September 2007 archive

No, I haven’t written my own manifesto.  But my intention at this site, and one which I think it is particularly fitting for this site, can be summed up by Tristan Tzara’s 1918 “Dada Manifesto”, from which I quote:

Years ago, I lived on my boat at Squalicum Harbor in Bellingham, WA.  The boat was way, way out at the end of the dock – next to the breakwater on the end, in a physically huge basin.  There were other boats around me, but I was the only one nuts enough to be living out there on the end, at the time.  I was awakened one morning by the whack of something on the hull.  Whack.  Long pause.  Whack whack (from different sides).  I start to fall back asleep.  WHACK!

I recently came across another of those simple-minded rightwing references to the outraged left offered as an epithet by those of limited cranial capacity.  Ignored is the larger context, that we may actually have good reasons for being a wee bit peeved, that our anger may in fact not be irrational but rather completely and indisputably justified. 

This is an open thread, but it also features four stories in the news at 4 o’clock. It’s like trying to dunk a donut by grasping it by the ears.

1. The Independent is reporting that General David Petraeus has presidential ambitions. “Sabah Khadim, then a senior adviser at Iraq’s Interior Ministry, says General Petraeus discussed with him his ambition when the general was head of training and recruitment of the Iraqi army in 2004-05. ‘I asked him if he was planning to run in 2008 and he said, ‘No, that would be too soon’,’ Mr Khadim… said… ¶ Petraeus went to Iraq during the invasion of 2003 as commander of the 101st Airborne Division and had not previously seen combat.” His “critics hold him at least partly responsible for three debacles” —

   Although Mosul remained quiet for some months after, the US suffered one of its worse setbacks of the war in November 2004 when insurgents captured most of the city. The 7,000 police recruited by General Petraeus either changed sides or went home. Thirty police stations were captured, 11,000 assault rifles were lost and $41m (£20m) worth of military equipment disappeared. Iraqi army units abandoned their bases.

   The general’s next job was to oversee the training of a new Iraqi army. As head of the Multinational Security Transition Command, General Petraeus claimed that his efforts were proving successful. In an article in the Washington Post in September 2004, he wrote: “Training is on track and increasing in capacity. Infrastructure is being repaired. Command and control structures and institutions are being re-established.” This optimism turned out be misleading; three years later the Iraqi army is notoriously ineffective and corrupt.

   General Petraeus was in charge of the Security Transition Command at the time that the Iraqi procurement budget of $1.2bn was stolen. “It is possibly one of the largest thefts in history,” Iraq’s Finance Minister, Ali Allawi, said. “Huge amounts of money disappeared. In return we got nothing but scraps of metal.”

   Khadim doubts the “surge” is successful. “Commenting on the US military alliance with the Sunni tribes in Anbar province, he said: ‘They will take your money, but when the money runs out they will change sides again.'”

2. More news from Iraq from The New York Times reporting that the compromise on the Oil Law in Iraq seems to be collapsing. I know, try not to be too shocked. “A carefully constructed compromise on a draft law governing Iraq’s rich oil fields, agreed to in February after months of arduous talks among Iraqi political groups, appears to have collapsed… ¶ Contributing to the dispute is the decision by the Kurds to begin signing contracts with international oil companies before the federal law is passed. The most recent instance, announced last week on a Kurdish government Web site, was an oil exploration contract with the Hunt Oil Company of Dallas… ¶ Some members of one of the main Sunni parties, Tawafiq, which insists on federal control of contracts and exclusive state ownership of the fields, bolted when it became convinced that the Kurds had no intention of following those guidelines. ¶ But the prime minister’s office believes there is a simpler reason the Sunnis abandoned or at least held off on the deal: signing it would have given Mr. Maliki a political success that they did not want him to have.”

3. The Financial Times has more on the Strategic Survey 2007 put out by the International Institute for Strategic Studies. FT reports the US sufffers a decline in prestige. “The report says the US failure in Iraq had meant the Bush administration suffered from a much-reduced ability to hold sway in both domestic and international affairs.”

   But a more fundamental loss of clout occurred at a strategic level. “It was evident that exercise of military power – in which, on paper, America dominated the world – had not secured its goal,” the survey says. The failings in Iraq created a sense around the world of American power “diminished and demystified”, with adversaries believing they will prevail if they manage to draw the US into a prolonged engagement.

   Washington’s ability to act as an honest broker in the world had declined; and Iraq had meant the US had failed to pay as much attention as it should have to other parts of the world.

   America’s standing in the world has gotten so bad under Bush, that simply having a new president will not make things magically better. “The report concludes that the ‘the restoration of American strategic authority seemed bound to take much longer than the mere installation of a new president’.” “Installation” as opposed to election — a very telling choice of words.

4. Lastly, some potentially good news on addressing global warming. According to The New York Times, a U.S. court ruled States can set their own measures to cut greenhouse gases emitted by automobiles and light trucks. “Ruling in a lawsuit against Vermont’s standards on those heat-trapping gases, the judge, William K. Sessions III, rejected a variety of challenges from auto manufacturers, including their contention that the states were usurping federal authority.” The ruling “explicitly endorses the idea” that States have the right to set their own regulations on the greenhouse gases. The judge wrote such regulations do not hurt the economy or undermine safety. “The judge also rejected a claim that Vermont’s standards would intrude into the sphere of foreign policy, which is the unique province of the federal government.” Vermont and other states rules on emissions hinge on California being granted a waiver from the Bush administrations’ Environmental Protection Agency. Am EPA decision is promised by the end of the year.

One more story below the fold…

Washington, D.C. – What began as chance meeting during a morning jog snowballed into a screwball comedy of errors as President George W. Bush met his exact look-a-like in a transient by the name of George Burnswick. After a heartfelt speech by President Bush to his Secret Service Agents about his need to get back to the people, the two men decided to switch places for a week. Formerly homeless Burnswick would take the helm of one of the most powerful nations in history, while Mr. Bush would take over Mr. Burnswick’s role of screaming at cars on random corners and digging through trash cans for lunch.

The men’s switch went seamlessly, in a transition only noticed by Karl Rove, who was already getting his media puppet strings ready to cash in on the delightful affair. Though there were some madcap capers as each man adjusted to the life of the other.

“How hard can this job be?” said Mr. Burnswick from the decadent leisure of the Oval Office. “Cheney practically runs the show here, and whatever is leftover goes to Karl Rove and his pack of hounds. All I do is rubber stamp bullshit and take full advantage of the buffet. Life is good for Burnswick. Did you know I can call anyone in the world? Right now? Before I had to wait 6 months to talk to a lowly case worker.”