Leaving Baghdad
June 2, 2006
A few days ago [i.e., in late May], I left Baghdad and my employment with the State Department for good. It was the perfect time to leave. I have now put in my service and it is time to experience other places and professional environments. Perhaps, if or when the country settles down, I can revisit some of my old haunts like the former Green Zone Café (now a police station) and the Palace (eventually to be returned to the Iraqi government) and other sites where I spent time during my two years in Iraq. But by then, who knows what the country will be like?
Actually, it does not feel like two years in Iraq so much as two years in the Green Zone, a mostly peaceful bubble amidst a sea of violence. On occasion, violence did creep in and one could never escape the ever present reminders that the situation was anything but normal thanks in part to the constant sound of helicopters. I never got to see any other part of the country outside of Baghdad and even then, I glimpsed it only in short moments through the thick windows of armored SUVs and military humvees. But I did live and work in the nerve center of the entire coalition effort, the place where almost all decisions were taken for the good and ill with regard to the administration and occupation of Iraq.
I left Iraq with mixed feelings. Personally, I did well out of the adventure. I have gained a great deal of useful professional experience thereby leaving my future path open to many opportunities. Financially, I made out and am secure enough to take some time off in France to master another language that will in turn, open up other places in the world. After this experience, I am more knowledgeable about many things — the Middle East, the US government, and the US military — but more importantly, I believe I am wiser albeit less innocent and hopeful. I am not cynical however, just more tempered. All in all, I am a better and more seasoned person. I took part in some very positive efforts. In my last job, I was involved with the extremely successful micro-loan program that we managed. This program handed out over $55 million in loans in increments of about $1,000 to small Iraqi businesses thereby sparking economic growth and wealth creation — I know for a fact this program drastically improved the lives of many Iraqis. Additionally, the automation of the Iraq Stock Exchange is now underway and should be completed later this year. This will turn the currently manual exchange into a system similar to our NASDAQ, a development that will dramatically increase the competitiveness of the market by increasing transparency and transaction efficiency.
Missing the Opportunity
However, on the whole, the future of the country is still very much in jeopardy. The insurgency still flares. The militias are in some ways more powerful than before having infiltrated the Iraqi security forces and police. Important and badly needed economic reforms are being reversed. The US administration seems not to be giving the venture a 100% effort. The US mission is plagued more and more by organizational chaos and diminished morale in the State Department. The US military is sending too many officers and bureaucrats that further confuse mission clarity instead of more soldiers capable of waging war and establishing security. By the time I left, we had not yet failed but we have certainly not succeeded. Failure is a growing specter and one I would argue is largely due to our own choices and lack of effort. I am of the growing opinion that I in fact participated in what may very well be the limits of American power in the world. Despite the false or mistaken premise for the invasion, we still have a unique opportunity to change the world for the better. Already, there have been some knock on effects in Libya and Lebanon. Unfortunately, we are squandering the opportunity by our own lack of effort due mostly to a failure of leadership on the part of the White House. We may never get this chance again. Perhaps only once it is gone, will we will look back with regret.
Mistakes Made
Despite my limited view from within the Green Zone, it was still a good vantage point to ascertain some of the reasons for why Iraq continues to be a deeply troubled place. Some of these reasons have been mentioned before in the mainstream media but I will include all the major points to paint a decent picture:
Failure to Provide Security
and the Rule of LawThe Coalition invaded Iraq without the necessary numbers of troops to establish security and the rule of law in the subsequent power vacuum after the toppling of Saddam Hussein. Iraqis' first taste of liberation, especially in Baghdad, was of anarchy and violence. This first impression coupled with the Coalition's subsequent unwillingness to increase troop levels, effectively prevented the establishment of the first responsibility of all governments the world over — security. Security is a prerequisite to democracy and economic growth. Without it, there is nothing. The failure to provide security is clearly the coalition's greatest and most important failure. Iraq will only be won if Baghdad is completely secured. To accomplish such an exercise, US military force will be necessary. In the very short term, there would be a jump in violence. Baghdad is by far the largest and most important city as well as a focal point for friction between the Sunnis and Shias. Additionally, the US military should take responsibility for guarding the oil pipelines, the sole major source of revenue for the Iraqi government. The Iraqis are incapable of protecting it due to widespread corruption. The sad fact is that only US forces can be trusted with this task right. Granted, the image of US soldiers guarding oil infrastructure would seem to reinvigorate the mistaken notion that we are there for the oil. However any misconceptions on that account would be worthwhile!
Sovereignty Granted Too Early
The coalition granted sovereignty to Iraq on June 28, 2004. From what I can tell both from my own impressions and conversations at the time and now, this date was largely determined under pressure both from the international community and from some outspoken Iraqi politicians, most of them being returned exiles. The US succumbed to these pressures partly because there was not a great deal of thought regarding sovereignty and elections (it was largely improvisational) and June 28 seemed like an easy way out that would help us win the hearts and minds of Iraqis. In doing so, the Coalition missed a very real opportunity to make some fundamental changes for the better of Iraq including basic economic, governmental, and legal reforms, changes that would drastically improve the prospects of the country. Instead these reforms (privatization of the economy, reform of government ministries, and the adoption of an effective legal regime conducive to economic growth) were put off to be dealt with by the succeeding Iraqi governments who were naturally reluctant to institute change for fear of alienating voters. We would have received a great deal of grief and perhaps a hotter insurgency and Shia insurrection under the CPA for making radical reforms but we would most likely be in a far better position today.
I believe another reason for the early sovereignty besides a perceived easy way out, is the almost instinctive American aversion to anything that smacks of imperialism. In short, we are uncomfortable in the role of ruling other people (for it seems both morally repugnant in addition to costing money and American lives). To reassure both the world but more importantly, ourselves, that we had come to Iraq not to conquer but to liberate, we excused ourselves from the vital responsibility of governing the country to the detriment of both the Iraqis and Americans. I would argue that this imperialist guilt is ironically enough, effectively hindering our ability to set Iraq on a peaceful and democratic path.Failure to disband the militias
The Coalition Provisional Authority never disbanded the militias nor have the subsequent Iraqi governments. Instead they have been allowed to strengthen. Indeed, some of them have been allowed to permeate the security forces. This is certainly the case with the Ministry of Interior, formerly headed by one of the leaders of the Badr Brigade (the most powerful Shiite militia). Under his watch, Iraqi police have become more and more untrustworthy and corrupt and the common perception is that the Shiite death squads targeting Sunnis have been tacitly accepted. The Iraqi police have in some cases become a legitimized extension of the Badr Brigade or what may be even worse, a means with which to further arm and strengthen them. The Iraqi police may very likely become one of the primary factions in an Iraqi civil war and they may yet play a role in any US confrontation with Iran.
Reversals in Economic Reform
Partly as a result of the hurried granting of sovereignty and a diminished prioritization by the CPA during the occupation, the 200 Iraqi State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) were never privatized. It was left to the succeeding Iraqi governments to perform this deed with our encouragement and assistance. Naturally, those in charge of these enterprises have entrenched interests as do all the ghost workers who never show up to work but still collect a paycheck. Ironically, the US government, for so long the proponent of private enterprise throughout the world is now stumbling into revitalizing these SOEs with US money. It is somewhat understandable why this is happening. There are many US military officers scattered throughout Iraq who are charged with disbursing monies in an effort to revitalize the local economies. They believe that by employing potential insurgents, the violence may come to an end and they will no longer lose fellow soldiers. They see an SOE and think that if only they can get it running again, people would be employed. With their good intentions, they do not realize that these companies were never profitable, were heavily subsidized, and the markets for their goods were strictly determined by the government. Despite my office's objections, they have unfortunately started on the path of funding these SOEs, helping them get contracts, and even determining their business plans! Effectively, the US government is subsidizing dying industries and acting as the chief architect in a quasi-command economy. This may not seem like much of an issue now but I believe that reviving the Baathist style economy with all of its avenues for corruption and susceptibility to political entrenchment could seriously jeopardize Iraq 's nascent democracy.
In Sum
Although, the entire premise for the Iraq invasion has been proven at best to be mistaken, I do not consider our involvement in Iraq to have been a mistake. Mistakes have been made since that time that will unfortunately and mistakenly color the entire venture as doomed from the beginning. This is certainly not the case. Iraq could have and may yet still be won. However, as a betting man, I'd put the odds in favor of a slow grinding mediocre result. Additionally, the whole effort might be overtaken by events in Iran. Iraq may actually become a sideshow to a much more frightening conflict.
The Saddam Trial
I was fortunate enough to catch a glimpse of the Iraqi trial of Saddam Hussein before I left. I was also fortunate to catch it on a good day – Tariq Aziz testified as a defense witness in his pajamas! Perched in the witness box, he looked like a muppet and was not the least bit threatening. Saddam Hussein was wearing a black suit and is quite thin with a salt and pepper beard. He smiled some of the time and even laughed once or twice. There was no mesmerizing aura about them. They were just bored old men with nothing to do but have fun with the court. The judge let them get away with the most irrelevant commentary. Aziz's testimony was completely irrelevant and he was simply up there to take time away from the more serious business. Some of the other defendants would chime in during witness testimonies and the judge would let them stand up to address the court largely at their leisure! Saddam periodically stood up to state that he was still the president! In short, it seemed more a circus than a trial which the defendants did not take seriously. As sovereignty was turned over too early, might not the setting up of this trial have been too premature and/or ill conceived? Indeed, many Iraqis (especially Shias and Kurds) were probably surprised that we did not shoot Saddam upon finding him. Now he has soap box with which to rant against the Iraqi government.
The Last Flight Out
My last couple days in Iraq were an emotional time. I went from pure elation in leaving such a daunting environment to sadness for those that I know who lost their lives for what is still a very troubled effort. My going away party was a fitting send off. I think I had one of the larger parties for anyone in my organization, the Iraq Reconstruction Management Office (IRMO). More importantly I had a good mix of people from within the Embassy to military folks to contractors to security contractors. The deputy of IRMO gave what I thought to be a mostly uninspired speech but my boss gave a very touching one. They presented me with a certificate of appreciation (name spelled wrong) with a gold painted wooden frame which I had to return the next day.
My last night spent in Iraq was a short and sleepless one. My thoughts kept turning to memories of my now seemingly long ago Baghdad days. Maybe they are not so much long ago but far away. The Green Zone is a unique and temporary place and only those of us who have been there know what it means. At first, when one arrives, it takes some adjustment to get used to living in a trailer and navigating the landscape. It is even more of a challenge to settle into a life where coworkers are nearly ever present and family and long time friends are far away. Social outlets are few and revolve mostly around drinking. Many who would not normally drink, start. Those who drink already, drink more. One settles into a pattern of working almost non-stop with occasional breaks beside Saddam’s pool. Although there is a constant submerged theme of danger via the occasional mortar or rocket, one can settle in and life becomes normal and easy. It is my theory that some people have settled in for the long haul. They will stay in Iraq, especially in the Green Zone, because life has become so easy and predictable and the money is good. Personally, I don't think it is healthy and I am glad to be moving on. If I was to stay any longer, I believe I would be almost too institutionalized. Besides, I decided that when my presence in Baghdad was simply about the money, it was time for some fresh blood to take my place.
After my final and sleepless night in Baghdad, I boarded the C-130 headed toward Amman, Jordan. It was delayed as usual but eventually I reached Jordan without incident. However, it was not until the next day when I departed for France when I truly felt that my Iraq experience had ended. After all, Jordan was still in theater — having seen its share of carnage and been witness to many of my more pleasant memories in the region.It is Over
Although everyone who came to Iraq will no doubt think of it as one of the most memorable chapters of their life, I was young enough, as were most in the military, for this to be the formative personal and professional experience. For the rest of my career, I've a feeling I will harken back to this time. My perceptions of others, the world, and myself have changed forever. I have now passed from this formative chapter and I cannot help but feel just a bit sad that it is over. Now, I must find the next adventure…
Behind the Façades in France: What expats and the mainstream media (French and American alike) fail to notice (or fail to tell you) about French attitudes, principles, values, and official positions…
Friday, June 30, 2006
A State Department Officer's Tale: Leaving Iraq After Two Years in the Green Zone
Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out
Oops, wrong wall
Saving Corporal Shalit
It’s an image that the mainstream media working hand in hand with political movements is contorting itself not to say for fear of conferring any sort of compassion on the kidnapped soldier.
Examples of scare-quotes and attempts at revision from Electronic Inthifada:
When I first heard about the Israeli soldier who was "kidnapped" by Palestinians
Calling him a "man" and not a "soldier", however, confused me a bit.
Thursday, June 29, 2006
Beware of redheads bearing gifts
When Timothy Garton Ash is done speaking, I wonder if there is a single dry seat left in the house.Yet another thing Canadians and Europeans have in common is an obsession with the United States, and with distinguishing themselves from it, often by crude stereotyping. A Canadian writer observes that his compatriots "love to yell about how modest we are". Just like today's Europeans. Canadians and Europeans enjoy wallowing in a sense of moral superiority towards the imperial hyperpower, while doing rather little to improve the world outside their borders.
His latest opinion column in the Guardian otherwise defies this compelling criticism exactly: he plausts mush about the construction of a democratic future worldwide based on the social principals of Canada – because it has does so much in the past to try to reject the U.S. actions.
He also believes that there is a grand social model of integration that Europeans can learn from in order to deal with one another, based on the fact that Canadians of European origin get along well with one another.With its carefully balanced federal model, securing the rights of a multicultural society in a bilingual framework, it has unique constitutional experience to offer the many multi-ethnic countries around the world that are struggling to avoid a fledgling democracy becoming a tyranny of the majority - and hence a catalyst for renewed ethnic conflict. Why not share this experience, in a distinctive Canadian version of democracy promotion? Or do we think the promotion of democracy should be left entirely to the Bush administration, while we sit on the sidelines and jeer?
Imagine that – isolating it to just white people in Canada who are much less of a sample of the world’s immigrant origins as the United States, and as such less philosophical, religious, and lifestyle diversity.
So, in this respect at least, I return from Toronto wishing Canadians would be just a little less European. But then, in this respect, I also wish Europeans would be a little less Canadian.Yet this impotence is self-imposed. The potential power - military, economic and soft - of the established liberal democracies outside the US is enormous. The three largest sets are the democracies of Europe, most but not all gathered in the EU; the Anglosphere/Commonwealth democracies, including Australia, New Zealand, Canada (intersecting with the Francosphere), South Africa and India (the world's largest democracy); and the Hispanosphere and Lusosphere democracies of Latin America. Between us, we have a combined GDP much larger than that of the US, as well as natural resources and specific strengths that the hyperpower cannot match. Instead of sitting round like a bunch of poor cousins, complaining all the time about the behaviour of the rich American uncle, we should be thinking what we ourselves can do to make a difference beyond our shores.
Hoping that this model can actually do for the EU what the EU wont do for itself seems almost as desperate still. Canada rests far more closely on the side of the U.S. in the narrow cultural difference scale between the Atlantic Coasts. At 1/14th the population of the EU, only a portion of Canada that Ash assumes is enamored with the culture of welfare state dependency would care to become an exemplar and emotional prop to a EUvian model. The idea, after all is that he’s looking for affirmation of the efficacy of Europe failed and unsustainable socialist leaning model.But it would be hard to argue with a straight face that Canada is in Europe. Moreover, with some 85% of its exports going to the United States, and so many of its business, energy and human links running north-south across the border, Canada is increasingly integrated into the US economy. The price the EU demands for opening its internal borders to new members is that they should tighten up their external border with non-EU neighbours. That would be a tall order for Canada, along the longest frontier on earth, with the most powerful neighbour on earth.
Canada has one of it’s feet in the American relationship, and one on the ground of the Brittish Commonwealth. Ash should rather consider that the Canadian reluctance to lean less on the American leg might have something to do with the values he thinks are inherent and bubbling over in the ties they have with the British Commonwealth. They do, after all have a favored trading and migrating scheme that rivals that of the FTAA Agreement, but have much less of a reason to act on them. There is the lack of dynamism, the presence of dictators, and the manipulators of government for business that they’re trying to kill off at home.
Imagining that there can be a fabulous “non-American Anglosphere + Europe” to form a network to export pluralism (first to the EU and then) to the larger world is quite rich. One wonders where the impulse for this hope comes from when the very same chatteratti thought the notion naïve and oppressive only a few years ago. Nation-building was, after all, one of the many “sins of the Bush” that the bruised inner children of the European left had on their list.
It also defies logic that Indians who have firmly rejected the European social model for the market growth model as a method of poverty elimination would really want to play along. The south Asian immigrants to the US and Canada are largely happy and tend to appreciate their autonomy from the statist economic model in the new world.
On the other hand one finds a different set of maneuvers in the UK. Interfaith and intercultural intervention and other bits of cultural pandering aren’t so much more widespread because of the open-ness of the society, but because life is so much more limiting that cultural palliative care is so badly needed.
I do believe that there is such a thing as a coherent model emerging from the Anglosphere of the US, Canada, Australia, and India because they are the more dynamic and less socialistic parts of the English speaking world. They are outgoing, robust, and energetically concerned with the future of freedom. The dead wood in this scenario are the English speakers who take an isolated, communitarian, socialistic approach such as New Zealand, South Africa, Ireland, and to a lesser degree from it’s position of great-grandfather, the UK. We support international organisations. We love multilateralism and abhor unilateralism. We tend to think that men and women should be able to live more or less as they please with whomever they please, irrespective of gender and sexual orientation. We pride ourselves on our diversity. Check, check, check. Welcome to Canada.
in other words, he supports a bunch of social pieties that have failed to produce humanistic outcomes, the moral fiber to not hate those who don’t look like you, and the pandering to narrow political interests. Surely only a cloud or two under Plato’s playground.
The race for the contribution of the Anglosphere to global life isn’t about to start with the qualifiers, it’s already afoot, and the mixed-up cosmopolitans of the chattering class failed to hear the starting pistol generations ago.
Not very Smart at all if you need two
Euro-nomics strikes again in the form of the money-losing Smart Car. For 5 years there’s been a push to export them to the United States, but the punters aren’t buying it:
"It's really ugly," said Liz Viccora, 20, of Long Island, New York. "I like environmentally friendly cars, but this looks like a go-cart or one of those things security guards drive at the mall."[ . . . ]
And while some drivers say a Smart would be easier to maneuver in cities where traffic is heavy and street parking scarce, parking would not necessarily cost any less.
"There's no incentive for those cars. Everyone pays the same rate," said Craig Chin, a spokesman for New York City's Department of Transportation.I’m reminded of the time I saw two East German Trabants hit one another in a head on collision. It looked more or less like paper flying. It made me realize that people were getting trapped in a flaming twisted wreckage of combustibles for want of a small amount or relative mass and fuel efficiency. Especially when virtually all cars consume the same amount of the same commodity when they’re idling, and that unlike public transportation, isn’t running when you aren’t using it.
EU bureaucracy will gladly spend taxpayers money to fund lengthly explanations directed at its subjects as to why the death penalty is inhuman
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
Anyone for Baseball?
One of the pleasures of reading the Guardian newspaper’s “Comment is Free” corporate blogs is the reader commentary. Most frequently what one finds in great quantity is a kind of parading of envious emotions – a display of emotional adolescents where it specifically relates to the designated enemies and ‘structurally evil types of people’ many of the lefty ponces like to dwell on. It’s even the case when they have to invent the scenario whereby they get to show their infallible ways to their bogey-persons, and it always presents itself as a sort of schoolyard exchange where said lefty ponce always gets to get the zinger in without rebuttal and brag to his friends besides: I await, with excitement, the aftermath of God Bless America's exit from the World Cup. No doubt the players will return home, call an immediate press conference, and reveal that "Soccer, is not what we thought at all. It's actually Stupid. Lame. A bit too Euro" And as a result, withdraw from all future tournaments. (Whilst withdrawing all financial aid from Ghana at the same time.)
In general “Offensive and Unsuitable” is the way of the Guardian and the world view it supplies desperately needed affirmation for.
Or maybe we are mis-underestimating them (couldn't resist). After all, they are our greatest allies. They are there whenever we need them. We have a "Special Relationship". So in actual fact, the whole of the US will probably now throw the weight of their support behind us. The plucky English. The land of their forefathers.
Having said that, the "Special Relationship" has thus far yielded the following:
1) They turned up two years late for the First World War.
2) They turned up two years late for the Second World War, and used our plight to financially cripple us.
3) They backed Egypt in the Suez Canal Crisis.
4) They verbally backed Argentina in the Falklands Skirmish.
So, if we are to stay true to this Special Relationship, we should immediately withdraw from the World Cup ourselves. Disband the Premier League. And start playing some proper sports for once.
Anyone for Baseball?
[Offensive? Unsuitable? Report this comment.]
It’s quite obvious that with the designated object of his little passion play that they are wrong on every subject that he can imagine matters in his little world – sports, a few bumper-sticker political issues, and a handful of personal matter just to let him demonstrate to his ego that his shit don’t stink, and that the rest of civilization should care about his personal pleasures.
Would ‘Americur’ care enough about this man banging his spoon on his highchair to say anything about the Premier League? I certainly doubt it. Like many of his ilk he needs a culturally imperialistic straw-man in his life to give it some direction. He already has one – it’s called the leftist world view in his immediate vicinity. It’s the one that stages ‘programme seasons’ for specific social issues dear to a few activist types to engage in social engineering, and the endless supply of social epedemics that change weekly. It’s the one that nannies itself to death on the operating assumption that people are too stupid and immoral to think for themselves, or at least to think the way he’s like you to.
It’s all evidence of what therapists call the “power under” position in an abusive family relationship, and it’s created by learned helplessness. In this case that helplessness is with a oppressive culture so concerned about guiding if not controlling every little thing in your life that it tells you how to sort your trash, how to talk to your neighbors, and convince one the person one should feel the greatest guilt over everything from methane emissions to feelings of pre-sexualized 4 year olds who may or may not be gay.
It’s quite clear who’s oppressed, and made stupid in the course of it. The road to hell is paved with good intentions, and a guy like that is just another cobblestone in the middle of it.
Good for limousine Leftist tourists who need a cheap thrill of phoney subversion
Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
Mangy fleabag shot for an actual reason
First people are terrified enough by a bear on the loose that a continent of hunters is mobilized into action, when they could have gotten rid of the fleabag in one weekend by flying in 3 hungover Quebecers.
The moment a bear is shot, they act like the it was their little buddy who couldn’t catch a break. Here’s a little something they can build a ‘cycle of violence’ argument on: bears mauling people, and the occasional do-gooding dumbshit.
Isn’t she just the most cuddly thing you ever saw?
That moose calf in the video probably weighs twice as much as the hiker who complained about the Euro-über-bärchen that was shot, and isn’t as likely to be a herbivore as Herr Twit.
Perpetually puckered Greenies – you have to hang a pork-chop around their neck just to get a bear to play with them...
All the news that’s fit for the BBC to ignore.
We confirm that Mr. Guilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier captured Sunday morning near the Gaza Strip who was born in Israel also has French nationality, his father being French.
Our embassy in Tel-Aviv and our consulate are mobilized to address the matter. We are in contact with all the parties concerned to help obtain the release of Mr. Guilad Shalit.
I suspect that unlike RFI who has managed to stick to reporting a straight fact, the news mules on the BBC editing floor can’t find an angle that consistently fits their “stance” on the news. The BBC’s pattern of behavior has shown us that having to find a ‘side’ to take has frequently gotten in the way of reporting events factually and in a manner that leaves the viewer or listener to form their own view of its’ meaning.
When you're reporting honestly, the other side of arrogance is called dilligence.
I think they're running it on 2 MacBooks networked together, or something
Thanks to S.
Meet the new boss
Monday, June 26, 2006
It is what they wanted, isn't it?
Democrats and their fellow travelers who have been theatrical in their demands that the removal of Saddam follow a script of their chosing claim that the recently announced troop reduction is merely political and act indignant.
Don't worry. In a week lefty will call it cowardice and abandonment, and the most insular, grimmest, and weakest minds will construct new conspiracy theories. They will all be pointing one way, of course.
Paranoid Pancho
...A man from the CIA is here to install cameras in our bathroom!
...Don’t worry, it’s all part of the struggle against terrorism.
The baseball hat signifies that he’s American – Archie Bunker, to be particular. Har-dee-har har! Get it!?!
Watch out for those cunningly evil ricains who are nonetheless too naïve to come in from the rain!
Snort!
How about something more that just symbolism self-analysis, then?
A few weeks ago, Beirut Daily Star commentator Rami Khouri had a panel on the BBC World Service nodding their hypothetical heads when he said that the Arab World (whoever that specifically is) would “hug America” if it closed down the Guantanamo Bay detention facility. It’s obvious that this will never happen. The “Arab world” if there is such a conglomeration is characterized by too much hubris to admit any flaw if there is the opportunity to over-emotionally project responsibility for internal matters on others, especially contrived ones.
Today he’s making another specious appeal to U.S. Secretary of State Rice about being aware of “symbols” evident in Abu Ghreib (a story the press is desperate to paint as a matter of geopolitical magnitude and policy) – without addressing one simple matter – the equanimity of doing the same, either as symbol or substance.
When the citizens of states that are the recipients of U.S. criticism on human rights, voting rights, and basic rights to free speech can’t create a single example of the success that doesn’t find itself hijacked by either zealous imposition of state power over people, or the imposition of a religion on the public, I have to wonder what a lecture about “symbols” can be based on.You should be careful about using the imagery of the civil rights movement to promote Arab freedom, because your government and its policies look to many of us like Bull Connor, complete with the dogs. You simply are not credible when you evoke the civil rights struggle to inspire us, and then send police dogs to torment us. We love your inspirational exhortations, but we despise and reject your dogs.
There are indeed a great many brave souls challenging your friendly local Mukhabarat, Deuxième Bureaux, or what have you, but primarily for their own sake, not for America’s or Europe’s, sometimes not even for anyone other than themselves.
The dogs are symbols, of course, of a wider policy and a larger reality. But the images of the dogs - in Birmingham and Baghdad - remain the most sharply etched in my own mind. Many other images and symbols come to mind, too.
But his attempt at comparisons with the American Civil rights movement is charming, don’t you think? The Bull Connors and attack dogs in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syria, etc. are still out there provide for an oppressive reality more potent than any symbolism that anyone could ever gin up, and Khouri fails to judge the two for comparative relevance and scale. In fact all he’s doing is continuing a grand tradition of providing “The Arab Street” with reasons to resent the foreigner for the horrible things an Arab society does to itself. On the other hand, the U.S. Civil Rights movement led to actual, tangible change.
Keep that up and the word “civil” as it applies to Arabic speaking societies will be even more of a joke than it is today.The individual and collective quest for freedom and dignity may be the strongest force on earth. It pushes ordinary people to do extraordinary things, as happened in Birmingham when young children marched into the fire hoses and stood their ground before Bull Connor's police dogs. The spirit of Birmingham is about transcending fear, and affirming humanity. It takes special courage and moral certitude to stand one's ground in front of the violent, intemperate hatred and ignorance that Bull Connor represented.
No pandering or redistribution of responsibility there, eh? Foreign occupiers trying to short circuit violent, intolerant governments are no better than them, you see.
I see that same spirit around me in the Arab world today. I have many courageous Arab friends and colleagues who similarly stand up today to their own violent, intolerant governments, or foreign military occupiers, knowing they may be killed, injured or imprisoned. They stand up and resist fearlessly, defying danger and intimidation, because they are fired by the same passions that fueled the civil-rights movement in your country.
I used to respect the guy. Now I wonder just what his game is.
Dadaism Extra
On Japanese instructional TV you can learn just enough English to identify the mugger with the bra on his head. Failing that, do some light aerobics.
I’m waiting for the next chapter when they explain the phrase “hook a brutha up!”
Sunday, June 25, 2006
Im not sayin, Im just sayin
Is Nicolas Sarkozy the reincarnation of Man Ray?
Entirely a good thing, methinks.
Glory to the cadre for obtaining telephones
Jung Chang finally tries to put into context for these idiots who were trying to grant an exemption to any Communist’s with a absence moral judgment. She asked rhetorically why Mao’s corpse is still available for worship, why his portrait is still in Tiananmin Square, while Hitler’s portrait appears nowhere in Berlin. It would be an apt comparison if there were any lefties out there who haven’t exhausted every Hitler comparison already, such as Bush, Sharon, the postman, the neighbor’s noisy dog, parking tickets, and so on...
The fuse is lit!
Learning from their Pali Death Cult©® idols
Chiraq en VRP
Former paratrooper tweaked
Crypto Commie cum fascist Hugo Chávez aint gittin his way.
Boo Hoo. His influence seems no greater than his little friend who once raised sheep.
Saturday, June 24, 2006
Except when it is waged with rubber dinghies
Birkenau comparisons surely forthcoming
Journalists Philippe Cohen and Pierre Pean say the paper has become a "modern-day Pravda" run in a "climate of fear" by an unscrupulous triumvirate.
Albeit Gitmo scares murderous malcontents, and Le Monde goes for the socially low-hanging fruit by scaring it’s readers.
Corpor(e)al admission rituals
You are what you
I’m still waiting for the continent that’s habitually outraged by the mere breathing of U.S. troops to say something.
Still waiting.
No, that’s okay. I’ll hold.
No, I really don’t want to watch Caligula in the mean time, I’ll just wait, thanks. The fuse is lit!
Take the side of good against evil
The wings are clad in an esoteric alloy an ordinary engineer would call "unobtainium"
P.J. O’Rourke on the A380:Two months to the day after the A380 first became airborne, Peter and I were at Airbus headquarters, in Toulouse, France, in the A380 systems-testing facility. The building is as blank-walled as the Kaaba and much larger.
Friday, June 23, 2006
Fête de la Liberté on Sunday
Next Sunday, Erik Svane will be signing his books at the Fête de la Liberté, along with over 30 other authors, including artist Dan Greenberg. 
Erik (entre Pierre et Marine) et Dan à Genève pour le 10ème anniversaire des éditions Paquet
The Mata Hari New York Times
The effort, which the government calls the “Terrorist Finance Tracking Program” (TFTP), is entirely legal. There are no conceivable constitutional violations involved. The Supreme Court held in United States v. Miller (1976) that there is no right to privacy in financial-transaction information maintained by third parties. Here, moreover, the focus is narrowed to suspected international terrorists, not Americans, and the financial transactions implicated are international, not domestic. This is not data mining, and it does not involve fishing expeditions into the financial affairs of American citizens. Indeed, few Americans even have information that is captured by the program — though there would be nothing legally offensive even if they did.The New York Times has done it again. They have published enough about methods, people, and operations to compromise them, and to deter anyone from cooperating with the US Government because their identities would be blown by cretinous scribblers who are fighting their own little Jihad against what they have obviously always believed are expendable human lives – anyone they don’t understand in their own society.
And unlike the last vital program the New York Times compromised — the National Security Agency’s Terrorist Surveillance Program, which the same reporters, James Risen and Eric Lichtblau, exposed last December — there is not even a facially plausible concern that the TFTP violates statutory law. The provisions germane here (mainly, the Right to Financial Privacy Act that Congress enacted in 1978 in reaction to Miller) do not even apply to the nerve center at issue, the Society of Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication.
And their “poodles” are on it like white on rice. The fuse is lit!
Subliminal Economics
Bankruptcy in the age of SoDoKo and the dismal science that dares not speak its’ name.
Out of the woodwork
Faut être franchouille -- c'est à dire pédaloïde obsédé par son image -- pour penser ça
Thursday, June 22, 2006
The obvious, graciously omitted
Le Vieux Continent copiera-t-il les vins du Nouveau Monde?
(Will Old Europe copy the wines of the New World?)
Note too when it’s acceptable to use any sort of warrior speak vocabulary in EUtopia: Brussels embarks on conquest to recover wine markets
You go out there and git ‘em, champ!
Maybe the MRAP hacks will try to sue the Economist
Transnational Soul Train
These are some of the colorful ideas for reconnecting with disgruntled EU folk in a Commission document obtained by the news agency. Others include a new EU logo and theme tune, a Commissioners' Day and a kitsch pop extravaganza modeled on the Eurovision Song Contest. "We want to show the EU can dance," the report says, according to Reuters. An anonymous, presumably British, official is quoted as saying the aim is to make the Union "more punter-friendly" and to "show that the EU can be fun." Diplomats from some new member states are not so keen on the idea. "They feel people are being forced to dance and sing, like they were by the communists," said one.
Useful nationbuilding skills, indeed - but what will restore their former dignity as adult humans?
Dreaming for a War Between America and Iran?
Difficile de l'avouer mais Villepin rêve secrètement d'une crise internationale majeure pour se refaire. Plusieurs hauts diplomates de l'Elysée le cachent à peine. «Il mise sur un conflit avec l'Iran pour reprendre la main et dire aux Français qu'ils ont besoin pour les protéger d'un homme d'Etat à la hauteur des grands enjeux internationaux», confiait récemment l'un d'eux avec le plus grand sérieux. Comme si son heure de gloire lorsqu'il était ministre des Affaires étrangères lors de la crise irakienne pouvait à nouveau sonner.
If Libération is correct, the wise, non-egoistical, peace-loving, dreaming-of-a-better-world representative of the people of France (who, don't forget, are friends of the Americans) — lionized for his That's right, Roger. No thought control.
Trying to sustain a wheezing career, Roger Waters of the former Pink Floyd has shaken the cobwebs out on Israelis trying to protect themselves from Palestinian snipers, by spray painting on ‘the ApartheidNaziZionistWall,’ 95 percent of which is actually a fence.
Wall? Fence? Getit? Hu-huh-he-huh!
If there ever was a ‘yeah, whatever’ aura to another washed-up entertainment figure trying to say something they find meaningful about the Israelis protecting themselves from snipers and infiltrating bombers, this is it – the reason world traveling entertainers are coming to Israel this summer after years of staying away is because it’s safer now. The ‘ApartheidNaziZionistWall’ appears to be doing a fine job of protecting Waters and all the other little darlings who always seem to know better than anyone else about how we mere plebes and proles should comport ourselves.
A look again at the solipsism of Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” tells you everything you need to know about what’s behind this stunt – the movie was ginned up by Waters about himself, and wallowing in his lost years in an emotional wilderness caused and conducted only by him. It’s the perfect example of what presently passes for the arts in large part at the moment: self-absorption with no real point other than a self-therapeutic display which the artist expects us to pay for solely because of their ceremonial position and title of artist. "I've seen pictures of it, I've heard a lot about it but without being here you can't imagine how extraordinarily oppressive it is and how sad it is to see these people coming through these little holes," he added. "It's craziness."
He’s right – it is horrific that people are trying to get through in order to kill the likes of Waters. Does he ask himself why they’re coming through at all? For their freedom from the misery created by the Palistinians in the West Bank, maybe? Probably not, since he cant imagine that it keeps people OUT, not IN, and that it might be there for reasons he might just understand:Roger Waters was inspired to create the album during a 1977 concert tour for Animals, dubbed Pink Floyd — In the Flesh. In Montreal, a fan's disruptive behaviour resulted in Waters spitting in the fan's face. Waters was immediately disgusted with himself, and his alienation from his fans urged him to build a wall between himself and the audience, an idea which later evolved into the album
Roger, imagine that that fan had a bomb belt packed with metal flechettes like hooks, screws, ball bearings, and other objects foreign to the human body that the fence itends to keep out. Imagine he had a firearm that “society’s betters” in your native Britain have banned.
The purpose of the fence is to disengage Palestinian killers from the Israeli civilians – to prevent fighting by limiting contact. The likes of Waters don’t have the depth to understand that the Palestinian terror militants don’t want the fence so that they can continue to pick off Israeli civilians. It DOES form a border – one between reasoned though and barbarism. It permits Israel to have a boundary that lets Hamas, the PFLP, and Fatah to imagine an Israel not violently thrown into the sea, and the fact that Waters feels safe enough to travel to Israel is proof of that.
Were the misapplied and cryptic allusions to Orwell's Animal Farm, that great work that Waters was trying to ride the coat-tails of in "Animals" entirely lost on him? When every detached celeb (who knows what to say to be heard) parrots the same line, there are reasons to complain about thought control.
The celebrity set has indeed become a class – they have evolved into the Pigs in Orwell’s Animal Farm – trying to convince us of their commonality to their paying customers while showing that they are more equal than others.
If combatants who fail to obey the laws of the Geneva Convention were entitled to its privileges, its very purpose would be rendered a nonsense
Michael Winterbottom has a (cough) documentary about Guantanamo, so naturally Le Monde has Thomas Sotinel devote an entire page to the film and the filmmaker. The last time we looked, there was still no trace of Buried in the Sand in France, nor any translation of the Wall Street Journal article, The Savages: A barbaric enemy disqualified from the Geneva Convention.
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
Giving them a reactor? Why didn’t I think of that?
The headline only makes sense when you realize that Straub was part of Clinton’s failed policy on North Korea which envisioned giving them a reactor in exchange for them saying out loud that they’d play nice – which they didn’t. It is, incidentally, the same thing the EU3 tried to do with Iran – offer them “sweets and nuts”.
One fundamental failure of Bush's approach was the tendency to raise tensions and make South Korea nervous by stating that "all options" were the table, a phrase underscoring U.S. intentions to use force against North Korea if necessary, he said.
It needs to be noted that Straub was not deeply involved in anything that succeeded.
Quiz time for bobo
Guess who these folks might be:
[One] was previously a registered nurse. Two others in my company had IQ's over 150 and were members of Mensa. Two more were had law degrees. Several were published authors and poets.Their answer is usually the officially pitiable and those structurally oppressed for the public moral vanity, but sorry Spanky, as usual you’re wrong.The fuse is lit!
Something to do with them being humiliated, and all that
N'en déplaise aux vieux pubards pédérastes aigris qui sont réduits à dispenser des conseils diététiques aux quadras ringards
The curious sustainability of bad ideas
Some things inspire popular culture, others infect it, or are infected by it.
I think I have found the object of reference and goal that Greens can use for their future utopia: The survivors of war, overpopulation, and pollution are living in a great domed city, sealed away from the forgotten outside world. Here, in an ecologically balanced world, mankind lives only for pleasure, freed by the servo-mechanism which provides everything,
But all would otherwise not be perfect. Humans need crises to feel anguished and involved. Bleakness is, after all, the new gold standard of art, beauty, and thruth: 
Not only was the world headed for catastrophe, but there was little that could be done to avoid it. Some parts of the world might see some minor and temporary recovery, but "a minimum of ten million people, most of them children, will starve to death during each year of the 1970s. But this is a mere handful compared to the numbers that will be starving before the end of the century"
The consequences are already clear - Earth is under mounting stress from human activities, with its climate changing and its ecosystems failing. But recognition that we must act urgently to preserve our natural habitat has been undermined by persistent failure to admit the multiplier effect of human numbers. Without policies to reduce world population, efforts to save our environment cannot succeed. With smaller populations, living in greater harmony with nature, our horizons may stretch far into the future.
However the science inspired by fiction causes further fiction to accepted as science: Social pressures on both men and women to marry and have children must be removed. If society were convinced of the need for low birth rates, no doubt the stigma that has customarily been assigned to singles and childless couples would soon disappear.
Stunningly, none of the of the fearful theories bandied about can explain our continued existence as a species – our already present sustainability, if you will, and provides insight into the whacky world of the do-gooder and their theories.
Compulsory control of family size is an unpleasant idea to many, but the alternatives may be much worse. Some governments practice involuntary population control, these usually being the poorer, less educated, overpopulated countries. Most times these countries use vasectomies on all fathers of three or more children, or a program of sterilizing women after their second or third child.
Never mind the jihadist trying to kill you now, we have naturally occurring atomized carbon to sequester!
In common cause with the enlightened European elite
Walks like a duck, quacks like a duck.
If he is financing terrorist activity then you must look for the social causes of his malaise
Clichy-sous-Bois is where last year's French riots got their start. The politically correct French press has always taken objection to the international press using the term Muslim riots to describe the mayhem that ensued.
Breeders soundly ignored
For any reason, reasonable or not. PropagandaStaffel reports that the PS love their poop chutes: At the Gay Pride conference and festival of June 24, Ségolène Royal, the probable candidate for the Socialist Party for the presidential election of 2007, clearly changed her position on gay marriage and the adoption by homosexual couples. In an interview in the monthly magazine « Têtu » (tr.: stubborn) which appears Wednesday, she stated: “I can guarantee that I will advance the issue”, and clearly saying that these issues are part of the Socialist Party platform.
As well as talking out of both sides of their mouths. While saying that anything resembling opposition is a sign of backwardness, Royal promises that she can slime any contraversial initiative through:
With good argument [she said] “with this issue one can anger people for whom homosexual marriage and adoption by couples of the same sex are alien notions (….) I have the will to lead these reforms without wounding anyone’s feelings, without raising the public’s anger”.In other words, they really won’t bother with what the population thinks, and like all good little lefties do something ‘progressive’ to them whether they want it or not.the fuse is lit!
Tuesday, June 20, 2006
Questions on EADS and Airbus
Le Monde editor Frédéric Lemaître had an online debate about the EADS scandal Tuesday afternoon, in which the entire affair (unlike, say, Enron) was relativized with a smile. Notice the very first comment/question: little to no anger/disappointment/concern about being lied to/deceived by the élites (political, financial, or other), whether specifically about the Airbus scandal or the wider description of the rivalry with America in general. The concern is noted in a (passive tense) statement of worry that the champion's reputation has been (rather unfairly) damaged (in the eyes of outsiders who are not lucid enough to realize that making too a big a scandal of this will help those dastardly Yanks), not that the champion's leaders were (or may have been) crooks and/or liars.
Any (righteous amd understandable) resentment of one's own kind and concern about insider trading are thus immediately (dare I say automatically?) trumped by the appearance of the Yankee bogeyman. In other words, demands for an accounting (or simply healthy interest and curiosity) are swept aside by a rally 'round the flag war cry. Europeans, you have learned your lessons well!
(Note to Grifone: Boeing did not use to have a monopoly, near or otherwise; it had to contend to with the likes of McDonnell-Douglas. MDD is American also, so that doesn't count, you say, ça revient au même? Oh, that's true, you think the business environment, the cynicism, and the two-faced double-dealing of the type prevalent in Europe must invariably be the same in the United States. Never mind.)
Where Can One Of McDonald's Cash Cows Be Found?
The recent student protests, [Denis Hennequin] says, made him recall the unrest that roiled France in May 1968, when he watched the demonstrations as a 10-year-old from the window of his parents' apartment. "What bothers me is that what they are doing today, in a sense, is protesting in favor of the establishment; they are scared of the future," and hence against change. "I understand where they're coming from," he said. "At the same time, what a waste."
Another item in the list of reasons why the credibility of the "mainstream media" has been plunging
Journalists in the 1940s, '50s and early '60s tended to believe they had a duty to buttress Americans' faith in their leaders and their government. Journalists since Vietnam and Watergate have tended to believe that they have a duty to undermine such faith, especially when the wrong party is in office.Thus writes U.S. News & World Report's Michael Barone (as Sylvie Kauffmann demonstrates perfectly what he is talking about).
That belief has its perils for journalism, as the Fitzgerald investigation has shown. The peril that the press may find itself in the hot seat, but even more the peril that it will get the story wrong. The visible slavering over the prospect of a Rove indictment is just another item in the list of reasons why the credibility of the "mainstream media" has been plunging. There's also a peril for the political left. Vietnam and Watergate were arguably triumphs for honest reporting. But they were also defeats for America--and for millions of freedom-loving people in the world. They ushered in an era when the political opposition and much of the press have sought not just to defeat administrations but to delegitimize them. The pursuit of Karl Rove by the left and the press has been just the latest episode in the attempted criminalization of political differences. Is there any hope that it might turn out to be the last?
Sarko, Ségo, and the Opportunities for Change in France
In taking on Chirac's potential heirs and French society in the International Herald Tribune, John Vinocur writes about such things as Sarkozy, the ruling party, Ségolène, and France's 35-hour workweek ("a Socialist conquest for humanity that has gone without replication elsewhere"), as well as "State interventionism that's been biblical writ forever for both the French left and right".
One of Daily Kos's Top Stars Hails From France
Corine Lesnes has an article about Jérôme Guillet, a Daily Kos contributor from (surprise, surprise) France who seems to be one of the blog's top stars (although the "Polytechnicien's" suggestion for more taxes on gas didn't go over well, even with progressives)."Je fais partie de — entre guillemets — l'élite technocratique", reconnaît-il. Et, en bon technocrate, il défend l'Etat. "Sur les questions de santé, d'énergie, de régulation des entreprises, on a besoin de gérer les externalités que les mécanismes de marché ne sont pas capables de contrôler, comme la pollution, le changement climatique."
Outre sa contribution à "Daily Kos", il a monté un site européen pour répondre aux médias anglo-saxons, où s'exerce d'après lui "une vraie démonisation" de la France, "le pays qui défend encore le rôle de l'Etat". "Les Anglo-Saxons ne peuvent pas admettre que l'électricité, en Europe, fonctionne grâce aux surcapacités françaises qui ont été planifiées par l'Etat français."
Stick it in and break it off
Wipeout
Via Adloyada on the 9 June deaths on a Gaza Beach. Human Rights Watch concludes that it was UXO, and that: the deaths were not directly caused by artillery shelling as they had claimed.
Sounds to me like Human Rights Watch is getting tired of the Pali Psycho Death Cult©® leading them around by the nose.the fuse is lit!
Monday, June 19, 2006
Leftist unwittingly compares himself to terrorist
The war against terror is a war against domestic political opposition, not against terrorists. If it were against terrorists, we would have a national-unity type government doing all we need to do against real terrorists with broad consensus. Think WW II and FDR.
- Posted by nohero on June 15, 2006 02:44 AM
Not Bush -- that's not what this war is about at all. Successes such as Zarqawi's death, however significant or not -- we don't know yet -- are a signal to the likes of Rove and the rightwing radio wreckers who plague us to pile on big time: "Democrats would cut and run" and therefore could never have gotten Zarqawi. (Of course, they never would have been so stupid as to get us into the current mess. In fact, NO other president would have.)
The goal of the war on terror is to finish off democrats and other nonconformists asap. Al Qaida can do what they want. In fact, another real attack would enable Bush and co. to further consolidate power.
Links not by the original commentator on the Graun. The current "mess" is no different than any other one. Does the commentator suppose that George Bush was President during the Vietnam War, Korean War, Bosnia, Kosovo...?
Non-reportage noted
Biased BBC asks why the coverage of this story was so limited.
"My grandfather's revolution has devoured its children and has strayed from its course," he told Al-Arabiya, an Arabic-language television station. "I lived through the revolution and it called for freedom and democracy - but it has persecuted its leaders."
It’s simple: it doesn’t fit the media’s script of parading that they seek a diversity of opinion when they prefer that it didn’t challenge their staff’s view of the world.
The root cause, if there ever was one, has been found
Writing for the Washington Post’s Editorial page of Monday 16 June 20006, Robert Kagan surprises Post readers with this and provides us with examples of the “depth” (not!) of the incessant nagging:I recently took part in a panel discussion in London about civil conflict and "failed states" around the world, centered on the interesting work of the British economist Paul Collier. The panelists included the son of a famous African liberation-leader-turned-dictator, the former leader of a South American guerrilla group, a Pakistani journalist, a U.N. official and the head of a nongovernmental humanitarian organization. Naturally, our reasoned and learned discussion quickly transmogrified into an extended round-robin denunciation of American foreign policy.
I’m going to leave it at that. It’s safe to say that the panel was made up of the ‘cream of the crop’ of the ‘world’ public opinion that so many people idolize as meaningful. What seems more evident is that there is a emotional avoidance principal at play that is the root cause of much of the passive-aggression that some try to call policy. I really have to wonder though, if those poor folk who are kept miserable by the elite represented by the panel really agree with them, or are just bobbing their heads to get that sack of rice they were promised.
As for "failed states" and civil conflict, several panelists agreed that they were always and everywhere the fault of the United States. The African insisted that Bosnia and Kosovo were destroyed by American military interventions, not by Slobodan Milosevic, and that Somalia was a failed state because of American policy. The Pakistani insisted the United States was to blame for Afghanistan's descent into anarchy in the 1990s. The former guerrilla leader insisted that most if not all problems in the Western Hemisphere were the product of over a century of American imperialism.
When someone pointed out that the young boys fighting in African tribal and ethnic wars could hardly be fighting against American "imperialism," the African dictator's son insisted they were indeed. When the head of the NGO paused from gnashing his teeth at American policy to suggest that perhaps the United States was not to blame for the genocide in Rwanda, the African dictator's son argued that it was, because it had failed to intervene. The United States was to blame both for the suffering it caused and the suffering it did not alleviate.
If we refrained from action out of fear that others around the world would be angry with us, then we would never act. And count on it: They'd blame us for that, too.
Looks like too much oil money to me
When pigs have wings
Made in China
Sunday, June 18, 2006
Mais, bon sang, mais c’est bien sûr
Typical French primetime entertainment
Sophisticated French show stupid Americans what satire and irony are all about!
OBL shows up disguised as Zorro. The French anchorman (puppet of Patrick Poivre d'Arvor -- France's #1 anchorman, who has a criminal conviction for bribery by the way) tells OBL that Zorro is a nice guy who is supposed to help widows and orphans. The plucky OBL states that he has done his bit to create plenty of widows and orphans in the United States.
Americans, you are hated here.
Zéropa balafrée sous la ligne de flottaison
Not surprising in a country where the President roi-nègre gets 82%
Did Condi pave the way for Ségolène?
Ségo, as we call her in France, is a different, altogether more seductive creature than the dumpy hausfrau Angela Merkel, the new German Chancellor. This is a woman who wouldn't look out of place on a catwalk despite what she lacks in stature (she's just 5 foot 2) and has been dubbed the ''Socialist in Stilettos'' and ''Madame Charisma''.
Fake. A total creation of a press so lazy to know what they’ll write about in the next year, that they need to create it. It’s just like the 4 unctuous “Jersey Girls”, the leftist agitators who use the seeming infallibility of being 9-11 widows to put them above criticism or discussion in order to rail at conservatives. They are such an apparent fabrication of the press that it reeks. In New Jersey, most people hate the term “Jersey Girl.” The cranky foursome clearly didn’t come up with it – some insulated Manahattanite did in order to put on them what people west of Ohio might find to be a charming spin on them.
When I met her recently in her office at the National Assembly in Paris, she was, inevitably, running late. It gave me a chance to snoop. On a round table in the centre of the room there was a notepad, a pen - and lip- gloss.
Their only purpose for the press is to give them a vehicle to opine and provide them insurance against having to argue their own idea – the goal was to make arguing with anything they say have all the appeal of a child molester - a sexist move if there ever was one, since it's hard for a man to be a bereved widow and mother, and would never garner the same sort of attention. Let's hop back to the other side of the pond:There is something undeniably sexy about a woman in power and Ségolène embodies it. We may not agree with President Mitterand's assertion that Margaret Thatcher had ''the mouth of Marilyn Monroe'' but some of her cabinet were certainly in thrall to her.
Actually they weren't inthralled by her lips, but by what came from them. They were inspired by the depth of Thatcher’s intellect and courage, possibly even a bit scared of it. A fact a pandering writer even in the Telegraph would happily jettison.
By saying that anyone is ‘using sex’, they must mean being a female – merely another number in the genetic lottery which is only a issue for SOME people between the very narrow class-theory bookends of Euro-thought. A leader needs leadership charisma, not lip-gloss. If there is any of that rare leadership ability to be found in Royal, the press isn’t capable of finding it because of the inescapable cultural clamp of being typically European narrow-minded cultural “successes” as they like to define their own social set. It somehow validated calling Merkel a "dumpy hausfrau".
The sexism – the real sexism – and rank hatefulness and hypocrisy is palpable for a nation and continent that will evangelize and browbeat anyone they can force to listen with lectures about even handed treatment, human rights, and any other social vanity lingering in the bottom of their rocks-glasses.
If any Arab leader were to take a “President Royal” seriously, it would only be for the experience they have with the seriousness of Secretary of State Rice who treats their wife-beating instincts for what they are – another hangup that's keeping them from getting beyond the 9th century in many ways, just as Thatcher, Golda Meir, and Indira Ghandi handled their challenges. The conceit of using a term like "dumpy hausfrau" is a cheap and vicious smear that's beneath contempt because it isn't critque, but rather abuse.
Should Royal, or Bachelet for that matter, avoid similar treatment she would owe it to the real leaders who are women, not the social movements in the least. The big lie is any claim that the Marxist dominated feminist movement can make to the success of those that really broke through a glass ceiling - the conservatives. The fuse is lit!