Letters to the Editor
William Timberman
Published Letters: 3299 Editor's Choice: 7
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Well, it's a little early in the morning,
[Read the article: Iran-Britain conflict shows the dangers of our ongoing presence in Iraq]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]here in the western part of the country, anyway, to be overcome by paranoia, but my first thought when reading about this yesterday was how stupidly clever, using the British to create a provocation.
I wondered for a moment if this was to be Tony Blair's last service to the Bush imperial adventure before leaving office, and marveled at his gall. Well, maybe it is, but on reflection, it seems perverse to come up with something so elaborate as an explanation for a squad of men blundering about in rubber boats in a place where the borders are uncertain at best.
In general, American military technology -- and British as well, I presume -- is superior to that available to Iran, at least in terms of knowing who is where at any given moment. This may mean that the Brits knew very well where they were, but it could also mean that the Iranians did not, and decided to err on the side of caution.
If this incident actually was intended as a provocation by either side, we'll know soon enough, especially with the date approaching when all the assigned U.S. naval attack groups will be on station in the gulf. In the meantime, we shouldn't assume it wasn't just another one of those dumb things people always manage to do when tensions are high. Either way, of course, Glenn is right. Mucking about like this can easily trigger events which everyone will regret, whether a casus belli was intended or not.
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True enough, casual observer,
[Read the article: Iran-Britain conflict shows the dangers of our ongoing presence in Iraq]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]but do you remember the incident from Afghanistan, in which the battery in a laser rangefinder went dead during the targeting of a distant group of presumed Taliban? In swapping out the battery in the heat of the action, the Special Forces guy in charge of targeting forgot that when the system re-initialized, it automatically defaulted to its own position. The result: a 2,000 pound JDAM right on top of him and his group.
GPS isn't foolproof either, for any number of reasons, and presumably the commercial versions can be jammed in local areas by an enemy with the resources of the U.S., which, after all, owns the satellites doing the positioning.
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Car smuggling?
[Read the article: Iran-Britain conflict shows the dangers of our ongoing presence in Iraq]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I seem to remember an article last week, perhaps in the NYT, which spoke of commercial relations between Iraq and Iran. The point was that Iraq was awash in Iranian swamp coolers and Iranian-built Toyotas. So...why exactly would the British be interested in stopping a ship presumably full of smuggled cars? Curiouser and curiouser.
If piracy is to be the justification for boarding vessels, just who is the hostis humani generis here? Whatever anyone thought he was doing, the truth is unlikely to be known with precision. Like the supposed radar images from the Tonkin Gulf incident, the data here -- such as it is -- lacks the chain of custody most domestic courts would require before admitting it into evidence.
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I know I shouldn't
[Read the article: Fred Hiatt and Iraq -- Together Forever]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]stick my nose into this, but (there's always a but, even when we know better) from where I stand, it seemed to be the she part, rather than the it's not me, babe part that was at issue.
Granted, gender ambiguous handles are a pain, even when they actually aren't ambiguous to those with inside info, but I suppose it's okay for the bearers to contest our assumptions anyway. For example, I knew full well the literal meaning of ondelette, even though I was unfamiliar with its meaning in mathematics. I'd have been tempted to think of it myself as though it were Babette, even though I've been burned before in the context of blog discussions.
The upshot: if you're male, please don't call yourself fluffy, or Brigitte. If you do, don't get pissed when someone addresses you as she. Don't, in other words, take unfair advantage of the cultural assumptions we all share just to make a cheap point.
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ondelette
[Read the article: Fred Hiatt and Iraq -- Together Forever]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It was meant as a general comment, not one addressed to you in particular, and I should definitely have left out the cheap part. It isn't usually meant as a gotcha, I admit, but I just personally hate being called to account for something which isn't really my fault. As for your being a right-winger, well, honestly, the thought never crossed my mind. Peace it is....
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On Crunchie Bars
[Read the article: Iran-Britain conflict shows the dangers of our ongoing presence in Iraq]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]FWIW, I had the same problem, and I wasn't using Firefox. Clearing the browser cache didn't work, either, but restarting the browser did.
Let's blame Salon; they can afford it, and anyway they neeed to be put on notice that screwing with Unclaimed Territory will land them in a world of hurt. :-)
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Words of wisdom
[Read the article: Fred Hiatt and Iraq -- Together Forever]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Paul, In cyberspace, no one can hear your inflection is now an embroidered sampler hanging above my monitor -- right next to Tue Recht, und scheue Niemand.
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OT, but only slightly
[Read the article: Iran-Britain conflict shows the dangers of our ongoing presence in Iraq]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]So, Kanan Makiya, od all people, is now a liberal cut-and-runner. Is there a domino theory to explain why warlovers fall out of love with war?
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/24/world/middleeast/24makiya.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
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He's Zbigniew Brzezinski, and we're not
[Read the article: Iran-Britain conflict shows the dangers of our ongoing presence in Iraq]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Thanks for the link, Nick. It's an eloquent editorial, but it does piss me off that those of us who've been saying essentially the same things for over five years, and in many cases just as eloquently, have had to wait this long for one of our most infamous Cold War assholes to come 'round publicly to the same point of view.
Likewise, John Dean, who now seems to be the go-to guy on authoritarianism. Never mind many of us knew in our bones what he's only recently found out, and knew it, moreover, when he was still shamelessly sucking up to Richard Nixon. I suppose I should be glad he woke up eventually, but I'm sorry, I don't feel that way. He, like Ariana Huffington, will always find a way to surf the Zeitgeist. Good on 'em, but I can't help but find them contemptible anyway. So sue me....