Month: May 2004

5-7-5 times 4

Guardian Unlimited Books | Games | Books games haiku:

Something old – the way
Rakat celebrates weddings.
Family and friends.

Something blue – the sky
At desert dusk stretched above
The marriage tent’s love.

Something borrowed – songs
Sung by Hussein al-Ali.
Jokes, laughter, food and drink.

Something new – Children
Slaughtered by Americans
“They were firing low.”

Dónal Thompson

Some say it was a militia meeting, some say it was a wedding. Does it matter now? Did it further any part of the occupation force’s objectives?
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The New York Times answers its critics

The New York Times > International > Middle East > From the Editors: The Times and Iraq:

But we have found a number of instances of coverage that was not as rigorous as it should have been. In some cases, information that was controversial then, and seems questionable now, was insufficiently qualified or allowed to stand unchallenged. Looking back, we wish we had been more aggressive in re-examining the claims as new evidence emerged — or failed to emerge.

This is welcome: a frank and detailed review of the Times’ war coverage with examples of where issues were missed and where stories were mistakenly downplayed.

When the newspaper of record steps up to it’s obligations, can we hope for our leaders to do the same?

cynicism in the service of justice

94.9 KUOW: Seattle’s NPR News and Information Station:
We chat with Michael Ignatieff, Director of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard University about his early support for the war in Iraq and his subsequent questioning of the ongoing U.S. presence in Iraq.

from an email I sent the station:

I heard a little of this in my car and I was struck by his assertions, even knowing what we know now, that Saddam Hussein would have dangerous weapons in 5-10 years. All accounts I’ve read make it clear that Saddam had dismissed all his clueful scientists and was only listening to sycophants. Given the tight constraints he was operating under (even plundering the oil for food program wouldn’t fund a serious weapons program) and with a timeline of 5-10 years, does he seriously think that an invasion of Iraq in 2003 was the only course of action?

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Stalled in low gear

This letter was on my local OpEd page today: I think his points are valid. I would much rather have seen a $1/gallon tax to a. fund alternative fuels and b. discourage waste than see the prices get to where they are now, with the increases in profits we’re seeing. It’s a thin line between maximizing one’s leverage and war profiteering. With an administration led by oilmen, I doubt we’ll see any action taken on this: the health of the resource extraction sector is more important than the health of the nation.

The Seattle Times: Opinion: Letters to the editor:

When the same vehicle goes by my house several times a day, the price of gasoline is still too low. When people rush to a stop sign just to brake hard, the price of gasoline is still too low. When people accelerate rapidly from the same stop sign to ride the bumper of the car ahead, the price of gasoline is still too low. When people speed 10 to 15 mph (above the limit), the price of gasoline is still too low.

When a broadcaster at KOHO moves to Lake Wenatchee and now commutes at least 50 miles every day, the price of gasoline is still too low. When the same broadcaster jokes about riding a bicycle around town, the price of gasoline is still too low. When I see all the large SUVs, motor homes, fifth-wheel trailers and cars, the price of gasoline is still too low.

In short, until people reduce their consumption of gasoline by walking or riding a bicycle for trips around town, quit driving vehicles that waste gasoline and organize their lives to reduce the miles driven, the price of gasoline is still too low.

Many will complain this would reduce their quality of life when actually, a strong argument can be made that everyone’s quality of life will be improved by reducing our dependency on motorized vehicles through the reduction of noise and air pollution and the positive health benefits of exercise.
John Price, Leavenworth

shared sacrifice?

Why $2 Gas Is Amazing – Three reasons it should be cheaper. By Timothy Noah:

To put it in terms that supporters of the three Bush tax cuts can understand: Poor planning for the postwar occupation of Iraq is costing you money at the gas pump.

# The US is a member of the OPEC cartel, even though cartels violate US law (well, if you’re abrogating the Geneva Convention, who cares about price-fixing?). But does that help? Apparently not: prices are kept high to help the Iraqis (and OPEC in general), rather than lowered to ease consumer prices.
# The oil from Iraq isn’t flowing at even pre-war levels, so the “war that will pay for itself” shows little chance of doing so.
# And the Saudis are also unable to keep prices low in support of the White House incumbent (as they generally do).

Cheney must go

As the saying goes, the enemy of my enemy is my friend: how Iran used the US to topple Saddam Hussein, at the US’s expense — in money and reputation.

Agency: Chalabi group was front for Iran:

The Defense Intelligence Agency has concluded that a U.S.-funded arm of Ahmed Chalabi’s Iraqi National Congress has been used for years by Iranian intelligence to pass disinformation to the United States and to collect highly sensitive American secrets, according to intelligence sources.

“Iranian intelligence has been manipulating the United States through Chalabi by furnishing through his Information Collection Program information to provoke the United States into getting rid of Saddam Hussein,” said an intelligence source Friday who was briefed on the Defense Intelligence Agency’s conclusions, which were based on a review of thousands of internal documents.

The Information Collection Program also “kept the Iranians informed about what we were doing” by passing classified U.S. documents and other sensitive information, he said. The program has received millions of dollars from the U.S. government over several years.

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standing on the shoulders of giants

“Broken Engagement” by Gen. Wesley Clark:

So, when Ronald Reagan called the Soviet Union an “Evil Empire,” or stood before crowds in Berlin and proclaimed “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall,” he was reaching a receptive audience on the other side of the wall. The neoconservatives persist in seeing a vast difference between Reagan’s policy of confronting the Soviets and previous American administrations’ tack of containing it. In fact, it was precisely those decades of containment and cultural engagement that made Reagan’s challenge effective.

This makes for some good reading. Clark tells a story that anyone who has even a cursory understanding of the post-War period will recognize as true. What is striking is how the current administration’s thinkers see *everything* in ideological terms, with no regard for the historical facts.
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inspired by a number?

scribble, scribble, scribble….: Scribble Press Archives:

We invite you to take one statistic from your life and create an essay about it. Pick any number you want: your cholesterol count, your bowling average, today’s pollen count or air-pollution index, the number of American GIs dead in Iraq, the number of syllables in a haiku, the projected population of Earth in 2015, Ted Williams’ career batting average, any data point you choose. Just pick one—and only one, please—that speaks to you, that moves you to arrange words into meaning.