Sunday, August 08, 2004
Political Clans in Central Asia and the USA
From Far Outliers (thanks again to The Argus for the tip).
Anne Applebaum on Napoleon's Invasion of Russia
In The Washington Post:
"The confusion and horror of the French retreat through the Russian winter are well described. 'The air itself,' wrote a French colonel, 'was thick with tiny icicles which sparkled in the sun but cut one's face drawing blood.' Another Frenchman recalled that 'it frequently happened that the ice would seal my eyelids shut.' Prince Wilhelm of Baden, one of Napoleon's commanders, gave the order to march on the morning of Dec. 7, only to discover that 'the last drummer boy had frozen to death.' Soldiers had resorted to looting, stripping corpses and even to cannibalism by the time the march was over."
"The confusion and horror of the French retreat through the Russian winter are well described. 'The air itself,' wrote a French colonel, 'was thick with tiny icicles which sparkled in the sun but cut one's face drawing blood.' Another Frenchman recalled that 'it frequently happened that the ice would seal my eyelids shut.' Prince Wilhelm of Baden, one of Napoleon's commanders, gave the order to march on the morning of Dec. 7, only to discover that 'the last drummer boy had frozen to death.' Soldiers had resorted to looting, stripping corpses and even to cannibalism by the time the march was over."
Georgia on my mind
From greenpass (thanks to Nathan at the Argus for the tip):
"Georgia's one of those countries that should have it made. It has gorgeous countryside, the most amazing people, lovely beaches, great skiing (yes, it's true) and Tbilisi is a graciously crumbling crossroads of Asia, the Middle East and turn of the century Europe that is one of the most enjoyable cities I've ever had the good fortune to spend a bunch of time in. Yet the legacy of communism clings to everything like radioactive dust, and unlike the Chinese, the Georgians were not born to commerce."
"Georgia's one of those countries that should have it made. It has gorgeous countryside, the most amazing people, lovely beaches, great skiing (yes, it's true) and Tbilisi is a graciously crumbling crossroads of Asia, the Middle East and turn of the century Europe that is one of the most enjoyable cities I've ever had the good fortune to spend a bunch of time in. Yet the legacy of communism clings to everything like radioactive dust, and unlike the Chinese, the Georgians were not born to commerce."
What Makes a Good Museum?
Blake Gopnik says it is having lots of stuff on display:
"Two new museums open in the Washington area during the last year or so. One, in suburban Virginia a good hour's drive from the Mall, lives up to hopeful expectations: In the eight months the Smithsonian's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center has been open, 1.3 million people have flocked to this branch of the National Air and Space Museum at Dulles Airport.
"The other museum, smack downtown and across the street from the new Convention Center, falters after just 14 months of operation: As my colleague Jacqueline Trescott reported recently, the City Museum of Washington has pulled in only 33,000 people, somewhere between one-third and one-tenth the numbers forecast for it, depending on the forecaster.
"The reason for the difference? Wondrous stuff to look at -- or a puzzling lack of such, at the City Museum. "
"Two new museums open in the Washington area during the last year or so. One, in suburban Virginia a good hour's drive from the Mall, lives up to hopeful expectations: In the eight months the Smithsonian's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center has been open, 1.3 million people have flocked to this branch of the National Air and Space Museum at Dulles Airport.
"The other museum, smack downtown and across the street from the new Convention Center, falters after just 14 months of operation: As my colleague Jacqueline Trescott reported recently, the City Museum of Washington has pulled in only 33,000 people, somewhere between one-third and one-tenth the numbers forecast for it, depending on the forecaster.
"The reason for the difference? Wondrous stuff to look at -- or a puzzling lack of such, at the City Museum. "
Are New Yorkers in Denial?
Michael Powell thinks so:
"But not for the first time I looked at a fellow New Yorker and wondered at how resolutely we deny our unfortunate inheritance. Terrorists have come for us three times in the past 11 years. You are aware, I thought as Murdock talked, that almost 2,800 people died and the city's two largest skyscrapers disintegrated three years ago? That the same crew came within a few misplaced bombs of taking down at least one of those towers in 1993?
"In the end, I didn't pose these questions, perhaps because they sounded too argumentative and perhaps because of my own uncertainty. Am I so confident of my own rationality in such matters? I rode the A-train to the World Trade Center stop that brilliant late summer day in 2001 and came upstairs to the collective gasps of reporters and rescue workers as they watched men and women tumble through the sky. I heard the terrible groan of a tower cracking, and saw a thick, gray eight-story-high cloud roll toward me. "
"But not for the first time I looked at a fellow New Yorker and wondered at how resolutely we deny our unfortunate inheritance. Terrorists have come for us three times in the past 11 years. You are aware, I thought as Murdock talked, that almost 2,800 people died and the city's two largest skyscrapers disintegrated three years ago? That the same crew came within a few misplaced bombs of taking down at least one of those towers in 1993?
"In the end, I didn't pose these questions, perhaps because they sounded too argumentative and perhaps because of my own uncertainty. Am I so confident of my own rationality in such matters? I rode the A-train to the World Trade Center stop that brilliant late summer day in 2001 and came upstairs to the collective gasps of reporters and rescue workers as they watched men and women tumble through the sky. I heard the terrible groan of a tower cracking, and saw a thick, gray eight-story-high cloud roll toward me. "
Saturday, August 07, 2004
Healing Iraq on the Fighting in Najaf
Zeyad writes:
"Over 300 militiamen are reported dead and a 1000 have been arrested according to the governor of Najaf. Overall, the situation looks bleak for Sadr, and one has to surmise if this would end in either his arrest or his death. I doubt that the Sadrist movement would be over with Muqtada's death, they would just have a third martyr from the Sadr family to add to their list.
One also can't help but wonder about the timing of Sistani's departure from Najaf to London for treatment. The man is known for his subtle messages, could this be a sign for his tacit approval to finish Sadr and his militia once and for all?"
"Over 300 militiamen are reported dead and a 1000 have been arrested according to the governor of Najaf. Overall, the situation looks bleak for Sadr, and one has to surmise if this would end in either his arrest or his death. I doubt that the Sadrist movement would be over with Muqtada's death, they would just have a third martyr from the Sadr family to add to their list.
One also can't help but wonder about the timing of Sistani's departure from Najaf to London for treatment. The man is known for his subtle messages, could this be a sign for his tacit approval to finish Sadr and his militia once and for all?"
On the Trail of the Congo's "Cannibal Rebels"
Another interesting story by Eliza Griswold in Slate, published last March:
"Eliza Griswold traveled to the Democratic Republic of Congo twice to investigate claims of cannibalism as a weapon of war."
"Eliza Griswold traveled to the Democratic Republic of Congo twice to investigate claims of cannibalism as a weapon of war."
Eliza Griswold on Afghanistan
Watch the New Yorker correspondent, author of "In the Hiding Zone" in the July 18th issue (not online!), talk about her clandestine visit to Waziristan onCSPAN's clip of the day for August 4th.
A New Yorker press release summarizes her published story like this:
"In "In the Hiding Zone," Eliza Griswold reports from Waziristan, the lawless tribal borderland on the northwestern edge of Pakistan whose people are sometimes suspected of harboring Osama bin Laden. Griswold, who was detained earlier this year in Waziristan by Pakistani authorities, travels with Khalid Wazir, who, at the age of thirty, is "the de-facto prince of a forbidden kingdom, a putative expert on the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden, and gatekeeper to a region traditionally closed to outsiders." Khalid tells Griswold that he was recently asked by an international news organization if bin Laden was in fact hiding in Waziristan.
"How was I supposed to know?" he says. "If he's there, why don't they catch him? I have nothing to do with it.... I am the chief. I know there are terrorists in Waziristan? George Bush was elected President by the state of Florida. His brother is governor of Florida. George Bush knew there were terrorists training in Florida?" Griswold notes that "of all the Pashtun tribes, the Wazirs are known as the most conservative and irascible," although "the revival of radical Islam in Waziristan is relatively recent," a product, in part, of the effort to push the Soviet Army out of Afghanistan. "More recently," Griswold reports, "the region has become a haven for Al Qaeda members. As Islamic fighters fled the mountains of Afghanistan, Waziristan became a virtual jihadi highway."
Khalid sees himself locked in a battle for influence with the radical mullahs in the area. His own plan for combatting the influence of radical Islam includes not military action ("Kill one terrorist, make ten," he says) but a comprehensive public-works program that has yet to develop. "The mullah gives a man one meal," he says, "we will give him two." The United States already had crop-substitution programs running in the area before September 11th, although Westerners are not allowed in Waziristan.
"There have been social programs in the region since the nineteen-seventies in the tribal areas," Husain Haqqani, a visiting fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, says. "I don't think there are any empirical data to suggest that after your house has been intrusively searched you say, 'Oh, those are the good guys! They put the water fountain in my village.' " With the Waziris angry at both the Pakistani Army and America, the situation isn't getting any easier. "We certainly believe there are remnants of Al Qaeda or those closely allied with it up there," one State Department official tells Griswold. "There will need to be a continuing effort.... It's U.S. policy to try as much as we can to assist these people. But you can't just walk in with a bunch of Americans and say, " 'Hi! We're trying to help.' "
A New Yorker press release summarizes her published story like this:
"In "In the Hiding Zone," Eliza Griswold reports from Waziristan, the lawless tribal borderland on the northwestern edge of Pakistan whose people are sometimes suspected of harboring Osama bin Laden. Griswold, who was detained earlier this year in Waziristan by Pakistani authorities, travels with Khalid Wazir, who, at the age of thirty, is "the de-facto prince of a forbidden kingdom, a putative expert on the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden, and gatekeeper to a region traditionally closed to outsiders." Khalid tells Griswold that he was recently asked by an international news organization if bin Laden was in fact hiding in Waziristan.
"How was I supposed to know?" he says. "If he's there, why don't they catch him? I have nothing to do with it.... I am the chief. I know there are terrorists in Waziristan? George Bush was elected President by the state of Florida. His brother is governor of Florida. George Bush knew there were terrorists training in Florida?" Griswold notes that "of all the Pashtun tribes, the Wazirs are known as the most conservative and irascible," although "the revival of radical Islam in Waziristan is relatively recent," a product, in part, of the effort to push the Soviet Army out of Afghanistan. "More recently," Griswold reports, "the region has become a haven for Al Qaeda members. As Islamic fighters fled the mountains of Afghanistan, Waziristan became a virtual jihadi highway."
Khalid sees himself locked in a battle for influence with the radical mullahs in the area. His own plan for combatting the influence of radical Islam includes not military action ("Kill one terrorist, make ten," he says) but a comprehensive public-works program that has yet to develop. "The mullah gives a man one meal," he says, "we will give him two." The United States already had crop-substitution programs running in the area before September 11th, although Westerners are not allowed in Waziristan.
"There have been social programs in the region since the nineteen-seventies in the tribal areas," Husain Haqqani, a visiting fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, says. "I don't think there are any empirical data to suggest that after your house has been intrusively searched you say, 'Oh, those are the good guys! They put the water fountain in my village.' " With the Waziris angry at both the Pakistani Army and America, the situation isn't getting any easier. "We certainly believe there are remnants of Al Qaeda or those closely allied with it up there," one State Department official tells Griswold. "There will need to be a continuing effort.... It's U.S. policy to try as much as we can to assist these people. But you can't just walk in with a bunch of Americans and say, " 'Hi! We're trying to help.' "
Fandorin on the Leviathan
Just finished Boris Akunin's entertaining romp Murder on the Leviathan . It's a quick read, a fun homage to Agatha Christie. Here Fandorin, travelling as a Russian diplomat, matches wits with the French Inspector Gauche, no doubt based on Hercule Poirot, to solve a grisly series of murders. Suspects are a veritable United Nations of characters, enabling Akunin to play games with national character issues, as well as literary genres. Not to mention the philosophy of Thomas Hobbes. For example, the Japanese gentleman, a Samurai warrior, writes Haiku poetry...
Azar Nafisi on Islamism
From The Dialogue Project's Introductory Essay:
"Islamism has become the biggest threat to the development and survival of democracy in the world today. The Islamist threat lies not only in its potential for terror-based violence, but in the appeal and mass embrace of its ideological and cultural claims. Islamism's combination of visibility, virulence, and aggressive self-righteousness has allowed it to become the dominant lens through which the West judges the Muslim world and the Muslim-majority countries judge the West. Their ideology has come to underlie much of the international discourse on the 'East-West' relationship. "
"Islamism has become the biggest threat to the development and survival of democracy in the world today. The Islamist threat lies not only in its potential for terror-based violence, but in the appeal and mass embrace of its ideological and cultural claims. Islamism's combination of visibility, virulence, and aggressive self-righteousness has allowed it to become the dominant lens through which the West judges the Muslim world and the Muslim-majority countries judge the West. Their ideology has come to underlie much of the international discourse on the 'East-West' relationship. "
Mark Steyn on Eurotrip
From The Spectator, an analysis of Eurotrip-The Movie (you may need to scroll down):
"But, as I said, I was howling with laughter. In among the nudist jokes and Pope jokes, Eurotrip is an honest acknowledgment of near total ignorance. One thing I'm surer and surer of since September 11th is that America and Europe know next to nothing about each other. Every Monday I get a big pile of London Sunday papers full of lame features professing to have the inside track on the latest trends in America, and it's all, as the Speccie's esteemed editor would say, complete bollocks. The one saving grace of the American media is that they can't be bothered to reciprocate: a four-decade old joke about the alleged French obsession with mime will do for at least another four or five decades, by which time the Fifth Republic will be the First Islamic Republic of France and the Yanks may have to come up with a new gag. Eurotrip, its scenes of Paris, Berlin and Rome all filmed on the cheap in Prague, somehow captures the state of the Atlantic alliance more accurately than any in-depth analysis."
"But, as I said, I was howling with laughter. In among the nudist jokes and Pope jokes, Eurotrip is an honest acknowledgment of near total ignorance. One thing I'm surer and surer of since September 11th is that America and Europe know next to nothing about each other. Every Monday I get a big pile of London Sunday papers full of lame features professing to have the inside track on the latest trends in America, and it's all, as the Speccie's esteemed editor would say, complete bollocks. The one saving grace of the American media is that they can't be bothered to reciprocate: a four-decade old joke about the alleged French obsession with mime will do for at least another four or five decades, by which time the Fifth Republic will be the First Islamic Republic of France and the Yanks may have to come up with a new gag. Eurotrip, its scenes of Paris, Berlin and Rome all filmed on the cheap in Prague, somehow captures the state of the Atlantic alliance more accurately than any in-depth analysis."
Friday, August 06, 2004
Sir Max Hastings on Israel and the Palestinians
In The Spectator:
"The Israelis seem to deserve President Bush's support in rejecting any Palestinian 'right of return' inside Israel's pre-1967 borders. But Bush's behaviour has given new impetus to the Jewish settlement movement in a way that appals many Israeli moderates. They recognise a choice between a possibility of peace and a large chunk of the West Bank, and know that they cannot have both."
"The Israelis seem to deserve President Bush's support in rejecting any Palestinian 'right of return' inside Israel's pre-1967 borders. But Bush's behaviour has given new impetus to the Jewish settlement movement in a way that appals many Israeli moderates. They recognise a choice between a possibility of peace and a large chunk of the West Bank, and know that they cannot have both."
Saddam's Archaelogical Collaborators
From Middle East Quarterly:
"Working in a wretched totalitarian country was a conscious choice for archaeologists as it was for businessmen. Iraq purchased most of its weapons from Russia and France, sophisticated electronics from the United States, and germ samples from all over the world. Profit is its own excuse, and those who armed and supported Iraq have much for which to answer. But archaeologists submitted paperwork to the Iraqi State Board of Antiquities and Heritage, knowing full well that staff lists would be vetted by Iraqi intelligence. European and American Jews, among the pioneers of Mesopotamian archaeology during the first half of the twentieth century, were systematically excluded from participation, as they still are in Syria and Saudi Arabia. No one protested."
"Working in a wretched totalitarian country was a conscious choice for archaeologists as it was for businessmen. Iraq purchased most of its weapons from Russia and France, sophisticated electronics from the United States, and germ samples from all over the world. Profit is its own excuse, and those who armed and supported Iraq have much for which to answer. But archaeologists submitted paperwork to the Iraqi State Board of Antiquities and Heritage, knowing full well that staff lists would be vetted by Iraqi intelligence. European and American Jews, among the pioneers of Mesopotamian archaeology during the first half of the twentieth century, were systematically excluded from participation, as they still are in Syria and Saudi Arabia. No one protested."
The Anthrax Connection to 9/11
From Edward J. Epstein:
"The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States reports that a Californian-trained biologist named Sufaat in 2001 spent 'several months attempting to cultivate anthrax for al Qaeda in a laboratory he helped set up' in Afghanistan and that this same biologist provided housing for at least two of the 9-11 hijackers in his Kuala Lumpur condominium."
"The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States reports that a Californian-trained biologist named Sufaat in 2001 spent 'several months attempting to cultivate anthrax for al Qaeda in a laboratory he helped set up' in Afghanistan and that this same biologist provided housing for at least two of the 9-11 hijackers in his Kuala Lumpur condominium."
Why Do They Hate Him?
The Washington Post explains the roots of Bush-hatred:
"Anyone who hobnobs with progressives knows by now that a fair proportion of these bright and articulate Americans hate George W. Bush. They abhor him. The embrace of Bush hatred has even appeared in otherwise sober journals of opinion such as the New Republic. Why? How is it that so many thoughtful people hold a belief that is surprising -- and troubling -- to the vast majority of Americans? "
"Anyone who hobnobs with progressives knows by now that a fair proportion of these bright and articulate Americans hate George W. Bush. They abhor him. The embrace of Bush hatred has even appeared in otherwise sober journals of opinion such as the New Republic. Why? How is it that so many thoughtful people hold a belief that is surprising -- and troubling -- to the vast majority of Americans? "
Praise for Conservative Foundations
The Wall Street Journal publishes a tribute to the conservative intellectual movement, from one of its leading funders:
"The conservative investment in ideas, though modest by liberal standards, has paid large dividends. There exists today, in contrast to the 1970s, an impressive network of think tanks, journals and university programs supported by conservative foundations, which are engaged in different ways in promoting the cause of liberty and limited government. As a result, there is now a robust debate in American intellectual life between conservatives and liberals. The one-sided debate, dominated by the left, is a thing of the past. "
"The conservative investment in ideas, though modest by liberal standards, has paid large dividends. There exists today, in contrast to the 1970s, an impressive network of think tanks, journals and university programs supported by conservative foundations, which are engaged in different ways in promoting the cause of liberty and limited government. As a result, there is now a robust debate in American intellectual life between conservatives and liberals. The one-sided debate, dominated by the left, is a thing of the past. "
Meet Boris Akunin
The Telegraph has this interview with the author of The Winter Queen (discussed here recently) and Murder on the Leviathan (just got my copy in the mail, reading it now...):
"'Boris Akunin' is not his real name. Before he embarked on a life of crime writing, Grigori Chkhartishvili was deputy editor of a literary magazine, a distinguished philologist, translator of Japanese fiction, a critic and the author of the scholarly tome Writers and Suicide. This being Russia, home of the writer-as-sage, it is little wonder that he had almost a Japanese sense of shame that he was dabbling in a new-fangled, low-brow form of writing scarcely able to call itself literature. Hence the disguise. 'In the world that I belong to,' he explains, 'writing detective novels was just unthinkable. Even now, some of my old acquaintances look at me as if I were a defrocked priest or something. My mother often asks me, 'When are you going to finish writing this and return to serious writing?' She was a schoolteacher of Russian literature.' "
"'Boris Akunin' is not his real name. Before he embarked on a life of crime writing, Grigori Chkhartishvili was deputy editor of a literary magazine, a distinguished philologist, translator of Japanese fiction, a critic and the author of the scholarly tome Writers and Suicide. This being Russia, home of the writer-as-sage, it is little wonder that he had almost a Japanese sense of shame that he was dabbling in a new-fangled, low-brow form of writing scarcely able to call itself literature. Hence the disguise. 'In the world that I belong to,' he explains, 'writing detective novels was just unthinkable. Even now, some of my old acquaintances look at me as if I were a defrocked priest or something. My mother often asks me, 'When are you going to finish writing this and return to serious writing?' She was a schoolteacher of Russian literature.' "
D.C.'s Bunker Mentality
Today's Washington Post reports on the toll street closings, concrete barriers, checkpoints and sniffer dogs are having on the nation's capital:
"'We can create a neo-medieval society that will profoundly affect our economy, our politics and society itself,' said Brian Jenkins, a terrorism expert and senior adviser at the Rand Corp., a nonprofit think tank. 'But we are bordering on creating an atmosphere of terror without the benefit of terrorists.'"
"'We can create a neo-medieval society that will profoundly affect our economy, our politics and society itself,' said Brian Jenkins, a terrorism expert and senior adviser at the Rand Corp., a nonprofit think tank. 'But we are bordering on creating an atmosphere of terror without the benefit of terrorists.'"
Thursday, August 05, 2004
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