2007-01-18T10:00:00.000-05:00
/p p MR. SNOW: No. /p p Q Why?
/p p MR. SNOW: The federal Constitution does not permit for such referenda. /p p Q Why?
We are a conqueror. We should be asking the people, do they really want us there. /p p MR.
SNOW: Helen. /p p Q Yes, sir. /p p MR.
SNOW: Do you believe -- well, no, you will scold me for asking a question, so I will not. I will phrase my question in the form of an answer. /p p Q You know, best defense is offense, is that your whole approach?
/p p MR. SNOW: No, my -- /p p Q I'm asking you a very -- /p p MR. SNOW: No, my approach is to -- well, you're asking a simple question that actually has some fairly complex precedents in the terms of the advisability or possibility of a national -- /p p Q You keep saying that they want us there -- /p p MR.
SNOW: Helen, Helen, Helen. /p p Q Put it to a test. /p p MR.
SNOW: Helen, no war is popular. No war is popular. /p p Q That's not the answer.
/p p MR. SNOW: If you had done -- no, it is -- no, that is an absolutely accurate answer. /p p Q Nobody wants -- /p p MR.
SNOW: If you had asked in 1864 -- I'll go back to the Civil War -- the referendum would have failed and Abraham Lincoln would have failed. /p p Q How do you know that? /p p MR.
SNOW: Go back and read, just a little history will tell you. /p p Q Who won the war? /p p MR.
SNOW: You had Republican senators trooping up to the White House telling the President that he needed the cut a separate deal, that he needed to dispatch emissaries to speak with Jefferson Davis and his heirs and assigns. /p p Q -- the Civil War? /p p MR.
SNOW: Well, I'm just telling you -- I'm trying to make the larger point, and it is getting sort of ludicrous, about the fact that wars are, of course, unpopular, but the important thing to understand is -- /p p Q A referendum is ludicrous? /p p MR. SNOW: No, no, I'm saying that when we get too deep into historic analogies -- but if you'll permit me to finish an answer, I will let you ask a follow-up question.
The point here is that the President understands that a war is unpopular. He also understands that it's necessary. And you can frame questions in a lot of ways -- if you did a referendum to say, will Americans -- do you want to succeed in Iraq; do you want democracy in Iraq; would you like terror on your shores; do you believe that al Qaeda wishes to kill Americans, and if it does, do you want to fight them there or here?
/p p Q Do you want an American military occupation in Iraq. That's the question. /p p MR.
SNOW: Okay, well, you may ask it. Thank you. /p /blockquote What Snow leaves out is Lincoln DID INDEED try to cut a deal, several times.
The last offer was to (a) provide the South total amnesty (b) Federal government would compensate slaveholders fair market value for their slaves (c) Federal government would declare war on Cuba in a few years and Jeff Davis would be assigned to lead the Army as a method of national reconciliation, and providing Davis a boost into the presidency. br / br / Davis gave the proposal a thumbs down. br / br / Source: Bruce Chadwick's a href="http://www.
amazon.com/Two-American-Presidents-Biography-Jefferson/dp/1559724625/sr=1-4/qid=1169130911/ref=sr_1_4/002-5557935-1786423?ie=UTF8 s=books" span style="font-style: italic;" The Two American Presidents /span /a (which has been found to have some problems)
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span /span In Vermont, at the end of November, you often have to rush outside to see the sun, which, as far as I’m concerned, exceeds the limits of sun-worship. /p p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;" br / /p p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;" /p p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;" So, we’d better face the facts: span /span Winter’s on the way. span /span The light is getting dimmer.
span /span There’s an indescribable feeling in the air – a combination of huge relief that Thanksgiving is over and utter dread that Christmas is coming. span /span Once again, Americans are marching to the tune of “Ready, Set, Shop!” span /span According to Monday’s i Los Angeles Times, /i “Holiday shoppers came out early and spent big across the nation this weekend,” shelling out “an average of $360.
15” per person, “18.9% more than last year,” while mere hundreds died in Iraq. span /span Or, as blogger Jason Miller put it on a href="http://civillibertarian.
blogspot.com/" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.
OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" Thomas Paine’s Corner /a , commenting on Thanksgiving week’s notorious “Black Friday,” “The unwavering disciples [of American capitalism] charged into the fray to avoid the unthinkably tragic fate of dying without having the most toys.” /p p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;" br / span /span /p p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;" /p p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;" Amen. span /span And “Black Friday” isn’t even “Cyber Monday,” when American workers, loosening the goose fat from their middles, were projected to spend something like $32 billion on the Web script !
-- D(["mb"," i in a single day, /i once they got back to \nthe office and saw what a huge waste of time it was for them to be there when \nthere’s so much shopping to be done. span \n /span The i Times /i reports that, as of \nMonday, “shoppers were encouraged by deals on big-ticket electronics, including \nDVD players, high-definition televisions and \nnew video game consoles.” span /span /p \n p /p \n p All these \n“consoles,” I’m afraid, are why the Islamo-fascists hate us so much.
span /span Consoles and cars and cell phones and \ndiamonds -- i lots /i of diamonds. span /span I’ve seen more ads for diamonds on TV \nlately than I have in the last twenty years. span /span They seem to pop up automatically \nbetween commercials for Wendy\'s and all those soothing cartoon butterflies \ntelling you what a wonderful night’s sleep you’re going to have if you only “ask \nyour doctor” and don’t mind the nausea, headache, dizziness, grogginess, \nindigestion, diarrhea and “certain rare but fatal side-effects” that go along \nwith it.
span /span But the truth can no \nlonger be doubted by any reasonable mind: span \n /span Ours is an “ideology of freedom” and theirs is an “ideology of hate” -- \neven though everyone the i LAT /i managed \nto interview at the malls on Saturday wished to hell “the holidays” were over \nalready. span /span “I just can’t take another \nminute of this!” was the general refrain.
/p \n p /p \n p Well, as my \nmother used to say when I was growing up, “Oh, Christmas!” -- it was one of her \nmore frequent and reliable outbursts of frustration. span /span She’s developed a few stronger ones \nsince, “but that’s because of George W.
Bush,” as she’s prepared to swear on \noath. span /span My mother is the kind of \nperson who actually calls the White House and tells the operators what she \nthinks. span /span Frequently, they hang up on \nher, being underpaid customer-service representatives with a lot of shopping to \ndo, but when that happens she just calls them back and gets another one.
",1] ); //-- /script i in a single day, /i once they got back to the office and saw what a huge waste of time it was for them to be there when there’s so much shopping to be done. span /span The i Times /i reports that, as of Monday, “shoppers were encouraged by deals on big-ticket electronics, including DVD players, high-definition televisions and new video game consoles.” /p p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;" br / span /span /p p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;" /p p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;" All these “consoles,” I’m afraid, are why the Islamo-fascists hate us so much.
span /span Consoles and cars and cell phones and diamonds -- i lots /i of diamonds. span /span I’ve seen more ads for diamonds on TV lately than I have in the last twenty years. span /span They seem to pop up automatically between commercials for Wendy's and all those soothing cartoon butterflies telling you what a wonderful night’s sleep you’re going to have if you only “ask your doctor” and don’t mind the nausea, headache, dizziness, grogginess, indigestion, diarrhea and “certain rare but fatal side-effects” that go along with it.
span /span But the truth can no longer be doubted by any reasonable mind: span /span Ours is an “ideology of freedom” and theirs is an “ideology of hate” -- even though everyone the i LAT /i managed to interview at the malls on Saturday wished to hell “the holidays” were over already. span /span “I just can’t take another minute of this!” was the general refrain.
/p p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;" br / /p p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;" /p p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;" Well, as my mother used to say when I was growing up, “Oh, Christmas!” -- it was one of her more frequent and reliable outbursts of frustration. span /span She’s developed a few stronger ones since, “but that’s because of George W.
Bush,” as she’s prepared to swear on oath. span /span My mother is the kind of person who actually calls the White House and tells the operators what she thinks. span /span Frequently, they hang up on her, being underpaid customer-service representatives with a lot of shopping to do, but when that happens she just calls them back and gets another one.
script !-- D(["mb"," span /span Once she called the White House to say \nthat the president’s penis was “big enough already” and that he didn’t need to \nbomb Iraq to \nmake it any bigger. span /span She even \noffered to “change his diaper” if they’d only send him back to Crawford.
span /span Now, she thinks that the best way for \nthe U.S. to get \nout of Iraq is \nto withdraw our troops immediately and make amends to the Iraqi people by \nsending them “the most expensive Christmas gift we have to offer -- the whole \nBush dynasty.
/p \n p /p \n p “What could \npossibly go wrong?” my mother asks. span \n /span “Why, it’d be a cakewalk!
” span \n /span Certainly, if the media promoted the Bushes as heavily as they promote \nChristmas – well, come to think of it, they do. span /span Since the recent elections, a pure \ndisaster for the clan, we’ve had more Bush-family news than you can shake a \nstick at. span /span First, the Iraq Study \nGroup, under the leadership of James A.
Baker, the Bushes’ famous “consigliere,” \nis stepping in on 41’s behalf to rescue 43’s presidency. span /span Next, 41 himself was in the Middle East, \nwhining and pleading and practically bursting into tears because a lot of people \nin Abu Dhabi think his son’s a liar and a creep. span /span /p \n p /p \n p My son is \nan honest man!
” span /span 41 exclaimed. span /span He is working hard for peace! span /span This son is not going to back \naway!
” span /span And then, irrelevantly, “How \ncome everybody wants to come to the United \nStates if the \nUnited States is \nso bad?” span /span /p \n p /p \n p Meantime, \nlittle Barbara – or was it Jenna? – had her purse snatched in \nArgentina, right \nunder the noses of her security detail.
span \n /span She lost her driver’s license (not a bad thing, from what I hear) and all \nher credit cards, but I’m sure there are plenty more where those came from.",1] ); //-- /script span /span Once she called the White House to say that the president’s penis was “big enough already” and that he didn’t need to bomb Iraq to make it any bigger. span /span She even offered to “change his diaper” if they’d only send him back to Crawford.
span /span Now, she thinks that the best way for the U.S. to get out of Iraq is to withdraw our troops immediately and make amends to the Iraqi people by sending them “the most expensive Christmas gift we have to offer -- the whole Bush dynasty.
" /p p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;" br / /p p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;" /p p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;" “What could possibly go wrong?” my mother asks. span /span “Why, it’d be a cakewalk!
” span /span Certainly, if the media promoted the Bushes as heavily as they promote Christmas – well, come to think of it, they do. span /span Since the recent elections, a pure disaster for the clan, we’ve had more Bush-family news than you can shake a stick at. span /span First, the Iraq Study Group, under the leadership of James A.
Baker, the Bushes’ famous “consigliere,” is stepping in on 41’s behalf to rescue 43’s presidency. span /span Next, 41 himself was in the Middle East, whining and pleading and practically bursting into tears because a lot of people in Abu Dhabi think his son’s a liar and a creep. /p p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;" br / span /span /p p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;" /p p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;" "My son is an honest man!
” span /span 41 exclaimed. span /span "He is working hard for peace! span /span This son is not going to back away!
” span /span And then, irrelevantly, “How come everybody wants to come to the United States if the United States is so bad?” /p p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;" br / span /span /p p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;" /p p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;" Meantime, little Barbara – or was it Jenna? – had her purse snatched in Argentina, right under the noses of her security detail.
span /span She lost her driver’s license (not a bad thing, from what I hear) and all her credit cards, but I’m sure there are plenty more where those came from. script !-- D(["mb"," span /span Finally, sister Doro, “the best-kept \nsecret in America,” as her mother says, has “burst out of the shadows” with a \nbook, i My Father, My President, /i which \nchronicles in weepy and revoltingly sentimental tones “the life and times” of \n41, but seems reluctant to name or even mention 43, whom the i Washington Post /i reports is currently \nsulking in his tent, “fuming,” “venting” and “in a funk” over his dwindling \npower.
span /span /p \n p /p \n p By the sound \nof her interviews, the “twice-married” Doro – and there I was thinking it had to \nbe “one man, one woman!” – couldn’t write a grocery list by herself, but if \nwe’re publishing phony, fraudulent memoirs, we might as well publish them \nall. span /span I’m sure there are lots of \npeople who’d rather pay $8000 on Ebay for a copy of O.
J. Simpson’s i If I Did It /i than find Doro’s little tome \nunder their tree this year. span /span Well, \nthat’s the price of monarchy, I guess, and the Iraqis are welcome to it.
span /span But at least we haven’t had to watch a \nRepublican campaign commercial for – what is it now? – nearly four weeks. /p \n p /p /div /div \n\n",0] ); D(["ce"]); //-- /script span /span Finally, sister Doro, “the best-kept secret in America,” as her mother says, has “burst out of the shadows” with a book, i My Father, My President, /i which chronicles in weepy and revoltingly sentimental tones “the life and times” of 41, but seems reluctant to name or even mention 43, whom the i Washington Post /i reports is currently sulking in his tent, “fuming,” “venting” and “in a funk” over his dwindling power.
/p p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;" br / span /span /p p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;" /p p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;" By the sound of her interviews, the “twice-married” Doro – and there I was thinking it had to be “one man, one woman!” – couldn’t write a grocery list by herself, but if we’re publishing phony, fraudulent memoirs, we might as well publish them all. span /span I’m sure there are lots of people who’d rather pay $8000 on Ebay for a copy of O.
J. Simpson’s i If I Did It /i than find Doro’s little tome under their tree this year. span /span Well, that’s the price of monarchy, I guess, and the Iraqis are welcome to it.
span /span But at least we haven’t had to watch a Republican campaign commercial for – what is it now? – nearly four weeks. /p
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...
well, brilliant. See his bio over there on the right for more info. I'm thrilled that he's agreed to let me post his bi-weekly column, /span Crank Call span style="font-style: italic;" , which also appears in the Vermont alternative weekly, /span a href="http://www.
sevendaysvt.com/" Seven Days /a span style="font-style: italic;" .} br / br / /span p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;" “Oh frabjous day!
” as Lewis Carroll wrote in one of the i Alice /i books. span /span It’s all so wonderful you could scream, or do somersaults, or anything you want. span /span Such as head a “mega-church” in Colorado Springs and have sleazy gay sex at the same time, and buy crystal meth and throw it down the toilet -- right!
-- if that’s what makes you happy. span /span At the moment, I don’t care what your fetish is, just knowing that for once, at last, the people of these states knew what they were doing and threw the bums out. /p p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;" br / /p p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;" /p p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;" I’m talking about last week’s elections, of course.
span /span What else is anyone talking about? span /span I still have no hope for the future, but, God, it was nice to see! span /span We aren’t brain-dead, after all, are we?
span /span Are we? /p br / I hope not. span /span Because, frankly, the only thing the Democratic “sweep to Congress” has proved so far is that we’ve got a long way to go to undo the damage the Bush administration has wrought over the last six years.
span /span And this column isn’t titled “Crank Call” for nothing -- I’m already tired of Nancy Pelosi and her gavel. span /span Sure, it’s nice to see “a woman” third in line to the throne, after Baby and Cheney, but Bush wasn’t entirely wrong when he asked, in his last-minute stomp through parts of the country you’ve never heard of, “What’s their plan?” br / br / p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;" /p p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;" The fact that Bush doesn’t and never did have “a plan” beyond corporate fascism isn’t, right now, the issue.
span /span The fact that this trust-funded weasel wouldn’t know “a plan” if it burned a cigarette mark on his arm at a “Skull and Bones” initiation isn’t, right now, the issue. script !-- D(["mb"," span /span Even the fact that Rumsfeld has finally \nbeen booted out in favor of a soulless CIA spook isn’t, right now, the \nissue.
span /span The issue is: span /span Where are we going, and how? span /span Even Maureen Dowd of i The New York Times /i is a bit concerned \nabout this. /p \n p /p \n p “This will \nbe known as the year macho politics failed,” says Dowd, who is known to have \nsome issues about the difference between men and women, “mainly because it was \nmacho politics by marshmallow men.
In other words, it would have been OK \nif they weren\'t marshmallows. Maureen is the daughter of a New York cop, \nand Gloriosky! does she know about men: Voters were sick of phony \nswaggering, blustering and bellicosity, absent competency and \naccountability.
span /span They were ready to \ntrade in the deadbeat Daddy party for the sheltering Mommy party.” span /span /p \n p /p \n p By “Mommy” \nMs. Dowd means “Speaker-elect Pelosi,” and, I suppose, the dreaded Hillary \nClinton.
span /span But what would happen if \nthere were an election where Mommy and Daddy didn’t enter into it – where it was \nsimply assumed that anyone of voting age was capable of making his or her own \ndecisions? span /span /p \n p /p \n p In \nVermont, of course, we all knew \nthat Rich Tarrant would lose – no conversation there. span /span But did we really know what we were \nvoting i for?
/i span /span “Anything But Bush,” I suppose, which is \na good slogan, and which should be branded on the back of every car and truck \nthat otherwise says “Support Our Troops!” span \n /span /p \n p /p \n p And now \nwhat? span /span “Moderation?
” span ",1] ); //-- /script span /span Even the fact that Rumsfeld has finally been booted out in favor of a soulless CIA spook isn’t, right now, the issue. span /span The issue is: span /span Where are we going, and how? span /span Even Maureen Dowd of i The New York Times /i is a bit concerned about this.
/p p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;" br / /p p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;" “This will be known as the year macho politics failed,” says Dowd, who is known to have some issues about the difference between men and women, “mainly because it was macho politics by marshmallow men." In other words, it would have been OK if they weren't marshmallows. Maureen is the daughter of a New York cop, and Gloriosky!
does she know about men: "Voters were sick of phony swaggering, blustering and bellicosity, absent competency and accountability. span /span They were ready to trade in the deadbeat Daddy party for the sheltering Mommy party.” /p p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;" br / span /span /p p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;" /p p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;" By “Mommy” Ms.
Dowd means “Speaker-elect Pelosi,” and, I suppose, the dreaded Hillary Clinton. span /span But what would happen if there were an election where Mommy and Daddy didn’t enter into it – where it was simply assumed that anyone of voting age was capable of making his or her own decisions? /p p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;" br / span /span /p p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;" In Vermont, of course, we all knew that Rich Tarrant would lose – no conversation there.
span /span But did we really know what we were voting i for? /i span /span “Anything But Bush,” I suppose, which is a good slogan, and which should be branded on the back of every car and truck that otherwise says “Support Our Troops!” /p p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;" br / /p p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;" /p p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;" And now what?
span /span “Moderation?” span script !-- D(["mb"," /span “Bipartisanship?
” span /span “Consensus?” span /span All those things that the Bush \nadministration has so far shown such an amazing capacity to observe! span /span Are we supposed to believe that Mommy \ncan fix this?
span /span Why do I feel that \nI’m about to open a box of “Lucky Charms” – speaking of marshmallows -- with \nthose awful bits of “freeze-dried” junk sucking up space where the cereal ought \nto be? span /span My brother, Robert Kurth, \nput it very well recently in a letter to i The /i i Poughkeepsie /i i Journal: /i /p \n p i /i /p \n p Prepare yourselves for a \ntorrent of news and opinion about a new direction in \nIraq. span /span Be prepared, too, for unvarnished \naccounts from our military that the level of violence there is much higher than \nwe have been told heretofore.
… I pray that an honest and thorough assessment of \nthe occupation of \nIraq can improve \nthe situation for American soldiers and Iraqis alike. span /span I support a Congressional resolution \nthat the United \nStates disavows any intention of permanent \nmilitary bases and of any claim to Iraqi oil. /p \n p /p \n p But I \nrefuse to accept that the only way forward must be balanced and bipartisan.
span /span This arrogant and incompetent \nadministration has earned much more than just a thumpin\' at the polls. span /span They have earned subpoenas, prosecution \nand jail time. span /span The sooner the \nbetter.
span /span Happy Holidays. /p \n p /p \n p To this I \ncan’t add much, except to say that if you don’t believe the Kurth brothers, you \ncan consult the “national” pundits, who are already beginning to worry that \nDing-Dong’s “thumpin’” won’t amount to a hill of beans so long as the idea of \nthe “unitary executive” is allowed to stand; so long as the “Patriot Act” is in \nforce; so long as this administration – or any administration -- is allowed to \nwiretap and spy on Americans without warrant; so long as “the President” can \ndetermine, at his whim and will, who and what are “enemy combatants” and can \nhave them arrested and imprisoned without right to counsel or, for that \nmatter, any evidence that he or she has broken the law.",1] ); //-- /script /span “Bipartisanship?
” span /span “Consensus?” span /span All those things that the Bush administration has so far shown such an amazing capacity to observe! span /span Are we supposed to believe that "Mommy" can fix this?
span /span Why do I feel that I’m about to open a box of “Lucky Charms” – speaking of marshmallows -- with those awful bits of “freeze-dried” junk sucking up space where the cereal ought to be? span /span My brother, Robert Kurth, put it very well recently in a letter to i The /i i Poughkeepsie /i i Journal: /i /p p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;" br / /p p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; text-align: justify;" Prepare yourselves for a torrent of news and opinion about a "new direction" in Iraq.
span /span Be prepared, too, for unvarnished accounts from our military that the level of violence there is much higher than we have been told heretofore. … I pray that an honest and thorough assessment of the occupation of Iraq can improve the situation for American soldiers and Iraqis alike. span /span I support a Congressional resolution that the United States disavows any intention of permanent military bases and of any claim to Iraqi oil.
/p p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; text-align: justify;" br / /p p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; text-align: justify;" /p p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.
5in; text-align: justify;" But I refuse to accept that the only way forward must be balanced and bipartisan. span /span This arrogant and incompetent administration has earned much more than just "a thumpin'" at the polls. span /span They have earned subpoenas, prosecution and jail time.
span /span The sooner the better. span /span Happy Holidays. /p br / p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;" To this I can’t add much, except to say that if you don’t believe the Kurth brothers, you can consult the “national” pundits, who are already beginning to worry that Ding-Dong’s “thumpin’” won’t amount to a hill of beans so long as the idea of the “unitary executive” is allowed to stand; so long as the “Patriot Act” is in force; so long as this administration – or any administration -- is allowed to wiretap and spy on Americans without warrant; so long as “the President” can determine, at his whim and will, who and what are “enemy combatants” and can have them arrested and imprisoned without right to counsel or, for that matter, any evidence that he or she has broken the law.
/p p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;" br / script !-- D(["mb"," span /span /p \n p /p \n p You can have \nall the “Mommys” you want, Maureen – all the “Madame Speakers” in the world \n-- but if these and other outrages aren’t removed, it won’t make a spickin’ lit \nof difference. span /span i That /i expression the Kurth brothers get \nfrom their father, a gen-yoo-ine Texan, now a converted Muslim, who can’t go to \nhis mosque in Fredericksburg, \nVirginia – gallant, gallant \nVirginia, which swang the Senate for the \nDemocrats!
– without knowing that he and his whole \nfamily are under the watch of the Feds. span \n /span /p \n p /p \n p Prove us \nwrong, voters. Prove us wrong.
span \n /span /p \n p /p \n p /p \n p /p /div /div \n\n",0] ); D(["ce"]); //-- /script span /span /p p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;" You can have all the “Mommys” you want, Maureen – all the “Madame Speakers” in the world -- but if these and other outrages aren’t removed, it won’t make a spickin’ lit of difference. span /span i That /i expression the Kurth brothers get from their father, a gen-yoo-ine Texan, now a converted Muslim, who can’t go to his mosque in Fredericksburg, Virginia – gallant, gallant Virginia, which swang the Senate for the Democrats! – without knowing that he and his whole family are under the watch of the Feds.
/p p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;" br / span /span /p Prove us wrong, voters. Prove us wrong. br / title /title
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com/seven/10262006/postopinion/opedcolumnists/kill_muqtada_now_opedcolumnists_ralph_peters.htm" Ralph Peters unambiguously called for the assassination of Muqtada al-Sadar /a -- the headline, in typical NY Post subtlety, demanded KILL MUQTADA NOW. a href="http://www.
gmapalumni.org/chapomatic/" Chap /a tipped me to this Pittsburgh Post-Gazette a href="http://www.post-gazette.
com/pg/06302/733600-373.stm" column by Jack Kelly /a which seconds Peters' motion: br / p /p blockquote p So why is the Moqtada al-Sadr still alive? /p p When Coalition Provisional Authority chairman Paul Bremer issued an arrest warrant for al Sadr in April of 2004, we were dissuaded from serving it by Iraqi politicians and clerics who claimed they could "control" him.
Now he's controlling them. /p p Whenever we've attempted to apply a political "solution" to what is essentially a military problem, bad things have happened. An example is when we broke off the first battle of Fallujah in May of 2004 at the insistence of those Sunni leaders (more or less) supporting the government.
This handed al-Qaida a major (though fortunately only a temporary) victory. /p p We hesitate to act decisively against Mr. Sadr in order to preserve the facade of Iraqi democracy and sovereignty, even though Mr.
Maliki's hapless government wouldn't last a week if U.S. troops withdrew.
/p p To maintain this fiction, we won't take actions Mr. Maliki doesn't approve of. But he depends upon the 28 votes Mr.
Sadr controls in the Iraqi parliament in order to maintain his tenuous grasp on power. Prodding from the United States has so far been insufficient to get him to give them up. Mr.
Maliki has declared which side he's on, and it isn't ours. /p p style="font-weight: bold;" If we act against Mr. Sadr, there will be an uprising.
It will be bloody. But continued inaction pretty much guarantees slow motion defeat. /p /blockquote p /p And then yesterday, a href="http://www.
nypost.com/seven/11012006/postopinion/opedcolumnists/iraqs_new_secret_police_opedcolumnists_ralph_peters.htm" Peters calls for yet another well-placed bullet /a : br / p /p blockquote p Our greatest setback in Iraq may be that country's undoing: It has proven impossible to develop an honest, nonpartisan police establishment anywhere in the country's Arab provinces.
The police aren't feared by criminals, but by law-abiding citizens. /p p The secret police are back, in the form of death squads. And the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki looks perfectly happy with the situation.
/p p American advisers risk their lives in the struggle to build Iraqi police units committed to doing their duty. We've equipped them, trained them and led from the front. /p p In gratitude, Iraq's police have ambushed our troops, fielded death squads less restrained than those under Saddam, stolen everything they could steal in preparation for a future civil war - and, apparently, funneled U.
S.-provided arms to militias, insurgents and terrorists. /p p Our efforts to develop good cops have failed (garbage in, garbage out).
We need to stop wasting our efforts. Shielded by government ministers and parliamentarians, the police are so out of control that there's no longer any hope of weeding out the bad guys. Instead, the bad guys are weeding out the good guys: Honest cops get killed.
By other cops. /p p The situation's desperate. We need to revamp our strategy (to the extent that we have one).
For all its shortcomings, the Iraqi army has been a far greater success than the police - whether we're speaking of cops on the beat or paramilitary commandos. /p p It's time to abandon the cops. Let the anti-American elements in the Maliki government have them.
Don't continue to strengthen our enemies. Concentrate on developing and expanding the army. /p p Why?
Here's where the truth gets still uglier. As dearly as we believe in democracy, Iraq's Arabs are proving that they're incapable of the political, social and moral maturity necessary to run an elected government. /p p Casting ballots alone doesn't make a democracy.
The government has to function. And to protect i all /i of its citizens. /p p span style="font-weight: bold;" In the coming months, we may find that the only hope of restoring order is a military government.
It sounds repellent, but a U.S.-backed coup may be the only alternative to endless anarchy.
/span /p /blockquote p span style="font-weight: bold;" /span /p p OK. One at a time here. Kelly concedes that the assassination of al-Sadr will result in a bloody uprising, a noxious tonic that only goes down when confronted with the alternative of a "slow motion defeat.
" I'll posit that Kelly's crystal ball isn't any better than mine. And my crystal ball tells me that the assassination of al-Sadr will merely speed up our defeat. br / /p p Wouldn't our assassination of a leading Shiite cleric royally inflame the broader Iraqi Shia community, even those that think that al-Sadr is a kook, if they see the assassination as a proxy action on the behalf of the Sunnis?
At the moment, we're mostly fighting Sunni insurgents - do we want to add another significant front with a mere 138,000 pairs of boots with almost nothing in reserve? Nowhere do Kelly nor Peters acknowledge the fact the Army and Marines are dealing with both physical exhaustion and significant degradation of their hardware. Do we truly have the manpower and equipment to deal with a new significant offensive?
The situation would, quite likely, certainly leapfrog to total chaos, American casualties would skyrocket, and the remaining home front support for the war would evaporate and Congress would pull the plug. /p p In a href="http://mountainphilosopher.blogspot.
com/2006/11/centcom-power-point-sliding-towards.html" the post below /a , I mentioned that Maliki might want to read up on what happened to Vietnam's Diem. Looks like Ralph Peters was thinking the same thing with his open call for a coup.
That "solution" looks like a disaster to me. /p Any replacement government won't have the veneer of being indigenous. Peters is quite correct to call bullshit on the Bush Administration's fairy tale that purple thumbs alone make a democracy but glosses over the reality they do at least provide some cover.
"Military government?" What does that mean? We off a Shiite who's tight with Iran, who enjoys at least some fair measure of popularity in the Shia community.
We off a moderate Shiite AND off the radical Shiite (al-Sadr) and we have a rather unified Shia Iraq wanting to kill every American they see. What do we really replace Maliki with? What faction within the existing Iraqi military will have a significantly different outlook and vision than Maliki?
Killing Maliki and replacing him with a body without the imprimatur of the "consent of the governed" will make that government an obvious puppet and a terminal inflammatory target. br / br / And where does a Maliki coup leave the neocon foreign policy base for Bush? Maliki is Zalmay Khalilzad's (American ambassador to Iraq) guy.
Given Khalizad's history, he's probably got the stomach for a coup but his credibility within Iraq disappears. The one American who seems to have his head screwed on straight from the perspective of the Iraqis turns his back while murder went down..
. I can't see it. And what of Kristol, Frum, Perle, and the others who will see the last vestige of their fantasy of democracy in Iraq crushed in the wake of such a coup?
Most Americans aren't in thrall to the neocon vision as they may have been in 2002 and 2003 but as prominent talking heads, the neocons still provide significant media cover for American blood-letting in Iraq. They have nothing left to support if a democratic Iraq is permanently put on hold. Their collective desertion of Bush would weaken him even further and would likely speed demands for a withdrawal.
br / p /p p We have no clearly good choices. Peters and Kelly are right about one thing -- what we're doing isn't working and appears to be fatally leading towards defeat. The new Congress and Senate will have a difficult choice laid before them: take a chance on a new, more muscular, and at least in the short-term, far bloodier policy with no clear guarantee for victory OR a phased withdrawal which absolutely guarantees no victory and most likely results in the Democrats being labeled as national security wimps for another generation.
Will Senator Clinton want to continue to cultivate her aura of toughness and say "no thanks." What will Senator Obama say -- quite possibly his moment of truth is imminent. br / /p p The importance of the impending Baker plan now stands in sharp relief.
Because if we discard that path, my guess is that the Congress, Senate, and the President will opt for far more blood than we have seen thus far. I fear that in the not-to-distant future, we may well wax nostalgic for a month where "only" 105 American servicemen and women fell in Iraq. br / /p
000-05:00
democracyarsenal.org/2006/11/who_lost_iraq.html" Heather span onclick="BLOG_clickHandler(this)" class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0" Hurlburt /span , of Democracy Arsenal, takes on Ralph Peters /a : br / h3 class="entry-header" /h3 blockquote span style="font-weight: bold;" Who "Lost" Iraq?
br / /span p As much as I cheer every time another prominent cheerleader for the Iraq war leaves the ship, I kind of wish conservative military commentator Ralph Peters had stayed where he was. /p p Today he a href="http://blogs.usatoday.
com/oped/2006/11/post_6.html#more" fires /a an impressive and dismaying salvo on the topic in a href="http://www.usatoday.
com/" USA TODAY /a . He describes the invasion as "noble," but incompetently done. But then comes this: /p blockquote dir="ltr" p .
..for all our errors, we did give the Iraqis a unique chance to build a rule-of-law democracy.
They preferred to indulge in old hatreds, confessional violence, ethnic bigotry and a culture of corruption. It appears that the cynics were right: Arab societies can't support democracy as we know it. And people get the government they deserve.
/p p For us, Iraq's impending failure is an embarrassment. For the Iraqis — and other Arabs — it's a disaster the dimensions of which they do not yet comprehend. They're gleeful at the prospect of America's humiliation.
But it's their tragedy, not ours. /p /blockquote p That's not "the soft bigotry of low expectations." That's just bigotry.
Does what happened in the American South after the Civil War prove that the South "can't support democracy as we know it?" No. Latin America has a number of rather solid democracies today that looked quite dubious 20 years ago.
Israel didn't spring from 1948 a fully-formed democracy, to choose a Middle Eastern example. /p p What did all those places have that Iraq hasn't had? Years -- decades, in fact -- of relative peace, strong external support and internal cohesion.
(Obviously, Israel had less of the first and more of the last.) Institutions that developed internally and indi span onclick="BLOG_clickHandler(this)" class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1" genously. F /span unctioning economies and national institutions.
br / /p /blockquote Ms. Hurl span onclick="BLOG_clickHandler(this)" class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2" burt fo /fo /span span style="font-style: italic;" does /span like this one provocative line of Peters: br / blockquote "And contrary to the prophets of doom, the United States wouldn't be weakened by our withdrawal, should it come to that. Iraq was never our Vietnam.
It's al-Q span onclick="BLOG_clickHandler(this)" class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3" ae /span d span onclick="BLOG_clickHandler(this)" class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4" a's Vie /span tnam. They're the ones who can't leave and who can't win." /blockquote I can't make complete sense of this Peter's sentiment.
Short term, I agree, we wouldn't be weak span onclick="BLOG_clickHandler(this)" class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5" end imm /span ediately after a with span onclick="BLOG_clickHandler(this)" class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6" drawal -- /span our forces would be able to catch a much-needed breath. Longer term, well, I think that's a far tougher case to make. If the nascent civil war goes into full tilt boogie mode and other countries -- Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Iran -- are drawn into the conflict, then it seems that we won't be able to merely stand on the sidelines.
The national security implications, our stalwart posture of defending Israel, economic/petroleum concerns, not to mention a devastating humanitarian crisis as thousands of refugees seek to flee, will compel the United States to rejoin the Iraqi theater. For me, the penultimate question is whether those concerns are best dealt with now or later. And for me, the obvious answer is, painful as it will be, it is better to attempt to fix it now rather than let step aside with a likely dete span onclick="BLOG_clickHandler(this)" class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8" rioration of /span the situation.
Of course, the ultimate question is how to deal with the situation now which minimizes further loss of life be it American or Iraqi. br / br / I was struck by two of the comments at the USA TODAY site where the Peter's column appeared. a href="http://blogs.
usatoday.com/oped/2006/11/post_6.html#comment-24718835" The first one /a : br / p /p blockquote p "It is absurd to blame the Iraqis for the mess made by those of you who supported this criminal enterprise of a war based on a 'pack of lies' and a corruption and incompetence that is stunning in its scale and depravity.
/p p Iraq is worse than Vietnam. We had Vietnam in our rear view mirror so all of you should have known better. You let yourselves be swept up in the thrill of propaganda and now perhaps 650,000 or more Iraqis are dead because of it along with more than 2800 US forces.
...
" /p /blockquote p /p And a href="http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2006/11/post_6.
html#comment-24723995" the second one /a : br / p /p blockquote p " span style="font-weight: bold;" What we are seeing here is two wars. /span One is the war between insurgents and our forces; it will stop if the insurgents are defeated or if we leave. The other is the war between Shia span onclick="BLOG_clickHandler(this)" class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9" and /span Sunni, between this tribe and that tribe.
/p p span style="font-weight: bold;" The second war is purely Iraqi, it is neither our fault nor our responsibility. It would have occurred regardless of whether Saddam had been removed by us, by a random act of nature, or by his own countrymen. /span Minus the despot, the bloodshed that followed was a certainty, as it was in Yugoslavia after the death of Tito a couple of decades ago.
Ultimately the underlying cause of the Middle East's woes is population overshoot of the resource base in a region that is little more than barren desert. There is of course a lesson for us in that point as well..
." /p /blockquote p /p
com,1999:blog-12072703.post-171105512224062381
867-05:00
com/blogger2/5887/1473/1600/01military_lg.jpg" img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.
com/blogger2/5887/1473/400/01military_lg.jpg" alt="" border="0" / /a a href="http://www.nytimes.
com/2006/11/01/world/middleeast/01military.html?ei=5090 en=62235052af3eb067 ex=1320037200 partner=rssuserland emc=rss pagewanted=print" From the span onclick="BLOG_clickHandler(this)" class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0" NYTimes /span : /a br / br / blockquote p WASHINGTON, Oct.
30 — A classified briefing prepared two weeks ago by the United States Central Command portrays a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/iraq/index.
html?inline=nyt-geo" title="More news and information about Iraq." Iraq /a as edging toward chaos, in a chart that the military is using as a barometer of civil conflict.
/p p A one-page slide shown at the Oct. 18 briefing provides a rare glimpse into how the military command that oversees the war is trying to track its trajectory, particularly in terms of sectarian fighting. /p p The slide includes a color-coded bar chart that is used to illustrate an “Index of Civil Conflict.
” span style="font-weight: bold;" It shows a sharp escalation in sectarian violence since the bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarr span onclick="BLOG_clickHandler(this)" class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1" a in Fe /span bruary, and tracks a further worsening this month despite a concerted American push to tamp down the violence in Baghdad. /span /p p In fashioning the index, the military is weighing factors like the ineffectual Iraqi police and the dwindling influence of moderate religious and political figures, rather than more traditional military measures such as the enemy’ span onclick="BLOG_clickHandler(this)" class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2" s figh /span ting strength and the control of territory. /p p The conclusions the Central Command has drawn from these trends are not encouraging, according to a copy of the slide that was obtained by The New York Times.
span style="font-weight: bold;" The slide shows Iraq as moving sharply away from “peace,” an ideal on the far left side of the chart, to a point much closer to the right side of the spectrum, a red zone marked “chaos.” As depicted in the command’s chart, span onclick="BLOG_clickHandler(this)" class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3" the nee /span dle has been moving steadily toward the far right of the chart. /span /p p An intelligence summary at the bottom of the slide reads “urban areas experiencing ‘ethnic cleansing’ campaigns t span onclick="BLOG_clickHandler(this)" class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4" o consolid /span ate control” and “violence a span onclick="BLOG_clickHandler(this)" class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5" t all-ti /span me high, spreading geographically.
” According to a Central Command official, the index on civil strife has been a staple of internal command briefings for most of this year. The analysis was prepared by the command’s intelligence directo span onclick="BLOG_clickHandler(this)" class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6" rate, wh /span ich is overseen by Brig. Gen.
John M. Custer. /p /blockquote So yesterday a href="http://www.
theaustralian.news.com.
au/story/0,20867,20685816-2703,00.html" Prime Minister Maliki essentially orders the US span onclick="BLOG_clickHandler(this)" class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7" force /span s out of Sadr City /a which in turn means that, at least temporarily, we have to stop looking for our missing soldier. Muqtada al-Sadr gets stronger an span onclick="BLOG_clickHandler(this)" class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8" d we ge /span t.
...
well, certainly not stronger nor better positioned. The Shiite militias become stronger, more entrenched a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.
blogger.com/blogger2/5887/1473/1600/Ngo_Dinh_Diem_-_Thumbnail_-_ARC_542189.gif" img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.
blogger.com/blogger2/5887/1473/400/Ngo_Dinh_Diem_-_Thumbnail_-_ARC_542189.gif" alt="" border="0" / /a into what passes for a central government, forcing the Sunni insurgency to take more and more desperate steps.
And our guys ar span onclick="BLOG_clickHandler(this)" class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10" e caught /span in some truly nasty crossfire. And the plan is ..
...
..?
br / br / Maliki might just want to read u span onclick="BLOG_clickHandler(this)" class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11" p on w /span hat happened to a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ngo_Dinh_Diem" this="" class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12" this feller over here on the right /a -- I'm a thinkin' their fates will be sha span onclick="BLOG_clickHandler(this)" class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13" red.
/span
post-6797048760676328992
com/Aftermath-Landmines-Chemical-Warfare-Devastating/dp/067975153X/sr=8-24/qid=1162391690/ref=sr_1_24/002-5557935-1786423?ie=UTF8 s=books" Aftermath /a which chronicles the after affects of war. The opening chapter discusses the work of the French demineurs -- men whose occupation is to scour the countryside of France searching for unexploded ordnance -- from World War One.
They collect tons of the stuff and store it. Then, a couple times a year, they take the stuff to a beach, wait for the tide to go out, and then dig a hole with a backhoe. They ease the ordnance along with fresh explosives into the sand pit, sandwiching the shells that contain the dread mustard gas in the middle.
They cover the hole, wait for the tide to come back in and then blow it all up. I guess the most mind boggling thing is that so much ordnance is around almost 90 years after it was dropped. br / br / A fellow in Ethiopia, the birth place of coffee, has found a more ingenious use for the exploded mortar shells which litter the Ethiopian country side.
br / br / a href="http://news.bbc.co.
uk/2/hi/africa/6102290.stm" From the BBC /a with a a href="http://www.boingboing.
net/2006/11/01/coffeemaker_made_fro.html" hat tip to BoingBoing /a : br / br / blockquote p In his workshop in Mekele, just 120 km from Ethiopia's border with Eritrea, Azmeraw Zeleke is turning burnt-out shells into cylinders used in coffee machines. /p p Most of the shells are left over from the 1998-2000 war between the two countries.
/p {snip} a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.
com/blogger2/5887/1473/1600/coffee1.jpg" img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.
com/blogger2/5887/1473/400/coffee1.jpg" alt="" border="0" / /a a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.
blogger.com/blogger2/5887/1473/1600/coffee1.jpg" /a p /p div class="bo" p He uses old mortar shells, which stand about one metre high, to make his coffee machines.
/p p He cuts off the pointed ends, seals them and puts holes into the aluminium cylinder. The cylinder channels the water, coffee and milk. /p {snip} p Coffee is a major export from Ethiopia and plays a big role in life.
/p p After meals, the traditional coffee ceremony allows family and friends to get together to share news and discuss the issues of the day. br / /p p {snip} br / /p p /p p Cafe owner Haile Abraha bought one of Mr Azmeraw's machines a few months ago. /p p "I had one other imported machine but this one is much better.
It is relatively cheap. The price is fair. The machine is good and it makes good coffee.
" /p p /p /div div class="bo" p But Mr Azmeraw says it can be difficult to convince people to buy because of the mortar shell. /p p a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.
blogger.com/blogger2/5887/1473/1600/coffee2.jpg" img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.
blogger.com/blogger2/5887/1473/400/coffee2.jpg" alt="" border="0" / /a /p p /p p "These shells have all been used.
We all need peace and we don't want war but once these shells have been used, we should use our skills to do something with them. /p p /p p "Sometimes I think about the fact they were used for war but I want to change them to do something good. They could be a symbol of war but I am doing something good out of the bad.
" /p p Since he started production five or six years ago, Mr Azmeraw has sold hundreds of machines - he cannot remember exactly how many. /p p Each one costs about $1,300. Most of them have been sold to people in the Mekele area.
/p /div /blockquote strong face="times new roman" style="font-weight: normal;" /strong
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