It's a dark and dreary Wednesday

Hat Tip to Lynn Hayes for point out Michael Lutin's article in Vanity Fair entitled Special Alert: Horoscope U.S.A. I've enjoyed Michael's writing for years and this article is an excellent example of his style and depth of knowledge.

~ ~ ~

Interesting article on Truthdig entitled Was Nixon Worse?, which gives a rough overview of the two Presidents.

This comparison of war casualties in Vietnam and Iraq has one flaw: The war in Iraq is not over. Bush says he has no intention of ending it promptly. He wants U.S. forces to remain until “the terrorists” are “defeated.”

~ ~ ~


The Nightmare Scenario will not leave you with that warm holiday feeling.

Moscow views the new U.S. drive for military superiority and nuclear war-fighting capability in the context of a geopolitical full-court press against Russia, aimed at reducing her influence in the post-Soviet space and attaining maximum control of hydrocarbon resources in the area. Recent U.S. interest in possible deployment of ballistic missile defense components in Poland and the Czech Republic is seen by Moscow as proof that NATO’s eastward expansion is motivated, among other things, by the American determination to undercut the Russian strategic deterrent. The Bush Doctrine of “democracy promotion” by means of fostering regime change in countries considered adversarial has exacerbated the sense of heightened insecurity in the Kremlin: The Putin regime considers itself one of the targets of this policy.

By the way, did you see Israel actually admitted it has nuclear weapons? And, hmm... seems the Saudi Ambassador has left DC. Georgie's got more problems than you can shake a stick at.

Civil War

It's about damn time.

NBC to use 'civil war' to describe Iraq

NBC News said Monday that its reporters and anchors would begin referring to the ongoing sectarian strife in Iraq as a "civil war," a move that reflects the news media's use of increasingly stark language to characterize the escalating violence gripping the country.

NBC's decision, which came after a particularly deadly series of retaliatory attacks in Baghdad, makes it the first television network to officially adopt the term "civil war," a description the Bush administration has resisted.

I should give NBC some credit for doing this, for growing a pair, but I'm not going to. Iraq has been in a state of civil war since 2004 and the electronic media should have been stating that since then. As the article states, the NY Times has been calling the situation in Iraq a civil war for a month now, but it's print media and, even though it's the NYT, no one pay attention. Using the words "civil war" in electronic media will make people pay attention.

If the media starts stating the obvious, this civil war is our fault, then I'll give them the credit they deserve.

Retired Army Gen. Barry McCaffrey, one of those consulted in NBC's discussions, told Lauer on Monday that he had considered the situation in Iraq a "low-grade conflict" civil war for the last 18 months.

"Now it's on the verge of spinning out of control," said McCaffrey, an NBC News analyst.

It's spun out of control General. But at least now Americans can make that determination for themselves.

Iraq violence is al-Qaida plot

President Bush said Tuesday that an al-Qaida plot to stoke cycles of sectarian revenge in Iraq is to blame for escalating bloodshed, refusing to debate whether the country has fallen into civil war.

I don't doubt for a second that terrorist organizations are exploiting the situation to further their own ends; however, if weren't for the illegal invasion of Iraq, they wouldn't have this opportunity. As usual, Bush doesn't get it.

Jordan's King Abdullah, who is hosting al-Maliki's meeting with Bush, has warned that unless bold steps are taken urgently, the new year could dawn with three civil wars in the Mideast — with one in Iraq added to those in Lebanon and between the Palestinians and Israelis.

I applaud HM King Abdullah for trying to end this nightmare by meeting with both Mr. al-Maliki and Mr. Bush - but it's useless. Normally I think all diplomatic avenues need to be explored but this is just pointless. HM is not dealing with someone who exists in the real world and unless Mr. Bush is forced to deal with reality, or we remove him from office, the devastation will continue to escalate until the entire region from Turkey to Indonesia is at war. Radical Islam and George W. Bush are on a collision course of total annihilation - there is no middle ground to be found. The Israeli's are exploiting the situation in Gaza, the various terrorist organizations are exploiting the situation wherever they are and this is only going to get worse.

Removing the Bush administration is only one small step in ending what will most likely be another decade of war. But it is a step that must be taken. We caused this unholy mess into being; it's up to us to end it.

Good fences make good neighbors.

Der Fueher obviously believes heartily in that old axiom as he is signing into law, today, a bill which authorizes the construction of a 700 mile long fence along the border between the United States and Mexico.

Its cost is not known, although a homeland security spending measure the president signed earlier this month makes a $1.2 billion down payment on the project. The money also can be used for access roads, vehicle barriers, lighting, high-tech equipment and other tools to secure the border.

Mexican officials have criticized the fence. Outgoing Mexican President Vicente Fox, who has spent much of his six years in office lobbying for a new guest worker program and a chance at citizenship for the millions of Mexicans working illegally in the U.S., calls the fence "shameful" and compares it to the Berlin Wall.

27 countries back Mexico's border fence protest

Mexico urges Canada to help oppose border fence

In 1883, celebrating America as the "Mother of Exiles" from whose beacon-hand glows worldwide welcome, Lazarus wrote "The New Colossus" to aid the Bartholdi Pedestal Fund. That sonnet, now inscribed on the pedestal of Bartholdi's Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor, has America proclaiming:

Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!

The entire poem by Emma Lazarus is:

The New Colossus
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Just as Lazarus' poem gave new meaning to the statue, the statue emitted a new ideal for the United States. Liberty did not only mean freedom from the aristocracy of Britain that led the American colonists to the Revolutionary War. Liberty also meant freedom to come to the United States and create a new life without religious and ethnic persecution. Through Larazus' poem, the Statue of Liberty gained a new name: She would now become the Mother of Exiles, torch in hand to lead her new children to American success and happiness.

Israel has it's own fence project. The Israeli High Court approves continuation of security fence today.

Life in Gaza steadily worsens

That's all folks - for today, anyway

The Israeli-Lebanon truce is holding. I'm still betting some fool will do something stupid to end it. Mr. Ahmadinejad isn't helping keep things peaceful: Ahmadinejad gives 'victory speech' before masses

"The problem in Lebanon did not end with the obtaining of a ceasefire. A holding of account with Israel must be held and with those who stood at its side. The stance of America and Israel harmed the image of the Security Council. The two don't have the right to be members of the Security Council," said the Iranian president. He added that "the nations of the area demand a Middle East clean from the American-British hegemony."

Syrian President Bashar doesn't want to be left out, so he's cheering on Hezbollah as well. As I said yesterday, this isn't much of victory for anyone - but try telling that to Mssrs. Ahmadinejad and Bashar, as well as Bush and Olmert.

If everyone claims victory, does that mean no one wins?

The end of August and beginning of September should be interesting.


I've read Seymour Hersh's take on the Israeli attack on Lebanon. For the most part, it makes sense, and some points I thought of in July, especially about this being a dress-rehersal for an Iran invasion. And since Bush thinks Israel won... you gotta wonder what these fools are going to do next.

"The Israeli plan, according to the former senior intelligence official, was “the mirror image of what the United States has been planning for Iran.” (The initial U.S. Air Force proposals for an air attack to destroy Iran’s nuclear capacity, which included the option of intense bombing of civilian infrastructure targets inside Iran, have been resisted by the top leadership of the Army, the Navy, and the Marine Corps, according to current and former officials. They argue that the Air Force plan will not work and will inevitably lead, as in the Israeli war with Hezbollah, to the insertion of troops on the ground.)"

“There is no way that Rumsfeld and Cheney will draw the right conclusion about this,” he said. “When the smoke clears, they’ll say it was a success, and they’ll draw reinforcement for their plan to attack Iran.”

Read the article and draw your own conclusions.



How I never quite fell for South Africa

"After almost four years in Johannesburg, the time has come to move on, and I do so with a sense of detachment. This never really became home. Partly it was running to the airport every other week for overseas trips; partly it was being white and European; but mainly it was because South Africa was such a fraught place to live. The anxiety about crime, the crunching on racial eggshells, the juxtaposition of first-world materialism with third-world squalor - it all added up."

Excellent article by Rory Carroll of the "Guardian Unlimited".