Iraqi civilians by U.S. troops risked going unpunished, he said, because of U.N. Security Council resolution 1546, which granted U.S.-led forces sweeping powers following their overthrow of Saddam in 2003.
"The resolution ... gives immunity to the MNF and means taking no action against the MNF no matter what happens or whatever they do against the people of Iraq," Shandal said.
"We're hoping to make more efforts with the Security Council and the whole United Nations to end this resolution or amend it so that anyone who violates Iraqi law or assaults any citizen is held accountable," he said. "This is a matter of sovereignty."
7090. PelleNilsson - 9/14/2005 9:03:55 AM
170 dead in suicide attacks in Shia areas of Baghdad this morning.
7091. jexster - 9/14/2005 9:19:45 AM
Carnage...the pics are awful
Civil war is happening now
7092. jexster - 9/14/2005 12:53:59 PM
Wednesday, September 14, 2005
Cole:Black Wednesday's Death Toll rises to 150
The death toll in Wednesday's eight bombings in Baghdad rose to 150, with one bomb in Kadhimiyah accounting for about 114. I can only imagine that hundreds were wounded. It is the second biggest one-day toll in guerrilla violence since the fall of Saddam (only March 2, 2004, was worse). Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, leader of Monotheism and Holy War, announced a "war" on Iraq's Shiites by radical Sunni Salafis. The operation was apparently in part revenge for the US/Iraqi government attack on the largely Sunni Turkmen city of Tal Afar in the north.
Although Iraqi government officials tried to put the best face on the disaster, saying that it demonstrated that the Tal Afar operation had in fact deeply threatened the Sunni Arab guerrilla movement, I fear I would draw the opposite conclusion. The guerrillas in Tal Afar cleverly slipped away, and the US troops never even fought a major battle with them. The use of Kurdish troops and Shiite informers leant an ethnic cast to the campaign. Most people in Tal Afar just left the city, for all the world like New Orleans refugees in Texas and Mississippi. So as an operation, it did not amount to much, though it displaced a lot of innocent civilians. And while the US and Kurdish troops were chasing down empty streets in Tal Afar, the guerrillas blew up Baghdad.
If you don't control your capital, you control nothing. If the events of Black Wednesday were not so very tragic (those poor Shiite laborers! and their families), the situation would be absurd in a surrealist sense. The US military off in a small desert town with nothing to do but play fight club amongst themselves, while hundreds of innocent Iraqi Shiites in Kadhimiyah are massacred at will.
7093. jayackroyd - 9/14/2005 2:11:27 PM
Civil war is happening now
Historians' date of the beginning of the civil war may well date sometime in the recent past.
7094. jexster - 9/14/2005 3:21:04 PM
The guy from WaPo's gonna tackle that tommorrow at TPMC..
But in point of fact, we are the muscle for Iran in this God awful mess
As friction with Arab neighbors intensifies, Iraq growing ever closer to Iran
7095. jexster - 9/14/2005 3:35:51 PM
I wonder how many Americans appreciate the truth of the matter - that US forces are fighting and dying for Iran?
Do you think TD knows this?
How bout Pincher Martin, or the Pair from Zion....how bout the ache of my groin ..the Ace of Waste?
Or the Kauaian toothless wonder?
7096. jexster - 9/14/2005 3:42:18 PM
All out war against Shiites everywhere. Beware, there will be no mercy
Now you may think (and you maybe correct) that I don't know shit about the middle east.
But I guar-an-tee-god-dam-tee ya I know more than the Command Authority of the USA and all of their useful idiots at the Weakly Standard, the WSJ, and the National Review combined
7097. jexster - 9/14/2005 3:42:53 PM
They shoulda listened to Baghdad Bob
7098. jexster - 9/14/2005 7:58:39 PM
UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - US President George W. Bush heaped praise on Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for Israel's historic withdrawal from the Gaza Strip but turned a blind eye to ongoing construction in West Bank settlements
7099. jexster - 9/15/2005 11:47:23 AM
IraN fucks Bush
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Western powers appeared to back away from an early move to refer Iran's nuclear program to the U.N. Security Council as Tehran sought to widen backing for its stance by offering on Thursday to share peaceful nuclear technology with other Islamic nations
7100. jayackroyd - 9/18/2005 2:33:12 PM
There's a very nice summary of the political state in Iraq by Tony Judt in the New York Review of Books. It's his view that the de facto tripartite state embodied in the constitution is the best that can be attained. He suggests that if it is not ratified, that the Kurds will insist on independence rather than another round of constitution and referendum.
He also says that there is little possibility of an "Iraqi" military--that the regional forces of the shiites and kurdish peshmerga will remain distinct, and the Sunnis will need an offsetting regional militia (as permitted under the constitution).
7101. jexster - 9/19/2005 8:30:43 AM
I have to write a 15-25 page paper on some ME History thing. I was thinking Political Islam & Democracy...Sol my initial thought was the Moslem Brotherhood. Then I talked to an Ayrab who's up on this stuff and he suggested The Army of God...I get his point - people across the ME are more likely to look to Hizzbolah becuase it is integrating into demo processes in Lebanon while MB is stuck with Mubarrak etc but H is pretty Shia and the MB is pretty much Sunni and has the history..about a hundred years of it..
Suggestions?
Apropos of which
Obe Juan Cole: Bush's war and the Egyptian elections which argues that "Mubarak's rigged victory shows that right-wing predictions of an "Arab spring" were wishful thinking."
Cole is SUCH a gentleman..."wishful thinking" doesn't come out of the ass
7102. jexster - 9/19/2005 8:33:26 AM
I like Tony Judt...sounds about the best we can expect....Southern IraQ oil fields a province of Iran (defacto at least)..war between Turkey and Kurdistan..and the rest of the Sunni Moslem World trying to fuck up the other two Iraq's
Sounds like the Regis Debray Scenario..and THAT is the BEST we can do!
7103. jexster - 9/19/2005 8:43:12 AM
Jay did you mean Peter Galbraith: Last Chance for IraQ
Judt wrote a subscription-only article FROM THE HOUSE OF THE DEAD: On Modern European Memory
7104. PelleNilsson - 9/19/2005 9:33:57 AM
Yes, the transformation of Hezbollah from a fighting force into a political party is interesting and there might be intriguing parallels with Hamas which may undergo a similar transformation at some point. Hamas, like Hezbollah, is running a network of social services and is playing up its honesty in dealing with the public.
But if you want to play it safe I think the Brotherhood is a better choice. There is certainly more scholarly studies available, it has been around for a long time and it is not only active in Egypt but also in Jordan and Syria. It was the Brotherhood that provoked Assad into the massacre in Hamas where perhaps 20,000 died as the air force and artillery flattened the city. It will also give you an opportunity to examine Sayyed Qutb who many think of as the ideologue behind the more extreme forms of Islamism. Personally, I think one can draw some interesting parallels with European (and American) anarchism, you know Prudhomme, Bakunin, Action directe and all that.
7105. PelleNilsson - 9/19/2005 10:12:54 AM
I forgot to say, jexster, that the Qutb trail will brobably lead you to Islamic Jihad which will give you an opportunity to explore the ideological differences between them and Hamas which it something that puzzles me. And one you have arrived at Hamas you can approch Hezbollah from that angle.
Take all this for what it's worth. As usual you'll have to chose between depth and breadth but since you will - inevitably - be working working with secondary sources, breadth may be best option.
7106. jexster - 9/19/2005 2:51:07 PM
His Master's Voice
Envoy: Bush Will Back Israeli Settlements in West Bank
7107. jexster - 9/19/2005 2:53:19 PM
Goddamn Pelle...one or the other not THREE
Thanks...Will raise the points with the prof
7108. PelleNilsson - 9/20/2005 11:57:51 AM
Well, I think 20-25 pages is plenty. But then, I suspect, I have a more economic writing style style than you, something I get shit for in academia.
7109. jexster - 9/21/2005 8:03:17 AM
Iraq: The Battle of Basra
‘Democratic’ Iraq rises up – against the occupiers
7110. jexster - 9/21/2005 8:04:59 AM
I have different styles Pelle - Legal (economic) Academic (prolix)...Stick with the "economic" no matter what they say.
7111. jexster - 9/22/2005 3:36:40 AM
7112. rdbrewer - 9/22/2005 11:52:49 AM
15/18
7113. jayackroyd - 9/22/2005 11:55:23 AM
7102--yes I did mean Galbraith.
7114. jayackroyd - 9/23/2005 6:12:39 AM
Saudis give up the ghost, publicly, on Iraq
"There is no dynamic now pulling the nation together," [Prince Saud al-Faisal, the Saudi foreign minister] said in a meeting with reporters at the Saudi Embassy here. "All the dynamics are pulling the country apart."
7115. jexster - 9/24/2005 2:22:08 PM
Tired Illusions Drown in the Night
Security Situation in Baghdad Sinking like the Titanic
An observer in Iraq writes to me:
7116. jexster - 9/25/2005 11:32:37 AM
Sunday, September 25, 2005
Why we Have to get the Troops Out of Iraq
Juan Cole
The hundreds of thousands of protesters who came out throughout the world on Saturday were demanding a US and British withdrawal from Iraq.
The protesters are right that we have to get US ground troops out of Iraq.
...
The situation in the Sunni Arab areas was worse in summer of 2004 than it had been in summer of 2003. It is worse in the summer of 2005 than it had been in 2004. Even the Iraqi political groupings that had earlier been willing to cooperate with the US boycotted the Jan. 30 elections and are now assiduously working to defeat the new constitution.
Things in the Sunni Arab areas are getting worse, not better.
I conclude that the presence of the US ground troops is making things worse, not better.
Let's get them out, now, before they destroy any more cities, create any more hundreds of thousands of internally displaced persons, provoke any more ethnic hatreds by installing Shiite police in Fallujah or Kurdish troops in Turkmen Tal Afar. They are sowing a vast whirlwind, a desert sandstorm of Martian proportions, which future generations of Americans and Iraqis will reap.
The ground troops must come out. Now. For the good of Iraq. For the good of America.
posted by Juan @ 9/25/2005 06:37:00 AM
7117. jayackroyd - 9/25/2005 1:09:33 PM
Juan Cole, August 22:
Personally, I think "US out now" as a simple mantra neglects to consider the full range of possible disasters that could ensue. For one thing, there would be an Iraq civil war. Iraq wasn't having a civil war in 2002. And although you could argue that what is going on now is a subterranean, unconventional civil war, it is not characterized by set piece battles and hundreds of people killed in a single battle, as was true in Lebanon in 1975-76, e.g. People often allege that the US military isn't doing any good in Iraq and there is already a civil war. These people have never actually seen a civil war and do not appreciate the lid the US military is keeping on what could be a volcano.
what a difference a month makes
7118. wonkers2 - 9/25/2005 2:16:43 PM
As usual, my fellow Michigander, Juan Cole, makes a lot of sense.
7119. jayackroyd - 9/25/2005 2:50:54 PM
Which time?
7120. jexster - 9/25/2005 4:31:04 PM
Hey Jay...that New Yorker Town Meeting sounded like fun
Personally, I am sorta with Yglesias ..marches have their place and but smaller public education events "teach-ins" (OOO Nooooo childhood) are what we need..that and burnin democratic leaders in effigy and maybe tar and feather job for Likud agents Liberman, Lantos, DiLies
7121. jexster - 9/25/2005 4:35:50 PM
Iraq ripped apart by suicide bombs, gang warfare and sectarianism
IAN MATHER
DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENT - Scotsman
SAFE inside Baghdad's Green Zone, the concrete-barricaded headquarters shared by the Iraqi government, foreign diplomats and contractors, the official line is still that the situation in Iraq is one of progress towards democracy and a gradual hand-over from US and allied troops to Iraqi control.
But just a few minutes walk away, in what US security jargon describes as the 'Red Zone', the daily reality involves death, random violence and routine deprivations for most people..,.
Reality-based survey of the situation countrywide follows..and it ain't purty
7122. jexster - 9/25/2005 5:10:30 PM
Juan is being cute with the OutNowers...notice GROUND TROOPS
I think he's wrong but he thinks that if we keep airpower and base defense ground troops the country has a chance..we can operate incognito and prevent another Lebanon which seems have traumatized him somewhat..
There really is no difference in his position and in fact the whole debate between the gradualists and the Now Crowd seems to me more a little silly.
There are really only two groups...OUT NOW (which includes Cole) and the William Westmoreland Memorial Stay the COurse Club..Biden, McCain, Likud Lieberman who are calling for more troops...ludicrous
The problem with progressives is that they tend to be precious...strain at gnats and bitch fight..
7123. jexster - 9/25/2005 5:12:15 PM
Where I think Cole may soon be headed is I expect he'll add a date certain for total withdrawal ..he'll have no choice..Bush is changing nothing of substance..he will stay his course to hell or more precisely the American and Iraqi course to the Inferno
7124. jexster - 9/25/2005 5:29:17 PM
Inroads?
Saudis see US policy helping Iran make inroads in Iraq
Yea inroads like
US101
The Hollywood Freeway
7125. jayackroyd - 9/25/2005 5:32:29 PM
I don't follow 7120 at all.
Read Coles 8/22 plan. He certainly does not say all ground troops out now. He says pull them out as the Iraqis stand down. He does advocate immediate withdrawal from the cities, but in an email communication on 8/25 ("I'd let the elected government decide about the Green Zone. But I would end US military patrols in Baghdad.") says that wrt Green Zone, he advocates withdrawal only if the Iraqis want.
Ground troops withdrawing from the Green Zone is out of the question at the moment.
If you've run across someone who says "Out Now" and has a plan in hand, however vague, I'd like to see it.
7126. jexster - 9/25/2005 6:12:20 PM
Like I said...progressives are just so fucking precious
Base defense you moron
I have read the plan and there no difference of substance between them
Get your head out your ass
7127. jexster - 9/25/2005 6:18:11 PM
Here ya go Precious..
Britain to Pull Troops from Iraq Next May
British troops will start a major withdrawal from Iraq next May under detailed plans on military disengagement to be published next month, The Observer reveals.
Albright Warns Dark Days ahead in Iraq
Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright issued a stern warning Saturday about the continuing US role in Iraq, saying "there are no good options at this point and the worst days may be ahead of us."
The plan you want an OutNow Plan..
6 months to pack up and leave
That is a plan. That is a plan that is more detailed, more definite, than Stay the Course, than Biden/Clinton More Little Boots on the Ground or Wes Clark's Concert for Victory
So piss off
7128. jexster - 9/25/2005 6:18:46 PM
I think you need a TPM fan club ...
7129. jexster - 9/25/2005 6:20:02 PM
I miss TD but I do so love idiots who prove my point by opening their mouths
7130. jayackroyd - 9/25/2005 9:18:48 PM
I still have no idea what you're talking about.
7131. jexster - 9/26/2005 2:19:41 AM
Yeah I know. That's OK.
Monday, September 26, 2005
British Spies in Basra Fighting Weapons Smugglers
Those two SAS special operations troops captured by the Basra police last Monday were one of 8 such teams charged with disrupting weapons smuggling from Iran into southern Iraq. The Iranian weapons smugglers are organized and powerful throughout the world.
Among the more powerful Iranian arms merchants is Manucher Ghorbanifar, this one with friends in high places in Washington, who is trying to pull the United States into a war against Iran. War is good for arms merchantsM
Arrest Warrants have been issued. The criminals brought to justice. May God have mercy on their souls.
You didn't think I was talking about the Bush Arms Merchants now did ya?
7132. jayackroyd - 9/26/2005 4:21:57 AM
Posting old disconnected news items along with oblique references to whatever your clairavoyance is telling you about what people really mean, no matter what it is they happen to write, will lead, generally speaking, to confusion.
7133. jayackroyd - 9/26/2005 5:34:00 AM
This reference: "Hey Jay...that New Yorker Town Meeting sounded like fun" in message 1720 from jexster, is to a talk I attended. The following reference, to Matt Yglesias on the effectiveness of protestors seemed to be a non-sequitor.
It was sponsored by the New Yorker and included six participants, three people who write about Iraq and the middle east, George Packer, Mark Danner and Robert Baer and three people connected to government, James Woolsey, Douglas Feith and the current ambassador to the US from Iraq.
I posted some notes on that meeting on a Talking Points Memo readers blog.
The idea most consistently expressed by the participants--the writers are, broadly speaking, opposed to both the war and its execution--is that while it's all very well to talk about withdrawal, US forces are, in Cole's words from August, keeping a lid on a volcano.
In particular, Sunni insurgents are said to be simply biding their time until an American withdrawal, before beginning their fight in earnest.
7134. jexster - 9/26/2005 9:48:36 AM
and long may your shadow persist
7135. jexster - 9/27/2005 1:34:57 PM
The Outpost of Western Democracy
Hamas Candidates Part of Israeli Roundup
By MOHAMMED DARAGHMEH,
7136. jexster - 9/27/2005 10:38:39 PM
Here's a withdrawal plan 4U Jay...
You will find, whether you agree with the plan or not, that the strategic situation he describes is indistinguishable from that Regis Debray envisioned in September 2003
Looking out from the Forest of Iraq
The Retreat to Fortress Kurdistan
By William Christie
Strategy, like politics, is all about recognizing the art of the possible. And the time has certainly come for a very realistic look at the strategic possibilities in Iraq.
...
The bottom line is that as much as we’d like to pretend otherwise, the United States will have as much (meaning as little) control over post-Iraq events as we do today over an Iraq into which we’ve poured all of our power. Events will run their course, regardless of the Bush Administration’s prestige.
William Christie is a former Marine Corps infantry officer who left the Corps as a First Lieutenant in 1987. ...
7137. jexster - 9/28/2005 8:55:25 AM
By the way, in Afghanistan the old warlords appear to have won big time. This is not good. Cole
7138. jexster - 9/29/2005 9:12:20 AM
Jim Lobe covers the debate on a US exit strategy for Iraq. Kudos to Jim for getting my position exactly right and stating it succinctly and clearly. [Cole]
7139. jayackroyd - 9/29/2005 9:56:46 AM
No plan in the link in 7136.
Cole, as quoted, in 7138 does not advocate complete withdrawal, even of ground forces. This is in line with his 10 point August plan. How is Cole's plan any different from "stand down as the Iraqis stand up."?
7140. jexster - 9/29/2005 10:17:13 AM
Because he wants an immediate garrisoning of US ground combat forces followed by their withdrawal.
He also stated very clearly that his air support plan might well not work in which case ....figure that one for yourself.
Cole does advocate an immediate withdrawal of ground combat forces.
As I previously pointed out, any air base plan needs a ground troop component - so obvious a point I should not have had to make once much less twice
7141. jexster - 9/29/2005 10:20:34 AM
7136...it helps to know how to read
Given the stakes for all sides, and their need to court world opinion, like the Lebanese civil war and the current insurgency in Iraq, this will be a war of proxies not armies. And just like Lebanon, external aid will probably ensure that the conflict continues indefinitely. If either side looks to be gaining an advantage, the other’s supporters will up the ante. As in Lebanon, and the Iran-Iraq war of 1980-1988, mutual exhaustion is the likely result. Which is how the fire of insurgency dies.
The Kurds are the tipping point between those two sides. A U.S. ground and air presence in the north (something on the order of our garrison in South Korea) would hopefully save the Kurds from the strategic disaster of declaring (out loud at least) independence. And also keep our Turkish allies from the strategic disaster of trying to crush them once they did.
Will an Iraq at civil war become a haven for terrorists? Of course. Iraq is already a haven for terrorists, including training camps run right under our nose. At least in the future, Special Operations Forces and Ranger battalions might be able to fly in overnight from the Kurdish region, wipe out a camp and its inhabitants, and be back by morning. And at far lower cost than driving through ambushes and roadside bombs every day.
Considering Iraqi nationalism, it wouldn’t be surprising if they turned on the foreign terrorists in their midst once we were gone. In any case, in order to maintain their position in the country, the foreign terrorists will certainly be kept busy fighting on the Sunni side of the Iraqi civil war. They will not be fighting us.
Will the Iraqi government survive? In most parts of the world, government survival is a Darwinian process. The fittest survive. If the current Iraqi government does not, our strategic situation really hasn’t changed.
Won’t this destabilize the region? In case anyone hasn’t noticed, the region is far from stable. If Syria and Iran are destabilized by this conflict, all well and good. And as a bonus their citizens may see this as a consequence of their own governments’ actions, not ours—in keeping with 4th Generation strategy. Jordan will reap the results of its own decisions.
For cryin out loud I put in the goddamn title.
I guess I'll just have to spam
there are other plans too...a guy at the Middle Eastern Policy review and this per an email to Cole today
7142. jexster - 9/29/2005 10:22:53 AM
What’s Wrong With Cutting and Running?
By Lt. Gen. William E. Odom
Linked in AP
So why is almost nobody advocating a pullout? I can only speculate. We face a strange situation today where few if any voices among Democrats in Congress will mention early withdrawal from Iraq, and even the one or two who do will not make a comprehensive case for withdrawal now.Why are the Democrats failing the public on this issue today? The biggest reason is because they weren’t willing to raise that issue during the campaign. Howard Dean alone took a clear and consistent stand on Iraq, and the rest of the Democratic party trashed him for it. Most of those in Congress voted for the war and let that vote shackle them later on. Now they are scared to death that the White House will smear them with lack of patriotism if they suggest pulling out.
Journalists can ask all the questions they like but none will prompt a more serious debate as long as no political leaders create the context and force the issues into the open.
I don't believe anyone will be able to sustain a strong case in the short run without going back to the fundamental misjudgment of invading Iraq in the first place. Once the enormity of that error is grasped, the case for pulling out becomes easy to see.
Look at John Kerry's utterly absurd position during the presidential campaign. He said “It’s the wrong war, in the wrong place, at the wrong time," but then went on to explain how he expected to win it anyway. Even the voter with no interest in foreign affairs was able to recognize it as an absurdity. If it was the wrong war at the wrong place and time, then it was never in our interest to fight. If that is true, what has changed to make it in our interest? Nothing, absolutely nothing.
Four or five months ago I posted an entire article from Foreign Affairs via lexis in Lies
Luttwak's plan
7143. jexster - 9/29/2005 10:28:12 AM
All you have to do Jay is ask politely and I will respond politely...or do my best ;)
The Third Option in Iraq: A Responsible Exit Strategy
Gareth Porter
Middle East Policy Council Journal
Fall 2005
I must confess however that I am weary of prissy pissing constests for puerile progressive purity
7144. jexster - 9/29/2005 10:29:30 AM
7145. jayackroyd - 9/29/2005 10:54:15 AM
The article you posted says this:
" (Cole) favours both the withdrawal of most U.S. ground troops and, in the absence of NATO or U.N. peacekeepers, the maintenance of Special Forces and U.S. airpower in the region precisely to prevent sectarian forces from escalating the conflict into a conventional civil war, as in Afghanistan. "
That's not "all ground troops." Cole, like every single other analyst that I've read, believes that the presence of US forces is deterring an all-out Sunni offensive. The people saying "pull out now" either mean "pull out over the next six months to a year" or don't have any idea at all of what they mean.
The thing in bold in the spam a) isn't a plan and b) isn't withdrawal. Permanently eaving forces in Kurdistan isn't withdrawing
from Iraq.
My point remains. There's nobody who believes in "withdrawal." There's nobody who believes in staying indefinitely. The only difference is rhetorical. So shut up already about how you describe it and proceed with some kind of plan. Cole's is fine with me. Krepenvich's isn't a plan, and it isn't really a withdrawal plan, but if the oil spots thing lets Iraqi forces move in sooner, fine.
But when you shriek withdrawal, you gotta face the fact that "withdrawal" means a phased, controlled, medium term plan which does not differ materially from the one floated by the Brits and the pentagon, of pulling out substantial ground troops by May.
7146. jexster - 9/29/2005 10:57:33 AM
The key Jay to understanding what Cole is saying is found at the exchange Message # 3853 in thread 161..comments from Schwartz article also mentioned in Jim Kobe's review of withdrawal plans linked today at Informed Comment
7147. jexster - 9/29/2005 10:57:58 AM
"comments on"
7148. jexster - 9/29/2005 10:58:30 AM
As usual, Wonk's fellow Michigander, Juan Cole, makes a lot of sense.
7149. jexster - 9/29/2005 11:41:07 AM
In fact Jay I even have a plan. Perhaps you read it. It's a little dated I admit...about 3-4 months ...calls for a phased withdrawal date certain total not more than 2 years.
Incorporates what later Clark's plan would call "concert of powers" and what Odom explicates in point 1.
Didn't have the benefit of Cole's "Afghan model" but it could could be easily modified and his substantially improved as I have been arguing to no avail with him for over a month
7150. jexster - 9/29/2005 11:43:10 AM
It is not hard to put a plan together that beats the current policy.
Something always beats nothing.
"Stand down Stand Up" is a childs game and a slogan.
It isn't a plan. There is no plan presently Jay..just rhetoric
Company A pack toothbrushes
Company B pack weapons
That's a plan too
7151. jexster - 9/30/2005 7:23:06 AM
Iraq's Relentless March to Death
The "Hot Civil War Has Begun
London Times from Baghdad
7152. jexster - 10/1/2005 10:42:54 AM
Fuck 'em
Israel to US: Stop Iran, or We Will Do It Ourselves
The US has to stop giving billions each year to Israel.
7153. jexster - 10/1/2005 12:25:58 PM
Here's another plan Ackroyd
Strategic Redeployment
A Progressive Plan for Iraq and the Struggle Against Violent Extremists
By Lawrence Korb and Brian Katulis
September 29, 2005
Read Full Report (PDF)
The Bush administration's numerous mistakes - sending in too few troops and not providing proper guidance or equipment as well as its frequent changes in the strategy for Iraq's political transition and reconstruction - have left us with no good options. The status quo is untenable, eroding American power and weakening our ability to keep America secure. But simply shifting gears into reverse and implementing a hasty withdrawal from Iraq is not the answer.
7154. jexster - 10/2/2005 12:30:13 PM
Iraqi Government Totters
US Goes it alone Against Mighty Sadah
British Leave Basra Base
7155. jexster - 10/2/2005 12:35:02 PM
7156. robertjayb - 10/2/2005 2:55:22 PM
Iraq's President Calls for PM to Step Down
KIRKUK--(AP)--Iraq's Kurdish president called on the country's Shiite prime minister to step down, the president's spokesman said Sunday, escalating a political split between the two factions that make up the government.
President Jalal Talabani has accused the Shiite-led United Iraqi Alliance, which holds the majority in parliament, of monopolizing power in the government and refusing to move ahead on a key issue for Kurds, the resettlement of Kurds in the northern city of Kirkuk.
The boys are not playing well together.
7157. jayackroyd - 10/3/2005 5:59:26 PM
No worries on the October referendum. They're fixing the rules to make sure it comes out right. From TNR:
However, there's something much more substantial mortaring the Kurds and the Shia together: a refusal to allow the October 15 referendum to yield anything but a much-desired passage of the constitution. Yesterday, the Kurdish-Shia dominated parliament tweaked the complex procedural rules for the referendum, making it much harder for the Sunnis to vote the document down. Until yesterday's session, the constitution would be rejected if two-thirds of the voters in any three provinces rejected it. Now the threshold for defeat has been raised to two-thirds of registered voters across three provinces. Meanwhile, if a simple majority of everyone who turns out on October 15 votes yes--not a majority of registered voters--the constitution passes. If the Iraqi political process wasn't shepherded by the United States, we would call this a sham vote. And if you want to know how explosive the Sunni reaction to guaranteed constitutional approval will be, consider this quote from Abdul Salam Al Kubaisi of the insurgent-tied Association of Muslim Scholars, given before the parliamentary maneuver:
We think that the U.S. considers that the constitution is part of its plans of war so they believe they are going to win the constitution game after all. We all reject the constitution and we will say 'No' to it no matter what happens.
7158. jexster - 10/3/2005 11:45:29 PM
Texas Democratic Values
Sunni anger at Iraq vote change - BBC
Sunni Arabs have reacted angrily to a decision by Iraq's Shia-dominated parliament making it harder to reject the new constitution in 12 days' time.
The two-thirds majority needed in three provinces to defeat the constitution will now be counted from all registered - as opposed to actual - voters.
Many registered voters may not show up because of violence, it is argued.
Saleh al-Mutlaq, of the Sunni group Iraqi National Dialogue, called the change a "clear forgery".
"They want this constitution to pass despite the will of the people," he added.
BBC Baghdad correspondent Caroline Hawley says violence, intimidation and US military offensives could keep many Sunnis away from polling centres.
'Implausible' change
The interim constitution drawn up under US administrator Paul Bremer in 2003 says the following about the issue:
The general referendum will be successful and the draft constitution ratified if a majority of the voters in Iraq approve and if two-thirds of the voters in three or more governorates do not reject it.
But on Sunday, MPs said a No vote from two-thirds of "registered" voters was needed for a veto.
The new interpretation keeps the clause stipulating that only half of actual voters are needed for the text to be adopted.
Many Sunni Arabs oppose the draft constitution on the grounds that its federal provisions could lead to the break-up of Iraq.
In elections for the transitional parliament in January, less than 60% of registered Iraqis voted after Sunni leaders called for a boycott.
Iraq Unravels Cole
7159. jexster - 10/3/2005 11:48:18 PM
Last One to Leave, Please Turn on the Lights
7160. jexster - 10/5/2005 6:43:28 AM
It ain't just EyeRak & N'walins
How Bush Fucked Up the Entire Persian Gulf
The Financial Times
7161. jexster - 10/5/2005 6:54:39 AM
Note the dateline
DUBAI
I hope he took my adviced and evacuated with chillers to higher ground
7162. jayackroyd - 10/5/2005 7:21:19 AM
The Iraqi legislature has changed its mind. Back to the original rules for the referendum.
7163. jayackroyd - 10/5/2005 10:11:40 AM
It turns out, btw, that Bush was wrong. Arabs may not have the necessities for democracy--at least according to Mr. Friedman:
Iraq is a multiethnic society that had to be held together by a dictator's iron fist. What Iraqis are struggling with today is whether they can forge their own social contract in which Kurds, Shiites and Sunnis can live together - without an iron fist. That is critical because virtually every Arab state today is a mix of religions and ethnicities held together by a hard or soft fist. If Iraqis can find a way to live together, any people out here can, and democracy has a future. If the Iraqis can't, probably no one can, and we can look forward to dictatorships and monarchies in the Arab world --- with all the pathologies they bring - forever.
7164. jexster - 10/5/2005 12:36:02 PM
That pathetic little pansy Friedman...
Sulzberger shoulda done a prisoner exchange...Tommie Tulip for Cheney's Bitch
These heart-rending confessions don't count for shit in my book.
For three years, the cunt was the Liberal Apologist for Bush War Crimes then he went on Sabbatical
In August 2003, I posted to his Reader Forum to the effect Behold THe Fool - the US only had TWO choices in EyeRak N Roll if the country were to stay together
Dictatorship
Islamic Republic
Oh boy the well-trained liberal bitch poodles wailed and gnashed their teeth and Tiny Tom continued to tiptoe thru the Tulips..
Again on his forum just before his sabbactical, I urges the fat fuck to use his time for reflection and repentance...
To hell with him anyway..I am NOT impressed
7165. jexster - 10/5/2005 12:43:56 PM
In Memoriam
A Jizzbucket
7166. jexster - 10/5/2005 1:35:00 PM
A Pictorial Essay
*
*Left - Rep Tom Lantos (Likud-CA)
7167. Magoseph - 10/5/2005 2:35:51 PM
Jex, what do you think will be the consequences of the Iraqi constitution not passing? It appears to me there’s no possibility of it passing under the present rules because it only requires three Sunni districts with a negative return and they certainly going to get that.
7168. PelleNilsson - 10/5/2005 2:49:35 PM
It will pass. Don't worry about that (if that's what you do). There is no such thing as a "Sunni district" in the sense that the population is exclusively Sunni.
And don't ask Jex about these things. He has yet to take the course.
7169. jexster - 10/5/2005 4:36:07 PM
They hate our values...
And the muthafuckas have taken over
an I ain't talkin about Swedes either
7170. jexster - 10/5/2005 4:43:33 PM
You know what I think Mago
If it passes - helicopter skids
If it fails to pass - Helicopter skids
The Persians have achieved their objectives with that weekend constitutional farce and the repeated sweeps of Anbar by their USA mercenary army....
The Sunni Opposition is now in disarray. So Pelle is right..fuckin Swede..they planned it all long ago
It is a Swedish charade...the whole damn thing the whole damn war domestic political theater for Bush..never had a fucking thing to with EyeRak
7171. robertjayb - 10/5/2005 5:13:49 PM
Wow! A twofer!
Opaque and incoherent.
7172. jexster - 10/5/2005 11:10:46 PM
TO: Whom It May Concern
From:
Fuck you and the mule you rode in on Peckerwoods...
Discussion of Palestinian/Israeli conflict led by a REAL LIVE Israeli girlie of the Hebrew persuasion.
It ain't rocket science ...even Pelle can understand this
7173. Magoseph - 10/6/2005 11:36:09 AM
My first impression of the President’s speech is that it is extremely timely, expertly crafted, and well delivered and should be very effective with the Moslem world for which it was directed.
7174. jexster - 10/6/2005 1:57:46 PM
There was a speech? Directed to the Moslem World?
I don't how to put this delicately to a woman so I'll just be myself
When you were a teenager did any of the boys use words like "easy"???
7175. jexster - 10/6/2005 1:58:46 PM
You KNow You're Old When
Last night we discussed the EyeRanian Revolution 77-78...Well, you know you are OLD when your DAY is in fucking history book...Prof came over to study in US because Shah was killing and torturing leftie secularists..daddy was a Tudeh/Commie journalist...in aid of your continuing remedial education...
7176. jayackroyd - 10/6/2005 3:35:12 PM
the Moslem world for which it was directed.
The talk of democracy is pretty hollow, given the US record for supporting autocrats. He points out that Islamists are very active in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, both places where the US plays a major role in supporting leaders who are certainly not committed to democratic processes or to political rights for, say (as the president did), women.
One of the more successful islamist states, Iran, supplanted an autocrat installed and supported by the US.
7177. Magoseph - 10/7/2005 5:38:45 AM
Okay, you made your point but I was judging the speech and what I was attempting to do simply put was to contrast the Hughes’ efforts with almost ridiculous efforts of the past.
The man got his point across--he told the Moslems what they wanted to hear and it remains to be seen whether it does him any good.
7178. Magoseph - 10/7/2005 5:46:10 AM
The post above is addressed to Jex.
7179. jayackroyd - 10/7/2005 5:54:04 AM
Which Moslems do you mean, mags?
7180. Magoseph - 10/7/2005 6:41:57 AM
I mean that portion of the Moslem world that is relatively moderate and do not pine for a sixteenth century world.
7181. jayackroyd - 10/7/2005 7:21:48 AM
They're pretty pissed off at the US, too, Mags. Mubarak is our guy, you know. The US doesn't support moderation and democracy. It supports autocracy and suppression.
7182. jayackroyd - 10/7/2005 7:23:04 AM
Tough break for the president last night. He gives his speech, and then, less than 24 hours later, the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded to the guy who headed up the team that showed there were no nukes in Iraq--before the invasion.
7183. jayackroyd - 10/7/2005 7:24:17 AM
On a similar subject, Tom Friedman today has just come to the conclusion that there is something to the Connor-Ackroyd hypothesis of 2003--that Saddam was being deceptive to make people in the region think he had something when he didn't.
7184. Magoseph - 10/7/2005 7:41:00 AM
They're pretty pissed off at the US, too, Mags. Mubarak is our guy, you know. The US doesn't support moderation and democracy. It supports autocracy and suppression.
Thank you, you make my point—that is the Bush problem and he is trying to correct it as best he can. It may be impossible now, but at the very least, he has made clear that he recognizes that his neo-con appointments have not served him well and that is a real improvement. I personally regard the speech as a repudiation of the neo-con affiliation and in that sense, it has become a very important declaration.
7185. Magoseph - 10/7/2005 7:47:54 AM
Furthermore, Jay, this much-unexpected Harriet Meiers appointment may be of symbolic importance and meant to convey a new Bush who has declared his independence of the moronic elements within his support group.
7186. PelleNilsson - 10/7/2005 11:43:57 AM
I believe in the extended Connor-Ackroyd hypothesis - that Saddam thought he had something when he didn't.
7187. jayackroyd - 10/7/2005 1:33:46 PM
There's certainly evidence for that Pelle.
I personally regard the speech as a repudiation of the neo-con affiliation and in that sense, it has become a very important declaration.
There is reason to believe that he has taken over policy decision-making, refusing to take political calculation into account. He certainly seems to be speaking more freely.
However, I don't believe that going off on his own will separate him from the moronic elements in his administration. His speech alone indicates that idiocy rules. For example, equating the current situation with the Cold War and talking about "victory" suggests that he intends to stay in Iraq indefinitely, and that he expects a conflict at the level and duration of the Cold War. Since we are still in the last throes of the Cold War (nukes pointed at Russia, embargo in Cuba, troops in Korea and Germany), he's talking about remaining on a war footing for decades.
The threat does not justify that level of commitment. There are no states involved in the "war" he is talking about, so the analogy is idiotic. If anything, this is the opposite situation, with the guys running the samizdat posing the threat, with the US playing the role of commissars.
We're talking about a few thousand effectives with no resources to speak of. That's the Global War on Terror. The quickest way to end the threat to the US from those few thousand effectives is to withdraw from Iraq, before they become tens of thousands.
But, quick like a bunny, switch to the "we are advancing democracy" point of view. In THAT case, the US wants to win in Iraq with overwhelming force, impose a severe security regime that shuts down the insurgency for five to ten years, and builds democratic structures as in Japan. That's not a task done on the fly.
A speech that says both of these things, and proposes changing nothing is incoherent to a point of hilarity--if it were not the president speaking. Shooting dozens of insurgents a week, losing hundreds of Iraqi citizens and tens of soldiers a week, while holding elections for candidate hiding in bunkers who won't put their names on ballots is not a course that should be stayed. Serious Muslim supporters of democratic processes will distance themselves from this nonsense like a cat backing off from a puddle of perfume.
7188. ronski - 10/7/2005 4:07:59 PM
Bush is equating the war against Islamist terrorism and the ideology that feeds it with the Cold War against communism and the ideology that supported it. I don't see the analogy as being inapt.
7189. ronski - 10/7/2005 4:09:02 PM
I do like that cat and perfume image, though.
7190. alistairConnor - 10/7/2005 4:12:54 PM
the extended Connor-Ackroyd hypothesis
I think of it as the Peter Sellers corrolary.
7191. alistairConnor - 10/7/2005 4:19:02 PM
The president, a smart fellow but pretty much a glove puppet until now, has taken effective control -- his handlers are either under arrest or looking for ratholes to bolt to. However, he's gone back to drink. He nominates his nanny to the Supreme Court.
Fine black comedy. Who could direct the film now Kubrik's dead?
7192. arkymalarky - 10/7/2005 6:37:20 PM
Slate covered the inaptness of the analogy pretty well here.
Alas, no. He instantly retreated to the same old, irrelevant formulas. He likened the struggle against terrorism to the Cold War struggle against Communism—ignoring that Communism's strength derived less from its ideology than from its embodiment in the massive, heavily armed, centrally controlled Soviet state. He boasted that we had killed or captured "nearly all" of those responsible for the 9/11 attacks—not just finessing his failure to find Osama Bin Laden, the man most responsible, but also ignoring that such head counts might not matter in fighting a "loose network."
7193. arkymalarky - 10/7/2005 6:38:47 PM
Anyone have any thoughts on the supposed letter from Zawahiri to Zarqawi that was intercepted?
7194. arkymalarky - 10/7/2005 6:41:59 PM
On Bush's speech, my favorite observation on it was Craig Crawford on Keith Olberman: he turned up the volume on a broken record.
7195. arkymalarky - 10/7/2005 6:50:55 PM
Reading the Politics thread, I see I already mentioned that there. Sorry.
7196. jayackroyd - 10/7/2005 10:27:13 PM
Ronski
The communists had states--big states with nuclear weapons. We can quibble about whether the ideology actually meant something, but the threat to the US didn't come from an ideology. It came from states controlled by people professing an ideology.
You can't have a war against an ideology. Wars are about holding territory and controlling territory. You can't fight a war against bin Laden. One of the central errors in the administration's approach was conflating the threat from islamist terrorists with states. With the exception of Afghanistan, where the state was hijacked (with US assistance) by (hated) foreign islamists, this situation does not exist.
FTM, you can't fight a war against terrorism, anymore than you can fight a war against submarine launched missiles or AK-47s.
7197. jexster - 10/8/2005 12:43:06 AM
The speech was billed as providing "unprecedented" detail about his plan to win the War in Iraq. Instead we got yet another heapin helpin of the same old shop-worn 9/11 rhetoric.
Indeed what else could he do but yammer on about Osama, Zarkawi, evil, way of life, central front etc? Wars of slogans ..charades, farce, bad political theater...Wars for Bush political capital....The US never had a war fighting strategy in Iraq. The US military is a theater prop...a cheerleader's pom-pom......
The cheerleader is coaching the team. He sends in cheers for plays.
The score...about what you'd expect...the greatest strategic disaster in US history...
Don't take my word for it....
The General and Flag Ranks have had it. Casey, Abezaid....
7198. jexster - 10/8/2005 12:57:33 AM
Osama isn't hitler
Iraq isn't the central front in the WOT
Radical Jihadists and Communists could hardly be less alike
There never was a "Grave and Gathering Danger", no mushroom clouds, no New Iraq, No Baghdad springs, no Iraqi freedom, no central front...Just theater, bad theater
And if, when Bush conjured "The Vast Empire of Evil Islam", how could anyone not laugh, cringe, groan, or hurl
7199. ronski - 10/8/2005 7:15:36 AM
I don't minimize the importance of heavily armed, powerful states (the USSR, China) providing the material and immediate threat to the U.S. and West during the Cold War, but to say ideology had nothing to do with it doesn't work either. Ideology was important to the origin and growth of the communist states. Similarly, ideology is important to those who want to creat a fundamentalist Caliphate.
The threat of the Cold War was the extinction of the planet. The threat from Islamists is the killing of scores or hundreds of people here and there, and possibly the threat of a few cities being nuked, and I think that is something to be very concerned about, if not as great a horror as the threat from the Cold War.
But frankly, I think any extended parsing any of Bush's speeches is a bit silly. He is what he is, and it isn't much.
7200. wonkers2 - 10/8/2005 8:23:56 AM
Bush is a bigger threat than Osama bin Laden.
Welcome back, Ronski!
7201. arkymalarky - 10/8/2005 8:52:02 AM
The communists had states--big states with nuclear weapons. We can quibble about whether the ideology actually meant something, but the threat to the US didn't come from an ideology.
If the analogy works for anything we should be scared shitless of China.
7202. jayackroyd - 10/8/2005 9:14:41 AM
Given your last comment, I won't beat this to death. To the degree this ideology is a threat, it's the same threat that marxism was to Europe in the mid 19th century--that under-represented people in poverty would rise up and strike down states that were essentially, in their view, exploiting them. That was not a military problem. Or, rather, using the military to address it made it worse rather than better.
The notion that the postwar soviet union is the equivalent of bin Laden in his caves is pretty far-fetched.
But, as you say I think, what he's got to work with are Nazis and commies, so that's what he uses.
7203. jexster - 10/8/2005 10:38:34 AM
Iraq on brink of civil war: Arab League
Iraq is on the brink of civil war, Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa said, a week before the country holds a landmark referendum on a draft constitution.
"The situation is so tense there is a threat looming in the air about civil war that could erupt at any moment, although some people would say that it is already there," Mussa told BBC radio.
"We can't just leave Iraq with the divisions and disagreements and conflicts and shootings," he warned.
Arab League diplomats are due in Iraq soon to prepare for a reconciliation conference bringing all factions together.
"I am not accusing any particular party" for the continuing violence in Iraq, added the Arab League chief.
"Each of them is being encouraged to grab whatever they can grab. There are a lot of individuals, a lot of interests, now that are playing games with the future of Iraq and there is no clear strategy, there is no clear leadership," he said.
"Now we have to say 'Stop. What are you doing? Where are you going?'"
Numerous Sunni Arab political and religious leaders in Iraq have called for a "no" vote to the constitution because they believe its federalist provisions will divide the country.
TIme to spring Jexster Manly Man's Withdrawal Plan for Manly Men
They're supposed to take over the Western Provinces as we skeedaddle
Fear of Chaos drives the plan..Shock n Awe in/Shock n Awe out...that's why it is a "Manly Plan"
7204. jexster - 10/8/2005 10:50:26 AM
1Announce an immediate troop reduction of 20,000 and withdraw remaining to 4 bases...in the rear with the gear
2 Announce in addition that US intends to enlist Arab and Moslem military forces as part of a UN force that will take care of the Sunni insurgents and Qaedists. These forces will be primarily responsible for the Western Provinces and assist the EyeRakis in the South/Baghdad. Throw the Kurds to the Turk. Iranian Revolutionary Guards protect Basra???
3 US will tie furher withdrawal to timetable linked to creation of multi-national force and deployment (might include Shiite and Kurd areas, but not necessary)
4As sufficient progress ie transition to multi-national force is made, progressive and rapid and total withdrawal
5HOWEVER, unless a mutually satisfactory deal is struck by 1/2007 , the US will be gone by Baghdad Spring 2007
6 Lavish money on the peacekeeping dune coons. All multinational force costs courtesy US taxpayer except Blair pays for Revolutionary Guards
7. Bush Bitches join Marines..station Fallujah as hostages
7205. jexster - 10/8/2005 11:09:20 AM
Ideologues with guns....Welcome to America Ronski
The closest modern analogy - about as close to the Commuhnisses you'll find - Narodnaya Volya or Prudon or Bakunin ...
Bush's Commie analogy is nonetheless useful nonsense. Very revealing actually of this entire charade as Political Theater...
The Raygun Revolution died with the Evil Empire...God, Guns and Gays? Give me a break..they'd be a 40% party...Enter The Useful Ferriners
7206. jexster - 10/8/2005 11:34:10 AM
Ronsk You Rock you High Tech GI Joe you..welcome home!..D
Cole on Let's Iraq n Roll ACT MCVII:
7207. jexster - 10/8/2005 11:42:46 AM
Sorry Mago..UR next..U bin tipplin the Armagnac again..naughty girl
The Speech was not addressed to Muslims; was of no interest to them, and no effect whatever on them....Nothing Bush has ever said on the subject for that matter..That goes for Karen's World Hector & Lecture Tour 05 too
This is what Bush's speech was about 33% Iraq Approval; 52% immediate withdrawal, 69% withdraw some or all and the fact that the Pentagon has told Bush
"Bring this country to war bitch or we will unscrew your head and shit down your nek
ALL FARCE, ALL POLITICAL THEATER ..ALL THE TIME
7208. jexster - 10/8/2005 11:58:06 AM
& Ramadan Mubarak to you TD..wherever you are
7209. jexster - 10/8/2005 12:03:49 PM
PS Mago...they pine for an 8th-13th c. world not 16th
THat is "ANNO DOMINI" ASSHOLES
7210. Magoseph - 10/8/2005 12:24:59 PM
PS Mago...they pine for an 8th-13th c. world not 16th
Thanks, Jex.
Jay, in reference to post Message # 7187 , I find myself in absolute agreement with your analysis of the Bush administration.
My focus on the speech was an attempt to highlight what I believe was a complete turnaround by the President over the last few weeks and its potential consequences. I think this heralds the break-up of the radical right-wing coalition that has dominated his tenure.
The consequences of this breakup could and should (in time) re-assure the rest of the world that we are a rational people prepared to re-enter the international scene in the spirit of our historical past.
7220. jayackroyd - 10/8/2005 10:17:30 PM
Jexster--
Please confine your spam to Lies.
I'm gonna move some of this to the inferno. I deleted three posts in Politics.
It's nice to see Ronski back. I'm sure the rest of us would really appreciate your providing a more welcoming presence or if that's beyond you, to confine outright hostility to Lies.
7221. jayackroyd - 10/8/2005 10:23:50 PM
Note to moderators. If you happen to see that jexster makes a series of personal, off topic comments in response to these actions please feel free to move posts from ME or Politics to the Inferno.
Ronski, my apologies.
7222. jexster - 10/9/2005 10:17:24 AM
The political process is at best unconnected to the guerrilla war in Iraq, US government analysts are now saying. And at worst, the political process, including constitution-making, could be pushing Sunni Arabs who had been on the fence off of it and into the arms of the guerrillas. Long-time readers of Informed Comment will know that I have been saying this for some time.[ALL PRAISE TO THE OBE ONE - May His Shadow Persist!]
Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the spiritual leader of Iraq's Shiites, has strictly told his own representatives in the cities and provinces of Iraq not to run for parliament. He will also decline to endorse any particular political party or coalition. Sistani's theory of religion-state relations requires that the grand ayatollahs not intervene directly in day to day politcs, but rather confine their concern to influencing the "order of society." Now that Iraq has a parliamentary government dominated by Shiites, Sistani is satisfied with the order of society and therefore is drawing back from his earlier leading role in promoting a Shiite coalition party (which won the Jan. 30 elections). Sistani is also disappointed with the do-nothing record of the United Iraqi Alliance.
My guess is that nevertheless, the Dec. 15 elections will be dominated by the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, which controls 9 of Iraq's 18 provinces. This provincial control may well allow them to dominate the parliamentary delegations from those provinces (the Dec. 15 elections will be be district-based or rather province-based). Think Chicago ward politics (SCIRI has proven itself adept at them, though it could well fail to control the levers in a national election.) Ibrahim Jaafari and his Dawa Party may well be punished by voters for the government's inability to get much done.
Hmmm. Posting pictures of civilians killed in the Iraq War is a form of obscenity, according to the Polk County, Floriday, sheriff's office.
What I want to know is why killing them in the first place doesn't produce at the very least similar charges of obscenity.
Cole. He knows more about the ME than Pelle
SFSU 10/21 Noon
7223. PelleNilsson - 10/9/2005 2:15:33 PM
Cole is slowly catching up.
I'm now of the opinion that it would be a good thing if the Sunni can moblize to defeat the proposed constitution. If so, a new proposal will have to be worked out by the new parliament to be elected in December, and the Sunnis will have an incentive to turn out in force.
Let's see how long it takes for Cole to come around to that view.
7224. jayackroyd - 10/9/2005 3:33:07 PM
The Kurds may just walk, in that scenario. But as the day draws closer and December feels closer as well, maybe not. If the players will all sit through another round, with less American meddling this time, you may be right.
BTW, an article in today's NYTimes magazine points out that the 2/3rds of 3 states provision was put in by the unelected governing council to give the Kurds a veto.
I can't say it too often. Process matters.
7225. jexster - 10/10/2005 4:20:55 AM
A Central Pillar of Iraq Policy Crumbling
WASHINGTON — Senior U.S. officials have begun to question a key presumption of American strategy in Iraq: that establishing democracy there can erode and ultimately eradicate the insurgency gripping the country.
The expectation that political progress would bring stability has been fundamental to the Bush administration's approach to rebuilding Iraq, as well as a central theme of White House rhetoric to convince the American public that its policy in Iraq remains on course.
But within the last two months, U.S. analysts with access to classified intelligence have started to challenge this precept, noting a "significant and disturbing disconnect" between apparent advances on the political front and efforts to reduce insurgent attacks.
Isn't that special. Begun to challenge the democracy ju ju have they?
They get paid for this???
The Regime's intel is no better than it was 3 years ago..
The only difference is more people on the inside are leaking in a timely fashion.
7226. jexster - 10/10/2005 4:28:13 AM
A Central Pillar of Iraq Policy Crumbling
WASHINGTON — Senior U.S. officials have begun to question a key presumption of American strategy in Iraq: that establishing democracy there can erode and ultimately eradicate the insurgency gripping the country.
The expectation that political progress would bring stability has been fundamental to the Bush administration's approach to rebuilding Iraq, as well as a central theme of White House rhetoric to convince the American public that its policy in Iraq remains on course.
But within the last two months, U.S. analysts with access to classified intelligence have started to challenge this precept, noting a "significant and disturbing disconnect" between apparent advances on the political front and efforts to reduce insurgent attacks.
Isn't that special. Begun to challenge the democracy ju ju have they?
They get paid for this???
The Regime's intel is no better than it was 3 years ago..
The only difference is more people on the inside are leaking in a timely fashion.
7227. Magoseph - 10/11/2005 4:42:02 PM
NYT
October 11, 2005
Iraqi Leaders Reach Last-Minute Deal on Charter Revision
By ROBERT F. WORTH
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Oct. 11 - Iraqi political leaders agreed to an important last-minute revision in the draft constitution this evening in exchange for a promise by some prominent Sunni Arab leaders to support the document in this Saturday's nationwide referendum.
The revision would create a panel in Iraq's next parliament with the power to propose broad revisions to the constitution, which would otherwise have been largely set in stone if the public approved it on Saturday.
The agreement was a major victory for American officials, who have spent weeks urging Iraq's Shiite and Kurdish leaders to make changes that would soften Sunni opposition to the charter.
"This will give a new chance to the people who were not present in the writing of the constitution," said Ala Maki, a senior member of the Iraqi Islamic Party, Iraq's best known Sunni political group, which had been urging its members to vote against the document on Saturday's referendum. "We think this may be the beginning of a new era, and we think it is a great success."
7228. jexster - 10/11/2005 4:50:58 PM
Political Theatre for the Booboisie
What R They gonna do with all those copies that they printed and circulated so that the Purple Fingered among them could study and know what they were voting Mago..
Too much Armagnac ..bad girl
and may the Obe Juan be with you...
7229. jexster - 10/11/2005 4:54:30 PM
Welcome to the Real World
THE NIGHT OF POWER
