Generations of Winter

Over the summer vacation, I had a chance to read Vassily Aksyonov's Generations of Winter, about Russia from the 1917 Revolution until the end of World War II. It's not quite War and Peace, but it is very good, and I couldn't put it down. Aksyonov does a great job of having different characters take you through the ups and downs of modern Russian history. and has some good love stories which ring true, as well. Plus the intergenerational family dynamics are fascinating. The family's dacha is the only constant in a turbulent world, a haven of middle-class sanity and a tie to a lost past. Aksyanov's new book, Voltaire and the Voltairians was on the bestseller lists in Moscow last winter, so I'm waiting for the translation.

Islamist "Terrorist Culture"

After the London bombings, Tony Blair changed course. Yet had he done so years earlier, perhaps the London bombings might have been avoided. Experts have long warned of the dangers from extremist organizations in the West. For example, in June 2001 -- before the 9/11 attacks in NY and Washington-- Reuven Paz, of the International Policy Institute for Counter-Terrorism, explained the threat from a growing world-wide "Terrorist Culture."

...there is a danger that violent Islamist ideologies, doctrines and activities will bring about two further developments, the advance signs of which may already be seen in the present time. The first of these is the development of new bases of Islamist radicalism and political violence, including terrorism, in Muslim communities in the West, as a result of the consolidation of two relatively new Islamist doctrines: the globalization of the Islamist struggle, and the doctrine of the 'non-territorial Islamist state.' The globalization of the Islamist struggle is aimed against what the Islamists perceive as the global conspiracy against Islam, both as religion and culture. The second doctrine -- that of the 'Non-territorial Islamic State' -- revolves around the tenet that the Muslim communities in the West should be perceived as a kind of Islamic State, lacking territorial dimensions, but entailing the religious duty of establishing Islamic rule. This doctrine, which grew out of the work of Islamic scholars in the UK, emphasizes the socio-cultural, economic, and political character of the Muslim community. At the same time, the doctrine grants free rein to the principle of Islamic pluralism, allowing the activities of a variety of organizations and institutions, from every trend of modern Islamic thought. This pluralism is mostly an outgrowth of the democratic and liberal environment of Western countries, but it also reflects the fundamentalist nature of many of the Islamic movements in their homeland. These two doctrines together could result in Muslim communities in the West -- particularly those in Europe -- becoming havens for radical political violence

The second imminent development is the evolution of what we might call 'social terrorism' -- terrorism motivated primarily by social factors, such as hatred of foreigners, growing unemployment, economic circumstances, difficulties in coping with Western modernization, changing and dismantling of traditional values and of family ties, etc. Such factors may affect other groups of immigrants as well, however, the influence of these factors on the Muslim emigrant communities is particularly acute. The growing Islamic and Islamist activity among Muslim emigrant communities, in addition to Islamist doctrines of conspiracies and global struggle with the West, encourage the growing potential of radical doctrines spreading among the younger generation.

And Paz explicitly linked terrorist violence to ostensibly non-violent supporters and front groups, including so-called "human rights" organizations.

...But there is another very important element to note here, with regard to Islamist terrorism. This is what we may call 'Islamic atmosphere' created by movements and groups that are themselves unconnected to political violence or terrorism. Some of these groups even publicly condemn terrorism, or at the very least, express reservation towards its use. The influence of these groups thus revolves around two linked elements:

* These groups and movements carry out the vast majority of Islamic political, social, cultural and educational work, both in the Muslim world and among Muslim communities in the West. Therefore, they are central to creating and preserving the 'Islamic atmosphere' that is used by more extremist and violent Islamist groups. They are in many cases 'greenhouses' for the emergence of violent groups and the preservation of worldviews advocating hostility towards the West or toward Western culture.

* The infrastructure of these movements, originally built to facilitate cultural, political, educational, and charity activities, make them the main venue for finance and support for Islamic projects, with the result that some them are also used to collect funds for radical groups. At the same time, they are active in consolidating Muslim communities in the West, and therefore set the grounds for massive fund-raising, political support, and in some cases recruitment, for militant Islamist groups in these communities.

The Islamic societies, both in the Muslim World and in the West, and the 'Islamic atmosphere,' even when non-violent, thus play a crucial role in the finance of Islamist terrorism as well as of social and cultural activity and of charity. Social Islamic work is also in many cases part of social protest, either against secular Muslim regimes or Western societies -- form of protest that facilitates the activity of some of the Islamist groups.

The Islamist 'terrorist culture' can be sketched as a pyramid; at the base is the large-scale activity of the Islamic moderate and non-violent organizations, institutes, and projects of all kinds. At the top of the pyramid is the radical and pro-terrorist activity. In the middle there are various processes that channel certain social factors into hatred, revenge, the search for power and violence. This violence is in many cases indirectly supported and financed by innocent elements as a result of cultural influences.

BTW In 2003, this same organization published Yoni Fighel's article on Londonistan.

Bride and Prejudice

Last night, we watched the Anglo-Bollywood musical Bride and Prejudice (of course, based on Jane Austen) on DVD. A lot of fun, really charming. Gurinder Chadha is the director of Bend it Like Beckham, a veteran of the BBC and ITV, and does a great job with the musical numbers. Her husband, Paul Mayeda Berges, wrote the script. He's an American from Los Angeles, so that explains the authenticity of the Beverly Hills scenes in the picture. (There is an interesting interview about the couple's artistic collaboration here. You can order their first film together, What's Cooking? from Netflix.

The film stars Aishwarya Rai, a former Miss World. Martin Henderson is Mr. Darcy, and it is interesting to see how Americans look to others (the actor is actually a New Zealander)--in this case, he's all business. Nitin Ganatra steals the show as a Los Angeles accountant come home to find a bride. His theme song, "No Life Without Wife," is the best in the film. The locations are terrific: Amritsar's Golden Temple, the London Eye, the Hollywood Sign in LA. Marsha Mason has a cameo. Plus the family scenes are charming, and the four daughters are all cute. Colorful, without a single nasty moment.

Seeing London and Los Angeles almost as Indian colonies was neat, a turnabout to Western stereotypes of the East. And one line really sticks. when Darcy tells Lailita: "I'm not British," and she answers, "I know." That's the moment cupid's arrow shoots them both.

More on Russian-Chinese War Games

From Siberian Light. (Thanks to Nathan at Registan for the link)

Putin Calls for US Pullout from Iraq

According to Al Jazeera, the US has rejected Putin's suggestion.

IMHO, the Global War on Terror can't be won in an atmosphere of US-Russian confrontation. It might be better to fight alongside Putin against Islamists, than alongside Islamists against Putin.

Ann Coulter Answers Cindy Sheehan

Ann Coulter has this to say:

Fortunately, the Constitution vests authority to make foreign policy with the president of the United States, not with this week's sad story. But liberals think that since they have been able to produce a grieving mother, the commander in chief should step aside and let Cindy Sheehan make foreign policy for the nation. As Maureen Dowd said, it's "inhumane" for Bush not "to understand that the moral authority of parents who bury children killed in Iraq is absolute."

I'm not sure what "moral authority" is supposed to mean in that sentence, but if it has anything to do with Cindy Sheehan dictating America's foreign policy, then no, it is not "absolute." It's not even conditional, provisional, fleeting, theoretical or ephemeral.

The logical, intellectual and ethical shortcomings of such a statement are staggering. If one dead son means no one can win an argument with you, how about two dead sons? What if the person arguing with you is a mother who also lost a son in Iraq and she's pro-war? Do we decide the winner with a coin toss? Or do we see if there's a woman out there who lost two children in Iraq and see what she thinks about the war?

Dowd's "absolute" moral authority column demonstrates, once again, what can happen when liberals start tossing around terms they don't understand like "absolute" and "moral." It seems that the inspiration for Dowd's column was also absolute. On the rocks.

Mark Steyn also has something to say.

Middle East Forum: Putin is Right About Chechnya

Lorenzo Vidino says Chechnya is a haven for Al Qaeda and Basayev an Islamist fanatic.

Vote for the Greatest Painting in Britain...

...not the greatest British painting, but the greatest painting that happens to be hanging in Britain--here.

Bull Moose to Democrats: Run to the Right, Not the Left

Bull Moose tells Democrats the way to win back Congress in 2006 is to take George Bush from the Right. IMHO this strategy worked for Clinton in 1992 against Bush Senior, over Yugoslavia. If the Democrats had run Zell Miller in 2004, rather than John Kerry, he would have won--and the Iraq war might have been over by now.

BBC: More Than 400 Bombs Went Off In Bangladesh

According to the BBC report, there were also leaflets.

"It is time to implement Islamic law in Bangladesh" and "Bush and Blair be warned and get out of Muslim countries", the leaflets say.

Like Britain, Spain, France, India, Israel, Indonesia, Turkey, the Phillippines, the USA, and some other victims of terrorism, Bangladesh is a democracy.

Dutch Voting with Their Feet

For the first time since the end of the Second World War, significant numbers of Dutch people are emigrating from Holland, according to this article in The Telegraph. One factor may be rising tensions in the wake of the Van Gogh murder. Among their destinations: Australia. (Tim Blair's tip)

The Next US-Russian Confrontation...

...may come over Kosovo. In 8 months, the present UN trusteeship expires. At that point, the US and EU might decide to recognize an independent Kosovar Republic (currently Kosovo remains officially part of Serbia and Montegro). Russia, historically pro-Serbian, already has objected to such a possibility. But the West might decide to act unilaterally. In that case, the stage may be set for another US-Russian confrontation in the former Yugoslavia. Something to think about.

My Father, The Spy (cont'd.)

Today's Washington Post has a nice profile of John Richardson, author of My Father, The Spy.

Philobiblon

Nathalie Bennet's blog,Philobiblon, links to this site on her blogroll, a nice surprise.

Editor: Myself

Editor: Myself is a nice weblog from Iran...

The Iraq-Al Qaeda Connection

Ed Morrissey's article in The Weekly Standard about problems with the 9/11 commission report contained a link to this news item from 2001, evidence of overlooked links between Iraq and Al Qaeda:

Intelligence Briefs: Iraq (April 2001): "Iraqi Spies Reportedly Arrested in Germany
16 March 2001

Al-Watan al-Arabi (Paris) reports that two Iraqis were arrested in Germany, charged with spying for Baghdad. The arrests came in the wake of reports that Iraq was reorganizing the external branches of its intelligence service and that it had drawn up a plan to strike at US interests around the world through a network of alliances with extremist fundamentalist parties.

The most serious report contained information that Iraq and Osama bin Ladin were working together. German authorities were surprised by the arrest of the two Iraqi agents and the discovery of Iraqi intelligence activities in several German cities. German authorities, acting on CIA recommendations, had been focused on monitoring the activities of Islamic groups linked to bin Ladin. They discovered the two Iraqi agents by chance and uncovered what they considered to be serious indications of cooperation between Iraq and bin Ladin. The matter was considered so important that a special team of CIA and FBI agents was sent to Germany to interrogate the two Iraqi spies."

Morrissey comments:

Interestingly, journalists such as Amir Taheri considered al-Watan al-Arabi to be a pro-Saddam publication--not surprising given its Parisian readership. Despite its reporting against its presumed interests, the al-Watan al-Arabi article generated no interest either at the time or afterwards. A scan of the Commission report finds no mention of these arrests in Heidelberg, nor any of the CIA or FBI interviews reported by al-Watan al-Arabi.

Why should any of this have mattered to the 9/11 Commission? Their report provides the most important reason: The 9/11 plot began its practical planning in Hamburg, beginning in 1999 and assisting Mohammed Atta and the other 9/11 plotters through the summer of 2001. Having discovered two Iraqi intelligence agents conducting "missions . . . in a number of German towns since the beginning of 2001" indicates at least the possibility of more than just a sabotage assignment. Even apart from the al-Watan al-Arabi reporting, the strange coincidence of discovering Iraqi intelligence operations in such close conjunction to known al Qaeda operations should have raised some eyebrows.

Saudi Humor...

The Religious Policeman has posted a rather funny interview with the Saudi Minister of Tourism. An excerpt:

RP: OK. So we'll allow single men and bona-fide married couples in. But they already go to places like Dubai in hundreds of thousands, it's a major international resort. Why should they come to Saudi Arabia instead?

M: Well, we have lots of sun.

RP: So does Dubai. Can they sit under a sunshade and have a drink, like in Dubai?

M: Certainly not, and if there's any drink in their suitcase, they'll go to prison. But we're not like Dubai, we offer a unique cultural experience.

RP: So they can go and see a show with folk dancing, the sort of thing Greece is good at?

M: How long have you been in Britain? You know we don't have theatres or cinemas or concert halls. No, what I meant was, there are 6,366 heritage and antiquities sites in the Kingdom.

RP: But aren't we knocking these down as quick as we can drive the bulldozers?

M: That's only for the non-Islamic sites and sites that could be associated with idolatry - so just old monuments and fortresses, historic buildings, houses of famous people, things like that. Certainly not the mosques.

RP: So they can go and look round the famous mosques, like they can in Bahrain for example?

M: Well they can certainly look at the outside.

RP: But not the inside? After all, that's where they'd see the beautiful decorations, get a sense of stillness and reverence.

M Oh no, if they go inside we'll put them in prison.

Intel Dump

Also via War and Piece, a link to Intel Dump, a blog about intelligence matters. One should take it with a grain of salt, but it still makes for interesting reading...

Why Israel is Giving Up Gaza

War and Piece led me to Aluf Benn's incisive analysis in Haaretz of Sharon's possible Gaza strategy. I'd say it confirms my impression that the old general knows what he is doing.

This section seemed particularly clear:

...Further disintegration of the Palestinian Authority under Abbas' weak leadership would turn Gaza into a "Hamastan," ruled by Islamic extremists, and separate it from the West Bank, until eventually Egypt will regain control of Gaza - and Jordan will return to the West Bank. Several Israeli officials advocate this scenario, stressing that an independent Palestinian state is not viable if it does not get more territory from its Arab neighbors. This is the nightmare scenario for the Hashemite rulers of Jordan, who fear the West Bank security barrier will push the Palestinians eastward at their expense.

The Bush administration wants to keep Abbas in power and implement the president's vision of creating a Palestinian state by early 2009. Sharon and Abbas have yet to show they are able to negotiate. For now, they present irreconcilable opening positions, with Abbas opting for a quick final-status deal, and Sharon insisting on a long, gradual process. But both sides will hold elections in 2006, and no serious diplomacy can be expected before then.

So that may be it--if Gaza becomes "Hamastan," it goes back to Egypt. Without Egypt's support, the Palestinians can't succeed. And, Israel just has to hold on until 2008, when Bush will be gone, since a Clinton administration will come in with a different plan. After Arafat screwed-over Bill Clinton, the Clinton administration might not be as sympathetic as Bush, especially to a "Hamastan."

Thus, the Gaza pullout may in fact mark the end of the line for Palestinian statehood, not the beginning.

Konstantin's Russian Blog

I just found Konstantin's Russian Blog, and it's pretty interesting, too...

He explains the history of Potemkin villages--and the Potemkin fleet. He explains how Western-style consultants and lawyers have raised the average price of Russian bribes. And he shares a current Russian jokes. Here's one explaining the difference between the American space program and the Russian one: "When Russia decided to use disposable descent vehicles, America decided to use disposable astronauts."

And here's one about BBC editorial standards:

New BBC vocabulary:
Person who bombs people - a bombist
Person who shoots people - a gunman
Person who runs people over - a driver
Person who eats people - a gourmet

Ayaan Hirsi Ali's Weblog

I read Ayaan Hirsi Ali's oped in today's Wall Street Journal, Unfree Under Islam, thanks to a link at Roger L. Simon's blog. Then I took a look at her website. It's interesting.

You can view a clip from Submission, here

British Airways Catering Strike Hits Washington

The British Airways catering strike hit Washington, DC yesterday, as we found out when we took a friend to Dulles Airport for a flight to London. While waiting on the check-in line, a BA representative announced that there would not be any food served on the plane. Instead, $20 vouchers were handed out. They could be used to buy food in the departure terminal, to take on the flight. Take-away instead of a served meal.

I thought to myself afterwards, if those vouchers could only be cashed in, I would rather have had money than food. I wonder how long before an airline economist runs the numbers on offering cash rebates, instead of meals, on long-distance flights?

What Can Russia Do?

The Washington Times is running this AP photo of Vladimir Putin at the controls of a Russian bomber
This story about Russia's opposition to the use of force in Iran raises the question I first heard in Moscow, from an American diplomat, when I told him that my students weren't very happy about American actions in the Ukraine during the Orange revolution, which they saw as anti-Russian.

"What can Russia do?" he asked, rhetorically. "Their military is tied down in Chechnya, they don't have the troops."

Now Russia is objecting to another American initiative--this time military rather than political--while our troops are tied down in Iraq. Russia basically supplied the Iranians with their nuclear capability. And I think the outcome in Iran may hinge on the answer to the same question: "What can Russia do?"

Boris Akunin on Renewed Russian Authoritarianism

Ian MacKenzie's conversation with the Russian mystery writer contains this observation:

"We are more or less at the same crossroads, like during the reign of Czar Alexander II," Akunin added in an interview, referring to the Czar who was assassinated in 1881. "And the stories are repeating themselves, like after the liberal times of Alexander II came the reactionary times of Alexander III. So it is like Yeltsin and Putin."

Boris Yeltsin was Russia's first post-Soviet leader who was succeeded by current President Vladimir Putin.

"We have to live through this period. It is logical, it is inevitable, it's going to go on for five or 10 years. But because it is five or 10 years of my life I cannot be very happy about it. Now in Russia it is not the best time for people working in the mass media in general who have to do something with freedom of speech."

Hi-Tech v. Islamism

The Religious Policeman has an interesting discussion of how Saudis use mobile phones and Bluetooth to get around Fundamentalist barriers to romance . . .

W's Parallels to LBJ

The Bull Moose recently visited the LBJ Library in Austin, and found some similarities between the two Texan Presidents.

... it is not clear that W, has any better notion of a victory strategy in Iraq than LBJ did in Vietnam. Conservative supporters of this President should cease their cheerleading and begin realizing that the war is being lost by a gang of incompetents who thought that they could liberate Iraq on the cheap with sacrifice limited to the brave troops and tax cuts for the wealthy. If a Democratic President was presiding over such a mess, a Republican Congress would be in a full throated fury.

And Rumsfeld bears a striking moral resemblance to McNamara...

The Stiff Upper Lip Really Exists

This 'n' That was in London before and after the July bombings, and reports that the stories of British pluck were not exaggerated...

Sharon Explains Israel's Gaza Pullout

Maybe Sharon is wrong, but I wouldn't want to second-guess the strategic choices of the Israeli general, who not so long ago was vilified as a war criminal, indirectly responsible for Palestinian massacres in Lebanon's Sabra and Chatila camps. Now he's being vilified as an appeaser and a coward. The truth probably lies somewhere in-between. Here's an excerpt of his speech on Israeli television:

It is out of strength and not weakness that we are taking this step. We tried to reach agreements with the Palestinians which would move the two peoples towards the path of peace. These were crushed against a wall of hatred and fanaticism.

The unilateral Disengagement Plan, which I announced approximately two years ago, is the Israeli answer to this reality. This Plan is good for Israel in any future scenario. We are reducing the day-to-day friction and its victims on both sides. The IDF will redeploy on defensive lines behind the Security Fence. Those who continue to fight us will meet the full force of the IDF and the security forces.

Now the Palestinians bear the burden of proof. They must fight terror organizations, dismantle its infrastructure and show sincere intentions of peace in order to sit with us at the negotiating table.

The world awaits the Palestinian response - a hand offered in peace or continued terrorist fire. To a hand offered in peace, we will respond with an olive branch. But if they chose fire, we will respond with fire, more severe than ever.

Today is the 60th Anniversary of V-J Day

Not too much press in the USA though. Found this interesting article from the San Diego paper, maybe it means more because San Diego is a Navy town, with resident retired servicepeople and families who still remember WWII...

Remembering Maurice Rosenblatt

Sometimes The Washington Post misses something very important. Today's obituary of Washington lobbyist Maurice Rosenblatt, who died of Alzheimer's disease at the age of 90, is a case in point. Rosenblatt one of the chief strategists of the political movement headed by Eleanor Roosevelt that ended Joe McCarthy's witch-hunt, the National Committee for an Effective Congress. The Post obituary contains a couple of sins of omission that cry out to be corrected.

In a very nasty aside for an obituary, Matt Schudel questions the reality of Rosenblatt's memoirs:

Mr. Rosenblatt wrote occasional articles for newspapers, including The Washington Post, and often claimed to be at work on his memoirs, which were never completed, if they exist at all.

Rosenblatt's memoirs do exist. In fact, they are cataloged in the Maurice Rosenblatt papers collection, at the Library of Congress, boxes 77-80.

But there is a more significant omission. There is no mention of Rosenblatt's role in the American League for a Free Palestine, founded by Peter Bergson, Samuel Merlin , Ben Hecht, and other supporters of the Irgun. The organization, which evolved from the Committee for a Jewish Army and the Emergency Committee to Rescue the Jewish People of Europe, was instrumental in building American support for Israeli independence (for those too young to remember,Israel is in fact Palestine, and Israelis are the original Palestinians. They were called that until the establishment of the state of Israel, because Palestine was a colonial name). In that capacity, Rosenblatt helped produce Ben Hecht's pageant, produced by Billy Rose, starring Paul Muni and Marlon Brando, A Flag Is Born. The lead character was called "Tevye."

I came to know Rosenblatt through my film, Who Shall Live and Who Shall Die?. Although by 1981 Rosenblatt was a rich and powerful lobbyist, who could have made a great deal of money doing other things, he took time and trouble to arrange a Washington, DC screening in the United States Senate. The event was bi-partisan, sponsored by Senators Claiborne Pell (D-RI)--later chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (who appeared in the film)--and Rudy Boschwitz (R-MN). He invited newspaper reporters, so the film showing was covered by a Washington correspondent from the New York Times, Bernard Weinraub (later Hollywood bureau chief), and a Style reporter from the Washington Post, Felicity Barringer (now a New York Times Editor) who wrote a biography of Rosenblatt's long-time compantion, Tamara Wall (also not mentioned in the Post).

Later, Rosenblatt became a friend, inviting me to drinks and dinner when he stayed at the Algonquin Hotel in New York, regaling me with stories, and introducing me to Mrs. Walter Bishop, then-head of the United Nations Association, with the idea that I would make a film about Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the New Deal. Maybe I should have done it, but I demurred, since at the age of 25, felt inadequate to the task. He also introduced me to some potential backers for a film about the history of Israel. Again, I backed out. He introduced me to the author Lawrence Leamer, to do a film about Ronald Reagan, sort of Michael Moore type thing. It got as far as drinks with Gore Vidal at the Beverly Hills Hotel.

The point is, no one before or since had been as helpful or supportive to a total stranger. It wasn't because he liked me--it was because he felt very proud of his associaton with Peter Bergson and Ben Hecht. He had defeated Joe McCarthy, but he was prouder still of his work to build the state of Israel, and he liked that I had made a film about a man he had admired, and a cause he admired, trying to save the Jews during WWII and build up a Jewish state afterwards.

That the State of Israel exists today is in some way due to the efforts of Maurice Rosenblatt and the American League for a Free Palestine. That is an accomplishment worth remembering.

Ivan Really Was Terrible...

While living in Moscow, and coming to grips with his legacy, we realized that Ivan the Terrible's moniker was accurate. Isabel de Madariaga's new biography goes into the gory details, and The Moscow Times seems to like her account.

Victor Davis Hanson on Islamism

He says there's no secret about the real goals...

So as we try to assess the causes of Islamists’ venom toward the West, it seems wiser to listen to what they say rather than what we say they say.

If we would do that, we would conclude that the hatred of radical Islam is fed by envy, frustration, and pride — and thus existential: They despise Americans for who we are.

That’s why al Qaeda must constantly find new grievances, whether the West Bank, Israel itself, Jews, oil prices, troops in Saudi Arabia, Oil-for-Food, Afghanistan, or Iraq.

Indeed, the latest two-hour training video is little more than cut-and-paste from the Michael Moore Left and hand-me-downs from Euro anti-globalist radicals. Thus America, al Qaeda assures us, “seeks to ravage the entire globe for the interest…of corporate companies,” and so kills the sons of Islam “in Palestine, Afghanistan, the Balkans, Indonesia, the Caucuses, and elsewhere.”

Apparently about three billion Europeans, Asians, Russians, and Indians have been picking on poor suicide bombers and terrorists, who, in fact, are incognito environmentalists bent on stopping corporate exploitation of Mother Earth.

Yet there is one and only one legitimate objection of the crackpot radical Islamists that rings true: We in the West don’t listen to them when they promise us our deaths.

We should. They are yelling as loud as they can to tell us something that we don’t really want to hear.

Britain Celebrates 60th V-J Day Anniversary

You can read BBC coverage of British V-J Day commemorations here.

John LeBoutillier on Iraq

Iraq: General John Abizaid recently told a reporter off the record that we can not win in Iraq by militarily defeating the Insurgency; the best we can do is to keep things at a standstill until the Iraqi political situation settles down.

That is not what the General, the head of Centcomm, has told the Congress or the American people. In rosy testimony aimed at keeping up public support for the war, these military leaders follow the Vietnam War model: tell the public all is going well and tell the President what he wants to hear.

This, of course, is a prescription for disaster.

Military leaders who brown-nose the politicians - instead of telling the cold hard truth no matter how unattractive it may be - are a disgrace to their uniform.

The plain facts of the Iraq venture are becoming clearer by the minute: the fundamentalist Muslims, with whom we are at war and have been since November 4, 1979 when they overran our Embassy in Iran and seized the hostages, are taking over the government in Iraq and are under the thumb of Tehran. In fact, the new Iraqi draft Constitution reduces women’s rights and mandates that the Sharia, the Islamic Law, become the law of the land.

So our entire Iraq adventure may end up resulting in the removal of Saddam (a decidedly good thing) and the imposition of a Fundamentalist Islam state in alliance with our arch enemies and charter member of the Axis of Evil, Iran (a very, very bad thing).

Inside the Kirov Ballet

Robert Kaiser has a wonderful article in today's Washington Post , about his return visit to the Vaganova Academy of ballet after 33 years.

ST. PETERSBURG In February 1972, as the Moscow correspondent of this newspaper, I visited the Vaganova Ballet Academy, principal training ground for the renowned Kirov/Maryinski Ballet, in its historic home in Leningrad -- then the name of this exotic city on the Neva River. I was a young reporter trying to solve the mysteries of the U.S.S.R. Unexpectedly, that visit provided something close to revelation.

The Vaganova Academy, where Vaslav Nijinsky, Anna Pavlova, Rudolf Nureyev and Mikhail Baryshnikov all learned to dance, first taught me how the Soviet Union accomplished its most important objectives. The secret was to limit the number of goals, and then to lavish resources on them. This was how the first Sputnik was launched, and then how the Soviets conducted their side of the nuclear arms race. It was also the method for training Olympic athletes. My visit to the Vaganova Academy was my first direct exposure to this method -- which was the way the school produced world-class ballet dancers. This was an important moment in my Soviet education.

In June, I revisited the academy to see how the passage of 33 years and the collapse of the Soviet Union had changed this famous school. I had no idea what to expect but eagerly anticipated new revelations. In a surprising way, I found them -- more about that in a moment.

My Father, the Spy . . .

I'm not usually a big fan of NPR's Diane Rehm show, but the other day I heard a good interview with John Richardson, author of My Father, The Spy: An Investigative Memoir. Most striking was Richardson's discussion of his father's confrontation over Vietnam with Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge in the 1960s.

Richardson's mention of the Diem assassination made me think. The US makes a mistake when it overthrows friendly governments to find more pliable partners. Diem clearly understood Vietnamese politics and society. But when he clashed with America's "arrogance of power," in the interests of his country, he got killed. He may have been a pain in the neck, but he was on our side. Richardson knew this, and it ruined his career.

Despite numerous American-sponsored elections after that, and a number of different presidents, Vietnam fell to the Communists--something Diem prevented.

As Richardson spoke, I thought about the fate of Cambodia, where the US sponsored the overthrow of Prince Sihanouk and his replacement by General Lon Nol. A basically neutral leader, protecting his country from war, Sihanouk was overthrown by an arrogant and impatient US that wanted more help in Vietnam. The result: Cambodia was destroyed, millions died, and the Khmer Rouge came to power. William Shawcross documented this in his book, Sideshow. Again, destabilizing a regime that was no threat to the US led to a geopolitical as well as moral defeat.

Richardson discussed American involvement in elections in Greece and Italy, defending America's right to support friendly candidates against the Communist menace.

He sounded reasonable. And Richardson's book certainly sounds worth reading, in the context of American foreign policy today...

Yes, The New Yorker

Just read the August 1st issue of The New Yorker, and it has a lot of interesting articles, including John Cassidy's profile of Republican activist Grover Norquist. Since I once rented office space from Grover, I couldn't stop reading the article.

The best reason to read this issue, however, is Philip Gourevitch's story on the Tamil Tiger movement in Sri Lanka--in the news today because of the state of emergency declared after yesterday's assassination of Sri Lanka's foreign minister. Gourevitch predicted a rise in violence, it seems due to fights over control of Tsunami aid money that the West insists go to the Tamils over objections of the Sri Lankan government. Gourevitch is more sympathetic to the Tamil Tigers than most people we met when we were tourists in Sri Lanka (it killed the beach resort and elephant orphanage businesss). He does point out that they used suicide bombers and other techniques now used by Al Qaeda, were trained in Lebanon, and supported by the Indian Government (ironically, Tamil Tigers killed Indira Gandhi). Gourevitch is too soft on the Tamil Tigers and their supporters.

Not gone into at length is the role of big powers in supporting terrorists, in this case. Gourevitch doesn't emphasize the fact that when India dropped support for the Tamil Tiger movement, things began to calm down--until now, as Western Tsunami aid (no doubt some from US taxpayers), funneled to the Tigers in Tiger controlled areas via NGOs, appears to be fueling Tamil Tiger terrorism once more.

IMHO A comprehensive approach to fighting terror may need to include a more effective policy to prevent humanitarian NGOs from supporting terrorists either directly or indirectly.

Russia Profile

Unwrapping the Mystery Wrapped in the Enigma.

Bull Moose Explains the Highway Bill

From Bull Moose:

...Roads rock. Roads are romantic. Simple, yes, but true. The Mooselings love roads. And if the Moosleings are right about this one, so do most Americans. They may not give voice to that love, but deep down, in their daily lives and genetic identity, they are inherently and soulfully connected to our nation's highways and byways. And, mundane as they may seem, those roads are one of the most regular and most tangible links that most people have to some sort of shared national experience -- talk about common ground. Any forward-thinking politician trying to position himself strategically for 2008, would be wise to court the asphalt voter.

For many people, new roads, like sprawl in general, are either good or bad. They ruin our way of life, some say, they are environmentally unsound, and cut away at our community. But, others respond, you can't stop progress, and you should stop hating on America. The Mooslings argue that highways, and the vehicles we love to drive on them, aren't that easy to pigeonhole, they're far more ambiguous, alluring, overwhelming, and complicated.

A long time ago, Robert Penn Warren captured that menacing power in the opening pages of All the King's Men, describing a southern Highway 58, in 'the country where the age of the internal combustion engine has come into its own,' a strange land:

Where the smell of gasoline and burning brake bands and red-eye is sweeter than myrrh. Where the eight-cylinder jobs come roaring around the curves in the red hills and scatter the gravel like spray, and when they ever get down in the flat country, and hit the slab God have mercy on the mariner.

Roger L. Simon Bashes Bush Administration

Roger L. Simon has criticized Bush's pitiful PR operation, saying the best defenses of American foreign policy come from bloggers, not the administration.

He's right, but that might be because Bush administration insiders realize things may be worse than they seem.

Plus, there may be so much money flowing to good ol' boys that there is no incentive to hire any first-rate people who might make the insiders look bad by comparison. One example, the Pentagon's brilliant PR specialist, Tori Clarke (who I once saw speak persuasively at a Washington conference, when she was head of the National Television Cable Association), was replaced by Larry Di Rita, a chief of staff without any media experience. I had a nodding acquaintance with Di Rita when he was at the Heritage Foundation as a budget expert (he once gave me some numbers on public broadcasting). He may be intelligent, but he is not a media guru. Yet, as Rumsfeld's chief of staff, Di Rita has been handling Pentagon PR for years, since Tori Clarke left, seemingly impervious to the dropping ratings for the American war in Iraq.

Good PR people influence policy decisions, because actions speak louder than words. Tori Clarke, for instance, pushed through the project to embed reporters with US troops against the objections of Pentagon brass. However, if the minds at the top are made up, locked tight, and don't want to listen to the public, good public relations become impossible, and good PR people become unavailable...

Maybe Jack Abramoff's indictment will lead to some changes in policies and personnel-- but I wouldn't count on it.

Daniel Pearl Case Not Over

According to this New York Times story, another suspect has been charged in the murder of late Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.

Does the Uzbek KGB Run the Country?

Lyndon Allin sent us this item from his blog, Scraps of Moscow: Novaya Gazeta on where the power lies in Uzbekistan. Since Uzbekistan was already a police state under the Soviets, before 9/11, before Andijan, and before the expulsion of the US base from Karshi-Khanabad, it wouldn't surprise me if the security services still play a major role in running the country. However, when I lived there it seemed there were always Byzantine power struggles going on (impossible for an outsider to understand) between different regional clans, ministries, and personalities. So I would doubt any one agency could control everything entirely, even the Uzbek KGB...

Where are the War Heroes?

Lawrence Suid sent the following Op-Ed, originally written for the New York Times, which declined to publish it:
Where Are the War Heroes?
by Lawrence Suid

In trying to answer his question: Where Are the War Heroes?, Damien Cave may have gone to the wrong people. Instead of talking with journalists, military historians, and a former general, he probably should have talked with the entertainment media.. To be sure, George C. Scott’s Patton did acknowledge, “Americans love a winner and will not tolerate a loser.” This certainly explains why few heroes emerged from the Korean and Vietnam Wars. Nevertheless, Hollywood has regularly produced heroes on the screen even while fighting these unpopular wars. Richard Nixon watched Patton twice before ordering the invasion of Cambodia. While some Americans saw Scott’s warrior Patton as the cause of the Vietnam War, others wondered where was the general when the nation needed him.

In fact, many people observed that people like Patton and Robert Duvall’s Marine flier in The Great Santini should be locked up between wars. In any event, if unpopular wars fail to produce heros of the ilk of Sergeant York and Audie Murphy, filmmakers have always managed to provide Americans with visual images of men and women who went beyond the call of duty while carrying out their government’s orders whatever the popularity of the war.

William Holden’s Navy flier in Bridges at Toko Ri objects strenuously to having been recalled to active duty, yet he dies heroically, albeit in a muddy ditch. Gregory Peck’s Army officer takes Porkchop Hill in the movie of the same name even though he and his men know they will have to give it up when the Korean War cease fire goes into effect. Even Michael J. Fox’s character in Casualties of War acts heroically by reporting that his comrades had raped and murdered a Vietnamese girl even though the guilty soldiers might try to kill him.

This portrayal remained the exception in movies set in Vietnam in the 1970s and 1980s. Ironically, at the same time, Hollywood began the process of rehabilitating the image of the American fighting man. Of course, filmmakers had to return to World War II or to the peacetime military for their heroes. Midway, in 1976, portrayed many heroes in the battle that changed the course of World War II, not the least of whom was Charlton Heston who led an attack against the Japanese fleet before crashing spectacularly onto his carrier, albeit a crash that used a Korean War jet for the explosion.

A Bridge Too Far, the next year, portrayed several real American heroes particularly General James Gavin and Major Julian Cook whom Robert Redford played crossing the Rhine in a canvas boat in the face of whithering German fire. Ultimately, Top Gun, with Tom Cruise playing the ultimate peacetime Navy fighter pilot hero, completed the rehabilitation of the military’s image which Vietnam had so badly savaged.

With the American people once again believing its armed services could succeed in any combat situation, President Bush I easily mustered the nation’s support for the first Gulf War and the military quickly drove the Iraqi Army out of Kuwait. However, the war lasted too short a time to produce actual heros, leaving it to Hollywood to create, in Courage Under Fire, the first female recipient of the Medal of Honor.

Although Steven Bochco is offering up his own heroes in the FX series Over There the current Iraq war presents problems not only to the producer but to the military whatever its interest is in providing the American people with heros. Real heroes, such as Sergeant York and Audie Murphy, and cinematic ones emerge as a result of their fighting against overwhelmlng odds. In the current war, despite the devastation the insurgents are inflicting on American soldiers and Iraqi civilians, the United States military holds a numerical and quality of firepower over the enemy. Consequently, only occasionally do Americans find themselves performing beyond the call of duty. And, as the war becomes more and more unpopular because of the growing loses and the reality that no Weapons of Mass Destruction existed, Americans will have less and less reason to praise those heroes that may be offered up.

With that said, to make his point, Mr. Cave ignored that CBS Evening News has every night presented a “Fallen Hero” to the American people. Whether the nation will respond to other heroes, real and imagined, may be seen starting this Friday when The Great Raid opens nation-wide, telling the true story of how a small force of U.S. Rangers rescued more than 500 American POWs from a Japanese prison camp in the Philippines despite facing a vastly superior number of enemy soldiers. Will people want to sit through images of Japanese atrocities may well depend on whether military heroes still have appeal to Americans, especially during an unpopular war.

Uzbek Opposition Leader Threatens Terror Wave

It looks like the Uzbek government may have been right when it called Kabul Parpiyev a terrorist, and blamed him for inciting riots in Andijan. According to Igor Rotar, certainly no friend of Karimov (he was recently arrested at the Tashkent airport), Parpiev has threatened to unleash a wave of terror and armed conflict in Uzbekistan unless there is international intervention. Rotar concedes that Parpiev's group of Islamists, known as Akramiya, are not the innocent victims portrayed in the Western media:

Regardless of whether Akramiya was a terrorist organization in the past, Parpiyev's statements indicates that the organization is ready to become one today. The Andijan events demonstrated that this organization already has sufficient forces to organize armed resistance to the authorities.

This type of dangerous talk, after 9/11 and 7/7, presents a serious problem for US diplomacy, which has aided the resettlement of Parpiev's followers following the failure of their attempted takeover of the Andijan government, and promoted Parpiev's views on Radio Liberty/Radio Free Europe. If Parpiev is openly inciting terrorism after Andijan, then the US is supporting terrorism and terrorists. Frankly, this call to arms makes Parpiev's claims that he was not a terrorist look laughable, and those who believed him appear as fools. Now that his followers are safely relocated--his terrorist followers, it appears--Parpiev pulls off the mask of moderation...

My two cents: This should not come as a surprise or a shock, given the record of Islamist groups around the world for inciting violence, and the record of the American media and international NGOs in regard to terrorists. Since Radio Free Europe apparently knows where Parpiev is, or knows who knows, the US government might turn over Parpiev to the Uzbek authorities once they sign an agreement not to torture him.

As Tony Blair has finally realized in Great Britain, after the July 7th bombings, for the Global War on Terror to succeed, there can be no quarter given to terrorists or those who incite terrorism. This may be the view of the Russians, as expressed by Arseny Oganesyan in this RIA Novosti commentary, but that doesn't make it wrong. He points out:

There are three major players: China, Russia, and the United States. Each has its own interests, and all three want this poor region to be calm and prosperous. But this will not happen unless radical Islam is fully eradicated, a formidable task that can only be accomplished by a concerted effort. Understanding this truth gives Washington, Moscow and Beijing the opportunity to reach a compromise that they all need.

IMHO Tolerating or supporting any terrorists or calls for terrorism is a recipe for American defeat, geopolitically and morally.

The Invisible Adjunct

Since I'm an adjunct professor myself, when I came across this blog in a google search, I was immediately interested in what it had to say. So here's a link to the Invisible Adjunct: 20, 000 Leagues Under...

Russians Learning to Love Modern Art

According to Bloomberg.com, modern art is the latest fashion to sweep Russia.

A New Cold War?

That's what it says on A Step At A Time. . .

Clark (without Lewis)

Every time we go to Antigua, I learn something new about its history. This time, it was about William Clark, better known as partner of explorer Meriwether Lewis on Thomas Jefferson's 1803 mission into the newly-purchased Louisiana Territory. This same William Clark travelled to Antigua, and in 1823 published Ten Views of the Island of Antigua, in which are represented the process of sugar making and the employment of the negroes in the field, boiling house, and distillery. According to this history website, the illlustrations can be seen as part of an abolitionist campaign to document the horrors of slavery in order to end the practice. Due to such efforts, Great Britain emancipated the slaves of the West Indies on August 1, 1834. You can see all of Clark's illustrations here. And a picture of Wetherell's Estate here.

It's About Time...

The BBC experimented with free podcasting of Beethoven Symphonies, which might boost podcasting for classical music lovers. Although their Beethoven website says the experiment is now completed, perhaps it will lead to something permanent at the BBC. Meanwhile, they provide a link to other classical music downloading sites, for example, AMClassical.com. (Hat tip to artsjournal.com)

What Is To Be Done (About Uzbekistan)?

The neocons pondered the question just two days before the Uzbeks publicly kicked American troops out of the Karshi-Khanabad (K2) airbase. Here's a summary of the presentations on the AEI website--note that none of the assembled pundits predicted the dramatic rejection of America's leadership in the Global War on Terror (Uzbekistan controls access to northern Afghanistan) that actually took place. The Karshi-Khanabad air base dispute is not even mentioned in the official AEI summary, a significant omission.

That said, the AEI webcast showcases a fascinating, passionate debate between William Kristol and Fred Starr, an interesting presentation by Chris Seiple that quotes E.H. Carr, and Martha Brill Olcott's attempt to find a middle way--as well as a lively question-and-answer session.

Leon Aron should be congratulated for bringing this panel together.

Russia's Future Prosperity Demands a Latin Alphabet

Sam Vaknin used to contribute interesting articles about politics and economics to my web publication, The Idler. Now he makes the case for Russia switching to a Latin alphabet, from Cyrillic, in order to fully enter the computer age--and he makes a good case, citing Ataturk's precedent in Turkey...

To the Moon, Alice...

Ralph Kramden had a cheaper alternative in mind, but the Russians will fly you to the moon for $100 million--without a space shuttle!

JamesBowman on Islamism

At JamesBowman.net.

Bush No Longer Alone, Blair Now Like Hitler, Too...

According to a British Muslim leader. Of course, it was the Nazis who specialized in terror attacks to come to power--the night of the long knives, kristallnacht, the burning of the Reichstag, etc.--and then terror to achieve their ends in war, from blitzkrieg to the extermination of European Jewry, to an alliance with Islamic fundmentalists and support of the Muslim Brotherhood that is behind today's wave of fundamentalists.

There is indeed a Nazi connection, but not to Tony Blair. . .

Guts & Glory

A the 60th Anniversary of V-J Day approaches, I thought this link to Lawrence H. Suid's website might be interesting. I met him for lunch before our vacation, at the suggestion of Alice Goldfarb Marquis, author of numerous books about culture. She did me a real favor to put us in touch. I learned a lot, just at one lunch at the Woodside Deli. He's written ten books, and is the foremost historian of the US Military in Film and Television. Most interestingly, Suid explained why there weren't more films about terrorists after 9/11. Suid pointed out these type of films were already made before 9/11--movies like the 1997 Air Force One, starring Harrison Ford. Apparently, as Oscar Wilde said, life does imitate art.

These days, Suid is busily working on a biography of Fred Zinneman, who made Day of the Jackal, about an earlier incarnation of terrorism.

Victor Davis Hanson on Hiroshima

He calls his article 60 Years Later. (Hat tip to Little Green Footballs for the link).

Russia Sees America Losing Allies

Because, RIA Novosti argues, Bush is not serious about the war on terrorism...

From the "You Read It Here First" Department...

On June 21st, this was our blog entry about John Bolton:

Bolton Will Go to the UN
Although he is having a hard time getting through the Senate, Bolton will go to the UN, possibly as a recess appointment this July.

The date was just a little off--Bush appointed Bolton on August 1st.

Why is the US Government Aiding Terrorists?

That's the questions Russians are asking in thisRIA Novosti article about ABC TV's broadcast of an interview with Shamil Basayev, the Chechen Islamist terrorist responsible for the Beslan school tragedy and other attacks. His interview with a Radio Liberty reporter was broadcast by Ted Koppel. The Russians noticed, as Koppel did not, that Radio Liberty is a US government-funded propaganda operation. But the Russians are mistaken to complain about ABC, which has been soft on terrorism in the past (ABC's sympathy for the late Yassir Arafat was documented by media watchdog groups such as CAMERA). They don't pretend to be allies in the Global War on Terrorism.

The Bush administration does claim that it is against terrorism. However, by providing a platform for Basayev through Radio Liberty (ironic, considering Basayev would eliminate most liberties that Americans take for granted, should he come to power and establish an Islamic state governed by Sha'aria), the US is giving aid and comfort to the terrorist cause in Chechnya.

The Russians have a point, and are also making a threat--if the US doesn't stop supporting the likes of Basayev, they may very decide to pull out of the American campaign against Bin Laden and Al Qaeda (who are Basayev's ideological, political, and military allies). Something to think about...

Uzbekistan evicts United States Air Base

According to Yahoo! News, Uzbekistan is kicking the US military out of the country in the next 180 days.

This news has provided inspiration--it's been six years since I published my last book--and a title for something I'm working on now, based on my Fulbright experience teaching in Uzbekistan.

Working title: WHO LOST CENTRAL ASIA?

IMHO, There's plenty of blame to go around . . .

The Daily Ablution

Scott Burgess's The Daily Ablution exposed a member of Hizb-ut-Tahrir, Dilpazier Aslam, who reported on the London bombings for The Guardian. Since that fact was published by Burgess, the reporter was fired. In the aftermath, Alsam threatened to take the Guardian to court. (Hat tip to Tom Gross)

Real Life Space Drama

I can't stop thinking about those astronauts in the Space Shuttle. If it were me, I wouldn't get back in that thing, I'd demand they send up a nice, safe Russian Soyuz capsule to take me home. It's what they were using for the International Space Station while the shuttle problems were being fixed the first time. Old, clunky, but so far, reliable...

War Between Democracies

Matthew White has posted this great list of War Between Democracies, beginning in the 5th century BC and running up to the present day, as a rebuttal to the claim that no two democracies have gone to war against each other. They have, they do, and they will...

August Recess

It's the time of year when Congress goes on holiday, and so do we. Blogging may be sporadic for a little while...

British Soldiers Face War Crimes Charges in Iraq

Reuters reports three British soldiers will be tried as war criminals for the abuse of prisoners in Iraq.

Canadian Islamists Apologize to Daniel Pipes

For personal attacks that compared Pipes to Hitler:

On June 10, the CIC published an apology and retraction: 'The Canadian Islamic Congress and Ms. Valiante apologize without reservation and retract remarks in the column that suggest that Dr. Daniel Pipes is a follower of Hitler or that he uses the tactics of Hitler or that he wants to ethnically cleanse America of its Muslim presence.' The CIC also sent funds to cover my legal expenses and made a donation in my honor to a Canadian charity.

The CIC's action is, to the best of my knowledge, without precedent.

Of course, Canadian libel laws are stricter than American ones . . .

How the US Nurtured Islamist Terror

Rachel Bronson's article in The National Interest explains that America is being bitten by our own dog, that Islamist terrorists--as well as political Islam--are the beneficiaries of decades of American patronage:

The confluence of U.S.-Saudi anti-communist interests manifested itself most obviously in Afghanistan, where the United States and Saudi Arabia spent no less then $3 billion each, channeling assistance to armed anti-American Islamic fundamentalists. But the shared anti-communism embedded in the U.S.-Saudi partnership, and the proselytizing it spawned, was not limited to Afghanistan; it stretched from Somalia, Sudan and Chad to Pakistan and beyond. Countries where the U.S.-Saudi partnership was strongest are areas where today the Islamist threat is particularly vexing. After September 11, both Somalia and Sudan were considered likely targets in any American operation to eliminate terrorism.

Other American allies, such as Egypt, Tunisia and Israel, supported indigenous Islamic movements in order to counter local nationalist opponents, many of whom were Soviet backed. In turn, the same leaders who underwrote local Islamist groups in the 1970s and 1980s later used their very presence to justify a resistance toward democratization.

In contrast to the support Islamist groups received in America-friendly countries in the Middle East, religious organizations suffered a crueler fate in Soviet-supported countries. The Syrian regime exterminated 20,000 citizens in 1982 for being associated with the Muslim Brotherhood. Saddam Hussein's Iraq massacred religious leaders, especially among the Shi'a population. Egypt provides the best example of how Cold War ideological struggles shaped today's politico-religious landscape. While receiving Soviet aid, Gamal Abdel Nasser persecuted the Muslim Brotherhood. American-supported Anwar Sadat, on the other hand, heavily backed the Brotherhood in order to counter local Nasserite opposition.

The politicization of Islam is thus a direct outgrowth of the Middle East's Cold War experience. Given this history, it should come as no surprise that in today's post-Cold War Middle East, the major constituency-based organizations in the Arab world that are best placed to organize politically are Islamist ones.

Brave New World

On the way up to Glimmerglass, we listened to Peter Firth's books-on-tape version of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. I had read it in High School, or maybe college, as a science fiction book about the Utopian--or rather, Dystopian--Future. But hearing it read aloud, for some eight hours, as a middle-aged person, it seemed to have another meaning as a social satire of England's chattering classes. It wasn't about the future. It was about now. And laughing out loud funny in parts, smiling most of the rest of the time--until the sudden end of his savage. I had thought of Huxley mostly as a 60s hippie, Timothy Leary, Indian mysticism type (we went on a family pilgrimmage to his home in Ojai when I was young), so this was a fresh perspective. Plus, it seems almost everything in the book has come to pass in this age of Prozac and cloning--even the "hatcheries"...

Celebrating Bastille Day at Glimmerglass

Can't say enough good things about the Glimmerglass Opera. We just got back from a Bastille Day weekend getaway, thoroughly enjoyed three French operas: Lucie de Lammermoor, Donizetti's classic sung in French; Le Portrait de Manon, by Massenet; and Poulenc's La Voix Humaine. All three were superb. All the singers were excellent. And the music and staging were good, too. The setting is lovely late Otsego, Glimmerglass State Park, a stone's throw from James Fenimore Cooper's final resting place in Cooperstown, NY. This time we stayed in Sharon Springs, a Jewish Ghost Town, filled with crumbling wooden hotels and lodging houses, set in a hollow smelling of sulfur from the spa waters that bubble up. On the hill is the hulk of Adler's Hotel, where former NYC Mayor Ed Koch once worked as a busboy. The few guests still remaining appear to be elderly Russian immigrants, walking and talking, sitting outside their rented cottages, little dachas that reminded us, too, of our time spent in Russia...

A Touching Tribute to London Attack's American Victim

Tamara Jones has a very nice obituary for Minh Matsushita, the first identified American victim of July 7th's London bomb attacks. He was a Vietnamese refugee, raised in the Bronx, who had worked as an adventure tour guide before settling down to a desk job in the City with an internet company.

LONDON -- Minh Matsushita was a man forever in motion, an adventure always in progress. His passport was a pocket-size accordion of pages bearing faded stamps and mysterious visas.

Even as his boyhood friends from the Bronx settled down, got married, pursued careers and started families, the 37-year-old Matsushita just kept reinventing himself. He might be a beach bum in San Diego one year and a tech geek in Manhattan the next. You could find him snorkeling in Australia, or hiking across minefields in Cambodia.

Dude, what are you doing?, friends would remember asking time and again, when he would alight between trips on someone's back porch to drink through the night and tell his tales. Minh always smiled, shrugged and gave the cavalier answer his buddies came to think of as his personal motto:

"No worries, man."

For the past 18 months, Matsushita had been living out the dream of the perpetual wanderer, exploring remote corners of the world as a tour guide for an Australia-based agency called Intrepid Travel. Leading tourists on treks through the jungles and paddies of Southeast Asia, he also found for the first time in his life something more than adventure.

He fell in love.

As Instapundit says, read the whole thing.

Happy Bastille Day!

Another good day to celebrate Freedom.


...And the link between the French and American Revolutions, personified by the Marquis de Lafayette.

After persuading the French to give George Washington the gift of freedom for the United States, where he was present at Yorktown with General Rochambeau for the British surrender (In this picture, Rochambeau is pointing, giving orders to the troops, while Washington looks on, Lafayette over his shoulder),

Lafayette returned to France. There, on July 14, 1789 he led his troops--many of whom had served with him in the American Revolution, and were known to the French as "the Americans"--in storming the infamous French prison. (This might be seen as America's first attempt at "regime change.") He also worked with Thomas Jefferson on the Declaration of the Rights of Man. After trying to save Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette from the guillotine, he fled the Revolution, only to be thrown into an Austrian dungeon, where he was kept prisoner.

After the Revolution, Lafayette presented two keys from the Bastille as gifts to the first American President, with these words: "Give me leave, my dear General to present you with a picture of the Bastille, just as it looked a few days after I had ordered its demolition,- with the main key of the fortress of despotism. It is a tribute, which I owe, as a son to my adoptive father, as an Aide - de - Camp to my General, as a Missionary of liberty to its Patriarch." To cement the Franco-American relationship, Lafayette and Washington established the Sons of the Cincinnati, an organization that still has branches in France and the United States.

One key to the Bastille hangs in the hallway at Mount Vernon.

The other is in the collection of the George Washington Masonic Memorial in Alexandria, Virginia.
You can read the story of the two Bastille keys in this article.

About Last Night: Another Great Newshour Interview...

Last night Ray Suarez took on General John Vines, who actually admitted that he plans to lose the Iraq war.

Here is his surrender declaration:

So the idea that we are going to win an insurgency, we are going to defeat the insurgency, the coalition, and then give freedom to the Iraqi people does not track. Freedom can't be given to someone; it must be taken, and so they have to take that.

"This man is a complete idiot," the person sitting next to me turned and said. I agree. And kudos to Jim Lehrer and Ray Suarez for smoking him out of his cave, so the American people can see what is going on with our military leadership.

For those who don't know American history, we can start at the beginning: The French military, under General Rochambeau, presented freedom as a gift to George Washington in the American Revolution--General Cornwallis originally wanted to present his sword to the French, whose fleet and armies defeated him at Yorktown. We Americans couldn't "take" freedom without the French.

Abraham Lincoln presented freedom to the slaves in the Civil War. Slaves couldn't "take it" without the Union Army.

In more recent times, America (with a great deal of help from the USSR and Great Britain) presented freedom as a gift to Germany, Japan, Italy and the nations of Western Europe. They didn't "take it," either.

So why expect from the Iraqis what we didn't expect from ourselves or others?

Unless and until the enemy is decisively defeated, the Iraqi people will not enjoy freedom. As FDR noted, one of the most important freedoms is "Freedom from Fear."

For without civil order--while chaos, anarchy, and violence reign--democracy is impossible.

Why Do They Hate Us? (Continued)

James Taranto, in OpinionJournal's Best of the Web Today explains the murder of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh: "This had nothing to do with Israeli 'occupation' of 'Palestinian lands,' America's 'unilateral invasion' of Iraq, 'torture' of prisoners at Guantanamo or Abu Ghraib, the widening 'income gap,' or any of the other litany of complaints that the terror apologists trot out. Islamist terrorism arises from religious fanaticism and hatred, plain and simple."

Life Sentence for Ali Al-Timimi in Virginia Jihad Trial

Jerry Markon's Washington Post story today is headlined, Muslim Lecturer Sentenced To Life:

A man convicted for what he said -- words that prosecutors said incited his followers to train for violent jihad against the United States -- had a few more things to say yesterday in a federal courtroom in Alexandria before he was sentenced to life in prison.

Ali Al-Timimi, a prominent Muslim spiritual leader, delivered an impassioned statement in which he asserted his innocence, read the preamble to the U.S. Constitution and said his religious beliefs do not recognize "secular law." He then compared himself to the Greek philosopher Socrates, who was sentenced to death for corrupting the young and dishonoring the gods of Athens.

"I will not admit guilt nor seek the court's mercy," Timimi told a courtroom crowded with his supporters and prosecutors. "Socrates was mercifully given a cup of hemlock. I was handed a life sentence."

As U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema pronounced the life sentence, Timimi nodded slightly. The judge then revoked his bond, and Timimi walked slowly away in the custody of U.S. marshals, smiling and waving at supporters in the emotionally charged courtroom.

The article notes in passing that the unrepentant Al-Timimi was born and raised in the Washington, DC area. He is an American citizen, which makes me believe that Jim Hoagland's op-ed today may be merely wishful thinking, particularly this statement:

Why has the United States not been attacked since Sept. 11? It's not simply because we are fighting terrorists in Iraq. The terrorists cannot have found the water -- the Muslim American community -- easy to swim in or to use for their malignant long-term purposes.

The Al-Timimi case shows that there is indeed American water for terrorists to swim in.

Ambassador Seymour Maxwell Finger, 90

His passing was noted by a respectful obituary in today's New York Times. I knew of him because of this study :

The author or editor of many books, Mr. Finger wrote "American Jewry During the Holocaust" (1984), published by the American Jewish Commission on the Holocaust. The report of the commission, of which Mr. Finger was research director, concluded that the major Jewish organizations in the United States had not done all they could to save victims of the Holocaust, still a controversial position at the time of publication. The chairman of the commission was former Justice Arthur J. Goldberg of the Supreme Court.

Blair's Four Point Anti-Terrorism Program

According to CNN, British Prime Minister Tony Blair has outlined the following anti-terrorist priorities for the British government:

*Begin the process of consultation on planned counter-terrorism legislation within the next couple of weeks, with a priority being measures to combat the incitement and instigation of terrorism.

*Look urgently at how to strengthen the process for excluding from the UK those who incite hatred, and make it easier to deport such people.

*Start discussions immediately with Muslim leaders on combating 'the perverted and poisonous misinterpretation of Islam' which lay behind the attacks.

*Talk to other nations on how to mobilize the 'moderate and true voice of Islam.'

Tony Blankley: "Know Thy Enemy"

Writing in the Washington Times, Newt Gingrich's former PR guru analyzes responses to the London bombings:

There were other examples of political correctness gone mad. I saw a senior British law enforcement official on Thursday making the explicit point that the words Islam and terrorist do not belong in the same sentence. Yesterday, the head of the Scotland Yard press briefers finished his factual account of various details with the statement that extremists and criminals did these acts, and no one should 'stigmatize any community with these acts.'

But, of course, no one was, nor should be, stigmatizing 'any community'. On the other hand, while some very large percentage of the two million Muslims living in Britain are law abiding, it is also the case that a hundred percent of the 'extremists and criminals' so far identified by Scotland Yard who attacked London were Islamic -- or more to the point 'Islamist.'

The danger manifestly comes from those Muslims -- either born or converted -- who believe in the armed jihadist policy of terror attacks.

Political correctness started out as an externally applied pressure placed by academic elites on regular people not to say certain things which were judged improper. But it has become a more dangerous phenomenon now. Government, law enforcement, military officials and many regular citizens are beginning to internalize the politically correct mentality. If government officials, the media and increasing elements of the public actually begin to believe that there is no relationship between Islam as currently practiced by some percentage of the Moslem population and the mortal threat of terrorism -- then it will be hard if not impossible to mount an effective defense.

The first lesson of war is to know thy enemy. While we should never put people in that category who don't fit, it is suicidal to refuse to acknowledge the accurate nature of the enemy.

Al Qaeda's Pakistani Connection

B Raman writes:

If one had been doing this systematically, one would have noticed that Pakistan's Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET) has been co-ordinating the activities of the IIF since 2003 due to the disruption in the command and control of the Al Qaeda.

Three persons arrested by the Pakistani authorities in March,2003, in connection with the attack on USS Cole in October,2000, had told them during the interrogation that since the Western intelligence agencies were keeping a close watch on the suspected Arab members of the Al Qaeda, bin Laden had asked the LET to recruit Pakistani volunteers for suicide missions to be undertaken by the Al Qaeda and that the LET had already placed 12 Pakistani volunteers for suicide missions at the disposal of the Al Qaeda.

Barcelona in Spain, Lisbon in Portugal and Luton and Leeds in the UK have become important centres for the recruitment of volunteers for jihadi terrorism and for the collection of funds.

Apart from the LET and the anti-Shia Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LEJ), the Tablighi Jamaat (TJ) of Pakistan has also set up a presence in the Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities of West Europe.

After the Madrid blasts of March,2004, the largest number of terrorist suspects detained for questioning by the Western intelligence agencies were of Moroccan and Pakistani origin. The security experts of the European Union (EU) had drawn attention to this disturbing development in a report submitted to the EU Paliament in October,2004.

Pakistani volunteers from the UK have been going to Iraq to join the Al Qaeda there headed by Abu Musab-al-Zarqawi.

In terrorism analysis, you don't get a continuous, unbroken chain of evidence. You get just bits and pieces. You painstakingly collect them, put them together and see what they imply. Many in the UK knew that it was likely to be the next target of jihadi terrorism.

They have no reasons to be surprised that the attack, when it materialised, came from people of Pakistani origin and not from Arabs. They are now puzzled as to how the terrorists managed to procure the reportedly high-grade explosives, which they had used on July 7.

They must have either procured them locally or got them from outside. If they got them from outside, how did they smuggle them in? Did they use a diplomatic bag?

If so, of which country?

Crescat Sententia

I found this interesting blog, called Crescat Sententia, via a posting on Registan.net by Amanda Butler. It's worth a look, especially if you are legally inclined (it seems to be written by lawyers, or law students)...

Another Reason for Ken Tomlinson to Quit

CPB will pay for an openly antiwar propaganda film to balance a Richard Perle show about Iraq produced by Brian Lapping, according to Current

Jim Lehrer's Best Interview, Ever

That's what it seemed like, watching ex-Marine Jim Lehrer go mano a mano with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Richard Myers on the NewsHour. No question about it, Lehrer made him look like a fool, with questions like this:

JIM LEHRER: But would you understand, General, why people would be a little skeptical? We've heard this before, Zarqawi's right hand man, Zarqawi's number three, this number of people, and the thing we keep hearing, all the insurgency has been broken, it's just a bunch of dead-enders, they're in the throes of whatever, and then 60 people die.

It seemed like Myers couldn't convincingly answer any of Lehrer's questions, and that the problem was putting politics (we didn't want to appear to be occupiers) over performance (decisively defeating the enemy). Who is resposible for that? The political leadership, said Myers. In other words, don't blame me Jim, blame Bush and Rumsfeld...

Daniel Pipes on the London Bombing Aftermath

Weak Brits, Tough French:

Thanks to the war in Iraq, much of the world sees the British government as resolute and tough and the French one as appeasing and weak. But in another war, the one against terrorism and radical Islam, the reverse is true: France is the most stalwart nation in the West, even more so than America, while Britain is the most hapless...

London Bombers Came From Leeds

That's the police theory reported in this Guardian Unlimited Special Report .

More on the bombers at this BBC website. Some initial reports:

*All four suspects are British nationals.

*Three of the four are from West Yorkshire

* All four were captured on CCTV at King's Cross station, wearing rucksacks, shortly before 0830 BST on the morning of the attacks. The footage was found on Monday night

* One suspect was reported missing by his family. Some of his belongings were found on the No 30 bus in Tavistock Square

* Property linked to a second man was found at the scene of the Aldgate/Liverpool Street bomb

* Items belonging to a third suspect were found at the site of the Aldgate/Liverpool Street and Edgware Road bombs

* It is very likely the three men whose belongings were found at the bomb scenes are dead, police sources say

* Questions remain over the identity of the fourth bomber. Police do not know if he was killed at King's Cross or has fled

* One man has been arrested in West Yorkshire and is being questioned in London. He is believed to be related to one of the suspected bombers.

Israeli Suicide Bombing Follows London Attack

Haaretz has the latest...

Ken Tomlinson Should Resign

Not for the reasons these people say...

But because he's pretty much discredited himself in his handling of the PBS and NPR bias issue, in his role as Chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. I saw him on the PBS Newshour with Jim Lehrer last night,testifying at the ridiculous Senate hearing described in this New York Times story. It was comical to hear him and the Republican CPB president Patricia Harrison -- who helped turn the whole world against the USA while she was in charge of public diplomacy at the State Department -- sing the praises of federally funded broadcast networks that are trying to bring Tomlinson, his party and his President down.

Plus, he's obviously small-minded. If Tomlinson had given Fred Mann $14 million to study public broadcasting bias, it might have been impressive. But $14,000? And they say he's a Texan?

Pathetic.

Why This Karl Rove Story Has Legs

Even Fox News on the chase. The reason is simple, the old Washington adage holds true: "It's not the crime, it's the coverup." If Rove lied to federal investigators, that's a felony. If he commited perjury at the behest of President Bush, that's an impeachable offense. The Plame outing part of it becomes irrelevant...

Hurricane Dennis Photos

Now online atPensacolaNewsJournal.com. Less damage than Ivan, but still a big storm--and now they are worried about Tropical Storm Emily . . .

Van Gogh Killer Confesses

The BBC reports on the trial of Mohammed Bouyeri, who told the court he would do it again. "'I take complete responsibility for my actions. I acted purely in the name of my religion,' he told the court in Amsterdam."

Hell's Kitchen

Last night we caught Hell's Kitchen, the American version of Chef Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmare, which we saw on TV in Wales during our walk along Offa's Dike. It is really a great show, The Apprentice meets Survivor meets Big Brother meets The French Chef. The torrent of profanities, bleeped out here in America, were fully audible in the UK. Ramsay is an entertaining character--I seem to remember hearing that his actual restaurant went out of business in Britain, so maybe he's a better as an actor than restaurant proprietor. He sort of plays a very loud version of a British public-school character, instructing his charges in making a Mango Flambe instead of conjugating Latin verbs. Despite the hype, reassuringly old school. And the irony of a British show about cooking, with celebrity chefs. Who would have imagined?

This Book Looks Interesting...

Fred Siegel's account of how Rudy Giuliani saved New York City sounds like a tale that needs telling. Siegel was sort of an insider guru, so I bet the book is pretty good. Adding it to my summer reading list...

Why They Call It "Londonistan"

Rita Katz & Michael Kern explain Britain's bases for terrorists...

Daniel Pipes on the MI5 Report

He calls his article The Next London Bombing.

The point that most of all interested me, however, in reading Young Muslims and Extremism is where it draws on MI5 information to make this astonishing statement:

Intelligence indicates that the number of British Muslims actively engaged in terrorist activity, whether at home or abroad or supporting such activity, is extremely small and estimated at less than 1% (pdf 2, p. 9).

If one accepts the report's estimate (pdf 2, p. 5) that the Muslim population of Great Britain numbers 1.6 million, then up to 16,000 "British Muslims actively engaged in terrorist activity."

"Extremely small"? Excuse me, but that number strikes me as an extremely large.

That the British authorities do not recognize that they should worry about thousands of terrorists in their midst is reason to worry what planet they inhabit. Their waffling, myopia, and general incompetence make one despair for their country.

Some Thoughts on the London Bombings

Yesterday evening, a British friend dropped by. She told us that she was surprised, living in Washington, that she has had so few expressions of sympathy from her acquaintances in Georgetown. At a block party, no one even mentioned the London tube attacks. Why didn't Washingtonians seem to care?

Thinking about her complaint, I realized that neither Republicans or Democrats have much incentive to dwell on the horror.

Republicans were shown up, because the London bombings are pretty dramatic evidence that President Bush's war on terror isn't working. Bush's claims that Osama bin Laden is on the run, being smoked out, unable to act, etc. are proven to be empty boasting, Texas-grade. And if Bush is losing, he may be a loser, so better not to think about it. Let's talk about something else--Hurricane Dennis, anyone?

Democrats, on the other hand, have been shown up, too. For many of them have echoed Michael Moore's line that there is no terrorist threat, that the whole 9/11 episode was just something milked by Bush & Co. to get re-elected and give defense contracts to Halliburton, instead of more funding to Head Start. When downtown London is hit in a devastating blow, it looks like maybe the Democrats are wrong to pooh-pooh the terrorism problem. So, let's talk about something else--how about that Supreme Court fight?

Of course, each side has a rationale. Democrats might say, if only Britain weren't in Iraq they wouldn't be a target (but America was a target before Iraq or Afghanistan, as was France, as was Moscow, as was Jerusalem). And Republicans might say, if only we prevail in Iraq we will prevail over terror (but we prevailed in Afghanistan, we thought, and terror did not cease).

So, the meaning of London may not be crystal clear, but the blasts that tore through the Underground at King's Cross, Edgeware Road, and Liverpool Street station also tore through the pieties and stereotypes of the American political class--which is why they may have difficulty expressing condolences even to a Britisher living among them.

Our sympathies...

First London Bombing Victim Named

Susan Levy, of Hertfordshire, a mother of two, killed on the Picadilly Line, according to The Telegraph.

Why Do They Hate Us? (Continued)

Amir Taheri explains the thinking behind the London bombings:

But sorry, old chaps, you are dealing with an enemy that does not want anything specific, and cannot be talked back into reason through anger management or round-table discussions. Or, rather, this enemy does want something specific: to take full control of your lives, dictate every single move you make round the clock and, if you dare resist, he will feel it his divine duty to kill you.

The ideological soil in which alQaeda, and the many groups using its brand name, grow was described by one of its original masterminds, the Pakistani Abul-Ala al-Maudoodi more than 40 years ago. It goes something like this: when God created mankind He made all their bodily needs and movements subject to inescapable biological rules but decided to leave their spiritual, social and political needs and movements largely subject to their will. Soon, however, it became clear that Man cannot run his affairs the way God wants. So God started sending prophets to warn man and try to goad him on to the right path. A total of 128,000 prophets were sent, including Moses and Jesus. They all failed. Finally, God sent Muhammad as the last of His prophets and the bearer of His ultimate message, Islam. With the advent of Islam all previous religions were “abrogated” (mansukh), and their followers regarded as “infidel” (kuffar). The aim of all good Muslims, therefore, is to convert humanity to Islam, which regulates Man’s spiritual, economic, political and social moves to the last detail.

But what if non-Muslims refuse to take the right path? Here answers diverge. Some believe that the answer is dialogue and argument until followers of the “abrogated faiths” recognise their error and agree to be saved by converting to Islam. This is the view of most of the imams preaching in the mosques in the West. But others, including Osama bin Laden, a disciple of al-Maudoodi, believe that the Western-dominated world is too mired in corruption to hear any argument, and must be shocked into conversion through spectacular ghazavat (raids) of the kind we saw in New York and Washington in 2001, in Madrid last year, and now in London.

That yesterday’s attack was intended as a ghazava was confirmed in a statement by the Secret Organisation Group of al-Qaeda of Jihad Organisation in Europe, an Islamist group that claimed responsibility for yesterday’s atrocity. It said “We have fulfilled our promise and carried out our blessed military raid (ghazava) in Britain after our mujahideen exerted strenuous efforts over a long period of time to ensure the success of the raid.” Those who carry out these missions are the ghazis, the highest of all Islamic distinctions just below that of the shahid or martyr. A ghazi who also becomes a shahid will be doubly meritorious.

There are many Muslims who believe that the idea that all other faiths have been “abrogated” and that the whole of mankind should be united under the banner of Islam must be dropped as a dangerous anachronism. But to the Islamist those Muslims who think like that are themselves regarded as lapsed, and deserving of death.

(Link via Little Green Footballs)

Arab News Charges Tony Blair Behind London Bombings

This article is based on just the type of repellent crackpot logic used in "black propaganda" that George Bush was behind 9/11.

I've seen the same line on Chechen bombings in Russia for example. When we lived in Moscow, we would often pass by the memorial to those who died in the bombing at Pushkinskaya Metro station. Same M.O. as London...

Frightening to think millions around the world may believe an item in Arab News that is obviously nonsense to any reasonable person. And perhaps more disturbing to realize there are editors at papers like Arab News who willingly choose to publish this sort of thing. What Motive for the Heinous Crime of London Bombings?:

Dictatorial governments have always used some fabricated or isolated incidents to justify their tyrannical actions. In recent years, Western governments have shown that they are always willing to borrow a leaf of dictators' book. Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib and David Blunkett's measures that were ruled unconstitutional by the British House of Lords are examples of such readiness. Do we see in the London bombings an act that will play into the hands of Tony Blair's government? This is not to suggest that the government has any hand in the planning or execution of this crime. It is only likely that in the aftermath of the bombings, the Blair government may find it much easier to introduce some draconian measures of the type that was ruled unconstitutional, without encountering much opposition.

The real sufferers will be the Muslim community in Britain and in other European countries.

An important factor that supports this view is the outcome of the recent general elections in Britain, when the Blair government lost much of its parliamentary majority, and the Muslim community was for the first time more selective in how it votes. The first steps toward shaping a “Muslim vote” factor that influences election results were seen to have taken place. In order to prevent such a factor taking firm roots, something needs to be done now to send the Muslim community back into its long political slumber. What can bring this about better than alienating it from British society?

This Arab News article seems a good illustration of Voltaire's observation, that those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.

Newsweek Outs Karl Rove

As Matt Cooper's source for the Valerie Plame-CIA connection according toWar and Piece.

Islamism on Trial

Daniel Pipes discusses Vanessa Blum's Legal Times thumb-sucker about the conviction of Islamist Ali al-Timimi as part of the "Virginia jihad network." It seems like an important case that is not getting too much media attention.