Coup Eight

In Memoriam

2006-06-05T09:18:00.000-04:00

Seventeen years of silence and brutality...

Goldman to Gold Man...

2006-06-01T20:25:00.000-04:00

Belgravia Dispatch is enthused by the appointment of former Goldman Sachs executive Hank Paulson as the new Treasury Secretary, replacing John Snow. Importantly:

The question is whether Bush will give the Goldman Sachs Group Inc. chief executive officer the leeway to run Treasury and shape policy like Rubin, Bill Clinton's top economic adviser. Under Bush, no one has been allowed to take that role. Outgoing Treasury Secretary John Snow and his predecessor, Paul O'Neill weren't part of the president's inner circle and were relegated to being salesmen of White House ideas. No sooner had Paulson been nominated yesterday than administration officials were insisting he would have a seat at the table.

The Bush White House is irritated that consistently good economic numbers (GDP growth, low unemployment) are not translating well from the Potomac to Peoria. Hopefully, Paulson will be able to use his new Washington bullhorn to spread the cheer...

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas attempted to salvage his increasingly marginal influence by calling for a referendum in the West Bank & Gaza on the two-state solution - a clearly intended stab at Hamas' refusal to recognize the statehood of Israel. Kaffiyeh-philes across the Arab World, however, are incensed at this step backward for The Struggle:

Hamas's reluctance to accept the referendum stems from its fear that its outcome would deepen and complicate the internal Palestinian crisis, especially between Fatah and Hamas. Hamas argues that the real problem is Israel's refusal to give up the spoils of the 1967 War, not its non-recognition of Israel...

The world let out a disappointed sigh when Darfur-ian rebels did not reach agreement on a peace deal with the Sudanese government, contrasting their actions with their image as victims. Alan Kuperman illustrates the history of this "strategic victimhood" in NYT:

Darfur was never the simplistic morality tale purveyed by the news media and humanitarian organizations. The region's blacks, painted as long-suffering victims, actually were the oppressors less than two decades ago - denying Arab nomads access to grazing areas essential to their survival. Violence was initiated not by Arab militias but by the black rebels who in 2003 attacked police and military installations.

The most extreme Islamists are not in the government but in a faction of the rebels sponsored by former Deputy Prime Minister Hassan al-Turabi, after he was expelled from the regime. Cease-fires often have been violated first by the rebels, not the government, which has pledged repeatedly to admit international peacekeepers if the rebels halt their attacks.

In spite of rallies and admonitions, Darfur is gradually falling by the wayside. Max Boot demands action. Since no nation is willing to cough up large numbers of troops to stop the genocide, Boot suggests mercenaries:

A number of commercial security firms such as Blackwater USA are willing, for the right price, to send their own forces, made up in large part of veterans of Western militaries, to stop the genocide. We know from experience that such private units would be far more effective than any U.N. peacekeepers. In the 1990s, the South African firm Executive Outcomes and the British firm Sandline made quick work of rebel movements in Angola and Sierra Leone.

However, in both cases, these firms were invited by the host government to deal with rebellions. Sudan had to be dragged like a petulant child through the motions of securing African Union involvement, and is not expected to start clamoring for more foreign troops.

Pleading the Fourth (Estate)...

2006-05-23T16:34:00.000-04:00

In spite of last year's Tulip Revolution in Kyrgyzstan, press freedom there remains largely muzzled, as the results of the Freedom House survey demonstrate. Of all the "revolutions" in the former Soviet Union, Kyrgyzstan's was the least satisfying in both scope and results:

As an executive director of the TV channel NTS that strives to survive and retain its right on the independent opinion and coverage Andrey Tsvetkov, for instance, admits that old practices of intimidating phone calls and indirect threats from officials are again very much in place. He emphasizes: “Authorities keep interfering into mass media business trying to manipulate journalists.

One result of the destruction of terrorist-training camps in Afghanistan is the diffusion of jihadi theorists internationally. The Washington Post details the story of one such individual - Mustafa Setmariam Nasser, a Spaniard of Syrian origin:

With the Afghanistan base lost, he argued, radicals would need to shift their approach and work primarily on their own, though sometimes with guidance from roving operatives acting on behalf of the broader movement....Nasar, 47, outlines a strategy for a truly global conflict on as many fronts as possible and in the form of resistance by small cells or individuals, rather than traditional guerrilla warfare. To avoid penetration and defeat by security services, he says, organizational links should be kept to an absolute minimum.

An illuminating example of the spasmodic nature of al-Qaeda, as highlighted by scholars like Jessica Stern in her excellent 2003 piece in Foreign Affairs.

"Think-tanks" are a dime-a-dozen here in Washington DC. One of the real McCoys is SITE: the Search for International Terrorist Entities, which trolls international media and websites to track the latest developments in Jihadia. One of their researchers, Rita Katz, is profiled in the most recent New Yorker:

Katz, who was born in Iraq and speaks fluent Arabic, spends hours each day monitoring the password-protected online chat rooms in which Islamic terrorists discuss politics and trade tips: how to disperse botulinum toxin or transfer funds, which suicide vests work best. Occasionally, a chat-room member will announce that he is turning in his user name and password and going to Iraq to become a martyr, a shaheed. Several weeks later, his friends will post a report of the young man blowing himself up. Katz usually logs on at six in the morning. When she has guests for dinner, she leaves a laptop open on the kitchen counter, so she can check for updates. “It is completely addicting,” she says. “You wake up thinking, I’ve been offline for seven hours, but the terrorists have been making plans.”

One of GWOT's many foot-soldiers...

Finally, Andrew Sullivan has an inspiring quote from Tony Blair - who will be speaking this week at my university, although I can't attend due to my summer job commitments.

Sad to say you're on your way...

2006-05-22T18:25:00.000-04:00

The Netherlands finally gave the boot to former MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a refugee from Kenya who became an outspoken voice against Islamic fundamentalism. The demarche was handed down as a result of supposed duplicity on an immigration form, although this information was in the public domain for a while.

The fact is the Dutch got weary of protecting a woman who was clearly in the cross-hairs of Dutch jihadi-s. Following the assassination of Theo van Gogh, the Dutch are now officially in full appeasement mode. Ali is said to be on her way to the United States, and will apparently be taking up a position at AEI. Pronounceth Hitch thus:

It will be delightful to have Ayaan Hirsi Ali in Washington. But the American Enterprise Institute, which has offered her a perch, is not the place where she is most needed. In Holland, every day, extremist imams preach intolerance and cruelty, and, when they are criticized, invoke the help of foreign embassies to bring pressure on the Dutch authorities. They face no risk of expulsion.

Opinion columns in the Arab media follow the most predictable pattern: writing patterned around narrative, not to be inconvenienced by facts or context. For example, the Daily Star (Lebanon) chides the United States on its tardiness in criticizing the Egyptians for their less-than-democratic presidential elections (and continuing hounding of liberals like Ayman Nour): the headline reads "US Slowness to Criticize Egypt is Latest Example of Double Standard."

In which case, shame about this story which was released the previous day: "Egypt rejects US criticism over Nour case."

You can check out anytime you like...

2006-04-22T11:13:00.000-04:00

Blogger Michael Totten has been travelling through the Middle East these last few months. After a trip through Iraqi Kurdistan, he experienced some minor difficulties getting back into Turkey, including smuggler-taxi drivers, bribes and lots of hand gestures...

Many analysts have attempted to draw parallels between Iraq and Malaya - suggesting that the Americans follow the counter-insurgency pattern used by the British in late 1940s South East Asia. However, as Caroline Elkins explains, that might not be apt:

To be sure, Britain's counterinsurgency operations in Malaya were a short-term success. British forces reestablished order and disengaged from imperial occupation. But the hearts-and-minds campaign, the theoretical backbone of Britain's counterinsurgency strategy, was more myth than reality. To seize civilian control, the British created a police state and invoked draconian powers ranging from movement-restriction and collective punishments to detention without trial. Winning the war against insurgents came at a high price for the local civilian population and for the independent state that picked up the mantle from its former colonizer. Rather than serving as a historical precedent for a successful hearts-and-minds campaign, the British campaign in Malaya illustrates the dangers of continuing our current strategy in Iraq.

OxBlog weighs in on the Anti-Rumsfeld General's Revolt in Washington:

Retired Air Force Gen. Ronald R. Fogleman told journalist George C. Wilson that things had changed dramatically after the new Secretary of Defense arrived. Wilson writes that:

"[Fogleman] did not feel he could dissent vigorously without being penalized in the minds of his civilian bosses. "Your position was not looked upon as a legitimate disagreement from a professional but as an act of disloyalty.""

Fogleman resigned as Air Force Chief of Staff and entered retirment in order to protest the Secretary's refusal to accept Fogleman's professional opinion about who was responsible for unnecessary US casulaties in the Gulf.Fogleman's quote is from p.43 of Wilson's book This War Really Matters...which was published back in 2000 when Bill Cohen was the Secretary of Defense. In other words, this bit of information disrupts a lot of narratives being spun out of the recent attacks on the current secretary.

The Coup Eighty doesn't believe that Donald Rumsfeld ought to be given the boot for "not listening to the generals." In this country, the military is absolutely subservient to its civilian master - that is the only way that the people of the United States (in theory) have any democratic accountability over the only legal militia in the land. This is the bedrock principle of civil-military relations, and cannot be compromised. However, the "SecDef" ought to be fired for deliberately ignoring the vast amount of planning done for post-war Iraq, in the rush to go to war, and consequently botching the occupation. If that doesn't suffice, we're also saddled with the guilt of Abu Ghraib.

With all the hoo-hah surrounding the visit of Hu Jintao, the visit of another head of state has been overshadowed: that of Ilham Aliyev, the (sort-of elected) president of Azerbaijan. Philip Stephens, at FT, finds this latter visit to be more symbolic of the direction of US foreign policy:

So why wouldn’t Mr Bush welcome such a stalwart ally at the White House? The answer is that Mr Aliyev has consistently brushed aside calls from Washington to edge his country closer to freedom and democracy – and the US president has put the spread of political pluralism front and centre of his foreign policy.

Now, if it wants to preserve any credibility, Washington must be seen to act where it can. And, in truth, Azerbaijan is one of the easiest cases. Its relationship with the west is grounded in mutual dependency. For all that Mr Aliyev might threaten to turn towards Moscow, he has no desire to embrace Russia. He wants the west’s approval and investment in Caspian oil. He is susceptible, in other words, to pressure.

Iraq the Model is skeptical that Iraq's new PM-nominee, Jawad al-Maliki, will be able to create the aura of a 'national unity government' and effectively deal with the insurgency:

Iraq will–in my opinion-continue to descend for the next four years in the same way it's been doing since the interim government was installed last year. And after all, the UIA's decision to replace Jafari with al-Adeeb or al-Maliki is a solution designed for preserving the brittle unity of the UIA and not for the creation of a unity government because they know very well that the rest of blocs were hoping to see Abdul Mahdi replace Jafari...

Double-plus-ungood

2006-04-16T11:24:00.000-04:00

Brussels Journal is keeping us up-to-date on attempts to foist an EU-wide media code for reportage on Islam:

The term “Islamic terrorism” will no longer be used. Nor will words such as “Islamist,” “fundamentalist” and “jihad.” The latter, for example, is often used by Islamic terrorists to mean warfare against infidels, but according to an EU official “for a Muslim Jihad is a perfectly positive concept of trying to fight evil within yourself.” Hence, in order not to alienate young Muslims the term “Islamic terrorism” is to be replaced by “terrorism abusing Islam.”

So, does "American imperialism" become "imperialism abusing America"?

Simon Tisdall highlights one of Singapore's few political dissidents: Chee Soon Juan, who has, in ten years, been "jailed four times, fined, dismissed from his job as a university lecturer, sued by the country's "minister mentor" Lee Kuan Yew, bankrupted and barred from running in elections."

The Singaporean government continues its draconian police-state enforcements upon its people - and for what? Well, chewing gum is mighty dangerous...

Needless to say, the government defends the politburo style of governance:

"I hope we are improving by our standards. Whether we are improving by your standards or American standards is a different question," said the foreign minister, George Yeo. "Our responsibility is to Singaporeans, and what we do here should meet their approval. There are no universal prescriptions."

Hmm, wonder what this is, then.

The Acorn is keeping a wary eye on Saudi efforts to develop a nuclear program:

This could be posturing (for the benefit of Arab audiences), signaling (to dissuade Iran from going nuclear), indication of its nuclear plans or all of the above. It certainly has kept its options open — its facilities are outside international scrutiny, it has not signed the comprehensive test-ban treaty and it has the necessary scientific infrastructure in place. Despite all this, the decision to ‘launch’ a nuclear weapons programme is by no means straightforward. Saudi Arabia’s beneficial security relationship with the United States — which not only secures the kingdom but also secures the king himself — will come under tremendous stress. There is, in addition, the risk of preventive Israeli strikes, especially if the United States can keep a lid on the Pakistani nuclear angle. Not to speak, of course, of the havoc even the prospect of all this will create on international energy prices.

Of course, the factor that pours cold water over all this is the highly unprofessional nature of the Saudi military and the Saudi government's more immediate concerns with domestic radicalism, terrorist cells, unemployment and a restive Shi'a population.

They Say It's Spring...

2006-04-02T15:28:00.000-04:00

Spring time in Washington heralds the annual bloom of the cherry blossoms - so here's saying "domo arigato" to those to brought them here in the first place.

Lord, I was born a Ramblin' Man...

2006-04-02T15:16:00.000-04:00

POTUS is trying to regain his Man-of-the-People image by ratcheting up the informality and aw-shucks humor:

As he takes to the road to salvage his presidency, Bush is letting down his guard and playing up his anti-intellectual, regular-guy image. Where he spent last year in rehearsed forums with select supporters, these days he is more frequently throwing aside the script and opening himself to questions from audiences that are not prescreened. These sessions have put a sometimes playful, sometimes awkward side back on display after years of trying to keep it under control to appear more presidential.

Call it the let-Bush-be-Bush strategy. The result is a looser president, less serious at times, even at times when humor might seem out of place. Aides used to dread such settings, worried about gaffes or the way Bush might come across in spontaneous exchanges. But with his poll numbers somewhere south of the border, they concluded that Bush handles back-and-forth better than he once did -- and that they have little left to lose.

An example:

President Bush was taking questions from an audience the other day when he was asked about the immigration debate raging in Washington.
"It's obviously topic du jour ," he said.
The audience laughed at the famously Francophobic Texan's faux accent.
"Pretty fancy, huh?" Bush asked, mocking himself. "Topic du jour ?"
The audience laughed again.
"I don't want to ruin the image," he added conspiratorially.

Well, if it works, what the heck...

Zimbabwe's downward spiral is now being displayed in the most sickening fashion: ordinary Zimbabweans who can no longer afford to feed their children are abandoning newborn babies.

The dumping of babies, along with what doctors describe as a “dramatic” increase in malnourished children in city hospitals, is the most shocking illustration of the economic collapse of a country that was once the breadbasket of southern Africa.

The dead gutter babies are the most pitiful victims of a government that believes it can starve its people into compliance, or death, turning Zimbabwe into the only country in the region with a shrinking population.

Of course, none of this stops Mugabe from slamming the West for "world hunger", alongside his buddy - leftist dictator Hugo Chavez.

Those of us here in the United States have been chuckling at the French insistence that modernity kindly stop at the shores of La Republique. But the CPE debacle might cost Dominique de Villepin his political backing from Jacques (article in French).

24!

2006-03-23T20:33:00.000-05:00

"The return of my birthday, if I remember it, fills me with thoughts which it seems to be the general care of humanity to escape."

- Samuel Johnson

Stop! (In the name of our ... long-cherished social protections)

2006-03-22T11:58:00.000-05:00

Signs that Dominique de Villepin might be backing off France's new proposed labor laws which would allow workers under the age of 26 to be hired and fired freely without government intervention...

Some reactions from French university students have been memorable:

I leave university at the end of the year and this law puts added pressure on me now. It means that when I do get a job, I will basically have to work as hard as I can to keep it. If I make any mistakes I could be fired immediately. This will affect me severely, so I have taken to the streets.

The horror....the horror.....

Mohammed al-Jasem is optimistic about sectarian relations in the Gulf notwithstanding sectarian strife in Iraq:

Shiites in Kuwait do not suffer political oppression even if they feel there is discrimination against them in certain government bodies, including the army, the police and the judiciary. Furthermore, there are many Shiite businessmen in Kuwait whose interests require political stability. Hence Kuwait was, and continues to be, fortified against any ramifications of the situation in Iraq. There are no historical issues between the Shiites and Sunnis in Kuwait that feed the possibility of sectarian strife, whatever its source

In this environment of pessimism/cynicism, Fareed Zakaria makes a defense of the case to go to war in Iraq:

There is no doubt that the costs of the invasion have far outweighed the benefits. But in the long view of history, will that always be true? If, after all this chaos, a new and different kind of Iraqi politics emerges, it will make a difference in the region. Even now, amid the violence, one can see that. The old order in Iraq was built on fear and terror. One group dominated the land, oppressing the others. Now representatives of all three communities -- Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds -- are sitting down at the table, trying to construct a workable bargain they can all live with.

Amen.

Finally, John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt have written a trenchant piece on the effects of the domestic Israeli lobby in the United States:

For the past several decades, and especially since the Six-Day War in 1967, the centrepiece of US Middle Eastern policy has been its relationship with Israel.... Why has the US been willing to set aside its own security and that of many of its allies in order to advance the interests of another state? One might assume that the bond between the two countries was based on shared strategic interests or compelling moral imperatives, but neither explanation can account for the remarkable level of material and diplomatic support that the US provides. Instead, the thrust of US policy in the region derives almost entirely from domestic politics, and especially the activities of the ‘Israel Lobby’. Other special-interest groups have managed to skew foreign policy, but no lobby has managed to divert it as far from what the national interest would suggest, while simultaneously convincing Americans that US interests and those of the other country – in this case, Israel – are essentially identical.

A thought-provoking and fair-minded article that raises some uncomfortable questions...

On Arkansas' Secret Service..

2006-02-28T13:29:00.000-05:00

Andrew Sullivan has an idea - send Bill Clinton to Iraq to defuse the political crisis there:

For some reason that eludes my own judgment, Clinton has a great deal of cachet in the Middle East, and could defuse the anti-Bush and thereby anti-American obstackes to success. He was, by all accounts, superb at the Doha/Brookings/Saban summit in 2003. He would bring the Democratic party into a much more constructive role in trying to bring about a serious step forward for Iraq, and help unite the country at home. If Bush were to ask him, it would send a very powerful message of seriousness to the Middle East, put more of America's prestige and effort behind the Iraq project, at exactly the time some in the country are doubting our fortitude.

On the one hand, the most pro-Israeli president in decades (Clinton) is feted as a reasonable, moderate American leader in spite of his (ultimately useless) efforts to deal with the amoral terrorist-pioneer Arafat. On the other hand, the first US president to immediately endorse the two-state solution and fight for Arab liberty is condemned as a dangerous extremist! Still, maybe it'll work...

A shameful moment in Russian history as a museum dedicated to Stalin's achievements will soon open in Volgograd:

Polls show that 30 to 40 percent of Russians now regard Stalin's role in history as mostly ''positive," crediting him with turning the Soviet Union into a superpower and defeating Hitler...Sadly, amnesia about the crimes of communism is common in the West as well; historians who have downplayed and minimized those crimes, such as Miami University of Ohio historian Robert W. Thurston, have not been ostracized the way David Irving has been for a long time. The resurgence of the Stalin cult in Russia shows the danger of such amnesia. Holocaust denial and Gulag denial should be finally seen as the twin evils they are.

Yes he made the USSR a superpower, and yes he helped to defeat Hitler. Mais a quelle coute?

John Perkins' book "Confessions of an Economic Hitman" was used by many a misguided soul to demonstrate America's Hobbesian pursuit of material glory. Sebastian Mallaby, at WaPo, demolishes the myths surrounding his work:

Perkins has tapped into a widespread fear. Thanks to the Bush administration, the mere mention of Halliburton is enough to prove the anti-corporate case to many bookshop audiences. But the truth is that corporations do not rule the world, and intensifying global competition has rendered them more vulnerable. Since the mid-1970s, when Perkins was touring the world as a hit man, fully half of the top 100 American industrial corporations have disappeared from that list. So what is this corporatocracy that Perkins fears? Is it the failing General Motors? Or vanished international banks such as S.G. Warburg? Or is it perhaps Chas. T. Main, Perkins's own employer in his hit-man days, which was swallowed up by a rival years ago?

Finally, a disgruntled expat Saudi in London explains how the other color-coded alert system works: the Muslim Offense Level. Pretty funny...

We Don't Need No Education...

2006-02-25T12:36:00.000-05:00

Children, are you sitting comfortably? Then, let's begin. Today we'll learn how to write a virulently anti-American screed. First, let's meet Prashant Bhushan, an Indian lawyer, whose latest article is our blueprint.

The Foreign Service bureaucracy is buzzing with excitement these days with the prospect of a US Presidential visit. The almighty George Bush himself, plenipotentiary Caesar of the world has deigned to honour us with a personal visit...All this is happening at a time when the US is led by the most viciously amoral administration in living memory.

Don't be afraid to use literary hyperbole - it makes it so much more interesting for the reader, even if it's all bunk.

Michael Chossodovsky, a highly respected Canadian International policy analyst says that he has seen US administration documents which point to this nuclear attack on Iran being launched as early as March this year...As Chomsky succinctly puts it, the US policies in this regard have promoted US hegemony in the world at the expense of Global security and indeed the US’s own security

Quote people no one has ever heard of, and combine these quotes with those of people whose worldview is so skewed as to be laughable. Noam Chomsky is very useful in this regard, because it allows one to combine Ivy League credentials with Yankee-bashing rants, all masquerading as "the truth no one wants you to know."

From the manner in which the Iraqi economy has been privatized after US occupation, the manner in which their oil production has been taken over, and the manner in which Cheney’s company, Halliburton, has been allowed to make tens of billions from no bid contracts on Iraq’s "reconstruction", it is clear that no amount of destruction or human misery will stop Bush, Cheney and Co. from lining their pockets (or those of their friends) and increasing US hegemony in the world.

When criticizing Republicans, it is vital that you tap into the caricatures of rich, arrogant, amoral white men running amok making profits whilst heartily slaughtering the world's oppressed. It is also critical that you tap into the international view of Americans as a race of overfed, greedy, racist and self-centered individuals. Have fun with it!

Apart from this, the Bush Adminstration has committed every imaginable kind of crime against humanity, from systematic and brutal torture of thousands of Iraqi, Afghan and Arab prisoners, to detaining thousands of Arabs and Muslims for years without trial in the US, to undermining the carefully built up framework of Civil liberties in the US. It has systematically eroded the social security and public health system in the US in the drive towards their privatization. All this has caused enormous destitution and misery among millions of poor Americans as well. Thus, even the domestic economic policies of the Bush Administration have been designed to increase the economic hegemony of the super rich, whom Bush and Cheney represent, at the expense of the poor. As the Venezuelan president Chavez put it, in the World Social Forum meeting at Caracas recently, there has never in human history been a more brutal and rapacious regime than the present regime in the US.

Exaggerate beyond all reason - the more you do it, the more your readers *have* to believe you. After all, how could one make such scurrilous and ludicrous allegations unless they're true? It's brilliantly simple! As Mr. Bhushan has illustrated above, Guantanamo Bay + Abu Ghraib = genocide/fascism/pure evil worse than anything the world has ever seen.

Madam President...

2006-02-25T12:25:00.000-05:00

Jihad el Khazen, writing in Dar al-Hayat, has cast his ballot in favor of Condoleezza in 2008:

It would be wonderful if you win; you deserve it as you have more brains than George Bush and stronger morals than Bill Clinton, without delving deep into the American presidency. In addition, the presence of a woman at the head of the only super power in the world will be a boon to women in my world who are still short-changed of their rights.

The Belgravia Dispatch contrasts the different reactions in the US media to the current violence in Iraq, which everyone has already designated the prelude to civil war. His prediction:

As the months go by, Sunnis increasingly wanting the Americans to stay as protection against Shi'a revanchism. In the meantime, it is true, the Shi'a will get increasingly agitated vis-a-vis the Americans for holding them back from revenge attacks in the aftermath of events like the recent destruction of the shrine.

A few hundred Washingtonians held a pro-free speech rally in front of the Danish Embassy here in DC. Attendees included Hitch, the prominent blogger Andrew Sullivan (who I link to often), my former boss Cliff May, amongst others. Vodkapundit has photos here. And you can watch Hitch make a brief speech here (opens video directly into Windows Media Player).

Please Don't Go...

2006-02-24T10:18:00.000-05:00

Lawrence Kaplan, writing in TNR, suggests the US ought to shelve plans for withdrawal from Iraq this year:

Not everything the U.S. enterprise touches here turns to gold. But everything it lets go of does seem to turn into dirt. With U.S. reconstruction aid running out, Iraq's infrastructure, never fully restored to begin with, decays by the hour. Iraq's political arena, from which the Americans had no choice but to withdraw, has dissolved into something unrecognizable, carved up for sectarian advantage and without a center to keep its parts from spinning away. In both cases, the United States may have given all it reasonably could be expected to give. But, when it comes to America's withdrawal from Iraq's security arena, a process that accelerates with each passing week, the only explanation can be that the White House, for all of its high-minded rhetoric about standing with Iraq, has decided not to.

Finally, somebody aside from the United States has decided to take a strong stance on corruption in the UN. Japan threatened to yank away the yen from the peacekeeping budget unless fraud and wastage are seriously tackled.

The wheels of power transference are in motion, as Tony Blair gets ready to hand over the reins of the Kingdom to Gordon Brown:

The substantive concession of power took place on Monday. Tony Blair was stranded in South Africa unable to attend the 100th anniversary meeting of the parliamentary Labour party, where he was due to speak. John Prescott stood in, but the real power has been granted to Gordon Brown.....The Chancellor would be the first modern prime minister not to have a driving licence, and the first intellectual in Downing Street since A.J. Balfour surrendered office in 1905. No previous prime minister has been able to boast a doctorate.

The Iraqis figure they can make good use of a security umbrella right about now, although they certainly aren't the first.

Finally, blogger Michael Totten - currently on a tour of the Middle East - visits Dohok, the self-described "safest city in Iraq":

In Dohok everything changed. There I kept thinking: This is Iraq? It doesn’t look like Iraq at all. (But it is Iraq, so I guess it does look like Iraq.) More important, it doesn’t feel like Iraq. There is no terrorism and no fighting – none whatsoever – in Dohok. There are too many Peshmerga checkpoints between the war zone and the city. You could go there on holiday (if you want) and feel just as relaxed as you would in a medium-sized city in Canada.

Angry Youths in Belgium

2006-02-17T20:05:00.000-05:00

Brussels Journal has video footage of violent Muslim protests in Antwerp, available here.

And it looks like now you can take a bite of God in Tehran...

How low can you go?

2006-02-16T22:09:00.000-05:00

The Guardian dismays once again, as Seumas Milne attempts to make a craven defense of communism and attack those European parliamentarians who've condemned the socialist crimes of the 20th century:

The fashionable attempt to equate communism and Nazism is in reality a moral and historical nonsense...For all its brutalities and failures, communism in the Soviet Union, eastern Europe and elsewhere delivered rapid industrialisation, mass education, job security and huge advances in social and gender equality.

It becomes harder to offer an alternative explanation for such inexplicable support of a morally indefensible form of governance - other than a suspicion of, if not outright distaste for, free-market democracy. Men like Aleksander Solzhenitsyn have given us (more than sufficient) reason to debase the alleged "successes" of communist role (concomitant with the terrible human cost). In China, one of the 20th century's most despicable tyrants, Mao Tse-Tung, famously offered the lives of half of China so as to achieve Chinese superpower-dom. And yet, woolly-headed Western leftists fulminate in their ivory towers and newspaper officies, exposing every weakness of the only system that has consistently offered mankind peace, freedom and prosperity, whilst excusing the worst abuses of Marx's misguided madness.

Reuel Marc Gerecht has penned an excellent piece at The Weekly Standard on the War on Iraq, terrorism, anti-Americanism, Middle Eastern cultures, et al:

Like Christendom before it, the Muslim Middle East will have to work out its relation to modernity. The faster democracy arrives, the sooner the debates about God and man can begin in earnest. It will probably be for both Muslims and Westerners a nerve-racking experience. But we have no choice, since continuing autocracy will only make the militants' message stronger and judgment day, as in Iran, a possibly bloody revolutionary event. The electoral victory of Hamas should not give us pause. It should give us hope and encourage us to push for real elections where our national interest stands to gain the most--in Egypt and Iran. We should also not neglect to defend vigorously Christian, Muslim, or Jewish satirists, be they clever, banal, or ugly, wherever they may be found. Both elections and satire are basic to the evolution of the Muslim world.

The article is long in its entirety - but lucidly illustrates the role of the War in Iraq and pro-democracy activism in a long-term framework. RMG rarely disappoints.

And finally, to commemorate Valentine's Day, NYT offers an article on the history of kissing:

If kissing is not universal, then someone must have invented it. Vaughn Bryant, an anthropologist at Texas A&M, has traced the first recorded kiss back to India, somewhere around 1500 B.C., when early Vedic scriptures start to mention people "sniffing" with their mouths, and later texts describe lovers "setting mouth to mouth." From there, he hypothesizes, the kiss spread westward when Alexander the Great conquered the Punjab in 326 B.C.

From the Records of Antiquity...

2006-02-12T16:03:00.000-05:00

Alexander Hamilton, from the Federalist Papers, published in 1788:

"...From the disorders that disfigure the annals of those republics, the advocates of despotism have drawn arguments, not only against forms of republican government, but against the very principles of civil liberty. They have decried all free government as inconsistent with the order of society, and have indulged themselves in malicious exultation over its friends and partisans.

Happily for mankind, stupendous fabrics reared on the basis of liberty, which have flourished for ages, have, in a few glorious instances, refuted their gloomy sophisms. And I trust America will be the broad and solid foundation of other edifices, not less magnificent, which will be equally permanent monuments of their errors."

Rolling up sleeves...

2006-02-10T21:26:00.000-05:00

Clay Risen at TNR is critical of President Bush's American Competitiveness Initiative, a proposal made in his State of the Union speech:

As even the authors of "Rising Above the Gathering Storm," a 2005 National Academy of Sciences report highlighting the weaknesses in America's research base, admit, "By most available criteria, the United States is still the undisputed leader in the performance of basic and applied research." The nation ranks first in economic competitiveness, higher-education training, scientific publishing, and PhD production.

Bush overestimates the effectiveness of simply increasing funding for research. A model competitiveness program would focus on three areas: improved grade-school education; the production of high-skilled, educated workers; and adequate R&D funding. Bush's plan, though, only focuses on the first and the last, while doing nothing to get more students into college (though, by funding more AP teachers, he might make more students academically ready for college).

Many a libertarian goes weak-kneed when confronted on the larger benefits to society of government spending on education and healthcare - the above being no exception...

Steve Nagus concludes in FT that the Shi'a Mahdi Army is the only effective governance structure in the poor Shi'a slums of Baghdad known as "Sadr City":

Ever since Hussein had released about 100,000 prison inmates on the eve of his regime’s downfall, much of Iraq has been overrun by criminal gangs, and kidnapping for ransom - in addition to arms sales, drug dealing and subcontracting themselves out to insurgents - is one of the easiest ways to earn a living.

In this case the locals had informed on the kidnappers to the police, who raided the house and arrested them. Inexplicably the owner was released from policy custody soon thereafter, and the residents surmised that he had paid a bribe. They contacted the Mahdi Army, who raided the house and forced the police to keep the rest of the perpetrators in prison. “They are the real heroes, not the police,” one of the residents told us. “They are the real champions of the people.” True to its Robin Hood reputation, the Mahdi Army performed the “service” of ridding the area of kidnappers while asking for nothing in return. The Sadrists accept donations, but not quid pro quo.

The endless list of unacceptable failings of the occupation enervate one's spirit, yet hope springs eternal elsewhere...

Regarding the Cartoon Saga - in the spirit of giving the other side a fair shot:

First, from the UK's New Statesman:

The New Statesman has never been afraid to ruffle feathers. Thus it is fair to ask why we, like others in the media, have refrained from publishing the Danish cartoons about the Prophet Muhammad. The reason is simple: we are prepared to take great risks and to cause offence, but only in the name of good journalism. By good journalism we mean breaking stories of malfeasance and other deeds, or producing original and sometimes unpalatable comment. It doesn't mean poking fun just to prove a spurious point about press freedom.

NS doesn't explain why the point about press freedom is "spurious", but perhaps Gary Younge (of the Guardian) can do a better job explaining "the other side":

The right to offend must come with at least one consequent right and one subsequent responsibility. People must have the right to be offended, and those bold enough to knowingly cause offense should be bold enough to weather the consequences, so long as the aggrieved respond within the law.

Neither the cartoons nor the violence has emerged from a vacuum. They are steeped in and have contributed to an increasingly recriminatory atmosphere shaped by, among other things, war, intolerance and historic injustices. According to the Danish Institute for Human Rights, racially motivated crimes doubled in Denmark between 2004 and '05.

Two undeniable assertions, but his strongest is yet to come:

Without anything as explicit as a First Amendment, Europe's freedom of speech laws are far more piecemeal than those of the United States. Many were adopted as a result of the Holocaust--the most potent reminder of just how fragile and recent this liberal secular tradition truly is in Europe. Last year the French daily Le Monde was found guilty of "racist defamation" against Israel and the Jewish people. Madonna's book Sex was only unbanned in Ireland in 2004. Even as this debate rages, David Irving sits in jail in Austria charged with Holocaust denial over a speech he made seventeen years ago, Islamist cleric Abu Hamza has been convicted in London for incitement to murder and racial hatred and Louis Farrakhan remains banned from Britain because his arrival "would not be conducive to the public good."

Western Europe clearly has a lot of inconsistencies to settle. The continent's inability to afford full citizenship rights and opportunities to immigrants (or their children) has bred a generation of resentful welfare-dependents. Once a sense of racist aggrievement is thrown into the mix, well, we are saddled with this...

A few days ago, former Spanish President Jose Maria Aznar participated in a discussion with graduate students here at Georgetown University. His comments on the Cartoon Saga clearly suggested disingenuous anti-immigrant overtones (along the lines of "They don't want to integrate"). While the United States needs allies in the world, one wonders whether the continent that has a brutal history with the Middle East ought to be exemplars of the Grand Alliance of Liberty.

Finally, on a happy note, a former FDD colleague has been elected to the Iraqi National Assembly as part of the Kurdish Alliance.

Commentary: The Ridiculous (and Revealing) Danish Cartoon Saga

2006-02-08T22:54:00.000-05:00

I've really had enough with this manufactured "crisis", so I've decided to utilize this forum to clarify the issue at hand. The way I see it, the furious Muslim street has absolutely no credibility on this issue whatsoever. Their rancor, as I understand it, can be distilled to six themes:

1. Illustrations of the Prophet Muhammed are, by definition, sacrilegious. Well, even if that's the case, the West is under no obligation to abide by these strictures, as we are not Muslim. What's next? Trade boycotts of those nations that export alcoholic beverages? We are perfectly comfortable with our status as 'kaffir-s' - don't make this our problem!

2. The Danish illustrations depicted Prophet Muhammed as a terrorist. This is incredibly offensive as it equates the embodiment of human perfection and compassion with an evil-doer. If I were Muslim, I'd be offended too. However, offense is no justification for censorship of another's viewpoint. I'm offended when Harry Belafonte calls George W. Bush the "world's greatest terrorist", yet I don't demand that he retract his accusations, vile and unacceptable though I find them.

3. Freedom of speech comes with responsibility. Once again, so long as another individual's freedom is not being constrained, there is no principled justification for restricting another's right to free speech. Caveats and disclaimers are popular when discussing free speech, because extremist viewpoints tend to scare us. In fact, during the counter-demonstrations in London, I'm sure we've all seen the posters that warned us of another "11 July" to extract revenge for the Prophet-ic slur. These men, deranged as they are, are entitled to say their piece, period.

4. It is necessary for us to draw certain 'red lines' around religious sensitivities. This is the most worrying aspect of the cartoon protests. It ought to be obvious that the right to make light of religion is one of the greatest gifts of Western civilization. As CH articulates:

I, too, have strong convictions and beliefs and value the Enlightenment above any priesthood or any sacred fetish-object. It is revolting to me to breathe the same air as wafts from the exhalations of the madrasahs, or the reeking fumes of the suicide-murderers, or the sermons of Billy Graham and Joseph Ratzinger. But these same principles of mine also prevent me from wreaking random violence on the nearest church, or kidnapping a Muslim at random and holding him hostage...

Once governments start legislating morality and God, 'tis a very slippery slope, logically, to this.

5. The cartoons are racist and demeaning. When it comes to playing the "victim of prejudice" card, no one performs better than the Arab intelligensia. Yet, for years, the Middle East media has been filled with vile cartoons and editorials regarding, you guessed it, the Jews. The Semitic people, if you will, have been accused of everything from controlling a secretive international cabal to run (and ruin) the world, to using the blood of Christians in their pastries. Who's the bigot now?

6. They play into the 'clash of civilizations' argument and widen the gap between the West and Islam. As a Jordanian newspaper editor pointed out recently - which is worse for Islam's image in the West: these cartoons or a suicide bomber who detonates his explosives in a crowded hotel killing the guests of a wedding party?

On a side note, who would've thought they'd live to see the day the Danish flag was burned alongside the (more standard) US and Israeli flags?

Thumbs Down of the Week

2006-01-31T09:09:00.000-05:00

Nelson Mandela, former President of South Africa, who agreed to attend a ludicrous mock trial in Cairo this week, which will attempt to charge President George W. Bush, PM Tony Blair and former PM Ariel Sharon for war crimes.

Gateway Pundit has the skinny on the story.

Noted luminaries who have promised to attend: Dictator-attorney Ramsey Clark, London Mayor "Red" Ken Livingstone, amoral crook George Galloway, anti-Semite Mahathir Mohammed, among others.

Mandela has, since retirement from politics, achieved fame by attaching his impeccable moral credentials to attacks on the United States, and hence legitimizing them in the eyes of those who see him as an ethical arbiter par excellence. However, it is most disappointing to see this freedom fighter refuse to rally on behalf of Mesopotamian liberty. Mandela has been reduced to associating with the attention-hungry unscrupulous contrarians of our time.

Thumbs Up of the Week

2006-01-31T08:52:00.000-05:00

To Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who courageously stood up for freedom of expression on behalf of the Jyllands Posten newspaper, which is under fire in the Muslim World for publishing cartoons that depicted the Prophet Muhammed as a suicide bomber.

Several Gulf states have started boycotting Danish products, and protesters in the Palestinian territories have begun burning Danish flags (who would've ever thought?).

Facing a firestorm in the Middle East, the newspaper published an apologetic open letter (in three languages) hoping to diffuse the fury.

The Middle East establishment reaction has been to question the purpose of the boycott, whilst simultaneously maintaining that the cartoons ought not to have been published:

Surely, the Danish newspaper in question has committed an unacceptable act on all humanitarian levels. Surely, a strong reaction should be taken. However, the correct reaction is more along the lines taken by the Muslims of Denmark, that is, by filing a lawsuit in the Danish courts against the newspaper in defense of our religious symbol, because there they realize that freedom of the press is not without regulations and rules.

Unacceptable on humanitarian levels? Freedom of the press with rules and regulations? The war on freedom of expression proceeds unabated. And the Europeans continue to relent repeatedly in the most craven fashion...

Commentary: Hamas victory

2006-01-26T23:39:00.000-05:00

Essentially, there are two schools of thought regarding Hamas' recent victory in the Palestinian legislative elections. The first concludes that once thrust into power, Hamas will, by virtue of its position (and external expectations of it), have to moderate its tone to be considered a serious peace-maker.

For example, the International Crisis Group NGO optimistically surmises:

The record of the last several months, as Hamas rubbed elbows with issues of local governance and campaigned for national office, offers a preliminary, mixed picture of how political integration might affect its outlook and conduct. In its pragmatism, and even willingness to deal with Israel on day-to-day operational affairs, Hamas rule at the local level has been almost boringly similar to its predecessor. Local politicians emphasise themes of good governance, economic development, and personal and social security, leaving specifically religious issues and the conflict with Israel to the background. With only scant exceptions, they have yet to try to impose their vision of an Islamist society.

Nationally, too, signs of pragmatism can be detected. Far more than Fatah, Hamas has proved a disciplined adherent to the ceasefire, and Israeli military officers readily credit this for the sharp decline in violence. In recent statements, Hamas leaders have not ruled out changing their movement’s charter, negotiating with Israel, or accepting a long-term truce on the basis of an Israeli withdrawal to the 1967 lines. Today, their electoral platform is in these respects closer to Fatah’s outlook than to Hamas’s founding principles.

The other, however, isn't so optimistic as to predict that Hamas will mellow, but rather suggests that it will be judged on its capacity to improve the lot of the Palestinian people, who have many legitimate grievances:

Hamas is being carried along by a more complicated mix of popular sentiments and the party's own deft organization. The party has risen on the failures of Fatah's peace efforts, the growing appeal of Islam at a time of political uncertainty, and Fatah's inability to improve Palestinians' lives at the most basic level during a decade in power.

The international community will be looking carefully at how Hamas conducts itself:

The Arab world will also be watching wearily. Hamas now will have to show to the Arab world that an Islamic party that wins a democratic election — everyone’s nightmarish scenario — is not as bad as it seems. For now, the Palestinians have chosen an Islamic option over a secular one. Let them have it. Let them enjoy life under Sharia. It is their choice — that is what self-determination is about — and we must respect it. After all, the spectacle of an Arab government that is defeated in a fair and free election, and that as a consequence resigns (resigns!), has no precedent in the Arab world. This is good news. Let’s have some more and put Hamas to the test of democracy: this experience will tell us if Islamists can embark on a road that leads to the Turkish model or whether Palestine will become a Sunni Iran. If democracy succeeds under Hamas’s leadership, there is a legitimate government in power that enjoys support and popularity in Palestine and might be more honest and more competent than its predecessor — not a difficult task, given the ineptitude of Fatah. Otherwise, we can tell once and for all that co-optation is not the way to moderation, but a recipe is self-defeating appeasement.

It's important to bear in mind that the ideology behind Hamas is the same as that of the Muslim Brotherhood. This is the first time that such an organization will democratically take over the reins of government of an Arab state. Ideologically, these events could have more impact on democracy in the Middle East than any since in January 2005 elections in Iraq.

And they all came tumbling down...

2006-01-24T23:53:00.000-05:00

Michael Ledeen, at the National Review, who has confidently predicted the near-term overthrow of the Assad dynasty in Syria, is keeping track of disturbances in Iran:

The population of the Iranian oil region is largely Arab, and they have been brutally oppressed and ethnically cleansed by the mullahs. Tehran has gobbled up thousands of square kilometers of land on the pretext of building industrial parks or expanding military facilities, and the locals have been protesting on and off for many months. As I wrote last week, the regime is so nervous about disorder in the spinal cord of the Iranian economy that they sent Lebanese Hezbollahis and members of the Badr Corps (Shiites of Iraqi origin trained in Iran for the past two decades and then sent into Iraq to fight the Coalition).

Ledeen suggests that the overall strategic balance is in America's favor currently, and that it must actively support Iranian opposition groups against the country's retrogressive theocracy.

FP compares and contrasts two different approaches in fighting terrorism: France's and America's. The French people grant their government much more leeway in fighting terrorism and are less concerned with civil liberties' violations or Big Brother:

The smooth relationship between France’s judiciary and its intelligence world is unique among Western nations. Even after 9/11, a proposal to create a separate domestic intelligence service failed to gather momentum in Washington. In Britain, the MI5 has no judicial competence. Yet, since the 1990s, the French domestic intelligence service has had the ability to ask magistrates to open investigations. Judges can in turn assist the agency by ordering warrants, wiretaps, and subpoenas.

The annual elitist schmooze-fest known as the World Economic Forum starts tomorrow, once again in the (barely-accessible) Swiss village of Davos. The FT has dedicated a page to the summit, and the opening speaker this year will be German chancellor Angela Merkel, who has gotten positive press reviews for her recent visit to the United States. She also deserves kudos for orienting Europe's largest economy away from Tsar Vladimir and towards its natural allies in the West.

Finally, Kuwait recently ended the nine-day-old rule of Sheikh Saad al-Abdullah al-Sabah and named Prime Minister Sabah al-Ahmed al-Sabah as the country's new Emir. Sabah al-Ahmed, who has been effectively running Kuwait for the last few years, is widely considered a moderate and pragmatic leader. However, what swells the heart with pride is the knowledge that this was the first time in the history of the Gulf that a ruler was constitutionally replaced. As opposed to being overthrown by your son when you're on vacation in Europe....what a bummer!

In Memoriam

2006-01-23T09:25:00.000-05:00

Sheikh Jaber al-Ahmed al-Sabah (1926-2006)

Home is where the oil is...

2006-01-23T09:14:00.000-05:00

Not since the summer of 1990 has Kuwait been in the news as much as it has been in the last week. So, not to be left behind in a trend:

Kirk Sowell's blog has the Emir's official obituary from the local Al-Hayat newspaper (in English), and manages to strike an optimistic note in his own analysis:

Kuwait's rulers have handled their country well by and large, much better than their Saudi counterparts. The Iraqi threat, which had been hanging over the country like the sword of Damocles since its founding, has been removed, although Kuwait continues to be subject to terrorist attacks at times due to its support for the war on Islamic terrorism.

The Kuwaiti government has confirmed that the Emir's death (and surrounding political horse-trading) won't affect the country's oil export policy. However, all eyes in the industry are on the parliamentary vote that could restrict international participation in the exploration and exploitation of the northern fields.

Petroleum Intelligence Weekly is reporting that Kuwait's oil reserves are about 50% less than OPEC estimates. Someone better fire that bean-counter..

Finally, Kuwaitland re-prints a historial overview of the Kuwaiti resistance to the Iraqi invasion in 1990-91, written by Australian expat John Levins.

Say you want a revolution...

2006-01-22T10:49:00.000-05:00

The Economist on people-power and the overthrow of tyrannies:

Even so, it is tempting to think that outsiders can help. It is clear that a successful popular change of regime—one, that is, that results in a reasonably democratic and enduringly free system—is much more likely to emerge if it has certain characteristics. What is needed, according to an analysis by Freedom House of 67 overthrown dictatorships, is “broad-based, non-violent civic resistance—which employs tactics such as boycotts, mass protests, blockades, strikes and civil disobedience to delegitimate authoritarian rulers and erode their sources of support, including the loyalty of armed defenders.”

The article goes on to highlight quasi-NGOs (such as the National Endowment for Democracy) and independent NGOs (Int'l Center on Nonviolent Conflict) that have played key roles in the color revolutions of 2004-2005.

David Owen, writing in FT, is skeptical about sport's ability to affect global change or bridge cultural gaps:

Sports administrators are at their worst when claiming some dubious extra dimension of significance for the gloriously trivial pursuits over which they preside, in order to justify the fabulous sums that media companies and sponsors have poured into sport in recent years. You cannot be wholly cynical about the Olympic truce, which revives and adapts an ancient Greek tradition whereby conflicts were ordered to stop for the duration of the Games. But how many modern-day conflicts has this played a significant part in resolving?

Many grandiose claims are made for sport. But, at root, we can rely on it to fulfil only two simple broader functions. It acts as a powerful stimulus to the emotions. The consequences of this can be good or bad.

Owen might do good to look at the relationship between sports & politics (George Weah's candidacy for the presidency of Liberia being an outstanding example).

V. Sudarshan at Outlook India examines the burgeoning relationship between India and Saudi Arabia - highlighted by King Abdullah's upcoming attendance of the Republic Day parade as its chief guest:

The current visit will enable New Delhi to present the country in the proper perspective. Diplomats argue that should India invest in West Asia half the effort it has into its Look East policy, the benefits would be immense. They say India could begin by cobbling a free trade arrangement with the Gulf, a path the country has been hesitant to take for the last two years.

Diplomats also say the time has come to make conditions propitious for a gradual emphasis on white-collar migration to Saudi Arabia. The 1.6 million Indian community is Saudi Arabia's largest expatriate community, but is dominated by blue-collar workers, or those employed in menial jobs. A good starting point to encourage executives to work in Saudi Arabia, they say, would be to increase the interface in technology-related institutions of the two countries.

Finally, Cathy Young challenges the vitriolic falsehood that Hurricane Katrina disproportionately affected black New Orleaners (a charge that led to America-bashing such as this):

Late last year, after the state of Louisiana released information on the victims whose bodies have been recovered so far, Knight Ridder Newspapers came out with an investigative report analyzing the statistics. A study of the locations where bodies were recovered showed that they were not disproportionately concentrated in low-income neighborhoods. According to the story, "42 percent of the bodies found in Orleans and St. Bernard parishes were recovered in neighborhoods with poverty rates higher than 30 percent. That's only slightly higher than the 39 percent of residents who lived in such neighborhoods."

Yet one reason we saw so many black survivors on the news was that mostly white-populated areas the hurricane hit—St. Bernard Parish near New Orleans, the cities of Biloxi and Gulfport, Mississippi—received relatively little media attention. Partly, this was because some areas were much less accessible than the city in the days after landfall; partly, because flattened houses look much less dramatic than refugees escaping the flood. Later, the media had their narrative in which Katrina victims were poor and black; white people left homeless and waiting in vain for help did not fit the picture.

Ma, I'm on TV!

2006-01-20T09:02:00.000-05:00

The Independent reports on plans afoot in Ethiopia to create Africa's first homegrown satellite news channel:

"All these new news channels have given people access to points of view that are very different to those aired on CNN or the BBC," said Mr Amin. "On al- Jazeera the talk shows have gone a long way to give people different perspectives on what is happening on the region. We want to do the same for Africa."

It always seemed to me that the BBC's coverage of African affairs was about as pro-Africa as it was possible to get without (significantly) sacrificing credibility. The idea that this entrepreneur wishes to emulate al-Jazeera can only be regarded as positive insofar as the latter's editorial board is free of official government control. The larger problem is al-Jazeera's clear anti-Western bias posing as neutrality or "both sides of the story".

Mark Helprin, in the L.A. Times, takes issue with President Bush's democratization strategy:

It isn't that democracies are too old or too young or too fat or too thin, but that none is perfect and that, therefore, all are subject to forces that may override the theoretical peacefulness of representative governments. Even perfect democracies, which have never been and will never be, cannot offer the kind of Pax Democratica that the United States now seeks to construct among a group of states that are famous for their immunity to liberal governance.

Many a political scientist has disputed the Democratic Peace theory, and with good reason. The general consensus today is that democratizing states are more susceptible to populism and ultra-nationalism, and hence more vulnerable to violent intra-state or cross-border conflict. However, since the Second World War certainly, the United States has not engaged in conflict with a democracy - in fact, most democracies today are American allies.

Iraq the Model has the election results from the recent parliamentary poll there. As expected, the Shia-dominated UIA won, although without an absolute majority, hence requiring the formation of a coalition government.

Former CIA counter-terror point-man Larry Johnson writes in TPMCafe that inter-agency cooperation has largely evaporated, and this is largely responsible for the failure of the US to capture Bin Laden:

The only way to break through the log jam of bureaucratic politics and stovepiping is for the President or Vice President to make forging interagency cooperation a priority. President Bush and Vice President Cheney talk a good game, but they are not paying attention to the details. Fixing this mess requires their personal involvement on a daily basis. If they fail to act and the old status quo, which has reemerged with a vengeance, remains in place then Bin Laden will eventually succeed. With patience and planning he will breach our security and will kill thousands of Americans.

Finally, Condoleezza Rice visited my school this week to deliver a speech on US diplomacy - highlighting the changing distribution of US diplomatic resources in favor of Asia and the Middle East:

“To advance transformational diplomacy, we are and we must change our diplomatic posture,” Rice said. “In the 21st century, emerging nations like India and China and Brazil and Egypt and Indonesia and South Africa are increasingly shaping the course of history. At the same time, the new front lines of our diplomacy are appearing more clearly, in transitional countries of Africa and of Latin America and of the Middle East.”

Rice also outlined new initiatives designed to develop what she called “regional partnerships.” Among these was “American Presence Posts,” a plan to allow experienced diplomats to expand diplomatic contact in foreign nations by moving out of American embassies into other areas of the country. Rice said that this program has already been enacted in Egypt and Indonesia.

Separate but Equal?

2006-01-18T09:51:00.000-05:00

Full-on racial segregation in Europe! Brussels Journal alerts us to an Amsterdam primary school with separate entrances for white and immigrant children:

At the Rietlanden/8th Montessori school in the east end of Amsterdam there are two separate entrances 30 metres apart, one for native Dutch children and one for immigrants. The school authorities claim that this situation has nothing do with racism because the school welcomes children from all ethnic groups. All it wants is for them to enter through different doors.

“For one reason or another our school had acquired a bad reputation,” headmistress Annemieke van der Groen says. “In such a case you can invest in quality as much as you like, but it is difficult to convince white parents to enroll their children here. If they come to have a look, they say ‘You know, with all these black children’ and enroll their children elsewhere.” Hence, the two entrances and different names for the same school.

Two Englishmen tackle the crise du jour; first, historian Niall Ferguson in a Daily Telegraph column that has been widely spotted in several blogs:

The devastating nuclear exchange of August 2007 represented not only the failure of diplomacy, it marked the end of the oil age. Some even said it marked the twilight of the West. Certainly, that was one way of interpreting the subsequent spread of the conflict as Iraq's Shi'ite population overran the remaining American bases in their country and the Chinese threatened to intervene on the side of Teheran.

Yet the historian is bound to ask whether or not the true significance of the 2007-2011 war was to vindicate the Bush administration's original principle of pre-emption. For, if that principle had been adhered to in 2006, Iran's nuclear bid might have been thwarted at minimal cost. And the Great Gulf War might never have happened.

Ferguson envisages the next world war centering around Iran and its covert nuclear weapons program. While there was been laudable trans-Atlantic cooperation (extending even to Iran's Eurasian ally), the Chinese have been quick to damper any expectation of a favorable denouement. Now even the Russians have started back-tracking...

Second is the Guardian's Simon Jenkins, whose confused column is a mixture of righteous indignation (familiar charges of Western hypocrisy) with standard leftist rhetoric about cultural misunderstandings ("Iran is a serious country, not another two-bit post-imperial rogue waiting to be slapped about the head by a white man."). After plodding through this well-worn rancor-as-logic, Jenkins sounds a cautionary note:

Iran is the regional superstate. If ever there were a realpolitik demanding to be "hugged close" it is this one, however distasteful its leader and his centrifuges. If you cannot stop a man buying a gun, the next best bet is to make him your friend, not your enemy.

Ah, but what if we could stop it?

A verbal aperitif...

2006-01-14T21:06:00.000-05:00

After having spent most of the holiday season gnashing teeth and tearing out hair over my dysfunctional computer, I am happy to report that my laptop is back up and running. The Coup Eight blog posts will resume as normal.

2005 has been an exceptionally good year for me and I hope all (three) of my readers can say the same for themselves. Here's wishing you an outstanding 2006! Cheers!

J'ai un reve

2006-01-14T20:47:00.000-05:00

On the occasion on Martin Luther King's birthday (this Monday), Gateway Pundit offers up some encouragement for those of us who've been trying to argue in vain that George W. Bush is not the enemy of Black America - read his list of accomplishments.

Angela Merkel visited Washington to seal the deal on the rapprochement between the estranged allies. The IHT is optimistically relieved:

Merkel, who had vowed in her election campaign to improve trans-Atlantic ties, spoke of a "new chapter" in the relationship. In direct language that Bush probably appreciated, she spoke of confronting global challenges "head-on."

The body language of the two appeared relaxed at a news conference. Merkel at times nodded her agreement as Bush spoke or smiled in his direction and the president quipped at one point that they had something in common: "We both didn't exactly landslide our way into office."

While the Iraq war and some U.S. tactics used in pursuit of terror suspects, including the reported use of secret prisons for detainees in Eastern Europe, remain highly unpopular in Germany, Merkel has sent clear signals to Washington of a willingness to start the relationship anew.

The White House appears particularly reassured by her free-market inclinations and the fact that, having grown up in East Germany, she has an inherent skepticism about Russia stronger than that of the former chancellor, Gerhard Schröder.

Finally, from the Washington Post, affectionate reminiscing for the Caliphate continues unabated in the Islamic World. An excerpt from conversations with ordinary Turks:

"I wish there was a caliphate again, because if there was a caliphate all the Muslims would unite," said Ertugul Orel, in a sweater and tie at the sidewalk cafe he owns outside Istanbul's vast Hagia Sophia, an iconic building to both Christians and Muslims. "There would be one voice. But I know neither the American nor the Europeans will ever allow it."

From the next chair, gift shop owner Atacan Cinar added, "Before the end of the Ottoman Empire, there was no problem in the Islamic countries."

(Full article here)

Scholars of Islamic history have repeatedly pointed out to us that this is standard fare in the Middle East. Egyptian Islamist Sayyid Qutb (a highly influential figure in the modern Islamist movement, in spite of, or perhaps due to, having been executed by Nasser in the 1960s) wrote:

After annihilating the tyrannical force, whether a political or racial tyranny, ... Islam establishes a new social and economic political system, in which all men enjoy real freedom.

The Islamic World today, to use the language of Islamic theology, is experiencing a period of jahiliyya (the state of barbarous anarchy in the Arabian Peninsula prior to the arrival of Islam), and only through a return to "pure Islam" can Muslims find redemption and justice. And so, as the article demonstrates, it is not merely fanatics who desire a global Islamic 'nation'.

Chestnuts roastin' on an open fire...

2005-12-26T01:11:00.000-05:00

So when do I get paid?

2005-12-23T23:47:00.000-05:00

Bickering over the UN budget has finally ceased, with a tentative agreement that allows for the first six months of 2006 to be paid for, with further funding contingent on Kofi Annan judging that UN management reforms are proceeding swiftly.

The larger context: developing nations feel that UN reform must focus on enlarging the UN Security Council, while the developed world wants to prioritize management and bureaucracy reforms, in an effort to cut down on inefficiency and corruption. The tussle is between those who want to the UN to take up the reins of world policing (what they see as its rightful role) and those who expect the UN to stick to its (relative) strengths and perform them with rigor and incorruptibility.

The Bush democratization agenda is making its way down the gullet of American government, with USAID deciding to give it top billing amongst its various programs:

With the Bush administration’s commitment to spreading democracy and repairing failed states that might harbour terrorists, foreign aid has become an increasingly critical part of the overall US national security strategy. Since 2000, the US aid budget has doubled from $10bn to more than $20bn this year.

Nigeria says it will hand out HIV/AIDS drugs to its 4 million suffering citizens at no charge. The two top donors to this initiative: the Global Fund (website here) and the United States.

Gateway Pundit is keeping us up-to-date on post-election political deal-making in Iraq. In an optimistic development, the United Iraqi Alliance (the Shi'a-dominated behemoth) is ready to talk to the Sunni-s to form a coalition government. This, more than any military operation, will do much to deflate the violence there. Once the tribal/Sunni element of the insurgency is removed, the primary actors will be Zarqawi and his cohorts, who, thankfully, enjoy practically no legitimacy (outside the minds of brain-damaged leftists worldwide).

Finally, in a sobering-yet-welcome development, Frans van Anraat, who sold chemical weapon precursors to Saddam, was sentenced to 15 years in prison today in the Netherlands. In a significant pronouncement:

The court first determined that the slaughter of the Kurds constituted genocide -- a finding that may reverberate in later charges against Saddam by an Iraqi court in Baghdad -- and that the chemicals supplied by the businessman were essential to the making of the weapons.

Happiness...is a silent gun

2005-12-20T19:14:00.000-05:00

Acehnese rebels have surrendered their weapons, leaving the path open for Indonesian troops to leave the province, hopefully ending the bloody insurrection that was halted only by last year's tsunami. It remains to be seen, however, whether Aceh will accept continued Indonesian sovereignty or push for an independent, albeit Islamist, state.

Paul Theroux takes the unfashionably contrarian stance against the rock star-inspired "more-aid-for-Africa" platform:

It seems to have been Africa's fate to become a theater of empty talk and public gestures. But the impression that Africa is fatally troubled and can be saved only by outside help - not to mention celebrities and charity concerts - is a destructive and misleading conceit. Those of us who committed ourselves to being Peace Corps teachers in rural Malawi more than 40 years ago are dismayed by what we see on our return visits and by all the news that has been reported recently from that unlucky, drought-stricken country. But we are more appalled by most of the proposed solutions....I am speaking of the "more money" platform: the notion that what Africa needs is more prestige projects, volunteer labor and debt relief. We should know better by now. I would not send private money to a charity, or foreign aid to a government, unless every dollar was accounted for - and this never happens. Dumping more money in the same old way is not only wasteful, but stupid and harmful.

Can hardly disagree with that - read the article in its entirety, and you might find yourself in agreement with these guys.

I discovered a new country the other day - the Republic of Tatarstan, situated inside Russia, on the banks of the Volga river. Consider their youth policy, which takes care to indulge promising children, including "republican meetings of KVN (Club of cheerful and smart)"...

Jihad el Khazen, at Dar al Hayat, loudly applauds Harold Pinter's repulsive Nobel Prize speech (which equated US Cold War foreign policy with the aggressions of the Communist world, amongst other allegations) in his column:

The US sees Iran's non-existent bombs and is blind to Israel's arsenal, even though an extremist rightwing government is in power, working purposely to obstruct peace. Finally, I salute the 1,000 thinkers and intellectuals inside and outside Israel who signed a petition opposing the victory by 2 extremist Jews of the Nobel Prize for Economics, describing them as warmongers, who want to see the continued occupation of Arab territory.

For your benefit, here are the two bloodthirsty Zionist murderers who laugh in the face of Palestinian misery. And here's more info on the petition. One of the winners, Robert Aumann, has said that Israeli withdrawal from the occupied territories (a la Gaza) makes no sense from a mathematical point of view, as it is done not from a position of strength, but a position of weakness. In other words, Israelis are hoping that Palestinian terrorism will cease, but there are no guarantees of the same.

So, el Khazen, shut it!

Goodbye Leo...

2005-12-18T17:16:00.000-05:00

Actor John Spencer, who won an Emmy in 2002 for his role as White House Chief of Staff Leo McGarry on the hit show "The West Wing", died this week at the age of 58.

Creeping Orwellianism..

2005-12-18T17:00:00.000-05:00

Mark Steyn is concerned about legalized thought policing in Britain, in the guise of combating "hate":

Hollywood stars are forever complaining about the "crushing of dissent" in Bush's America, by which they mean Tim Robbins having a photo-op at the Baseball Hall of Fame cancelled because he's become an anti-war bore. But, thanks to the First Amendment, he can say anything he likes without the forces of the state coming round to grill him. It's in Britain and Europe where dissent is being crushed. Following the murder of Theo van Gogh in the Netherlands, film directors and museum curators and all the other "brave" "transgressive" artists usually so eager to "challenge" society are voting for self-censorship: "I don't want a knife in my chest," explained Albert Ter Heerdt, announcing his decision to "postpone" a sequel to his hit multicultural comedy Shouf Shouf Habibi!

Bruce Bower, at Reason, picks up a similar point in his article on the European left's embrace of Islamic fanaticism:

Defenders of this many-fronted assault on free speech routinely tag critics of Islam as racists. Of course, Islam is not a race but a religion whose ideology should, in a democratic society, be entirely open to criticism—and, for that matter, to parody and mockery. Outraged by the House of Commons measure, comedian Rowan Atkinson (who plays the character Mr. Bean on television) commented: "For telling a good and incisive religious joke, you should be praised. For telling a bad one, you should be ridiculed and reviled. The idea that you could be prosecuted for the telling of either is quite fantastic." Atkinson was nearly alone among British authors, artists, and entertainers in his vocal criticism of the bill.

Keelin McDonell at TNR rips into Harold Pinter's ghastly Nobel Prize speech here. As does Niall Ferguson here:

Nobody pretends that the United States came through the Cold War with clean hands. But to pretend that its crimes were equivalent to those of its Communist opponents - and that they have been wilfully hushed up - is fatally to blur the distinction between truth and falsehood. That may be permissible on stage. I am afraid it is quite routine in diplomacy. But is unacceptable in serious historical discussion.

George F. Will demolishes claims that building oil installations in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge will be an environmental cataclysm. He concludes by suggesting the hidden hand of leftist collectivism in the green agenda, which, even if not true doesn't detract from the concrete facts of the article.

Dan Drezner has been keeping track of the WTO Meeting in Hong Kong, which seem to have turned surprisingly violent. The latest information is that the US, EU and Japan have agreed on 2013 as the deadline to phase out export subsidies for agricultural products. What remains to be seen is when these nations will abolish import tariffs and production subsidies, which are a significant factors that distort free trade.

Get on the Bus!

2005-12-09T12:09:00.000-05:00

A sad day in Her Majesty's United Kingdom, as the beloved double-decker is retired from active service - although one enterprising young individual paid 5.000 pounds to convert one of the buses into a restaurant!

When Britain discovered oil in the North Sea in the early 1970s, there were worries that Scotland would claim it and make a bolt for FREEEEEE-DOM! The Independent reveals London's concerns at the time:

An independent Scotland's budget surpluses as a result of the oil boom, wrote Professor McCrone, would be so large as to be "embarrassing". Scotland's currency "would become the hardest in Europe, with the exception perhaps of the Norwegian Kronor." From being poorer than their southern neighbours, Scots would quite possibly become richer. Scotland would be in a position to lend heavily to England and "this situation could last for a very long time into the future." In short, the oil would put the British boot, after centuries of resentment, firmly on the foot standing north of the border.

Courtesy Andrew Sullivan, a profile of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi from FP magazine.

And finally, I saw this guy walking the streets of Georgetown with his now-infamous wife. Fringe benefits of living in Washington...

Workers of the World, Unite!

2005-12-05T16:55:00.000-05:00

The Chinese government is trying to modernize the state of Marxist thought in a land currently being transformed by the free market:

Scholars from the Central Party School and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences have said they would look for inspiration in past Chinese interpretations of Marxism. These include Mao Zedong's founding thoughts, Deng Xiaoping's liberalization theory and former president Jiang Zemin's Three Represents doctrine, which urges embracing capitalist and other leaders in addition to workers and peasants.

Very helpful that'll be when events like these transpire.

In Egypt, Baheyya is keeping us up-to-date on the recent "elections", where the Muslim Brotherhood did reasonably well. Although, let's not fall prey to Hosni Mubarak's alarmist duality which forced us to choose between his corrupt, deadening rule and that of "the fundamentalists". Still, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

The editors at the National Review are trying to shore up support for the Pentagon's misguided attempt to turn Iraqi public opinion their way by paying Iraqi newspapers to print pro-American pieces that were secretly written by Beltway scribes. For his part, Hitch counters with a well-deserved tongue-lashing:

One expects that commanders at home and in the field will talk up their successes, play down crimes and errors on the ground that such information is useful to the enemy, do black propaganda in the enemy camp, and try to get their own version into the public record. But sometimes a whole new line is crossed and "propaganda" corrupts the whole process by becoming a covert operation against one's "own" side.

The Red Cross is considering a new symbol which would merge the famed cross (an inversion of the Swiss flag, not a sign of Christian proselytization) with the Arab-favored crescent. However, you'd have to scroll all the way to the end of the BBC news item to get to the real reason:

Israel's Magen David Adom Society (MDA) uses the unrecognised red star of David as its emblem. As a result, the society is still not a member of the international Red Cross movement, something which many Israelis see as unjust.

Arab states have made it clear they will never accept the red star being recognised under the Geneva Conventions.

The BBC's anti-Israeli slant becomes more evident by the day...

Tears in (electronic) heaven

2005-12-02T20:42:00.000-05:00

My absence over the last week can be attributed to a major computer-related catastrophe - my laptop hard drive crashed, as a result I lost everything and can't even turn on the bloody thing. So, until things are back to normal, blogging will be light.

Just wanted to highlight two stories:

1. A victory for gay rights in South Africa: now, couples in this notoriously homophobic continent may now wed.

2. Alexander Casella suggests the UN move to Montreal, here:

Moving UN headquarters from New York should therefore be considered, provided that some minimum requirements are met. These entail that the new site should be in a developed, foreigner-friendly democracy with a good infrastructure and communication network in an uncongested environment where English is either spoken or commonly understood.

Death to the Great Satan!

2005-11-26T23:03:00.000-05:00

The always-readable Roger Cohen tackles anti-Americanism in his IHT column, cautioning us to realize that there are several "anti-Americanisms" that often fuse together:

There is radical anti-Americanism, most virulent these days in its jihadist Islamic form. That's not to be confused with radical-chic anti-Americanism of the globalization-is-evil variety, embraced by Subcommandante Marcos and his oddball Mexican guerrillas. Another genre is social anti-Americanism, most prominent in Europe, an attitude characterized by angry contempt for a supposedly cruel U.S. capitalism, as contrasted with the Europe's universal health insurance and comfy cushioning for the unemployed.

No doubt the same anti-Americanism that had me screaming at the TV when Thomas Friedman interviewed some craven French students who were organizing anti-Bush protests (on the Discovery Channel this last spring). Ces cretins....merde!

The Weekly Standard agitates for reform of America's immigration system:

Imagine what finally dealing boldly with America's immigration problem could do. Slashing the number of border crossings by illegal immigrants would be only the first step. A guest worker program would provide a lawful way for illegals to work here, solving a job crisis for American business and potentially reducing the incentive for illegal entry. The most difficult part would be creating a path to citizenship for those who came to the United States illegally but before a cutoff date.

For once, the fault is not the White House's, but that of populist Republicans (such as Tom Tancredo) who tap into latent anti-immigrant sentiment in conservative voting circles. The President has repeatedly stated he's in favor of the 'guest-worker' system that would go some way to staunch the currently impedable flow of Mexican labor northward.

Now that Angela Merkel is settling into the cushy leather chair in Berlin, the Belmont Club wonders what direction Deutschland will take in international affairs:

Germany knew that the fourth leading nation in Europe was located across the Atlantic. Puschmann noted, "It may not be immediately obvious at present, but Germany does, at least potentially, share Britain’s positive outlook on the transatlantic alliance. Post-war Germany has historically been an Atlanticist nation, standing firmly by the side of the United States and the United Kingdom". If Merkel sees Europe within the wider context of the West, rather than through the fantasy prism of the Euroleft, she will at least have Bismarck's breadth of vision, though not perhaps, his opportunities.

The leading international sponsor of terrorism is now training Chechyan militants, no doubt a thank-you gift to Putin for the nuclear reactor.

Brussels Journal exposes the myth of the Blairite-style 'Scandinavian model' that is often portrayed as an ideal blend of Anglo-Saxon economic rigor and Continental safety nets:

In 1970, Sweden’s level of prosperity was one quarter above Belgium’s. By 2003 Sweden had fallen to 14th place from 5th in the prosperity index, two places behind Belgium. According to OECD figures, Denmark was the 3rd most prosperous economy in the world in 1970, immediately behind Switzerland and the United States. In 2003, Denmark was 7th. Finland did badly as well. From 1989 to 2003, while Ireland rose from 21st to 4th place, Finland fell from 9th to 15th place. Together with Italy, these three Scandinavian countries are the worst performing economies in the entire European Union. Rather than taking them as an example, Europe’s politicians should shun the Scandinavian recipes.

Why would anyone want to emulate an economy that pays a bus driver the same salary as a physician?

You are the one, Neo!

2005-11-25T00:50:00.000-05:00

Clive Davis, on how prefixing words with "neo" make them sound sinister and untoward - here.

Over at the Guardian, Philip Hensher deems Hollywood actors' portrayal of gay characters a farce:

But Hollywood will only seem truly tolerant when it allows gay actors to play gay roles, kissing included, and no whining about it in the publicity afterwards. Until then there's - how should one put it - a slight air of Al Jolson about the whole business.

Equating Hollywood's on-screen homosexuality with blackface? Oh God, the Guardian's really pushing it now..

The National Review directed me to this survey, courtesy the Heritage Foundation, on social mobility in the US. Although the study is a few years old (2001), nonetheless, it would appear that the New York Times-led John Edwards-style hellraising on economic stratification is a bit misleading. There is in fact constant movement between the income percentiles - as can be seen in the graph.

Finally, as it is Thanksgiving, Carrie Lukas gives thanks for Wal-Mart here.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

On Bowler Hats & Afternoon Tea...

2005-11-24T01:39:00.000-05:00

I've been reading "Blood, Class and Empire: The Enduring Anglo-American Relationship" by Christopher Hitchens, which explores the dynamics & history of the 'special relationship' between Her Majesty's Kingdom and these United States.

Great quote:

...Sir Ambrose Abercrombie, the deliberate stage Englishman who has guessed the link between "class" English-style and "class" American-style...:

" We limeys have a peculiar position to keep up, you know, Barlow. They may laugh at us a bit - the way we talk and the way we dress; but, by God, they respect us...You never find an Englishmen among the under-dogs - except in England of course."

Sir Ambrose here touches lightly on the critical question of mutation. An Englishman, he is saying, need only cross the Atlantic in order to acquire a cachet that would by no means belong to him automatically if he remained at home.

Hitchens concludes later on in the chapter:

In the American mind, an indissoluble connection now seems to exist between the idea of England and the ideas of heritage, tradition, royalty, pageantry and good taste.

Sharing the wealth..

2005-11-24T01:32:00.000-05:00

Instapundit backs WSJ's call for a national trust fund to hold Iraq's oil wealth, so as to give all Iraqis a stake in their economic future.

One thing that the Bush Administration did lie about was whether there were adequate numbers of troops in Iraq, and, as proof, Andrew Sullivan offers Senate testimony from military commanders:

In contrast to the Pentagon's stock answer that there are enough troops on the ground in Iraq, the commanders said [to a Senate committee] that they not only needed more manpower but also had repeatedly asked for it. Indeed, military sources told Time that as recently as August 2005, a senior military official requested more troops but got turned down flat.

Jon Judis, over at TNR, is concerned about rising isolationist sentiment in the US - backed by recent Pew surveys:

Under the impact of the administration's failure in Iraq, the public has become wary of American involvement overseas. It increasingly rejects both a liberal internationalist and a neoconservative approach to foreign affairs. Instead, its attitude is similar to the prevailing outlook of the 1920s and '30s and to the worldview held by many Americans in the '90s. Voters, in short, are becoming more isolationist.

Sad, but true. Still, this isn't the end of the story. Vietnam was supposed to be The Quagmire to end all silly thoughts of America policing the world. Yet, thankfully in this case, selective amnesia bolstered America's long-term security...

Merriment Abounds!

2005-11-24T01:26:00.000-05:00

The Dean of Georgetown University has deigned to find me admissible to his institution - starting January, I shall enroll in the School of Foreign Service working on a Master's degree in Security Studies (more info on the program here).

Hoooo-ray!

Also, the first snowfall of the season was witnessed this evening here in Washington - hopefully you can see the attached photo clearly. The bright white flecks are the snowflakes - as is the "mist" around the light from the lamp-post.

And one more for the road...

2005-11-20T00:06:00.000-05:00

The Telegraph takes exception to Labour's decision to abolish licensing restrictions on pubs that ban the serving of alcohol after 11.00pm:

Allow British pubs, they say, to be like the cafes of Southern Europe and serve alcohol throughout the day and night - and the British culture of binge-drinking will disappear, to be replaced by the relaxed and sober drinking habits of Italy and Spain.

That claim has a single obvious defect: it ignores the British character. Binge-drinking is embedded in that character. The culture of heavy drinking in this country is not the result of the restriction on pub opening hours.

Unlike Iraq, Iran or North Korea, Bush might have a long-term strategy for China, or atleast the Wall Street Journal thinks so, summed up neatly in the byline: engage China economically while surrounding it with democracies:

For the edification of the Chinese, primarily, he has made clear that the U.S. has close friends in the region and plans to protect its interests there.

This does not presage a Cold War between the U.S. and China, but it does reflect a Bush policy of organizing U.S. allies in Asia to resist any ambitions China might have for regional hegemony.

Strategy Page is succinct: the Saudi air force sucks:

The Saudis buy the best, but have consistently fallen down when it comes to getting capable and motivated Saudis to run the air force. Pilots are selected more for political and family connections, and loyalty to the monarchy, than ability, as are many of the support staff. As a result, the pilots have never developed much skill, and the ground crews are backed up (replaced, for all practical purposes), by thousands of expatriates from the United States, Britain and other countries.

Are the French still confused about who was responsible for the recent waves of violence there? A headline in Le Figaro seems to suggest so:

L'indiscernable profil des émeutiers

Emm, not so indiscernable really. They were your fellow French citizens who were sick of being relegated to second-class citizenship while you extolled the virtues of the French "modele sociale". Mais non...

The New Statesman publishes a lawyer's account of a visit into Guantanamo here. The "chilling account" is distinguished more by its inability to ask serious questions of the detainees' motivations than the machinations of the overseers. However, let no one accuse Coup Eight of condoning torture...

Back in the saddle!

2005-11-19T01:42:00.000-05:00

The Coup Eighty was on a week-long vacation - the post-paucity not being a result of an assassination attempt by Hizballah or Pat Roberston! New York City was "a real laugh", as they'd say in England. Even met a Bollywood star in a cafe in SoHo - pure coincidence. However, he was "not feeling well", and hence not in the mood for photographs...

Iran's tremblin' in her boots...

2005-11-19T01:28:00.000-05:00

The UN General Assembly, taking a brief break from lashing out at Israel, took a few minutes to condemn human rights abuses in Iran. Needless to say, most of the developing world (nearly 100 countries in total) either abstained or voted against. Some of these stalwart peace-lovers include the so-called moderate Malaysia, Venezuela (run by the Marxist hot-head Chavez) and the Burmese, who, by the way, are busy packing.

Timothy Garton Ash, at the Guardian, asks whether we're playing into UBL's hands by "rolling back" on freedoms at home.

Iraq the Model reflects on the current waves of violence in Iraq and asserts:

In my opinion, these attacks are not a Sunni reaction as much as it represents a continuation for the terrorists plan to provoke a civil war in Iraq - because attacks against mosques are not something new and we’ve seen many of such attacks in the past two years but the torture scandal came as a motivation for carrying out more attacks and making them look like a reaction rather than an act of aggression.

WaPo notifies us of growing disenchantment with electoral democracy in sub-Saharan Africa:

"During every change of regime in Africa, people expect life is going to improve, and it doesn't. We make two steps forward, and then we slip back into the same social ills of bad leadership and intolerance of dissent," said David Makali of Kenya's Media Institute, speaking from Nairobi. "Lacking all hope, people turn to violence and rebel groups. What we lack as Africans is real hope in our leadership. This really has to change."

Taking it to the Streets!

2005-11-07T18:11:00.000-05:00

The riots in France, continuing for a 12th night, are quite a stunning sight - although hardly a surprise. The land of liberte, egalite and fraternite is finally being exposed for the fraud that it is. Needless to say, many Americans are probably smug about the whole deal - considering how Francois Mitterand, after being informed of the 1992 L.A. riots, remarked on how such a thing could never happen in France.

Greg at the Belgravia Dispatch has more analysis on the riots here:

No, the Bastille is not about to be stormed, and if you're staying at the Crillon for a spot of shopping off the Place de la Concorde you can still rest (somewhat?) easy--but one certainly surmises that long simmering frustrations have now reached the proverbial boiling point. Having taken in a good deal of the French press this Sunday--I sense that there is a genuine sense of crisis and helplessness and demoralization at the current hour through the French polity.

The Officer's Club is looking into another Chinese spy ring allegation here in the US:

Anyway, the upshot is that this spy ring has been funneling information to Beijing for about fifteen years or so, and that apparently a sizable chunk of it had to do with our Naval weapons and engineering systems: specifically Aegis technology (like that found in our Ticonderoga and Arleigh-Burke Class ships) and submarines, up to and including our new Virginia Class boats.

Ah-nuld is struggling in California - his political fate now depends on four propositions being put to Californian voters. These propositions would extend (from 2 years to 5 years) the period that public school teachers need to teach to obtain tenure, grant the governor powers to cut spending, and give gerrymandering powers to a panel of retired judges. Some excellent analysis from the Economist here:

...it is hard to argue with the governor's basic premise. California's government is in urgent need of reform. It is too often gridlocked, pandering to the extremes on both sides of the political aisle. But it is equally stymied by voters' addiction to direct democracy and its ballot initiatives, the very tools that the governor is wielding in the special election.

Emilie Routledge, a Gulf-based economist who writes for Al-Jazeera's website, seems to know something that no one else does - apparently Iran is going to invoice its energy contracts in euros instead of dollars:

It is unlikely, in the short term at least, that large numbers of energy traders will decamp and set up shop in Iran; a country which happens to be categorised as a member of the "axis of evil" by the president of the world's largest oil-importing country; the United States.

But over time, Iran could take some business away from the two incumbent energy exchanges, the International Petroleum Exchange and the New York Mercantile Exchange who both invoice sales solely in dollars.

Yeah, well don't hold your breath...

Finally, a funny video on the fictitious new iPod product here.

We are the Champions!

2005-11-06T19:02:00.000-05:00

The ruling party in Azerbaijan has claimed victory in the country's elections. This former Soviet republic is about to become very wealthy thanks to oil drilling in the Caspian Sea - the oil will then be transported by pipeline through Georgia into Turkey, where, at the Turkish port of Ceyhan, it'll be shipped around the world.

Naturally, it's important that Azerbaijan doesn't become a corrupt, dysfunctional banana republic like most oil-rich nations in the Third World. The US has, certainly until recently, coddled its authoritarian leader, Ilham Aliyev, but must now be vigilant against a slide into blatant dictatorship.

The Spectator (UK), on allowing Iran to possess nukes:

It is the habit of the Iranians to use hyperbole in everyday speech, a courtly exaggeration that they call ta’aruf. For instance, the well-brought-up Iranian does not welcome a guest into his house with anything as mundane as ‘Do come in.’ He or she opens the door and announces, ‘Please step on my eyeball.’ If you ask after the health of an Iranian’s children, the correct response is ‘My children are your slaves.’

This Persian talent for rhetorical colour does not completely explain away President Ahmadinejad’s recent remark that Israel should be ‘wiped off the map’; but it shows the difficulty of evaluating the Iranian threat.

The L.A. Times, on the new James Bond, British actor Daniel Craig:

The casting of Bond has always been something of a cultural bellwether, and maybe Craig—with his vulpine energy and lower-caste edge—is actually the perfect Bond for our times.

It's the death of debonair the fans are grieving. And I with them.

In the 1950s, there was no higher praise for a man than debonair. It denoted a courtly male élan, an incollapsible grace, a cool, seductive energy. But in the age of irony—postmodern and post-feminist—debonair seems like an accusation. To be debonair would seem to require observing a rigid code of appearances, that you can never laugh too loud, get a pimple or fail to execute the tango perfectly.

As long as the new Bond doesn't drink Gatorade and drive a Hummer...

And finally, nerdy tech geeks are following Bill Gates' lead in being a force for good: the founder of eBay recently donated $100 million to Tufts University, his alma mater, in return for a promise that:

[The money] must be invested in organizations that make small loans to poor people in developing countries, a field known as microfinance. Further, Tufts may use only half the income from the investments for itself; the rest must be reinvested in microfinance.

Gates, for his part, deserves the world's salute for his efforts at fighting malaria and AIDS.

It's Autumn in....DC

2005-11-02T19:50:00.000-05:00

Taken outside my house this morning...

Capitol Clashes...

2005-11-02T01:32:00.000-05:00

Senate Democrats forced the Intelligence Committee into a closed-doors session to examine pre-war intelligence behind the rationale for the war in Iraq. The timing could not be more opportunist - Democrats are frustrated that the Fitzgerald team did not indict Karl Rove or bring down Lewis Libby on a more politically damaging charge.

Embittered by these turn of events, they returned to the original script: make the Bush Administration "pay" for Iraq without actually having to speak out against the war and seem like pansies. Most Democrats now assume matter-of-factly that there was a White House conspiracy to destroy Joseph Wilson's reputation, regardless of any lack of evidence to the same.

The Presidential panel studying tax reform has released their report (summary). Their recommendations include eliminating credits and tax breaks to simplify the code. They have also suggested eliminating the Alternative Minimum Tax, designed to prevent the rich from loop-holing their way out of taxation, but which now hits middle class families badly. Here are some reactions from the left-of-center Center for American Progress (PDF) and from the libertarian CATO Institute, both in Washington DC.

Commentary magazine asked 36 leading thinkers to evaluate current American foreign policy and the Bush Administration forward strategy of freedom. Here's the 80-odd page result. Read it for many well-crafted and succinct criticisms of the Bush strategy - rare commidities these days that they are. If you're going to challenge the White House international agenda, this is an unimpeachable format to emulate.

But which one is the money-hungry lustful scoundrel?

2005-11-01T19:54:00.000-05:00

This is the kind of thing that comes back to haunt politicians later on down the road...

(The Rascal and the Rocker - taken at our Halloween party this last weekend)

Greed is good...no, really!

2005-11-01T19:38:00.000-05:00

Free markets, more than free elections, might be the key to peace:

There are a number of reasons why economics appears to trump politics. The shift from statist mercantilism to high-tech capitalism has transformed the economics behind war. Markets generate economic opportunities that make war less desirable. Territorial aggrandizement no longer provides the best path to riches. Free-flowing capital markets and other aspects of globalization simultaneously draw nations together and raise the economic price of military conflict, because the political destabilization resulting from war deters profitable investment and trade. Moreover, sanctions, which interfere with economic prosperity, provides a coercive step short of war to achieve foreign policy ends.

The success of the European project should demonstrate this well. Ironically, the two strongest factors in this success were a protective American military presence and free enterprise across the continent - two of the European left's biggest bogeymen.

The anti-Scowcroft backlash has begun. Witness Charles Krauthammer's op-ed in the WaPo:

Realists prize stability above all, and there is nothing more stable than a ruthlessly efficient dictatorship. Which is why Scowcroft is the man who six months after Tiananmen Square toasted those who ordered the massacre; who, as the world celebrates the Beirut Spring that evicted the Syrian occupation from Lebanon, sees not liberation but possible instability; who can barely conceal a preference for Syria's stabilizing iron rule.

You can't be angry at Bush Sr (for whom Scowcroft served as Natl Security Advisor) for leaving Saddam in power, and simultaneously lambast his son for correcting what many now recognize as one of the biggest mistakes of the post-Cold War environment.

On radical Islam in south-east Asia: how a woman got caught up in Jemaat Islami in Malaysia.

The Congress Connection

2005-10-30T23:54:00.000-05:00

The Acorn has updates on Oil-for-Food and the Congress Party in India. According to news reports, the current Foreign Minister, Natwar Singh, personally benefited with an oil allocation of 1.9 million barrels, through a Swiss firm.

We've known for a while of Congress-ional complicity in Saddam's international machinations. It wasn't just Third World solidarity that inspired idiocy like this - yes, the man holding up the poster is I.K. Gujral, former Prime Minister who hugged Saddam soon after the invasion of Kuwait in 1990, back when he was Foreign Minister.

Also, from the New India Press report on the story:

Coming to Indian political favourites of the Saddam regime, the Table 5 lists: `Beneficiary: India: Congress Party' with an entitlement of 4 million barrels of crude' and `Beneficiary: India: Singh Mr K. Natwar' with an entitlement of 4 million barrels again. In the last column against Natwar Singh it is noted that in the SOMO [State Oil Marketing Organization] records he is mentioned as `Member Indian Congress Party'. Poor Natwar, he is not the real beneficiary, just a fiduciary. The real beneficiary is the Sonia Congress.

Riposte

2005-10-30T18:40:00.000-05:00

In response to the question regarding George Galloway:

a) Just to clarify, the woman in question is his ex-wife; she is Arab, boosting, I suppose, his credibility with his Muslim constituents in Bethnal Green.
b) Yes, he will be charged with perjury - from The Times:

A Senate aide said that Mr Galloway would be referred to the Justice Department for investigation of possible perjury, false statement and obstruction of a congressional proceeding — all “Class A” felonies carrying a sentence of up to five years and a $250,000 fine.

And what his charge-sheet might look like:

Mr Galloway’s wife, Dr Amineh Abi-Zayyad, received $150,000 from Oil-for-Food allocations

Mr Galloway’s charity, the Mariam Appeal, received $446,000 from Oil-for-Food allocations

A Jordanian middleman and friend of Mr Galloway, Fawaz Zureikat, obtained the money

Tariq Aziz, Iraq’s former deputy Prime Minister, testified that Mr Galloway asked for oil allocations

Mr Galloway “knowingly made false or misleading statements under oath” at the Senate committee in May 2005.

My former FDD colleague, Andrew Apostolou, is collecting money for his jail cell here.

Plame-gate update

2005-10-28T23:29:00.000-04:00

No doubt you're being bombarded with news about the Valerie Plame scandal. Here are some viewpoints that ought to contrast nicely with what you're seeing on your TV screens:

Firstly, Stephen Hayes questions Joseph Wilson's credibility:

Wilson lied and lied repeatedly. His central contention--that he had seen documents about the alleged sale and determined that they were forgeries -- was a fabrication. We know this because Wilson took his trip in February 2002 and the U.S. government did not receive those documents until October 2002. It could not have happened the way Wilson described it to [Washington Post reporter Walter] Pincus....Wilson was later confronted about his misrepresentations. He told investigators from the Senate Intelligence Committee that he may have "misspoken."

Secondly, Cliff May asserts that Robert Novak did not expose Plame's identity to the world:

All Novak reports is that the wife of former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson is “an Agency operative on weapons of mass destruction.”

Novak has said repeatedly that he was not told, and that he did not know, that Plame was — or had ever been — a NOC, an agent with Non-Official Cover. He has emphatically said that had he understood that she was any sort of secret agent, he would never have named her.

As for Novak’s use of the word “operative,” he might as easily have called her an “official,” an “analyst, or an “employee.” But, as a longtime newsman, he instinctively chose the sexiest term (one he routinely applies to political figures, too, i.e. “a party operative”).

Finally, and most importantly, lots of juicy stuff on the Iraq-Niger uranium connection itself (apologies if this link seems to be nothing but minutiae, but the devil is in the details):

[Joseph Wilson] had to admit to his CIA bosses what he denied to the news media (including the Post itself), that Nigerien officials themselves admitted the Iraqis had tried to meet with them to discuss what the Nigeriens thought was uranium procurement; and the other from sources within the CIA that indicated Niger was not the only country Iraq was hitting up for yellowcake... the Iraqis also contacted the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Somalia for the same purpose.

Also, the infamous "16 words" was not a lie.

Buy the wife something pretty....

2005-10-28T22:50:00.000-04:00

George's better half has been on the take! A UN inquiry has demonstrated Iraqi oil allocation money flowing into Galloway's wife's bank account.

Days after a US Senate committee tracked a $150,000 (£84,000) payment to the MP’s now estranged Palestinian wife, the UN inquiry reported that Amina Naji Abu Zayyad had earlier received a series of transfers totalling $120,000.

Also:

In all, about half the 4,500 companies that bought oil or supplied humanitarian goods under the UN scheme are suspected of having paid illegal kickbacks to the Saddam Hussein government. But only one oil company and 26 humanitarian suppliers actually admitted doing so.

Furthermore:

The committee reported that the Iraqi government developed a policy of favoring France, as well as Russia; it considered France a "friend" for opposing the United Nations' sanctions against Iraq. Other companies from different countries tried to reposition themselves with French connections and the help of well-placed people...One-third of the oil exported from Iraq through the program ended up in the hands of Russian companies, the report said. Russia had argued for lifting the sanctions.

Anton La Guardia, writing for the New Statesman, attributes America's friendship with Israel to Cold War policy of Soviet containment, while reminding us:

Who provided the fighter aircraft and other weapons that the Jews used to carve out a state for themselves in Palestine in 1948? America, you might say. Wrong. It was the Soviet bloc. Who built the Dimona reactor that allowed Israel to become the only nuclear power in the Middle East? The United States, surely. No, France. Who conspired with Israel to invade Egypt and remove Gamal Abdel Nasser, the Arab anti-colonial trouble-maker of his time? Step forward Britain and France. It was the US president, Dwight Eisenhower, who demanded and obtained Israel's withdrawal from all the territory it had occupied in the Suez crisis of 1956.

North Sea Diaries is worrying about drift in the European Project:

The EU has lost its sense of purpose, and with that, its popularity. The Union has helped to bring peace across the continent and wealth for most of its inhabitants. But citizens are hardly aware of these benefits. Most EU policies directly benefit only a small number of people, such as farmers or exchange students. For many others, the EU has become a problem, rather than a solution: it appears cumbersome and opaque; it adds layers of bureaucracy; it seems to make competition for jobs fiercer by embracing lowcost
countries.

George W. Bush isn't the only president whose competence is being questioned these days. Dan Drezner on Ahmedinejad in Iran:

A sense of malaise in the economy has resulted both from Mr Ahmadi-Nejad's statist rhetoric and from tension with Europe and the US over Iran's atomic programme. Hossein Abdeh-Tabrizi, secretary-general of the TSE (Tehran Stock Exchange), has linked falling share prices to the nuclear issue.

Russian police have arrested Rasul Kudayev, a former Guantanamo prisoner, for being involved in the terrorist attacks in the town of Nalchik. Gateway Pundit has a full round-up here.

A great article in the IHT: "Ten Reasons Terror Meets Silence from Muslims" available here. It covers the usual suspects: anger at US foreign policy, perceived legitimacy of militants fighting campaigns of "liberation", history of political repression, fear imposed by Islamic fanatics, etc. However, Reason #6 is the one we ought to worry about (because we're powerless to affect change on this factor):

A sense of humiliation is widespread in the Arab world, fed by Israel's victories, America's invasion of Iraq, a history of Western colonization, and the economic and cultural failings chronicled by the United Nations in successive Arab Human Development Reports. The other face of humiliation is belligerence; the other face of misery is the quest for recovered pride. In this context, jihadists who embrace death over being demeaned are viewed as salvaging some vestige of Arab and Islamic honor.

Bear that in mind when watching the upcoming film "Paradise Now" for an often overlooked psychological aspect of asymmetrical warfare.

Having said that, however, haven't we all heard this line of logic, which manifests itself as Reason #10:

Islam is far younger than the world's other main religions. The Prophet Muhammad died in 632, less than 1,400 years ago. Perhaps Islam's effervescence and violence may be compared to that of Christendom at the time of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that was followed by religious wars of devastating brutality in Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries. Not for centuries after that did Western colonialism, inseparable from missionary Christian zeal to convert the pagan unbeliever, reach its zenith. No wonder, then, that Muslims are reluctant to speak out about, or denounce, the bomb-bearing zealots who proclaim, however preposterously, Islam and its civilization as their cause.

Does that mean that Islam is obliged to follow the theological 1-2-3 of revolt, tear asunder and then come to terms with Reason and Reality? No, in fact, with the benefit of hindsight, Islamic theologians can regard the history of Christianity as a cautionary tale of faith-based brutality. This is not a zero-sum game, and the stakes are too high to wage war for the sake of an "even score".

So what's the answer? Well, in the long run, we could simply abolish organized religion. That might be the best thing the human race ever did for itself.

Film Review: Good Night, and Good Luck

2005-10-26T14:45:00.000-04:00

George Clooney is easily the most politically active of Hollywood's A-List - right up there with Tim Robbins and Sean Penn. Unlike the latter two, however, he's constantly in the limelight, making it easier for him to broadcast his message.

In 2003, Clooney collaborated with Steven Soderbergh (Oscar-winning quasi-indie director) to create the HBO series "K Street", a Washington DC-based TV show about lobbyists and political deal-making. At the end of this year, we'll be treated to his feature film "Syriana" - no doubt one can glean its Middle Eastern inclinations from the name.

In "Good Night, and Good Luck", Clooney takes us back to the era of McCarthyism in early 1950s black-and-white, cigarette smoke-ensconsed America. The film focuses on Edward R. Murrow, a CBS news anchor whose programs exposed McCarthy as a rabble-rousing fraud. The actors all turn it great performances - particularly stoic David Strathairn as Murrow.

The film, however, feels stark and ponderous, lacking rhythm and tension. Clooney clearly intended for the film to have post-Sept-11-War-in-Iraq-Bush-is-a-demagogue implications: cue the tagline "We cannot support freedom abroad, while deserting it at home". Yeah, yeah, George, we get it.

From Slate: Clooney may have gotten his history wrong.

Here's Stanley Kaufmann's review at TNR.

Ain't I tough enough?

2005-10-25T12:58:00.000-04:00

Ben Bernanke, who wrote my college economics textbook, will soon be the new chairman of the Federal Reserve. Slate wonders whether he'll be tough enough on inflation:

Some suspect Bernanke of being a little soft on inflation. After all, Bernanke was an instrumental figure in the incipient deflation scare of 2002 and 2003, which gave Greenspan the intellectual justification to push interest rates to record lows and to leave them there. If he was so worried about falling prices, Bernanke might be insufficiently concerned about rising ones.

Now, calling a Fed nominee soft on inflation in 2005 is a little like calling a State Department nominee soft on communism in the 1950s. But how the Federal Reserve deals with the very real threat of inflation is the question Bernanke will face upon assuming office.

Also from Slate, Fred Kaplan excoriates Brent Scowcroft's (Bush Sr's National Security Advisor) and Col. Larry Wilkerson's (Colin Powell's State Dept aide) delay in publicly criticizing White House policy. Scowcroft is a committed "realist" and so is easily turned off by the quasi-Wilsonian talk of democratizing the Middle East (see his op-ed cautioning against invading Iraq, written in 2002). For his part, Wilkerson recently suggested (not so subtley) that US foreign policy has been hijacked by a Cheney-Rumsfeld "cabal".

The Belmont Club on Galloway - who's back in the news, this time denying fresh allegations that he lied to the Senate Subcommittee on Investigations during his testimony this spring:

The Times [UK] reports that "The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations will refer the Respect Party MP for possible prosecution after concluding that he gave 'false and misleading' testimony at his appearance before the panel in May." In particular, the Senate alleges they have found a paper trail showing payments leading from Fawaz Zureikat to George Galloway's wife. The Washington Times further reports that "Mr. Galloway personally asked for and received from Mr. Aziz and others eight allocations from 1999 to 2003 for the rights to 23 million barrels of oil." In any trial over perjury, Galloway's response to the Senator's questions in May will loom large. Galloway is laughing the whole thing off.

Finally, an Arab version of the Simpsons is in the offing. The "Shamsoon" family features Omar (Homer), Badr (Bart) and Mona (Marge), amongst others. Needless to say:

References in the English version to sex, alcohol, and other taboos in Muslim culture are largely absent in the Arabic version. Instead, the episodes selected focus on familial and social malaises in a not-so-provocative manner. These include stories highlighting the role of the mother, in this case Marge, that goes largely unappreciated by the rest of the family, or the negative consequences of figures that are idolised by kids -- like Crusty the Clown -- turning to crime.

Just to be safe, let's fax the scripts to the Saudi Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue for approval...

We're in the money!

2005-10-24T19:05:00.000-04:00

Another reason to hate Bush: the profligacy of the Texan's White House knows no bounds. From an article in Reason:

To date, the Bush administration has a disjointed, two-track budget policy. It has favored letting Americans keep more of their money via tax cuts while steadily building up the welfare state via unrestrained spending. Over time, that that strategy can't work. As Milton Friedman and others have long argued, the size of government is found in its total spending and, ultimately, spending is a taxpayer issue. Higher spending and resulting deficits create a constant threat of higher taxes. It's no surprise that not just Democrats but even moderate Republicans are now arguing that Bush's recent tax cuts be allowed to expire.

Read the full article for some interesting graphs and data.

From the Guardian, on Kosovo:

In Kosovo, too, a UN-led protectorate with broad powers, UNMIK, was established after the 1999 NATO intervention. An undemocratic institution by definition, it failed to create democratic citizenship in Kosovo but contributed to an irreconcilable ethnic separation - a serious obstacle to democracy and stability.

From the Washington Post, as Ukraine celebrates the first anniversary of the Orange Revolution (and its modest successes), Jackson Diehl advises the Bush Administration to follow through on its pledges in supporting freedom in Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan:

Instead, President Bush chose to engage. Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan got a letter from the president and a visit from a senior State Department official last week. Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan was visited by Condoleezza Rice the week before. The messages to them were almost exactly the same: Hold a free and fair election, and you can "elevate our countries' relations to a new strategic level." That could mean a lot -- not just state visits to Washington for Nazarbayev and Aliyev (who covets one), but also closer military ties, help in solving problems (such as an unresolved war between Azerbaijan and Armenia), and status as primary U.S. partners in the Caucasus and Central Asia. It could also send a powerful message to several neighbors -- such as Uzbekistan, whose strongman just broke off his "strategic partnership" with the Bush administration rather than go along with demands for liberalization.

Of course, it's all in the execution. So here's to hoping that the Teal Revolution is next...

Some interesting facts on the American South that makes its ostensible political philosophy a bit disconnected from reality:

* While they proclaim their opposition to the "high tax-high spend" model, they quite generously munch on federal taxes.
* For all their talk of "family values", the South leads in divorces nationally. The lowest divorces in the United States? Massachusetts - the only state to soon legalize gay marriage, the supposed "threat to marriage".
* The South also has the highest murder rate in America.

Dem 'Bama boys got some catching up to do... (thanks to Nick for the article!)

I happened to watch Bill Maher's talk show last night on HBO. His guests included leading black director Spike Lee and leading bow-tie-wearing conservative Tucker Carlson (whom I met back in January, coincidentally). Lee began defending Louis Farrakhan's suggestion that the levees in New Orleans were intentionally destroyed, so as to cleanse New Orleans of its black populace. When Carlson began to attack this outrageous assertion, it became clear that the audience applauded Lee more than they did Carlson. Another sad example of Liberal America's being taken hostage by the "victimhood" meme as an alternative to an actual platform on minority issues. How sad...

Finally, animated bunnies re-enacting famous movies in short 30 second clips. My favorite: Pulp Fiction.

I once made a car this small...

2005-10-21T18:33:00.000-04:00

Researchers at Rice University have created a "nanocar" measuring just 4 x 3 nanometers. It is slightly wider than a strand of DNA -- a human hair is about 80,000 nanometers thick. The car has a chassis, axles and a pivoting suspension. The wheels are buckyballs, spheres of pure carbon containing 60 atoms apiece.

(Full story in Popular Mechanics here)

A Palestinian NGO survey has shown shifts in public opinion in Gaza since the Israeli withdrawal. The priority is now economic advancement, which is favored by a 15% margin over Israeli control of Gaza's land and sea borders:

Ironically, he says, the Palestinians now are strongly in support of a permanent ceasefire, even though most of them believe the Gaza pullout was due to the Palestinian use of force.

Add that to the "Self-righteously Ineffective Muslim Use of Force" file, along with "Israel leaves southern Lebanon as a result of Hizbollah".

From Asharq Al-Awsat, on Nobel Prizes and Saddam Hussein, by Amir Taheri:

...the truth is that the winner for the past two years has been chosen by the man whose trial opened in Baghdad last Wednesday. Surprised? Don’t be. Saddam Hussein al-Takriti, the man who bullied and butchered the people of Iraq for three decades, is emerging as an undeclared hero of some self-styled liberals in the West who continue to oppose the liberation of Iraq because of their hatred of the United States.

Surprised we are not.

From Strategy Page, on Muslim NATO peacekeepers:

...it was believed that, as Moslems, they would have a better rapport with the Afghans. That did not happen. Part of the problem is that Afghans, in general, are not crazy about foreigners, no matter what their religion. They are particularly hostile to Turks and Arabs. The former, because there is a Turkish minority in Afghanistan that has long been seen as a threat to the Indo-European tribes (the Pushtuns and Tajiks) who have traditionally dominated the area. Arabs are disliked because they comprised most of the al Qaeda personnel in Afghanistan.

Which is partly why having Muslim military forces in Iraq or Afghanistan would not have helped as much as many would love to imagine. Besides, let's not forget Somalia in 1993, when Aideed massacred more than 20 Pakistani peacekeepers after the Americans withdrew. Little intra-faith fraternality there, no?

Turkish (not-so) delight...

2005-10-19T18:59:00.000-04:00

It's no secret why Europe is reluctant to allow Turkey past the velvet rope into the club. Michael Rubin writes in the National Review about the worrying signs of increased Islamization in Turkey:

Large firms deemed un-Islamic or pro-Western by the ruling party’s advisors have also been subject to arbitrary taxation and penalty unsupported by any financial regulation or audit. The government has targeted beer manufacturer Efes and the local Coca-Cola bottler, while promoting products manufactured by companies deemed Islamist. Turkish Airlines once served Coca-Cola on its flights. According to flight attendants, at the request of the government, it increasingly substitutes Cola Turka, a brand owned by Ulker, a confectionary company long associated with Islamic causes.

Furthermore, a recent survey taken in the Turkish town of Diyarbakir showed a 37% support for "honour killings" (i.e. murder as punishment for adultery). More importantly, 21% supported amputation - in other words, nearly 60% of those surveyed were in favor of state brutality to deal with philanderers.

The Coup Eighty is not convinced that Turkish membership of the EU will do much to assuage the concerns of Salafists who desire a final showdown with the West. Many international figures, including Tony Blair and George W Bush insist that a Turkey-EU betrothal will be a moral victory against Islamic radicalism. But there's no evidence to suggest that the absorption of a conservative, Islamic republic (whose average citizen earns 1/4 that of the average EU citizen) will strike a blow for the forces of liberalism. In any case, the Europeans have the right to admit, or reject, any nation they choose. There is a good chance they'll exercise the latter option.

I saw the PBS Frontline documentary on torture at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib, which you can watch online here. There's no way to dance around it: the military not only used torture as a matter of course, but is shrouded in a culture of secrecy that protects the villains. The Bush Administration, in an act of moral cowardice, has used various legal memos (of dubious merit) to justify these reprehensible policies, which have done more damage to America's image than is probably reparable in the short-term.

Some individuals have bravely stood up, including Col. Ian Fishback, who's been lauded by several bloggers, most notably Andrew Sullivan here. Fishback shot to fame when his torture allegations first surfaced on the front page of the New York Times (story here).

The New Statesman (UK) has picked the 10 people most likely to change the world. The famous-but-overrated politician Barack Obama made the list. More meritoriously, the list also saw the Emir of Qatar, for his brave and prescient efforts at liberalising the culture of the conservative Gulf sheikhdom.

Finally, something my brother would appreciate, from the Guardian: on why we can't seem to appreciate modern art.

Shhh....

2005-10-17T19:19:00.000-04:00

America's spymasters have created a new intelligence body, the National Clandestine Service. According to John Negroponte, the Service "will serve as the national authority for the integration, coordination, de-confliction and evaluation of human intelligence operations across the entire intelligence community." From the Christian Science Monitor:

But The New York Times reports that the new office, which was supposed to provide more coordination of spying operations, will have limited authority. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Defense Department, meanwhile, will be free to "carry out an increasing array of human intelligence missions without central operational control, two senior intelligence officials said Thursday."

Ah, what a mess spying is. It's not at all clear that the NCS will assist the FBI, CIA, DIA, NSA in providing the DCI more info to POTUS on protecting the USA from UBL.

The Europeans are starting to worry about bird flu. But Instapundit wonders whether we're getting our feathers much too ruffled...?

The WSJ is not too surprised by Harold Pinter's recent Nobel win:

Now Mr. Pinter's own political views are--to put it mildly--no secret. He is a Castro-loving America-hater of long and virulent standing who went off the deep end when the U.S. and Britain decided to remove Saddam Hussein from power. He later described this country as "the most feared, most powerful and most detested nation the world has ever known" (worse even than Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia, in other words) and proclaimed the invasion of Iraq to be "an act of state terrorism. So it is Bush and Blair who are in fact the terrorists. I believe they must be arraigned at the International Criminal Court of Justice and tried as war criminals."

The article also brings up the case of Italian playwright Dario Fo (winner of the '97 prize) who termed Sept 11 thus: "Regardless of who carried out the massacre, this violence is the legitimate daughter of the culture of violence, hunger and inhumane exploitation."

A few days ago, an Indian firm acquired the company that makes Britain's most god-awful tea, "Typhoo". I paid 1 pound for the privilege of drinking this swill on board a train headed to Scotland back in the autumn of 2003 - really atrocious stuff, yet the English drink it by the gallon-load in spite of their not-undeserved reputation for being a nation of tea-philes.

Finally, read about the stock market analysts who predict the Dow Jones in New York will hit 40,000 (yes, forty thousand) in the next ten years:

A key element of both the Dent and Hays outlook is the observation that most extreme bull phases of the last century – 1915 to 1919, 1925 to 1929, 1935 to 1937, 1985 to 1987 and 1995 to 1999 -- were preceded by major corrections (or crashes), followed by a strong initial recovery and then a one-to-two-year trading range. Of course, the implication is that the crash in this case was the 2000-2002 bear market, the recovery rally happened in 2003 and the trading range was seen from 2004 to 2005. Dent suggests that the markets “are simply waiting for signs that the Fed can’t tighten much further” and for oil to correct below $58-to-$62 support levels “to suggest a top in that bubble.”

Iraqi Referendum Update

2005-10-16T11:55:00.000-04:00

Voting in Iraq's constitutional referendum was both peaceful and enjoyed a high turnout. Especially heartening was high Sunni participation, including an 80% turnout in Saddam's hometown, Tikrit.

Here are some photos of voting day, courtesy Iraqi blogger Sooni.

Reuters is predicting a Yes vote.

Praise to be Allah

2005-10-16T00:58:00.000-04:00

A conversation between an aid worker and a mullah in the earthquake-devastated region of northern Pakistan, from a BBC article on trying to feed survivors during Ramadan:

"Surely," Mohammed Mustafa argued, "if the people are hungry they must eat? Look, they're suffering. I'm a Muslim too. These people have nothing, they need this food."

It was a vitriolic exchange but, in classic Pakistani style, they eventually worked out a compromise.

"Cook in the day if you must," the mullah grumbled, "but if I see anyone here eating during daylight hours I'll be back and I'll set this place alight."

In fact, many of the earthquake victims are observing Ramadan. Under their makeshift tents, they dutifully wait for the sun to go over the horizon before tucking into bread, dates and whatever else the aid trucks have brought in.

All for world peace...

2005-10-16T00:28:00.000-04:00

My alma mater finally does me proud. This is Lisette Diaz, a UCSD junior who was recently crowned the winner of the American Miss World pageant. She'll compete in the International Miss World at the end of the year.

Jack Shafer at Slate is upset at all this slavish attention being lavished on Apple and Steve Jobs...

Courtesy Eric Alterman, at The Nation:

The obvious difference between FDR's and Bush's wars is necessity. True, FDR led the nation into war by less than forthright means, but he did so because he knew that Germany and Japan were genuine and unavoidable threats to American security and prosperity. Bush chose war for reasons of ideological fanaticism, coupled with personal pique and historical ignorance rather than any verifiable threat.

If liberating millions of one of the 20th century's worst brutes is "ideological fanaticism", then I am proud to be one of its mindless minions.

As you would've heard by now, Ghazi Kanaan, Syria's spy chief, "committed suicide". From the Economist:

A master manipulator of Lebanon’s viciously contesting factions, he systematically bled Syria’s enemies before helping to seal the accord in 1989 that ended Lebanon’s 15 years of civil war and ensconced Syria as Lebanon’s final arbiter. The ensuing peace, enforced by a security establishment that reported directly to Mr Kanaan, richly rewarded his friends, top Syrian generals and pro-Syrian Lebanese politicians alike.

One of the most articulate voices of neo-conservatism, Max Boot, is concerned about China:

History, alas, teaches that it is difficult if not impossible to integrate peacefully a major illiberal challenger into an international system it did not design and does not control. Just ask the British, who 100 years ago occupied the strategic niche that America fills today - a global hegemon threatened by powerful upstarts. In America's case the rival is China; in Britain's it was Germany and Japan. The British tried confrontation with Germany (symbolized by the 1904 Anglo-French Entente Cordiale and an Anglo-German naval arms race) and appeasement with Japan (the 1902 Anglo-Japanese Alliance and considerable aid for the Imperial Japanese Navy until the late 1920s). Neither policy worked, and the result was two of the most horrific wars in history.

British blogger Clive Davis interviewed Reagan's former speechwriter, Peter Robinson:

It’s unfair to compare Bush with Reagan on the former point—chief executives as skilled at communications as was the Gipper seem to come along only two or three times in each century—but entirely fair to compare him with Reagan on the second. Where is Bush’s overarching vision? The progress he has made in Iraq amounts to a historic accomplishment, and Europeans think he’s bad at PR only because they disagree with his policy. But where is his domestic agenda? "Compassionate conservatism?" We now know that in practice it amounts to a themeless mass of spending programmes.

Ironically, foreign policy is Bush's saving grace as president (I can expect much excoriation for that remark).

And finally, there has been much debate about the future of the internet. Currently, the body that assigns web addresses (and other such technical hoo-hah), ICANN, is a non-profit Californian body that is under contract to do so from the US Department of Commerce. Many would like to see international (i.e. UN) control of the internet. Here's what The Belmont Club had to say about the UN Working Group on Internet Governance (WGIG):

It is precisely because the US "has never abused its position in that way" that the Internet has become so universally accepted .... The WGIG's essentially argues that the United States might be tempted to debase the Internet in order to control it. However, a moment's reflection will convince most readers that any American attempt to behave as the WGIG's members (like Saudi Arabia and Iran) would probably be tempted to behave would instantly lead to the end of the US monopoly.

The last thing we need is UN control of the internet - after all, look what happened when it tried to administer the world's phones.

Perhaps we can get "cquark", our occasional contributor, who has more than a passing interest in technology matters, to comment...?

A beautiful mind...

2005-10-12T00:11:00.000-04:00

Thomas Schelling was a co-winner of this year's Nobel prize in economics. His book, The Strategy of Conflict, was required reading back in my college days, and so the name is very familiar to me. Schelling won the award for his work in game theory:

He helped to prevent war because he understood it and explained it brilliantly to others, changing the intellectual climate, inspiring a generation of strategic thinkers and, almost incidentally, saving the young discipline of game theory from irrelevance.

(From the FT)

Azmi Bishara (writing in Egypt's Al-Ahram) has penned an exhaustingly long, but broadly accurate, account of how the Palestinian conflict became a political symbol of Arab victimhood:

Official solidarity with the Palestinian people has been no less a myth than solidarity between Arab governments. Arab regimes have varied greatly in their treatment to the Palestinian cause. Their approach has ranged between cynical demagogical exploitation in order to silence the voice of social and democratic reform at home to the sincere belief that the Palestinian cause is the Arabs' central cause, a belief that has virtually been elevated to the ranks of an ideology.

From the same paper, a political science professor at the University of Cairo has turned out a piece of tripe that I can't imagine would hold up to the least bit of academic scrutiny! First, he begins with some unintentional humor:

One of the best known journalists [Robert Fisk] working for one of the most balanced and respectable British papers, The Independent, Fisk has an extensive and deep understanding of the Middle East. His writing is characterised by balance, objectivity and a high degree of professionalism, and he is consistently critical of US policy in the region.

Fisk has as much credibility as George Monbiot, Jonathan Power and Noam Chomsky. His articles read as propaganda newsletters for Arab Communists.

So far, ridiculous but not completely objectionable. Then, it takes a dangerous turn:

The collapse of the USSR opened the path for the right in America, particularly its extreme Christian fundamentalist wing. This wing has local and international ambitions at the core of which is a discriminatory and racist agenda that poses a greater danger to political liberalism than communism and, perhaps, even Nazism.

This man's ignorance tests the kindest limits of tolerance. It's disheartening to believe that such men are responsible for educating the next generation of Arab youth. Allah ma'hum.

And then there were four...

2005-10-11T18:49:00.000-04:00

The leadership contest for the UK Conservative Party is heating up. The BBC has some background info on the four contenders for the job here.

The *only* topic of discussion in Turkey, it seems, is entry into the European Union. Perusal of the opinion section of the country's Zaman newspaper shows that 13 out of 19 columnists are discussing one aspect or the other of this issue.

The New Yorker has an audio commentary on "architectural weirdness of Dubai" here.

Angela Merkel will soon be Germany's first female chancellor (and the first chancellor of united Germany from the country's east). From the Christian Science Monitor:

But the new chancellor, whose right-of-center Christian Democrats have just announced an unusual coalition with rival left-of-center Social Democrats, could help restart Europe's economic engine by making more of an effort to address women's and easterners' issues.

According to Hoppenstedt, a respected compiler of German business information, women hold only 9 percent of top and middle management jobs in German companies - shockingly low compared to other industrialized countries. Fifty percent of university graduates are women, yet less than 10 percent of tenured professors are.

It's not laws to blame here, but deeply rooted attitudes about women's roles (slowly changing) as well as structural hurdles (limited shopping hours and day-care centers - also improving). These make the already difficult balancing act of family and career even harder.

Also, from Deutsche Welle, on new economic stratification in Germany:

"This study shows us is that there is a still a Berlin Wall, an economic one," said the INSM's Walter. "But it runs from east to west through the former east Germany, separating the more dynamic southern states from the more weaker northern ones."

Finally, the Butcher of Baghdad goes on trial next week. The Boston Globe has a piece on the judges who'll preside over the proceedings:

The judges were trained and educated in Iraqi law but were not familiar with the humanitarian and war-crimes laws involved. That was the predominant area of training provided by outsiders, the officials said. Iraqi judges have also been trained in Jordan, Italy and The Netherlands. The judges will be permitted to draw help from international advisers during the trial. Reporters are expected to be permitted to attend, but no decision has been announced on whether the trial will be televised.

More as the story develops...

How ya doin?

2005-10-09T16:06:00.000-04:00

From a Bernard Henri-Levy article in the Atlantic Monthly about the United States:

Here, when your gaze meets someone else's, when people bump into each other, there's a flurry of "It's okay," "You're welcome," "Enjoy your trip"—friendly commonplaces, outward signs of warmth, especially smiles, yes, those smiles that mean nothing, those affectless, emotionless smiles, smiles that seem to be there only to signify the pure will to smile and, by so doing, defuse any conflict that threatens. All that, once again, so quintessentially American …

Levy is re-tracing Alexis de Tocqueville's travels across the US (to read the full article, you might need to register with the Atlantic's website.)

The North Koreans are trying to be friendlier to the outside world:

Here in the North Korean capital, where ubiquitous slogans posted on deserted boulevards and carved into mammoth towers give the city the look of an off-season theme park dedicated to a bygone ideology, one message is conspicuously absent these days. There is no mural showing muscular North Korean soldiers stabbing American troops with bayonets, as there once was. No longer is there a billboard depicting a North Korean missile slamming into Capitol Hill in Washington. And there are no shrill slogans exhorting North Koreans to prepare for "a final battle with American imperialist aggressors," as they did in the past.

Well, it still isn't enough to make up for this.

From an FT survey of billionaires:

Rob Davies, the managing director of Water for Fish, a business psychology consultancy based in the UK, says that beneath the polished surface of the billionaire boss there may lie a troubled soul. “Many will have a primordial fear of something or other: of being poor, of their brutal father, of being unloved - something that gets them out there,” he says. "What is Bill Gates frightened of? He is frightened of being bullied. So Microsoft has gone for world domination. If you dominate the world, they can’t come and stamp on your glasses,” Davies says.

So where does crashing browser windows fit into this?

It's a sign of the overwhelming strength of the Australian cricket team that even a hand-picked team of 11 players from all over the world could not slow down the Antipodean Colussus. Beating the ICC World XI by 156 runs, they romped to victory and decimated the opposition 3-0 in the series.

Have a Bebsi after braying...

2005-10-08T23:57:00.000-04:00

Seen at Kuwait's zoo, apparently...

Daylight come and ... he doesn't see it

2005-10-08T16:27:00.000-04:00

Harry Belafonte's outrageous comments equating conservative black Americans with "tyrants" received a well-deserved reaction at the National Review:

Does Belafonte know that when the Civil Rights Act — the most important modern civil-rights legislation — was passed, a greater proportion of House Republicans than House Democrats voted for it? As one writer has pointed out, "Without Republicans the bill would have failed."
What Belafonte needs to know is that the Republican party of George W. Bush is in the Lincoln tradition: a party that strongly favors civil rights and racial equality.

Well, unless it's civil rights for gay Americans or for detainees in Guantanamo....

And speaking of gay rights, this Washington Post article demonstrates Pope Benedict's crusade against homosexuality:

"No doctrinal chief has ever written and spoken about homosexuality as extensively as Ratzinger has, because homosexuals have never had the freedom to organize and demand recognition they enjoy today," wrote author John L. Allen Jr. in a biography of Benedict, published before he became pope. His papacy's early focus on homosexuality is a reaction to outside events, some analysts have said: the spread of so-called civil unions or marriage rights to same-sex couples, and the disclosure of sexual abuse by priests. Vatican officials have largely blamed the abuse on homosexuality.

The Catholic Church's unacceptable stance against homosexuality is part of a broader fundamentalist trend that vigorously suppressed transparent accountability when the child abuse scandals broke in the United States a few years ago. Yet, what can you expect from an faith, one of whose leading lights called abortion "the biggest threat to world peace"?

Also from the Post, the Iranian Supreme Leader has quietly allocated moderates more power:

But analysts found significance in the timing of the change, which had been proposed to Khamenei years earlier. Coming now, the expansion of the Expediency Council's power was widely viewed as, at minimum, a gesture intended to restore some prestige to Rafsanjani. He played a key role in elevating Khamenei to the position of supreme religious leader after the 1989 death of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the 1979 revolution that installed Iran's religious government. Others also saw an effort to balance the rise of hard-liners who control Iran's elective branches of government, as well as the judiciary and the Guardian Council. Control of parliament shifted to conservatives last year in an election the Guardian Council closed off to anyone else.

Finally, from the San Francisco Chronicle, an op-ed that wonders why the Western press largely ignored Afghanistan's recent parliamentary elections. For its part, the Independent (UK), naturally keen to magnify any (perceived or real) faults in the American democratization project, highlights the power of the country's warlords.

Weekend Treat

2005-10-07T20:39:00.000-04:00

Forgot to add these two to the previous entry:

First, commentary on a new university study linking religiosity and social ills (such as teen pregnancies, homicide, abortion) in religious democracies. Here's a transcript of the exchange between TV anchor Tucker Carlson and a university professor who backs the study, and you can also watch the video at the same page.

Rest assured, for those allergic to religion, there is always a place at Coup Eight.

Additionally, for those who have erroneously described me as a "Bush Republican", the New Republic has a cover story on the top 15 hacks in the Bush Administration. Here's an excerpt on Israel Hernandez, who's now an Asst. Secy. at the Dept. of Commerce:

Fresh out of college and seeking a job on George W. Bush's 1994 Texas gubernatorial campaign, Israel Hernandez showed up an hour early for his interview with the candidate. Impressed by his punctuality, Bush hired Hernandez within days and eventually invited him to live with the Bush family in their Dallas home, where Hernandez reportedly became like an older brother to Jenna and Barbara Bush.

Lonely at the top?

2005-10-07T20:04:00.000-04:00

The Economist on the crisis facing Basher Assad in Syria:

Internal opposition groups are small, fractious and closely watched. But general resentment runs high, against such ills as corruption, unemployment, sky-high house prices and the privileged place of Mr Assad's Alawite sect, which makes up 15% of Syria's mostly Sunni Muslim population. Sporadic unrest in the provinces has pitted restless Kurds, Ismailis and Druze against police or against other sects. Sunni extremists, who once refrained from attacks in Syria in recognition of its support for Iraq's “resistance”, may have changed tactics. Gun battles between such groups and police now break out regularly. Businessmen, many of them Sunnis, complain they are tired of uncertainty. Cash is said to be flowing rapidly abroad.

The article envisions either a lash-out against the fledgling opposition (including the Muslim Brotherhood) or an internal coup, unless Assad cooperates with the UN investigation and sacrifices one of its own to escape an unenviable fate.

An op-ed in the Washington Times is hardly in favor of Turkish inclusion into the EU, yet it bases its opposition on broad cultural apprehensions:

Europe can either decide to become a global actor or it can fence itself off as a Christian club," Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, flipping the issue on its head before the EU voted to open membership talks with Turkey.... But there was another implication to the Turkish leader's words: that Western identity is merely a tribal expression of petty insularity. Free will, free conscience -- the evolution of individual liberty -- is the gift of Judeo-Christian civilization, and it is one that Islam has never accepted.

True, but if 70 million Muslims can join a club where this 'gift of Judeo-Christian civilization' is its raison d'etre, perhaps that might not be so bad..?

From the Khaleej Times (UAE), on the Arab world's history of military coups:

Independent decision-making, communications, logistics and command structure in Arab militaries are all variables of politics, not professional criteria. It is an axiom in the US Army that its staff sergeants have more authority than full colonels in the armies of Washington’s Arab protégés. Battlefield performance is impossible without independent decision-making, the free flow of intelligence, ‘espirit de corps’ and autonomy in the officer corps, yet these are all stunted in Arab armies as threats to the regime in power.

The author ignores the direct relationship between the problem of military accountability and the lack of civilian oversight of a nation's armed forces (yes, democracy).

The IAEA and Mohamed El-Baradei won the Nobel Peace Prize this year. The blogger Roger L. Simon on the need to abolish the Prize.

Speaking the local be-bop...

2005-10-04T23:40:00.000-04:00

Like in the Cold War days, Americans are gearing up to learn the language of the world's hot-spot:

From a national security point of view, however, there is no time to waste. According to the 9/11 Commission report, in 2002 U.S. colleges and universities granted a sum total of six undergraduate degrees in Arabic. The report also found that the government has too few translators and those it does employ lack, in many cases, the requisite proficiency in Arabic. This deficiency impairs intelligence collection and analysis, hobbles the rebuilding of Iraq, and threatens overall U.S. efforts to promote democracy in the broader Middle East.

From the Economist: software that helps to predict the course of warfare.

An editorial in the Times (UK) on why Dominique de Villepin's hands are tied in France:

So far, there are worrying signs that Villepin is trying to have it both ways: talking about restoring French greatness to hide the bitter taste of his reform plans — and then backing down from reform anyway when he meets opposition.... Four months is too little by which to judge Villepin. But the mixed messages he is sending do not encourage confidence in his commitment to push through tough reforms.

French voters were not encouraged by Chirac's nomination of Villepin for PM. Not only has he never stood for election in his political life, but Villepin represents the snooty Gaullic political elite that is detested by ordinary Frenchmen for being out of touch with the nation's worries. Internationally, however, he'll be remembered for his eloquent, if morally bankrupt, defence of France's objection to the war in Iraq at the UN Security Council.

A great article in The Belmont Club blog on the current US military operation against the despicable insurgency in Iraq:

Although there have been very few public descriptions of US dispositions and detailed accounts of enemy movements, it is reasonable to guess from the topography that American forces operate parallel to the river valley in the flat areas to the north and south, while the insurgents maneuver along the populated belt where they can shelter in the houses.... According the Marine press releases, the operations in Sa'dah and environs are "part of an overall operation called Sayaid (Hunter), which is intended to deny Al Qaeda in Iraq the ability to operate freely in the Euphrates River Valley". Therefore we would expect to observe US forces cutting the Euphrates river line in other places and pushing the insurgents along the valley in the manner of a man slicing a sausage.

I'd recommend reading the entire posting, complete with satellite photos and maps.

Finally, from the Lifestyle section at Forbes magazine, the most expensive cars in the world.

Of Vice and Men...

2005-10-03T18:12:00.000-04:00

A Salon opinion piece by Garrisson Keiller on Congress' efforts (here in the US) to regulate TV content for "indecent" material:

So, here in the land of the free, freedom won by brave men whose speech was salty and whose interest in women was keen, a man cannot say "breast" on the radio. How do these people manage to order Kentucky fried chicken? ... The Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act illustrates beautifully why the American people's opinion of Congress is only slightly more favorable than our view of telemarketers and drunken drivers. You need go no farther. Congress can sometimes be so removed from reality that it goes after a mosquito with a chain saw. The word for this is dementia.

In principle, how is this different from the Taliban's Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Suppression of Vice? Keiller hits the nail right on the head!

(If you click on the above link, you may have to watch a brief commercial to read the full article).

From the Wall Street Journal: the defects of proportional representation, and why Iraq ought not to model its government along these lines.

The Washington Times is gladdened by India's IAEA vote in favor of referring Iran's case to the UN Security Council. It cautions:

U.S. officials should publicly avoid the appearance of a crude quid pro quo. If the Indian government is seen by its citizens as doing the bidding of the Bush administration, it will suffer politically and may not vote with the United States and the European Union come November. The Communists that India's ruling party depends on for its majority have publicly opposed confronting Iran at the IAEA.

Communists in India have publicly opposed many an action, yet their grip on reality is tenuous at best. Which makes it all the more shameful that they have a say in national policy in India.

The Nation on the over-medication of America. Needless to say, they blame the pharmaceutical industry - you can be the judge:

The pharmaceutical industry in the United States now spends more than $3 billion a year on direct-to-consumer advertising, promoting its most lucrative brands. Increasingly, however, these commercials are not just selling drugs but also the diseases that go with them. The shopping-cart ad for PMDD is part of a new form of TV advertising designed to introduce millions of people to previously unheard-of conditions. While the advertising claims made about the benefits and risks of medicines are regulated by law--albeit very loosely--claims about diseases remain a virtual free-for-all.

Finally, I stumbled across an Indian-American comic website, with some facetious video segments, including: what The Tonight Show would look like in India, a surreal Amitabh Bachchan animation and the Indian version of the Simpsons. Full list of video clips available here, and the comic strips are here.

Power to the proletariat

2005-10-02T23:13:00.000-04:00

Oxblog has a bit on the many uses of shoe polish - an excerpt from the original posting:

In the former Soviet Union, during the worst shortages of the 1980s, shoe polish sandwiches were used as a cheap way to get intoxicated, due to the shortage of alcohol. The method was mainly used by young men. Cheap shoe polish would be spread on a slice of bread and allowed to remain on there overnight. The next day, the polish would be scraped off, but the bread would have absorbed much of the alcohol and toxins. This would then be eaten. Three slices would produce a suitably intoxicating effect.

People have been interpreting the famous Pew survey of Arab public opinion the wrong way, apparently. Robert Satloff writes:

Pew's general pattern has been to downplay results that suggest America's standing is less bleak than commonly assumed. In 2004, for example, one question found that--in contrast to Europeans--Arabs and Muslims overwhelmingly endorsed America's role as the world's sole superpower, with huge majorities saying that international security would be endangered by the emergence of a global competitor to the United States. The press advisory made no mention of this. Similarly, the advisory avoided the fact that in three of four Muslim countries polled, there was a significant increase in the number of respondents who gave the United States a passing grade--that is, "excellent," "good," or "only fair"...

An interview with George Weah, the former FIFA Footballer of the Year, who's running for president in war-torn Liberia (from TIME magazine):

At the end of the day, what happens is God's plan but I don't think it's going to be a failure for me. For the first time in the history of the country, a young man is leading a political party that supports the interests of the people. I'm very proud that I can bring all Liberians together...

An excellent illustration of von Clausewitz's dictum that war is merely a "continuation of politics by other means" - the Christian Science Monitor is reporting on peace talks for Darfur, and how recent attacks on re-settled residents of Darfur are a signalling mechanism to talks going on in Nigeria.

My freedom is better than your freedom!

2005-10-01T21:15:00.000-04:00

Apropros the leading article in the most recent New Statesman on how faith in liberal democracy has blinded the West to countries with other "traditions":

... we are all worshippers at the altar of western liberal democracy now, and the paradox at the heart of this supposedly tolerant creed is that it is intolerant of any society which orders its affairs according to different principles....

First of all, liberal democracy is not a purely western phenomenon e.g. Japan, India, South Africa, Brazil, South Korea, etc.

Secondly, because it is only western liberal democracy that allows different cultures to practice their religion and maintain their cultural observances without state intrusion. To the extent of allowing men who condemn the very system that allows them to live in peace even though the majority of their fellow citizens find their views reprehensible.

Furthermore, to the extent that liberal democracies find other governance systems to be sub-par, they are justified because liberal democracies produce the greatest human welfare for the greatest number of citizens. Nations that either go for half-measures (such as Malaysia) or nations that attempt to shut themselves out of the inexorable march towards this system (such as Burma or North Korea) are doing their citizens a disservice.

... we say, the peoples of these countries will gladly embrace our values as surely as medieval man would have accepted that the earth was round, not flat, had he been privy to the wonders of modern science. ..

A majority of people in the repressed nations of the world yearn for freedom. Many of them risk their lives to fight for this freedom, and so the article is demeaning and dismissive of their struggle. Despicable.

... Throughout most of the Middle East, the popular alternative to dictatorial or semi-dictatorial regimes is not our system of government but Wahhabist or Shia theocracy. This is headbangingly obvious to anyone who has spent time in the region. But, of course, the leaders of the west are not Arabists. Why should they know anything of the Middle East's history?

Absolutely mistaken. Repeated surveys of the Middle East demonstrate that the Arab World is envious of the transparency and accountability of Western governance and desire the same in their own governments. "Arabists" might be a dated term, but they are the ones partly responsible for the mistaken perceptions of an exoticised Arab World that seeks, in every which way, to separate itself from the modern world. The British Foreign Office is full of them - they've been pejoratively termed the "Camel Corps".

The article proceeds to hold up Malaysia as an example of a successful Islam-Democracy hybrid:

Thus, one newspaper attacked Cherie Blair over her recent lecture in Kuala Lumpur on the grounds that Malaysia was a "repressive regime". This is an absurd oversimplification of a cosmopolitan society in which three main ethnic groups manage to exist mostly in harmony; of an Islamic state where non-Muslims are free from the restrictions of sharia law; and in which the Islam that is practised is far removed from the more conservative form familiar to us through television reports from the Middle East. It ignores the fact that Malaysia is a democracy... - not that you'd know it from western reports ....

Any country that is run by the strictures of a police state (as per the Internal Security Act, more info here) cannot be termed a "democracy".

The article does raise a perfectly valid demand of the West: one must understand other cultures to make a fuller assessment of their governance structures. Yet, the author implicitly links this cross-cultural hand-holding with tolerance of authoritarian regimes, all in the name of allowing these regimes the privilege of preserving their cultures. Distasteful and wrong, simply put.

Have no fear, the Swiss are here...

2005-09-29T19:05:00.000-04:00

Switzerland recently passed legislation allowing workers from the newer EU members of central and Eastern European to work in their country. The Swiss foreign affairs minister has written a piece entitled "The Swiss aren't afraid of the Polish plumber" (in French), referring of course to the infamous "Polish plumber" who came to Western Europe to steal their jobs. The Poles used this to their advantage in a humorous ad campaign recently.

Dilip Hiro's article in Outlook would have merely been a laughable piece of Cold War-era Third World solidarity agitprop were it not for the fact that it carelessly overlooks the dangers of Iranian nuclear activity:

As a leading pioneer of the non-aligned movement, India was expected to stand by the NAM, which has a membership of 116 at the United Nations. But apparently New Delhi abandoned its principled ideology for a technological gain.

New Delhi is finally starting to apply some consistency to its demand that nation-states abide by their international agreements, and Mr. Hiro reads this as an abandonement of principle. But our intrepid referee doesn't stop there. He proceeds to laud the achievements of Latin America's newest dictator:

By contrast, Venezuela, ruled by the charismatic leftist leader Hugo Chavez, became the sole IAEA board member to vote against the UK-sponsored resolution.

It was not the first time Chavez had displayed the courage of his convictions. In August 2000, defying the Bill Clinton administration, he went to Baghdad in his capacity as chairman of the Organization of Oil Exporting Countries (OPEC). His mission was to invite personally heads of OPEC member-states to the 40th anniversary summit of the organization in Caracas. His visit to Baghdad, the first by a head of state in a decade, set the scene for the air flight busting, with a Russian plane arriving in the Iraqi capital a week later, and a steady erosion of UN sanctions.

So when Chavez violates UN resolutions and refuses to take action against the authoritarian, terrorist financiers in Tehran, he has "courage of convictions". And when our friends in Old Europe simply try to hold the mullahs to their word, their stance is unacceptable. Right.

Apparently, a film on Pope John Paul II is in the works.

Finally, a blogger's take on Gandhi's insistence that the persecuted Jews of 1938 Germany use satyagraha (non-violence) to deal with the Nazis.

Baby, You Can Drive My Car (Someday)...

2005-09-29T00:29:00.000-04:00

There is much smugness in the air this evening as news began filtering that Karen Hughes (the woman with the unenviable task of improving America's image in the Muslim World) received a frosty response to her Saudi audience when she made the suggestion that Saudi women ought to have the right to vote. Well, not quite:

Women in the audience applauded after she also mentioned that they should have a greater voice in the Saudi political system, including eventually receiving the right to vote.

More importantly:

During a meeting with top Saudi editors, Hughes pointedly noted that the United States was concerned that inflammatory literature intolerant of other religions and traced to the Saudi government had been found in American mosques. Hughes pressed the government to help "find room to respect people of different faiths and different faith traditions."

You can read more about the literature here. On the other hand, some women in Turkey took Hughes to task over the war in Iraq:

"War is not necessary for peace," shot back Feray Salman, a human rights activist. She said countries should not try to impose democracy through war, adding that "we can never, ever export democracy and freedom from one country to another."

Well, of course. War was completely unnecessary to deal with this former war-mongering rogue state. And this one too. Imposing democracy on these nations was a pipe-dream, wasn't it?

The Thai government's heavy-handedness in the southern provinces (to deal with the Muslim uprising) is backfiring badly. Slate has a piece which illustrates this all too well.

And finally, the recent anti-war protests reached my former hometown, San Diego. Here's an article from the local newspaper, and photographs from a local blogger.

I pledge my allegiance...

2005-09-27T16:36:00.000-04:00

Rohin, from the Pickled Politics blog, has an amusing bit on Apu (from The Simpsons).

Apu hasn’t sacrificed any of his cultural identity, he displays a statue of Ganesh proudly and is a strict vegan, yet he has become an integral cog in the small town somewhere in America’s heartland. The citizens are fond of him and he has made some real friends, and even sung in a hit barbershop quartet. He is a three-dimensional person, not a token Dr Patel who reads an X-ray and vanishes for a few episodes of whatever series you happen to be watching.

The New York Times commending George W. Bush? No, I'm serious! An excerpt from an editorial on immigration reform:

Bush deserves credit for pushing this difficult issue in the right direction, despite pressure from anti-immigration alarmists who want to build an electrified fence around America. Bush's people have made it clear that the president wants to focus on security at the border, enforcing immigration laws for employers and employees, and finally establishing a guest worker program that is not an amnesty program. Participants in White House briefings say that they were told that the president would not support an immigration plan that is only about border security - as some Republicans in the House want. Bush wants a guest worker program, presumably one open to illegal immigrants already in the United States.

Madeleine Bunting, no blue-eyed conservative is she, compares the US removal of Saddam with Turkish-EU accession talks, and somehow draws the conclusion that the EU's version of "regime change" is better than America's:

The parallels are inescapable: the US launched its regime change in a Muslim country with shock and awe, an unprecedented onslaught of military power. The EU quietly initiates its regime change in the Muslim country next door with the shock of 80,000 pages of EU regulations on everything from the treatment of waste water to the protection of Kurdish-minority rights. While one sends in its Humvees and helicopters, the other sends in an army of management consultants, human-rights lawyers and food-hygiene specialists.

Memo to Ms. Bunting: it was the United States that campaigned for years to get Turkey into the EU, and it was the Europeans who were (and still are) very much against the idea. And her "regime change" metaphor makes absolutely no sense. Is she suggesting that the US absorb Iraq as the 51st state, with the assistance of "80,000 pages of regulations"? As the English say, what a load of tosh!

Coup Eight-in Tarantino...

2005-09-26T23:06:00.000-04:00

Film Review: The Constant Gardener (Ralph Fiennes, Rachel Weisz)

A film adapted from the novel by John Le Carre, "The Constant Gardener" mostly hits the right notes of moral outrage in a tale of corporate greed and indifference in the ugly face of African pestilence and poverty. I'll let you read the background to the story here.

I have tremendous respect for the acting chops of Ralph Fiennes, who does a terrific job. As does Bill Nighy as a callous government mandarin implicated in stench of corruption. Rachel Weisz mostly plods along, furious at the appropriate moment and playful the next. The story however is a bit problematic: it proceeds along a tight line, but degenerates into a visual rant of African poverty towards the end. Adapting movies from novels is a tricky business, and so we can easily forgive the variable speed of the script, especially considering the spectacular cinematography and skilful direction.

The film is overtly political and those of the leftist persuasion would indulge in the opportunity to bash the evil omnipresent corporation. Yet, in many ways, Rachel Weisz's character is representative of the message's problem - it confuses self-righteous indignation for considered concern.

(3 out of 5 stars) The film is rather depressing and so is not recommended as a date movie!

I'm a huge fan...

2005-09-23T20:22:00.000-04:00

On my last day at the UN's Washington office, the Secretary-General stopped by - a nice way to spend one's last day at the office.

Wouldn't it be loverly?

2005-09-23T14:05:00.000-04:00

Ron Bailey at Reason on what might have been, had we planned things out properly before taking out Saddam in '03.

A columnist at Al-Ahram (of Egypt) defends Iran's right to possess nuclear weapons - without actually saying so. As I've said before, I find it highly unlikely that a nation which is a member of OPEC, and wants to export natural gas, is interested in enriching uranium purely for nuclear power. An excerpt:

For the past few years, Tehran has managed to stay ahead of the US-Israeli game. It has proposed that the entire region, including Israel, be turned into a nuclear-free zone. It is a demand Egypt has made repeatedly and one the US and Europe reject for obvious reasons. It would make perfect sense for Egypt to coordinate its position with Iran on this point yet inexplicably it has not done so.

Not so inexplicable - nobody wants Iran to possess nuclear weapons:

Again, in the absence of an independent watchdog, Iran's nuclear activity threatens to further destabilise the world's most sensitive region. It tempts neighbouring states such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia to follow suit, and raises the additional spectre of a unilateral raid by Israel like the one that knocked out Iraq's Osirak reactor in 1981. (From an editorial in The Australian).

A great piece in the L.A. Times on Abdul Qadeer Khan - the man one senator referred to as "the head of Nukes-R-US":

Corruption was easy to prove, the investigator said, but pursuing [Abdul Qadeer] Khan would entangle the young [anti-corruption] bureau in a political struggle it was likely to lose. The scientist was shielded by a largely self-constructed myth that he had almost single-handedly ensured Pakistan's national security by building a nuclear arsenal to counter India's."My humble suggestion is not to open a case at this stage," the investigator told [Lt. Gen. Syed] Amjad (the head of the bureau), according to a person who attended the meeting. Amjad reluctantly agreed.

And finally, from the Weekly Standard: France is getting worried about the increasingly violent message in French rap:

...the popular rap band Sniper was recently handed a victory in a legal action brought against them in 2004 by Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy over incitement to violence and hatred in their song "La France." They sing: "We're all hot for a mission to exterminate the government and the fascists. . . . France is a bitch and we've been betrayed. . . . We f--France, we don't care about the Republic and freedom of speech. We should change the laws so we can see Arabs and Blacks in power in the Elysée Palace. Things have to explode..."

Not too surprising since racism and social deprivation is all too common in the land of "Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite". All the socialism in the world hasn't managed to generate much egalite or fraternite, but fortunately there's enough liberte for us to hear about France's schisms.

Barbie Al-Khaleeji...

2005-09-22T12:20:00.000-04:00

The IHT on Barbie's Muslim competition: Fulla - complete with hijab and abaya:

Though Fulla will never have a boyfriend, like Barbie's Ken, a "Dr. Fulla" and "Fulla the Teacher" will be introduced soon.

And what about "Prime Minister Fulla" or "Fulla the Footballer"? The Coup Eighty thinks not...

Here's a Kuwaiti blog, with a photo of the blogger's favorite books. Can you see the white book in the center (fifth from bottom)? It's the Arabic version of "Who Moved My Cheese?"! The title's literal translation "Of whom moved the piece of cheese that is specifically mine" ("Man allazy harraka qata'atu al-jibna al-khaasa bi?"). Well, in light of this oft-quoted fact (from the UNDP Arab Human Development Report), I'm glad that it's in their book-stack:

No more than 10,000 books were translated into Arabic over the entire millennium, equivalent to the number translated every year into Spanish.

And finally, as you know, the North Koreans recently struck a deal regarding their nuclear program. It looks suspiciously like the 1994 Agreed Framework, but analysts want to give it a chance. Here are two takes on the issue:

First, Simon Tisdall from the Guardian:

The US decision to offer security guarantees, aid and technology to North Korea, having long refused to do so, also reflects a more consensual perspective in Washington. That change is attributed in part to Condoleezza Rice's appointment as America's top diplomat and the reassignment to the UN of John Bolton, the former arms control chief whose abrasive style antagonised Pyongyang.

Max Boot at the L.A. Times has the opposite take:

This does not necessarily mean that it was a mistake for the U.S. to sign Monday's joint statement. North Korea did offer concessions, at least on paper, that go beyond those reached in 1994 — for instance, it committed to dismantling rather than simply freezing its atomic weapons programs. And, unlike in 1994, the U.S. did not commit to massive aid before the dismantling is completed....The real risk inherent in the agreement is that it will extend an economic lifeline to the world's most despicable regime, a regime that, since the early 1990s, has presided over the deaths of at least 2 million of its own citizens in an unnecessary famine.

"Rumble" Update

2005-09-19T12:24:00.000-04:00

I found the quote I promised you, dear readers, a few posts ago: the Hitchens riposte to Galloway's claim of sympathy for Cindy Sheehan. It's an absolute gem:

Now among the people killed by these "heroic operations," in Iraq, some of them run from Syria and paid for by the human toothbrush and slobbering dauphin Assad, Mr. Galloway's new pal. Among the victims of these, of these operations was specialist Casey Sheehan, who was trying to clean up the festering slum of what had once been called Saddam City, and was now known to us as Sadr City where the water-supply is coming back on, it's taking a while, because people keep blowing it up, but it's coming back on. Now I will put a simple moral proposition to you and see if I've phrased it alright. Is it not rather revolting to appear in Damascus by the side of Assad and to praise the people who killed Casey Sheehan, and then to come to America and appeal to the emotions of his mother?

Chug! Chug! Chug!

2005-09-19T12:05:00.000-04:00

For the UN Summit in New York (this past week), everyone was getting into the spirit - literally everyone!

Amit Varma's blog, India Uncut, has a posting on an article in the Asian Wall Street Journal on the many proverbial miles India's economy has to go to truly liberate the "animal spirits" of the disenfranchised millions. Since the WSJ requires a subscription, Amit has kindly copied the entire article onto his blog - available here.

Here's an excerpt:

Street hawkers and shop owners in the cities often cannot get a license at all. (Even those who do have to comply with draconian regulations that offer so much discretion to the authorities that corruption is inevitable.) They survive by paying regular bribes to municipal authorities and policemen, which are generally fixed in such a way by this informal market that they can barely survive on what they earn, and cannot expand their business or build their savings. They are trapped in a cycle of enforced illegality and systematic extortion by authorities, which results in a tragic wastage of capital. It serves as a disincentive to entrepreneurship, as well as to urbanization, the driving force of growing economies.

Another disincentive to urbanization is how hard it is for poor people to get legal accommodation in the big cities. In Bombay, for example, an urban land ceiling act and a rent-control act make it virtually impossible for poor migrants to rent or buy homes, and they are forced into extralegal housing. The vast shantytowns of Bombay--one of them, Dharavi, is the biggest slum in Asia--hold, by some estimates, more than $2 billion of dead capital. For most of the migrants who live in these slums, India hasn’t changed since 1991. As that phrase from India’s pop culture goes, “same difference.”

It's election season in Afghanistan. Gateway Pundit reports on how Afghanistan's fledgling security forces narrowly averted a terrorist attack on the Kajaki Dam - an attack that could've killed thousands.

Jim Geraghty, from the National Review, on the eight things we can learn from Germany's recent elections. Here's Lesson #8:

Charisma still means a lot: There are plenty of reasons that Schroeder is called the Bill Clinton of Germany — he combines a working-class background, a childhood without a father, a telegenic style, and a remarkable ability to connect with ordinary Germans. Any opponent would have to bring their A-game against him; unfortunately, Merkel was hardly at the top of her game. Her speeches were lengthy, detailed descriptions of her plans; she appealed to the intellect, instead of the gut.

All is not as it seems...

2005-09-18T21:51:00.000-04:00

Today's post is on the theme of espionage and secrecy:

First, from India: as dedicated Coup Eight readers know, the Congress Party took bribes from Saddam Hussein to declare their opposition to US policy vis-a-vis Iraq. Now it has emerged that it also took bribes from the Soviet communists. Here's an excerpt from the article in the Indian Express:

"During 1975,” pages 328-9 say, “a total of 10.6 million rubles was spent on active measures in India designed to strengthen support for Mrs Gandhi and undermine her political opponents.” [This made] India, in the words of KGB general Olef Kalugnin, “a model of KGB infiltration of a Third World government...It seemed like the entire country was for sale”.

My two cents:
1. Why did India even pretend to be non-aligned during the Cold War?
2. As if we needed further evidence to suggest that the Congress Party has no credibility whatsoever to issue denunciations of American foreign policy.

And now, an article in the Boston Globe on America's (specifically, the CIA's) relationship with Saddam during the Cold War.

Saddam could easily point out that our interests were protected when he was in power and remind the world of US and European support and arms to Iraq during the Iran-Iraq conflict. Even more embarrassing to the United States, he could bring out that the CIA used and paid him (he could even show financial records if he wanted to) ''as their instrument for more than 40 years . . . Saddam was seen by US intelligence services as a bulwark of anticommunism," UPI reported on April 10, 2003.

That's probably true. However, US policy for about 40 years was: defeat the communists at all costs; so this ought not to surprise us. However, I have yet to see any credible evidence that suggests that Saddam invaded Iran at the behest of the Americans - a charge repeated endlessly by the Left. More importantly, most of Saddam's weaponry came not from the United States, but from France and the Soviets.

And finally, might I direct my kind readers to this speech made by President Bush in June 2004 where he officially repudiated American policy that so many found so offensive and hypocritical:

For decades, free nations tolerated oppression in the Middle East for the sake of stability. In practice, this approach brought little stability, and much oppression. So I have changed this policy. In the short-term, we will work with every government in the Middle East dedicated to destroying the terrorist networks. In the longer-term, we will expect a higher standard of reform and democracy from our friends in the region.

And now a word from our sponsors...

2005-09-18T21:49:00.000-04:00

Service announcement:

I've been on the receiving end of "comment spam" - to remedy this, I've activated "word verification". So now, if you want to leave a comment, you'll be presented with a set of jumbled letters in a box, and you have to type out the word. This is done to prevent automated spam.

Juan You're Smiling...

2005-09-16T15:40:00.000-04:00

Juan Cole, a professor at the University of Michigan, writes frequently about Middle East issues - you'd probably have seen his articles in Salon, a (bleeding-heart) liberal magazine. He recently became famous for refuting Christopher Hitchens' justification for the War in Iraq (A War to be Proud Of, available here).

While he does make some good points, the Coup Eighty can't let him get away with it all. Firstly, he takes objection to the fact that Hitchens related Gadhafi's decision to relinquish WMD to the Iraq War. Yes, the Europeans were engaged in patient diplomacy with Gadhafi, and, yes, Blair stood in Gadhafi's tent and shook his hand and made the case for a peaceful relinquishing. But, Bush sold the war in Iraq on the issue of WMD. It's hard not to believe that Gadhafi wasn't the least bit troubled by the fact that US troops overthrew in less than three weeks the self-styled Saladin of the 21st century. In other words, the war in Iraq was a catalyst, if not an outright motivator.

Cole is upset by Hitchens' linking of Saddam and al-Qaeda. I would point him to one of several articles by Stephen Hayes of the Weekly Standard, who provided more than enough evidence to paint a troubling picture. Here's an example. And, on the same topic, another article by a former colleague at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. Just because the Ba'ath party was technically an pan-Arab socialist-nationalist-quasi-fascist party does not rule out the possibility of a marriage of convenience with Bin Laden.

Cole completely overlooks the fact that the removal of Saddam changed the very nature of political discourse in the Arab world. Walid Jumblatt, a leading anti-Syrian opposition figure in Lebanon said in the spring of this year:

“It’s strange for me to say it, but this process of change has started because of the American invasion of Iraq.”

Even the leading propodent of "soft power", in fact, the guy who first used the term, Joseph Nye of Harvard University says:

In other words, the invasion of Iraq, and the subsequent increase in the rhetoric of democracy in the Middle East, may have changed frames of reference about the status quo.

Cole contends that there aren't many foreign jihadi-s in Iraq. He bases this on the statistic that only 6% of the captured insurgents in Iraq were foreign. However, when Iraqi officials arrested Zarqawi's lieutenant Sami Mohammed Ali Said al-Jaaf in January 2005, he confessed to being responsible for 75% of the car bombings that had taken place in Baghdad since March 2003. In other words, the foreigners are responsible for the deadliest attacks. Furthermore, of all the mass killings in Iraq in 2005, al-Qaeda has claimed responsibilty for all but one. This movement, al-Qaeda in Iraq, remember, is being headed by a Jordanian, who's taking orders from a Saudi.

Cole concludes by asserting that we could've legally removed Saddam by using the Genocide Convention. If the world was so opposed to this war based on Saddam possessing deadly weapons to attack the West, what were the chances it would have approved an attack on the basis of protecting the Iraqi people? Highly unlikely. In other words, "I would have supported this war if such-and-such impossible condition were first satisfied."

Reminds me of the time I attended a NATO Youth Conference in Scotland (Winter 2003). A European delegate there told me that his home country's NATO youth group adopted the slogan "Peace without Saddam." Duh...

Rumble Fallout

2005-09-16T11:12:00.000-04:00

Further reaction to the Galloway-Hitchens debate, which you can watch on RealPlayer here.

From Gary Younge, of the Guardian (full article here):

In a debate that drew as much from the culture of the playground as the traditions of parliament, no hyperbolic stone was left unturned. In response to one of Galloway's answers Hitchens said: "Beneath each gutter there's another gutter gurgling away." Galloway later shot back: "You've fallen out of the gutter into the sewer."

Oona King, who lost her seat in Bethnal Green to Galloway, gave the upper hand to Hitch, although this part is interesting:

Galloway spoke gospel when he told Hitchens "sometimes in life you have to choose between evil and more evil". That's exactly what people like Hitchens and myself have been arguing for years. Sometimes you are forced to choose between evil and more evil. In my view it is a self-evident truth that George Bush is evil. And that Saddam Hussein is more evil. That's the bottom line.

The point being that many supporters of Operation Iraqi Freedom, including Hitch and King, are leftists, who are consistent in their support for Iraqi socialists, communists, trade unionists and ethnic minorities, all of whom suffered under the quasi-fascist rule of Saddam. As far as I understand, communists believe in the universality of the human creed, regardless of the borders of sovereignty.

Rumble in the (Concrete) Jungle

2005-09-15T19:48:00.000-04:00

I had the singular pleasure of attending the much-anticipated Galloway-Hitchens debate on the War in Iraq in New York City.

There was much rancour both on stage and in the audience, with a clear split between the Hitchenites and the Gallowayans. A little too much jeering and yelling for my taste, but I suppose that's just emblematic of the anger this war has generated.

As you can see from the photograph, I had the honor of meeting the "drink-soaked former-Trotskyite popinjay", who was autographing copies of his book.

The English blogger Clive Davis has a round-up of the evening's events here, and here's a link to another blog with a photo of the Battling Brits at their lecterns.

Obviously Hitchens was the better man that evening. Galloway fulminated as usual with his trademark non-sequiturs and pan-Arabesque rants. Money quote from Hitchens (I have paraphrased, but I'll post a link to the exact quote if I find it):

Galloway met with the Syrian dictator's representatives (the men who're allowing jihadists into Iraq) and claimed he was on his side. Then he declares his support for Cindy Sheehan (whose son was killed by above-mentioned jihadist movement).

Absolutely worth the wait on the street in that trademark New York humidity. I was surrounded by half-wit leftist conspiracy theorists who claim that Bush (the baby-killer) invaded Iraq at Raytheon's behest to show off America's cool weaponry...

The English Edge out their Antipodean Arch-rivals

2005-09-13T13:28:00.000-04:00

Congratulations England!

Here are some tongue-in-cheek "photos" of the Ashes.

Sir, will you take this man to be your husband?

2005-09-13T09:46:00.000-04:00

On the 7th, California's legislature passed a bill allowing same-sex marriage. However, Schwarznegger now says that he will veto it:

While accepting gay marriage, Schwarzenegger says it's an issue that should be decided by voters or the courts.

Some thoughts:
1. First of all, Schwarznegger's legal opposition to the bill is based on Proposition 22, passed by Californian voters in 2000, which prevented California from recognizing OUT-OF-STATE gay marriages, i.e. it did not necessarily ban California from conducting and recognizing its own gay marriage. So, the gover-nator can't hide behind Prop 22.
2. Secondly, Schwarznegger says that the issue ought to be decided by "either the voters or the courts." I thought Republicans were upset that "activist judges" were foisting these unions onto a horrified American public. Now its the state legislatures, the representatives of the people, who're approving them, he can hardly complain.
3. Finally, Schwarznegger cites the passage of Prop 22 as evidence that California's public is against the notion of gay marriage, implicitly deeming the legislature's actions a political stunt. But in the last five years, polls have shown that Californians are now more in favour of gay marriage than they were in 2000. That argument doesn't hold water either.

The Coup Eighty is deeply disturbed by this witch-hunt against gay rights from the evangelical nutjobs and condemns the Gover-nator, who used to enjoy the Coup Eighty's support, for this cowardice. Ah-nuld, stand up for what's right, man!

Not-so-busy Bees..

2005-09-12T16:35:00.000-04:00

Thanks to Mom for bringing this to my attention: Indian computer programmers ... who've formed a rock band. Needless to say, with their yuppie salaries, suburban homes and kids on the way to Ivy League schools, I'm sure they have much to complain about. Here are their soulful and profound lyrics:

"Standing in line, papers in my hand,
All my answers, practiced and planned,
He asked, would ya ever come back home?
(Incredulous laughter)
Yes sir, I will, but first give me that H-1B!"

(Groan) what a bunch of losers!

Apparently, Tony Blair's advisors have told him to scrap Holocaust Memorial Day, because it offends Muslims! I'm serious - here's an excerpt (full story here):

They want to replace it with a Genocide Day that would recognise the mass murder of Muslims in Palestine, Chechnya and Bosnia as well as people of other faiths.

1. I'm sorry, but Palestine, Chechnya and Bosnia do NOT qualify as genocide, either in intention or scale.
2. Sir Iqbal Sacranie, self-styled voice of "Moderate Islamic Britain" says: "We can never have double standards in terms of human life. Muslims feel hurt and excluded that their lives are not equally valuable to those lives lost in the Holocaust time.” Fair enough - but what about those human lives lost as a result of aggressive Muslim authorities (e.g. Darfur) or human lives lost elsewhere (e.g. Rwanda)? Conspicuous silence here clearly indicates that they're only upset about double standards when they're the perceived victims. That's unacceptable.

What's in YOUR wallet?

2005-09-09T15:04:00.000-04:00

Take the "Are You a Neo-Conservative" Quiz here.

Even though I'm a self-professed neo-con, my result was "realist." Although, CSM's definition of neo-conservative is perhaps a bit extreme:

*Want the US to be the world's unchallenged superpower
*Share unwavering support for Israel
*Support American unilateral action
*Support preemptive strikes to remove perceived threats to US security
*Promote the development of an American empire
*Equate American power with the potential for world peace
*Seek to democratize the Arab world
*Push regime change in states deemed threats to the US or its allies

Not all neo-cons "share unwavering support for Israel." While I think the country has been unfairly singled out and sandbagged for years, I do think that American national security is significantly impaired by any association whatsoever with it. Of course, once we start letting Bin Laden dictate what is and isn't ethical foreign policy...well, you can finish the sentence.

The most important omission in the above list: neo-cons care deeply about international human rights and the regimes that ignore them. Unlike liberals, however, we believe it's acceptable, if not morally obligatory, to use force to secure and promote them, for the Greater Good.

Intakhabaat Masriyeen (Part Deux)

2005-09-09T10:38:00.000-04:00

Great quote from the Christian Science Monitor article on the Egyptian "election":

"Mubarak is my father,'' Mr. Fatah practically shouts, exuberantly explaining his presence. But his demeanor changes as he explains his situation, and his view of politics in general. "If we bring in another president, he'll rob us. With Mubarak, he's already robbed us so hopefully he's satisfied."

For Dad: on cricket and poetry.

I've been waiting patiently for an Islamic cleric to get agitated by Sania Mirza (the Indian tennis player). And my patience has borne fruit.

The Nutjob Namesake

2005-09-09T10:23:00.000-04:00

The Coup Eighty has company, for He is not the only 23-yr-old libertarian, anti-religion, Indian blogger named Saket.

Kudos to Dad for discovering his blog:

I try to round it off by saying that religion makes me sick, and that sometimes I’m baffled that certain people who are perfectly rational in all other aspects can actually be ‘devout believers’.

All well and good so far, but then it starts degenerating into this:

If you are a Pakistani, I offer absolutely no apologies. I’d rather see you suffer from the worst of diseases, vomit blood and die of anemia. The basic idea is you should DIE.

This guy is a lunatic! But then again, the official title of his blog is "Psychotic Ramblings of a Mad-Man."

The Honest Brute

2005-09-08T15:45:00.000-04:00

Is war imminent between Eritrea and Ethiopia? Tom Downey at Slate recounts the ills of Eritrean society, one of Africa's most tyrannous:

"...almost every young person I spoke to had nothing but hatred for the government that had sent so many of them to die for nothing. An unending draft has become a way to control and disperse a young urban population that might otherwise rise up in protest and a way to infinitely defer implementing a democratic constitution."

Although, interestingly:

"One good thing you can say about the Afewerki government is that it has remained virtually incorruptible, especially compared with its African neighbors. But even this integrity is a double-edged sword—in other nations a dose of corruption might have moderated otherwise harsh official policies, allowing people and goods to pass over the borders if small bribes were paid."

The trendy thing to say about Egypt's "election" is that its a slow-yet-steady start on the road to democracy, e.g. from the BBC:

"..Despite all its drawbacks, Egypt's democratic transition appears to be working..."

How do they deduce this? Everyone knows that this election will be rife with voter intimidation, ballot-box stuffing and fictitious turn-out numbers.

Here's what one Egyptian blogger says:
"Fraud, forgery, and dirty political maneuvers are an integral part of Egyptian politics. Yesterday's elections were not different."

O Fearless Leader..

2005-09-07T13:48:00.000-04:00

Two stories from the L.A. Times (I acknowledge that my coverage of US press is sometimes East Coast-heavy - my apologies!):

An excerpt from an article on how Egyptians find it incomprehensible that Mubarak ought to be replaced:

As the setting sun washed the domes and minarets of ancient mosques in rose light, a famous soccer goalie named Ahmed Shobeir bellowed into a microphone. "This will be the first time we go out and vote for ourselves!" he cried into the cheering crowd. "Doesn't that mean that Mubarak is freedom? Isn't Mubarak freedom?""Mubarak, my love, you're part of my heart!" the young people yelled back. "Mubarak, you know that your youth will never disobey you!"

The elevation of Arab Presidents-for-life to the status of a demigod is something we can all recollect from the days of Saddam - the parallels to Iraq are disheartening. For years we were told that the only choice in the Arab World was between Bin Laden and Hafez al-Assad. But now in Egypt, the cultural center of the region, we have liberal opposition figures and groups! These brave men and women are up against decades-worth of a toxic and debilitating political culture.

Also, the quiet progress in Iraq we don't see on CNN. An excerpt on reconstruction in the Baghdad neighborhood of Sadr City:

Haita Zamel showed (Lt. Col.) Gayton how the local sewer authority was fixing a problem that had developed in one pump. She proudly showed off the small home that had been built on the site to replace a dilapidated trailer where her family of six once lived. She even asked Gayton for computer software to teach English to her children."When you tell me something, I know you'll do it," she said, clutching tightly at the white scarf covering her head. "To the last day of our life, we are with you. Us and all of our neighbors."

Just what we need to save the world, another grandly-titled toothless organization: more here.

Talk about "collateral damage"

2005-09-06T14:25:00.000-04:00

This caught my eye in the Weekend FT:

Talk of the real bond yield over centuries reminds me of the late Sidney Homer, whose book on interest rates back to 2000BC remains a classic. During his research, he discovered that, under the Mesopotamian Code of Hammurabi, you could hypothecate your wife. But a creditor could seize her only for three years and was obliged to return her in as good condition as she came. Some condition. Some code.

Ja wohl, Herr Hauptmann!

2005-09-05T09:11:00.000-04:00

Everything sounds fascist-ic in German. Here's a snapshot of the TV debate between Gerhard Schroeder and his rival...."DAS TV-DUELL...JA..JA!"

After that we'll watch "UND ULTIMAAT CONFRONTATIONAFT EIND A/C MILAN AUF MANCHESTER UNITED!".