Grok Your World

Russian Invasion of Georgia Shows Once Again Neo-Con Sleaze re Iraq

The most important substantive point about the current -- really de-stabilizing and aggressive -- Russian invasion of Georgia is that,

as with the Arab / Israeli conflict, there are no good guys and bad guys here ...

everyone involved is screwed up and responsible for LOTS of outrages against the other side ...

The significant analytic point is the absolute irrelevance of the United States ...

first, in not being able to deter this disaster, which is only beginning, and is bound to get bloodier and uglier for a while to come ...

and, then, as this conflict does grind on in its predictably destructive way, in not being able to do much of anything positive about it ...

As with the whole mess in the Caucasus, there are many reasons for American impotence --

which, it should be noted, has been the characteristic posture of the allegedly "tough guy" Bush regime, and not the allegedly "feel your pain" Clinton administration --

but the key is the self-imposed and -created catastrophe of Iraq,

which has not just destroyed that country, and de-stabilized the entire Middle East from Turkey to Lebanon to Oman to Iran,

but has weakened both the image of US deterrence and reality of its power around the world, not just in the present, but for the foreseeable future ...

So it is particularly enraging to read the screed of effete impudent snobs like Bill Kristol and the rest of the neo-con gang --

people who so vigorously promoted Iraq in the first place, and defend it to this day --

get all sniffy and morally condescending about the US responsibility to go in and help the Georgians militarily ...

Just as in the Cold War, when the US -- for sad but correct big power "sphere of influence" reasons -- sat by while the Soviet Union crushed rebellions in East Germany [ 1953 ] / Hungary [ 1956 ] / Czechoslovakia [ 1968 ] / Poland [ 1981 ]

until Mikhail Gorbachev won the Cold War for the entire world by refusing to do the same repressive thing when East Germans starting leaving for West Germany via Hungary,

thereby creating the conditions for the PEACEFUL breaching of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989 --

the US is not / can not / and will not intervene militarily in this situation ...

unless, of course the whole Bush / Cheney / Rove / Haliburton / Blackwater gang can figure out a way to make money off the deal ...

in which case, of course, all bets are off ... ;-) ...

In the interim, it would be better for blowhards like Kristol and his pals to keep their big traps shut about the "necessity" of helping since the Georgians, since any hope of doing that was lost in March 2003,

when the US invaded Iraq for reasons having to do only with the desire of Bush and Cheney to help their once and future employers take with no-bid contracts the hard earned money of US taxpayers shocked and cowed by 9/11 ...

Why Political Islam Is the Problem, NOT Terrorism

It's nothing new for us, of course, to point out the manifold ways in which the low level of public discourse in the US in general, and towards all things Middle Eastern in particular --

a sad and incredibly self / destructive phenomenon in which Democrats have as eagerly and stupidly participated at the ruling BCRHB clique --

have made an already difficult and problematic global and regional scene much worse than it was already ...

An excellent -- if, as usual, disturbing and sad -- example of this confusion between the challenges presented by political Islam and "terrorism"

is this piece in the New York Times about growing -- and increasingly violent -- tensions between the historic minority [ 10% ] Coptic Christian community in Egypt and the dominant Muslim majority ...

This would be dismaying in any case, but it's particularly so because, for quite a long time, there were relatively few problems between the two communities, and those were relatively minor ...

As the article shows, however, this is no longer the case, and it only points to the extent to which political Islam is continuing to create problems throughout the Arab / Muslim world for non-Islamic minorities ...

If the US had taken a different tack after 9/11 by correctly identifying the problem as political Islam, and not some amorphous "terrorism",

there is little doubt the polarization and animosity that has become so prominent since that day would be considerably smaller and much less of a real problem,

which, as the article shows, even anti-Islamist governments like Egypt's, do everything they can to sweep under the rug ...

So while the piece might be about what's going on in Egypt, don't have any illusions:

a major factor contributing to the problems there are rooted in the failure of the US elites to make even the slightest effort to understand what is actually going on there ...

As more and more conflicts pile up and as the tensions of daily life increase, many people in Egypt and around the region said the problem of sectarian clashes had become more urgent.

They said that ordinary conflicts had become more bitterly sectarian as religious identity had become more prominent among Muslims and Christians alike.

“It is as if there is a struggle — each against the other — and it creates a sectarian atmosphere,” said Gamal Assaad, a former member of Parliament who is a Coptic intellectual and a writer.

“This tense atmosphere makes people ready to explode at any point if they are subjected to any amount of instigation or incitement.”

Egypt is the most populous Arab country, with about 80 million people. About 10 percent are Coptic Christian. ...

For most [ Copts ], the tension is personal, a fear that a son or daughter will fall in love with a Muslim or of being derided as “coftes,” which means “fifth column.”

“We keep to ourselves,” said Kamel Nadi, 24, a Coptic who runs a small shop in the Shubra neighborhood of Cairo.

“Muslims can’t say it, but it’s clear they don’t accept us. Here no one can speak the truth on this issue, so everybody’s feelings are kept inside.”

Christian Arabs have increasingly complained of being marginalized in the Middle East, with large numbers leaving over the decades.

Now it appears that pressure on these communities is spiking, whether in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan or the West Bank. In each, Christians speak of specific national behavior that has made them feel less welcome.

While governments are generally regarded as more accommodating than they used to be, the overall environment is seen as less hospitable.

“Yes, we are feeling marginalized,” said Dr. Audeh Quawas, a surgeon in Amman, Jordan, who serves on the central committee of the World Council of Churches, a Geneva-based group.

He rattled off a list of grievances, from the refusal of the state to acknowledge Easter as a national holiday to the insistence that Christians abide by Islamic law regarding inheritance. ...

Many Egyptians around Cairo and in the south said that conflicts often arose over everyday matters — a dispute between farmers, an argument between students — but that once sparked, they deteriorated into sectarian name-calling, sometimes worse.

That is partly because religious identity is paramount now, more important than a common citizenship, Mr. Assaad [ the Coptic writer ] said. ...

“When something happens, it always comes back to Muslim and Christian,” said Tharwat Taki Faris, 45, a subsistence farmer in Mansafees, a village of about 33,000 people five hours south of Cairo. ...

Frustrated by the official posture of denial, a small group of Egyptian bloggers decided in January 2007 to try to bring Muslims and Christians together to talk.

The group, which calls itself Together Before God, began with about 20 members of both faiths.

They posted an Internet survey to gauge Muslims’ and Christians’ ideas about each other and received about 5,000 responses. Two-thirds were from Muslims, the rest from Christians.

The survey showed profound misunderstanding on both sides, said Sherif Abdel Aziz, 36, a co-founder of the group.

Some Muslims declared that Coptic priests wore black to mourn the Arab invasion of Egypt in the seventh century.

Some Christians believed that the Koran ordered Muslims to kill all Christians.

Did the group discover a sectarian problem?

Absolutely, and it was compounded by the lack of frank public discussion, Mr. Abdel Aziz said.

“The religious discourse has to change from both sides because it incites hatred, even if it does so indirectly, increasing fanaticism from both sides,” Mr. Abdel Aziz said.

Barry's Mush Aside, Kurd Parliament Walkout Shows Iraq Still Radical Mess

It's a bad bad scene whenever Kirkuk is the issue ...

As this sad -- and crucial -- article in the Times makes clear, the situation in Iraq is a complete disaster ...

And -- as we've said a million times -- Americans, including Baruch Obama, have GOT to start realizing that the presence of US troops is NOT the main issue ...

The entire US, and not just Bush / Cheney / Rove, but ALL the elites -- political / military / corporate / media / academic --

are responsible for having created an unholy catastrophe that is NOT going to be solved, no matter what Baruch hopes, by the withdrawal of American troops ...

The dynamics of the disaster ...

The entire bloc of Kurdish lawmakers walked out of Iraq’s Parliament on Tuesday in protest at a proposed provincial election law, part of which they claimed was unconstitutional. ...

The walkout underscores the bitter political power struggle taking place between the Kurdish, Arab and Turkmen communities in the oil-rich northern province of Tamim and its ethnically-mixed capital, Kirkuk.

The Kurds, who claim to have an ethnic majority in Tamim Province, have been pushing to postpone the provincial council vote in Kirkuk until a constitutionally mandated referendum is held on whether Kirkuk should remain under Baghdad’s administration or join the semiautonomous Kurdish regional government. ...

The Kurdish officials who walked out on Tuesday said they had been prepared to vote on the draft election law, with the understanding that other parliamentary blocs agreed to the voting delay in Kirkuk until after the referendum.

But attached to the bill was a separate power-sharing proposal, requested by over 100 Arab and Turkmen lawmakers, to create a provincial council in Kirkuk made up of 10 Kurds, 10 Arabs and 10 Turkmen, with an additional two representatives from the region’s small Christian population.

For the Kurds, this power-sharing arrangement, which had a good chance of passing, is untenable because they say it does not accurately reflect what they claim is their demographic majority in the region. ...

Kirkuk has been at the center of a decades-long custody battle. In the 1980s, Saddam Hussein instituted a policy of Arabizing the city, kicking Kurds out of their homes and forcing Arabs from the south to move in.

A planned census of the region, which might settle questions of proportional representation, has not yet taken place, leaving an atmosphere of profound mistrust between the different communities before the coming election. ...

The Kirkuk question was just one of several issues in the proposed election law that have provoked significant debate.

Other questions include whether to keep a 25-percent quota for women in provincial councils; whether to institute a ban on the depiction of religious figures and symbols in campaign materials; and whether to switch to an open list system of elections, under which voters can choose individual candidates rather than choosing parties.

The walkout took place before any of these issues came up for discussion ...

Comment on Frank Rich "Real Life" 24

Once again, Frank, good stuff -- as far as it goes ...

Frankly, I'm a bit surprised that you hadn't previously grasped the extent to which these people -- whom you correctly characterize in "gangster" terminology -- were playing fast and loose with the security at home, and power abroad, of the United States.

You seem to have missed the key point about the Bush-Cheney / Osama dynamic:

they feed off each other in a way that -- while not conspiratorial in a strict sense -- nevertheless enables each side to achieve their true agendas,

which, for Bush / Cheney, is to create "national security" situations that justify the constant handing out of no-bid contracts to past and future employers,

and, for Osama et al, an on-going effort to polarize the politics of the Arab / Muslim world in a consistently negative direction ...

There IS a danger in the way you paint it, but that's not really the point ...

Just as the situation of US troops in Iraq is beside the point ...

The real issue is the extent to which all elites in the US -- political / corporate / media / academic -- have failed and are failing to understand, and then do something about, the more than casually symbiotic relationship between the Bush / Cheney / Rove forces on the one hand, and political Islam -- whether in its terrorist or simply power-grabbing and -holding manifestations ...

Too much concern about the US -- alone -- is part of the failure to realize the global implications of this toxic symbiosis,

which become more and more structurally problematic each day,

especially with the evident rise of China and India in the world economy ...

Finally, the saddest note, is Wilkinson's warning not to travel outside the US except to, perhaps, Saudi and Israel ...

That this could be said shows not only the self-destructiveness of Israeli policy over the last years,

but also the utterly destructive and self-destructive enabling role that supposed "friends of Israel" have played and are playing in its increasingly disturbing global isolation ...

the shrewdness of Qatar / Abu Dhabi and other Gulf Co-Operation Council members aside in trying to break that isolation ...

Obama Fiddling While US Burns

As this article in the Times points out, the US economy is really in a total shambles,

and no one has the slightest idea what to do about it ...

Should be a perfect opportunity for a non-incumbent, especially a Democrat, right ???

And yet Baruch continues his bizarre silence and evident reluctance to take any radical steps to improve the situation,

the first one of which -- as we've been saying, since, oh, I don't know, 2000 -- would be to eliminate a HUGE source of fear and anxiety on the part of ALL Americans

by taking the initiative on SINGLE-PAYER HEALTH CARE ...

But Baruch remains strangely silent on this and so many other crucial issues,

instead parroting Bush's mealy-mouth bullshit about the importance of "faith-based" organizations,

what some are calling "richochet pandering" -- appealing to one group indirectly by explicitly appealing to another, somewhat related, one ...

Gross in principle, and especially bizarre given the fact that the veils of media obstruction on the problems -- at least -- are slowly being dropped as the country gets into worse and  worse shape,

leaving a HUGE opening ... if only he would take it ...

The one GOOD thing lately I can say about Baruch is that he IS letting his most fervent supporters air their -- quite correct -- disenchantment with him on a number of issues,

notably the whole "indemnifying the telcom companies" for any crimes they willingly committed in the BCRHB assault on civil liberties via the Patriot Act ...

As long as that keeps up, there might be some hope ...

But should he start to close that down ... well ... let's just say it's going to be a long time AGAIN before Michelle Obama can be proud of her country --

even IF her husband becomes President ... ;-) ...

Self-Naming "Hussein" 1st Discourse-Transforming Aspect of Obama Cmpgn

Frankly, we prefer OUR idea -- calling Obama "Baruch", which is specifically aimed at the ludicrous Jewish fears / prejudices about him --

but having all these Obamaniacs call themselves "Hussein", as the New York Times is reporting today, is the FIRST positive discourse-related development I've seen from his campaign ...

He's still not overwhelming me with the substance of his policies -- not that I buy the idea that Hillary was anything better --

but maybe he'll be forced by the kind of weak-ass RPB "terror alert" baiting that Frank Rich also limns today to START saying something new and substantive re America's place in the world ...

which, as the pathetic hypocrite Tom Friedman correctly notes, is completely screwed ...

altho, in typical Friedman fashion, he fails to mention that he has supported just about every concrete measure -- starting with Iraq, but not limited to it -- that has led to the revolting situation America is in today ...

And if you think WE'RE saying this post facto, then just check out the archive since we started this thing ... ;-) ...

Identity Politics Queer Obama's Relations w Muslim Americans

It's hardly surprising ...

Backlash vs. Political Islam in Algerian Schools

Very interesting article in New York Times about the on-going mess in Algeria, where things have been a mess since the early 1990s,

altho this talks about the anti-Islamist changes in the education system there, which, while positive, are nevertheless provoking a lot of disorientation among the young ...

Predictably, MSM Now Turning on Obama - Why Not McCain ???

All this crap about the "liberal media" pushing for Obama ...

So pathetic -- not just that such nonsensical charges have the slightest credibility at this point, but how the grossly intimidated mainstream media keep trying to "prove" they're not ...

Which, of course, is just what the RPBs want ...

Is there ANY aspect of American presidential politics that isn't a complete farce ???

Iraq No-Bid Contract Scandals Present - Oil / Majors

It's all so open and brazen ...

a perfect example of how destructively deteriorated public discourse in the US has become since the time of the jerk who started it all, Ronald Reagan ...

and, not to forget, his willing accomplices, the American people ... ;-) ...