Man, this stuff just keeps getting better. Apparently, disarming isn't enough. Saddam must not only disarm, but give up power. Are these guys going to just keep moving the goal posts until they finally just get their war on no matter what?
Oh, and note the Churchill reference in the article.
They must really love the image of a young Winston Churchill.
Just read this interesting article in The American Prospect. Basically, the upshot is that if we make ourselves clear, countries actually listen to us and get the message regarding human rights.
Makes you wonder what we've been saying to all those countries that have been brutalizing, torturing and otherwise using Death Squads for their poster boys.
Wait. We don't need to wonder. Here are two illuminating paragraphs from the article:
Today, thanks in part to the Actas, we know that the human-rights advocates were right, and that the quiet diplomats were actually silent ones. Take the case of Chilean human-rights leader Jaime Castillo: After Jeane Kirkpatrick, then-U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, went to Santiago to indicate the Reagan administration's intention "to fully . . . normalize relations with Chile" and had what she termed a "most pleasant" discussion with Pinochet, Castillo was expelled from Chile.Castillo had been expelled before, after a speech in Chile by then-Secretary of State Henry Kissinger about human rights. But a recently declassified memorandum of conversation (or "memcon") shows that in a private meeting, Kissinger all but apologized to Pinochet for mentioning Chile in the speech. "This speech is not aimed at Chile. I wanted to tell you about this. My evaluation is that you are a victim of all left-wing groups around the world and that your greatest sin was that you overthrew a government that was going communist," Kissinger recorded in the memcon. "We are not out to weaken your position." Kissinger's private warmth toward Pinochet, it seems, provided U.S. approval for continued repression, including Castillo's expulsion.
But I guess we'll only find out when the documents become declassified. Oh yea. Nothing about this time will ever be declassified. It will only live in shrouded myth and speculation.
Okay, I've now received three emails lambasting me for my post ranting about we shouldn't be doing this crap to ourselves and that we have no one but ourselves to blame for most of this crap.
So, even though this has been around the net for some time, here's the picture you should burn into your eye sockets before emailing me a Yell Gram:
Before you start virtually beating me up via email (and BTW, we still enjoy the email even though it seems to contain nothing but CAPS and mostly words with too many vowels), you should really check out our government's own documentation of this wonderful time in history at the National Security Archives electronic briefing book #82, 'Shaking Hands With Saddam Hussein'.
Wake up people. Put your thumbs on the script so you can keep your place. Things are going to move even faster from here on out, so we can't afford you doing anything stupid any more.
Remember. Mr. Rove wants only one take for this next scene.
Sitting here, potentially on the eve of a war, I'm reminded yet again about how frickin' fragile life is. I'm suffering from a head cold that's progressively getting worse. Reminding me about how easy it is for stupid, lifeless viruses to completely screw up a body for quite some time.
Everyone is pretty much scared out of their wits right now from what I can tell. I can see it in a lot of faces of people today. The reality that this Administration is going to war no matter what anyone says.... The shear fear of what's going to happen to us here when the bombs start dropping over there. I don't think anyone really noticed that the terror alert went back to piss yellow. From my point of view, if the alert level really means anything, I think it's getting more likely rather than less likely.
Something Daniel Ellsberg said when I was listening to him being interviewed on that commie liberal Saddam coddling public radio station a couple of months ago got jogged back into the front of my mind again.
He said that things like troop movements, battle plans, war plans - these are not the most secret things. The things that are the most secret, the things that are the most closely held information that no one divulges is that there are alternatives to what the Administration's current plan of action is.
Thus, I'm convinced that the entire world pretty much knows precisely when we'll start dropping bombs. That's not a real secret. Al Qaeda and all the other "lone terrorists" probably have their marching orders by now and know exactly when they should start doing whatever horrible deed they're going to do. I just hope our FBI, CIA and local police are as on the ball as we all hope they are and catch these lunatics before they do any real damage. Really.
You know. Even though I think that it would probably ensure a Bush administration well into the next century, I hope with all my heart that everything goes exactly as they are claiming and absolutely none of the predictions people like me have been making of the incredible mess likely to result from this war happens at all.
Seriously.
Well, apparently blogger pro has a time warp feature on the posts. As soon as the folks at Pyra get that back up and working, we'll likely see if we can get that to move over the posts from the old blog.
Okay. Pyra has fixed our self inflicted problems we had with this site and we're now good to go. For previous posts by us (only a week, but we like 'em), please click here.
Just checked out Atrios' blog. Nice to know he's just as amazed at Josh MarsAzaell's position as I am. I was worried that I had completely misinterpreted Josh's position.
Things are getting pretty surreal people.
Taking back my prediction of an April 1 beginning of the Iraq war. Given the incredible level of rhetoric flying about, and given the new moon happening momentarily... Well, I think they're just going to pop the cork. Screw the UN. Strange to think the unthinkable is maybe only hours away.
Boy. I just found out about this little gem. Yep, the religious fundamentalists have absolutely no power in the US. Yep, they're kept at arms length by the separation of church and state.
I guess it's just a case of the devil you know vs. the devil you don't, eh?
Okay. A lot of you have been pummeling me with the "Islam is a radical, hateful religion" meme. Over and over you keep saying this.
The implication is that Christianity has no such problems that Islam does. Yep, Christianity could never come up with the crap that Islam has.
Well, no need to step back to the bloody past of Christianity. Let's just look at the Right Wing Christian Militias. Remember them? Didn't they... Oh, let's see BOMB the federal building in Oklahoma City a while ago? While not quite 9/11, I don't think anyone would say it was an insignificant act we should just sweep under the rug.
And then there is the constant attempt at interjecting Christianity into our education system. Into our laws. Into everything.
I keep hearing how horrible it is that all these Islamists are trying to get Muslim law instituted as the law of the lands. Say, what they're trying to do in the Philippines.
And I completely agree. However, I'm terrified and alarmed with fundamentalism in all of its forms.
For an example of American style fundamentalism, just listen to the squealing about this little gem. Think we're going to take God out of the pledge of allegiance? Man, that sounds like you're starting a holy war to me.
Tell me, oh sages of modern Islam fundamentalism and its evils. How is this crap any different than what the Taliban did? Granted, it's not taken as far as they did... Yet. But when a Judge, under the cover of darkness, installs a multi ton tribute to the ten commandments - and we're all not outraged... Well, I think you're getting closer to our friends the Taliban. And when you try to push that religious creationism as science - to be taught side by side with evolution... Well, now you've basically become the Taliban.
The Christian Fundamentalists have an enormous amount of power in these United States. If you don't think so, you haven't been paying attention at all.
And they do believe in the literal interpretation of the bible. Despite what you've all been claiming to the contrary. And they do have their own well armed terrorist off shoots that have bombed and killed hundreds of innocent americans.
Yea, I'm alarmed at the Islamic fundamentalism. I'm just as alarmed at Christian fundamentalism.
To me, it just seems like they're in a race to see who can bury this country first.
Sorry. But it's just the way I feel.
I'm not saying Christians are evil. What I am saying is that it's darn foolish to ignore the same behavior at home that you're so alarmed about abroad.
Both snakes are poisonous.
The almost constant refrain I hear lately from people like Tony Blair is that we're going to live in a nightmare if we don't do something to stop Saddam now.
The problem I have with this line of thought is simply "you're figuring this out only now?". Look, ever since we dropped two atom bombs on Japan at the end of the second world war, this has been a ticking time bomb under our bed. The rapid advance of chemical and biological weapons - by our own country I might add - only made the situation far, far worse. So we've had approximately 50 years to try to deal with the result of these Pandora's boxes we've opened. We have done something - fits and starts - but hardly more than sticking our finger into one of the multiple holes in the dike holding back the floodwaters.
And what is absolutely amazing to me is that the very people screaming that the sky is falling the loudest are almost invariably the very ones that fought even the simple, trivial things that we tried to make work. Let's see. What about the chemical weapons treaty? Time after time, speech after speech, the very people screaming about Saddam's chemical weapons were fighting this treaty tooth and nail. Or let's talk about nuclear proliferation. What about the comprehensive test ban treaty?
All of them were hounded into the ground and crushed under their political force.
So now the genie we let out of the bottle is sitting on our doorstep, knock knock knocking.
All I have to say at this point is that you're all a bunch of idiots. I'm not saying we deserve this future, but we're here primarily because you idiots prevented even baby steps from happening. Now the chickens have come home to roost and you're screaming that we have no choice but to shoot yourself in the head because someone else may shoot us in the head in the future.
Kind of hard for me to be impressed. Basically, I think we had the chance long ago to deal with this crap in a serious way and you all worked overtime to make sure that it was all undermined and useless.
We created Saddam. We gave him the technology. Why? Because he was our enemy's enemy at the time. Well guess what? It was the liberals and those radical people like Chomsky saying over an over and over how completely stupid this was. You mocked them. You boldly proceeded as if the world would always be your oyster.
You backed us into this inevitable war that can only end in disaster.
Now you want us to believe you?
The problems you are just waking up to were created in large part by the very strategies you now want us to follow. You people are pretty much insane and you want us to do something even more insane.
Wow.
Hey, I got an idea. If we survive this catastrophe you're unleashing upon us, why don't we in the future NOT ARM OUR ENEMIES - even if they happen to be conveniently the enemies of our enemies. How about we actively work to stop nuclear proliferation - starting on our own doorstep. How about working overtime to destroy any smallpox left in the world in these god forsaken labs you had working on developing them into horrific weapons?
Oh wait. After this disaster - assuming we're all still alive afterwards - you're gonna give us more of the same crap. More of the same line.
In order to defeat the enemy, we must become the enemy.
Bullshit.
Next time, let's not undermine the things that can save us from our own idiocy. Next time, let's not continue to develop weapons of untold horror. Next time, let's try to strengthen international accords and work overtime to ensure that they are ironclad and enforced.
Yea, that's a fantasy I'd like to wake up to.
Well, Josh pretty much nails it on the head with this piece. Not, in my opinion, why we should go to war - which is what he seems to be advocating. Rather, why even those that think this is a pretty stupid thing to do are throwing up their arms in resignation.
The strategy was obvious from the very beginning. Basically, the one super power that this Administration has is the power of seeming certain. They have a laser light focus on what they want and are completely ruthless in achieving this. The problem I have with people like Josh is that the ultimate outcome of the strategy this Administration has is that people like Josh will ultimately throw up their arms and acquiesce to what these ravenous wolves have wanted all along.
I mean, the people who have been forcing this crap down our throat have had this agenda since the early nineties. It is well documented and completely out in the open. Why didn't this get any time in the bloggers - much less the media? Part of the reason, I believe, is that everyone really assumes that these people are playing by the rules. They are not. The strategy of backing everyone into a corner until they have no choice but to acquiesce to what they think is stupid is trivial to see. The only way you can prevent them from doing this to you is to dig your heals in immediately. Okay, maybe there's another way, but I've never seen anyone ever have a successful strategy of this.
Instead, everyone starts a strategy of trying to appeal to their idiot plans with reason. See how stupid is? See how you're in cognitive dissonance? See how all the people are skeptical of your idiocy?
This doesn't have the slightest effect on them because they believe they are absolutely right and they don't care what you think.
So Josh thinks that the only choice we have is to roll over and accept the inevitable.
BULLSHIT. Look. There are million ways we can actually turn all of this around and actually do something about Iraq AND not throw the entire world into chaos, not completely shredding any credibility or good will we have left. At this point, the entire world is ready to do ANYTHING to keep war from happening. And I do mean anything. Rather than seize upon this opportunity with both hands, people like Josh are just throwing their hands up and... Well, I don't know what. If we actually had anyone in this administration who had a soul left - or enough of one that it mattered - they would use this incredible opportunity to completely disarm Saddam in a way that the entire world would agree with.
Part of the problem is that people like Josh seem to have completely bought the line that there is no alternative to war. The only way to deal with Saddam is to get rid of the man.
The completely obvious thing that I don't think they're taking into account is "will we be any safer after he's gone, or are things going to be even worse". I've argued this point several million times now, and I just think everyone who thinks that all the problems will be solved once we have our cakewalk into Baghdad are just living in a fantasy land. Yea, he's a really nasty guy. But history has shown us over and over and over and over again that you can't do just one thing to complex systems. There are so many unintended consequences that it just boggles the mind.
And right now, the way this entire charade of war has been handled, there is nothing but unintended consequences that will spew out like projectile vomit from a bloated corpse.
Josh opines "Unfortunately, we don't have that choice. The administration has already done massive damage to our standing in the world. And they've managed to create facts on the ground -- intentionally and unintentionally -- which make pulling back arguably more dangerous than pushing ahead. The question is no longer what the ideal thing to do is. It's more aptly described as which of the really bad alternatives is best to choose given the jam the administration has backed us into."
I'm waiting for the rest of his post, but I think that he's going to come down on the side of war as the best choice. My problem with this is that while this may solve the Saddam problem, it will create problems a million times worse than what we currently have with the status quo on Saddam.
It's no longer a matter of what's the right thing to do. We simply are shooting our foot via our head at this point. Not only are we doing something of questionable worth - heck, just my opinion - I think we're doing it in a way that completely guarantees a shit load of problems that are going to make Saddam look like the paper tiger that he really is. We are now on the brink of doing something incredibly stupid for all the right reasons - well, those who think this is the right thing to do, other than our Administration, who seem to have their heart in the right place.
We have absolutely no history of installing democracies in the world. This Administration has pissed off the entire world in its single minded pursuit of a questionable goal. We're all being dragged in as a nation. Sure, we hope that Iraqis will be throwing flowers and singing our praises as we march as liberators into Baghdad... But this is just a fantasy of how we'd like it to turn out. Everyone knows in the pit of their stomach that Murphy's Law will rear its ugly head and be the ultimate arbiter of this mess. Things ALWAYS go wrong - nothing ever goes as planned. If you think otherwise, you are being an absolute fool.
So, if you look at what is happening now, you would have to be playing Russian roulette with our future to be all for this crap.
And in my opinion, we're playing Russian roulette with five bullets in the six shot chamber. We've got exactly one chance to do everything - and I mean everything - right. I don't know about you, but I can't do everything right in my world, and I can't believe that the military and this gang of Mayberry Machiavellis can do everything right either - so far they've done absolutely everything wrong. And if even one or two things go wrong - and there's a million things that are likely to go wrong - we're in such deep shit that we're going to be wishing we had Saddam still in power where we could ignore the evil bastard.
So, I hope you guys are right and everything goes just as planned. I hope with all my soul that you're right.
But I think you're incredibly foolish to believe that people who have done everything about this wrong so far stand any chance in hell of doing anything right.
Wow. Read Jeff Koopersmith's lambasting of Ann Coulter and her ilk. Wow.
I want to be like Jeff when I grow up.
Everyone who has the aspiration of growing a spine should read this wonderful piece. Twice.
And then get busy. This is our way of life that we're fighting for. Start acting like it matters.
So I had a talk today with a rather nice guy whom I work with. He's kind of middle of the road, but has completely bought the common narrative, hook, line and sinker. The discussion we had ranged over a wide variety of topics - not surprising, as everything is going to hell in a hand basket lately. But what was crystal clear is that this guy had absolutely no clue about what was going on. He claimed that there were links between Saddam and Al Qaeda, but couldn't produce one piece of evidence for it. Consistently over the entire conversation, he kept falling back on the "I heard that..." and "They say..." defenses. Even then, there were no specifics in any of his part of the discussion. None. Clearly, his views were entirely formed by the papers he read and the news he heard on television. The level of knowledge was only skin deep.
Now, there's nothing really wrong with this, per se. After all, I don't think it's really required for everybody to be an information vacuum like I am. I read just about everything I can get my hands on. I listen to the radio a lot, and I watch a lot of television. I have a lot of friends and others who are also information vacuums and provide daily digests of what they've found. The web... Well, there's tons of blogs, commentaries and millions of policy wonks who type far too fast for their own good. So the quantity and analysis of information isn't the issue. Anyone who wants to can be an information vacuum and become super informed on many issues simultaneously.
But that's why there's 6 Billion people on the planet. Specialization is the luxury that we have as the most advanced species on this earth. Not everybody has to be as informed as Atrios, Josh MarsAzaell, etc.... And god only knows who matches these folks on the Right side of the Bush. I haven't seen any evidence yet of any Right winger that well informed, but heck, I'm open to correction. The point being that the people who are taking care of other stuff equally as important don't have to have this gift. They can rely on these wonderful people to distill, analyze and inform them of what they need to know. There's plenty of sources - both Left, Right and Orthogonal - that people can sample as needed.
The press - i.e. the news media - used to function in this manner as well. I stress, used to function in this manner. I truly believe that the American press has crossed the line that demarcates what we used to call The Forth Estate of the United States of America and rank lap top yellow journalism. We used to believe the myth - maybe it wasn't a myth, I don't know - that the press was an independent watch dog on the three branches of our government. As corporations grew in power and became more of a dominate force in society and politics, the press fancied itself as their watch dog as well...
But they don't really do that any more. They simply can't. At least in America, most of the media is owned by eight or so corporations. Now, regardless of whether this is a good business decision, this is completely disastrous from the point of view of the myth of the press as The Fourth Estate. It doesn't take any complicated conspiracy theory to understand this. We, as human beings, simply understand it is impossible to investigate and regulate yourself. I completely understand that having, say 1000 corporations that all competed for our money and attention could self regulate. The pool is so large that it is in their best interest to keep the others in check. Heck, a scandal in reporting used to be big news! Imagine! Making up sources? Misquoting? Completely fabricating facts? Failing to proximately display others? Heck, the competitors would jump on the corporation's ass like two baboons on a hyena. The corpse would usually be picked clean within seconds. Kind of like piranha snarfing up the hapless cow.
This is an example of the free market system working in our best interests, regulating itself with the invisible hand of Adam Smith.
But what we have now is something that operates quite different. We have not 1000 but 8 corporations that are more cooperative than competitive. Sure, they'll steal the other's arm if it's left dangling out. But these are huge corporations that can take a punch. More importantly, they are ruthlessly powerful and can give punches just as well. So the point is, there's not a lot of in-fighting. They aren't at each other's throat. Since there's only 8 choices anyway, they don't really have to work that hard to keep customers. They're pretty much alike.
But even that isn't really the point. After all, they're just corporations. They're not saints. Just normal, ruthless, bloodthirsty corporations that live for competition.
The point is, there's not much incentive to police themselves. The level of scandal or impropriety has to be truly enormous in order for one of these folks to try to take down the other. And, after all, they probably have the same problems that infest their own organization anyway. As we've seen with the recent spate of corporate implosions, the system seems pretty well infected. AOL/Time Warner doesn't look so healthy lately...
So here's the press, which fancies itself as a watchdog of the corporate world, really just consisting of eight of the largest corporations on the planet. Think they're going to bite the hand that feeds them? Yea, I'm sure they are.
No conspiracy theory necessary.
Now, since big corporations and big politics are inexorably intertwined, what patina was left of the illusion of The Fourth Estate shreds away like a Kleenex in a hurricane. I mean, it's pretty much common knowledge that politics makes the money go around. Wait. That's money makes the politics go around. Well, you get the picture. So, there's undoubtedly a lot of corruption and the free exchange of promises and checks as the corporate lobbyists and politicians procreate around the world.
Thus, we have no illusion of a free press anymore. QED. You can say that it does provide accurate information, and this is true. But rocking the boat, investigative, adversarial reporting is a thing of the past. Well, I guess the one exception of that is Democratic Presidents who are careless with the oral sex thing. Them, we hound to the ground like a pack of ravenous wolves. On other, far more important issues, like why did 9/11 happen, why my daughter is going to fight in Iraq, why my 401(k) is somewhere at the bottom of the Marianas trench, or how Enron and their buddies were able to squeeze 30 Billion dollars out of the US economy, or what really happened in the Presidential election in Florida.... Well, I guess it's just that sex sells, and all these other issues are boring and far too complex for our little brains.
Really. It doesn't take Noam Chomsky to analyze this. It doesn't really take much more knowledge than what the common third grader has. After all, if you've ever spent anytime on the playground in elementary school, you pretty much understand the base level of unregulated human behavior. And I'm not saying that there's anything intrinsically evil with this. After all, monopolies are well understood economic entities, and we know a lot about how they operate. We know that, by and large, they aren't really good for markets except under rare circumstances.
But the press is something special. In America, it's pretty much common wisdom that a well informed populace is the bedrock of democracy. After all, if the people aren't informed, the likelihood of them making good choices is practically nil. We saw this again in all the recent corporate accounting scandals. Unless those that are making decisions have accurate information, they can't make good choices. The lesson of Enron, WorldCom and Global Crossing is that more transparency is a good thing.
So, the press is part of the transparency process. Someone has to investigate this stuff and find out what's going on and then report back to us. What? Do you think Enron is going to investigate themselves and break the story of "Get Shorty" and the myriad of fraudulent tax shelters they used to inflate their profits? I mean, how stupid do you think everyone is? So, unless you believe that Enron or GlobalCrossing was going to be vigilant in rooting out evil within their corporation voluntarily, then you are pretty much forced by logic to admit that we don't have anything resembling a free press anymore. The facts and mechanisms are pretty clear. The understanding is basic. It's just a fact.
The problem with the concentration of the media is that it's not like a lot of other commodities. We need to have effective and massive competition in information gathering, analysis and reporting. If we don't we don't know what's going on, and then... Well, it's pretty trivial to be duped. It's pretty easy for those who don't have our best interests at heart to completely bamboozle us. After all, controlling information - i.e. what you know and when you know it - is the most basic of control strategies.
I mean, that's what the whole premise of The Fourth Estate was all about.
So, the press - i.e. reporters, analyzers and information gatherers - have a special moral obligation to society. To the rest of us. To everyone. Because of the myriad of things we do that they don't, we give them the freedom t
