Morning Report: November 22, 2004

President Bush: hands-on manager. President Bush personally intervened in a dispute among security agents, pulling his lead Secret Service agent away from Chilean guards after the Chileans tried to prevent the Secret Service from accompanying the President to a state dinner. (CNN)

Iraqi government stands by January 30 election date. The date for Iraqi general elections has been set for January 30, al-Sabah reports:

The UN  High Commission on the Elections has announced that the elections will be held in 30th January . That announcement forms a reply on the rumors circulated two days ago. Which referred to the possibility of postponing the elections under pressure and demand of some regional and  local political forces.Dr. Fareed Riyaal the spokesman of the commission said that the specified date will include the elections of the national association and elections of the national assembly in Kurdistan region in addition to the elections of councils in 18 Iraqi provinces.He denied the rumors on the contacts made by Lakhdar al- Ibrahimi the UN special envoy with the Iraqi parties to postpone the elections , saying that is groundless and it is just predictions because the commission is the only concerned side in adopting the decisions concerning all elections in Iraq.  

Debka: 350 nuclear sites in Iran. "What installations?" an IRI official asked innocently, when international nuclear inspectors requested, last May, to revisit installations they had seen earlier in the year. According to this Debka report, US intelligence estimates that as many as 350 sites may have to be hit in order to destroy the regime's nuclear weapons program. Additionally, Pentagon planners are convinced that such an operation must also accomplish regime change:

The first stage would be a bombing mission against the regime’s primary prop, the Revolutionary Guards. The second stage would be the destruction of known and probable nuclear sites – a much harder mission given the hundreds of sites known and unknown number and carefully camouflaged underground behind cunning window-dressing. US intelligence estimates as many as 350 sites. It does not have precise knowledge of which are the most important or even which are active. Regime change in stage three would entail ground action.

Dreams Into Lightning encourages readers to voice support for regime change in Iran by signing the Iran Regime Change Petition, which is endorsed by the activist forum Free Iran.

Let's blogroll!

Some people think of terrorism as a "nuisance" comparable to organized crime. Kat at The Middle Ground puts the same analogy in a more useful context: like the generations-long battle with the Mafia, it will be a slow and difficult, but ultimately winnable, war. Winnable, that is, if we remain committed to shrewd and relentless prosecution of the battle. BTW, I've added a long-overdue sidebar link to TMG as well.

Zeyad at Healing Iraq has gotten a much-too-close-for-comfort view of the fighting. I don't know how he manages to stay sane enough to blog ... he must have a pair of those brass cojones.

Jane at Armies of Liberation is more than a little bit miffed about journalistic double standards, and she's not mincing words in her latest article published in the Arab News. She also picks up where a previous Dreams Into Lightning post left off, with a comprehensive listing of progressive Arab, Muslim, and Middle Eastern organizations.

As you've probably figured out by now, your host doesn't get out that often, and rarely manages to leave downtown Portland. Michael J. Totten doesn't have that problem. Follow this post to his article on his recent trip to Tunis. Also read MJT's recent posts for his thoughts on Zeyad's predicament, and a guest post by Jeremy Brown on Fascists, Nazis, and assorted other totalitarians.

A plague of locusts is the subject of recent posts by Allison Kaplan Sommer and Imshin. Let's hope this turns out not to be a major problem in Israel.

Drawing the line. Ampersand of Alas, a Blog offers some thoughtful critiques of the controversy surrounding various cartoon or caricature portrayals of our next Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice. Amp isn't impressed by the International Women's Forum's accusations of "racist" political cartoons, but is nevertheless troubled by the racial overtones of Danziger's and Oliphant's cartoons.

Dumb and dumber? You were probably worried that the Washington Post was too high-brow for most readers. You weren't? Well, fret not, because they're lowering the reading level even further to try to stop the paper's circulation hemorrhage. And, oh yeah, they're doing all kinds of other neat stuff ... LaShawn Barber has the details.

Update

Regular posting will return to Dreams Into Lightning starting tomorrow. I've gotten caught up on American Literature and I've gotten a handle on Simpson's Rule and other approximate integration techniques ... now if I can remember the difference between the Shell Method and the Disk Method, I'll have Solids of Revolution down pat, and I'll be almost done with second-semester Calculus.

Looking forward to Thanksgiving weekend, as The Next Generation is coming up from San Francisco for a visit.

On the home front, I just got a new vacuum cleaner and a new bed - no more sleeping on a futon on the floor! - and the apartment is finally starting to look presentable. And my DVD set of "The L Word" arrived last week, so I've got no shortage of mindless melodrama to keep me entertained during my downtime.

There's a lot I want to write about, particularly around anti-Semitism, authority and responsibility, and the changing landscape of American culture and politics. Stay tuned.

Hezbollah Drone Update

On November 12, a Hezbollah-operated reconnaissance drone called the Mirsad-1 penetrated Israeli airspace and flew over the northern town of Nahariya for fifteen minutes. The incident raises serious questions about Israel's air security, according to this Debka report. Debka notes that a Patriot air-defense system normally posted in the area was absent on the day of the intrusion, leaving the area guarded only by the less advanced Hawk missiles - which, unlike the Patriots usually on duty, lacked the ability to detect small objects like the drone. Debka points out another curious aspect of the incident: the footage broadcast after the overflight, purportedly shot by the drone, "shows a Patriot battery present". Either these photographs were taken by a previous, undetected mission over Israel, or they were illicitly obtained from another source such as a private satellite company. The report also weighs in on an unidentified submarine spotted of Israel's coast at the time of the incident; read the article at the link for full details.

RELATED:
Morning Report: April 12, 2005 (Hezbollah drone penetrates Israeli airspace.)
Hezbollah Drone Update
Eagle/Heron, and Another UAV

Some of the Boys Dressed in Pink Shorts Anyway

Hat tip: Emily at Strangechord
You knew, didn't you, that when a rural elementary school in East Texas had a "let's swap gender roles" day, someone would complain that the practice "promotes homosexuality" (shudder).

Students in Spurger, Texas were encouraged by school officials to wear camouflage hunting gear to class on Wednesday after they called off their annual "TWIRP Day" in which boys dressed as girls and vice versa.

The cross-dressing tradition began some years back as a kind of Sadie Hawkins Day where girls ask boys to go out on dates.

TWIRP stands for "The Woman Is Requested To Pay."

But Delana Davies, who has two children in the Spurger school, complained this year that the tradition could promote homosexuality and got the Liberty Legal Institute, a right-wing Christian legal group, to take up the cause.

"It might be fun today to dress up like a little girl -- kids think it's cute and things like that. And you start playing around with it and, like drugs, you do a little here and there (and) eventually it gets you," Davies told reporters.

So in the interests of promoting heterosexuality (and deer hunting), the authorities re-designated the day as "camouflage day". Now personally, I know some women who look fabulous in camouflage and combat boots, but I'm not sure that's quite what the school had in mind. Anyway, you can read about the whole subversive plot here.

Say You're Sorry

You may recall that a group of well-meaning Americans has seen fit to apologize on behalf of the American people for the recent Iraq war.

These folks are a little behind the times. A year ago, Mohammed at Iraq the Model wrote that the peace movement does, indeed, owe the Iraqi people an apology:

I don’t know really know why Saddam’s regime lasted for over three decades, but I am sure as an Iraqi who survived that period that there’re no legal or moral justifications for it to remain.

I was counting days and hours waiting to see an end to that regime, just like all those who suffered the cruelty of that brutal regime. It’s been really a disgrace chasing the world ,the world of the 21st. century, reminding it how incapable it was to aid the oppressed and to sue those who dispised all the values of humanity. Through out these decades I lost trust in the world governments and international committees. Terms like (human rights, democracy and liberty..etc.)became hallow and meaningless and those who keep repeating these words are liars..liars..liars.

I hated the U.N and the security council and Russia and France and Germany and the arab nations and the islamic conference.
I’ve hated George Gallawy and all those marched in the millionic demonstrations against the war .It is I who was oppressed and I don’t want any one to talk on behalf of me, I, who was eager to see rockets falling on Saddam’s nest to set me free, and it is I who desired to die gentlemen, because it’s more merciful than humiliation as it puts an end to my suffer, while humiliation lives with me reminding me every moment that I couldn’t defend myself against those who ill-treated me.

What hurt me more and kept my wound bleeding was that they gave Saddam a tribune so the skinner can talk, and offered him a diplomatic representation almost all-over the world to broadcast his filthy propaganda and sprinkle Iraq’s wealth on his supporters. I really didn’t understand those countries demands to take away our misery. Did they really think that the sanctions were the cause?

We were not even human, Saddam wiped off our humanity , we were just numbers and a lot of Identity cards that we had to show wherever we went.

The Baath idea was this:
YOU’RE A CITIZEN , THEN YOU’RE A SUSPECT

Believe me , we were living in the” kingdom of horror”.

Please tell me how could the world that claims to be civilized let Saddam launch chemical weapons on his own un-armed people? Shame..

Can anyone tell me why the world let Saddam remain and stood against America’s will to topple him?

Till when will the charts of human rights remain incompulsory , cancel them, because they remind you of your big disgrace.
Keep giving time and tribunes to regimes like those in Syria, Yemen, North Korea and Libya to justify their presence.

To me I don’t recognize your committees and I have no time to listen to that nonsense, I’ve got along way to walk building my country and helping my people forget the days of abasement.

You all owe the Iraqi people an apology.

The Real Peace Movement

The Free Muslim Coalition Against Terrorism: United we stand.
Free Muslim Coalition Against Terrorism

The Free Muslim Coalition Against Terrorism does not seek to change the tenets of the religion. However, the Coalition believes that the Koran only provides general principals of governance which leaves the faithful with substantial flexibility to modernize popular Muslim practices and beliefs.

The Coalition seeks to encourage discussion among Muslims about every aspect of their religion as it applies to modern times. The unwillingness of the Muslim religious establishment to consider modernizing the faith has relegated most Muslims to third world status and in many instances to a medieval existence.

Those who seek change are often afraid to speak out because of the aggressive and violent nature of those Muslims who reject change. The silence of peaceful Muslims has resulted in the hijacking of Islam by extremists and terrorists. This must change.

... The Free Muslim Coalition Against Terrorism strongly supports the promotion of democracy in the Middle East. However, the Coalition cautions that imposing democracy on the Middle East without first promoting secularism and destroying terrorism may lead to the creation of Islamic extremist states that will ultimately reject the democracy that brings them to power.

The Coalition supports the right of all peoples to self government, but recognizes the importance of a solid system of government which guarantees a secular democracy protecting the rights of all people, regardless of gender, race or religion, and strives tirelessly to eliminate threats to democracy including extremism and terrorism. The Coalition fosters this secular environment by opening debates on the prerequisite of secularism in governments in the Middle East & North Africa, rallying against Islamist propaganda in media outlets, in institutions of education and in political campaigns, and by exploring the creation of secular democracy-preserving constitutions for Arab and Muslim countries.

... The Coalition believes that fundamentalist Islamic terror represents one of the most lethal threats to the stability of the civilized world. The existence of Islamic terrorists is the existence of threats to democracy. There is no room for terrorism in the modern world and the United States should take a no-tolerance stance on terrorism in order to avoid another tragedy, along the lines of 9-11. With the added threat of biochemical weapons, the call to defeat terrorism has never been so urgent.

Faith Freedom: Ex-Muslims speak out.
FaithFreedom

Today humanity is being challenged. Unthinkable atrocities take place on daily basis. There is an evil force at work that aims to destroy us. The agents of this evil respect nothing; not even the lives of children. Every day there are bombings, every day innocent people are targeted and murdered. It seems as if we are helpless. But we are not!

We are losing the war against terrorism because we do not know our enemy. Terrorism is just a tool, the enemy is the ideology behind terrorism and that is Islam.

Those of us, who know Islam, know that the understanding of the terrorists of Islam is correct. They are doing nothing that their prophet did not do. Murder, rape, assassination, beheading, massacre and mutilation of the dead "to delight the hearts of the believers" were all practiced by Muhammad.

If truth matters it should be now! This is the time that we have to find the root of the problem and eradicate it. The root of Islamic terrorism is Islam. The proof of that is the Quran.

We ex-Muslims have seen the face of the evil and have risen to warn the world. No matter how painful the truth may be, only truth can set us free.

Arabs For Israel: Yes, really.
Arabs For Israel

We can support the State of Israel and the Jewish religion and still treasure our Arab and Islamic culture.
There are many Jews and Israelis who freely express compassion and support for the Palestinians. It is time that we Arabs express reciprocal compassion and support.
The existence of the State of Israel is a fact that should be accepted by the Arab world.
Israel is a legitimate state that is not a threat but an asset in the Middle East.
Every major World religion has a center of gravity. Islam has Mecca, and Judaism certainly deserves its presence in Israel and Jerusalem.
Diversity should not be a virtue only in the USA, but should be encouraged around the world. We support a diverse Middle East with protection for human rights, respect and equality under the law to all minorities including Jews and Christians.
Palestinians have several options but are deprived from exercising them because of their leadership, the Arab League and surrounding Arab and Moslem countries who do not want to see Palestinians live in harmony with Israel.
If Palestinians want democracy they can start practicing it now.
We stand firmly against suicide/homicide terrorism as a form of Jihad.
We are appalled by the horrific act of terror against the USA on 9/11/2001.
Arab media should end the incitement and misinformation that result in Arab street rage and violence.
We are eager to see major reformation in how Islam is taught and channeled to bring out the best in Moslems and contribute to the uplifting of the human spirit and advancement of civilization.
We believe in freedom to choose or change one’s Religion.
We cherish and acknowledge the beauty and contributions of the Middle East culture, but recognize that the Arab/Moslem world is in desperate need of constructive self-criticism and reform.

Irshad Manji: Author of "The Trouble with Islam."
Irshad Manji - Muslim Refusenik

The Trouble with Islam shatters our silence. It shows Muslims how we can re-discover Islam's lost tradition of independent thinking -- a tradition known as "ijtihad" -- and re-discover it precisely to update Islam for the 21st century. The opportunity to update is especially available to Muslims in the West, because it's here that we enjoy precious freedoms to think, express, challenge and be challenged without fear of state reprisal. In that sense, the Islamic reformation begins in the West.

It doesn't, however, end here. Not by a long shot. People throughout the Islamic world need to know of their God-given right to think for themselves. So The Trouble with Islam outlines a global campaign to promote innovative approaches to Islam. I call this non-military campaign "Operation Ijtihad." In turn, the West's support of this campaign will fortify national security, making Operation Ijtihad a priority for all of us who wish to live fatwa-free lives.

Free Iran: Iranian activists' homepage.
Free Iran

Iraq The Model Celebrates One Year

I've got a lot going on right now and I don't have time for regular posting ... but THIS I've got time for:

Iraq The Model is one year old. The Fadhil brothers - Omar, Ali, and Mohammed - are marking their first anniversary of blogging today.
Iraq The Model homepage
first anniversary post

The Voice of Reason

Dan Savage, writing in the Portland Mercury, offers this bit of clear-sighted, dispassionate analysis:

We can't literally secede and, let's admit it, we don't really want to live in Canada. It's too cold up there and in our heart-of-hearts, we hate hockey. We can secede emotionally, however, by turning our backs on the heartland. We can focus on our issues, our urban issues, and promote our shared urban values. The Republicans have the federal government--for now. But we've got Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Diego, New York City (Bloomberg is a Republican in name only), and every college town in the country. We're everywhere any sane person wants to be. Let them have the shitholes, the Oklahomas, Wyomings, and Alabamas. We'll take Manhattan.

To red-state voters, to the rural voters, residents of small, dying towns, and soulless sprawling exburbs, we'll say this: Fuck off. Your issues are no longer our issues. We're going to battle our bleeding-heart instincts and ignore pangs of misplaced empathy. We will no longer concern ourselves with a health care crisis that disproportionately impacts rural areas.

We'll fight to keep guns off the streets of our cities but the more guns laying around out there in the heartland, the better. Most cities have strong gun-control laws--laws that are, of course, undermined by the fact that our cities aren't walled. Yet. But why should liberals in cities fund organizations that attempt to get trigger locks onto the handguns of NRA members and Bush supporters? If red-state dads aren't concerned enough about their own children to put trigger locks on their own guns, it's not our problem. If a kid in a red state finds his daddy's handgun and blows his head off, we'll feel terrible (we're like that), but we'll try to look on the bright side: At least he won't grow up to vote like his dad.

Better Dead Than Red

Dogface: The New Georgia Doughboy

From my father's World War II memoirs. Posted in honor of veterans everywhere.

This is the New Georgia doughboy, returning from the front. He's wearing his green-and-brown-mottled camouflage suit - the one he has been wearing continuously for the past three weeks. It has seldom been off of him, even to be washed - the rains take care of that. If his unit happens to be anywhere near a creek, he washes himself, but that happens only once in a while. Oh, yes, and that camouflage about his face is not really camouflage. Can he help it if the dust, kicked up from the road, sticks to his sweaty, bearded face? All available water is used for drinking, but even with the supply on New Georgia augmented by purified water from neighboring islets, he has to exercise rigid economy. His daily supply which he carries with him in two canteens doesn't last very long in New Georgia's baking sun and steaming jungles.

This doggie, like most of his buddies has been in combat for around twenty consecutive days. That means that during that time he has no hot food. His meals when he could get them, were C rations eaten right out of the can. Sometimes his fare wasn't even that sumptuous. Sometimes he subsisted on a bar of D ration chocolate a day. Now he returns, stripped down to barest essentials, without even the light battle pack he started out with. He still has his faithful M-1 Rifle with possibly some ammunition left, his precious water, first aid packet, and sulfanilamide tablets.

He trudges along the dusty road, his trousers legs rolled up to just below the knees, revealing a dirty, soggy, reeking pair of green canvass jungle boots. He walks along the road which Army engineers and Navy Sea Bees have hewn out of the jungle. But the soldier doesn't always find the road dry and dusty; all too often he slogs through channels of knee-deep mud which must serve as travel routes. On this isle of the dead and living dead, the stench of this mud suggests that decaying bodies are blended in with the soil, but the smell is more probably from rotted vegetation. When it rains in New Georgia, this is what the soldier eats in, sleeps in, lives in. Now, as he walks along with expressionless eyes focused on the ground a few paces ahead of him, his presence adds a poignantly personal touch to the procession of peeps and three-quarter tons which are laden with supplies for the front. Daily he (for "he" represents all such front line men) passes our gun positions with an air of mingled apprehension and respect. He dreads being near them when they fire, yet he wants to get a good look a t the guns that probably helped save his life. "How do you guys stand it? How do you stand the noise?" he asks with a seriousness that dumbfounds us. How do we stand it! He's been sniped at, mortar-shelled, has our artillery barrage seventy-five to one hundred yards ahead of him, and he asks us that! He comes up to the guns once in a while when there is a lull in the firing, and pats a howitzer affectionately. "I could kiss these babies," he says with a wan smile. Once he asked if we'd let him pull the lanyard that would send a 95 pound shell on its destructive mission. He was tickled as a kid with a new toy when we let him fire on the next fire mission.

He sits and exchanges a few words with us; he's never very talkative - sits and broods a lot. As he gets up to leave, his valedictory usually is: "Keep shootin' them out there. It sure is good to hear them land." Though they go through hell, that is all that he and his buddies ever ask of us, that we keep shootin' out there, and they'll carry on their share.

- Ken McLintock (1929-2000)
Battery A,146th Field Artillery Battalion, 37th Infantry Division
January 1942 - October 1945
Urban Renewal: "Pacific Driftwood"

Morning Report: November 11, 2004

Arafat dies. Terrorist leader Yasser Arafat died in Paris in the early hours of Thursday, November 11, according to media reports.

Mohammed: Emergency state enhances security in Iraq. Mohammed at Iraq the Model believes the current state of emergency declared by Iraqi PM Iyad Allawi will help restore confidence among Iraqis:

Declaring the state of emergency laws had a positive effect on the majority of Iraqis although it should’ve caused worries but I believe that this explains the public hopes to see an end for the violence and presence of criminal groups in some parts of Iraq and this is a public feeling that grew bigger because of the brutality of the atrocities committed against Iraqis by those criminal groups. I think it also shows that Iraqis are convinced that this emergency law won’t be similar to the “laws” that governed their lives under Saddam; people know that a real change is under way and that the new laws are going to protect the citizens instead of oppressing them. Perhaps the fact that most the Fallujans left the city proves that they have no intention to confront the Iraqi and multinational forces and it clearly means”go get the bad guys” and this discredits the media’s theory which claimed that “most of the Fallujans are willing to fight”.

Wretchard: The enemy's prospects in Fallujah. The Belmont Club assesses the position of Ba'athist remnants and insurgents in Fallujah, Iraq: 'Simply reading the map shows that the enemy is pinned in a strip north of the highway, which is now a barrier to further escape south. As Major Piccoli put it, the "enemy fighters were bottled up in a strip of the city flanking the major east-west highway that splits Fallujah". Pressing them against the highway are four US battalions from the north and two from the east.'

Three relatives of Allawi abducted. Gunmen kidnapped three relatives of Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi - Allawi's 75-year-old cousin Ghazi, Ghazi's wife, and their daughter-in-law, according to this Fox News report. A militant group called Ansar al-Jihad claimed responsibilty, threatening to kill the three hostages in 48 hours unless the Iraqi and US governments met its demands.

Happy Birthday, USMC

The United States Marine Corps turns 229 today.

"Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they made a difference,
and our Marines don't have that problem."
- President Ronald Reagan, 1985

Semper Fidelis!