Great Danes

Especially in light of this earlier post, it's only fair that I take note of the great courage shown by both the government of Denmark and the Danish people in the face of intimidation from radical islamists.

For starters, buy Danish!


Denmark
cartoons
Islam

Update

Change of plans ... that post on social issues is on hold for a while, because I can't skip covering Iran events and the Denmark/cartoons business.

Update

Morning Report may be going on vacation for a while due to personal obligations. Also I'm planning some topical posts on gender, feminism, liberalism, gay issues, and current politics. Stay tuned.

The Trip Home

Stephanie again, for a short time. I think we must have been teens or young adults. We were visiting the home of another family, perhaps relatives. It was getting late at night. I don't know if our parents were there or not. She was ready to drive home. Oh good, I thought, this will give us a chance to catch up; I haven't spoken with her in a long time. Even after I woke up, it was several minutes before I realized just how long it had been, and why.

What is democracy about?

Last night I posted a roundup of recent articles on the meaning of "democracy" and its place in the free world. Returning to that same theme this morning, The Counterterrorism Blog analyzes the State of the Union address and finds

In this address, Bush provided -- as he has many times before -- the theoretical basis for the linkage between democracy and peace: "Democracies replace resentment with hope, respect the rights of their citizens and their neighbos, and join the fight against terror." The problem with the administration's approach to democratization to date is that it has placed great emphasis on voting and much less emphasis on the liberal institutions necessary for citizens to have true options at the ballot box: institutions like freedom of speech, freedom of the press and freedom of religion.

In the wake of the Egyptian parliamentary elections that helped bring a large number of Muslim Brotherhood members to power, the State of the Union address calls for Egypt to "open paths of peaceful opposition that will reduce the appeal of radicalism." But this highlights a weakness of our strategy to date: these paths of peaceful opposition should have been opened before the elections, rather than after the Muslim Brotherhood's strong showing. Hopefully Bush's rhetoric is a sign that we will place greater emphasis on promoting liberal institutions as we move forward.

"Democracy" - in the narrowest sense of handing out ballot slips and not holding a gun to people's head when they vote - does not by itself bring a free society. It is necessary but not sufficient. Also needed, and perhaps more urgently, are guarantees of basic individual rights and liberties; freedom of speech and a free press; civil society and non-governmental organizations; and, perhaps most intangibly, a culture of tolerance and respect.

Americans are faced with the task of helping the peoples of the Islamic world to dismantle the structures of oppression and replace them with the foundations of a liberal democracy. In a country where the very words "liberal" and "democratic" have been usurped by factions working against these things, this will be no easy task; but it will give us an opportunity to reflect on what we have, and on how precious it is.

Democracy in the Middle East

I don't have time right now to write a full post, but I want to direct your attention to these three very good pieces on the subject of democracy.

ITM: A place for democracy in the Middle East?

If we go back in time to the latest colonial era we’d see that the intellectual environment at that time was far more developed than at the later stages of independence and national governments, we’d see that freedom of press and expression was fairly better than what we had at later times and even religious parties we’re going through a phase of reevaluating their history and ideologies; at that time there were many religious reformists who were calling for rereading our history and were searching for dialogue channels with the western civilization. Even the Muslim Brotherhood-to which most current Islamic parties belong-we’re more ready to talk, discuss and reform than they are now and at that time, this was considered a leap on the road of reforming the religious thinking.

But the independence wave that came later mostly through military coups allowed the pan-Arab nationalists to take over and impose their point of view on the peoples; they took away freedoms of speech and though and oppressed everyone that didn’t follow their ideology. The people found themselves stuck with one leader, one party and one opinion to follow while all kinds of opposition were either eliminated or severely marginalized.

This was at least the case in Iraq for decades and the same applied to the rest of the neighborhood more or less.

In Iraq were not allowed group or meet for any reason outside the approval of the party and it was officially considered a crime for a number of people to gather and talk politics, the charge that I remember too well was that “they are grouping” and that was enough for conviction. That’s why each and every meeting required the approval of the government before it could be held.
However there was one place that the government couldn’t stop people from meeting at, that was the mosque.

Michael Ledeen: Choosing Tyranny

When people say, as they often do, with a glint of ethnic or cultural superiority in their angry eyes, that Arabs or Africans or Persians or Turks just aren't "ready" for democracy, that such people prefer tyrants, or that they have no history of democracy and are hence incapable of it, or they have no middle class, without which no stable democracy can exist, or they believe in Islam, which brooks no democracy, I try to remind them that some of the worst tyrannies came from highly cultured Christian countries with glorious democratic and humanistic traditions.

Neo: Liberal vs. Illiberal Democracy

It's true that the US has encouraged the spread of democracy in the Middle East and elsewhere. But it's a major oversimplification to imagine that America--or, for that matter, those dread neocons--think democracy by itself is any sort of answer to anything at all, except a way to give Jimmy Carter some more business in his old age.

To anyone who may have misunderstood, I declare here and now that democracy, by itself, is not "the answer." It is, however, part of the answer.

A more complete "answer" would go something like this: it's democracy, coupled with protection of human and civil rights (including those of minorities and woman), and widespread education that avoids indoctrination in mindless hatred. The goal is liberal democracy.

New Portland Blog: Ms. Fanni

Please welcome Ms Fanni's Neighborhood to the blogosphere. Won't you please ... ?

Chapter 10 of Pacific Memories is up.

The men of the 136th Field Artillery Battalion have just finished pouring the concrete in the mess hall and installing field showers in their post at Viti Levu, Fiji: it must be time to ship out.

Our time was devoted more to lectures on the world situation and on maintenance of our equipment. Now we knew it was only a question of a few weeks, or even less than that, until our departure would be a reality. The great physical tension was about over. No more getting up before daylight, gulping breakfast down, and dashing off to a vacant field somewhere to hold simulated fire. There was the letdown from all that. But there arose a different tension, now, a tension resulting from uncertainty over the details of an event that was, in itself, an absolute certainty.

There is a wistful holiday season to the strains of "White Christmas", and 1943 rolls around. Our narrator looks forward to one last furlough ... and gets a belated and unwelcome April Fool's surprise.

Read it all here.

Update

I'm going to skip posting Morning Report for the next couple of days while I work on finishing the posting of my Dad's WWII memoir. I'm past the halfway point now, and I'm going to see if I can get it finished by the end of the week. The typewritten original runs to 126 pages and unfortunately ends abrutply after Chapter 14; he typed a title page for a fifteenth chapter but apparently abandoned the project at that point. What he did write, though, is remarkable in its vivid detail. If you're interested, you are invited to visit my father's World War II blog at Pacific Memories.

Morning Report: January 25, 2006

Harper wins, Conservatives gain in Canada vote. Conservative Party Leader Stephen Harper emerged the winner in Canada's national election, after incumbent Prime Minister and Liberal Party Leader Paul Martin conceded defeat and resigned his post as party head Monday night. In addition to capturing the office of Prime Minister, the Conservatives gained a plurality in the Canadian Parliament - but not, as Harper acknowledged, an absolute majority: "Although Canadians have voted for change, they have not given any one party in the House of Commons a majority. They have asked us to cooperate, to work together and to get on with tackling the real concerns of ordinary working people and their families," said Harper, quoted in the Telegraph. The CBC has a complete roundup of Canadian election news along with complete results by region and riding (blue means Conservative and red means Liberal here). Kate at Small Dead Animals is happy. Gay and Right has some thoughts. The Belmont Club quotes a thoughtful comment by NDP's Jack Layton, and observes: 'In a certain mental universe the poll victory of Stephen Harper is not one particular outcome in a long series of elections, a process in which sometimes you lose, sometimes you win. It's the northern equivalent of the US Presidential election of 2000. Those who think along those lines do not simply want to win the next election but demonize the enemy and smash them; just as some want to end the reign of Halliburton and BushChimpHitler and establish a progressive hegemony forever. While this mentality is confined to a few, this minority by its militance often sets the agenda. ...' Read the whole post at the link. (various)

Bleg: Gay Canadian Conservative Blogs

It looks like Canada is getting a new Prime Minister. I'll be interested to see how the Conservative victory up North will affect Canada's gay rights situation. Can anyone recommend some good gay conservative Canadian blogs? I've already got Gay and Right covered. Others?

Morning Report: January 23, 2006

Iran roundup. Arutz Sheva: 'World renowned investigative reporter and terror expert Kenneth R. Timmerman, author of the bestselling book "Countdown to Crisis: the Coming Nuclear Showdown with Iran," and Carl Limbacher, reporter for NewMax.com, reveal that the US and Israel will destroy Iran's nuclear facilities in less than 10 weeks from now.' Forbes: 'Swiss banking giant UBS AG said Sunday it has stopped doing business with Iran because of the company's economic and risk analysis of the situation in the country. UBS will no longer deal with individuals, companies or state institutions such as Iran's central bank, said company spokesman Serge Steiner. A similar policy is also being implemented in the case of Syria, he said. All existing business with customers in Iran will be canceled, but Iranians in exile are not affected by the decision, Steiner said, confirming an article in Swiss weekly SonntagsZeitung.' Via Regime Change Iran. Debka adds: 'Tehran plans a nuclear weapons test before March 20, 2006 – the Iranian New Year, moves Shahab-3 missiles within striking range of Israel. Reporting this, the dissident Foundation for Democracy in Iran, a US-based watch group, cites sources in the US and Iran. The FDI adds from Iran: on June 16, the high command of the Revolutionary Guards Air Force ordered Shahab-3 missile units to move mobile launchers every 24 hours instead of weekly. This is in view of a potential pre-emptive strike by the US or Israel. Advance Shahab-3 units have been positioned in Kermanshah and Hamad within striking distance of Israel, reserve launchers moved to Esfahan and Fars. The missile units were told to change positions “in a radius of 30-35 kilometers” and only at night. DEBKAfile’s Iranian sources add: FDI reporting has a reputation for credibility. Western and Israeli intelligence have known for more than six months that Iran’s nuclear program has reached the capability of being able to carry out a nuclear explosion, albeit underground. It would probably be staged in a desert or mountain region and activated by a distant control center. Tehran would aim at confronting the Americans, Europeans and Israelis with an irreversible situation. At the same time, an explosion of this sort would indicate that Iran is not yet able to produce a nuclear bomb that can be delivered by airplane or a warhead adapted to a missile. The stage Iran has reached is comparable to Pakistan’s when it conducted its first nuclear tests in the nineties and North Korea’s in 2001. All the same, an Iranian underground nuclear blast, which will most probably be attempted on March 22, would turn around the strategic position of all the parties concerned and the Middle East as whole. The question now is: will the United States, Israel or both deliver a pre-emptive strike ahead of the Iranian underground test - or later? Or will Washington alternatively use the event to bring the UN Security Council round to economic sanctions? Tehran is already organizing to withstand economic penalties. For Israel, the timing is getting tight in view of its general election on March 28. Acting prime minister Ehud Olmert must take into account that a ruling party which allows an Iranian nuclear explosion to take place six days before the poll would draw painful punishment from the voter.' (A7, Forbes via RCI; Debka)

ITM: Mehdi Army to defend Iran. Meanwhile, Mohammed at Iraq the Model writes: 'The leader of Mujahideen, defender of faith, future Ayatollah and higher leader of the Mehdi Army (may God keep him safe) Muqtada al-Sadr announced from Tehran during his latest visit to Iran that al-Mehdi Army will defend any neighboring or Muslim nation that comes under foreign invasion.
The statement was made during a meeting with Ali Larijani, Iran’s national security advisor who is also in charge of Iran’s nuclear program. ... Poor Iraq, the new parliament will have 30 of the soldiers of the Mujahid leader, while those who carry PhDs like Kubba, Chalabi, Dabbagh or, or, or….got nothing… I can’t blame anyone for this because this is what a great percentage of Iraqis chose and I won’t blame those Iraqis for their choice since for decades, they didn’t enjoy a healthy environment that allows objective thinking. Like on Iraqi journalist said; the defeat of the seculars is a great loss for those who won the elections.' (ITM)