Letters to the Editor
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How would you explain the Algerian civil war?
I mean the second one, in the 90's where Islamic fundamentalists bent on instituting Taleban style Sharia were denied their role in government and then proceeded to fight a civil war in which 150,000 died on both sides? I suppose getting rids of the priests accomplished something but that something seems to be a mixed bag. On the other hand, what would the western well wishing liberals conclude with a brutal theocratic regime like what the Algerians had planned?
That's actually a trick question, there's no right answer and like all good liberals I agree we should let them all fester and splash in the abattoir of their own destiny. Far be it for us to try to stop them from unwinding the social clock a thousand years. Let them bring back polygamy, outlaw education for women, reinstitute slavery, sexual mutiliation and enforced Islam unto pain of death. I'm with you on that one. Hell Algeria is one big goddamned desert and they could continue to use for nuclear testing like the French did for all I care.
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Historians are not Political Scientists
Article's OK, but the readers' responses are much more
informative. Reminds me to distinguish between historians
and political scientists. Horne doesn't mention that Israel is shifting demographically to majority Islamic citizenship in
20 to 50 years. He doesn't touch on the secret Chaney
meeting with oil CEO's and subsequent 80% (pending) oil
royalty assignments to Western oil companies in Iraq. He
doesn't mention the leading Middle-East Political
Scientists, like Juan Cole at U. Mich, John Mearshimer at U.
Chicago, and lots of lesser-known others like Frank Tachau
at U.I.C., all of whom blew the whistle loud and long on Iraq
before the start. Same with senior CIA Ph.D. Middle-East
analysts of conscience who had to publish their counter-Administration's findings on low-circulation blogs on the internet. George Tenant was a political appointee and faulty-source slam-dumber who missed his calling making holes in swiss cheese- a true embarassment to his noble ancestry.
Right-wing darlings get all the press, even in Salon!
Richard Pearl has been back-pedaling just as much as Horne-
more so- in a PBS hour-long presentation and numerous
interviews trying to salvage his credibility, but with every
sentence another contradiction. His indignation at being judged is a red-herring against the verifiable falseness or
irrationallity of his arguments, E.G., "Few people know that
I am, always was, a Democrat". It's like John Belushi in Blues Brothers making excuses to his ex-girlfriend wielding an
assualt rifle aimed at him.
Or Paul Wolfowitz using his fathers' reputation as a mathematician to enjoy grad-student status in PolySci (it sure wasn't integrity that impressed the admission committee), then studying a course (U. Chicago) on Plato's Republic by a notoriously scarred and elite philosophy instructor, Leo Strauss, (1) who barely escaped pre-WWII Europe and only later in life got the teaching job through connections despite being very gifted and insightful in the History of Thought. The message sold and bought was that life is brutal, and strong measures by elite leaders are needed to keep the peons in check. It might be true, but you had better be damned sure of what you are doing before you involve the whole world in your fantasies.
These long-time global "neocons" do not seem to have a sense of nationalism or citizenship but see the world as their oyster, especially when the likes of Geoge W. Bush are at their command. Too bad they were not up to the the task; too bad they could not fully rely on Prof. Horne et. al. to back them up when the roof fell in. Now they are all each man for himself, scurrying to retain credibility and income as the house of cards begins to crumble. Too bad for the 700000 victims of their drive for 'Freedom and Democracy' in the tribal lands of camels and petroleum.
(1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Strauss
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Indian peace-keepers in Iraq?
Has Alistaire Horne lost his mind? I know it was idle speculation, but the idea of Indian mercenaries as peace-keepers in Iraq is beyond crazy. Horne is old enough to remember 1948, and the Hindu-Muslim slaughters, which were the reason for the partitioning of the Indian sub-continent into India and Pakistan. So he would really expect Iraqi Muslims to accept Indians?
The whole idea makes me doubt everything else Horne asserts.
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Look at the King - Look at the King - Look at the King, the King, the King! (w/a nod to Danny Kaye)
My favorite quote from Kamiya:
That "A Savage War of Peace" is on the Bush administration's must-read list is one of the more remarkable intellectual ironies in recent years.
The Ailes/Rove revolution is replete with "in-your-face" seeming adoption of centrist/populist wisdom. "Clear Skies" initiatives, "Compassionate Conservatism", you name it.
By seeming to espouse Horne, Bush is pleased to give the less informed among his base faux ammo, confound his more informed foes, and as Roger Ailes used to say (and Rove masterfully obey), "Hit 'em in their strengths". Horne's "Savage War" is a stinging indictment of the Bush Administration's conceptions of the war from the start (oil imperialism 'n all) - and that's precisely why Bush is embracing it.
The public relations play aside, it's all to much fun to step back and enjoy the lunacy. Back to the brilliant jester Danny Kaye....
The King is in the altogether, but altogether the altogether
He's altogether as naked as the day that he was born
The King is in the altogether, but all together the all together
It's all together the very least the King has ever worn
All the courts positioned to call an intermission
His majesty is wide open to ridicule and scorn
The King is in the altogether, but altogether the altogether
He's altogether as naked as the day that he was born
And it's altogether too chilly a morn
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On the other hand
The idea that Muslim cultures are so prickly so unique so resistant to everything and anything which would ever provide them any avenue for progress is its own kind of bigotry isn't it? You have Indian Peacekeepers in Lebanon. Seemingly Hezbollah, those fun guys who assert terrorism as a legitimate tool of foreign policy, have no problems with those 'Hindus'. But we here in the west like to enable and patronize and assume the we know and do better.