Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Ignorance & Idiocy

Should we expect any less from the civilian tier of the Pentagon and the White House?

If this comes to fruition:

According to the former [CIA] official, Israel and the United States are currently discussing a large American role in exactly such a “multinational” deployment [in Lebanon], and some top administration officials, along with senior civilians at the Pentagon, are receptive to the idea.

The uniformed military, however, is ardently opposed to sending American soldiers to the region, according to my source. “They are saying 'What the fuck?'” he told me. “Most of our combat-ready divisions are in Iraq or Afghanistan, or on their way, or coming back. The generals don't like it because we're already way overstretched.”

And, you combine it with this kind of hostility:

America is totally alone on this. And more than most Americans might realize, America is being blamed for Israel's actions. The shift in Arab public discourse over the last week has been palpable. For the first few days, [there was a] split between the Saudi media and the "al-Jazeera public" which I wrote about at the time. Then for a few days, horror at the humanitarian situation, fury with the Arab states for their impotence, speculation about the endgame, and full-throated condemnation of Israeli aggression. But for the last few days, the main trend has been unmistakable: an increasing focus on the United States as the villain of the piece. (That the Israeli bombing of Beirut stopped just long enough for Condoleezza Rice's photo op certainly didn't help.)

You have the makings of the kind of PR and military disaster never before seen by America. Let's hope (and pray, if you want,) that this never comes true. It's obvious many of the top civilian leaders in the Pentagon should have been sacked long ago, but if this kind of thinking is going on, everyone should question whether they have any regard for American security whatsoever. Nevermind the regional political implications, where do the troops come from? Do we pull them out of Baghdad? While we're sending more troops in?

You could stack adjectives on top of each other trying to describe the lameness of the response coming from the Bush administration, but why even bother at this point? Israel is calling the shots. America's stance will be Israel's stance.

Riddle me this, by the way: Israel wants the Lebanese military to take decisive action against Hezbollah to quell the rocket attacks against northern Isreal while the Israeli AF deliberately bombs Lebanese military forces. Huh? What the Fuck are you people thinking?

I want someone to describe to me one policy objective that's being served here. One that might improve America's standing in the region. In Iraq, or the larger Middle East. I can't see it. Maybe I'm missing something.

I read Bush is shortening his annual month-long vacation in Texas a bit this year.

Monday, July 24, 2006

Burt Bacherat Was Right

Breaking up is hard. It's hard to do. It's hard work. This kind of break up would be historic:
The Iraqi Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, meets Tony Blair in London today as violence in Iraq reaches a new crescendo and senior Iraqi officials say the break up of the country is inevitable.

[...] (20 people dead, 70 wounded, blah, blah, blah, same shit.)
Funny how we can only learn about these developments from a British newspaper. Carrying quotes like this one would be unforgivable in an American newspaper, because then it might lead to charges of that dreaded "liberal bias":
"Iraq as a political project is finished," a senior government official was quoted as saying, adding: "The parties have moved to plan B." He said that the Shia, Sunni and Kurdish parties were now looking at ways to divide Iraq between them and to decide the future of Baghdad, where there is a mixed population. "There is serious talk of Baghdad being divided into [Shia] east and [Sunni] west," he said.
"Finished". I wonder if anyone bothered to notify the president. Not that he'd care, or that it would matter. And the carnage rolls on:
In the past two weeks, at a time when Lebanon has dominated the international news, the sectarian civil war in central Iraq has taken a decisive turn for the worse. There have been regular tit-for-tat massacres and the death toll for July is likely to far exceed the 3,149 civilians killed in June.
Here's the tie-in with the fresh violence going on in Lebanon and Isreal:
"The government is all in the Green Zone like the previous one and they have left the streets to the terrorists," said Mahmoud Othman, a veteran Iraqi politician. He said the situation would be made worse by the war in Lebanon because it would intensify the struggle between Iran and the US being staged in Iraq. The Iraqi crisis would now receive much reduced international attention.
This Iraq Project is over. To call it a war anymore is farce. The "war" lasted about four weeks, and then the forces of ignorance, ineptitude, and corruption took hold and doomed the whole thing to utter failure. Maybe a three state solution was the answer in the first place. Maybe Hussein's brutal tactics were the only way to hold these factions together. Either way, when Iraqi politicians start talking about dividing up Bahgdad, it's time for U.S. forces to pack their bags and move on. Or better yet, head home. There's nothing more for them to achieve. Could things get this bad? Losing our Army? Doubtful, but possible.

Admitting loss is a hard thing to do, but it's the only we as a nation can move on and form a better order; one that we'll have to wait for. Let's say, January 21st, 2009.

Thursday, July 06, 2006

The Lobby - Mearsheimer, Walt, & Massing

I want to update this post that I made in early April in response to John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt's piece in the London Review of Books regarding the Isreal Lobby. Equally as valuable is Michael Massing's piece in the New York Review of Books titled The Storm over the Isreal Lobby.

Easy summer reading? No. Important to your understanding of American security? Yes.

You have your assignment, now go.

I'm going to e-mail Josh Marshall, Kevin Drum, and Billmon and see if they will comment on this dust-up. If they have any response, we'll post it here.