Mideast Objectives

The same post in The Belmont Club also suggests six points that US policy should clarify in the pursuit of democracy and freedom in the Middle East:

1. The desired end state in Saudi Arabia: whether or not this includes the survival of the House of Saud or its total overthrow;
2. The fate of the regime in Damascus;
3. Whether or not the United States is committed to overthrowing the Mullahs in Iran and the question of what is to replace them;
4. How far America will tolerate inaction by Iraq security forces before acting unilaterally;
5. The future of the America's alliance with France and Germany;
6. The American commitment to the United Nations.

Hat tip: Michael in SC.

House of Saud divided against itself?

The Belmont Club gives credence to Michael Doran's theory, published in Foreign Affairs, that Saudi Arabia is in a "virtual state of civil war" between two factions: that of Crown Prince Abdullah and that of his half-brother, interior minister Prince Nayef. Abdullah tilts toward pro-Western reformism, while Nayef courts the islamist clerics.

Morning Report: June 14, 2004

MORNING REPORT - JUNE 14

UN: Iran compliance "less than satisfactory". (Debka) Debka reports that United Nations weapons inspector el-Baradei finds Iran's cooperation on weapons inspections "less than satisfactory". The US is pushing for a deadline.

Arab reaction to Greater Mideast Initiative. (Iraq the Model) Now blogging from home, Omar posts more responses to the American push for political reform in the Middle East, translated from the BBC Arabic service. He reports that, predictibly, the most positive responses came from Iraq and the most negative from Palestine. The one surprise was the number of positive responses from Saudi Arabia.

Sudan: Victims of silence. (Jane Novak - Yemen Times) Bombings, crop destruction, well poisoning, mass executions, rape and torture are well-documented, ongoing atrocities in Sudan. Where, Jane asks, is the global action and outrage?

Change of tune for Saudi clerics? (Fox) Fox News reports that six Saudi clerics with former terrorist ties - including two, Safar bin Abdul Rahman al-Hawali, and Salman al-Awdah, who supported Osama bin Laden - have issued a statement condemning attacks on Westerners. The statement explicitly declared that "it is a sin to kill a life without a right, be it Muslim or non-Muslim" and warned against labeling other Muslim nations "infidels". No explanation has yet been offered as to why these six have now joined the Saudi government in opposing terrorist attacks.

Morning Report: June 10, 2004

MORNING REPORT - JUNE 10, 2004

- Ronald Reagan dies. (various) Former president Ronald Reagan died last Sunday, after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease. He is remembered favorably for his uncompromising stance on national security, which led to the US victory over the Soviet Union in the Cold War. More problematic was his support for repressive regimes in Iraq, Iran, and Central America because of perceived American security interests.

- Banned Iraqi missile parts found in Jordan scrapyard. (AP) UN weapons inspection teams, on the trail of an Al Samoud 2 missile engine found in a scrapyard in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, discovered more than 20 banned Iraqi missile engines in a scrapyard in Jordan, according to a briefing given by weapons inspector Demetrius Perricos whose text the AP said it had obtained. The AP article says Perricos stressed the large quantity of scrap metal being exported out of Iraq.

AP: missile parts found

Sully on Reagan

Andrew Sullivan admired Reagan's brand of conservatism. In recent posts, he defends Reagan's record on homosexuality and AIDS.

Hitch on Reagan

No fan of Ronald Reagan, Christopher Hitchens still wonders why so many leftist "intellectuals" feel they need to prove themselves smarter than Reagan - and whether they, had they been in power in Reagan's place, could have brought about the defeat of the Soviet Union as effectively as he did.

US Warns Syria

Debka announced today that the US had issued a "sharply worded" warning to Syria to call in its troops and Hezbollah fighters operating in Iraq, or else face serious consequences.

Regime Change at DiL

I'm writing this from a brand-new Mac; my DSL broadband kicks in next week. Now I'll be able to get more done in less time ... that's going to be nice!

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This is a test post.

Best of DiL

BEST OF DREAMS INTO LIGHTNING


WOMEN AND POWER: Gender, politics, and the price of empowerment – responsibility.
Women and Power

THE ABUSE OF POWER
I Am a Rapest
Seeds of Evil
It is not work. It is abuse.
Army of Occupation

THE L WORD: Liberalism in crisis.
Berman: Another Peace Movement
Galloway
The L Word
Are you a liberal?
Authority Figure
An Infinite Supply of Arab Murderers
Self and Other

SON OF THE MOTHER OF ALL BATTLES: My Iraq war.
The Long Road Home
The Kill
Armed Forces Day

KABBALAH SERIES: A meditation on Jewish mysticism, featuring Lawrence Kushner, Phillip Berg, Yossi Klein Halevi, and Madonna. To be continued.
Kabbala-la Land
The Kabbalah: Part 1
The Kabbalah: Part 2
The Kabbalah: Part 3
The Kabbalah: Part 4
The Kabbalah: Part 5

THE IRAQI HOLOCAUST
The Question
Uday vs. Women
Mass Graves
Sam’s Charge Sheet 1
Sam’s Charge Sheet 2
Al-Dujail
Denial
Memory

IRAN
True Security: Regime Change in Iran
Ebadi Boycott
And Iran...


WINNING IN IRAQ
Seven Iraqi Amputees
Flying Saucers
Winning In Iraq

WORDS TO LIVE BY
Faith

Break from Posting

No new posts until my hardware/ISP upgrade is complete, probably by Wednesday. Meanwhile, please feel free to explore the posts I consider most important, at "Best of DiL", below.
UPDATE: Some of the links work and some don't; I'm in the process of fixing this now.

The Axe

My mother left me an electric guitar.

Well, not precisely. But when Mom died last year, I inherited the house; and after all the red tape with the probate court, I was able to sell it. After depositing the check, the first thing I bought myself was a solid-body Ibanez.

If you love Jimi Hendrix, PJ Harvey, the Rolling Stones, Heart, Boston, the Indigo Girls, Yes, Soundgarden, Bo Diddley, Joan Jett, REM, Joan Armatrading, Chuck Berry, the Psychedelic Furs, the Grateful Dead, Led Zeppelin, the Byrds, U2, Melissa Etheridge, Cream, Starcastle, Alice in Chains, and Joy Division, then you understand why I think the electric guitar is the most beautiful instrument in the world.

I’ve always been fascinated by how the guitar can be thin and rich and plaintive – like on Bob Seger’s “Main Street” – or rich and bold, like in “Plush” by Stone Temple Pilots. The driving power of Heart’s “Barracuda”. The apocalyptic drama of the Indigo Girls’ “Touch Me Fall”.

It was 1974 (and I was eleven) when the prog-rock sextet Starcastle rocked my world with their debut single “Lady of the Lake”. People claimed Starcastle sounded like Yes, but in fact the Champaign-Urbana based group had a sound all their own. Yes were doing some of their best work around this time too; the riff from “Siberian Khatru” – especially the live version on the lavishly packaged album “Yessongs” – is burned in my brain forever.

Strange to say, I didn’t really appreciate Led Zeppelin while I was growing up in the 1970s. I didn’t understand what they were doing musically until I heard Robert Plant’s solo album “The Principle of Moments”. Those guys did the most amazing things with sound.

In my last year of high school, my friend Chuck made me a tape with Joy Division’s “Unknown Pleasures” on one side and the Psychedelic Furs’ debut album on the other. Ian Curtis’ tormented vocals wandered down the industrial labyrinth of the Joy Division sound, while Richard Butler’s gravelly voice wound like a fiery thread around the Fur’s furious guitar and bass lines. To this day, my record collection is full of Joy Division and Psychedelic Furs.

I wore my Aerosmith concert jersey for my graduation photo. What more is there to say?

A few years ago I went to see a concert at the Rose Garden. It was just before tax day, and I still hadn’t turned in my 1040, and I had a million other things on my mind too, so I wasn’t really in much of a mood to see a concert. The headline act was some big-name rock band from Ireland. But the opening act ... well, that was something else! This tiny woman in a leather micro-skirt walks out on stage, picks up a guitar that’s almost bigger than she is, and starts blasting away. And doesn’t stop for an hour. That was my introduction to PJ Harvey. (And the main act? Some bunch of fat old guys that used to be a big deal ... think they called themselves “W-2”, or something like that ... )

It was Jimi, of course, who defined the electric guitar as an electronic instrument. A vibrating string has a base tone – defined as a function of half the string’s length and its linear density – but it also has a potentially infinite number of overtones, because there are also vibration nodes at thirds, quarters, fifths, and so on, of the length of the string. If you attach the string to a hollow object – say, a box, or the body of an instrument – more overtones will be produced by the instrument body. An acoustic guitar produces its rich sound because of the particular resonances of the string, and of the body of the instrument itself. With an electic guitar, though, you have one or more electromagnetic pickups placed at different points along the string: this means that you get to decide which overtones you want to bring out. Hendrix discovered the possibilities of using feedback, distortion, and higher harmonics to produce musical sounds no one had ever heard before.

But you know, the really cool thing about the electric guitar is that YOUR PARENTS WILL NEVER PRESSURE YOU TO LEARN THE INSTRUMENT. It’s true. Mom dragged my sister and me to piano lessons for years when we were kids, and I can still play, and I’m glad my mother forced me to learn ... I guess. But how many young people hear their mothers say, “Jonathan B. Goode, if I don’t hear some chord changes coming from your room RIGHT THIS MINUTE ...” ?

So it’s one thing you have to motivate yourself to learn. And that’s cool.

My guitar teacher has given me some finger exercises, some movable scales, and some chord changes to work on. I’m starting to learn “Chickenman”, the Indigo Girls classic (written by Amy Ray). The book calls for tuning the guitar DADGBD, but Guitar Guru showed me some fingerings I can use with standard tuning.

So now I’m on my way to being a participant and not merely a listener. One day, hopefully, I’ll really learn to play.

Mom wouldn’t be proud of me.