You may have seen the 1st Cavalry, Horse Detachment in coverage of yesterday's military festivities honoring the inauguration. This is the last horse-mounted unit in the Army, still wearing uniforms dating to the glory days of "yellowlegs" riding across the West. (Those of you in the MILSCI project may enjoy this short but interesting overview of the uses of cavalry in combat.)
In any event, you might have gotten the idea that this 1st Cavalry, Horse was a purely ceremonial unit. Not so! Part of the unit is deployed in Iraq, caring for the remains of the Iraqi National Herd of Arabians. Sadly, more than eighty percent of the herd -- and all of their tack -- was destroyed by a Tomahawk missile during the air raids on Baghdad.
The Soquili Equine Center is taking up tack to send to 1st Cavalry, in order to help repair some of the damage done. The Iraqi people, as is often the case in an Arab nation, revere their national herd. The loss of those horses was a heavy blow to them, but the work done by American soldiers, and especially the attention of private American horsemen, have overwhelmed their expectations and made some real friendships across the oceans.
If you're interested in helping out -- whether you have old tack, or wish to make donations of other sorts -- you can contact "Tack for Iraq" here.
The Sun News | 01/20/2005 | Gear gathered for Iraq horses
DoD News: Statement from Pentagon Spokesman Lawrence DiRita on Latest Seymour Hersh Article
It isn't all that often that the Pentagon goes after a journalist. Probably it should happen more often than it does. But it's satisfying to see.
By his own admission, Mr. Hersh evidently is working on an “alternative history” novel. He is well along in that work, given the high quality of “alternative present” that he has developed in several recent articles.This is an official statement of the Department of Defense, remember.
Notes
Please note that The Adventures of Chester, a blog by a fairly insightful Reserve officer of Marines, has moved to a new location. I've adjusted the links accordingly. If you're not familiar with Chester, you might enjoy his writings.
Grim's relative slowdown in blogging may or may not end soon. My current contract is keeping me very busy, and I've had less time to think lately -- and therefore, less to talk about.
However, blogging done well is a conversation, not a lecture. It's good to have friends and companions who drop by to comment, or send emails. I got a couple of those from our friends at Spirit of America. They're gearing up on several projects, and asked me to help let you know about them.
One is Friends of Democracy, which describes itself as "ground-level election news from the Iraqi people." They're putting together a grassroots correspondents' network in Iraq's 18 provinces, and also networking with Iraqi bloggers and via email with Iraqis who are online. The hope is to provide more of an unfiltered look at what the Iraqi people themselves think and say about the process.
SoA is also still working on the Arabic-language blogging tool, Viral Freedom.
Finally, they're planning to do some coverage of the Iraqi elections themselves. They wanted me to help them find some folks with skills they need. Here's what they want:
We need an site editor/producer for the English language Web site.I think that some of you may fit that bill, if you're interested. As you can see from the site design here, Grim is not an expert at such things.
That position is described here.
And, we are looking for people who can develop election coverage
graphics for the FoD website and Jan 30th event. People with
experience developing graphics for the web and for broadcast would be
especially helpful.
Grim's Hall
Jeff Jarvis administers a beating to the New York Times. Grim is one of those bloggers who met the brothers, and blogged about it. If the Times is properly humiliated by the poverty of their reporting and wants to do a follow-up, I'll be glad to receive questions.
Rich Lowry on Zell Miller on National Review Online
So say national Democratic Party leaders, according to this piece:
'What I was telling them was right and correct, if only they had listened to it,' says Miller, who recently retired from the Senate. Democrats are essentially saying these days that they want a party in which someone like Zell Miller can feel comfortable. Alas, they used to have one. But, as someone once put it, today's Democrats are a national party no more.It's not too late -- if they have the guts to make the necessary changes.
Commentary - Americanism--and Its Enemies
Commentary magazine runs this month a piece by a Yale university professor of computer science, David Gelernter. Dr. Gelenter argues that Americanism is a religion in fact, not just in form:
Many thinkers have noted that Americanism is inspired by or close to or intertwined with Puritanism. One of the most impressive scholars to say so recently is Samuel Huntington, in his formidable book on American identity, Who Are We? But my thesis is that Puritanism did not merely inspire or influence Americanism; it turned into Americanism. Puritanism and Americanism are not just parallel or related developments; they are two stages of a single phenomenon.The argument he makes is an extended one, well informed and resonant. I am not, myself, familiar with a number of the sources and documents he cites, particularly the early government and church documents from the Founding. Even so, I can see that there is a great truth hidden here. I recommend the piece to you all.
Thanks to Arts & Letters Daily.
Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall
Monomaniac Joshua Micah Marshall has turned his laser-beam focus on the issue of Social Security reform. Well, actually, he's turned his focus on the issue of putting a stop to any attempt to have Social Security reform.
This is not surprising. Social Security is the strongest bastion of socialism in America. With Welfare reform having taken place, it is the one program left to satisfy someone whose political preferences run toward European-style "social democracy." If you lose this ground, you lose it all.
It happens that Grim is an enemy of the whole "social democratic" program. Aristotle notes that 'a proper upbringing' is necessary to having the correct understanding of arete, a word that encompasses both "excellence" and "virtue" in the modern English. Social democracy, because it redirects responsibility and power from the individual to the state, produces the exact opposite of a proper upbringing. It produces a set of expectations about how the world should work that undermines the qualities necessary in a free man.
This objection stands regardless of the practicality of the program -- it is an objection to a welfare system that works, as much as to a welfare system that is broken. Arguing that the program works well doesn't change the fact that what it does so very well is ultimately unhealthy.
However, this philosophy does have exceptions at the margins, and Social Security happens to occupy one. Programs to care for the aged offer little threat to the character of the nation or her citizens, as the character of a man of sixty-five is largely formed. We've observed that there is still some threat in this regard ("Where'd you get all the money?" "The government. I didn't earn it, I don't need it, but if they miss one payment, I raise hell!"). Still, if that is taken into account and adjustments are made to lessen the effect, this is a place where some government involvement can do more good than harm. Social Security reform could be meaningful simply by instituting a strict means test. Only the truly poor elderly would get money, in the medium future; in the near future, we would have a declining scope of payments, so that those who have been relying on Social Security would not be let down.
The needy elderly can thereby be cared for, but the percentage who rely in some fashion on Social Security will be low enough that it won't produce a large faction prepared to vote itself largess from the public treasury, as Sir Alexander Fraser Tyler warned us at the outset of this adventure. Expenditures for caring only for the needy will be far lower than current expenditures, which are outrageously high because the program is structured to make Social Security the "right" of all Americans.
The alternative route -- private accounts, so that "social security" money becomes instead privately owned assets -- is also satisfactory. It addresses the needs of the elderly, prevents the voting of largess from the public treasury, and preserves the principle of individual responsibility and power. It doesn't do it as well as simply leaving the money in the hands of the people to start with, naturally, but it seems a reasonable compromise position. As with any compromise, neither side is really satisfied. The democratic socalist will find the whole thing less satisfactory than guaranteed payments from the treasury; the individualist will find the paperwork and hassle of working with the government to manage his account frustrating, and wonder why he can't just please manage his own money without interference. Those of us who feel that society has a duty to care for the elderly will be satisfied, though, regardless of whether we feel the government should be the agency fulfilling society's responsibility.
All that said, there is one part of this discussion that I find astonishing. The debate seems to be focusing itself on defining the precise moment at which Social Security becomes insolvent. Advocates of the maximum position say that it won't be for decades; advocates of the minimum say that, in just five years, the program will stop producing more revenue than it expends, and it's all downhill from there. This is a cynical way to argue, on both sides.
The minimal position is correct to say that the "watershed moment" is nearby, and that this will require certain measures to be taken by, say, 2042. The longer we wait, the sterner the measures have to be. But words like "crisis" derail the whole point of this argument, which is that we don't have to have a crisis if we address the situation now.
The maximum position wants to make only half of that last argument: 'we don't have to have a crisis.' That is not true unless we undertake reform in the near future. You can't have only half the argument.
It is no good to argue that a crisis is "decades away" when you are talking about a retirement plan. Those are meant to be planned decades in advance. Informing someone of the age of twenty that there won't be a crisis until they are at least 62 years old is not encouraging. That's just when they are going to need to avoid a crisis.
Pushing the crisis date back a few years, if it can be done at that point, really only makes things worse. For a thirty year old today, hearing that the money may run out when you're 72 should be alarming. That will be when you're good and retired and have no real option of returning to work should the money run out. Hearing that it may not happen until you are 75 is not very comforting; indeed, the only comfort to be derived from this argument is the hope that you might manage to die before the crisis arrives.
dallasobserver.com | Pants on Fire | 2004-12-30
Via Samizdata, I found this story from the Dallas Observer. It provides a useful reminder of the nature of politics, and politicians.
The D magazine special edition goes on and on about the recreational amenities the Trinity River project will create: '...the Trinity River will accommodate small sailboats and paddle boats,' the magazine tells its readers. 'More interestingly, a reverse-flow lake is planned with a 17-foot drop where it curves back to the river, creating rapids and a perfect whitewater course for winter kayaking competitions...How does he know? Why, the real plans were contained in the "executive summary" document:
'But the most visible benefit will be on the Oak Cliff side, which will have easy access to downtown, great views and--most important of all--along the levee, direct entry into the country's largest urban park.'
All of this is a lie.
Here's the point. And remember, in months of preparation, reporting and interviews, there is no way that somebody at D magazine did not know this: There is no white-water kayaking, no waterfalls, none of that in this plan. The exact word in the document is "none."This little example from Dallas can be replicated by glancing at any spending bill passed by Congress. Dave Barry was exactly right when he said:
And what if the city were able to come up with another $110 million[?] ... Dallas Mayor Laura Miller is quoted in the magazine as saying the extra $110 million, for which she is willing to recommend a tax hike, will "put all the bells and whistles" on the project. So how much white-water kayaking will "all the bells and whistles" include?
None. We don't get white-water rafting until we come up with the additional $700 million.
...
Maybe you weren't sure a minute ago, by the way, what a "reverse-flow lake" is. Please let me explain. Right now all of the water in the Trinity River is "effluent" or doo-doo water from upriver sewage treatment plants, some of which don't meet minimal EPA standards. It's not safe to swim in. I have spoken to experts who have said it would be unsafe to go sailing on top of this water unless you were wearing a HAZMAT suit.... What we are getting instead is a stagnant rainwater lake with groundwater pumps that somebody hopes will keep the lake a little bit wet during the dry season.
Boating? Well, sure, if you want to park downtown and carry your boat across the levees and down through the ticks and chiggers to the stagnant water. The levee-top roads and the park access roads shown in all the fancy graphics for this project are not in the plan.
Neither, by the way, are the recreation terraces, the amphitheater or the concession and event facilities. They're not in the basic plan. They're not in the $110 million plan. They're in your dreams.
We must always remember that, as Americans, we all have a common enemy - an enemy that is dangerous, powerful and relentless. I refer, of course, to the federal government.I agree entirely. And I'm a patriot, fierce as they come. I believe in the Republic, just not in Republicans. Like Chesterton,
Now, I have not lost my ideals in the least; my faith in fundamentals is exactly what it always was. What I have lost is my old childlike faith in practical politics. I am still as much concerned as ever about the Battle of Armageddon; but I am not so much concerned about the General Election. As a babe I leapt up on my mother's knee at the mere mention of it. No; the vision is always solid and reliable. The vision is always a fact. It is the reality that is often a fraud. As much as I ever did, more than I ever did, I believe in Liberalism. But there was a rosy time of innocence when I believed in Liberals.My father was right: politicians should be allowed to serve as long a term as they want in government, just so long as they immediately after they lose their first election, they serve an equal number of years in prison.
Laksamana.Net
An interesting story from Laksamana.Net underlines both the differences of Southeast Asian Islam, and the age of the region's cultures.
Majelis Mujahedeen Indonesia, or "Indonesian Council of Holy Warriors" (MMI), is a radical group founded on all too familiar principles: the founding of an Islamic state where there is now Indonesia, a state under Islamic law. It holds all the vaguely Wahabbi strictures about life. The Front Pembla Islam, or "Defenders of Islam Front" (FPI) is a vigilante group designed around enforcing those same strictures. It does things like attack and destroy cafes that serve alcohol in Jakarta during the fast of Ramadan.
These groups, linked to Saudi Arabia's vast school-funding movement, will hold no suprises for the Western reader. But there is one part of Indonesia that is actually under Islamic law (sha'riah): Aceh province. And there is a separatist movement in Aceh province which has been fighting for the full independence of Aceh from the Indonesian government. The Free Aceh Movement (GAM) is a name you will probably get to know in the next few weeks, as they spar with the Indonesian military around our Marines and sailors.
Here's the twist, for those of you who have not heard of Aceh before now: GAM has demanded the expulsion of MMI and FPI from Aceh province.
"The government of Aceh in exile... deplores the arrival in Aceh of members of the thuggish so-called Islamic Defenders Front and the terroristic Indonesia Mujahidin Council. The introduction of these organizations into Aceh at this most critical time squanders scarce resources by the Indonesian government which is better allocated to the victims of the recent tsunami," said the statement.GAM is an indigenous people's movement defending, in their way, the traditional culture of Aceh. Precisely because it is a genuinely traditional movement, it frowns on Islamist/Wahabbi rhetoric and practices of the sort that has become popular in the urban areas of Indonesia among groups such as FPI and MMI. Islamists are enemies of traditional cultural practices, such as the famous Indonesian shadow puppets, which aren't directly related to Islam -- in fact, they have their roots in Hindu culture, though they are now an important feature of life in Aceh province.
"The FPI and MMI are not welcome in Aceh and have never been supported by the Acehnese people, nor has their presence been requested. The FPI has been involved in sectarian killings in Maluku and Central Sulawesi and illegal attacks against non-Muslims and others in Java and elsewhere."
The statement said MMI is the "umbrella organization for groups such as Laskar Jihad, Laskar Jundullah and the FPI" and has "the explicit aim of turning Indonesia into a non-democratic fundamentalist Islamist state".
"The actions and words of both the FPI and MMI are against the teachings of the Holy Qur'an and the Hadith and contradict the tolerance and faith of Acehnese Muslims. Neither the FPI nor the MMI has any credentials or skills in disaster relief, and their presence is clearly intended as a provocation to the people of Aceh. Their intervention in Aceh is therefore counter-productive and is not wanted," it added.
It was in just this way that early Christian saints deplored the traditional culture they were trying to supplant: you may remember Alcuin's famous diatribe against traditional Germanic hero poems, "What has Ingeld to do with Christ?"
Very early in the life of Grim's Hall, I wrote a piece suggesting that the relationship between Ingeld and Christ was the way to break the Islamist movement. I still think that it is, as the Aceh case may demonstrate. What has Wayang to do with Islam? To the people of Aceh, they are as father and mother.
Musings of The GeekWithA.45
The GeekWithA.45 tells a story, pertaining to the selection of a military sidearm:
'As regards to calibers, I once had a Royal Marine tell me, over Guiness in a London pub: 'The 9mm is, you see, a round invented in Europe for shooting other Europeans.I'm not sure if he means that it's "quite right" that we favor the big guns, or that these folks keep insisting on trying to kill us. Hard to tell with the Brits. That dry sense of humor, you know.
'Being civilized, we fall down when shot, and wait for the chaps with the red cross armbands to carry us off.
'You yanks, on the other hand, keep getting into arguments with disagreeable sorts who insist on trying to kill you after they've already been shot, so naturally you think you have to blow great bloody holes in them. Quite right, really.'
It's worth noting that the Texas Rangers were early adopters of the five-shot Paterson Colt revolver, which fired a lightweight round of .36 caliber, with even lighter calibers available. They used it to great effect in the constant skirmishes, and occasional battles, with the Commanche. The heavy Walker Colt was designed later on the recommendations of one of the most famous of the early Rangers, Captain Sam Walker. Among his innovations was an increase to .44 caliber. Although this weapon was designed by a Ranger for the needs of Rangers, many didn't like it because of the heavy weight and massive concussion. They stuck with the Patersons.
So it's an old debate, really, even among Americans.
Philstar.com - The Filipino Global Community
If you want to interrupt a festival, this is how serious people do it:
"Had we not recovered these bombs and arrested these people, the procession could have turned into a bloodbath," said Senior Superintendent Elmer Jamias, chief of WPD Station 5 which covers Ermita.The place is the Philippines, where suicide bombers linked to Jemaah Islamiyah and a local mosque were planning to infiltrate a Christian parade, on the feast of "the Black Nazarene."
Tens of thousands of barefoot Roman Catholics take part in the annual Jan. 9 procession in which the centuries-old ebony statue of Jesus is taken from Quiapo church and paraded around the district.No one could be sure that the police caught all the bombers, or recovered all the explosives. In spite of that, the largest crowd ever came out to the Quiapo Church. The vast turnout slowed the procession, such that suicide bombers could have easily decimated the crowd. Bombs in such a crowd would be brutal, but less so than the stampede and the crush which would follow. Supporters seemed unafraid:
Among the most prominent regular participants is Vice President Noli de Castro.
"The scenario is, there would be suicide bombers in the feast of the Black Nazarene," Jamias said.
"They would rig their bodies with bombs, join the procession, and blow themselves up. God made sure this would not happen," Jamias added.
Despite concerns that the procession might be attacked by militants, hundreds of thousands of devotees thronged to see the ebony statue of Jesus Christ, which is believed to have miraculous healing powers, as it was paraded through the sidestreets of Quiapo district.This is the spirit of the true martyr, unlike the twisted form of the word which has come to grace the lips of the cruel. It reflects in any number of ancient texts, but still has the power to astonish. We have seen it before, but never become accustomed to it.
"We were not bothered by the reported plot to bomb the procession. But if anything happens, at least we are in the presence of the Nazarene," said market vendor Mario Dignos....
"I’m not scared of anything, even bombs," added Zenaida Gutierrez, a housewife. "I am with the Lord."
It is this kind of radical hope and faith which alone can defeat the enemy. We see similar courage in the hearts of men and women standing in line to vote in Afghanistan, and we shall see it in Iraq. We saw that kind of courage, once, in Tienanmen Square. We see it in our heroes and volunteers.
These men and women have met with different fates. The pilgrims of Quiapo pass unmolested; the students of Tienanmen were driven under with tanks and bayonets. The voters in Afghanistan suffered but little, and gained much; there is no doubt that the voters of Iraq will suffer more, for the enemy is more powerful in their nation. And as for our own fighting men, they contest from behind the strongest armor and most deadly firepower we can devise. Our medical skill is second to none, and the injured can be transported to safety for the length of his recovery. But it would be folly to say there is nothing to fear:
Thus ended the memorable field of Ashby-de-la-Zouche, one of the most gallantly contested tournaments of that age; for although only four knights, including one who was smothered by the heat of his armour, had died upon the field, yet upwards of thirty were desperately wounded, four or five of whom never recovered. Several more were disabled for life; and those who escaped best carried the marks of the conflict to the grave with them. Hence it is always mentioned in the old records, as the Gentle and Joyous Passage of Arms of Ashby.Yet they go, each in their turn. In their courage, the world has hope. It falls to us to be worthy of them: and to go ourselves, if Fate should call.
Monday
That poem, written by the late poet Nizar al-Qabbani, is quoted as part of an article in the Kurdistan Observer, entitled "Of Arab Political Culture, the Kurds, and the Falsehood Called Iraq." It provides a genuine, independent assessment from a Kurdish point of view.Every twenty years
Comes to us a gambling man
To stake our country and culture
And resources and rivers
And trees and fruit
And men and women
And the waves and the sea
At the gambling table.
The author obviously feels a great weight on his shoulders in trying to provide such a view. He feels it necessary to reject, by name: Al Jazeera, John Kerry, Al Quds Al Arabiyah, Edward Said, Saddam, the CIA and Mossad but also anti-Zionist forces in Arab culture, a former professor at the US War College and a top Arab writer named al-Obaidi. It isn't all negative: The New Yorker comes in for some high praise.
[A]t a time when even the United Nations was acting like nothing had happened at Halabja, it was magazines like the New Yorker and journalists like Goldberg who forced the truth upon the consciousness of an indifferent world. Yes, some of these writers were Jewish; yes, some of these writers are people with dual citizenships. But to claim, as al-Obeidi does in his piece, that much of what Mr. Goldberg has written about Halabja is not a representation of what actually had happened but rather the product of some sort of a conspiracy by a man of "Israeli/American citizenship" is to reveal a deep-rooted commitment to a culture of lies and bigotry. Mr. Goldberg is capable of telling the truth about Halabja because intellectual honesty prevents him from doing otherwise. Mr. al-Obeidi is incapable of telling the truth about Halabja because, being the brainchild of Arab political culture, he is not accustomed to intellectual honesty.Having thrown off so much of the worlds' weight -- that is, the Arab World's and the Western World's -- the author is finally sufficiently unencumbered to explain his own view. The poem he closes with is telling, but no less than the argument that preceeds it. If you wanted an independent assessment of the situation in Iraq, here it is.
Hi everybody! Hope everyone had a nice holiday(s) and all. I've not been about due to some work related matters, but I think that may be easing up some.
So, I was going to contrast the Army's Field Manual 100-5, Operations, with the Marine Corps' Warfighting manual, but I just stumbled across this blog which I think will demonstrate the Army's current way of fighting in a way 'not so dry' as the manuals can be.
The author is a 1st Lieutenant in an armor regiment, and is writing up his experiences from the battle of Fallujah. I give you Armor Geddon.
AIM Column - Muslims vs. Muslims: The Untold Story - January 4, 2005
Accuracy in Media has a story today that targets the notion that Americans are insufficiently protective of Muslim holy buildings. The author argues that the real story, if you want to talk about the destruction of Muslim holy sites, is the story of other Muslims doing it.
Ironically, however, during the same month that thousands of Pakistanis took to the streets in a furor over what America was doing in Iraq, zealots with the backing of the Pakistani police stormed the Ahmadiyya mosque in Nakhalpara, Pakistan, to remove books deemed offensive to Islam and banned by the government. The Ahmadiyya sect of Islam has had its mosques attacked and reduced to rubble and their creeds erased from the front of mosques. This sect is singled out as heretical because it is dedicated to non-violence and opposes terrorism....These clashes within Islam -- clashes over how it should be interpreted, and by whom -- have always been more important than the clashes between Islam and the outside world.
Giving Pakistan a run for their money, though, is the astonishing scope of destruction of Islamic sites in Saudi Arabia. Historic tombs, landmarks, mosques and battle sites, all central to the Muslim faith, have either been destroyed or been ordered to be destroyed. The birthplace of Mohammed, founder of the Islamic faith, was razed over and turned into a public restroom.
Jeremy Black of the University of Exeter wrote a piece for last year's Orbis called "The Western Encounter with Islam." For most of Islam's history, he argues at length, Islam was only barely interested in the West at all, even during the occasional wars with Christendom.
The West’s primary concern with the relationship between Christendom and Islam appears to be underlined by the traditional world map, with its depiction of an Islamic world stretching into the Balkans and the Western Mediterranean. However, if the conventional map— an equal-area cartogram— is replaced by an equal-population cartogram, then a very different perception of Islam emerges. It becomes a religion not primarily of the Arab world but of South Asia: Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, and Iran....Thomas Friedman argues today that these divisions are the very challenge we face in Iraq:
In every century of its history, more people have been killed in the Islamic world in conflicts among Islamic powers than in conflicts between Islam and the West. We tend to think that the major external problem has always been Western power. But from an extraordinarily early stage, Islam fractured between a large number of polities, some of which were linked to religious and/or ethnic divides. These divisions were much more important in many senses than what took place on the margins.
This is a tough call, but I hope the elections go ahead as scheduled on Jan. 30. We have to have a proper election in Iraq so we can have a proper civil war there. Let me explain: None of these Arab countries — Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia — are based on voluntary social contracts between the citizens inside their borders. They are all what others have called "tribes with flags" — not real countries in the Western sense. They are all civil wars either waiting to happen or being restrained from happening by the iron fist of one tribe over the others or, in the case of Syria in Lebanon, by one country over another.... [U]nlike in Eastern Europe -- where a democratic majority was already present and crying to get out, and all we needed to do was remove the wall -- in Iraq we first need to create that democratic majority.This seems to be the evolving consensus. But it is not complete.
In fact, there is a democratic polity in Iraq. There is a large section of the population that is urbane, and that identifies itself first as "Iraqi," and only second or third as "Shi'ite" or "Sunni," or a member of this sect, or a follower of that traditional clan of imams. Both LtCol Couvillon, and Omar and Mohammed of Iraq the Model spoke about that group, and how large it is. Both Omar and Mohammed are members of the group -- witness Mohammed's new year's poem about the "Sons of Iraq." The Colonel said that his experience holding local elections suggested a turnout that neared one hundred percent, and was certainly ninety percent, of all eligible voters.
There are universities and students, professionals, and tradesmen -- even Communist-oriented unions. The "tribes with flags" still do exist in Iraq. Primarily they are out with the insurgency, but some -- for example, the Kurdish Peshmerga -- are fighting on our side. These tribes exist alongside the polity Friedman says we need to create. But to a large degree, those tribes which are participating in the process are being drawn into it, and thereby transformed into members of the democratic polity:
In Kirkuk... I could sense that there's an alliance between the Arabs and the Turkmen to balance forces with the strong Kurdish alliance. Many Kurds have demanded to postpone the elections of the city board as they felt that it's not easy to compete with the Arabic-Turkmen alliance. Still, this demand didn't include the general elections as Iraq is considered one electoral region and local alliances that are limited to a certain spot will not have an effect on the big picture.Compare the attempts to use democratic politics to "balance" ethnic tensions in Kirkuk with the story from Georgia of yesterday. Consider the tribal warriors, serving alongside the Iraqi Police and the National Guard to protect polling stations from insurgents. Remember the democrats, the Omars and Mohammeds, going back and forth about the country even in this time of chaos, talking about democracy, manning polling stations, organizing parties, teaching the tribes.
In the south, the tribes decided to contribute to the IP and the army efforts in protecting the electoral centers within their regions and this was agreed on after a meeting for the higher commission with the tribes' heads in Hilla and Nasiriyah.
There is the civil war Friedman says he wants.
CNN.com - Sheriff posts snipers�after firings - Jan 4, 2005
A headline you generally don't want to see in your local paper: "Sheriff posts snipers after firings."
On his first day on the job, the new sheriff called 27 employees into his office, stripped them of their badges, fired them, and had rooftop snipers stand guard as they were escorted out the door.The Sheriff had a few words to say in his defense:
The move Monday by Clayton County Sheriff Victor Hill provoked an angry reaction and prompted a judge to order him to rehire the employees.
"A lot of people are under the impression that the sheriff's office is under civil service laws," he said. "But my research shows the employees work at the pleasure of the sheriff." ...CNN reports a "racial overtone" to the firings. I'm normally suspicious when the media finds "racial overtones" in anything, but this time it's hard to avoid agreeing:Hill said the manner in which he fired the workers -- including taking some deputies home in vans normally used to transport prisoners because the deputies were barred from using county cars -- was necessary.
He cited the assassination of Sheriff Derwin Brown in neighboring DeKalb County in 2000. Brown was gunned down in the driveway of his home three days before he was to be sworn in. Former sheriff Sidney Dorsey was found guilty of plotting to kill him and sentenced to life in prison.
"Derwin Brown sent out letters to 25 to 30 people letting them know they would not be reappointed when he took office," Hill said.
Hill was among a spate of black candidates elected last year in the county once dominated by rural whites. The county seat was the setting for the fictional plantation Tara in "Gone With The Wind."Georgia is a large state -- the largest east of Big Muddy. I've lived most of my life inside her borders, and there are huge swathes of the state I've only visited once or a few times. Clayton County I've only been through, travelling from my family's home in the mountains to Savannah on the coast. As a consequence, I don't have anything much to say about the place. It's in classic plantation-cotton country, unlike the mountains to the north or the lowlands to the south and on the coast.
The fired employees included four of the highest-ranking officers, all of them white. Hill told the newspaper their replacements would be black.
Population changes in Georgia have outpaced the nation for decades now, but there remain pockets of old Southern families, who have lost control of their local governments due to the heavy immigration from the rest of the country. That's undone all the traditional social systems, which will tend to inspire violence and chaos in any culture. It's probably a measure of the relative civilization of the United States that it hasn't been worse than this: with Iraq and Afghanistan in the rearview mirror, one doesn't have to think hard to imagine what can happen when the balance of power between vaguely hostile ethnic groups is changed. And really, both of those places have been fairly gentle examples themselves: for the real story, look to Daurfur, or remember the Japanese invasions of Asia.
Likely it will work itself out peacefully, through the courts and the county commission. Still, it's a reminder of how fragile are order and peace. Even in the greatest civilization of our day, one can wake to find the police posting snipers against their former officers, for fear of assassination.
The Diplomad: More UNreality . . . But the Dutch Get It
The Tsunami has been the blow that even Iraq was not. The thing is utterly worthless: indeed, insofar as it provides legitimacy to the corrupt, it has only negative worth. It's past time to put an end to our participation in this fiasco, and send them packing to higher ground. Switzerland, say.
But not Holland. The Dutch are pretty irritated with them, too.
China e-Lobby
The China e-Lobby has decided to cease publication of its email newsletters, and become a blog. Welcome to the blogosphere, and good luck.
YONHAPNEWS WORLD SERVICE::ENGLISH NEWS
The title of the article speaks for itself: "Kim Jong-Il Urges Increased Rice Output This Year." Well, never let it be said that the Communist system can't identify its problems. Fortunately, they have the leadership of Kim to guide... no, I won't even type it out. The DPRK is immune to sarcasm. Next week, I could be reading in Yonhap, "American MilBlogger praises Kim Jong-Il's wise leadership."
Mudville Gazette
Greyhawk has some advice to reporters covering Iraq. I think they're pretty much already following it, though.
China
There have recently been some excellent translations out of the Chinese and Japanese, on the subject of the lessons learned by the Chinese military while observing several recent wars. The Iraq war is one of these, and the NATO action in the Balkans, and the Gulf War.
Due to their length and the lack of an "extended entry" capability at Grim's Hall, I've posted these over at Del's Free Speech site. They are rather long, but rewarding.
The translations, which are from the Eurasia Research Group's Global Geopolitics Group, provide some real insight into the Chinese military approach and mindset. If any of you are interested in thinking about China and the Chinese military, this is a hearty serving of useful information.