FIRE WITH FIRE

Saddam Hussein is dead, but like all evil, new villains have arisen to take his place. In Iraq two powerful clerics are locked in a decades-old struggle for control of the Shiite majority. In the name of the Prophet, both hold an equal number of seats in Iraq's faltering Parliament, both lead unruly militias whose nefarious death squads do their bidding, both claim descent from the Prophet Muhammad, and both are locked in a bitter rivalry inherited from their fathers.

Which will emerge supreme -- supposed moderate Abdul Aziz al-Hakim or extremist Moqtada al-Sadr? Both are manipulating US presence in Iraq to their personal advantage.

• Hakim, who has attacked the US in the past, has found it profitable to become our ally. He curries favor with the US for its ability to place him on the "throne" of a unified Iraq. Once American forces leave -- and you can be sure he'll give us the boot once his aims are achieved -- he'll be able to use his "divine authority" to rule with the iron fist of a future Saddam.
• Sadr, on the other hand, already seems to channel Saddam's black soul and doesn't try to hide his personal agenda behind diplomacy. Young and aggressive, he's been on the attack against the US since the first tank rolled across the border. His mantra of hatred is the siren song that brings young, disenfranchised Muslim men flocking to his ranks. He is a touchstone for mayhem and terror in Iraq.

With the moderating influence of Iraq's most revered Shiite figure, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, fading fast, the rivalry between Hakim and Sadr has turned increasingly violent and bloody. Neither seems to have the good of the Iraqi people at heart. Both are driven by an unstoppable greed for personal power. Both seem willing to escalate the violence in Iraq to a blood bath to achieve their own ends at the expense of their people and their country. And both do it in the name of Allah. I don't understand why the Iraqi people do not see these snakes slithering in the sand beneath their feet. If Allah looks down from the heavens, he must be horrified by the monstrous acts being done in his name.

Posted by Secret Citizen at Saturday, December 30, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post   

A political science professor I know who is an avid student of modern history proffered an interesting solution to the Iraq problem. Precedented on the timely death of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, he suggested that Iraq's neighbors might be strong-armed into forcing a solution to the Middle Eastern mire. He proposed bringing Iran, Syria and Turkey to the bargaining table. Threatened with the imminent declaration of a Independent Kurdish Republic whose borders would be guaranteed and fiercely protected by the United States, he felt a solution might be forced.

How could this work? The Kurds are compactly settled primarily in northern Iraq. They are the only ethnic group in Iraq that has worked together to form a semblance of government. They are the only group that has been successful in policing itself and maintaining some sort of order. They have shown they have the ability and desire to stand alone as a successful nation.

Why would the formation of a Kurdish state motivate Iran, Syria and Turkey? The Kurds have never had a homeland. The formation of a Kurdish state would draw in the Kurdish populations in neighboring Syria, Turkey and Iran and the land they live on, creating considerable problems for their current host countries. To avoid rebellion within their own borders, those countries might see a significant advantage in hammering out a solution in Iraq.

Would it work? Who knows. Is it likely to happen? Probably not. But it certainly is an interesting idea. Personally, I think the Kurds have shown themselves to be more deserving of a chance at independence than any other group in Iraq. I say, chop off the north of Iraq into a Kurdish state and let the rest of them sink into the mire.

Posted by Secret Citizen at Friday, December 29, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post   

Thank you to all of you who have participated in the Fire With Fire blog this past year. We have had an active group of readers and commenters. Your comments have been interesting and thought provoking. I would like to say thank you for your time and your input.

Today, as I think back on all that has happened this year, I am now turning my face to the year 2007 with a new hope in the spirit of humanity to strive for peace and understanding. This past year has been full of strife, anguish, contension, struggles for peace, war, retribution, and new rebirth. Quite a combination of both good and bad.

Now with 2007 just on the horizon, let us all as world citizens embrace the hope that only a new year can bring. Let us work actively to understand others who are different from ourselves, speak out instead of remaining silent when confronted with injustice, and face down the violence around the world that threatens our way of life.

Best wishes for a peaceful 2007!
Your Truly
The Watcher

Posted by The Watcher at Friday, December 29, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post   

I am reading a book on the volcanic island explosion of Krakatau or Krakatoa in 1883 and was surprised to read that there were documented incidents of Islamic Extremist violence even in that era. The book documents several incidents where Colonial Dutch soldiers and Dutch shopkeepers were killed by religious fanatics.

Indonesia then and still now is a huge center for Islam in that part of the world. Most devotees are direct descendants from converts to the faith in the early 1800's. Islam has a long history in that region. The book states that due to the cultural inclusion of some Hindu cultural practices that the type of Islam practiced in Indonesia is not as fundamental as the faith practiced in the majority of the Middle East.

What was surprising to me was that there was Islamic Extremist violence at all during this era. We so often think that the violence that we see coming from some in the Muslim community is a modern day issue, but that is clearly not the case. Even in 1883 we see Islamic religious fanatical violence. Clearly Islam as some know it can simply not live at peace with a secular society either in 1883 or in 2006.

Posted by The Watcher at Thursday, December 28, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post   

I know it sounds strange, given all the sectarian Sunni-Shiite animosity in Iraq, but there is something notable going on in Syria. Unlike Iraq and Iran, Syria is dominantly a Sunni population. What it is that is interesting there, though, is that the President and his closest advisors are Shiites. Also Iran has significant investments in Syria and has more planned in the pipeline to cement their business interests and influence there. So why, you might ask, is this important. Well, since the Ayatollah took over in Iran, Iran has been marginalized, in a business sense, in most parts of the world....but not in Syria. In fact Iran has learned more about doing international business and more about astute mainstream economic influence peddling from its relationship with Syria than it has from any other outside mainstream economic contact. In a way, this is because when Iran deals with Syria, it is a brokering between a superior (Iran) and a lesser nation (Syria). Except for this, Iran really does not have any other opportunities to explore effective means of economic influence peddling, because in its relationship with China, Russia, and countries in Europe, these other countries play the superior role and Iran has lesser nation status. Now this is not to say that Iran does not peddle influence informally, because it does; and you can see this through the actions of its Hezbollah agents. But the Hezbollah actions are not mainstreamers playing with mainstreamers on the world stage. To really be accepted on the world stage, Iran has to be able to go head to head with the major world powers, and it is learning how to do this, and very astutely I may add, through its investments in Syria.

So what does this mean with regard to being Shiite in a Sunni world? Well, the vast (and I mean VAST) majority of Muslims on the planet are Sunnis, not Shiites; and the Shiite Iranian government knows this. Just in terms of self preservation, it needs to gain enough influence and power that its sect will presevere and not be over-run by Sunni's. Interestingly enough, the US is helping the Iranian Shiites to gain an ever increasing influence in Muslim life and become the ruling Muslim subclass, through its deposing of the Sunni Taliban regime in Afghanistan and the overthrow of the Sunni Hussein government in Iraq. Soon we will see a Shiite led government in Lebanon driven by Hezbollah-led supporters from southern Lebanon. I guess the big question is, is this something to fear? It is, if these governments harken to the leadership in Tehran and take their marching orders from them. If, in fact, these Shiite led nations have the well being of their local populations in mind, then I would say "no". The sorting out of the Sunni-Shiite religious tension will be the same as the Catholic-Protestant tension that exists today.

Posted by Straight Talk at Thursday, December 28, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post   

Saddam Hussein is scheduled to die this month. His conviction has been upheld in the courts. Although he is not a popular figure certainly, I would expect for their to be an outcry when he is finally put to death.

The Americans may feel that this is a page in the book that has been turned and that we should only look forward to the new Iraq, but I am afraid that there are factions which will use the US involved trial and conviction to create even more strife and unrest in the region.

Saddam's crimes are heinous and his time in power merciless, but some in Iraq look back now in comparison to their current situations as his time in power as being preferred over their current circumstances. There has always been fear that if he was not executed that there would be a cadre to rise up and try to put him back in power.

The upcoming month and execution of Saddam Hussein bears very close watching as I for one am expecting an increased level of violence against Americans and political unrest.

Posted by The Watcher at Wednesday, December 27, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post   

The appeals court has now ruled that Saddam Hussein must pay for his crimes within 30 days. It will be interesting to see what actually happens. Did Saddam get a fair trial? Well, I would not say he did, taken what I saw about the trial on TV. It was a complete circus and there was nothing I saw that resembled law in any way shape or form.

I guess the question really is, should Saddam even have gotten a fair trial? How could he, in the country that he terrorized for 20 years. No one seemed to be smart enough to get him to the Hague where some semblance of a REAL trial could take place and where prosecutors and witnesses and judges did not have to fear for their very lives or the lives of their families. The only way to dispatch an overthrown long lived despot like Saddam is how the Rumanians quickly dispatched Nicolae Ceausescu, the last despotic leader of that country - by almost immediate military tribunal and instant death by firing squad. None of this protracted sham of a pretend trial where evidence is presented to show how bad the person was. Everyone already knows it....the thousands he mutilated, the tens of thousands he murdered, the hundreds raped by his sons and henchmen with his permission.

Do I feel bad that Saddam is going to swing in the next 30 days. No, not at all, it is about time, and should have happened years ago.

Posted by Straight Talk at Tuesday, December 26, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post   

We don't read much about this in the press, about the presence of culture police in Saudi Arabia, but we do know that they exist. Not only are there culture police in Saudi Arabia, but culture police in Iran, Iraq, and Afghanistan.

What exactly are these "culture police" you ask. Culture police are thugs employed at the Islamic government to enforce Muslim cultural mores. Like, head scarves...any women in a Muslim society had better not be without one. Like, unaccompanied women being seen with men, boy, that one is a big no-no. In fact that is what the brouhaha in Saudi Arabia is all about. One woman is taking the government's culture police to court. These thugs arrested her and her daughter beat up her driver when it appeared to them that she was visiting men who were not part of her family. It turned out that the woman was visiting her own female relatives and yet was subjected to brutal behavior in the name of enforcing Muslim cultural mores.

it will be interesting to see and hear what happens with this very telling case in Saudi Arabia and if it even gets into the press or is repressed by the political culture police.

Posted by The Watcher at Tuesday, December 26, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post   

You can read the full article from BBC News here.

Did you really expect otherwise? On top of the rejection by Ahmadinejad is the veiled threat to the 15 countries who voted in favor of sanctions that they will regret their actions.

Iran's President Ahmadinejad continues to be a volatile player within his sphere of influence. At the last moment Russia rejected some of the most serious and telling sanctions based on their close economic relationship with Iran and the fact that they are in the process already of building a nuclear reactor there. It seems funny that they would not have recused themselves from voting due to their high level of personal interest in this situation, but that is the political and self interest world of the United Nations for all to see.

Here in America today is Christmas Eve. I am hoping that tomorrow and the upcoming New Year's holiday will usher in a new dawn of peace for the world. In the meantime I am wishing you and yours the best for the holiday season.

Posted by The Watcher at Sunday, December 24, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post   

Have there been atrocities in Iraq? Yes. On both sides. As they say, war is hell. There has not been a war in which the innocent were not killed. There has not been a war in which fear did not turn to anger, hate to rage. There has not been a war when soldiers, filled with fear and frustration, did not see enemies in the faces of the innocent. But in Iraq, too often the seemingly innocent -- even children -- have turned out to be the enemy, recognized too late to save a buddy. The hatred of the populace, their known harboring of terrorists, the innocuous goat grazing by the side of the road that suddenly explodes, the constant roaming snipers following every move, the close quarters, the heat, the blowing sand, the constant strain -- it is no wonder the human mind snaps.

These eight marines are not the only soldiers to cross over some invisible line during this war. Will we prosecute every soldier who harms a civilian? Will Iraqis who harbor terrorists in their homes, who bring them guns, who rig roadside wreckage with bombs, who shoot at our soldiers by night and walk insolently past them by day -- will they be prosecuted? This is war. It is easy to point out an American soldier and accuse him of overstepping the bounds of civility. They are all in uniform. It is nearly impossible to point out the Iraqi who commits an atrocity, often against his own neighbors. They blend into the background, living openly under their enemy's eyes.

My outrage balances on a knife edge. I am outraged that disciplined soldiers succumbed to rage. But I am more outraged that our country places our soldiers in a situation that drives them to such rage and then prosecutes them as common criminals. This was no premeditated rape of a 14-year-old child and cover-up murder of her family. This was war. When every citizen you meet is a potential enemy, you don't knock politely on doors and ask, "May I arrest the terrorist, please?" You barge in, guns at the ready, expecting every movement to be the bullet that kills you. That is the reality of war. If our military no longer has the stomach for the consequences of war, maybe it's time to come home.

******

In another matter, I was heartened to read in the Washington Post that US Muslim leaders gathered this week at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC to commemorate Jewish suffering under the Nazis. Imam Mohamed Magid proclaimed that American Muslims "believe we have to learn the lessons of history and commit ourselves: Never again." After the outrageous fairy tales being told in Iran, it gives me hope that reasonable Muslims will prevail against radical extremists in the fight to control the path of Islam.

Posted by Secret Citizen at Saturday, December 23, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post   

Well Cleric Bashir is already out of jail and already spouting more anti-Jewish, anti-American, and Pro-Islamic state rhetoric in Jakarta.

This was one bad guy, he had been convicted of participating in bombings that killed over 200 mainly Australian tourists in 2002, but now he's free. The Bali bombings killed 202 people and were the first in a string of bombings that occurred in Indonesia that targeted Western tourists. The violence did not stop in 2002 but has continued even to this last year with a triple suicide bombing attack.

In this case, we had a man in jail, providing a clearly safer environment, as he himself spoke of his ties and affiliations with Al Qaida terrorists. Now the justice system has simply chosen to release him. It is not even clear for what grounds he has been released.

Of this I know, he has not changed, and with his current fiery propaganda march there will only be more Islamic Extremist violence in Indonesia this next year as he tries to push his Islamic state agenda for Indonesian government.

Posted by The Watcher at Friday, December 22, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post   

Oh my, where will it end. Now Muslim racism has raised it ugly head in the House of Congress. Virgil Goode a congressman from Virginia seems not to have learned the lesson of his racist colleague, the now deposed Senator Allen, who called a US-born ethnic American "Macaca" and welcomed him to how we do things in the good old USA. Turns out Allen was mistaken that because "Macaca" was not a foreigner and Allen revealed his basic deep seated bigotry against people of color or other nationalities and had his presidential aspirations blasted to smithereens in less time than it takes to shake a lamb's tail.

Virgil Goode is no better, and perhaps even more stupid. Just the other day he was speaking of Keith Ellison, the new congressman from Minnesota, who happens, by the way, to be a Muslim. Goode said that if the USA does not do more to stop immigration, more people serving in Congress will be Muslims and we just don't want that. This insinuated, in the first place, that Mr Ellison was somehow a foreigner and that foreigners are something to be feared; and second that Muslim people in the US were some kind of threat to everyone else. Where do these Virginian's get these "back hills" "cracker" notions and prejudices!!! They sound soooooo 20th Century.

The thing that irked Virgil was the fact that the honorable Mr. Ellison mentioned that if he would have a swearing in ceremony he would like to put his hand on the Koran (as opposed to Mr. Goode's choice which happens to be the Bible, but not the REAL Bible (which is the Old Testament), but the New Testament). Mr. Goode was seeing the future when not everyone he would know and maybe even some people who might be telling him what to do might be of faiths (or of no faith) other than his own, and he is scared. So scared that he is fear mongering among Christians and telling them they need to fear becoming the minority religion in this country. I am sure the old Romans heard the same stuff when the Christians were a small radical sect in the fist part of the first millennium.

Well, Mr. Goode, you racist intolerant fool, time to wake up and realize everyone on the planet (or even in the US) is not some mini-carbon copy of you! That there are other equally valid faiths and equally valid points of view, and that these people live and vote in the US of A. Seems that they should have some representation too, don't you think? How do people like Goode get elected????

I am tired of this Muslim bashing and fear mongering that all Muslims are Islamic extremists and that somehow their values and mores are antithetic to our own. It is like saying all Christian fundamentalists are abortion doctor murderers, which they are not. It is time to lay down the religion arms and look at the people and look and see what they do and look to see how they behave and look to see if they are making the world a better place for everyone, not must their little tribe or their little sect. That is the true mettle of a person. All this religious posturing MUST stop!

Posted by Straight Talk at Thursday, December 21, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post   

There are new political forces that are rising in Iran and this may foretell a future change in administration. The Associated Press has pointed out that in local council elections the opponents of President Ahmadinejad have won elections. Although these are local elections, they are across the face of Iran and this may foretell of future national changes as the tide of popularity appears to be waning for the current hard-line President who is pushing Iran into a conflict with the West.

Although this may show an undercurrent of change in the feelings of the Iranian people, remember on the national level, the government is not really run by Ahmadinejad but by the cleric guardian group and specifically Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

This was an interesting quote from the article:

"We consider this government's policy to be against Iran's national interests and security. It is simply acting against Iran's interests,"

We'll see what happens. President Ahmadinejad has only been in office 18 months and the rest of his term may end up seeming like an eternity but the winds of change may be starting to blow. I for one hope so.

Posted by The Watcher at Thursday, December 21, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post   

I was a college student during the Vietnam War protests. I remember thousands of young people collecting on the campus green for candlelight peace vigils, swaying and singing together. I remember the sit ins, disheveled students finally pried apart and dragged from the dean's office by the campus cops. I remember the marches and chants and fiery speeches ironically exhorting us to fight for peace. And I remember the lines of riot police, black body shields locked together, sun glinting off black visors, humanity well hidden behind their formidable armor. The Vietnam War protests changed America. Ordinary citizens sickened by war forced the politicians to listen and changed the course of history.

With so many Americans opposed to the war in Iraq, it bothers me that college campuses have been so silent. The center of rebellion in my community is the 4-corner stop in the center of town where citizens gather every Saturday to wave their placards and chant their slogans at passing motorists, not the major state university barely two miles away. The players are middle-aged parents, brothers and sisters, and old war vets, not college students. There are no marches. The police don't even bother to cruise by. Everyone, while vocal, is peaceful. The only thing that seems to echo the past is the signs: Peace! Bring our troops home! Get out of Iraq! Down with Bush!

Of course, this is a different war than Vietnam. Unlike the nebulous commie threat, September 11, like Pearl Harbor before WWII, created an angry support for smashing our enemies. At first supportive, public opinion waffled as the facts of Bush's deceit came out, then soured as the human toll mounted. But Bush has so far been able to resist playing the single most powerful anti-war card of the Vietnam War -- the draft.

The American public seems to feel that because the soldiers dying and being maimed in Iraq volunteered for service, it's in some way OK because they knew what they were getting into, it was part of their commitment to serve. Well, bull! Most of the troops serving in Iraq signed up for the National Guard to protect American shores, not Iraqi deserts. They never really expected to be called to a fighting war. They thought it more likely they'd be helping fight natural disasters -- floods, hurricanes, maybe a bit of civil unrest. They certainly didn't expect to be cruising Baghdad streets in inadequate body armor, the target of every apprentice terrorist in the Middle East.

In today's newspaper I read that President Bush is considering an increase in Iraq troop levels. Many military strategists believe only massive numbers and brute force can bring order to Iraq. (Makes you wonder why we bothered to oust Saddam in the first place.) Unbelievably, the President still talks about the utter fantasy of "winning" in Iraq. There will be no winning, there will only be more death, more white American crosses, more Iraqi slaughter.

The mounting carnage needs to stop now! I challenge Congress to bring back the draft. Apparently it is not enough that brave men and women who choose to serve must face death in Iraq. Only when every American young man has an equal opportunity to look death in the face through his gunsight, only when every American father must wave good-bye to his future hopes and dreams, only when every American mother might find herself crying quietly while they fold the flag over the coffin of her son or daughter will the American public finally stand together and say ENOUGH! Only when we stand together against the politicians, against the military, against the follies of our President's outrageous ego will we ordinary citizens become mighty enough to end this shameful war.

Posted by Secret Citizen at Wednesday, December 20, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post   

Well that is what George Bush is saying about the war in Iraq. At least the viewpoint in the administration now is that at least we're not saying that we're winning. The success of the war is pivotal for the Bush legacy. Right now some in the Press are rating George Bush as the worst President ever. I don't want to be so harsh however.

Slow as it seems to change directions, at least now the administration does appear that it may be doing just that. Bush was even quoted as saying that he was going to follow the recommendations about troop levels by the Pentagon. That is unusual. Previously with Rumsfeld in charge the Pentagon held no sway and Rumsfeld was notorious for red marking out troop numbers targeted for bolstering the efforts in Iraq.

It seems that the tide is changing and that may be a very good thing. We need a new strategy. We will never win in Iraq, but we don't have to lose so badly either.

Posted by The Watcher at Wednesday, December 20, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post   

The rhetoric coming from Washington DC which is increasing in volume is that the present "War on terror" is more a battle of ideologies (west vs. Islam) than it is really a war against a nation or some specific group of people. The Bush Administration is calling for more troops so we can wage this "War of Ideologies" and win it. I wonder how it is that more soldiers, weapons, death, destruction, and killing is somehow going to win people over to our western way of thinking? The way you win a war of ideology is through example. This is the way we won the Cold War. The Russian people finally got so fed up with seeing all that the people in the west had that they did not, that this finally came home to roost even in the highest echelons of government. As a result, Russia, basically succumbed to an internal reorganization and way of thinking as to what it wanted, and "boom" communism disappeared bloodlessly. This is happening in Viet Nam, it is happening in China. It was the constant looking out and accessing of outside information by younger generations that have driven changes in these once totalitarian, repressive regimes. It will happen too in the Middle East if we only let them alone to battle out their inner demons. Like an arthritic hip. The pain will eventually burn itself out. I am not saying this will happen overnight, but when they see how much better the other parts of the world are, how much better and safer their children are, how much more prosperous the other people are, their populations will come around, just like the members of the old Soviet Empire did. It is not necessarily a pretty sight, as we can see from the emerging nations of the old Soviet Bloc, but at least the solution is theirs and the US did not have to send any troops over there, bully any people (at least militarily), and none of our young men had to die to get these changes to happen. As Christ said - nothing beats living as an example to others. If you are a good example, other people are going to want to follow you. We should get our military noses out of the Middle East, start a HUGE diplomacy campaign, help to rebuild that part of the world, since we helped to destroy it, and then just live our lives as a people and a nation in an exemplary manner, supporting universal human rights and making our country a shining example of what others would like to be. THAT is how you win the War of Ideologies, not by pummeling those who feel or act differently than you.

Posted by Straight Talk at Wednesday, December 20, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post   

Looks like the recent elections in Iran are favoring the moderates in the early returns and hard line supporters of President Ahmadinejad seem, at first blush, to be taking a beating, at least in the cities. This could be good news, if not for the rumors that the hard liners are now trying to tamper with votes in Tehran so their party will not look like it did as bad as it did. So don't get your hopes up too high because until the last vote is counted, anything can happen as Americans saw in 2000 in Florida which put Bush in office against the will of the majority of Americans and as they saw again in 2004, where Bush was re-elected by a razor thin margin again thanks to vote and voter tampering in Ohio. So if elections can be rigged in the country that proclaims its self the model of democracy just imagine what can happen in a county like Iran which uses democracy as a sham to give it global legitimacy. So I guess my message here is, looks like the average Iranian might actually be quite a reasonable person, but with a government that stinks (kind of like what I think of Americans and their government). If that is the case, then the silent Iranian majority needs to speak more loudly before Iran eschews all semblance of being a representative government. There is not much time to act.

Posted by Straight Talk at Tuesday, December 19, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post   

Terrorism has all kinds of faces, but now it has the face of a child. In this BBC article, Tamil Tigers have kidnapped 21 children and appear to be pressing these children into the Junior Tamil Tiger brigade. This is a heinous act and one that strikes at the very core of humanity; that children can be used as pawns in war.

The Tamil Tigers have had a long history in the area of targeting Muslims as well in the region. You can read more about who the Tamil Tigers are and their struggle against the Muslims in this BBC report. It appears that not only are the Tamil Tigers at war with Muslims in the region, forcibly expelling them from their territory in some cases, but that now they are enemies of parents of all faiths as well.

It is hard to understand this face of terrorism and to understand that any cause would be worth causing children to suffer. I can not imagine that this new act will do anything to bolster the Tiger's political cause.

It is also important to know that terrorism is not just a Muslim extremist "disease". There are many organizations, many not even affiliated with a religion, that embrace violence and acts to disrupt the peace and safety of civilians everywhere. In this broader case, many Muslim families are the suffering parties. So often we only hear about terrorism enacted by Muslim Extremists, but here is a new face that warrants watching, the Tamil Tigers.

Posted by The Watcher at Tuesday, December 19, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post   

Looks like the recent elections in Iran are favoring the moderates in the early returns and hard line supporters of President Ahmadinejad seem, at first blush, to be taking a beating, at least in the cities. This could be good news, if not for the rumors that the hard liners are now trying to tamper with votes in Tehran so their party will not look like it did as bad as it did. So don't get your hopes up too high because until the last vote is counted, anything can happen as Americans saw in 2000 in Florida which put Bush in office against the will of the majority of Americans and as they saw again in 2004, where Bush was re-elected by a razor thin margin again thanks to vote and voter tampering in Ohio. So if elections can be rigged in the country that proclaims its self the model of democracy just imagine what can happen in a county like Iran which uses democracy as a sham to give it global legitimacy. So I guess my message here is, looks like the average Iranian might actually be quite a reasonable person, but with a government that stinks (kind of like what I think of Americans and their government). If that is the case, then the silent Iranian majority needs to speak more loudly before Iran eschews all semblance of being a representative government. There is not much time to act.

Posted by Straight Talk at Monday, December 18, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post   

Based on what is happening with the United Nations Iran and North Korea, it is clear that the new world blackmail bargaining chip is the Nuclear Card!

Want a big cash influx into your economy, entry into the European Community, entry into the World Trade Organization, preferential treatment from powerful countries? All you have to do is to start a nuclear program and you'll get all these and more just to stop. You don't even have to really be planning to create a nuclear weapon, just set up some centrifuges and corral all of your nuclear physicists into one business center, maybe even put up a sign, and the world will be at your doorstep just waiting to pay you to stop your endeavors.

Want more hard cold cash and even more incentives? Then get really serious and actually build some nuclear facilities, but don't spend too much money as to stop you, the world powers will pay you even more and offer to create a whole civilian infrastructure for nuclear power and will even remove your old spent nuclear rods. You can have it all! Money and cheap nuclear power for your country.

Worried about sanctions? Don't be, sanctions smanctions...they won't happen, just look at North Korea and Iran, nothing's happening there. Oh wait, if you have oil in your country, your bargaining power just got bigger. Threaten to turn off the oil to get triple what they offer you the first time.

Yes, this is all tongue in check, but there is some truth to this post as attested to by the statement released by North Korea today. "Drop sanctions and we won't do any more nuclear testing." If you believe that one, I have the Brooklyn Bridge for sale this week, it's on special!

Posted by The Watcher at Monday, December 18, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post   

Lately we have been getting quite a bit of spam in our comments. We routinely delete these items, so don't spam us and think that your link will stay. To our regular readers, if you see a Viagra or porn related comment with a link that we've missed, let me know at watcher_245@yahoo.com and we'll delete it right away.

Posted by The Watcher at Monday, December 18, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post   

Dozens of Red Crescent (i.e., Red Cross) workers were kidnapped in Iraq earlier today. What do the Iraqi militias think they are doing? These people are trying to help Iraqis independent of religion or ethnic status. Why would any military group target completely innocent and unarmed individuals and destroy the very help their country needs to get better? I can tell you. It is people who do not want things to get better. Just as the Taliban in Afghanistan destroy schools, murder teachers, and destroy newly built infrastructure, various ethnic and tribal groups in Iraq also do not want things to improve. It would hurt their chances to once again have their tiny groups reign supreme as they once did before the coming of the British. How 19th Century! What is with Iraqis, or Arabs for that matter, that makes them revel in the destruction of their homeland and people, the raping of their wives and daughters, and the murdering of their sons. There is something very sick going on in that part of the world.

You know, I know a lot of Arabs living in the United States and other places in the world outside of the Middle East and those are incredibly gifted, smart, funny, and self-depreciating people. What is it about their homelands that makes their male population no better than brutish beasts. I guess it is because the people I know are highly educated, so I would harbor a guess that the bad behavior of the Arabs in the Middle East is not because they are any less peace loving or gifted than anyone else. It has to be with the sorry state of education in that part of the world and the lack of introspection and dialog unfettered by destructive interpretations of the Koran and other Muslim religious texts. What we have in Iraq today is "Lord of the Flies" with AK 47s. How long will it take Iraqi leaders to squash the violent gangs that they once used to gain power or to decide that enough is enough.

What ever they decide to do, they should leave the innocent people who just want to get on with their lives and live some kind of real life alone.

Posted by Straight Talk at Sunday, December 17, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post   

Wherever there is injustice in the world, you will find him.
Wherever there is unrest or strife in the world, you will find him.
Wherever there is famine or pestilence, you will find him.
Wherever there is pain and suffering, you will find him.

Faster than a spraying machine gun, more powerful than an explosive-packed car bomb, able to cross international borders in the dark of night, it's the Islamic radical extremist! Wherever brother is pitted against brother, he lurks, sowing seeds of discontent, providing guns and bombs, feeding on the hate and greed between men in the name of Islam.

He lurks in the jungles of Indonesia, he hides in the mountains of Afghanistan, he plots from his lair in Pakistan, he sells guns in the rebel camps of Georgia, he marches through the war-torn villages of Northern Africa, he raises money in the mosques of America, he creeps quietly into the cities of Europe. Slowing, inexorably, Islamic radicals are moving to fulfill their destiny of an Islamic-ruled world. They seek out the small fires of hate that plaque mankind, fanning them with guns and bombs and more hate, helping to build the conflagration until, in the chaos of the inferno, they overwhelm their allies and take control.

Each year the grasping tentacles of radical Islam reach a little further into the dark recesses of the world, their spread hidden by the superficial chaos on which they feed, their grip a little tighter. Is this the master plan of some as yet unknown evil genius or are these unrelated crimes of opportunity. Radical Islam seems remarkably adept at turning to its own advantage the tragedies that afflict the world. If no single evil yet holds the reigns, eventually one will emerge. Will the world notice? And will it be too late?

Posted by Secret Citizen at Saturday, December 16, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post   

Another Arab defied history and called the holocaust a myth. The bodies stacked like cord wood inside the gas chambers, the lime-strewn decomposing corpses of thousands inside the death camps, the 6 million souls brutally annihilated by the German Nazis -- this is no myth. Survivors have shared their nightmares. Soldiers who liberated the camps have borne witness. Journalists with their cameras captured the carnage in grim detail. The holocaust was no hoax; it was horribly real.

The Arab idea that the holocaust is a Jewish hoax, while shocking, is not new. During World War II the war in Europe seemed far removed from many isolated Arab villages. In the 1940s news came primarily by radio in villages privileged to have electricity, occasionally by newspaper for those who could read, often weeks late or not at all. In small villages it may have been possible for the uneducated to dismiss the reports as Jewish propaganda. But the horrifying reality was starkly known in the cities and in circles of educated men. The account I read spoke of the horror and revulsion of an Arab village leader who knew the truth of the holocaust. Yet he allowed the people of his village to believe the myth. He did not speak out against it. And in time, the myth became the new reality.

In any other venue such behavior would be denounced as psychotic. We label as delusional the fanatics who believe that somewhere in the southwestern desert secretive US scientists run tests on captured aliens. Of course it's preposterous, but for true believers Area 51 exists. Even more outrageous are the confused souls who believe the moon landing was acted out on a secret California soundstage far from the lunar surface. The flat earth society still meets despite irrefutable proof that the earth is round. The world is filled with ghost hunters, former UFO test subjects, and other tortured souls who inhabit an alternate reality. I'm sure some of them are Arabs.

But most Arabs are reasonable people like you and me who live ordinary lives just like the rest of us. How then can an Arab leader have the audacity to flagrantly deny the reality of recorded history and declare the holocaust to be a myth? How can Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad profess to believe such proven nonsense and host a conference of like-minded bigots from 30 countries as he did this week? This is a supposedly educated man, a supposedly responsible leader of his people, an undeniably powerful force in the Middle East and the Arab world. Unfortunately, people are too often like sheep, willing to follow the herder. When a respected leader of the Arab world labels the holocaust a myth, many Arabs, fueled by centuries of hate, are only too willing to believe him.

This predilection the Arab community has for restructuring history to their liking worries me. Historically the "facts" of various battles have been restructured by the Arabs: failed commanders painted as heroes, battlefield routs colored as heroic stands against unimaginable odds. Why is the collective Arab ego so incapable of humility and error? Why must every Arab failure be rewritten as the fault of the Jews? Why can't Arabs take responsibility for their actions? I was shocked to read that when Israel was founded, the Palestinians were also offered a homeland but refused! Yet now they blame Israel for their lost opportunity.

I do not understand how a man, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, can espouse a point of view so opposed to historical fact. I do not understand how the supposedly educated Iranian society can support such an ignorant view of history. I do not understand how the Arab nation can choose to live a life so utterably devoid of integrity. But then I don't understand how the German people could have goose-stepped after Hitler and under the guise of racial supremacy made such a dedicated and nearly successful effort to wipe out the Jewish race. Is history doomed to repeat itself? Will Iran's streets ring with the cry of "Heil Ahmadinejad"? And most importantly, will the world stand idly by and allow the tragic lessons of the Holocaust to be forgotten?

Posted by Secret Citizen at Saturday, December 16, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post   

Hah! Not even two weeks after my December 5th blog, and my predictions have come true!!! Robert Gates appointment by Bush to the US Secretary of Defense position is now revealed for what it truly is and shows who is really running the war in Iraq. Robert Gates, as we all know, is one of the esteemed members of the brainy Iraq Study Group. We and he have now seen this once much-hyped report, in which he played an important role, vaporize faster from the political landscape in Washington DC than a snow flake on a hot day in hell. So what does this mean for the credibility of the new Secretary of Defense and what kind of clout he is going to have in the declining years of the "W. Administration". Well, I would say it is obvious........"Nothing". As I predicted back in early December, the joy of the Democrats and the public in seeing someone who appeared to be rational and open minded and have a pragmatic and new view of what is taking place on the world stage, was misguided because this appointment was all about "looks" and had nothing to do with substance. "Yes", the Democrats and the American public got the pleasure of seeing Rumsfeld kicked out of office and "yes" they got the pleasure of seeing someone they thought would be honest with them about the war effort, and "yes" they thought they were actually going to get someone who would look at the Iraq debacle with "fresh eyes" as the Bush Administration put it; but what they didn't realize is that without any clout at the roundtable Gates is nothing but a showhorse and will have absolutely no influence or impact on anything. As I predicted, he will be relegated to "puppet status" and, if he is not smart enough to "get out while the getting's good" will no doubt suffer the "Colin Powell syndrome" where a very smart and well meaning guy and his stellar reputation are used as toilet paper to wipe the butts of misguided and illegal policies decreed by Dick Cheney, the smarter and more powerful of the dynamic duo working in the White House.

How do I know this? Well, just take a look,only someone on the street smoking crack could miss this. What is the big talk going on with regard to revising our strategy in Iraq now. Does it include any kind of troop withdrawal? "NO!" In fact the word on the street is that troop levels will be increased! What a joke! This is a meaningless gesture to show the world that the US WILL NOT BE DEFEATED by some pipsqueak bunch of dirty rebels. Tell me, what terrorist or other human being on the planet, for that matter, is actually going to believe this? How reminiscent of the Viet Nam days when the answer, when even in the face of total chaos and obvious defeat was evident to all......was to throw more young men into the meat grinder. The only people who believe this strategy for Iraq are Dick Cheney, the punitive industrialist and ultimate "cold warrior" that Eisenhower warned us about, John McCain, a now discredited bootlicking Bush Syncophant who once had an independent mind, and George Bush, a petulant non-thinker and knee jerker who does not read or understand history. Listen, the British in colonial days had 400,000 men stationed in the area and they couldn't keep things from spinning out of control. What impact would an additional 25,000 US troops mean or even another 50,000 troops? And let me ask you....where are these troops going to come from? All you Iraq war supporters out there, I can tell you. Better get ready to have your sons drafted and thrown into the meat grinder because that is the only place they CAN come from. And if you are a person of low income, those kids will disproportionately come from the kids in your ranks, in your schools, and in your homes.

Will there be any regional dialogs with other countries in the Middle East? Well, maybe the powerless ones, but not the ones who are the perpetrators and financiers (meaning Syria and Iran) of much of the trouble in Iraq, Lebanon, and Palestine. So much, for the administrations "fresh look" at the rapidly deteriorating situation in the Middle East. So what is Gates going to do now that everything he stands for and that is in the Iraq Study Group report has been completely repudiated by the Bush Administration? Well as I predicted, and as I predict today, the next two years will be ones of lots of meetings in the Pentagon with top brass, lots of studies of troop strength and equipment, lots of visits to army bases, very little visibility by the new Secretary because he will be soooooooooo busy (doing what? well doing nothing, because a showhorse is not hired for his speed or intelligence, he his hired as window dressing and no one wants the window dressing to do or say anything that might distract from the clothes it is wearing). If there are any press conferences with the Secretary, I would be surprised because what is he going to say? The first questions will be why are none of the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group being considered.....and what can he say to that!

Ultimately, this war is a Cheney/Bush initiative and the Secretary of Defense has no place in it because Cheney is the true Secretary of Defense, and the Secretary of State, and the President of the United States all rolled into one. Genius that he is, Dick Cheney, by taking the puppeteers role behind his dummy Charlie McCarthy Bush, has all the power and none of the ignominy that will disgrace Bush in his legacy. Cheney will just fade into history as another vice president....and who cares about those. Bush will, however, be tarred for his stupidity, arrogance, fascism, his willful elimination of crucial American rights and ideals, and corruption, much of which can be laid directly at the feet of Dick Cheney. Both Gates and Bush are simply puppets and the sooner elections come and sanity can be restored to America, the better. I just hope we can hold out and sustain no more significant damage....but two years is a long time for a Machiavellian thinker like Dick Cheney; and I have to say, I am not terribly optimistic about our chances.

Posted by Straight Talk at Saturday, December 16, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post   

So the news is out again drawing world attention to Israel's practice of assassinating leaders of terrorist movements that advocate "death too all Israelis". For the most part, what I see is global condemnation of this practice. I, however, am of somewhat of a different opinion. I look at what I see going on in the Middle East and in middle Asia, in the "stans", and other places around the world. I see what Hezbollah is doing in Lebanon, what the Taliban is doing in Afghanistan, what the Tamil Tigers are doing in Sri Lanka, what the Lord's Resistance Army is doing in Uganda, and I have to ask.......are all the civilian deaths, all the raping and pillaging, and all the trauma suffered by innocent people worth leaving the despotic, dangerous, and thoughtless leaders of militias and/or armies of thugs, who cause these events and who have no regard for human life, unscathed and alive to wreak further havoc and destroy more innocent lives; or is it better to kill one man (I know of no women leaders who are in this arena) or a small group of men who cause such human suffering? I would have to say that the Israeli's have come up with a pretty darn good way of dealing with this problem. And, I wonder how different Iraq would have been if we had just sent in the US special forces or better yet some Mafia hit men to assassinate Saddam and his sons, leaving the rest of the country intact for some kind of democratic process to evolve in. I wonder how different the Balkans might have been if we had sent in one or two assassins to kill Milosovic as opposed to letting him continue with his ruthless and barbaric ethnic cleansing in Bosnia and Kosovo.

Right now, the present world policy of preserving these terrorist and fascist provocateurs and thugs and leaving the general (and I might add, for the most part) innocent populations to bear the brunt of death and destruction is wrong.......dead wrong. Someone has to stand up for the people who have no defense or alternatives. In a way, the US is pursuing the "Israeli solution" in its search to destroy al Queda. Yet the outcry in the US and elsewhere toward Israel's policy of leader assignation for enemies who have pledged the total and unilateral destruction of Israel and the Jews does not take into account that, when faced with a similar enemy (i.e., one that wants to destroy western culture) we have adopted the same strategy.

Now many nations, in particular their leaders, would say this is a misguided policy, mainly because they see that they could one day be caught in the cross hairs of an assassin's gun. I would say that, "Well, better do right by your people and by others on the planet and you will not be at risk"! If world leaders want to insure that some crackpot does not just take umbrage to some political policy that insures their targeting for assassination, I say let's establish a World Court, where such charges could be leveled, the evidence presented, and where rulings could be made. That would allow all people with strong grievances to come forth, make injustices known, document what is happening, and then have the world rule on whether the actions of the accused were warranted or not. If not and if they were egregious enough, then that person could be condemned to death as an enemy to humanity and assassins could be sent to terminate that person's life. Perhaps this is one way to reign in the chaos and to make hate and war mongers accountable for their actions before they destroy too many innocent people. It would also put them and other world leaders on notice that we now have a global society and bullying and racial and ethnic or religious hatred will not be tolerated at any level.

Will it work? I think it could. I believe that people should be held accountable for their actions and if their actions cause the death of innocent civilians, then they should pay and they should pay with their lives since they have no respect for anyone elses. Now I am sure that this solution would strike fear into the hearts of many western governments (the ones with the true power on this planet seeing as they have the vast majority of the military and economic might in the world at this point in time), but they can be just as guilty of crimes as third world despots and leaders of terrorist groups. Nevertheless, they should be held accountable for their policies , the same was as any other person on the planet.

Posted by Straight Talk at Saturday, December 16, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post   

I read with interest in the Washington Post today that Secretary of State Rice has said that we don't need to have talks with Syria or Iran to have peace in Iraq or in the Middle East. Her comment was that what we would have to trade away would be so great that we just simply wouldn't want it and so we will not pursue it. What planet is Condelezza Rice living on? The shear arrogance of her statement is staggering.

First, for peace, we do not have to fixate on what we have to give or lose. There is such a thing as mutual peer to peer relations. There is such a thing as a coalition effort where everyone gives equally for a cause outside of themselves. What we would have to give them is a statement that shows from Rice that any talks would clearly not be successful as the US would come in telling the other parties what to do for peace, not asking for assistance, for solutions, and coalition support.

This type of arrogant "I know what is best for you" attitude with Middle Eastern countries will never work. This also shows a serious lack on the part of the Bush administration to be able to create collations. If we feel that we are better than everyone, more powerful, and that our ideas are the best, and the only one to pursue, is doomed to create strife in any possible negotiation. With that kind of approach, of course we would have to pay off Iran and Syria to be able to have them swallow our plan.

If the approach instead would be coalition building with a humble approach, consensus could be achieved on a diplomatic level. We Americans, have become so arrogant about our democratic vision for the Middle East that we are sabotaging our own possible success in the region. Our administration needs to take a fresh look at the Iraqi report, swallow their pride, and embrace some of the thoughtful approaches for success using the countries who are located in the Middle East as partners.

Posted by The Watcher at Friday, December 15, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post   

I have been watching the press for the last few days and boy has Israel been taking a beating. First there was the release of Jimmy Carter's new book pointing fingers at Israel for not working out the expansion issue with the Palestinians, then there was the nuclear slip of the tongue by Prime Minister Olmert, and then there were pictures of a Jewish Rabbi speaking at the Iranian Holocaust conference. When you talk about sound bites, the overall picture has not been flattering. Now to be fair, when you scratch the surface of many of these topics Israel is not the only one put in an unflattering light, there are others, but the Press has jumped on Israel.

Israel has long been strong friends of the United States, Great Britain, and numerous European countries as well, but the test of friendship will now be in loyalty to Israel. Will these powers stand by and watch their friend be bashed, will they graciously and tactfully encourage Israel to take a redirection on certain policies as a good friend would speak honestly and encouragingly, will they flee from Israel so as not to be smeared by the bad Press?

Only time will tell. I for one feel that the United States must remain loyal to Israel, but now is the time for top-level frank discussions about redirection of policies and renewed work on important yet thorny topics. The nuclear issue must be dealt with and Israel must sign the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and openly enter the nuclear club. Negotiations must be moved forward with the Palestinians with the help of the United Nations, and Israel must make efforts to engage in friendly discussions the other Middle Eastern states including Lebanon, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia. I think that there is too much bad blood to expect them to open talks with Iran and Syria, but maybe in time there can at least be a detente of some sort.

We all need to move forward and openly discuss some of these important issues that have come to light and be the "true" friend that Israel needs right now.

Posted by The Watcher at Thursday, December 14, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post   

If you were not sure that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad didn't have a screw loose, just read on. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad opened the conference yesterday to refute the evidence of the Holocaust. You can read the full Associated Press article here.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has long stated that he does not believe that the Holocaust ever really happened and now he has convened a conference in Iran to review the information. One of the guests he has invited, and who is attending is President David Duke of the Klu Klux Clan. Just that guest name should let you know in a nutshell what type of conference this really is! David Duke is an American rabid white supremacist.

World uproar has been created by this conference and just about every world leader even including the Pope have spoken out against it.

I find it incredibly disconcerting that a President of a country would talk about events that happened historically as if they did not happen. We still have witnesses alive to the atrocities that happened in the Nazi concentration camps, we have photos, we have masses of clothing from the deceased victims, we have graves. What proof does he need to say the Holocaust existed?

I can not imagine what proof the President of Iran would consider unrefutable. To cling to his viewpoints flies in the literal face of reason. And on top of this, this same person who is living in an alternative world universe, will have a finger on the trigger of the next nuclear bomb! It is unconceivable that a person could be in a position of authority and be so ignorant.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a very dangerous person of this there is no doubt, and I do not need to convene a conference to decide that one.

Posted by The Watcher at Wednesday, December 13, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post   

What is going to be done now? The hypocrisy has been revealed. Just today Reuters published an article where the Israeli Prime Minister Olmert has slipped and said:

"Iran, openly, explicitly and publicly threatens to wipe Israel off the map. Can you say that this is the same level, when they are aspiring to have nuclear weapons, as America, France, Israel, Russia?"

You can read the full article here.

What is the United Nations, America, France, Iran, North Korea, and Russia going to do with this one? If no action is taken by the United Nations and America we will be seen by the world as blithering hypocrites. As the United States, the United Nations, and the greater world community struggle with sanctions against North Korea and Iran, suddenly Israel has entered the mix of nuclear armed countries. How can the world effectively enforce any sanctions against Iran when Israel is armed?

It has long been suspected that Israel had a nuclear arsenal, but now with this apparent slip of the tongue by the Prime Minister, the issue is now out in the open. Israeli politicos are back peddling fast with retractions saying that Olmert didn't know what he was saying and that it is not so, but I am not so naive as to actually believe that.

We must now bring Israel to bear under the same exact pressure for nuclear disarmament as we have brought North Korea, Iran, Pakistan, and India. Israel must now sign a nuclear non-proliferation treaty and allow United Nations inspectors in to evaluate their arsenal. To do anything less will simply throw hot coals on the tinder that has become the Middle East today. We can not say to Iran "do as I say, but don't do as I do".

Posted by The Watcher at Tuesday, December 12, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post   

In October, Taliban leaders met to create guidelines for their followers. Primary among these is the destruction of all learning, except religious, in Afghanistan. Seems that Rule 23 of the 30 rules that were codified says that education is the tool of the Great Satan and that any teachers who do not give up teaching things like literature, mathematics, social studies, etc. are to be warned. If they do not heed the warning and continue to teach, they are supposed to be beaten. If they continue to teach their subjects, they are then to be murdered. Seems that the Taliban continues to fear any independent thought and influences. Their opinion is that any education, other than that which is religious, is a bad thing for the people of Afghanistan; and they are willing to go all out to prevent that country from pulling itself out of the Dark Ages that the Taliban pushed it into after they took power.

Pakistan, the US and their allies, have to wage complete and total war on the Taliban to prevent these misguided men from intimidating the Afghan population again and most probably coming to power once again. This sect needs to be wiped out with extreme prejudice and no member should be allowed to live. All this is fruit of the US support of Taliban militants during the Russian occupation of Afghanistan near the end of the cold war. Until the Taliban are wiped out, there can be no peace and regularization of society in Afghanistan. It is a shame because Afghanistan used to be a pinnacle of learning, art, and culture before the sectarian religious wars began happening. Pakistan has to withdraw its promise of safe haven for Taliban warriors along the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan. If it had true resolve, it would make its borders safe from Taliban incursions, but as it is, Pakistan is harboring and abetting one of the most destabilizing forces in west Asia.

Posted by Straight Talk at Monday, December 11, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post   

The Sunni Muslims in Iraq may as well start planning to move out and immigrate into Saudi Arabia. We are seeing more and more violence targeting Sunni Muslims in the majority Shiite Iraq. Many of these Sunni Muslims are innocent civilians, some are members of militias that have preyed upon Shiites through out Baghdad, and some are simply good people caught in the middle.

It seems sad to say give up and immigrate out of your own country, but Muslim conflicts have been fraught with this same impetus over history.

Even in Muhammad's day, he pushed the Jews out of Mecca He gave them only several day to move out, confiscated their property that they could not take, allowed them only three camels per family to take all of their possessions, confiscated their profitable orchards, and moved his own followers into their homes.

Why should we feel that brothers of the same faith should treat each other in any other way? Well, I for one feel that this dissection of who is the legitimate Muslim leader from the 6th century, nearly 1500 years later, is a ridiculous point to argue about. However, this is the crux of the fight and disagreement between the Sunnis and Shiites. It is about the decendency of the line of Muhammad and not about important religious viewpoints at all. But yet this point has been the rallying cry to spearhead violence and to segregate peoples into Sunni and Shiite blocks. Pre-war Iraq was one of the few places worldwide that Shiites and Sunnis lived together in peace, and that is only because the Saddam Hussein society was very secular in nature. Now that his iron fist is out of the way, the tide of religiosity has risen and with it the historical eons old strife between the two sects of the Muslim faith.

I do not see any way that the two sects can live in modern day Iraq together. They are intent on annihilation of each other and are struggling to manage the government for their own personal agendas. So, sorry, but I would recommend that Saudi Arabia instead of sending trunks of money to continue the failing Sunni insurgency, start actively encouraging immigrations and allow funding to help move Sunnis out of Iraq and into their own country. There will never be peace between the two factions in Iraq, history is my guide.

Posted by The Watcher at Monday, December 11, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post   

After all the fanfare, the bipartisan report on Iraq is a bit of a letdown. Yes, it paints a completely polar view of the problems in Iraq but comes short of damning the Bush administration for what is one of the most tragic foreign policy decisions in US history. But the report offers nothing new. All the information and ideas it offers are already out there, just not tied up into one neat package. There is no silver bullet.



I understand that the issues in Iraq and the Middle East are complex and steeped in centuries-old alliances and betrayals. Iraq's myriad problems may defy a silver bullet, but the bipartisan report offered nothing new. Granted, a published and highly reported refutal of the Bush administration's bully boy policies and assessment in Iraq is not without merit, but I was disappointed that the report committee did not take the opportunity to take a more decisive stand. While the report did place responsibility for solving Iraq's problems on the shoulders of Iraqi politicians, without proposing a timetable for US withdrawal it lacks the teeth to make them pay attention.

As seems to be the Arab way, Iraqi politicians will simply beat their chests, pontificating and procrastinating without ever taking action unless they are forced to the wall. As long as US troops patrol Iraq, its politicians have no incentive to settle their old scores and either compromise or split the country up along factional lines. They're quite content to let our troops take the heat and the blame -- and the bullets -- for problems they seem unwilling to solve. And let's be clear, the mire in Iraq has been there all along. True, by removing Saddam's iron fist the US destroyed the thin veneer that covered the bubbling ooze, but the noxious elements that erupted had been fermenting under the surface for decades, if not centuries.

What would happen if US troops left within the next few months? Iraq might plunge into greater chaos, full-blown civil war could erupt, but that is happening now. By removing US soldiers, Iraqi politicians would lose their convenient scapegoat and might actually find the impetus to solve their problems. Once we're gone, they'll only be able to blame the US for their problems for so long before Iraqi citizens call them to account.

There is nothing left for the US in Iraq. There is nothing left to salvage -- except a few thousand American lives. We'll never leave Iraq with our heads held high, let's at least leave while our troops can march out, not be carried out in coffins.

Posted by Secret Citizen at Saturday, December 09, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post   

Interesting to read the Iraq Study Report and see what former Bush (The First) pundits thoughts are on Iraq. Although this is a pragmatic approach to what is going on in that part of the world, I was dismayed that what is being advocated is a pan-Arab summit to talk about the future of the Middle East that does not include Israel at the table. What is that all about! How can you have a coherent discussion when one of the prime parties is not included in the dialog. From what I can gather from what I read, Baker feels that excluding Israel would neutralize "Jewish pressure", whatever that means. It seems that Israel has some legitimate beefs here and not including them in talks would send exactly the wrong message to the agitating Arabs who would be delighted to come to the table and settle all the Middle East's woes without having to address the elephant in the room.

Arab leaders are just going to have to grow up and talk like adults to their neighbor, and the US even intimating that it would entertain the idea of official talks on the Middle East without including Israel is completely destructive to finding a solution to strife in that part of the world. If the Arabs hold out to ostracize Israel and the US let's them do it, that is sending the wrong message and positioning the US along the path of the destruction of Israel. Without strong US support, Israel will have few options with regard to defending itself in a hugely hostile region of the world. What has to be done is to reduce the savagery of the Arab propaganda machine and attitudes which are as destructive or even more so than Hitler's.

It is one thing to have private separate talks with different Arab nations to ask their opinion of Middle East affairs and what they would like to see done about them or what they want to do about them. It is another to grant recognition to a racist/bigoted body as an institution to solve a major global-political problem that excludes, on the basis of extreme and infantile prejudice, the very country all have vowed must be wiped from the Earth. I think I can guess what their conclusions regarding solving the present Middle East crisis will be.

Posted by Straight Talk at Friday, December 08, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post   

It is becoming more and more evident that the problems in Iraq are not just a struggle isolated to this country, but that this is a global struggle between Sunnis and Shiites of the Muslim faith using Iraq as their battleground.

The Associated Press has just released and article pointing to Saudi funding being trucked into Iraq to fund the Sunni struggle there. You can read this must see article here. Just to clarify, this is not the Saudi government funding the insurgency, but rather Muslim clerics and every day Muslim followers. Their charitable contributions, as required by their faith, are being funneled by their own Clerics into Iraq.

In the Muslim faith, one of the tenents of the faith is to give generously to Muslim brothers and those in need. Usually this donation is given to the Cleric and then the Cleric has personal discretion on how the money is spent. Trunks of cash are being found on trucks going into Iraq to fund the Sunnis there.

This is now becoming a wider struggle than just one for the government in Iraq, this is becoming a religious struggle. That is a very dangerous situation. At the same time, Bush is stating that he will cherrypick the ideas from the Iraq Report. Several he has stated that he will ignore are the pivotal ones working to create a consensus drawing in Syria and Iran.

Clearly we are in for chaos in the Middle East, we know the solutions, but Saudi Muslim followers and President Bush are simply ignoring them. Sorry, but the situation is doomed to blossom and spiral out of control.

Posted by The Watcher at Friday, December 08, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post   

I have mentioned that I felt that this is one of the keys to having peace and stabilization in Iraq and now with the Iraq report out, I am vindicated!

The Iraq report that was recently released encouraged the current administration to renew diplomatic relations with both countries and involve them in participating in helping to forge a new Iraq. Now, whether the Bush administration can rebuild these ties is another matter.

So much damage and rhetoric has been thrown around that I am not sure that American efforts will simply not be rebuffed if and when made. Getting Iran and Syria involved in the solution is Iraq will certainly be a test of the Bush view or democracy as what will arrive from these two countries involvement will not be an American version democracy but most likely a Muslim focused permutation of democracy. Their involvement will also most likely involve advisors and troops in the region which the Bush administration will certainly resist.

Iraq already senses that Syria and Iran are key to their stabilization as Iran understands as well as attested to by the high level meetings already had between the three countries.

Do I believe that Bush will embrace these changes and move forward on these actions? Hmm, I think that the propaganda machines are already at work on that one to show Iran and Syria in a bad light justifying why Bush won't be able to include them even though advised to do so.

I will simply have to wait and see. In the meantime, I am sure that millions if not billions of dollars could have been saved on creating a report, that educated people already understood the outcome, could have been saved if the administration would only have been listening.

Posted by The Watcher at Thursday, December 07, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post   

Iran is more and more in the news. Now Iran is reaching out to other countries in the Middle East namely the United Arab Emerites in an effort to create a allied block with Syria, Iran, and Iraq. As Iran voices unusual demands and has questionable motives, this effort to create more allies is concerning information.

As the United Nations gets closer to at least saying they have sanctions agreed upon, Iran is stepping up their rhetoric about downgrading relations with the 25 member European Union. This may not sound like a big deal to us in the United States, but Iran supplies much of the oil and gas to the European Union that this is forbidding news and will drive up gas and oil prices and cause economic havoc in the European block.

I personally believe this is also the biggest reason why France, Russia, and others have been slow to move the sanctions process forward. The ramifications are just so great for their own economies.

Iran is the country to watch right now and I would recommend that if we do not take decisive action as a world community, at this juncture, that the situation will become only more difficult.

Posted by The Watcher at Wednesday, December 06, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post