good one uncle –
who, who, who?

Posted by: anna missed | Aug 12 2006 7:53 utc | 3

Question:
Is Israel’s poor performance in the current war a sign of a general weakening of their society ?
They took in all those Russians who don’t seem to give a damn about Israel itself. The talented people seem to want to leave for America.

Posted by: still working it out | Aug 12 2006 9:27 utc | 5

The Security Council Resolution looks to me to be the same as previously : the Hizbollah lay down dead, the Israelis get to wage all the defensive war they want, the Israelis stay in Lebanon until replaced by a suitably, robust is it?, international force.
Right now the Israelis are defending themselves all the way to the Litani.
There’s more to be sure, but I can’t imagine them getting past this first part.
The US successfully stalled for time, and then delivered a stillborn resolution.
Or am I wrong?

Posted by: John Francis Lee | Aug 12 2006 11:20 utc | 7

Sorry but when ever I hear some interview from Israel, here on TV , looks like people there speak good American accent…Of course they perhaps are poor American Jews (what a contradiction in terms , ha-ha)…I suppose Russian or American Jews if they are poor all they care is how to get rich…That’s why they are in Israel I suppose…As they said in an interview ” Nowhere else in the world we couldn’t have houses like these by the sea”…Sorry folks…but Russian and American Jews seem not to fanatics…just ordinary people.

Posted by: vbo | Aug 12 2006 12:02 utc | 9

Or am I wrong?
I for three think that you are right!

Posted by: annie | Aug 12 2006 12:26 utc | 11

Sometimes I pity Ms Rice, she has been referred to as always being the smartest one in the room, she is a concert pianist, a figure skater, and has many academic achievements. Yet she will be remembered for all the death and destruction of nonwhites in many different areas of the world putting her in the company of some very evil white men.
When she started out all those years ago, could she have ever imagined to be depicted like this?

Posted by: dan of steele | Aug 12 2006 12:45 utc | 13

Everywhere in the world, many will wonder how a Black would allow herself to be the tool for so much destruction.
And Ms. Rice, would have to be completely heartless not to feel a sense of confliction over her role in Lebanon.
But it was not too long ago that she compared the Iraq situation to the ciivil rights struggle. Shes obviously a beleiver and/or a good spinner.
One would like to think that her recent posture as a realist and her more recent disagreement with Bush & Co. over Lebanon suggest she is much less of a beleiver. But its too little too late, its no consolation for the harm done, its not much of an excuse.

Posted by: jony_b_cool | Aug 12 2006 13:50 utc | 15

Malooga:
Condi, unfortunately, sold her soul long, long ago.
Agreed.

Posted by: Anonymous | Aug 12 2006 14:41 utc | 17

But it was not too long ago that she compared the Iraq situation to the ciivil rights struggle.
Her conservative upper-middle class black family in Birmingham was AGAINST the civil rights struggle. They felt that it was “needlessly divisive” to their class interests. They did not support MLK; they opposed him.
If you don’t know history, you can’t understand the present.
She and Bush are masters of these kinds of statements, that mean one thing to the public, and the complete opposite to those “in the know.”

Posted by: Malooga | Aug 12 2006 14:45 utc | 19

That’s assuming she ever had one.

Posted by: Noirette | Aug 12 2006 14:59 utc | 21

I have to say, Malooga, Antifa, — and so many others here — I love reading your comments — not only do I learn something — but dark as they sometimes are, they give me hope.

Posted by: Dena | Aug 12 2006 15:15 utc | 23

The head of Hezbollah has endorsed the Security Council resolution, although he correctly describes it as thoroughly biased in Israel’s favor.
The “somebody hold my coat!” Israeli public relations campaign so perfectly described by Billmon will now have to segué into a victory celebration.

Posted by: arbogast | Aug 12 2006 15:56 utc | 25

Antifa and others…
“People of the Book”…makes sense to me..
Still I go even further back to understand the source of our human woes.
The “R” formation in the deep brain is a remnant from our evolutionary reptilian past that holds much of the hard wiring for territoriality. The brain evolved on all its old functions and structures and obviously those functions that have had strong adaptive usefulness have been retained and over the thousands of years, reinforced by more and more synaptic connections to the rest of the brain. The impulse to territoriality and aggression can be overridden — but only by the cerebral cortex with direct synaptic input in the individual — by learning and experience. So in many ways, territoriality is our default wiring which can — but only by deliberate action, be overridden by our own will, education and learning to do so.
Another thought I have is that maybe there is a failsafe gene in us when humans reach a certain density in a region. That gene protects the earth and when humans reach certain trigger points, they self destruct — sorta like lemmings. It would make sense given what I observe — senseless self destruction in the name of belief systems makes no sense otherwise — its just some gene or region in the brain that is being stimulated.
The good news of course is that we COULD decide to change by the effort of our will. We could learn to be peaceful –we could choose to override the impulse to territoriality. We could also control our numbers and our impact on this earth using birth control if we chose. We can do this. We choose not to.
Thanks again to all of you for such great discussion. I am completely hooked!

Posted by: Elie | Aug 12 2006 16:50 utc | 27

You guys have got it all wrong. Condi Rice’s betrayal of all that is good, horrible though it is on every other level, is actually a good sign for black/white race relations in America. It means that the old stereotypes have been broken down to the point where an African-American woman can help destroy the world just like a bunch of white guys can, without being considered representative of her race. Twenty years ago, this would have been unthinkable; black people either stuck to the straight and narrow to an impossible standard (and, that standard being impossible, eventually failed in some way which was used as a way of destroying their influence) or else were dismissed as criminals, and usually petty, worthless criminals at that. Condi Rice is a world-class villain, doing vast harm to everyone’s interests. Her lack of principle is one of the key assets of the Bush administration, and yet, she’s not white! How far we’ve come!

Posted by: The Truth Gets Vicious When You Corner It | Aug 12 2006 17:09 utc | 29

Antifa, “Cowboy up, or get back in the truck.”
Malooga, all part of the desertification of Islam.
TTGVWYCI, corner this:
http://www.pgh-psc.org/
Naturally, there is no news coverage of this event,
nor will there ever be any coverage of it in the USA.
Muslims are being disappeared in America the same
way Jews and Gypsies were disappeared in Germany.
Now comes “Liquids on Airplanes”, coming soon to
a movie theatre near you.
So if I were a political analyst, watching the US
war on the people of Iraq fail, watching the US war
on the people of Afghanistan fail, watching the US-
Israeli war on the people of Lebanon fail, watching
Israeli-citizen (and Republican double-agent) Joe
Lieberman get voted out of office (he has received
a direct communication from the White House to
provide him with funds and political support to run
as either an independent or a Republican), here’s
what I would distill from this latest “terror” in the UK,
with the background that I’ve had inside government.
Remember, all government is about diplomacy and
also duplicity. Shaking your colleague’s hand, while
you stab them in the back. Most of all, government
is about expanding your base, constantly always
finding ways to spend more taxes, and buy more
votes. Hey, Congressmen are millionaire lawyers!
That’s what the whole Abramoff-gate thing is about.
Graft for votes, and graft for funding. It’s Politics!
So Lieberman’s defeat was a real shot across the
bow for Neo’s. The defeat in Iraq, no problem, just
redirect the war towards another front. Lebanon.
Your taxes and US-made bombs killing innocent
civilians, but at least they’re Muslim, thank G-d!
Southern Lebanon looks like Hiroshima today.
It’s why George Bush is pushing Supreme Court to
rewrite the definition of “war crimes” to protect
government, military, mil-def-con’s and intel.
Our defeat in Afghanistan, no problem, just turn
off the news coverage, and hand it over to NATO.
There is no US coverage of Afghanistan anymore.
But Lieberman’s defeat, wow, and Hizbullah fighting
back, unbowed? Wow, that’s a real political problem!
What to do? What to do? Let’s ask Karl Rove.
If I were going to dream up a solution, it would be:
Some nebulous gang, preferably Pakistani, since
they are our intelligence allies, and so the US can
rattle to put sanctions on their continued sales of
nuclear technology to the Muslim world (Dr. Kahn)
http://www.acronym.org.uk/dd/dd76/76cc.htm
http://www.fas.org/irp/world/pakistan/index.html
using something generic enough that the US can
put the Holy Terror back into this Twelfth Crusade:
Liquids on Airplanes. A US-UK-ISI false-flag operation.
So, American Science and Engineering and other
US defense contracting firms, and I’ll bet if you did
a little research you’d find a lot of connections from
ASEInc to Congressmen or Bush’s Cabinet (like the
avian flu “crisis” and Tamiflu, which has no effect
on avian flu, but which Rumsfeld was able to buy
in $100M’s quantities through his position at DoD,
even though he owns $M’s worth of stock in the
company which has the Tamiflu patent — you see?)
so this will create the opportunity to inconvenience
all Americans right up to the elections, and remind
them it’s the Republicans who are “protecting them”,
but most of all, remember, back to Politics 101, it’s
a way to build your base, spend more tax money
and grow the bureaucracy to buy more votes.
In the coming months you will see more hiring for
Transportation Safety agents (more jobs for votes)
among Democratically-inclined hirees. See, they
needn’t fund more Southern good ol’ boy lab coat
jobs at NASA and DoD without a crisis, since they
already consolidated the Red State votes anyway.
What they really need is new hires in the Blue
States, more TSA agents of all racial ethnicities.
You’ll see more Border Patrol agents of all racial
ethnicities. You’ll see high school mandatory test
regimes used to push more drop-outs into roles
as police-militia-security agents-national guard.
This is good. This increases their tax base AND
increases their voter base. Everyone will know
someone who works for the Federal government,
Republican Federal Government(TM), I might add.
These TSA jobs will increase Republican security.
That takes care of Airplanes. Now the “Liquid” thing.
Lobbyists for these scientific detection companies
have been pushing hard ever since 9/11 to get their
nuclear technology into every airport, train station, bus
station and marine port. No can do. Too expensive,
too many false-positives, failed detections, too much
danger to the public (they even use in some cases very
high energy gamma radioactivity to activate the target and
then detect the activated radioactivity scattered back).
Just too expensive, poor test results, too dangerous.
Ahh. Now comes “Liquids on Airplanes”.
Oh, frabjous day! Kaloo kalay!
Burn that into American’s brains. Liquids on Airplanes.
In the next few months you are going to see an all-
out funding initiative to put these nuclear detectors in
every public place in America. It’s the next Space
Race. White lab coats are cheering, coast to coast!
Nuclear scientists are popping champagne! We did it!
We brought nuclear power back into the public arena!!
X-ray and more so, gamma ray detection devices, that
zip right through your body, knocking out chromosomes
as they go, ticking tubercular tumorous time bombs.
“Mr. Jones, I’m afraid you have cancer.”
“But there’s no history (sic) of cancer in my family!”
“Do you do a lot of flying, Mr. Jones?”
“Yes.”
“Well there you go. It must have been gamma rays
from all those high altitude (sic) flights.”
These machines are hugely expensive. They require a
huge cadre of specially trained technicians and trained
operators. Why do you think US medical treatment has
gotten so expensive? Nuclear medicine. X-rays and
gamma rays, produced by spent nuclear material,
little gobs of it in every nuclear machine. What a racket.
The lead shield port sticks open? Well, everyone dies
(eventually), but who would know they’ve been exposed?
Google Certified Radiation Safety Officer (RSO).
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/cfr/part035/part035-0050.html
Read the requirements. Oh, what a racket this is!!!!!!
Do you have any idea how many RSO’s they will have
to train to deploy these machines? Do you have any
idea how much radioactivity we will be exposed to?
Sure, it’s shielded front-to-back, but not in-out ends.
Have you ever thought about those heavy flaps, as
you put your stuff on the airport detector? Those are
lead flaps. Every time they flap open, you are getting
a dose of x-rays. Now imagine if they start using the
gamma ray explosive detectors in airports.
I would start wearing a radiation badge when I travel,
and a lead crotch plate. And I would be traveling out
of the country in search of a new country to live in.
Lieberman was a watergate.
Lieberman is the end of kid gloves.
Lieberman will be all out psy-war on US Americans.
You are going to see things happen in the next two
years that you wouldn’t have believed in your wildest
nightmares.
Total Neo Fascist police state.
National identity cards.
Complete live-update national databases on every
single thing you do and say and even think, using
your surfing habits, moment to moment.
It’s already taking place. RFID. Google-databasing.
The NSA has installed monitoring stations at every
telephone exchange. This is public knowledge. This
was just in a public hearing before a Congress that
they did nothing to stop it!
Big Brother. Right on schedule. Apple Computer
has even invented a computer screen that is also
a multi-pixel camera, them watching you watch
the screen they are gathering your surfing data on.
It’s already happening!
Have a Happy radioactivity-free Labor Day, and
watch the news for the big Pentagon funding
program for nuclear detection equipment at all
airports and Amtrak stations. Behind the scenes,
what you won’t see, are all the new public dole
mil-def-con jobs for Radiation Safety Officers.
Radiation Safety. What a contradiction in terms!
Fabled Glow-In-The-Dark Jesus Thousand Year Reich

Posted by: Anonymous | Aug 12 2006 17:36 utc | 31

Ok more clumsiness. Now i pressed post as opposed to preview.
I give up to do this correctly. A sun-shine in Prospect Park is beckoning.
Dieh-hard millenialists cut and paste:
(Article) http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3289684,00.html
(Think Tank) http://www.jerusalemsummit.org/eng/

Posted by: Guthman Bey | Aug 12 2006 17:41 utc | 33

See what millenialism does to the mind? I can’t even write English anymore. May it serve as a varnink.

Posted by: Guthman Bey | Aug 12 2006 17:46 utc | 35

sorry for the double post
Last night I was up way too late googling around the web.
I was trying to get a focus on Michael Ledeen. It seems that he is the “brains” that Rove picks on international affairs. Yesterday Bush had learned the word “fascism” for the cameras strangely enough shortly after Ledeen article The Thirties All Over Again? spoke of Islamic fascism.
I found this Guardian article from 2003 by Brian Whitaker (who should get a special medal for his reporting on neocon ideas and personalities). It is one of a series he wrote about neocon ideology and motivation behind the Iraq war. Here he writes about Ledeen and some of his ideological contributions to the policy:

The two key phrases are “creative destruction” and “total war”. Writing in National Review Online, Michael Ledeen, one of the US’s leading rightwing ideologues, explained: “We should have no misgivings about our ability to destroy tyrannies. It is what we do best.
“It comes naturally to us, for we are the one truly revolutionary country in the world, as we have been for more than 200 years. Creative destruction is our middle name. We do it automatically, and that is precisely why the tyrants hate us and are driven to attack us.”
The concept of total war, which is also espoused by Mr Ledeen, was elaborated upon in the same publication by Adam Mersereau, a former Marine Corps officer.
He contrasted total war with “limited” war, in which military force is used to achieve a particular foreign policy objective “without mobilising the entire nation, and while minimising casualties”.
“By total war,” he wrote, “I mean the kind of warfare that not only destroys the enemy’s military forces, but also brings the enemy society to an extremely personal point of decision, so that they are willing to accept a reversal of the cultural trends that spawned the war in the first place.
“A total war strategy does not have to include the intentional targeting of civilians, but the sparing of civilian lives cannot be its first priority … The purpose of total war is to permanently force your will onto another people group.
“Limited war pits combatants against combatants, while total war pits nation against nation, and even culture against culture.”
This sort of thing may strike the average non-American as power-crazed and mad (and, before the emails start flooding in from the US, I should add that many Americans find it abhorrent, too). However, the real point is not whether such ideas are mad, it is the amount of influence that they have on policy.

So, given that it is not a fundie lunatic Bush is listening to but rather Ledeen, I would like to understand this man a little more. For all of you knowledgeable folks out there, I have some questions.
Is Ledeen one of these neocons with Trotsky somewhere in his background? Since I don’t know much about this, let me ask some elementary question – does this “creative destruction” have a slight semblance to what I believe is a Trotsky-ite concept of permanent revolution?
Ledeen seems also to have been in Italy and studied movements there in the ’70s… “terrorism and fascism” according to one page I read. Anybody remember Aldo Moro and the Red Brigades starting as a far left militant cell and becoming murder for hire assassins?
I will tell you I think this man would be capable of anything. I find it more alarming that he is the advisor than a religious maniac.

Posted by: Anonymous | Aug 12 2006 18:02 utc | 37

PS again
Malooga has written about Kissinger’s plan to turn Iraq and Iran into enemies and destabilize the region. That is very interesting because this polarization of Shia & Sunni resembles very much the obvious effect of current policies – in Iraq, in Palestine, in Lebanon – that are designed to polarize and militarize the disparate ethnic & religious groups within these countries. This sort of “creative chaos” seems like an idea designed to inspire a permanent state of polarization around the whole region.
In an article written about her background, titled Reflections By An Arab Jew, which I would highly recommend to everyone to read, Ella Shohat writes about war and its effect of polarization and how this comes to affect Middle Eastern identity for her:

War, however, is the friend of binarisms, leaving little place for complex identities. The Gulf War, for example, intensified a pressure already familiar to the Arab Jewish diaspora in the wake of the Israeli-Arab conflict: a pressure to choose between being a Jew and being an Arab. For our families, who have lived in Mesopotamia since at least the Babylonian exile, who have been Arabized for millennia, and who were abruptly dislodged to Israel 45 years ago, to be suddenly forced to assume a homogenous European Jewish identity based on experiences in Russia, Poland and Germany, was an exercise in self devastation. To be a European or American Jew has hardly been perceived as a contradiction, but to be an Arab Jew has been seen as a kind of logical paradox, even an ontological subversion. This binarism has led many Oriental Jews (our name in Israel referring to our common Asian and African countries of origin is Mizrahi or Mizrachi) to a profound and visceral schizophrenia, since for the first time in our history Arabness and Jewishness have been imposed as antonyms.

Iraq, Palestine, Syria, Lebanon and even Iran and, before Nasser, Egypt are all mosaic societies with multiple religions and multiple ethnic groups. In these countries, people lived side by side for centuries and our policies are having the effect – which I can only call deliberate design because their results are so obviously predictable – of polarizing each element one for the other.
Is it just another continuation of “divide and conquer”? In this sort of permanent state of degeneration through militarization (look at Afghanistan and now Iraq) a design for some reason I don’t get? Is it about sheer power and diminishing this whole region and its capability to build any sort of civilized life beyond warlordism (how’s that for a word)? I am soliciting opinions and answers… much thanks in advance.

Posted by: 2nd anon | Aug 12 2006 18:21 utc | 39

Right Web on Ledeen. Start here.
Wikipedia Ledeen
Everything You Need to Know About Michael Ledeen Not everything, but some quotes.
The Nation

He has written that “Change–above all violent change–is the essence of human history”; “the only way to achieve peace is through total war”; and “The purpose of total war is to permanently force your will onto another people.” He was quoted approvingly by National Review Online editor Jonah Goldberg as saying, “Every ten years or so, the United States needs to pick up some small crappy little country and throw it against the wall, just to show the world we mean business.”

That guy is the most dangerous one alive.

Posted by: b | Aug 12 2006 18:41 utc | 41

@2nd anon
Iraq, Palestine, Syria, Lebanon and even Iran and, before Nasser, Egypt are all mosaic societies with multiple religions and multiple ethnic groups. In these countries, people lived side by side for centuries
If you haven’t already seen it, this news article from yesterday reinforces exactly what you are saying.
Last of Iraq’s Jews

Posted by: Ensley | Aug 12 2006 18:50 utc | 43

2nd Anon —
In my opinion (though you didn’t ask me),here is my opinion of why having a religious preference has nothing to do with what Antifa was saying (I think anyway). There is the individual’s practice and there is the political action taken by others in the name of that religion. Individiduals may practice as you say advocating peaceful and wonderful activities and themselves individually be wonderful. However, there are other aggregates of people who use the same label for political power and operate a much more rigid system of beliefs which must be imposed on others as part of general conquest covering a number of goals.
Anyway, just my thoughts. I wish that I could remember the religious scholar who cited this as I would supply a link to his much more articulate discussion. I’ll go look for it an post it if I find it.

Posted by: Elie | Aug 12 2006 18:54 utc | 45

-Doug Soderstrom is his name. The article addresses Christian Fundamentalism specifically but I think can be used to think about all fundamentalism and why it functions as it does…there is just no alternative possibility to have the world make sense on their terms…
http://smirkingchimp.com/article.php?sid=27201

Posted by: Elie | Aug 12 2006 19:01 utc | 47

Ensley I don’t know why but for some reason that link didn’t work but I found this one, perhaps it is the same or a similar article about the same person
Baghdad bloodshed holds no fear for last of Iraq’s Jews
PS… re religion- there are also fundie militant Hindus and fundie militant Buddhists. I mean one can use ideology, philosophy, religion for anything… we agree as far as the fanaticism, destruction and hatred and supremacy goes..

Posted by: 2nd anon | Aug 12 2006 19:24 utc | 49

@2nd anon – b wrote:
NO – I cited Ledeen.

Posted by: b | Aug 12 2006 19:33 utc | 51

Decoding Airplane Terrorism

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Aug 12 2006 19:38 utc | 53

Hezbollah ‘will observe UN truce’

Hezbollah’s leader has said his group will abide by a ceasefire plan agreed at the UN to end fighting with Israel.
However, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said on TV that Hezbollah would continue fighting as long as Israeli soldiers remained in Lebanon.
Lebanon has now also approved the UN resolution, which calls for a “full cessation of hostilities”.
Israel has backed the plan too but has extended an offensive in south Lebanon, tripling its ground troops there.

Except that they won’t. And neither are the Israelis “observing” anything.

He added: “The war has not ended. There have been continued strikes and continued casualties. Today nothing has changed and it appears tomorrow nothing will change.”

He correctly identifies conditions on the ground and predicts his inevitable response. I admire that, no matter who he is.

Posted by: John Francis Lee | Aug 12 2006 20:36 utc | 55

Still not finished reading all the helpful articles, but wanted also to post this one FYI
A Theory: What if there’s method to the Franco-German madness?
by Michael A. Ledeen
National Review Online
March 10, 2003
An excerpt:

Assume, for a moment, that the French and the Germans aren’t thwarting us out of pique, but by design, long-term design. Then look at the world again, and see if there’s evidence of such a design.
Like everyone else, the French and the Germans saw that the defeat of the Soviet Empire projected the United States into the rare, almost unique position of a global hyperpower, a country so strong in every measurable element that no other nation could possibly resist its will. The “new Europe” had been designed to carve out a limited autonomy for the old continent, a balance-point between the Americans and the Soviets. But once the Soviets were gone, and the Red Army melted down, the European Union was reduced to a combination theme park and free-trade zone. Some foolish American professors and doltish politicians might say — and even believe — that henceforth “power” would be defined in economic terms, and that military power would no longer count. But cynical Europeans know better.
They dreaded the establishment of an American empire, and they sought for a way to bring it down.
If you were the French president or the German chancellor, you might well have done the same.
How could it be done? No military operation could possibly defeat the United States, and no direct economic challenge could hope to succeed. That left politics and culture. And here there was a chance to turn America’s vaunted openness at home and toleration abroad against the United States. So the French and the Germans struck a deal with radical Islam and with radical Arabs: You go after the United States, and we’ll do everything we can to protect you, and we will do everything we can to weaken the Americans.

Posted by: 2nd anon | Aug 12 2006 21:28 utc | 57

If anyone wants to listen to the rally, it’s broadcast on kpfa.org. Shouldn’t be. It’s undoing all the great work Cindy Sheehan has done uniting so much of the country against the war machine. The speaker following the one I mentioned above said that “The US, in it’s current form(?), must die.” A better way to marginalize opposition to the war cannot possibly be imagined. Was this put together by the Trots?

Posted by: jj | Aug 12 2006 21:41 utc | 59

Criminals or terriers?
I cannot accept the characterisation of our troubles these past few years and days as amounting to a War on Terror, or a war on anything. There is an immense risk that if we see it this way we may be conjuring into existence networks and loyalties that were flimsy and uncoordinated until we dignified them with the name of Terror and advertised their prowess across the globe.
Gestalt can border on madness. I distrust people too insistently driven to “join up the dots”. Dots may be just that: dots. They are susceptible to being joined up in very different ways. It is always easy for the dot-joiner to make himself look more perceptive and alert than the naive, doubting fellow who can still see only dots. That is how it must have felt to be a doubter in 1930s Germany, as clever, vigilant men joined up the dots and saw an international Jewish conspiracy. The chaps who, behind the apparent world, can discern the shadowy outline of witches, papists, communists or capitalist plotters will often appear cleverer and more prudent than the chaps who can’t.
I look at Orion and I do not see the Hunter, his belt or his sword. I see a group of unrelated stars. Whether, however, we discern Great Bears, ploughs, crabs, crosses or only chaos, this kind of star-gazing is harmless because we cannot by imagining shapes create the things we have imagined. More dangerous are the constellation-makers among our presidents, prime ministers and newspaper leader writers: it does lie within their power to breathe life into the monsters they think they see. If they keep shouting that we face a clash of civilisations, a war of the worlds, they may drive bigger numbers on both sides into the arms of the smaller numbers who do want to rally volunteers for a battle.
Our enemies want a fight, so here’s a novel suggestion. Let’s not oblige. Let’s keep our tanks and helicopters and cluster bombs locked within our armouries; let’s keep listening and watching and arresting and bringing to court; let’s keep our liberties and accord them theirs; and let’s carry on treating these people for what they are: a big, bloody nuisance.

Posted by: Cloned Poster | Aug 12 2006 21:55 utc | 61

Antifa,
this is not the place for discussing in detail the ideology of Carl Schmitt. Nonetheless: calling Schmitt “Hitler’s favorite legal philosopher” is appallingly wrong.
Carl Schmitt was an authoritarian thinker certainly, a Fascist he was not.
His legal thinking circles around the concepts of (1) preventing “the worst” (generalized civil war) and (2) of an elitist “benign junta” — an entity rather similar to the one Billmon has recently envisioned, and for analogous reasons: Schmitt saw during the 1920s a rising anti-civilizational tide (brown and red) and theorized about how the traditional order could be defended against it. Schmitt was, in fact, an advisor to the chancellor of the last Weimar government preceding Hitler, Kurt von Schleicher, who was murdered a year after Hitler came to power.
Yes Schmitt wrote an essay in 1934, “The Führer protects the Law“, but it was in no way intended to legally empower Hitler, who by that time no longer needed legal cover anyway, but rather a call on Hitler to become a Hobbesian leader, rather than a lawless tyrant.
Leo Strauss was not Schmitt’s life-long friend either. It is true however that both leaned towards authoritarian systems that were supposed to stem perceived dangerous popular tides. They couldn’t be more different though: with Schmitt everything is out in the open, and his books are a joy to read (whether one agrees with Schmitt or not), whereas Strauss is hermetic, deliberately unreadable, and his real views remain unsaid between the lines.
In my view (not shared by many) Strauss’s work is mainly a meditation on the political necessity of cunning and deceit.
Well, bottom-line: I am an admirer, though not a follower of Carl Schmitt. I hate seeing his name bandied about like that.

Posted by: Guthman Bey | Aug 12 2006 22:22 utc | 63

Thanks all for further comments.
jj, I’m really sorry to hear such a stupid bungling. Pat Buchanan debating Mort Zuckerman on Fox News probably did a better job.
Malooga – ever read Rene Girard (Stanford U) on mimetic rivalry and scapegoating? Try I See Satan Fall Like Lightning. BTW amartia (or hamartia) means “sin” in Greek – it is the word in the New Testament used for “sin” and literally means “missing the mark”
re Rowan – here’s something else that has been said to be associated with Ledeen:
Strategy of Tension
Guthman Bey thanks for your comments re Schmitt. The article cited (The Return of Carl Schmitt) seemed a pretty good synopsis about Schmitt and how Strauss read & used his theories but it also made clear your point that Schmitt was not a fascist and worried how his theories would be used… anyway I am certain you have expertise that I certainly do not, but see what you think about the article. Like you said, not a lot of idiots here 🙂

Posted by: 2nd anon | Aug 12 2006 22:35 utc | 65

For some reason Billmon keeps stating and rejecting what to me is obvious :

* The Israelis don’t expect a ceasefire, or have no intention of respecting one, and will continue their offensive until their ulitimate objective (the destruction of Hizbullah south of the Litani) has been achieved, even if it takes many weeks.

I just read about Arnoun,

American Muslims for Global Peace and Justice demands implementation of Security Council Resolution 425. The American Muslims for Global Peace and Justice strongly condemns the seizure of the Lebanese town of Arnoun by Israel on Feb. 17 1999.
Israeli soldiers equipped with trucks, cranes and military vehicles, surrounded Arnoun with barbed wire and set up a barrier at the entrance to the village. The villagers were then informed by the Israelis that their village was surrounded, that it has been annexed to the “security zone” of Israeli occupied Lebanon, and that Arnoun Lake was the new border of the “security zone.”
Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Arens added insult to injury on Feb. 22 by stating that “(Lebanon) has all the trappings of an independent country. It has a president. It has a parliament. It is a member of the United Nations. It has ambassadors. But it’s a non-country.”
Israel has been occupying southern Lebanon since 1978, when UN Security Council Resolution 425 called ” upon Israel immediately to cease its military action against Lebanese territorial integrity and withdraw forthwith its forces from all Lebanese territory.” The United States voted on this resolution, which was passed unanimously by the Security Council. For 20 years there has been no compliance by Israel with this demand for immediate and unconditional withdrawal. Where other UN security council resolutions have been enforced by war, sanctions, bombings and embargos, Israel’s obligations under Resolution 425 have been ignored with impunity.

Posted by: John Francis Lee | Aug 12 2006 22:55 utc | 67

“Before someone gives me a lecture on freedom in the US, let me explain what I mean by totalitarianism in this country: not that of stormtroopers, but rather that enforced by the media and by conformism.
A barrage of sameness from all angles that defines things for us, in a way that suits the hidden Big Brain. As Malooga wrote a few days ago, it shuts us out of our public space. At the same time it needs the general belief that such a public space exists and is used by all. A very Straussian system, defined by the delusion of the many and the manipulation by the few.”
A painful insight — yes we are shut out of our public space and barraged by conformity — even as we admire those who donot behave and “follow the rules” — to a point.
We in the US are getting quite used to not having any input on anything but the color and character of what we are going to buy.
In Atlanta there is was no actual publicly funded park or other space big enough for a large proportion of the city to watch fireworks on the 4th of July except one of the malls. The Olympic Games in ’96 came and went contributing a small park where now children can run in and out of a fountain and small groups can gather – but hell no, no one wants a large number of the unwashed cheek by jowl with their “betters”
Part of the loss of our democratic dynamic stems from decreased opportunities for just such rubbing of elbows…Lord knows public education has shrunk to its enclaves for the middle class and those who could escaped into home schooling and private schools. Only 20% of Americans have passports. Those things together lead to an extremely insular but well to do population interested in collecting things but not about people and how they live on this planet.

Posted by: Anonymous | Aug 13 2006 0:58 utc | 69

Dutchmen? Blowing up things???
I must blogwhore…
United States Strategic Command

Posted by: Lancaster | Aug 13 2006 2:44 utc | 71

This one’s for Bernhard:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUuzbHAXWZk&mode=related&search=
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySMdAF-GACw&mode=related&search=
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVU_pAIPLPc&mode=related&search=
The Neo’s are already in script seque-mode, from UK fluids-on- airplanes, to 9/11, to four more years of the 995-year Reich,
celebrated with an unholy trinity of neo-religious holidays: 4th of July, 9/11, and Mammonmas, along with the obligatory annual screening of Schlinder’s List, to remind US all why we work to pay our taxes, and spill our children’s blood, so that the third world can be subjugated to forced global tyranny.
If Neo-Con’s mean to force their global free trade down our throats, then why are we not also free to globally labor? Why does citizenship, and border control, even exist in a world of free trade? Should not everyone have then the freedom to move to where there is a supply of work to meet the demand? How can the Neo-Con’s justify forced global movement of trade goods, without an equivalent free and borderless movement of labor?
Because they mean to make US their SLAVES.

Posted by: Allen Toffler | Aug 13 2006 4:44 utc | 73

Two posts in one- please forgive my lack of brevity.
I also was at the rally in SF, and thought “stupidest anti-war movement ever”. Muslim guy with black knit cap getting the crowd to chant “allahu Akbar” and telling them it really scares the Israel supporters because when they hear it they know they will soon lose to the forces of righteousness. Makes you wonder if the ANSWER folks are Cheney plants. I went up to the barricade separating the anti-war folks from the Israel supporters in front of City Hall, and there was a guy in an ANSWER-staff dayglow vest with a kaffiyeh over his face sreaming at the zionists hysterically in Arabic over a megaphone, while the zionists in their sabbath best grinned from ear to ear at how bad their opposition makes themselves look. Other ANSWER staff evidently realized how idiotic this display was and dragged him away. I said to one young aggressive guy yelling and cursing that if we get angry, they win, and we should let THEM curse and look like the angry irrational ones. He seemed persuaded for the moment, but it is truly distressing how badly “our side” understands the other half of the war, the public relations side. Israel certainly knows this side inside and out. Instead of dressing up like terrorists and anarchists, covering our faces and chanting “allahu akbar” and “destroy America” for the TV cameras, we should be wearing nice clothes and calmly stating our positions which include a respect for all human life- not that all this war would stop if we only smashed America and instituted revolutionary communism. I really don’t want all the communist party or muslim fundamentalist crap at these rallies, I just want the killing to stop.
Also, I have been distressed a bit at the esteemed Dr. Billmon, because I believe he is missing that this time the Israelis have no intention of pulling back from the Litani and are not “blowing it”. They are there to stay. They intentionally have left some Hezbollah rocket launching positions alone (and free to continue firing), so they could say, “what a tough opponent, air power won’t do it alone”. After all, the Jewish Israelis have evacuated from Haifa, leaving only Arab Israelis. Israel doesn’t mind losing a few dozen of them, as they are stealing land and a long-coveted water supply. They are just busy fulfilling Ben-Gurion’s dream of Israel extending to the Litani. I am just wondering now, how long until they officially annex the land and start settling it. If I’m wrong, why is it that one of the first things Israel did was bomb the water channels and pump stations diverting Litani water to Lebanese farms? If they DO leave, I bet that one of their demands will be to re-route the Litani into Israel instead of letting it be “wasted” on Lebanese peasants.
Kermit

Posted by: kermit | Aug 13 2006 5:19 utc | 75

From the Guardian/Observer
The land of the free – but free speech is a rare commodity
You can say what you like in the US, just as long as you don’t ask awkward questions about America’s role in the Middle East
Henry Porter
Sunday August 13, 2006
The Observer
It used to be said that academic rows were vicious because the stakes were so small. That’s no longer true in America, where a battle is underway on campuses over what can be said about the Middle East and US foreign policy.

Posted by: Anonymous | Aug 13 2006 14:25 utc | 77

This latest Liquid Terror Spoof is so pathetic it must have been implemented in haste. Teflon Tony is finally in a bit of trouble, something had to be done.
Dumping shampoo into containers to support failed invasions? Argh.
(But then, the Arab street demonstrated more strongly about Danish cartoons than the invasion of Lebanon. Or so it appears, one has to take Gvmt. control and media hype into account.)
I read it as a sign of weakness.
They have just the one script: Arab terror, arab terror, arab terror, po-lice state, test the sheeple’s tolerance, control where you can, etc.
The weakness, the pathetic moves, are bad news. They spell a sluggish, poorly coordinated, long term plan, which is rigid in its outlines, but counts on a certain outcome.

Posted by: Noirette | Aug 13 2006 16:15 utc | 79

Some good news – Sy Hersh’s new column. It just went up. I’m posting immediately before reading. Reliable rumor has it that he says we overlooked the most obvious about Lebanon – it was a test case for xUS strategy in Iran. And it didn’t work! So NeoNuts will have to rethink….

Posted by: jj | Aug 13 2006 16:54 utc | 81

Elie, perhaps this is unnecessary but I wanted to tell you that I know you are kind of new around here, I hope that my disagreement with the article you posted doesn’t scare you away, and that you will keep posting!
Anyway, although I disagreed with the article (really the author claimed he’d studied so extensively but his theological understanding was limited IMO), I appreciate that you posted it and the thoughtfulness in your perspective.

Posted by: 2nd anon | Aug 13 2006 17:48 utc | 83

Thanks for your #61 Cloned Poster…
Gestalt can border on madness.
Indeed.
DHS terror threat = election time. Ouroboros dysfunction anyone?

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Aug 13 2006 22:59 utc | 85

More on the infighting between Poppy & Cheneyco ?
Republicans Self-Destruct: Blame 9/11 on Bush Sr. and Reagan

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Aug 14 2006 0:16 utc | 87

Wait! it gets better…
Confiscated Airport Items Bring Cash
The Army Knife You Gave Up In Philly? Good Change You’ll Find It On eBay

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Aug 14 2006 0:23 utc | 89

Even more Poppy jabs…
James Baker puts Bush’s Iraq policy into rehab.

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Aug 14 2006 0:54 utc | 91

wow check out these awesome lyrics.
the artist is immortal technique

Posted by: annie | Aug 14 2006 2:05 utc | 93

Thanks annie for #93
If you like that, run don’t walk to get Paris Sonic Jihad.

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Aug 14 2006 4:45 utc | 95

@ 2nd anon #65:
Hadn’t heard of Rene Girard before. Thanks for the heads up. He fits in well with the work of Berger, Debord, et. el.
Some really great discusssions.

Posted by: Malooga | Aug 15 2006 15:26 utc | 97