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Sunday, January 30, 2005
IRAQI PATRIOTS SPEAK LOUD AND CLEAR
I’ve waited to post anything today about the elections in Iraq
and I guess I will end my posts today copying posts from InstaPundit and re-posting an entry I made months ago:
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL (free link) is rounding up election-blogging from Iraq.
UPDATE: Adam Keiper has put
together a slideshow of photos from
the elections. And Scott Koenig offers some historical perspective.
posted at 02:57 PM by Glenn Reynolds
ASSOCIATED PRESS: "Arabs Mesmerized by Iraqi Elections."
posted at 02:34 PM by Glenn Reynolds
It’s a great day. Any damn idiot has to acknowledge that. I’ve looked back before and today,
I will look back again to a post by Tacitus on his website, January 20, 2004. I promised myself then that it needed to be
remembered.
I was right, here it is:
Well, it's over
The Iraqi occupation, I mean. Via Drum, I see that the British occupation authorities are breaking ranks with the CPA and essentially endorsing Sistani's demands for a direct democratic handover by conceding that yes, direct elections
are possible in the short term. A while back, I warned of the dangers of allowing the Shi'a to drive events; now the turkeys are coming home to roost. And how -- it's no coincidence that
the UK about-face is coming hot on the
heels of major Shi'a street protests and implied threats
of violence. What lesson does that teach the masses? Should be obvious -- muscle gets results, and the occupiers do not have
the stomach for the level of violence required to reassert control. Make no mistake: at this point, it would take a great
deal of violence to reassert authority as a sovereign occupier. Six months ago, a couple of infantry squads simply showing
up was enough to quell a major demonstration. That won't deter anyone now; if anything, that's when the shooting would start.
If our principle partners in the war and occupation
-- supposedly the ones with the more colonial experience -- are publicly presenting a disunited front, then, barring an American
willingness to inflict serious wartime horrors on defiant Shi'a, the occupation is over. It's only a matter of time. Of course
it was a matter of time anyway, but I had hope it would end on our terms. At the moment, though, the most likely scenario
to me looks like a partial US pullout, some sort of election boycotted
by one or more major parties, and something very much like a civil war in places like Kirkuk
and Baghdad. At which point we doubtless intervene, to preclude
interventions by unfriendly neighbors. And the process starts anew.
The dreaded end won't come because we were unwisely
strong. It will come because we were unwisely weak. Remember that.
Posted by tacitus at January
20, 2004 05:29 PM
Did you get that? “The dreaded end won't come because we were unwisely strong. It will come because we were unwisely weak. Remember
that.” As Buckwheat might have said, Oh-tay! So, I responded to Tacitus:
Am I the only one reading this long list of
comments stunned by the lack of faith exhibited by most writers? The Shiite demonstrations are a good sign -- what do you
know, these "A-rabs" are engaging in the process of political persuasion. Works for me.
We're engaging in an experiment, one that I
fully support. The expectations of most Americans [and most Iraqi's I would be willing to bet] simply aren't that high. Even
a Civil War is not an indication of failure to me. You simply can't do what we're attempting to do without much blood being
shed -- Iraqi's are going to have to fight for a better future, and much of that fighting will be among themselves. It's as
simple as that and it is clearly already happening. It could not be otherwise.
We've reached another defining moment in world
history. And the American left, my political home, lined up on the wrong side. Many writers in this thread seem to be deeply
desirous of American failure -- for the sake of American failure, damn the Iraqi's.
Not me. And notwithstanding all the intellectual
discussion here, it's my suspicion that one often cited weakness of the Iraqi state will turn out to be it's saving grace
-- multiple and fractured ethnicities, even among the Shi'a. They are not monolithic people and that's a good thing.
Let the horsetrading begin. Let the deals be
made. Let the backstabbers act, and expose themselves. Let street justice be done. Let powerful factions consolidate power.
Let the natural course of things take their course. Let that natural course surprise us, and them. We should not fear that.
Instead, we should proceed with what I've thought was the plan all along -- because it was clearly foolhardy to even have
a detailed post-war plan.
Capture, try and execute Saddamn Hussein and
the remnants of his government. Nudge the Iraqi's forward with only the most basic framework of democratic government. Build
stakeholders as fast as possible in the most basic and fundamental governmental provisions -- utilities, police, judiciary,
health, schools. Otherwise, step back and let any and all other vacuums be filled primarily by letting their concepts of life,
liberty and the pursuit of happiness flourish.
Whatever form of democratic government that
emerges, cool. Just let it have an Iraqi face. And make sure that the emerging Iraqi government, whatever the form, is cognizant
of American power -- principally in the form of the United States Army. Secondarily in the form/allure/provision of Islamic
commerce and culture, modified to regional sensitivities.
It's all about faith. Ultimately, either you
believe in the Iraqis [and the Americans] or you don't.
Congratulations, again, to the majority of the Iraqi people who form their own huddled
masses yearning to be free. And well-earned shame on the multitude of Americans from the Democratic Wing of the Democratic
Party [and others] who have done their numbskull damndest not only to wish failure upon their nation but continued subjugation
to the Iraqi masses.
History was made today and I drink a toast to the people of Iraq.
It was then, and it is now, all about faith.
30 jan 05 @ 6:13 pm est
MYOPIA
Pejman Yousefzadeh makes a great point regarding myopic pettiness and the Iraqi elections:
Those who deride this expression of defiance and this irrevocable march towards freedom will themselves be derided
by history--and rightfully so. No one thinks for a moment that Iraq's challenges have come to an end,
but for all of the obstacles placed in the way of the Iraqis, this day represents a smashing triumph. In the meantime, let
us have a laugh at our would-be President [John Effin Kerry], who showed himself today to be petty and unqualified to speak
of and to our better selves as a nation--or of and to our values abroad.
My thoughts exactly.
30 jan 05 @ 6:10 pm est
TRIBAL RELATIONSHIPS
Consanguinity defines the degree of relationship between persons who descend from a common
ancestor. A parent and child are related by lineal consanguinity, aunts and uncles to nieces and nephews by collateral consanguinity.
Ginny, at the ChicagoBoyz website dwells on an interesting subject as it relates to Iraq:
Consanguinity, anyone?
Mark Twain’s description of
the Grangerford/Shepherdson feud and James Webb’s Born Fighting take different perspectives on a tough, independent strain central to American culture. The Grangerfords give honor
to Pilgrim’s Progress and Henry Clay’s speeches; they decorate with Highland Marys and graveyard art. Their religion
(predestination and brotherly love, while the guns are left at the door) echoes that hardy angularity Webb likes. But, of
course, gone wrong, this can also produce a feud of honor over a pig. Gone wrong, it isn’t honor but tribalism. Faulkner,
a writer of mythic and complex sensibility, appreciated the power of the passion that underlies such feuds, one he describes
as “the old fierce pull of blood.” He counters it with the great ability western thought encourages: an ability to see the
“other” as human, (as, indeed, burning with a spark of divinity). This leads us to transcend our blood loyalties, move from
revenge to justice, from blood loyalty to national loyalty. Seeing all others as our brothers - ah, that is the great gift
our tradition has given us. Webb sees the broader, more self-conscious and rational values that also permeate that tradition.
But that primal urge, that fierce pull of blood, is always a part of us, a prioritizing we cannot help but feel.
The
power of the tribal loyalty Twain captures was fresh on my mind when I happened upon “Cousin Marriage Conundrum". Steve Sailor argues that “the ancient practice [of consanguinty] discourages democratic nation-building.”
Maybe, maybe not. History is going to start answering that question.
On a related note, many folks that I know are absolutely shocked to learn that first cousins
may legally marry in the state of Florida. But they can.
Check out section 741.21, Florida Statutes.
30 jan 05 @ 6:08 pm est
DO YOU REMEMBER THAT INTERNET BUBBLE?
30 jan 05 @ 5:56 pm est
GREAT BILLBOARDS!
30 jan 05 @ 5:55 pm est
Is Peggy Noonan rolling with Brent Scowcroft and the Supposed Realism Crowd?
TMLutas gets it right about Peggy Noonan – garbage cans & pressure cookers, Peggy?
I think that Peggy Noonan almost gets things right in her current column on the President's 2nd inaugural. Unfortunately almost doesn't count and she errs seriously
in how she views 3rd world dictatorships.
Here is an unhappy fact: Certain authoritarians
and tyrants whose leadership is illegitimate and unjust have functioned in history as--ugly imagery coming--garbage-can lids
on their societies. They keep freedom from entering, it is true. But when they are removed, the garbage--the freelance terrorists,
the grievance merchants, the ethnic nationalists--pops out all over. Yes, freedom is good and to be strived for. But cleaning
up the garbage is not pretty. And it sometimes leaves the neighborhood in an even bigger mess than it had been.
This is something of a mixed metaphor because garbage cans are not normally under pressure.
You may get an increase in odor if you remove a lid, but not a messy explosion. The contents of the garbage can are generally
inert.
This is not so in those dictatorships. The
tyrants are more lids on pressure cookers than garbage can lids. This makes a big difference because in a pressure cooker,
it is the lid that creates the danger.
He later on notes:
We can choose to help keep the lid on and get hurt by the shrapenel when we fail or we can help pop the lid off in
a controlled way and expand our capability of cleaning up the inevitable little messes that result. In some cases, the cleanup
crew will mostly be wearing a uniform. In many other cases, it will not.
I am hopeful that in a future speech, President Bush will make it clear that freedom is not a state that is limited
to promotion by political action, that economic and social freedom are equal actors in the struggle to liberate the world.
There was a bit of that in his speech but most seem to have missed commenting on it much. The assumption among the commentariat
is that a political actor was talking about political freedom but Bush himself did not make any such distinction.
In Peggy Noonan's "garbage can" world, her solution makes a very adult sort of sense. We do not actually live in that
world but a more complicated one where the clock is running on a problem that she does not seem to recognize. I too, hope
for a "Return to Planet Earth" headline soon but the character who is returning is somewhat different.
Yeah, I find her apparent inability to recognize that we don’t actually live in that world
she presupposes curious as well. So it goes.
TMLutas also gets it right about the Boston Globe’s proper take on the Shia slate of candidates in Iraq. Check that out, too.
30 jan 05 @ 5:53 pm est
North Carolina Democrats Duke It Out
The struggle for the Democratic Party in the South continues. Here is the North Carolina example:
In one corner, the establishment:
ED TURLINGTON RESIDENCE: Grew up in Sampson
County. Lives in Raleigh.
AGE:
47
OCCUPATION:
Attorney with Tharrington Smith. Law partner of former state party Chairman Wade Smith and former law partner with former
Sen. John Edwards. Also works as a lobbyist. Among his clients last year were the N.C. Association of Broadcasters, the N.C.
Association of Convenience Store Owners, Lucent Technologies Inc., Carolina Asphalt Pavement Association and Time Warner.
POLITICAL RESUME: State director for the Mondale-Ferraro campaign in 1984; executive director of state Democratic Party, 1985-86; special
assistant to U.S. Sen. Terry Sanford, 1986-87; chief of staff to Lt. Gov. Bob Jordan, 1987-89; aide on Sen. Joe Biden's 1988
presidential campaign; Gov. Jim Hunt's chief of staff, 1993-96; Hunt's campaign manager, 1996; aide to former Sen. Bill Bradley,
1997-99; deputy campaign manager for Bradley's presidential campaign, 1999-2000; general chairman of Edwards' presidential
campaign, 2003-2004, state co-chairman of the Kerry-Edwards campaign, 2004.
In another corner, the insurgency:
JERRY MEEK RESIDENCE:
Grew up in Fayetteville, recently moved to Raleigh.
AGE:
34
OCCUPATION:
Plaintiffs attorney who works with Wade Byrd of Fayetteville,
one of the state's best-known trial lawyers.
POLITICAL RESUME: At age 17 was the youngest delegate to the Democratic National Convention in Atlanta
in 1988. Was Cumberland County Democratic chairman at age 25. Elected the state party's first vice chairman in 2003.
Bet on the insurgent. Democrats have lost their minds and will follow the trial lawyers
right over the cliff. Although John Edwards is a trial lawyer, he’s clearly an establishment guy and something of an anomaly.
If the Democrats in North Carolina are having this kind
of monumental battle, with folks loyal to Howard Dean fairing well, the Democrats are in deep, deep trouble. And have yet
to hit rock bottom.
30 jan 05 @ 5:51 pm est
Saturday, January 29, 2005
AFRICA ROUNDUP
From the Mail & Guardian in South Africa:
And here’s an item from the HAVE WE HEARD THIS STORY BEFORE department.
‘All they ever do is make promises to Africa’
While the world’s richest and most powerful meet in the snowcapped mountains of Switzerland
to lament Africa’s dead and starving, the people here advise them to save their breath --
they’ve heard it all before. "It should not be just talk, talk, but do, do something," said Charles Davies, a newspaper editor
in Freetown, Sierra Leone.
Yes, we’ve heard this before. From both sides.
29 jan 05 @ 12:43 am est
Friday, January 28, 2005
STROM’S BLACK BABY
The Washington Post has an interesting review of Essie Mae Washington-Williams and her new book, Dear Senator. Written by an academic, it is (of course) negative:
This is all pretty gauzy stuff. "Dear Senator"
shows no concern about Thurmond's inappropriate, abusive appropriation of a vulnerable young household servant; instead, it
offers only the hearts-and-flowers version of the story. (The corner of each page is adorned with a curlicued ribbon, lest
readers have any doubt that this memoir should be read as a romance novel.)
Okay, the woman has affection for her father. I’m not shocked by that. In fact, I’m quite
sympathetic to the woman.
What I’m sure, however, will be more problematic for black people is this review from the
capital of South Carolina in The State:
“Dear Senator” is intimate, historic, gripping
and gossipy.
The memoir by Essie Mae Washington-Williams,
the long-secret biracial daughter of the late Strom Thurmond, also is a good read for the classroom or the beach.
The new 223-page book is, first of all, the
universal story of a castoff child. Youthful rejects — Dickens’ Oliver Twist, Shakespeare’s Cordelia, even J.K. Rowling’s
Harry Potter — make for page turners.
Most readers, however, will view “Dear Senator”
as a lifelong journey into a Southern Gothic netherworld, with dueling white-black mind-sets.
That, per se, isn’t the problematic part. The Washington Post piece seems to be from a
stereotypically black perspective [black female professor at D.C. university], The State piece seems to be from a stereotypically
white perspective – that’s just my personal bias.
Here, however, is the problematic part (not for me but I’m sure for others) of the review
in South Carolina and it is (especially) the very last sentence
in the review that will truly get the gums to bumping and phone lines humming:
Washington-Williams writes her children persuaded
her to write her memoirs to tell the truth about her life. She also acknowledges plans to contest Thurmond’s will played a
role in her going public. She hired a high-powered lawyer to fight the Thurmond family if they denied her relation.
Old Strom would have understood. He was a fighter,
too.
Despite a long life in the Thurmond family closet,
Washington-Williams is not bitter. Instead, she claims her dual heritage with gusto.
“I am every bit as white as I am black, and it is my full intention to drink the nectar of
both goblets.”
Well.
Well, well, well. I’m with you Essie Mae – I really am. But you can bet your bottom dollar
that last line ain’t going to go down well with black people. Not. At. All.
28 jan 05 @ 8:37 am est
Thursday, January 27, 2005
Captain Ed is on the J.O.B.
What a fantastic take-down of the self-evident bias of the New York Times editorial pages
from Captain's Quarters today.
The Times gave me its answer today, and quite
frankly, I don't see how Mr. Rosenthal thinks that this is any kind of defense. In fact, when looking further into their editorial,
it loses even more credibility and looks more like shabby ankle-biting all the time.
I agree. In fact, it looks like a textbook case demonstrating that the supposed “paper
of record” is anything but.
27 jan 05 @ 9:30 am est
AUSTIN BAY IS A MUST READ
If you read nothing else today regarding the War in Iraq, read Austin Bay's post from yesterday.
This week’s column is available at StrategyPage. The column expands on a couple of points I made in a recent post about the Iraqi elections, Bush’s “democracy on
the offensive” strategy, and “technological compression.” Bill Buckley’s and Peggy Noonan’s tepid responses to Bush’s speech
have troubled many readers. Buckley and Noonan have either missed or ignored the political challenges of instant global communications, rapid intercontinental transportation,
and weapons of mass destruction. (They aren’t the only ones.) The consequence of transportation and communication: we all
live next door to one another. The consequence of advanced mass destruction weaponry: a small group can kill millions of innocents.
How do we craft a strategy, an integrative, implementable political vision, that accomodates this technology but protects
the freedom of expression, the freedom of movement, all of the freedoms Americans cherish and demand? My column lays out the
strategic case.
Technology, Liberty and
Terror. That man is on to something. And I love Peggy Noonan but I do think he nails it regarding her column last summer and
her response to the inaugural address. I also think some Reaganites (subconsciously) are responding to Bush possibly superceding
Reagan.
This post by Austin Bay also demonstrates one of the beauty of blogs – reader interaction. One of his commenters
talked about the Bush Honeypot Doctrine and linked to this column from the McDonough Heritage Group.
Bin Laden’s vision of luring the Americans into
the mountains of Afghanistan where he
hoped to relive the glory days of the mujahadeen defeat of the Russians
has been utterly dashed by President Bush. Of course the Americans could have set up their jihadi honeypot in Afghanistan but they took notes during the 1980s while the
Russians got pranged in the mountains and Pentagon planners knew that repeating the experience would not be very clever.
Oh, the Americans came to Afghanistan alright,
but then they did something that bin Laden and all his 7th century “masterminds” couldn’t imagine: after swabbing the deck
with the Taliban, the Yanks marched into the heart of the dar al-Islam,
planted the Stars & Stripes, poked the jihadis in the eye with a sharp stick, and announced that they are here to stay
awhile. This doctrine is straight out of Clausewitz and Sun Tzu.
So now when bin Laden calls out to his ummah to take up arms and join the jihad to meet the
Infidel army head-on, instead of traveling to the Afghani mountains, they are obligated to seek their destiny in Iraq. The
terrain in Iraq, whether it be the hard-pan
desert or the primitive mud and cinderblock urban settings, is an American general’s dreamscape.
That truly sums it up.
27 jan 05 @ 9:17 am est
Wednesday, January 26, 2005
AMERICA’S COALITION FOR THE 21ST CENTURY
Collin May has a provocative point of view on what the recent Tsunami proves regarding
future American policy (Hat tip to Instapundit):
The first was the now notorious comment by Jan Egeland, responsible for
coordinating United Nations humanitarian efforts, to the effect that the developed world was “stingy.” Whatever his intention
by making these remarks, they certainly reflect the old UN's heavily bureaucratic attitude which assumes that the UN alone,
as a pseudo-government, can deal with “global problems.” And of course, in the UN’s eyes, every problem requires a “global”
response.
Egeland’s comment also reflects a certain European view that contends that
the state, and in this case a universal state, should be responsible for the welfare of humanity. Not surprisingly, this view
is not shared by the United States, which looks far more to private and community-based
actions to resolve social problems. Given this context, Egeland’s complaint was seen as most directly attacking the United States. And if you’ve worked in the UN/NGO community
you’d know that this sort of assumption would not be wholly off the mark.
This leads us to the second event. While American diplomats derided Egeland’s
slip of the tongue, the US engaged in
an activity that said far more than any words could regarding the new international order. Without any concern for the UN,
the US proceeded to set up a core group
of nations to deal with the disaster. Partners in the group were Australia,
Japan and India.
It is this alliance that will matter most to the US
in the future. The four big Pacific democracies, three with strong Anglo-Saxon histories, will most likely develop into the
central alliance of the twenty-first century.
May concludes with an acknowledgment that the United States (under the leadership of President Bush – although this is unstated,
it is understood) has delivered a quite firm message:
The United Nations, which has long been a forum for anti-American, as well
as anti-Israeli rhetoric, was being told to shape up or it would simply become as irrelevant in humanitarian affairs as it
was in military ones. Apparently this is a message that was communicated to Annan by some high-profile friends of the UN,
who have been warning him that the UN without American goodwill is nothing, and that the UN had better make some changes to
get that good will back. So even this organization, one the French thought they might be able to use against the US during the Iraq
war, was now finding itself having to adapt to the new realities of international affairs.
And, as if to reinforce the point that the formation of the core group
was intended more as a political lesson than an actual working proposal on the aid front, the group quickly turned over authority
for the humanitarian operation to a now chastened United Nations when international donors met in Jakarta. It is unlikely that comments about the “stingy” developed world will be heard again
soon. But look for the core group, the big four alliance, with its strong British heritage, to pop up again, as it will most
likely be the key political alliance of this century, presenting a sharp contrast to the European approach to democracy.
So much for counterproductive American unilateralism. Thank you, Mr. President.
26 jan 05 @ 9:54 am est
Tuesday, January 25, 2005
OPRAH, HALLE AND ZORA NEALE HURSTON
The Orlando Sentinel has the news:
In producing a television movie of her favorite
love story, Oprah Winfrey lined up good friend Halle Berry to star, entrusted
the script to a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and lavished attention on the project.
Yet the talk-show queen has
a long-term hope for Their Eyes Were Watching God, the film of the 1937 novel by Zora Neale Hurston, Eatonville's most
celebrated resident.
"My goal is to get as many people to see it as possible and to elevate Zora Neale Hurston," Winfrey
says. "If two weeks after the film Zora Neale Hurston's name is on the best-seller list, we would have won."
Oscar-winner Berry takes the central role of Janie Crawford, whose search
for fulfillment takes place in Central Florida. The film will air from 9 to 11:30 p.m. March
6 on ABC.
Way to go, Oprah.
25 jan 05 @ 9:26 am est
DEMOCRATS BEGIN TO WAKE UP AND SMELL THE COFFEE IN F.L.A.
Finally, some Democrats are fed up in this state:
Pro-guns, pro-business, pro-family and patriotic
— sound like the GOP?
Nope, it's the Mainstream Democrats, a group
of Florida
lawmakers touting personal responsibility, morals, patriotism and efficient government to woo back voters in a state where
Republicans dominate politics on all but the local levels.
Good luck to you but I’m afraid it’s too little, too late to reverse their well-earned
status as the minority party in Florida. Still, we need
a responsible party on the other side that’s willing to say to its’ constituents certain hard facts that they need to hear.
Get on with it. And for a start, start staking out positions that allow you to deal with
this mess in Orange County.
25 jan 05 @ 9:25 am est
THE IRAQI ELECTIONS
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