Hooray for our Troops

For lots of reasons, not least for doing a nasty dangerous job in a nasty dangerous place (just ask the Macedonians, or the British, or the Sassanians or the Indians or...). And for doing it while most of us sit in comfort with full tummies in front of our entertainment devices and refuse to even notice that you are out there.

And, of course, for this.

can I have a falafel with that?

The Obama Doctrine

From a Pakastani journalist writing for Dawn:

The real lesson to be learnt from the OBL raid — that is if we wish to learn — is that the US can find its enemies, no matter how long it takes, and with impunity eliminate them.

I'd rather our true friends and our enemies hear that than some premature "Mission Accomplished."

but then, I have always been a 'realist' - I hope.

Without Comment

robots

Robots. A Czech word, I believe. Anyway, here is one of them. Isn't he (she? it?) pretty?
[from Matthew Yglesias]

why, look. I believe it is coming your way.

.

The last plane from Stalingrad

Before you read this post, please watch this little film clip from the German movie "Stalingrad." Start watching it at about 5:43. Then watch the first few moments of this second clip. (Be patient, I will explain). It is a convincing and accurate reconstruction of the last German plane escaping from Stalingrad.

Now I will tell you a funny story: Shortly after the last German was cleaned out of the Stalingrad pocket Charles De Gaulle visited the Soviet Union. He was given the grand tour of the battlefield. Everywhere he went there were remains of shattered German tanks and equipment. De Gaulle kept muttering "What a remarkable people!"

About the third or fourth time the general said this his Soviet translator couldn't take it any more and blurted out "Yes! The Soviet People ARE a remarkable people!"

"No," De Gaulle replied, "I mean the Germans. To have made it so far!"

Now come forward in time, to about 1983. I was at a faculty reception talking to a professor who was obviously American by voice and body language. In what passes for light chatter among historians we somehow got off on World War II. I tell him this story because I think it is funny.

He laughs slightly and says in a normal tone of voice, "You know, my father was evacuated from Stalingrad on the last airplane,"

I gape and stammer, which army was he in? "Oh, the German army."

I was born in 1949 and he was no more than three or four years older than me. If that soldier had not managed to get on that plane somehow I would have been talking to a different person that evening.

.

The Minotaur program and accountability

Continuing the mythological meme of that last post (can you find the minotaur on the diagram?) here is a pitch perfect newscast from the Onion on the recently revealed Minotaur program for handling detainees in our war on terror (now officially known as the 'war on whatever'). It manages to skewer both sides of the argument at the same time.

Iraq returns to normal!

Well, depending on what you mean by 'normal.'

This morning since I rode the bus early up the mountain to Boone I was only half-awake. I staggered to my favorite place to tank up on coffee - the Boone Baglery. Picked up the copy of USA Today laying on the bench - it's not like I'm actually going to pay for the darn thing. There, on the inside page was the following headline to a story:

July troop deaths in Iraq may be lowest of war. Top general: Violence near 'normal' levels.

Right below this story was the headline for the next story:

Suicide bombers kill more than 50. Al-Qaeda in Iraq 'is not defeated,' U.S. colonel says.

Glad the Surge has brought some clarity to the problem.


for how I spent my evening in Boone, go here and here.

.

Iraq: how we got to where we are

The next question should perhaps be: Where exactly are we? "Too soon to tell," as Zhou Enlai famously said about the impact of the French Revolution on Communist China. Nevertheless, knowing how we arrived somewhere can sometimes help reveal where that somewhere is.

This one is a new one on me, but it sounds about right. As my father, once personnel director for that big port city in the south, could tell you, its all about picking the right people.

Alas.

The Bushies and Competence

The last post was about a problem that while infuriating if you are the one experiencing it is not a matter of life or death. The republic will go on even if my little niece's summer is ruined.

But what about the way we treat our soldiers returning from the Iraq war? Surely, if there were any place the Bush administration might be expected to take pains, it would be with medical care for our veterans.

You already know the answer of course. Congress slashed funds for head wounds and conditions at the Walter Reed Hospital, mere blocks from El Prez' house and the Army's showcase was shown to be... well, let's just say less than optimal. You can check here for my take on another problem last year before the bad news hit. And here. And for some real rage inducing giggles, here.

But what happens when your wounds are not physical and do not show? Then, apparently the government simply cheaps out and denies that you are wounded. Josh Marshall give a synopsis of a new Washington Porst article detailing the VA's conduct. Here's a bit about one of soldiers who helped capture Saddam Hussein:

One VA psychologist diagnosed Cruz with post-traumatic stress disorder. His condition was labeled "severe and chronic." In a letter supporting his request for PTSD-related disability pay, the psychologist wrote that Cruz was "in need of major help" and that he had provided "more than enough evidence" to back up his PTSD claim. His combat experiences, the letter said, "have been well documented."

None of that seemed to matter when his case reached VA disability evaluators. They turned him down flat, ruling that he deserved no compensation because his psychological problems existed before he joined the Army. They also said that Cruz had not proved he was ever in combat. "The available evidence is insufficient to confirm that you actually engaged in combat," his rejection letter stated.

So we send them into combat, and then deny that they have been in combat. And besides, they were probably crazy to start with. We don't need to spend any money on them! Make no mistake about it: it is a question of money. From Day One the admin has tried to fight this war on the cheap. We have been ... "thrifty"... with everything except blood.

This goes beyond incompetency, beyond stupidity. It is criminal.

The First Cyber War

You may not have noticed but we had a real cyber war not long ago. Estonia is a tiny country, not much known about here in the US of A, that has developed a society and economy highly dependent on the Internet. In fact Estonians do much of their business on the Internet.

A few weeks ago the Russians got very, very, angry at the Estonians. The short and ambiguous history of the resulting "war" can be read in the New York Times.

I knew it would come to this.


.

Chritopher Hitchens and Iraq

Hitchens has always been a hard left bomb thrower, wanting to try Henry Kissinger for war crimes for example. Yet he has been a staunch proponent for the invasion of Iraq and for the War on Terror. There have been various explanations for this from the puzzled Left, mostly ad hominem explanations - the insidious effects of alcoholism, premature senility, greed for the money and power that is supposed to come to Lefties who go over to the Dark Side, or general moral turpitude and sheer evil. Take your pick.

I always thought it was because he had gone into the Kurdish region in 1991 and had a chance to see the effects of Saddam's regime first hand. It left his mind ravaged and determined him to uphold the Kurds at almost all cost. Here is his account from his latest letter from Kurdistan in Vanity Fair:

In the town of Halabja, which has now earned its gruesome place in history, I met people whose hideous wounds from chemical bombardment were still suppurating. The city of Qala Diza had been thoroughly dynamited and bulldozed, and looked like an irretrievable wreck. Much of the area's lavish tree cover had been deforested: the bare plains were dotted with forbidding concrete barracks into which Kurds had been forcibly "relocated" or (a more accurate word) "concentrated." Nearly 200,000 people had been slaughtered, and millions more deported: huddling in ruins or packed into fetid camps on the Turkish and Iranian frontiers. To turn a spade was to risk uncovering a mass grave.

Then he makes a confession:

I was among those who thought and believed and argued that this example could, and should, be extended to the rest of the country; the cause became a consuming thing in my life. To describe the resulting shambles as a disappointment or a failure or even a defeat would be the weakest statement I could possibly make: it feels more like a sick, choking nightmare of betrayal from which there can be no awakening. Yet Kurdistan continues to demonstrate how things could have been different, and it isn't a place from which the West can simply walk away.

I certainly empathize with the whole letter and especially agree with the last point. To see what Kurdistan has accomplished is to see what could have been, and may actually be at some point. Thus it is difficult to sign on to the "Get out now" agenda. It is almost as difficult to be satisfied with "set a timetable and then get out" plan. But another two years of more of the same, with little hope of progress, is simply not an option.

How did we get into such a box, and what can we do about it? Both questions will make for some interesting history.

Bush is not going to be able to walk away from his responsibility for this, though the full responsibility lies much wider. It is an indictment of the whole American political class and much of the media. What this all means will be a broader political change than simply ushering a few Rupubs out and welcoming a few new Demos.


.

Iraq: Hope, or 'light at the end of the tunnel'

As a Viet Nam era person (I volunteered for the war before I dodged the draft - long story) I am innately suspicious of government talk along the lines of 'light at the end of the tunnel.' Sometimes it's a train.

Nevertheless, there is some moderately encouraging news coming out of Iraq and especially in Anbar province. I listened to Gen. Petreaus last night on the 'News Hour' while he tried to explain just what was going on when John McCain visited the market in Baghdad. It wasn't entirely convincing, but I believe he is right to say there has been an improvement. McCain certainly is not as delusional as some commentators are painting him at the moment.

But I think it is Anbar that is more telling. As this 'dispatch' in the WSJ shows, tribal chiefs are beginning to co-operate with Iraqi and American forces against Al Qaeda. Partly this is because that after having a taste of rule by fanatics, the central government doesn't seem so bad, partly because the government and the Americans have been careful to offer them some inducements. But mainly I think it means that the Sunni chiefs in Anbar have made a rational and informed judgement that their future lies with a unified Iraq, one that owes them a debt for what they assume will be a 'victory' of sorts.

We'll see. But I sure hope this bears fruit.

.

The other war against the Talilban

Pakistan - remember them? There is a nasty little war going on in Waziristan (shades of "The Man Who Would be King") between locals and the government on the one hand, and "foreigners" on the other. Latest dispatch from "Dawn," a very interesting English language newspaper from Pakistan, available on the Web, is here. The "foreigners" they mention are mostly Uzbeks, Central Asian Turks. They have a reputation for ferocity and may be desperate. After allying themselves with the Taliban government they have no where to go.

I think "Dawn" uses the euphemism 'foreigners' to avoid spelling out that these guys are connected with the Taliban. The ISA mentioned is the Pakistani CIA. You know, those wonderful people who brought us the Taliban. Some elements of the ISA supposedly still want the Taliban back in power.

Very confusing if you can't tell your Uzbek from a Tajik.