August 31, 2007
NO HABEAS CORPUS, HUH?:
How Britain put Nazis' top men to work (Stewart Payne, 31/08/2007, Daily Telegraph)
German scientists and technicians were abducted at the end of the Second World War and made to work in Britain as part of a secret programme to plunder the defeated nation's trade secrets and intellectual assets, declassified government documents have revealed.An elite British Army unit captured hundreds of Germans in possession of Nazi scientific and technical know-how and transported them across the Channel to work in government ministries and private companies.
Others were forced to travel to Britain, where they were interviewed by commercial rivals and detained if they did not reveal trade secrets.
SING OUT, SISTER:
Laura Bush presses UN over Burma (Jonathan Beale, 8/31/07, BBC News)
US First Lady Laura Bush has urged UN chief Ban Ki-moon to condemn Burma's crackdown on pro-democracy protestors.In a rare political intervention, she also called on the UN Security Council to act to prevent further violence.
Her direct intervention shows growing frustration in the White House with the UN's muted response to problem.
CREATURE CENTRAL:
Texas spiders' monstrous webs baffle scientists (Ed Stoddard, 8/31/07, Reuters)
A monstrous network of sheet-like webs covering several acres has been spun over trees in this state park 50 miles (80 kms) east of Dallas, baffling scientists who say it is an almost-unheard-of occurrence in the region."The dominant spiders here seem to be long-jawed spiders but this is unusual. Social spiders build communal nests in the tropics but the longjaws are not social," said Mike Quinn, a Texas state insect biologist.
"We still don't have a clear answer for what is going on here," he said as he stood beneath the ghostly canopy of webbing which shrouded a patch of oak and juniper trees.
Has a Mythical Beast Turned Up in Texas? (ELIZABETH WHITE, 8/31/07, Associated Press)
Phylis Canion lived in Africa for four years. She's been a hunter all her life and has the mounted heads of a zebra and other exotic animals in her house to prove it.But the roadkill she found last month outside her ranch was a new one even for her, worth putting in a freezer hidden from curious onlookers: Canion believes she may have the head of the mythical, bloodsucking chupacabra.
"It is one ugly creature," Canion said, holding the head of the mammal, which has big ears, large fanged teeth and grayish-blue, mostly hairless skin.
Working in TX, we used to find the odd javelina skull, which was more terrifying than the live rattlers. But our favorite creature was the product of an ad campaign. Lone Star was running commercials where a giant armadillo would storm stores and take the beer. So whenever there was a dead armadillo on the side of the road folks would roll it over on its back and prop a Lone Star bottle in its paws.
EVEN THE RIGHT CAN'T STOP THE MARKET:
New Cars Seen Raising Gas Mileage Levels (KEN THOMAS, 8/31/07, Associated Press)
New vehicles are expected to set records for average gas mileage in driven by improved technology and demand for fuel-efficient vehicles, the government reported.Vehicles from the 2007 model year are projected to average 26.4 miles per gallon overall, a gain of 1 mpg over the previous year and above the previous record of 26.2 mpg in 1987.
The increases are attributed to higher demand for hybrids and more fuel-efficient vehicles with gas prices hovering around $3 for much of the year.
THE POLITICS OF STARVATION:
Ultra-observant Jews press trade with Gaza (Joshua Mitnick, August 31, 2007, Washington Times)
Israel faces pressure from ultra-observant Jewish communities to ease a blockade of the Gaza Strip so they can import food and thus remain faithful to the tradition of not growing or consuming food cultivated on Jewish land once every seven years. [...]It is difficult to underestimate the importance of agriculture for Palestinians in Gaza, where more than half of the population depends on outside aid to survive.
Farms in the blighted coastal strip account for 10 percent of the territory's economy, supporting more than one in six of its 1.4 million residents.
Though Israel's army says opening Gaza's main commercial crossing is too much of a security risk, both Palestinians and Israelis acknowledge that managing trade with Gaza is ultimately a political decision.
WHICH RACHEL CARSON BLAMED ON DDT:
Reintroduced kite shot dead in Ireland (David McKittrick, 31 August 2007, Independent)
A rare bird of prey, released into the Irish countryside in an attempt to reintroduce the species after a 200-year absence, has been found dead with seven shotgun pellets in its carcass. Police are investigating the killing of the red kite, a species protected under European law. News of the death was received with dismay by environmentalists and ornithologists. Ironically, the bird was shot during the republic's National Heritage Week – and just six weeks after it was set free.It is not yet known whether the shooting was deliberate or accidental. But the incident may highlight tensions between the environmental lobby and farmers, who fear that eagles and other birds of prey pose a risk to livestock.
Likewise, the recovery of hawks in America is a function of the hunting bans.
THE DOMESTICATION CONTINUES APACE:
Skeptical Moroccans look hopefully to Islamists (Zakia Abdennebi, 8/31/07, Reuters)
Many members of the secular-minded elite that has ruled Morocco since independence hail from Fez, but the former imperial city has seen a surge in support for the [the moderate Islamist Justice and Development Party (PJD)] in the decade since the party was formed.The PJD became the third biggest party and the main opposition in the Rabat parliament in 2002 and has built political capital by rounding on corruption and calling for more morality in public life.
It has also voiced strong support for the monarchy and condemned religious extremism.
Several PJD politicians hail from the same political class that has ruled the country for half a century and its policies seem to differ little in substance from those of its rivals.
But many ordinary Moroccans are hoping its religious grounding means that, if elected, PJD officials would strive harder against corruption than their predecessors.
"I will put my faith in this party and if it disappoints the people once again, may it assume its responsibility before God," said Abdulkrim, a 32-year-old clothing and perfume seller.
"All the political parties have plundered Morocco's riches," says Kenza Niyari, 52, a housewife wearing a headscarf and loose djellaba robe.
"I have no confidence in any party but if there's one that commits to enforcing true Islam, it'll get my vote because we have failed to follow Islam properly and ended up backward."
The PJD has said it would need to show quick results to avoid alienating its supporters, but says ambitious promises would be pointless before it knows how powerful a government under its command will be.
Morocco's electoral system discourages large majorities by political parties, forcing political groups to form coalitions after the elections. Even if a party wins the majority a lot still hangs on negotiations with the palace, where the king holds the ultimate veto.
MORE:
Transformation of Turkey (SOLI OZEL, 8/31/07, Japan Times)
The president obviously represents the state and is more than a mere figurehead. He sits in Ataturk's chair. He has wide-ranging powers, including the authority to make senior government appointments. He appoints judges to high courts and members to the Higher Educational Council (YOK). He selects the presidents of state universities from a list submitted by the YOK. In times of peace, he is the commander in chief of the armed forces.This is why the crisis over the presidential election was actually a crisis of the constitutional order installed by the military when it ruled from 1980-1983. That constitution — unlike Ataturk's — was written by and for the military on the assumption that the Cold War would never end, and that the president would always be either a military person or someone close to the military.
But the Cold War is long over, and a lot has since changed in Turkey. An International Monetary Fund-supported program in 2001 unleashed rapid economic growth, based on Turkey's gradual but definitive transformation into a market economy. At the same time, Turkey moved decisively onto the path of political and administrative reform to start EU accession negotiations.
Moreover, Turkey's economic and social transformation brought forth a new elite. The AKP came to represent this new elite and its quest for political power.
Many foreign commentators described the presidential and parliamentary elections as a contest between Turkey's secular past and a putative Islamist future. However, the contest is more accurately seen as one between an open and an introverted Turkey; between civilian, democratic rule and military tutelage; and between a globalizing and a protectionist economy. The AKP's support came from both the winners and losers of globalization, from conservative middle Anatolia and cosmopolitan Istanbul, from the nationalist Black Sea region and the predominantly Kurdish Southeast.
The FP Memo: Brothers In Arms: The United States and the Muslim Brotherhood have more in common than they think. But if the Brotherhood is to win over American skeptics, its actions will have to match its words. (Marc Lynch, September/October 2007, Foreign Policy)
TO: Mohammed Mahdi Akef
Supreme Guide
Muslim Brotherhood
FROM: Marc Lynch
RE: How to Talk to AmericaWhen you took over the reins as head of the Muslim Brotherhood in 2004, promising to put freedom at the top of your agenda, you probably couldn’t have imagined where your organization would be today. Although still technically banned, the Brotherhood has emerged as the leading opposition group in Egypt, with 88 seats in parliament. Your calls for governmental transparency and accountability represent an entirely new battle in Egyptian politics—and you’ve got the scars to prove it.
Since contesting parliamentary elections, you’ve seen the Egyptian regime aggressively tamper with the ballot box, launch a massive campaign of arrests of Brotherhood members, and alter the Constitution to prevent your participation in the political process. Many in the West are concerned about the way you’ve been treated by the Egyptian government. But your continued ambiguity about the Brotherhood’s core political commitments, your ambivalence toward Hamas’s attacks on Israel, and questions about your connections with Islamic extremism have left even your backers doubting your true intentions.
You recently complained that the United States “only knows the language of violence and blood and destruction and doesn’t even offer dialogue as an option.” But today you have a historic opportunity for such a dialogue. Americans now recognize they are losing the war of ideas in the Arab world, that Islamic extremism is on the rise, and that the promotion of democracy in the region has collapsed. A vigorous debate has ensued in Washington about the Muslim Brotherhood. Some now see you as a relatively moderate force and a potential partner in a common struggle for democracy and against Islamic extremism. But many others see you as an enemy to be confronted, your Islamist agenda as a major source of extremism and anti-Americanism, and your talk of democracy as a deception meant to fool gullible Westerners. How you engage with this debate will have long-lasting repercussions for your relationship with a United States that isn’t leaving the region anytime soon.
If you are sincere about seeking meaningful dialogue with the West, then you must tackle this debate now, while it’s hot. But repeating the same tired slogans isn’t going to cut it. Demonstrate that, despite many policy differences, you share two fundamental goals with the United States: democracy in Arab countries and curtailing the influence of al Qaeda. If you truly want to persuade Americans—and other Arabs and Muslims—of the value of engaging with you, here’s how to do it:
IF ONLY THE TORIES WERE CONSERVATIVE:
Former Europe minister calls for referendum (Aislinn Simpson, 31/08/2007, Daily Telegraph)
Keith Vaz urged Prime Minister Gordon Brown to allow a vote on the treaty, feared to be simply a rehash of the EU Constitution rejected by French and Dutch voters in 2005.The Leicester East MP said: "As a former Minister for Europe, I believe the time has come for the Government to hold a referendum and decide once and for all Britain's place is at the heart of Europe".
In an open letter to The Sun, Mr Vaz said the referendum - promised by Labour in their manifesto but later rejected in favour of an MPs vote - should be held at the same time as the next General Election.
THEY PROBABLY GO TO CUBA, HUH?:
Swedes go abroad for medical care (The Local, 31st August 2007)
Swedes are increasingly looking abroad for medical treatment, according to new statistics.The number of Swedish patients treated in other EU countries at the expense of the Swedish state doubled between 2005 and 2006, according to new statistics from the Swedish Social Insurance Administration (Försäkringskassan).
7 BRIDES FOR A BILLION BROTHERS:
Rise in India's female feticide may spark crisis (Nita Bhalla, 8/31/07, Reuters)
Increasing female feticide in India could spark a demographic crisis where fewer women in society will result in a rise in sexual violence and child abuse as well as wife-sharing, the United Nations warned.Despite laws banning tests to determine the sex of an unborn child, the killing of female fetuses is common in some regions of India where a preference for sons runs deep.
As a result, the United Nations says an estimated 2,000 unborn girls are illegally aborted every day in India.
This has led to skewed sex ratios in regions like Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh as well as the capital, New Delhi, where a census in 2001 showed there are less than 800 girls for every 1,000 boys.
Fortunately, historic enemy has the same problem, so a quick and dirty war that kills a few tens of millions of males clears the whole thing up.
WELL, THE RESURRECTION WAS STATE RUN (via Jim Yates):
Reincarnate (Matthew Philips, 8/27/07, Newsweek)
In one of history's more absurd acts of totalitarianism, China has banned Buddhist monks in Tibet from reincarnating without government permission. According to a statement issued by the State Administration for Religious Affairs, the law, which goes into effect next month and strictly stipulates the procedures by which one is to reincarnate, is "an important move to institutionalize management of reincarnation."
SOUK OF DREAMS:
How life returned to the streets in a showpiece city that drove out al-Qaeda: An American ‘martyr’ is being hailed in the Sunni Triangle for restoring peace to a town where soldiers now fight only water leaks (Martin Fletcher, 8/31/07, Times of London)
In Ramadi last weekend I did things unthinkable almost anywhere else in this violent country. I walked through the main souk without body armour, talking to ordinary Iraqis. Late one evening I strolled into the brightly lit Jamiah district of the city with Lieutenant-Colonel Roger Turner, the tobacco-chewing US marine in charge of central Ramadi, to buy kebabs from an outdoor restaurant – “It’s safer than London or New York,” Colonel Turner assured me.I listened incredulously as Latif Obaid Ayadah, Ramadi’s Mayor, told me of his desire to build an airport and tourist resort in Ramadi and talked – only half in jest – of twinning his city with Belfast and Oklahoma City. “I want it to be a small slice of heaven,” he declared.
I had met Captain Patriquin while embedded with US troops in Ramadi last November. He was a big man, moustachioed, ex-Special Forces, fluent in Arabic and engaged in what was then a revolutionary experiment for a US military renowned for busting doors down. He and a small group from the First Brigade Combat Team, part of the 1st Armoured Division, were assiduously courting the local sheikhs – tribal leaders – over endless cups of tea and cigarettes.
They were encouraging them to rise up against the hundreds of al-Qaeda fighters – Saudi, Jordanian, Syrian, Sudanese, Yemeni – who had arrived in Ramadi two years earlier, promising to lead the battle against the infidel Americans. What al-Qaeda actually did was recruit local thugs, seize control of the city, and impose a Taleban-style rule of terror. Mayor Latif said that they regularly beheaded “collaborators” in public and left the heads beside the corpses. Mischievous children would then put cigarettes in the mouths of the disembodied heads.
Captain Patriquin may have offered more than mere words. His main interlocutor, Sheikh Abdul Sittar Bezea al-Rishawi, told The Times that he gave them guns and ammunition too. The sheikhs did rise up. They formed a movement called the Anbar Awakening, led by Sheikh Sittar. They persuaded thousands of their tribesmen to join the Iraqi police, which was practically defunct thanks to al-Qaeda death threats, and to work with the reviled US troops. The US military built a string of combat outposts (COPs) throughout a city that had previously been a no-go area, and through a combination of Iraqi local knowledge and American firepower they gradually regained control of Ramadi, district by district, until the last al-Qaeda fighters were expelled in three pitched battles in March. What happened in Ramadi was later replicated throughout much of Anbar province.
Ramadi’s transformation is breathtaking.
SEE AMERICA:
Reform rollback or emerging ‘sane modernity’: Evangelical Catholicism triumphant, Vatican watcher states (John L. Allen Jr., 8/28/2007, National Catholic Reporter)
History always cuts deeper than headlines, a point that clearly applies to recent Vatican moves to dust off the old Latin Mass and to declare Catholicism the one true church. Beneath the upheaval triggered by those decisions lies a profound shift in the church’s geological plates, and perhaps the best way of describing the resulting earthquake is as the triumph of evangelical Catholicism.Beginning with the election of Pope John Paul II in 1978, Catholicism has become a steadily more evangelical church – uncompromising and unabashedly itself. Evangelical Catholicism today dominates the church’s leadership class, and it feeds on the energy of a strong grass-roots minority.
Proposing a Catholic counterpart to evangelical Protestantism may seem the ultimate in apples-and-oranges comparison, especially since some evangelicals would view being lumped in with the pope as tantamount to fighting words. Yet in a secularized, pluralistic world in which Christianity is no longer the air people breathe, Protestants and Catholics face the same crucial question: Should the relationship between church and culture be a two-way street, as most liberals say, with the church adjusting teachings and structures in light of the signs of the times? Or is the problem not so much a crisis of structures but a crisis of nerve, as most evangelicals believe, with the antidote being bold proclamation of timeless truths?
Liberal Catholicism enjoyed a heyday from the late 1960s to the mid-1980s, and it’s not about to die off, overeager prophecies in some circles notwithstanding. During the last quarter-century, however, the evangelicals have won most of the fights in terms of official Catholic policy. Whether that’s a rollback on reform or the emergence of a “new, sane modernity,” as Pope Benedict XVI claims, is a matter for debate, but there’s no mistaking which way the winds are blowing.
The wind became a hurricane when they chose a Tocquevillian as pope.
PLENTY OF ROOM TO CUT:
Core inflation gauge up 0.1 percent (David Lawder, 8/31/07, Reuters)
Core U.S. consumer prices rose by a less-than-expected 0.1 percent in July, showing stable prices that held the year-on-year rate of nonfood, nonenergy inflation to 1.9 percent for the second month in a row, the Commerce Department said on Friday."It doesn't seem like pricing pressures are moving out of control," said George Davis, chief technical strategist at RBC Capital Markets in Toronto.
What pressures?
WHY CAN'T EVERYONE BE LIKE MOOKIE?:
Iraqi Government Calls on Other Militias to Follow al-Sadr's Lead, Freeze Activities (VOA News, 31 August 2007)
The Iraqi government has called on the country's armed groups to follow the lead of the Shi'ite Mahdi Army militia and freeze their activities.In a statement issued late Thursday, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's office said Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's decision to halt militia activities provided "a good opportunity" for other militias to suspend their operations in order to maintain stability and sovereignty of Iraq.
Follow the leader.
MORE:
U.S. panel will urge broad overhaul of Iraqi police (David S. Cloud, August 31, 2007, IHT)
An independent commission established by Congress to assess Iraq's security forces will recommend remaking the 26,000-member national police force to purge it of corrupt officers and Shiite militants suspected of complicity in sectarian killings, administration and military officials said Thursday.The commission, headed by General James L. Jones, the former top United States commander in Europe, concludes that the rampant sectarianism that has existed since the formation of the police force requires that its current units "be scrapped" and reshaped into a smaller, more elite organization, according to one senior official familiar with the findings. The recommendation is that "we should start over," the official said.
MEMO TO MAHMOUD:
'End of our international isolation of the past few decades' (Dr Manmohan Singh, August 31, 2007, Rediff)
Why do we place so much importance on nuclear energy? I have no doubt whatsoever that the sustainability of our long-term economic growth is critically dependent on our ability to meet our energy requirements of the future. When a country of the size of India begins to grow at the rate of 9% per annum, with the prospect of even higher rates of growth, energy becomes a critical issue.A lot has been written and said on what our energy requirements will be. A few simple truths stare us in the face. First, our proven resources of coal, oil, gas and hydropower are totally insufficient to meet our requirements. Second, we do not enjoy the luxury of an either�or choice. India needs energy from all known and likely sources of energy. Third, the energy we generate has to be affordable, not only in terms of its financial cost, but in terms of the cost to our environment.
Nuclear power is recognised as an important and environmentally benign constituent of the overall energy mix. There is today talk the world over of a nuclear renaissance and we cannot afford to miss the bus or lag behind these global developments.
Our friends get to indulge their nuke fetishes.
NOW IF THEY CAN JUST GET THE KRAUTS TO CRANK UP THE OVENS AGAIN...:
Swiss nationalists campaign to deport criminal foreigners evokes Nazi-era practice (The Associated Press, August 31, 2007)
The campaign poster was blatant in its xenophobic symbolism: Three white sheep kicking out a black sheep over a caption that read — "For more security."The message was from no fringe force in Switzerland's political scene but from its largest party — the nationalist Swiss People's Party, which controls the Justice Ministry and shares power in an unwieldy coalition that includes all major parties.
The party is seeking to whip up enthusiasm for a deportation scheme that anti-racism campaigners say evokes Nazi-era practices.
As Harry Lime pointed out, they've no culture to assimilate to.
THE PRO-TOTALITARIAN LEFT:
Hot Policy Wonks For The Democrats: The New Realists: See Ya, Dick Holbrooke! Neo-Liberalism Is Passé, Anti-Ideologues Surge (Jason Horowitz, August 14, 2007, NY Observer)
For years, top Democratic advisers on foreign policy have been drawn from the neoliberal or “Wilsonian” school. Its adherents at the Progressive Policy Institute, the Democratic Leadership Council and, of course, the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University advocate that a Democratic president project the country’s strength to spread American values. Most of the members of the school favor a careful withdrawal from Iraq, and they are, for the most part, committed multilateralists. But they also argue that the Iraq experience should not discourage future interventions or engagement in support of American values, especially in the Middle East. In an interdependent world, they argue, more democracy, liberty and rule of law will ultimately increase American security.Ms. Flournoy, a 46-year-old former Department of Defense official in the Clinton administration, and her colleagues think the war in Iraq and the country’s plummeting reputation abroad changes the equation, and that the next president may have to reign in his or her ambitions when it comes to the projection of American power.
As Ms. Flournoy and CNAS co-founder Kurt Campbell wrote in an influential June policy paper called The Inheritance and the Way Forward, “First, U.S. strategy must be grounded in a common sense pragmatism rather than ideology. U.S. national security strategy must be based on a clear-eyed assessment of the challenges and opportunities of the new security environment as well as realistic objectives derived from our national interests.”
These self-styled realists feel chastened by the raft of problems inherited from the Iraq war and want to ratchet back direct American engagement, concentrate more on rebuilding America’s reputation and, not unlike the paleoconservatives who guided foreign policy under George H.W. Bush, let national interests be the nation’s guide.
While some of this is just a short term function of their becoming the reactionary party, in the longer it's hard to imagine a secular Darwinist party caring about the liberation of foreigners.
MORE:
Odd Man Out: What Bayard Rustin Would Tell The Democrats (James Kirchick, 08.31.07, TNR Online)
Salad with Latin flavour: Tomato, Avocado & Grilled Corn Salad (Susan Sampson, 8/31/07, The Star)
3 ears corn, shucked1 tbsp + 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
Sea salt + freshly ground pepper to taste
1/3 cup raw pumpkin seeds (pepitas)
2 small bunches arugula (about 1 lb...), large stems discarded, leaves torn in bite-sized pieces
3 ripe tomatoes, cut in 1/2-inch dice
2 ripe avocados, cut in 1/2-inch dice
1 large cucumber, peeled, seeded, cut in 1/4-inch dice
2 tbsp lime juice
1-1/2 tbsp sherry vinegar
1/4 tsp hot sauce
1/2 tsp granulated sugar
1/8 tsp ground cumin
1/4 lb ... queso fresco, crumbled (about 1 cup)
Preheat barbecue to 500F. Place corn on barbecue grill pan. Brush with 1 tablespoon oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Grill, turning occasionally, 20 to 30 minutes, or until browned. Let sit until cool.
Spread pumpkin seeds on small baking sheet. Roast in preheated 400F oven, stirring occasionally, 3 minutes or until lightly browned. Transfer to plate.
Cut corn kernels from cobs and transfer to large bowl. Add arugula, tomatoes, avocados and cucumber.
In medium bowl, whisk together lime juice, vinegar, hot sauce, sugar and cumin. Whisk in remaining 1/3 cup oil. Season with salt and pepper. Add to vegetables. Toss gently.
Place on serving platter. Scatter queso fresco over top. Scatter pumpkin seeds over top.
August 30, 2007
THAT'S MORE LIKE IT:
Bush blasts Myanmar's arrests of activists (AP, 8/30/07)
President George W. Bush lambasted Myanmar's governing military junta on Thursday for arresting pro-democracy activists on charges of protesting against recent fuel price hikes."I strongly condemn the ongoing actions of the Burmese regime in arresting, harassing and assaulting pro-democracy activists for organizing or participating in peaceful demonstrations," he said, using Myanmar's old name.
"These activists were voicing concerns about recent dramatic increases in the price of fuel, and their concerns should be listened to by the regime rather than silenced through force," Bush said in a statement.
The presidential statement came after Myanmar authorities arrested participants in a series of protests, and raided the homes of known activists and their friends.
Bush also reiterated that Myanmar's military leaders must free all political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi, and lift restrictions on humanitarian groups in Myanmar.
Or we'll do what? Given that it's military rule, their entire military would seem legitimate targets.
THE MORE YOU KNOW, THE LESS CREDIBLE NATURAL SELECTION SEEMS:
Fruit fly parasite's gene invasion raises questions over evolution (Alok Jha, August 31 2007, The Guardian)
Scientists have found the genes of an organism fused wholesale into the genome of an entirely separate species, raising new questions over how evolution works. The discovery suggests that simple bacteria and animals might swap entire genes more often than previously thought. Such large-scale transfer of genes would allow species to acquire entirely new functions and abilities in a very short space of time, rather than the much slower sequence of random mutations that normally evolves species over several generations.
STRUCTURE SUFFICES:
Back to School: Could teachers become the new lawyers? (Ann Hulbert, Aug. 30, 2007, Slate)
It's back-to-school season, and students aren't alone in suffering from a case of nerves. Linda Perlstein, a former Washington Post reporter who spent 2005-06 embedded in Tyler Heights Elementary School in Annapolis, Md., opens Testing: One American School Struggles To Make the Grade with a snapshot of its anxiety-ridden principal. "You could not tell by looking that Tina McKnight was in pain," Perlstein writes of the woman desperate to make her all-minority school a success in the No Child Left Behind era. "Her back throbbed, sore from hours of bending over the toilet, possibly from food poisoning but more likely from stress." At the opposite end of the spectrum, Alec Klein spent the 2006 spring term in New York City's most selective public high school, Stuyvesant. In A Class Apart: Prodigies, Pressure, and Passion Inside One of America's Best High Schools, he introduces a principal equally wracked with tension. "Shaggy-haired, bearded, emaciated, and incredibly tired," Stanley Teitel "buries his head in his hands, uttering, 'God, I'm not going to get through these weeks.' "Enter a schoolhouse door these days with a journalist or a screenwriter, and you'll find the grown-ups within looking like masochistic martyrs. The Hollywood glow of the educator-as-hero, a figure familiar from stump speeches and pop entertainment, has faded. Don't go to HBO's The Wire, set last season in the Baltimore public school system, for a dose of idealism. The much-praised independent film Half-Nelson is grim, too, with Ryan Gosling starring as a drug-addicted maverick trying—and failing—to teach history his own way in a New York City middle school. The Sundance Channel's documentary The Education of Ms. Groves, which aired this week, unsparingly exposes a new teacher's naive optimism, according to the New York Times. Freedom Writers is the exception: To watch Hilary Swank single-handedly create an oasis of harmony in a gang-ridden L.A. high school seems a throwback to a simpler narrative arc.
In the eclipse of the saintly teacher image by the hard-boiled scene in recent insider accounts, are we seeing yet another cause for educational alarm? The picture of beleaguered teams of educators, as doubt-plagued as they are driven, isn't pretty. Yet the new profile of teachers and administrators outlined in Perlstein's and Klein's books may, oddly enough, give a useful boost to the prestige of a profession in urgent need of cultural cachet. [...]
Strangely, perhaps, the spectacle of obsessive administrators and anxious teachers in the trenches presented by both Perlstein and Klein just might help buttress a field that could use some defeminizing. High-pressured and punishing—of such macho qualities is social cachet often built in the world of work. Nowhere in Tyler Heights or Stuyvesant, in Perlstein's and Klein's portrayals, do you hear anyone touting the familiar (female- and family-friendly) perks of the profession: the long summer months off, the seasonal breaks, the 3 o'clock dismissals, the heartwarming kids. Teachers' unions never get mentioned, nor do bonuses. The scene is more reminiscent of, say, the Union army, beset by struggles and squabbles within the ranks, yet striving to make slow headway on divisive home ground.
'No Child Left Behind' should really be called 'No Test Left Behind.' (Edward Humes, July 29, 2007, LA Times)
The conceit of Perlstein's book is simple: to reveal up close the effects on one elementary school, and, by extension, all public schools, of the testing and accountability culture mandated by the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act, President Bush's signature education initiative.Statistical studies of this law abound, but an examination of its human effects is long overdue. "Tested" succeeds in filling this void on several levels, providing descriptions that, for many readers, will seem a stunning indictment of No Child Left Behind and the state and local policies it has engendered. The endless regimen of testing, drilling, report filing, student bribing and student berating that Perlstein describes could only have been conceived by politicians and ideologues who rarely set foot in actual public schools (and would never subject their own children to the Frankenstein classrooms their policies have created).
Perlstein chose Tyler Heights Elementary School in suburban Annapolis, Md., a campus of mostly poor and minority students surrounded by schools with far more affluent and academically prepared student bodies. But unlike troubled inner-city schools, suburban Tyler has considerable financial resources at its disposal with which to close the "achievement gap."
She begins with the announcement in May 2005 that, after years of poor scoring, Tyler Heights has dramatically improved its performance on the Maryland School Assessment, the annual testing mandated by No Child Left Behind. These questions set up the drama of the following school year depicted in "Tested": Was this a fluke, and Tyler a one-hit wonder? Or did the scripted lessons and ruthless teaching-to-the-test payoff, a worthy model for other schools? Or had the state lowered the bar so far on its tests that even failing students appeared to shine? Finally, there is the question that most haunts Tyler's principal and teachers throughout the book: Can we do it again?
In charting the answers to those questions, Perlstein depicts a school obsessed not so much with educating as with measuring education, and with doling out a kind of pallid simulation of knowledge. Stories, for example, are always analyzed for their structure, almost never for their actual content. Creative writing is discouraged in favor of repetitive paragraphs called "Brief Constructed Responses," or BCRs -- an acronym Tyler kids hear endlessly.
"They're learning to do the formula," one teacher laments midway through the school year, "and forgetting how to think."
The goal, Perlstein shows, is to limit teaching to ideas, skills and knowledge...
Thankfully, this moves us away from the inane egalitarian notion that everyone is creative and can produce content worth considering and back towards providing just the basic skills that everyone can learn, no matter how little use they'll be to most.
WHEN DID IT MATTER? (via Gene Brown):
Media Showers: Why would the public lose trust? (DANIEL HENNINGER, August 30, 2007, Opinion Journal)
[F]or the media ponderers there's a more troubling issue than the restoration of trust. It's the possibility that too many people now simply don't much care about the major media anymore. Normally the great media combines would overcome periods of lassitude by forming up focus groups to tell them what to do next. Hah! They want "Survivor"! Alas, living as we do now in a world of seemingly infinite choice, it is possible not to care for a seeming infinity of reasons, which is why the established media are having such a hard time knowing what to do.Mr. Paxman identified one reason not to care: "In the last quarter century we've gone from three channels to hundreds. . . . The truth is this: the more television there is, the less any of it matters." Once there was a time when TV announcers used to say, "Stay with us." Now no one stays. They go surfing, endlessly seeking a five-minute wave of TV that will take them just a little higher than the five minutes they just watched.
More difficult are the I-don't-care revolutionaries, who argue that digitization has reversed the media world's authority and power. The old aristocracy of programmers and editors has been overthrown by average people who now blog new political priorities, download media and form themselves into clickable communities. The Snowman wins. Get over it.
One part of me likes this scenario. Some say we're living out Marshall McLuhan's long-ago forecasts, such as, "The circuited city of the future . . . will be an information megalopolis." Could be. If it is so that these new technologies are redistributing power into millions of liberated hands accessing "what I want, when I want it," then we are also cruising toward what another seer predicted in three words: "Free to choose." That seer, of course, was Milton Friedman.
Has anyone ever presented evidence for the proposition that the citizenry ever either cared about or trusted the media?
SO, HE'S THE TICKET TO RIDE?:
Carpenters endorse Edwards (Domenico Montanaro, 8/30/07, NBC First Read)
LAPDOGLAND:
Running fast, but where is he going?: Pro-American, inspired by morals but pragmatic too: Nicolas Sarkozy sets out his ideas for a new foreign policy (The Economist, 8/30/07)
Some observers even suggest that Mr Sarkozy might be preparing for a return of France to NATO's integrated military command, which De Gaulle pulled out of in 1966.For the moment, Mr Sarkozy has started to sound more muscular and supportive on some issues that America cares about. This week he described Russia as “playing its trump cards, notably oil and gas, with a certain brutality” and accused China of “transforming its insatiable search for raw materials into a strategy of control”. He talked bluntly of the risks of a confrontation between Islam and the West. He spelled out the stark choice over Iran, should sanctions fail: “an Iranian [nuclear] bomb, or the bombing of Iran.”
His second idea is to restore a moral dimension to French diplomacy. The choice of Bernard Kouchner, a former UN administrator of Kosovo and co-founder of Médecins Sans Frontières, as foreign minister was hugely symbolic. Mr Sarkozy says he wants to end French paternalism in Africa. There is nothing new about a French president insisting that his country carries a “message of values”, enshrined in its declaration of human rights. But, say his supporters, Mr Sarkozy wants to show concrete results. He pushed hard, for example, for the UN Security Council resolution on a new peacekeeping force for Darfur.
There is a third idea, not articulated, but which seems to be guiding this new diplomacy: a fresh pragmatism, based on a more realistic assessment of France's rank, and a touch of opportunism. In his entire speech, Mr Sarkozy mentioned neither French grandeur nor gloire, both staples of Chirac-era discourse, preferring less ambitious terms such as France's “influence” and “role”.
THE NEOCONS' OWN UDAY:
Iraqi Shiite heir steps into a tough role: Ammar Hakim, scion of a top clerical family, is set to lead a party that is the chief U.S. ally in Iraq, but has deep ties to Iran. (Alexandra Zavis, August 30, 2007, Los Angeles Times)
Ammar Hakim and Sadr are close in age, and both are the charismatic scions of clerical families that have long vied for leadership of Iraq's Shiite majority. But Hakim, a polished orator with a classical Arabic diction, is a sharp contrast to the gruff Sadr, who speaks in the colloquial dialect of the Iraqi poor. Hakim plays down the rivalry, noting that his mother is from the Sadr clan.Hakim was groomed from an early age for a leadership role. The family home in Najaf was a frequent hide-out for men battling the Iraqi regime. In a recent interview with The Times, he said that from age 4, it was his job to pass food in secret to the fugitives. By the time he was 7, he was acting as a lookout to help his father elude Hussein's henchmen.
"I was able to spot the security men even if they were dressed in civilian clothing," he said, breaking into one of many smiles. His family fled to Iran in 1979 to escape persecution, and by age 9, Hakim was addressing thousands of Shiite faithful at mosques and religious festivals there.
Many here and in Washington are suspicious of Hakim's close ties to Iran, where he has spent more than half his life. Iran's Revolutionary Guard trained, equipped and at one point led the Badr Organization, which fought alongside Iran during the 1980s war against Iraq.
By contrast, Sadr is an Iraqi nationalist who routinely denounces both U.S. and Iranian influence, although he, too, has accepted assistance from Iran and spends considerable time there.
During constitutional negotiations after Hussein was ousted, some supreme council members advocated giving senior Shiite clerics, or ayatollahs, veto power over legislation. Hakim argued for changing the country's name to the Islamic Republic of Iraq, a proposal he now says was intended to recognize that most Iraqis are Muslim, not to exclude those who are not.
Hakim has alienated Sunni Arabs by pushing for greater regional autonomy and, until recently, resisting proposals to allow members of Hussein's ousted Baathist regime to take jobs in the government and military.
His tendency to travel in flashy convoys studded with gunmen have led some to dub him "Uday" Hakim, after Hussein's corrupt and violent son.
Note that he is exactly who the Right claims Sadr is.
MORE:
Allawi Gets a Baathist Endorsement (BOBBY GHOSH, 8/30/07, TIME)
Iyad Allawi's bid to become Iraq's prime minister again has received an endorsement from an unexpected source: the Baath Party. A spokesman for the exiled leadership of Saddam Hussein's old party told TIME that Allawi "is the best person at this time to be given the task of ruling Iraq." He said he hoped that Allawi would pave the way for the Baath Party to "return to the political life of Iraq, where we rightfully belong."The spokesman, known only as Abu Hala, said the Baath leadership under Saddam's deputy, Izzat al-Douri, were "more than willing to work with Allawi, because we see him as a nationalist and Iraqi patriot, and not a sectarian figure." He said the party didn't agree with all of Allawi's policies when he headed a transitional Iraqi government in 2004, but "we have no doubt that he would represent the interests of Iraq, not of Shi'ites or Sunnis or any other group."
PEOPLE OF THE TEXT:
Islam, the American way: Why the United States is fairer to Muslims than “Eurabia” is (The Economist, Aug 30th 2007)
IN PITTSBURGH, a Turkish group, pious but peaceful, decides to rethink its plans for an Islamic centre after an angry public hearing. In Clitheroe, a town in northern England, a plan to turn an ex-church into a mosque wins planning approval after seven failed bids. In Austria a far-rightist, Jörg Haider, grabs headlines by proposing that no mosques or minarets should be built in the province of Carinthia, where he is governor. In Memphis, Tennessee, Muslims manage to build a large cemetery despite local objections to their burial customs.On the face of it, there is something similar about all these vignettes of inter-faith politics in the Western world. They all illustrate the strong emotions, and opportunistic electoral games, that are surfacing in many countries as Muslim minorities, increasingly prosperous and confident, aspire to build more mosques and other communal buildings. All these stories show the way in which whipped-up fears of a “clash of civilisations” can inflame the humdrum politics of a locality.
But there is a big transatlantic difference in the way such disputes are handled. Although America has plenty of Islam-bashers ready to play on people's fears, it offers better protection to the mosque builders. In particular, its constitution, legal system and political culture all generally take the side of religious liberty. America's tradition of freedom is rooted in the First Amendment, and its stipulation that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof...” Another recourse for embattled minorities of any kind is “Section 1983” of America's civil-rights legislation, which allows an individual who is deprived of a legal or constitutional right to sue the official responsible.
More important than the letter of the law is an ethos that leans in favour of religious communities which are “new” (to their neighbours) and simply want to practise their faith in a way that harms nobody. In America the tone of disputes over religious buildings (or cultural centres or cemeteries) is affected by everyone's presumption that if the issue went to the highest level, the cause of liberty would probably prevail.
Fascinating the way our worst impulses are still disciplined by the Founding.
IF THEY WEREN'T TRADITIONAL WHO'D READ THEM?:
The Youngest Brother's Tale: Harry Potter's grand finale: a review of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling (Alan Jacobs, Books & Culture)
Nota Bene: Much that happens in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is revealed here.A little more than a hundred years ago, a number of British educators, journalists, and intellectuals grew exercised about the reading habits of the nation's children. The particular target of their disapproval was the boy's adventure story—the kind of cheap short novel, full of exotic locations and narrow escapes from mortal peril and false friends and unexpected acts of heroism, that had come to be known as the "penny dreadful." Surely it could not be good for children to immerse themselves in these ill-made fictional worlds, with their formulaic plots and purple prose; surely we should insist that they learn to savor finer fare.
Then came riding into the fray a young man—twenty-five at the time—named Gilbert Keith Chesterton, who, though a journalist and an intellectual himself, repudiated the hand-wringing of his colleagues and planted his flag quite firmly in the camp of the penny dreadfuls: "There is no class of vulgar publications about which there is, to my mind, more utterly ridiculous exaggeration and misconception than the current boys' literature of the lowest stratum." Chesterton is perfectly happy to acknowledge that these books are not in the commendatory sense "literature," because "the simple need for some kind of ideal world in which fictitious persons play an unhampered part is infinitely deeper and older than the rules of good art, and much more important. Every one of us in childhood has constructed such an invisible dramatis personae, but it never occurred to our nurses to correct the composition by careful comparison with Balzac."
Nor should our nurses have done so, because what matters most about the penny dreadfuls is the soundness and accuracy of their moral compass, and their power of inspiring their readers to discern the significance of moral choice:
The vast mass of humanity, with their vast mass of idle books and idle words, have never doubted and never will doubt that courage is splendid, that fidelity is noble, that distressed ladies should be rescued, and vanquished enemies spared … . The average man or boy writes daily in these great gaudy diaries of his soul, which we call Penny Dreadfuls, a plainer and better gospel than any of those iridescent ethical paradoxes that the fashionable change as often as their bonnets.
And above all, what Chesterton loves about the penny dreadful is this: "It is always on the side of life."
I have been meditating on these thoughts in recent days, as I have scanned cyberspace for the many and varying responses to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the final tale of the Boy Who Lived. It is a story full of exotic locations and narrow escapes from mortal peril and false friends and unexpected acts of heroism; it is a story which suggests that courage is splendid and fidelity noble. Of course, that's not enough for some people; and for others it's precisely the problem.
We already know that some Christians mistrust the Potter series because of its depictions of magic; we already know that some critics (Harold Bloom most prominent among them) deplore the books' lack of literary grace. But another and different set of critics has emerged here at the end of the series, for whom the evident traditionalism of the books is their greatest flaw. One of the participants in Slate.com's Book Club thinks that the novel, and its epilogue in particular, "feels awfully bourgeois in its concern with little other than our heroes' marriages and children." (I did not know that concern for marriage and children was the exclusive province of the bourgeoisie; but that's why I read Slate, to learn stuff like that.) And as I scanned the blogs I lost track of the number of people who complained that the epilogue, and indeed the whole series, is defaced by "heteronormativity." Not a gay or lesbian couple in sight—though, if it makes anyone feel better, I have seen that a few readers of the previous book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, think that Harry's obsession with finding out what Draco Malfoy is up to marks a welcome homoerotic interlude.
What could one say in defense of these books, so unliterary, so unsophisticated in their morality and style, so bourgeois, so heteronormative? Perhaps only this: that J. K. Rowling has produced, in the vast, seven-book, thirty-five-hundred-page arc of Harry's story, the greatest penny dreadful ever written. [...]
It should be obvious at this point that the Harry Potter books amount to something more, far more, than your average penny dreadful. But they belong, firmly, to that moral universe, even as they expand it beyond what we might have thought possible. Many years ago Umberto Eco wrote that the greatness of Casablanca stems from its shameless deployment of every narrative cliché known to humankind: "Two clichés make us laugh. A hundred clichés move us. For we sense dimly that the clichés are talking among themselves, and celebrating a reunion." The Harry Potter books are like that: every trope and trick of the penny dreadful raised to the highest power and revealed in all their glory.
MORE:
Tolkien and the Gift of Mortality (Anna Mathie, November 2003, First Things).
[I] came upon what I still find the most exquisitely sorrowful moment in a book filled with exquisitely beautiful sorrow.The wise and good Arwen, who has given up her elvish immortality to be the mortal Aragorn’s queen, is overcome at his deathbed and pleads for him to stay with her longer. He refuses, saying that it is right for him to go with good grace and before he grows feeble. Then he tells her:
I speak no comfort to you, for there is no comfort for such pain within the circles of the world. The uttermost choice is before you: to repent and go to the Havens and bear away into the West the memory of our days together that shall there be evergreen but never more than memory; or else to abide the Doom of Men.
Arwen replies that she has no choice:
I must indeed abide the Doom of Men whether I will or nill: the loss and the silence. But I say to you, King of the Numenoreans, not till now have I understood the tale of your people and their fall. As wicked fools I scorned them, but I pity them at last. For if this is indeed, as the Elves say, the gift of the One to Men, it is bitter to receive.
In this new and bitter knowledge, she goes away alone after Aragorn’s death, “the light of her eyes . . . quenched . . . cold and gray as nightfall that comes without a star.” She dies alone in the dead land of Lorien, where deathless Elves once lived.
For Arwen, otherwise infinitely wiser than we, death is the one unknown, a new and unexpected discovery. Aragorn knows better; he knows, as all mortals should, that comfort is impossible and even unworthy in the face of death. Yet he still holds fast to what Arwen has only known as an abstract theological tenet: that death is truly God’s gift.
I cry whenever I reread this passage; it haunts me like no other, though it’s hard to explain why. At the heart of it is the phrase “the gift of the One to Men.” Tolkien looks unblinkingly at “the loss and the silence” of death, but remains steadfast: death is our curse, but also our blessing.
He has hidden this particular tale away in an appendix, but the same idea of mortality permeates the whole book. The plot centers on a ring that gives immortality and corrupts its bearer. Much of the book’s character interest arises from the interactions between mortal and immortal races, who both mystify and fascinate each other. The structure of the work also echoes mortality itself.
THE SURLY WITH A LUNATIC FRINGE ON TOP:
Terrorism Policies Split Democrats: Anger Mounts Within Party Over Inaction on Bush Tactics (Jonathan Weisman, August 30, 2007, Washington Post)
A growing clamor among rank-and-file Democrats to halt President Bush's most controversial tactics in the fight against terrorism has exposed deep divisions within the party, with many Democrats angry that they cannot defeat even a weakened president on issues that they believe should be front and center.The Democrats' failure to rein in wiretapping without warrants, close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay or restore basic legal rights such as habeas corpus for terrorism suspects has opened the party's leaders to fierce criticism from some of their staunchest allies -- on Capitol Hill, among liberal bloggers and at interest groups.
Restore? Was a single German POW's petition for habeas corpus granted in WWII?
HEY, ELIAN, CAN WE BORROW YOUR RAFT?:
Cuba Will Forgo World Championships (THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, 8/30/07)
Cuba will not send a boxing team to the world championships in Chicago in October, heeding Fidel Castro’s fears about future defections after two fighters abandoned their teammates during the Pan American Games last month in Brazil.
EVEN THE EUROS DON'T BUY EUROPEAN... (via Kevin Whited):
Boeing gets biggest European 737 order from Norweigan airline (AP, 8/30/07)
Norwegian Air Shuttle on Thursday announced a deal to buy 42 new Boeing 737-800 airliners worth $3.1 billion dollars, with an option to buy 42 more.The low-cost airline, which operates under the name Norwegian, said the order is the biggest for 737 aircraft received by Boeing in Europe this year.
"These new aircraft will strengthen Norwegian's position in the Norwegian, Nordic and European markets," said the airline's managing director Bjoern Kjos. "These aircraft are also significantly more environmentally friendly than the ones we use today." ...]
Norwegian has rapidly expanded after changing its business model in 2002 from being a domestic commuter airline to a low-cost airline with destinations in Norway and abroad, challenging the Norwegian branch of the Scandinavian Airlines System, which then operated as SAS Braathens. Last year, Norwegian carried 5.1 million passengers.
...at least not the ones trying to turn a profit.
THERE IS NO BELGIUM:
Belgium Taps Legislator to Defuse `Political Crisis' (James G. Neuger, Aug. 29, 2007, Bloomberg)
Belgium's king, warning of a ``political crisis,'' tapped the head of the lower house of Parliament to explore options for forming a new government after an 11-week standoff between French and Flemish parties spurred concerns that the country might break apart.The head of the Flemish Christian Democrats, Yves Leterme, last week abandoned a bid to put together a coalition as French- speaking parties torpedoed demands for the transfer of more power to Flanders, the country's wealthier northern region.
With Belgium lacking a new government almost three months after national elections, the king described the deadlock as a ``crisis,'' and a poll showed that fewer than a third of Belgians are certain that the country will still exist in 10 years.
Another one of FDR's quagmires.
OTHER THAN THAT HOW DID YOU ENJOY SECULAR RATIONALISM?:
Eastern Europe faces generation crisis (Judy Dempsey, August 30, 2007, NY Times)
Just as the governments of Eastern Europe are grappling with the labor shortage caused by young, educated and skilled citizens moving West for higher wages, economists are warning of an even more serious crisis looming: The average age of those left behind is going up, and fewer are working.The two trends are bumping up against each other in a way that will pose immense challenges, economists say. The labor shortage will make it hard to sustain the high economic growth levels of recent years, but without such growth, cash-strapped governments will be hard-pressed to pay for the demands of an aging population - especially with fewer and fewer people contributing to the pension and health systems.
"Eastern Europe, along with the former Soviet Union, will by 2025 have populations that are among the oldest in the world," said Arup Banerji, human development economics manager at the World Bank. "The heart of the matter is this combination of the skilled labor shortage and the demographic trends."
And folks wonder why Iraqis, Palestinians, etc. don't want to adopt the continental European model?
JUST ANOTHER WAY THE WARFARE IS ASYMMETRICAL:
Wanted Taliban leader killed in raid (Sayed Salahuddin, 8/30/07, Reuters)
A wanted Taliban insurgent leader in Afghanistan, Mullah Brother, was killed on Thursday in a U.S.-led raid in the southern province of Helmand, the Afghan Defence Ministry said, citing ground commanders.Brother served as a top military commander for the Taliban government until its removal from power in 2001 and was a member of the movement's leadership council led by its fugitive leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar.
We kill their commanders--they don't get ours.
MISSING THEIR OWN STRONGEST ARGUMENT:
Getting Vietnam Right (Mark Moyar, 8/30/2007, American Spectator)
In the past week, the criticisms swirling around the President's VFW speech have provided much less insight into the President or the speech than into the critics. Rather than address the speech's central issue -- the 1975 debate over the ramifications of abandoning Vietnam -- these individuals have tried to push their own views on Iraq by mentioning other aspects of Vietnam. Emblematic of the attackers was Senator John Kerry, who said that the President's comparison of Vietnam with Iraq was "irresponsible" and "ignorant of the realities of both of those wars." Kerry explained that in Iraq, as in Vietnam, "more American soldiers are being sent to fight and die in a civil war we can't stop and an insurgency we can't bomb into submission." Senator Ted Kennedy, another opponent of both wars, backed this interpretation with the comment that the United States lost the Vietnam War because the South Vietnamese government "lacked sufficient legitimacy with its people."Kerry and Kennedy missed key facts about Vietnam, some of them long obvious, others newly emerged from historical studies. The New York Times and NBC News and CNN and so on missed them, too, because they chose to rely on outdated historians or their own prejudices. The insurgency in Vietnam was dead by 1971, thanks to South Vietnam's armed forces, America's forces, and a South Vietnamese civilian population that overwhelmingly viewed the South Vietnamese government as legitimate. During 1972, after all American combat units had departed, South Vietnamese forces defeated a massive North Vietnamese invasion with the help of American air power. The so-called Christmas bombing of 1972 bombed North Vietnam into submission, resulting in a peace treaty. Had the antiwar Congress not slashed aid to South Vietnam and prohibited the use of American aircraft over Vietnamese skies, the South Vietnamese probably could have repulsed the North Vietnamese when they violated the peace treaty in 1975.
If the Left could accept the reality of South Vietnam, that it was succeeding after we withdrew and fell only after they stabbed it in the back, they'd have a powerful historical argument for withdrawing our troops from Iraq but maintaining assistance to the popular Shi'a and Kurdish governments.
WAIT, WE'RE PRO-AMERICAN TOO!:
BJP's rethinking on n-deal isolates the Left (Amulya Ganguli, August 30, 2007, Rediff)
Perhaps realising that the Bharatiya Janata Party was unnecessarily alienating the middle class by opposing the nuclear deal, L K Advani has now decided to change tack. It's not full support to the measure yet. That would have been too much of a climbdown, which would have left Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie high and dry -- the fate of all those who try to be more loyal than the king. So, a few caveats have been entered, such as ensuring India's strategic independence and an assurance of uninterrupted fuel supply.But, even then, there is enough of a turnaround to confirm that the BJP had initially opposed the pact without much thought. Evidently, it was something of a reflexive action common to virtually all Indian Opposition parties, which take their task of opposing the government far too literally. The BJP's earlier grouses against VAT are a case in point. In the present instance, the party practically joined hands with the Left to create the impression, which the comrades conveniently exploited, that a majority in the Lok Sabha was against the agreement.
The BJP might have taken this unwise step because it felt that if the government succeeded in pushing ahead with the deal without too much difficulty, it would run well ahead of its opponents by winning over nearly the entire middle and upper classes. It would thereby deprive the BJP of large segments of what it had come to regard as its natural constituency. It is a loss which the party cannot sustain, especially in its present state of disarray, where the old order comprising Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L K Advani, is refusing to fade away while the new order -- Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley, Venkaiah Naidu, Sushma Swaraj -- is yet to take its place. So, if it let the government clinch the deal, the BJP will have to say farewell to any hope of returning to power in the foreseeable future.
However, before it could inflict too much damage on itself, the BJP decided to change course by saying it was all right for India to be a strategic partner of the US. How far this latest stance will help it regain lost ground is difficult to say, but at least the party can no longer be accused of hypocrisy. If it had laid itself open to this charge, it was because of the fact that for long periods in its history, starting from the Jan Sangh days, it was regarded as pro-American.
THERE'S SOME GOLD AMIDST THIS PILE OF DROSS:
Top 100 Speeches of the 20th Century (American Rhetoric)
TWELFTH OF NEVER:
IAEA: Iranian Cooperation Significant (GEORGE JAHN, 8/30/07, AP)
The U.N. nuclear agency said Thursday that Iran was producing less nuclear fuel than expected and praised Tehran for "a significant step forward" in explaining past atomic actions that have raised suspicions. [...][T]he report confirmed that Iran continued to expand its uranium enrichment program, reflecting the Islamic republic's defiance of the U.N. Security Council. Still, U.N. officials said, both enrichment and the building of a plutonium-producing reactor was continuing more slowly than expected.
Luckily, the genuine state of an enemy's WMD program is immaterial.
TOUGH LOVE:
'If he is a terrorist, kill him,' says Shahid's father (Sheela Bhatt, August 30, 2007, Rediff)
"Kambakhat bhag gaya hai (the wretched fellow has run away)," says Mohmmad Abdul Waheed , father of Shahid alias Bilal, while talking exclusively to rediff.com.Shahid is suspected to be the mastermind behind the bomb blasts in Mecca Masjid in Hyderabad and, although it is not yet confirmed, investigators suspect his involvement in last Saturday's twin bomb blasts as well. [...]
Shahid's family has been living in Moosrambagh in the Malakpet area of Hyderabad for the last 40 years. It is a mixed locality comprising middle-class Hindus and Muslims. There are no ghettos here nor is there any sign of alienation of the minority community. People who directed this reporter to Shahid's home were not looking tense. Waheed's father was in the police force and for many generations the family lived in the Telangana area of Andhra Pradesh.
On seeing me, he did not try to avoid me nor was he reluctant to face questions.
He said, "I am a Sunni Muslim but I am neither a Tablighi (member of the conservative Tablighi Jamaat) nor linked to any other such outfits."
He says Shahid, like him and other family members, performed namaz five times a day. "I feel ashamed that I could not give my children better education, I made them study in Urdu schools. But you know how these Urdu schools are run." [...]
When asked what he would do if his son is found guilty, he says, "Then don't spare him. We are born here. We are happy to be Indian. We live in this land and we don't want anything done to this land. If he is a terrorist kill him."