1. The International Herald Tribune reports the U.S. risks losing its future military leaders as Iraq war goes on.

   During the war in Iraq, young Marine and army captains have become U.S. viceroys, officers with large sectors to run and near-autonomy to do it. In army parlance, they are the “ground-owners.” In practice, they are power brokers…

   The Iraqis have learned that these captains, many still in their 20s, can call down devastating U.S. firepower one day and approve multimillion-dollar projects the next. Some have become celebrities in their sectors, leaders whose names are known even to children. Many believe that these captains are the linchpins in the Americans’ strategy for success in Iraq, but as the war continues into its sixth year, the army has been losing them in large numbers – at a time when it says it needs thousands more.

   Most of these captains have extensive combat experience and are regarded as the army’s future leaders. They are exactly the people the army most wants. Unfortunately for the army, corporate America wants them too. And the hardships of repeated tours are taking their toll, tilting them back toward civilian life and possibly complicating the future course of the war…

   “Many of the brightest and most experienced captains of my generation are being driven out of the army by the prospect of a career filled with deployments every other year,” said Captain Patrick Ryan, who says he is certain to leave the army when his five-year commitment is done. “I think the army stands to lose a generation of battle-tested junior leaders.”

2. The Los Angeles Times reports the U.S. seeks jobs for surplus hired guns in Iraq.

   When the Sunni Arab villagers decided to fight back with the help of U.S. forces, Nasir said, he was one of the first to sign up for the $10-a-day paramilitary work. So he was less than pleased when he was informed last month that security had increased to the point that his services as a gun-for-hire were no longer needed.

   “I don’t want to make trouble,” he told the soldiers urgently. “I just want to live my life, and I need work.”

   After five years of trial and error, the strategy of recruiting tribesmen to help defend their neighborhoods against Islamic extremists has proved one of the most effective weapons in the U.S. counterinsurgency arsenal. But restoring a measure of calm to what were some of the most violent places in Iraq has in turn presented the U.S. military with one of its biggest headaches: what to do with the more than 80,000 armed men whose loyalty has been bought with a paycheck that cannot go on forever…

   Already, cracks are appearing in what one senior official describes as the central plank of the U.S. counterinsurgency strategy. Hundreds of Sunni guards abandoned their posts for weeks last month in the Diyala provincial capital, Baqubah, demanding the replacement of a provincial police chief, a Shiite Muslim they accused of brutality against Sunnis. Errant U.S. airstrikes, which have killed a number of the fighters, prompted a similar walkout in Jurf al Sakhar, south of Baghdad.

3. The Seattle Times reports Here at home, Army battles to attract qualified recruits. “At a time when the Army and Marines have relaxed their standards for new recruits in an effort to increase their fighting forces, the military can’t afford to lose many prospects. After five years of controversy over U.S. involvement in Iraq and nearly 4,000 combat deaths, finding qualified candidates and persuading them to enlist is difficult, recruiters say… The war’s unpopularity in many circles has made one traditional source – high schools – a tough sell for recruiters… To draw more people into their ranks, the Army and Marines are granting waivers to those who earlier would not have been accepted.” Seems like there are Sunnis in Iraq who want to paid to keep the peace in Iraq. Maybe the U.S. should let them?

News of Iran, Titan, and a bonus subprime video is below the fold.

4. McClatchy Newspapers report Bush erroneously says Iran announced desire for nuclear weapons. George W. “Bush contended that Iran has ‘declared they want a nuclear weapon to destroy people’ and that the Islamic Republic could be hiding a secret program. Iran, however, has never publicly proclaimed a desire for nuclear weapons and has repeatedly insisted that the uranium enrichment program it’s operating in defiance of U.N. Security Council resolutions is for civilian power plants, not warheads… Iran has repeatedly denied seeking nuclear warheads, and its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, issued a religious edict in 2005 forbidding the production, stockpiling and use of such weapons.”

5. The New York Times reports that 50 miles below the surface of Titan flows an ocean.

   Saturn’s moon Titan is encased in a thick, smoggy haze obscuring its surface, and planetary scientists speculated that the large moon, a little larger than the planet Mercury, might be awash in an ocean of hydrocarbons.

   But when NASA’s Cassini spacecraft arrived at Saturn in 2004 and sent the European Space Agency’s Huygens probe parachuting into Titan’s atmosphere, the pictures showed a landscape that looked as if it had been shaped by flowing liquids – but with channels that are now dry. While radar images on subsequent flybys by Cassini suggest lakes near Titan’s north pole, most of the surface still looks dry.

   But scientists may just not have been looking deep enough.

   Writing in Friday’s issue of the journal Science, a team of researchers led by Ralph D. Lorenz of the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., report that Titan does indeed have a worldwide ocean – but hidden 50 miles or more below the surface.

6. Here is an explanation of the subprime mortgage mess from John Bird and John Fortune.

( – promoted by buhdydharma )

A special treat.  The following is an op-ed written by my father and published in the Harrisburg (PA) Patriot-News on March 18, 2008, a week after his 89th birthday.  My dad asked me if I would put the piece up at my blog, The Dream Antilles, but on reflection, I thought more people would see and appreciate it here.  My dad is a retired school administrator with a doctorate, a fabulous pianist, a veteran and a patriot.  Here’s the piece:

A large number of important political leaders and many ordinary citizens are wearing a lapel pin of the American flag. They do so, presumably, to convey their pride in and patriotism toward the United States and to show they are genuine American patriots.

But does wearing the pin really prove that the wearer is truly patriotic? And what about those who do not wear the pin? Are they automatically less patriotic or even unpatriotic? The answer to both question is a firm “No.”

Whether one wears the pin or actually refuses to wear it conveys little about patriotism. Performing a patriotic act has everything to do with patriotism. Like getting the flag folds correct if you’re interested in learning more about the meaning of the flag folds check out starspangledflags.com.

It is patriotic to defend our country against those, internally or externally, whose avowed purpose is to destroy it.

It is patriotic to support the Constitution and the Bill of Rights; to defend vigorously those who wish to exercise the freedoms of speech, assembly and religion; and to oppose those seeking to impair or destroy the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the other amendments.

It is patriotic to decry intolerance and prejudice toward minorities.

It is patriotic to uplift America’s poor and to help those who have been victimized by natural disasters.

It is patriotic to oppose an unjustifiable war.

It is patriotic to refuse to wear the American flag lapel pin when the pin conveys support for and involvement in such an unjustifiable war.

It is even patriotic to burn the American flag — an action clearly supported by freedom of speech in the First Amendment — when that flag has become a symbol of involvement in a war detrimental to the best interest of the United States.

When one participated in or encourages the despoliation of our environment and/or national forests, but wears an American flag pin, how patriotic is that person?

When one hinders vital medical research and its potential to save many American lives, but wears an American flag pin, how patriotic is that person?

When one has avoided required military service, but wears an American flag pin, how patriotic is that person?

When one denies housing or schooling or jobs or voting to another American, but wears an American flag pin, how patriotic is that person?

When an executive, legislator or judge extends preferential treatment to a person or corporation and thereby distorts the principle of equal justice for all, but wears an American flag pin, how patriotic is that person?

Patriotism frequently requires the most awful of sacrifices — losing one’s limbs or one’s life. Because of that probability, patriotism should never be treated lightly, superficially and — absolutely never — hypocritically. Just wearing a pin is poor proof of patriotism when wearing it has demanded of the wearer absolutely no sacrifice whatsoever.

Doing positive things –with fortitude, if necessary — that add to or improve the welfare of the American people, such as truly providing them with meaningful jobs; making sure their children’s health is assured; enabling children’s education to be sound, positive and dynamic; protecting the air everyone breathes; making all neighborhoods safe and unthreatening; assuring honest and fair elections; protecting the healthfulness of our food and water, and guaranteeing the benefits of our Constitution even beyond our children’s children.

That’s real, that’s unadulterated, that’s true patriotism. If one wears a pin for those reasons, we should all be in favor. But wearing a pin to show support for an unjustified war to indicate affiliation to the “in” group must be labeled a superficial, or worse, a spurious form of patriotism.

Sometimes you dream, sometimes it seems

Theres nothing there at all

You just seem older than yesterday

And youre waiting for tomorrow to call

Friday’s Headlines: Slump Moves From Wall St. to Main St.: Iran a Nuclear Threat, Bush Insists: Saudis to retrain 40,000 clerics : Penniless migrant becomes a maths superstar: Abkhazia, the country that doesn’t exist, prepares to follow Kosovo’s example:  Death of the Reeperbahn: Hamburg’s streets of shame: China mobilises more troops to crush spreading Tibetan unrest: Storm clouds gather as Pakistan prepares for a new dawn: Robert Mugabe grip on power rocked by surging opposition

Police ‘shot at Tibet protesters’

Chinese police opened fire and wounded four protesters “in self-defence” last Sunday in a Tibetan area of Sichuan province, the Xinhua news agency says.

It is the first time China has admitted injuring anyone since anti-Chinese protests in Tibet began last week.

Xinhua said police opened fire in Aba county – the same place that Tibetan activists said eight people were killed during protests near Kirti monastery.

Activists released graphic photos of dead bodies showing bullet wounds.

China has said that only 13 people have been killed during the protests, and that all were innocent and killed by “rioters” in Lhasa.

USA

Slump Moves From Wall St. to Main St.

In Seattle, sales at a long-established hardware store, Pacific Supply, are suddenly dipping. In Oklahoma City, couples planning their weddings are demonstrating uncustomary thrift, forgoing Dungeness crab and special linens. And in many cities, the registers at department stores like Nordstrom on the higher end and J. C. Penney in the middle are ringing less often.

With Wall Street caught in a credit crisis that has captured headlines, the forces assailing the economy are now spreading beyond areas hit hardest by the boom-turned-bust in real estate like California, Florida and Nevada. Now, the downturn is seeping into new parts of the country, to communities that seemed insulated only months ago.

Iran a Nuclear Threat, Bush Insists

Experts Say President Is Wrong and Is Escalating Tensions

President Bush said Thursday that Iran has declared that it wants to be a nuclear power with a weapon to “destroy people,” including others in the Middle East, contradicting the judgments of a recent U.S. intelligence estimate.

The president spoke in an interview intended to reach out to the Iranian public on the Persian new year and to express “moral support” for struggling freedom movements, particularly among youth and women. It was designed to stress U.S. support for Iran’s quest for nuclear energy and the prospects that Washington and Tehran can “reconcile their differences” if Iran cooperates with the international community to ensure that the effort is not converted into a weapons program

Middle East

Saudis to retrain 40,000 clerics

Saudi Arabia is to retrain its 40,000 prayer leaders – also known as imams – in an effort to counter militant Islam.

Details of the plan were revealed in the influential Saudi newspaper Al- Sharq al-Awsat.

The plan is part of a wider programme launched by the Saudi monarch a few years ago to encourage moderation and tolerance in Saudi society.

The ministry of religious affairs and new centre for national dialogue will carry out the training, the paper said.

The centre was created five years ago to disseminate a moderate interpretation of Islamic tradition.

Penniless migrant becomes a maths superstar

By Donald Macintyre in Jerusalem

Friday, 21 March 2008

A 63-year-old mathematician who worked as a labourer and night-watchman when he first migrated to Israel from Russia has solved a problem which has taxed the world’s leading experts in his field for more than a generation.

Avraham Trakhtman has ended the mystery of the Road Colouring Problem by proving the theory of a “universal map” which allows a journey to end at a certain destination whatever the starting point by following the same instructions.

Professor Trakhtman of Bar-Ilan University managed to jot down the proof in pencil on eight pages of paper.

Europe

Abkhazia, the country that doesn’t exist, prepares to follow Kosovo’s example

By Shaun Walkerin Sukhumi, Abkhazia

Friday, 21 March 2008

Underneath the red, white and green Abkhazian flag, border guards check documents on the bridge over the river Psou, just outside the Russian city of Sochi.

“Welcome to Abkhazia,” says a hirsute official, wearing military fatigues and smoking a slimline cigarette. “Enjoy your stay in our country.”

Abkhazia has a president, a flag, a national anthem and even a visa system for foreign visitors but the country doesn’t appear on any maps. Officially, this small piece of sub-tropical Black Sea coastline with a population today of about 170,000, is a province of Georgia.

Death of the Reeperbahn: Hamburg’s streets of shame

Times are changing in Germany’s most famous red-light district – and the brothels that thrived for decades are closing their doors. Tony Paterson reports ona sexual revolution

The inner sanctum of Hamburg’s “Mile of Sin” looks as if it has been built to withstand a terrorist attack. Twelve-foot-high barricades block off both ends of the notorious Herbertstrasse brothel and large signs warn visitors: “Under 18s and women – Verboten!” Adult males have to squeeze through narrow doglegs in the barriers just to get into the street.

Past the barricades, about a dozen prostitutes in full pornographic regalia sit perched in narrow shop windows on shiny swivel chairs covered with Playboy towels. They look like kinky Barbie dolls. Each one has a little glass porthole in her window to help her negotiate with clients.

Asia

China mobilises more troops to crush spreading Tibetan unrest

Thousands of Chinese troops and paramilitary police fanned out across Tibet and neighbouring provinces as the Government acknowledged for the first time that pro-independence unrest in Lhasa had spilled into other far-flung corners.

The challenge facing those security forces was underscored by running protests that have been erupting daily for nearly a week in counties with large ethnic Tibetan populations. Schoolchildren have hurled rocks, students staged public vigils of mourning and nomads on horseback ripped down the Chinese flag.

Journalists who evaded police cordons to enter provinces surrounding Tibet proper described columns of military trucks, sometimes several miles long, winding up mountain roads towards the Himalayan plateau.

Storm clouds gather as Pakistan prepares for a new dawn

· Bhutto’s son to name PM after weeks of wrangling

· Threats to success of fragile coalition mount

Benazir Bhutto’s teenage son and political heir, Bilawal, will announce the identity of Pakistan’s next prime minister by the end of this weekend, his party said yesterday, ending weeks of backroom wrangling and setting the stage for a confrontation between the new government and the embattled president, Pervez Musharraf.

The 19-year-old Oxford history student was brought home by his father and party co-chairman, Asif Ali Zardari, who has been at the heart of contentious negotiations over the prime minister’s job.

A party spokesman, Farhatullah Babar, said Bilawal would announce the winner on Sunday night or Monday morning, when Musharraf has promised to facilitate the formation of a new four-party coalition government dominated by the Pakistan People’s party and Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League.

Afica

Robert Mugabe grip on power rocked by surging opposition

With elections only eight days away, President Mugabe looks like being overwhelmed by a wave of support for the opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai as the 84-year-old leader’s grip on power falters.

Mr Tsvangirai’s formidable backing in Zimbabwe’s urban areas has been consolidated since the election campaign began five weeks ago and now, after a series of forays into the poverty-stricken rural areas where the ruling Zanu (PF) party has hitherto held control, it is clear that Mr Mugabe has a fight on his hands there, too.

On Wednesday Mr Tsvangirai pushed into Mashonaland West, Mr Mugabe’s home province, to draw mostly large crowds of exultant peasants responding to his chant of chinja! – Shona for change – in a region where until very recently it would have been almost impossible for his faction of the Movement for Democratic Change to campaign.

S.Africa backs big electricity price increase

South Africa’s government on Thursday backed a plan to raise electricity prices more than 50 percent to tackle a power crisis hitting vital mines, despite fears it could fan inflation in Africa’s biggest economy.

State-owned power utility Eskom [ESCJ.UL] earlier this week asked South Africa’s energy regulator for approval to hike electricity tariffs by 53 percent this year, angering consumers and raising concerns about inflation.

Latin Ameica

‘Under the Same Moon’

Better bring along a hankie for the effectively heart-tugging ‘Under the Same Moon.’

“Under the Same Moon” hasn’t been on screen for more than five minutes before one of its characters bursts into tears. If you are in the mood to cry, it won’t be long before you, too, will want to get into the act.

A crowd-pleaser when it premiered at Sundance 2007 under the title “La Misma Luna,” this largely Spanish-language film brings on the waterworks because its core story is undeniably affecting. The whole movie, however, would be more convincing if the elements around that vital core were more multidimensional and less contrived.

( – promoted by buhdydharma )

Speaking in Dharamsala, seat of Tibet’s government-in-exile, Ms Pelosi said: “We call upon the international community to have an independent outside investigation on accusations made by the Chinese government that His Holiness [the Dalai Lama] was the instigator of violence in Tibet.”

She added: “The situation in Tibet is a challenge to the conscience of the world.

“If freedom-loving people throughout the world do not speak out against China and the Chinese in Tibet, we have lost all moral authority to speak out on human rights.”

link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asi…

Pelosi’s meeting with the Dalai Lama and subsequent call for an investigation of China’s claims that he is responsible for the violence in Tibet occurs against the backdrop of events like this:

Then the gate of the debating compound opened and this stream of maroon humanity poured out, several hundred monks. It was impossible to count but I think there were at least 300.

We thought it was part of the tradition but when you looked at the expression on their faces, it was a very serious business. They were pumping their hands in the air as they ran out of the temple.

The minute that happened we saw the police – two or three who were inside the compound – suddenly speaking into their radios.

They started going after the monks, and plain-clothes police – I don’t know this for sure but that’s what I think they were – started to emerged from nowhere.

There were four or five in uniform but another 10 or 15 in regular clothing. They were grabbing monks, kicking and beating them.

One monk was kicked in the stomach right in front of us and then beaten on the ground.

The monks were not attacking the soldiers, there was no melee. They were heading out in a stream, it was a very clear path, and the police were attacking them at the sides. It was gratuitous violence.

link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asi…

The New York Times has an excellent analysis of one of the underlying causes of this conflict: class. Yes, in Communist China it appears that poverty and economic injustice are fueling this popular uprising:

There is no legalized ethnic discrimination in China, but privilege and power are overwhelmingly the preserve of the Han, while Tibetans live largely confined to segregated urban ghettos and poor villages in their own ancestral lands.

snip

“The relationship between Han and Tibetan is irreconcilable,” said Yuan Qinghai, a Lhasa taxi driver, in an interview. “We don’t have a good impression of them, as they are lazy and they hate us, for, as they say, taking away what belongs to them. In their mind showering once or twice in their life is sacred, but to Han it is filthy and unacceptable.

“We believe in working hard and making money to support one’s family, but they might think we’re greedy and have no faith.”

link (please read the whole article – it is eye opening): http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03…

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. saw the conflicts of the world as a result of the Triple Evils of racism, poverty and war. A disciple of nonviolence, King also understood why these conflicts escalate toward violence when he said, “Violence is the language of the unheard.”

Chinese Communism appears not to have been able to rid itself of these problems. Indeed, the government’s handling of this conflict – including the use of massive force to quell protests and banning journalists from going to the places where the unrest is occurring – is only serving to highlight a conflict fueled by the economic disparity between two ethnic groups in the region: the Han Chinese and the native Tibetans.

None of these problems are easy. No “quick fix” ever makes them go away. But acknowledging the problems exists is the first step on the road to recovery. Until the authorities in China admit these problems are there and are prepared to deal with them honestly and forthrightly they will continue to fester, and show themselves at the most inconvenient of times.

Please keep all sides of this conflict in your thoughts, prayers and meditations