… To Dad (and Mom, who would have gotten a kick out of Number 51). April 11, 1953: A big day for the four Brekke kids.
Me and My Cameraphone
(Warning: Details of boring,
bourgeois domestic existence follow.)
I was out shopping for a chest of some kind to put in our dining room. I was describing one over the phone to Kate, but wasn’t sure I was really getting the point across. Then I had the following genius inspiration: Take a phone picture and send it so Kate could see what I was talking about. That’s what I did, and now the chest of some kind is in our dining room. Forget Iraq and al-Qaida and WMD’s —
this is life-changing stuff.
Out of Compliance
Now here are some folks who know how to sling effective lingo: Our friends at Combined Joint Task Force Seven. They will not falter. They will not fail. And furthermore:
"CJTF-7 conducts offensive operations to defeat remaining noncompliant forces and neutralize destabilizing influences in the Area of Operations (AO) to create a secure environment in direct support
of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA). Concurrently, conducts stability operations which support the establishment of government and economic development to set the conditions for a transfer of operations to designated follow on military or civilian authorities."
"Remaining noncompliant forces." Beautiful.
‘Two-Bit Thug’
I feel kind of bad about it, but I can’t make myself watch or listen much to the Bush people running the Iraq excursion. Partly it’s anger about the unapologetic lying, disingenuous self-justification, and
relentless absolutist spin — good vs. evil, democracy vs. tyranny, clean, well-mannered Americans and chosen friends vs. the malodorous of the world — that characterizes our leaders’ approach to their mission. And partly, there’s something about these guys, from the president on down, that’s just creepy and ugly when they’re being challenged in any way.
The latest exhibit for both parts of my unease comes an unblinking, tight-jawed Harvard MBA named Dan Senor, who’s the mouthpiece for the Amercan president of Iraq, Paul Bremer. Senor’s bio, on the White House site, gives no clue what expertise in Iraqi affairs got him into the first U.S. civilian team sent to Iraq last April. But,
the guy can spout the evil-doer rhetoric with the best of them. The New York Times quotes his summing up of this Sadr fellow, the Shiite demagogue who’s managed to raise some genuinely troubling resistance to the occupiers.
“Mr. Bremer’s spokesman, Dan Senor, described Mr. Sadr at a news conference as a ‘two-bit thug’ despised by the majority of Iraqis and said he and his forces would be destroyed.”
Of course, the thug line is just part of the administration’s script. The president himself used it earlier this week (twice, actually — here and here;
and a quick search on the not-too-reliable whitehouse.gov site indicates Bush and his people have used “thug” or “thugs” on 81 public occasions in the last 14 months. But you know, even if you consider Sadr and his guys the scum of the Earth, doesn’t it seem a little intemperate to make statements like this in public again and again? Doesn’t it seem a little bit like emotion has gotten the better of the Iraq excursion team? I mean, what would be lost by turning it down a notch and using a less loaded but very clear word like, for instance, “enemy”?
I like the irony in Senor pointing out that Sadr is despised by the majority of his countrymen. If you go by the 2000 election results, that’s something he and George Bush have in common.
A Chron Alternative
The Los Angeles Times ran a story today about a group of local activists who set up what they’re calling an alternative news source — BeyondChron.org — to the San Francisco Chronicle. Bravo for more sources of news. On the other hand, what this group is really disappointed about (and somewhat naively so) is that the Chron does not share their activist agenda. So what they’re producing is not so much news as a series of closely related online leaflets about their causes. I know it’s stuffy and arrogant in an old media way to say it, but harangues about the way the world ought to be run aren’t news all by themselves; they shouldn’t be excluded from the news, but there’s a lot more to getting the story
than just having the Correct Point of View.
No Yee-ha, No Cups
Great read in the Washington Post on the growing popularity of bull-riding. The story claims that bull-riding on TV is outdrawing NBA regular season games.
Increasingly, and largely because of the sport’s dependable violence, Americans beyond the traditional country rodeo audience are embracing bull riding. Capitalizing on its notoriety as the most dangerous eight seconds in sports, the event has hit the big time, attracting television deals, huge crowds, serious money and major corporate sponsors.
The story claims that bull-riding on TV is outdrawing NBA regular season games. The Professional Bull Riders Inc. site includes a rundown on what equipment the "bull athletes" wear. Bicycle shorts under their jeans, but no protective cups.
Quote: Experience, Judgment
“Good judgment comes with experience. Experience comes with bad judgment.”
–Galen Rowell
As Seen in The New Yorker
What the people of Iraq will be missing out on if they reject our advances, Exhibit A: Yes, it’s Mr. Happy Crack.
On p. 58 of the March 29 New Yorker, there’s a little one-column ad
that says, "A Dry Crack Is A Happy Crack." (Who could disagree?) It
advertises "boxers, T-shirts, hats."
I wasn’t familiar with Mr. Happy Crack until today, and I imagined that he was promoting a New Era
of Better Personal Hygiene (as exemplified in a post-shower comment sometimes heard in our house: “I can feel the cleanliness ions sluicing all through my cracks”).
But no. He’s the mascot of The Crack Team, enemies of foundation seepage throughout America.
West Bank? Or Vietnam?
A year ago, I thought the question about Iraq was whether it would be another Vietnam (the quagmire scenario; the immediate answer was no) or a new version of the West Bank (the everlasting rebellion against the occupier; the first carbombing of American troops while the “major combat” was going on last year made me think about that parallel). But events today show we might have the worst of both worlds.
The West Bank part: A widespread nationalist-religious uprising. OK, I’m getting the “uprising” part from The New York Times in its story on what’s happening on the streets. But superficially, at least, this looks like it could be the beginning of an Iraqi intifada
— a challenge to the occupation’s overwhelming military force using small arms, weight of numbers and rage. Of course, what made the Palestinian uprising the phenomenon it was (and has been) is its longevity. So we won’t know whether we do have a real intifada on our hands for awhile.
The Vietnam part: I think this quote from Paul Bremer (as reported on the Washington Post site) is precious, a great window into the illusions of the true believers who launched the war:
“For the past 11 months, Iraq has been on the path to democracy and freedom — freedom of speech, freedom of assembly and freedom of the press. Those freedoms must be exercised peacefully. This
morning, a group of people in Najaf have crossed the line and moved to violence. . . . This will not be tolerated by the coalition, this will not be tolerated by the Iraqi people, and this will not be tolerated by
the Iraqi security forces.”
A rough breakdown on the wishful or out-of-touch thoughts here:
–“Iraq has been on the path to democracy and freedom.” Yes, we shocked and awed and brought in the heavy artillery and chased Saddam out and picked a committee of acceptable Iraqis to be the Founding Fathers (with a mom or two thrown in) of the new reality. That’s how you build democracy — you have an alien army unencumbered by knowledge of the complexity of the situation its dealing with, it smashes down the existing tyranny, then commands democracy to flourish, just like that.
–“Freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of the press.” Yes, compared to what Mr. Saddam allowed. But still subject to the best judgment of the people now in charge and the commissioner of Major
League Baseball.–“This morning, a group of people in Najaf have crossed the line. …” Yes — it’s only a few isolated malcontents and miscreants and their evildoer pals who are behind all the trouble.
–“This will not be tolerated by the coalition …” Check. The president’s mad. Rummy’s mad. Bremer’s mad. The generals are mad. They’re stamping their feet. They won’t stand for this sort of behavior. And they’ve got the tanks and helicopters to show they mean business.
–“This will not be tolerated by the Iraqi people…” Aren’t those Iraqi people running around raising hell in the streets? They seem to be tolerating this. But yeah, they’re malcontents and miscreants and evildoers. We must be talking about the rest of the Iraqis — the same ones we consulted before we launched this whole adventure. All two or three dozen of them.
–“And this will not be tolerated by the Iraqi security forces.” First — what does “security” mean? And if it means what you think it means, then why are they called “security forces”?
I think Bremer’s statement illustrates the emerging Vietnam nature of the war in Iraq. Just as in South Vietnam, we seem to have talked ourselves into believing that great values, great intentions, and great
military resources are a shortcut to winning hearts and minds of an unknown populace to a great ideal (and coincidentally, our strategic ends). In the meantime, don’t let any contradictory evidence get in the
way of the vision: the apparent lack of consensus among the population about the future, the evident disdain among many for our presence, the extraordinary difficulty of fitting all Iraq’s competing interests and desires inside the pre-fab democracy we think we can set up.
What we’re doing in Iraq adds up to a fatal kind of arrogance. A terrible misuse of our power. A pointless sequel to our September 11th tragedy.
The New Decade …
… Begins with this new moniker, courtesy of Tom: Fogey McOldster.
Also, a viewing of “The Rundown,” with The Rock. I like The Rock.