Thursday, September 16, 2004

Sure.  As Iraq burns, let's focus on Dan Rather.  Amazing.  I know what Boyd would say.  As the enemy continues to win, our nation becomes isolated from the real, tangible, external environment and descends into destructive, divisive, false internal dialogues.  6:39:57 PM    Comment_ Trackback []

Small gas explosion in Central Russia. Attackers killed in blast.  Data is still sketchy. 4:00:24 PM    Comment_ Trackback []

FT.  Green Zone no longer "safe" from ground assault. 12:03:29 PM    Comment_ Trackback []

WSJ.  Profile of Basayev, the architect of the Beslan and Moscow theater incidents.  He wants to be the Islamic Che Guevara.  As a result, he is still caught in the Foco.  It is only a matter of time before he finds global guerrilla strategies (the bazaar and system disruption).  When he does, Russia is in real trouble.  When Shamil Basayev, a Chechen warlord waging Islamic "holy war" against Russia, first took up arms more than a decade ago, he also took up an unlikely role model: an Argentine atheist lionized by the Soviet Union. Along with his gun, Mr. Basayev carried a picture of Marxist rebel Ernesto "Che" Guevara. 9:57:24 AM    Comment_ Trackback []

Rumsfeld signals the resumption of the aggressive campaign to retake Sunni towns this fall:  There are other places that will be taken by force, and it's really going to be a choice between the people in those towns -- and I don't mean the innocent Iraqi people, the overwhelming majority of which support the government and don't want to see their towns ruined, taken over by terrorists and militias.  What will take place in Fallujah is -- correction, we know what will take place in Fallujah, and that is that it will be restored as a -- something under the control of the Iraqi government eventually.  What we don't know is whether it will be done peacefully or by force. But one way or another, it will happen.  An interesting aspect of the presentation -- on numerous occassions he confused Saddam Hussein with Osama bin Laden.  9:20:23 AM    Comment_ Trackback []

BBC.  Another strike at the legitimacy of US security exports (a key pillar of globalization).  Kofi Anan calls the occupation of Iraq "illegal."  Rumsfeld fails to grasp the essence of legitimacy: "Our forces must be where they're wanted, they have to be where they're needed, and they have to be where they can be deployed quickly, and they have to be deployed without burdensome restriction, legal, political or otherwise." 7:37:32 AM    Comment_ Trackback []

Inconsistant (fuzzy) goals continue to plague the US occupation.  What do we want in Iraq?  You pick: A stable country sans Saddam?  A secular democracy that respects individual (particularly women) rights? A country that is friendly to the US? A country open to globalization that may not be a democracy? A staging ground for US forces in the region? A honeypot to attract al Qaeda (so they don't attack the US)? A demonstration of US military power? A demonstration of US beneficence? All of the above or some of the above? 6:49:02 AM    Comment_ Trackback []

Iraq Counter-Insurgency Strategy  One strategy for dealing with 4GW global guerrillas is to deescalate the conflict (within the moral sphere).  This isn't weakness, rather it is a method by which you turn a strength of your opponents into a weakness.  A fundamental inconsistancy with the US position in Iraq is that we escalated to the edge of full imperial occupation and then attempted deescalation (Najaf, Fallujah, Samarra, etc.).  This produces a situation where nothing is gained except conflict acceleration.  Who is running the strategy for Iraq?  Do they even understand the basics? 6:36:50 AM    Comment_ Trackback []