Morning Report: February 2, 2005

Memories of an African genocide. Reflecting on the UN's refusal to recognize the killing in Sudan as "genocide", Mamamontezz recalls an encounter with survivors of another crime against humanity: 'I approached the man and asked him if he wouldn't mind answering a few questions about Rawanda. I didn't have to ask...he said it was all true. His wife showed me what was left of her left hand--her thumb, index, and middle finger. I also noticed sever burn marks on her face, but knew better than to inquire. The man unbuttoned his collar and showed me where a Hutu had tried to slit his throat. The man told me he only survived because he thought that since he was going to die, it was better to fight like a man, than die like a dog.' (Mamamontezz)

Allawi slams ABC insult. Iraqi Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi was "disappointed and insulted" by statements from producers at ABC News, Allawi's office said. ABC had suggested that Allawi's refusal to grant an interview to Peter Jennings ' equates to the prime minister not being caring about American soldiers or being grateful for the United States’ leading role in the coalition', according to this Fox News item. (Fox)

Dean likely to lead Democrats. According to this New York Times article, Howard Dean may succeed in his quest to become the next leader of the Democratic National Committee: 'Dr. Dean's dominance was secured after Martin Frost, a former representative from Texas, whom many Democrats viewed as the institutional counterpart to Dr. Dean, dropped out after failing - in what had become an increasingly long-shot effort - to win support from national labor unions. The A.F.L.-C.I.O. announced instead that it would remain neutral, freeing its affiliate members to do what they wanted, which proved in many cases to be boarding the Dean train. "It's a fait accompli, it's over: Dean's going to be it," said Gerald McEntee, head of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, who runs the umbrella political organization for all the unions in the A.F.L.-C.I.O. Actually, the final word rests with the 447 members of the Democratic National Committee, who will vote on Feb. 12 in Washington on a successor to Terry McAuliffe. And Dr. Dean faces a last obstacle, the candidacy of Donnie Fowler Jr., a Democratic operative from South Carolina. Fowler aides said they hoped to benefit from the appearance of this as a two-man race with an opponent with a history of sometimes unorthodox political behavior. Still, they acknowledged that the possibility of a real competition was dimming.' (New York Times via College Republicans)

Debka on Rice, Israel, Palestine. A new analysis by Debka looks at US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's stated policies toward Palestine and Israel. 'New US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice’s upcoming visit to the Middle East next week has galvanized the region’s leaders into a frenzied round of travel and summit consultations. The centerpiece summit will bring together Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon, Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) at Sharm al Sheikh next Tuesday. Jordan’s King Abdullah has also been invited.' Debka notes the points of disagreement between Washington and Jerusalem: 'Amid this flurry of movement, nothing has happened to change the fundamentals at stake between Israel and the Palestinians. Rice made this clear on Monday, January 31, ahead of her visit to the region and at the previous Senate hearings before her confirmation last week: “Without a viable and contiguous Palestinian state that represents the aspirations of the Palestinian people – meaning enough land to function well - there will be no peace for either Palestinian people or Israelis.” This statement does not address the concerns troubling Jerusalem. ... ' Read the full article at the link. (Debka)

New website traces African-American history. A new website by the Schomburg Center of the New York Public Library offers a fresh take on African-American history: 'The transatlantic slave trade has created an enduring image of black men and women as transported commodities, and is usually considered the most defining element in the construction of the African Diaspora, but it is centuries of additional movements that have given shape to the nation we know today. This is the story that has not been told. In Motion: The African-American Migration Experience presents a new interpretation of African-American history, one that focuses on the self-motivated activities of peoples of African descent to remake themselves and their worlds. Of the thirteen defining migrations that formed and transformed African America, only the transatlantic slave trade and the domestic slave trades were coerced, the eleven others were voluntary movements of resourceful and creative men and women, risk-takers in an exploitative and hostile environment. Their survival skills, efficient networks, and dynamic culture enabled them to thrive and spread, and to be at the very core of the settlement and development of the Americas. Their hopeful journeys changed not only their world and the fabric of the African Diaspora but also the Western Hemisphere.' In Motion: the African-American Migration Experience offers access to an enormous database of documents relating to the transatlantic slave trade, the domestic slave trade, Caribbean migration, and other chapters of African-American history. (NYPL via CNN)

U.S. Hostage Identified

The identity of an American soldier held hostage by Islamist militants has been confirmed, according to knowledgeable sources.

What if?

Mark Brown of the Chicago Sun-Times comes in from the cold.

Maybe you're like me and have opposed the Iraq war since before the shooting
started -- not to the point of joining any peace protests, but at least
letting people know where you stood.

You didn't change your mind when our troops swept quickly into Baghdad or
when you saw the rabble that celebrated the toppling of the Saddam Hussein
statue, figuring that little had been accomplished and that the tough job
still lay ahead.

Despite your misgivings, you didn't demand the troops be brought home
immediately afterward, believing the United States must at least try to
finish what it started to avoid even greater bloodshed. And while you
cheered Saddam's capture, you couldn't help but thinking I-told-you-so in
the months that followed as the violence continued to spread and the death
toll mounted.

By now, you might have even voted against George Bush -- a second time -- to
register your disapproval.

But after watching Sunday's election in Iraq and seeing the first clear sign
that freedom really may mean something to the Iraqi people, you have to be
asking yourself: What if it turns out Bush was right, and we were wrong? ...

Go read the rest of the column here: What if Bush was right?

(Thanks to the person at the Portland State chapter of College Republicans who e-mailed this item.)

And please, please take two seconds to drop Mr. Brown a nice e-mail thanking him for having the courage to speak up. You and I both know that there are plenty of good, decent people out there who were against the war, and who might now be having second thoughts. If they see that there are other people in the same situation, it'll be easier for them to think clearly. It's a good thing that some people are starting to see the light - it will be an even better thing when we can all work together for a better Middle East and a better world.

Nobody needs to "do penance" - we just need to talk to each other, listen to each other, and work together.

Sudan Action

You already know that genocide is taking place in Sudan. The Untied Nations knows it, too, but they won't use the G word, because that would mean they'd have to DO something.

Well, YOU can do someting. Send a message to the UN and tell Kofi Annan to get a clue. Go to the anti-slavery website iAbolish and sign the petition to the UN:

In October, the UN belatedly responded to outrage over atrocities in Sudan by launching a commission. The commission had three months to determine whether genocide was occurring in Sudan. Today, four months later, the report has not been issued.

But on Friday the Los Angeles Times reported that the UN has found "no evidence of crimes against humanity with an ethnic dimension" in Sudan. Instead, it will only condemn "individuals who may have acted with a 'genocidal intention.'"

Reuters is also reporting that Sudan's Foreign Minister, Mustafa Osman Ismail, claims the regime he represents will not be cited for genocide. "We have a copy of that report and they didn't say there is a genocide," Ismail told journalists.

I write to urge the UN not to forsake its heritage. The UN was founded after World War II to ensure that the international community would act to stop genocide. But now months are going by and the UN is standing by.

The very least you can do is be honest about the problem. The Sudanese government is sending forces to destroy villages, abduct women and children into slavery, murder civilians, and forcibly starve hundreds of thousands. The Sudanese military has bombed villages and then prevented African Union peacekeepers from investigating.

Please do not hide from the word "genocide." If the UN cannot be clear about the problem, then it cannot provide a solution. The Sudanese regime has clearly committed acts of genocide and continues to do so. Sudan's leaders must be held accountable by the international community.

The UN should say the truth. Otherwise, the truth will be that the UN is broken.

Go do this now. Click on the link, and tell the guys at Turtle Bay to get serious.

Haim Harari: At the Eye of the Storm

You may be wondering why I don't spend more time covering the Israeli/Palestinian conflict in this blog. After all, the dispute between Palestine and Israel is the central issue in the Middle East, right?

No; I don't think that it is. And neither does Israeli physicist Haim Harari, whose article The View from the Eye of the Storm attracted some well-deserved attention in the blogosphere recently. I'm getting around to Harari a little bit late, but the article is just as relevant now - in the wake of the Iraqi elections - as it was last spring.

Why do I put aside Israel and its own immediate neighborhood? Because Israel and any problems related to it, in spite of what you might read or hear in the world media, is not the central issue, and has never been the central issue in the upheaval in the region. Yes, there is a 100 year-old Israeli-Arab conflict, but it is not where the main show is. The millions who died in the Iran-Iraq war had nothing to do with Israel. The mass murder happening right now in Sudan, where the Arab Moslem regime is massacring its black Christian citizens, has nothing to do with Israel. The frequent reports from Algeria about the murders of hundreds of civilian in one village or another by other Algerians have nothing to do with Israel. Saddam Hussein did not invade Kuwait, endangered Saudi Arabia and butchered his own people because of Israel. Egypt did not use poison gas against Yemen in the 60's because of Israel. Assad the Father did not kill tens of thousands of his own citizens in one week in El Hamma in Syria because of Israel. The Taliban control of Afghanistan and the civil war there had nothing to do with Israel. The Libyan blowing up of the Pan-Am flight had nothing to do with Israel, and I could go on and on and on.

The root of the trouble is that this entire Moslem region is totally dysfunctional, by any standard of the word, and would have been so even if Israel would have joined the Arab league and an independent Palestine would have existed for 100 years.

Harari goes on to say:

I should also say a word about the millions of decent, honest, good people who are either devout Moslems or are not very religious but grew up in Moslem families. They are double victims of an outside world, which now develops Islamophobia and of their own environment, which breaks their heart by being totally dysfunctional. The problem is that the vast silent majority of these Moslems are not part of the terror and of the incitement but they also do not stand up against it. They become accomplices, by omission, and this applies to political leaders, intellectuals, business people and many others. Many of them can certainly tell right from wrong, but are afraid to express their views.

He then develops the idea that today's terror/fascism structure rests on four "pillars": (1) the use of suicide-murderers by wealthy elites; (2) the use of propaganda to incite, and to conceal, the killing of innocents; (3) the channeling of money through three "concentric spheres" - (a) the innermost circle of the terrorists themselves, (b) the infrastructure of preachers, planners, and supporters who make a "very comfortable living" supporting the killers, and (c) the outer circle, which serves as the guardian, and consists of "religious" organizations, "news" media, and "educational" and "welfare" institutions, and provides the ideological environment needed to nurture the terrorist apparatus; and finally (4) the fourth pillar is the total anarchism, atavism, and nihilism of the terrorist movement:

The civilized world believes in democracy, the rule of law, including international law, human rights, free speech and free press, among other liberties. There are naïve old-fashioned habits such as respecting religious sites and symbols, not using ambulances and hospitals for acts of war, avoiding the mutilation of dead bodies and not using children as human shields or human bombs. Never in history, not even in the Nazi period, was there such total disregard of all of the above as we observe now.

Go take a few minutes to read Harari's article. I'm planning to post more on it soon.

A Beautiful Day

Today, January 30, 2005, a new Iraq was born.

As fate would have it, today is also my birthday - so this comes as a very special "birthday present" for me. A little background: fourteen years ago, my unit was stationed on the Saudi/Kuwaiti border awaiting our orders to go into Kuwait. On the night of January 29, we got the word that a column of enemy armor had crossed into Saudi Arabia and attacked the town of Khafji. We engaged them, and lost two vehicles and several men that night - the first Allied casualties of the ground conflict. For me, the anniversary of our losses at Khafji cast a shadow over my birthday each year since then - as did our failure to finish the job back in 1991.

Today, I can celebrate my birthday with unmingled joy, because it is also the birthday of a free and democratic Iraq.

Morning Report: January 30, 2005

Iraqis vote in free elections. Iraq the Model declares, "The people have won." Free Iraqi writes, "It's like the Eid but only a thousand times better." Iraqi Bloggers Central has all the latest updates from the Iraqi blogosphere. Kat at The Middle Ground rates media coverage. (Can you say "big fat F"?) Roger L. Simon takes on the reactionaries.

"This is Iraq's army, not Allawi's."

A soldier gets a lesson in democracy in this election day post at Iraq the Model.

"I felt like a king walking in his own kingdom." Ali writes about his feelings on voting for the first time in a REAL election. I don't think any of us born and raised in the US can imagine what it's like to fear for one's life because of having voted "NO" to a dictator. Ali doesn't have to imagine.

Some hard questions. Reader warriorjason posts this comment:

Where are all the Human sheild that went to Iraq to protect the Ba'ath Party before the invasion? Why have they not come out to protect the Iraqi voter from the terrorists? Why aren't American feminist organizations holding a rally in support of their sisters in Iraq who voted for the first time? These are serious questions that need to be answered by the world and American left.

Indeed.

Above and Beyond

Voter turnout exceeded expectations in Iraq's first free election of the post-Saddam era, according to news reports.

A'ash al-Iraq!

"Brave Voters Defy Rebels" was the gratifying headline on my AOL news screen just now. Nice! I hope the MSM begins to (FINALLY!) catch on to the idea that this is a GOOD thing.

Boxer for President?

I'm going to puke.

Iraq to Become a Democracy

Today - at 7:00AM Baghdad time - the Iraqi people will begin voting.

I don't have anything insightful to say, and I don't have any inside information that you can't get from Friends of Democracy or Iraq the Model. But I do know that I'll be glued epoxied to the computer tonight and tomorrow, watching the big event.

To the Iraqi people: a big l'chaim. And, in honor of the occasion, a she'hechiyanu.

G-d bless America and a free Iraq!