Christianity and Islam: Collision or convergence?

How Christians and Muslims navigate the road ahead will have profound consequences for both communities--and for the world.

--- Charles Kimball

An address given by Lord Carey, former Archbishop of Canterbury, at the Gregorian University, March 25, 2004 is HERE.

Four questions are carefully considered:

-- What are the reasons for Islam’s association with terrorism and death?
-- What challenges does Islam itself face?

-- What is Islam’s challenge to the West in general and Christianity in particular?

-- How may we move from collision to convergence in mutual understanding and respect?

If you're short on time, an article at Sojourners.com gives you an abbrerviated version with main points emphasized.

Election 2004- Listen to the warnings

The U.S. is heading for another election fiasco as election reforms fail---the Civil Rights Commission makes a plea----and Republicans publically demonstrate they don't want to hear about it?!? American citizens, if your blood is not boiling over this deliberate Republican disconnect from the concern over your right to vote, you are not paying atttention. The vitality of America’s democracy depends on the fairness and accuracy of America’s elections!

When the Commission on Civil Rights convened an expert panel in Washington this month to discuss its report, the Republican Party delegation walked out before the proceedings began, one panel participant, Rebecca Mercuri, a Harvard University voting machinery expert, said.

Bootleg-able Jesus Entertainment: Popular or Influential?

We are asked to believe that "The Passion" is an out-and-out spiritual revolution. At least, that's what People magazine says. Then again, People magazine's definition of a spiritual revolution is moving to a more original, self-expressive wardrobe.. and cutting veal out of your regular diet.

At Rawstory.com, Larry Womack writes an entertaining editorial called "Bootlegging Jesus". Like Larry, I'd initially said I wouldn't see Mel Gibson's movie "The Passion". You can see my pre-movie thoughts here. As it turned out, I went to see it. Like Larry, I'd read the Bible. I'd also studied Christianity (among other religions). I considered Gibson's movie as entertainment...if you can call it that. (The nachos suddenly didn't taste so good whilst watching the meaty/bloody scouging scene.) I wanted to see--I HAD to see.. what the fuss was all about. Jesus Christ Superstar was entertainment, too...and after seeing both, for me, Superstar was far more inspiring. (I'm not the action-movie blood-n-guts type). My point is that neither of these entertainments were part of the well from which I'd drawn my faith. The problem with "Jesus entertainment" is that people may well incorrectly base their knowledge of Jesus' life on the films, not on the Bible. Pop-religion. That's a pretty scary thought. The Bible's already confusing enough with all the contradictions found amongst the Gospels.

Today...

A car-driven suicide-bomb blast has leveled a Saudi Arabian security building.

If it's up to Sen. Chuck Hagel, Uncle Sam will be calling on your boys and girls (or you) to report to duty soon.

At least 68 people (I assume they're Iraqis) are believed to have died and many more been injured in co-ordinated suicide attacks on four police buildings in the southern Iraqi city of Basra.

Benjamin Duncan discusses Bush, Kerry, and the politics of religion.
Luis Lugo of the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life says:

He [Kerry] cannot sound so religious that he turns off the section of the Democratic Party that is secular."

Bush does not have to worry about appearing too religious to his conservative base.

"Bush does not have that challenge, because on his side there is not a large swath of seculars."

Surprise! Puppet misleader-extraordinaire Ahmad ("we are heroes in error") Chalabi of the Iraqi National Congress has announced his own nephew, Salim Chalabi, as his choice for the general director of the tribunal to try Saddam Hussein. Right. I'm sure that will win more hearts and minds.

Bernard Weiner/Crisis Papers: Shallow Throat to Dems:
"Time to Go for the Jugular!"

WOW! Who woulda thunk it, already?: A top Pentagon official told lawmakers Wednesday the Iraqi military operation ''is going to cost us more money'' than anticipated. The conservative tune is a cool $700 million.

The imminently dangerous Saddam 'still thinks he's president'. Bush will probably 'still think he's president' on November 3rd as the little yellow bus bound for Crawford warms up for the long trip from Washington D.C.

Daniel Ellsberg: Iraq a new Vietnam-The veteran of the Pentagon Papers-era Defense Department says the U.S. should withdraw its troops.

BloggerCon: Jay Rosen on Journalism and Weblogging / Jeff Sharlet on Religion and Blogging

At the recent BloggerCon (which I was unfortunately unable to attend due to unforeseen circumstances), there was a discussion on a topic titled "What is Journalism....And What Can Weblogs Do About It?" led by Jay Rosen.
The prelude to the discussion is at Jay's PRESSthink site. Link here.

For all who are interested, the Blogger Con Feedster collection of post-con blog entries is HERE.

There's also a more directly-related list at liloia.com.

Jay McCarthy has some comments about the "What is Journalism And What Can Weblogs Do About It?" discussion.

Jeff Sharlet of The Revealer led a BloggerCon discussion on Religion and Blogging. (See: "Do you believe in blog?"I surely wish I'd been there for this discussion.
Commentaries deposited at the Little Green Footballs blog came up in the Blogger Con discussion. Jeff says:

Little Green Footballs, the 33rd most popular blog out there according to Technorati, have other ideas. LGF, as it's known, was a subject at this past Saturday's Bloggercon religion session. A commentator noted that religion blogging can lead to a perverse kind of "common ground" when it brings several different types of believers -- Protestants, Catholics, and Jews at LGF -- together in hatred of an "enemy," defined here as pretty much all Muslims, worldwide.

"I would be more than happy to see a Spanish Inquisition targetted at mohammedans alone....to the last devil worshipping one," writes one commentator. "Poor poor muslims," writes another. "What kind of country would look down on a holy people such as the muslims who worship an evil religion founded by violent pedophile?"

These guys could really use a pig roast.

I agree that through the use of the blog, we are capable of creating a deeper understanding of what I like to call "folk-faith". It's faith as we truly live it in the face of human joy and tragedy.

A topic I would like to have discussed: How does one explain a near 50-50 split in political ideology in today's American Catholic faith? Take a look at Sojourner magazine and at the bloggers who speak of social justice issues through the Catholic filter of literary figures such as Dorothy Day, Thomas Merton, Walker Percy, Henri Nouwen, Daniel Berrigan, Ronald Rolheiser, Msgr. Joseph Champlin? How many mainstream religion-journalists write with the faithfires that have fueled these Catholic Americans? I believe that the writers who, although challenged by the toughest worldy challenges, burned with a faith borne of strong experiential individuality which nearly consumed them in spirit are all too rare. My favorite blog-reads are the folks who are equally consumed by the passion that leads them to creating a better world now in loving preparation for the next. Why are most of today's mainstream religion-writings often pop-shallow, fright-producing, guilt-heightening, or deadening in their effects on the reader? Why do so many of today's religion-followers choose to exist in prejudgement of those who do not share their group-mentality? Is faith not that which illuminates the earth-dark path to man's individual soul....is faith not what separates him from the pack animals? Are we too afraid of loneliness? Of death? As bloggers write more and more on these topics, will the folk-face (no--that's not a dirty word ;) of our attitude toward religion change? Will we...could we change the face of mainstream religious journalism?

Bob Woodward, Colin Powell, Prince Bandar, Iraq War, Indian elections in today's headlines


A snub from King Abdullah II-- It's the most recent expression of Arab anger at President Bush. Sorrowfully, Jordan is one of only two of Israel's Arab neighbors to have a peace treaty with Israel. King Abdullah believes Israeli withdrawal from Gaza must be part of the peace plan and not an alternative to it and he is still open to future discussions with the U.S.



Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the Saudi ambassador to Washington is denying Bob Woodward's writing about a secret plan to increase oil production (driving down gas prices) to help Bush win the November elections. Hmmmmm--
Let's see..... there's two men with two tales. There's Prince Bandar (representing the nation from which 15 of the 19 Sept.11 hijackers hailed...who was strangely rewarded that fateful morning by being secretly whisked away by airplane--no questions asked---when all U.S. air travel was allegedly suspended-- courtesy of his friend G.W. Bush) and there's trusted journalist Bob Woodward who bravely broke the Watergate story. .Which fellow will I believe? My (easy) decision (and most likely the majority of Americans): Bob Woodward.



The two faces of Colin Powell--

"The question that has arisen seems to be that Prince Bandar received a briefing on the plan, with some suggestion that I hadn’t," Powell told NBC's Andrea Mitchell. "Of course I had. I was intimately familiar with the plan and I was aware that Prince Bandar was being briefed on the plan.”

But Woodward said Monday on CNN's “Larry King Live” that while Powell might have known of the plan, he was not told of the decision to implement it until after the Jan. 11 meeting with Bandar. [link]

Bob Woodward's wry comments about Prince Bandar's flimsy rationalization of being informed (before our own Secretary of State) of the President's intention to attack Iraq:

“Going back to Nixon, I’ve heard all of them... This goes in the hall of fame of dodges and fishy explanations, I think it should get an academy award ... Congratulations, Bandar.”[link]

Citizens of India have shown they have guts and a strong desire to fulfill civic duty. Undeterred by kidnappings, deadly rebel attacks and 113-degree heat, Indians went to the polls and cast ballots Tuesday in the first day of three-week parliamentary elections in their country. 15 Indians are dead today because they tried to vote. The thought of some intelligent-yet-lazy American couch potato sitting at home on U.S. election day fills me with disgust.



In light of the Iraq quagmire, a politically injured Tony Blair is putting a new European Union (EU) constitution to a nationwide vote in the U.K., bowing to demands from opposition Conservatives who say the new charter would threaten British sovereignty.
He once expressed great opposition to such a vote.

"It is time to resolve once and for all whether this country, Britain, wants to be at the center and heart of European decision-making or not; time to decide whether our destiny lies as a leading partner and ally of Europe, or on its margins."

-Tony Blair

Juan Cole comments about the drumbeat of twisted information we hear about Syrian government complicity in infiltration of foreign fighters into Iraq:

Despite the constant drumbeat about alleged Syrian complicity in infiltration of foreign fighers into Iraq, there is not any good proof of it.The fighters that have been captured are mostly Iraqi (some 10,000, I think), with only a few foreigners among them. And, Syria is lambasted for having massacred the Sunni Arab radical fundamentalists, so it is a little unlikely to be supplying them deliberately to Fallujah, which has lots of its own. Rather, if there is infiltration, it is mostly because Syria has a long desert border that can't be controlled (the US should talk--look at its border with Mexico, which is like a sieve). I think this ritual invocation of Syria in connection with infiltration is just a way of attempting to intimidate and bully Syria, which some in the Bush administration would like to topple. If they think Iraqi instability is bad, wait until they see Syria without a proper government in Damascus.

On any possible U.S. attack on Najaf which is being held off by a two-day truce, Juan Cole reports that the spokesman for al-Sadr has said:

"We are prepared for a confrontation, and we believe that this attack will represent the zero hour for the launching of a massive popular revolution."

-- Qeis al-Khaz'ali, spokesman for Muqtada al-Sadr

al-Khaz'ali has also announced his support for sending UN international peace forces to Iraq, but stressed that the "occupation forces should withdraw from the occupied area and release the political prisoners. Then the war will end."

He warned:

" If the Americans continue to move in the field," the war of Vietnam will seem to them easy and simple" in comparison to what is waiting them in Iraq."

Not enough peacekeepers

If you've wondered just how few peace-keeping soldiers the Iraq coalition-supporting nations have sent, read this brief article. I have to admit even I was surprised. The U.S. has 130,000 troops. This article contains the following info:

Poland- 2,400
Albania- 71
Honduras- 370 (soon to pull out?)
Italy- 2,700
Ukraine- 1,650
Slovakia- 105
Portugal- 128 (rumors of pullout)
Great Britain- 12,000

According to a web-based not-for-profit project based in Melbourne, Australia titled Perspectives on World History and Current Events, the statistics read as follows:

Iraq Troop numbers March 2004

1 USA 130,000
2 United Kingdom 9,000
3 Italy 3,000
4 Poland 2,460
5 Ukraine 1,600
6 Spain * 1,300
7 Netherlands 1,100
8 Australia 800
9 Romania 700
10 Bulgaria 480

11 Thailand 440
12 Denmark 420
13 Honduras 368
14 El Salvador 361
15 Dominican Republic 302
16 Hungary 300
17 Japan 240
18 Norway 179
19 Mongolia 160
20 Azerbaijan 150
21 Portugal 128
22 Latvia 120
23 Lithuania 118
24 Slovakia 102
25 Czech Republic 80
26 Philippines 80
27 Albania 70
28 Georgia 70
29 New Zealand 61
30 Moldova 50
31 Macedonia 37
32 Estonia 31
33 Canada 31
34 Kazakhstan 25

More trouble for U.S. public relations in Iraq:

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - U.S. troops shot to death two employees of U.S.-funded television station Al-Iraqiya on Monday and wounded a third in the central city of Samara, the station said.
Correspondent Asaad Kadhim and driver Hussein Saleh were killed. Cameraman Bassem Kamel was wounded "after American forces opened fire on them while they were performing their duty," the station announced. [link]

Congress' first public hearings on the planned Iraq June 30 transition will soon be underway. Our nation is completely polarized and these Congresspeople know, because of rising violence and casualties in Iraq, that they'll have to go home when Congress recesses and face their angry, disgusted, and/or anxious constituents.

The newly elected Spanish Prime Minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, has ordered his 1300 soldiers to leave Iraq "in the shortest possible time", because there is still no sign of the United Nations becoming involved. Today, Bush warned Madrid against taking further actions which would give "false comfort to terrorists". I asked myself, how is Spain's pullout NOT a real comfort for Iraqi insurgents? What Bush is warning Spain against is giving the insurgents any further real and true comfort. When I thought about it some more, I realized it's been Bush giving the insurgents true comfort by his arrogance. The proud Bush's refusal to accept the U.N. as a relevant partner in all of this has made a miserable failure of his stubborn war plan. The insurgents understand this arrogance. It gives them fuel for their fires. I would recommend to our President that he go back to the U.N. and tell them how very relevant he has come to see they are and that, in a truly multilateral coming together, all comfort to the enemy will be forever dissipated.

Headlines


Iraq Unravels: An Interview with Canada's top war reporter Scott Taylor:

"...I can't say exactly what [the four Americans killed and mutilated in Fallujah] were doing, but nobody just goes driving through Fallujah. They had some other role. But in any case they knew the risk. These guys were making $1,000 a day.....the guys doing the de-mining training for Iraqis and mine-sniffing dogs are making from $14,000-$25,000 a month....They are private citizens, not restrained by any military code of conduct, not well-acquainted with the culture....if they are already on edge and understand neither the language nor the culture, they could end up dusting some Iraqi who was just trying to be friendly.......There is a huge rift between the US Army and the Brown & Root guys. In fact, one soldier even asked me how much I was making to be in Iraq. I tried to explain to him that I was just a journalist, not a contractor, and I got paid by the story. He didn't seem to understand the difference. Referring to one of those guys making $14,000 a month, he scowled, "at least someone's making money out of this sh*t".....the war didn't begin 12 months ago, it began 2 weeks ago (with the US attack on Sadr City). And it's likely to get a lot worse in the hot summer months ahead......"

I highly recommend that you go to John Emerson's site to read about the Bush-Bandar connection which, to my way of thinking, highly stings of anti-Americanism on the part of the Bush family. Our Founding Fathers and our patriot-ancestors didn't fight and die to be controlled by foreign interests. This is not the America I recognize from any of our precious Founding documents.


In his private 9-11 testimony on April 8, former President Bill Clinton testified that he personally warned President George W. Bush after the 2000 election that Osama bin Laden would be his top national-security threat. The Time Magazine article is HERE.

Karen Kwiatkowski: Inside the Neo-Con Pentagon

"I spent time that summer exploring the neo-conservative worldview and wondering what could explain this rush to war and disregard for real intelligence....War is generally crafted and pursued for political reasons, but the reasons given to Congress and the American people for this one were inaccurate and so misleading as to be false. Moreover, they were false by design..."

Newsday's James Klurfeld is still scratching his head about some of the comments President Bush made at his news conference last Tuesday. Bush freezes, Condi equivocates..what's the deal?



9-11 Commission: New information produced by the 9-11 commission so far has prompted six of its 10 members to say or suggest that the attacks could have been prevented. The commission has found new evidence that counterterrorism had become a priority for the Clinton national security team in the 90s. Even during the Clinton administration, Richard Clarke, who led anti-terrorism efforts under both Clinton and Bush, argued for aggressive (military) action against Bin Laden. In mid-August 2001, after the arrest of Moussaoui in Minneapolis, "slam-dunk" George Tenet was sent a briefing paper labeled “Islamic Extremist Learns to Fly.” They took no action on the report. There were missed opportunities in the Moussaoui investigation that might have unearthed his connection to the terror cell in Germany which planned 9-11.


Sept 11 Investigation: In steadfastly refusing to admit any responsibility or blame for the Sept. 11 attacks, Bush and his top officials also may be taking a political risk. They may end up further elevating the report's conclusions about responsibility if any of it falls on their administration. Historian Robert Dallek said that while most Americans are probably more concerned with preventing future attacks, ``I think there is a certain amount of feeling in the country that people should be responsible. No heads have fallen. In the Pearl Harbor business, heads did fall.''



Wake Up America!:

"I feel an affinity for the troops over there in Iraq. They are my comrades in arms. I admire their sense of honor and sacrifice. I understand why some of them believe they should be there. They have neither the experience nor the wisdom to see past the lies they have been told. The truth is, they are not over there protecting our freedoms. Our freedoms are not under attack from Saddam Hussein or the remnants of his Baathist party. Our freedoms are under attack by John Ashcroft. They are threatened by John Poindexter. They are trampled by Donald Rumsfeld. They are disdained by Dick Cheney. And they are not even understood by George W. Bush."
--Dr. Robert Bowman, USAF Ret. [LINK]

Who said:

"Americans are coming to learn that the choice this fall is as dramatic as in any recent election"?

I laughed out loud (albeit heartbroken) when I read that statement considering the Patriot Act, the lies and misleadings, being warned that we have to watch what we say and all the other liberty-stifling which has occurred since Bush got a hold on the Oval Office. Did you know it pains President Bush to renew the assault-weapons ban and he secretly hopes the renewal bill won't make it through Congress? Did we learn nothing from Colombine or Michael Moore's film? At Buzzflash, they say they can prove Cheney supports gun control.


Bob Woodward's book "simply not right". [Condi simply a liar, I suspect] *not even a good one*

Do you think John Edwards will be tapped as VP for Kerry? Do you know that Sen. John Edwards sealed up North Carolina's democratic nomination Saturday in the first-ever N.C. caucus? The turnout was low, but the voters spoke their mind.
I think Bill Richardson would make a fantastic Secretary of State.

DeLay should know...he not only slings the mud, I suspect he IS the mud. Listen to this beauteous line by DeLay:

"The camera-driven tone of the hearings undermines the commission's credibility, distracts the American people from the gravity of the war on terror, and could send dangerous messages to unfriendly eyes and ears around the world."

Camera-driven tone"? (ie: Let's censor). "Unfriendly eyes"? As a rational liberal American, Mr. DeLay, I sit here knowing full well that you look upon the likes of me with destructo-laser-beam eyes, so don't tell us about unfriendly, already.




Frank Rich:

"I didn't come here to watch a tribal bloodbath," says Peter O'Toole, as Lawrence of Arabia, earlier in the movie when first encountering the internecine warfare of the Arab leaders he admired. But the bloodbath continued — and now that we've ended Saddam's savage grip on Iraq, it has predictably picked up where it left off. Only Americans have usurped the British as the primary targets in the crossfire of an undying civil war...

Freedom of Speech: Gannett chain newspaper sacks knowlegeable foreign affairs writer Barrie Dunsmore..motives decidedly point to religious censorship.

It's sickening to hear the The Federal Election Commission is investigating Hillary Clinton (of all people) when we don't even have a trustworthy electoral system in place for this November. More right-wing wasting of precious time..more squandering the people's true opportunity for liberty and justice. The last presidential election was, for all intents and purposes, snatched from the weakened hands of the people. The vote is the people's most powerful voice...nowadays it seems our ONLY voice. Federal Election Commission: Get on the stick and stop fussing around with your petty witch-hunts. Our nation is near civil death and this will divide us further.

A simple man:

Tom Tomorrow nails it. While watching the Bush press conference last week, he posted these all-too-true and so-sad-they're-almost-amusing words:

April 13, 2004

Oh god
He's so awful. He just flounders around until he can dredge up a marginally appropriate sound bite--and when the question doesn't allow for that, he's just utterly lost.

posted by Tom Tomorrow at 09:28 PM | link

Play this game
what are you reading?...

Kevin Jones says - in his Book game post:

"it's the latest info fad, the newest wrinkle in expanding the acoustic resonance of the echo chamber; join in now!"

The book I am currently reading is The Faiths of Our Fathers by Alf J. Mapp Jr. and here is my sentence (it's a long one):

~~~~~~~~~~~~

'In words that seem an anticipation of space-age science fiction, [Benjamin] Franklin says:

"When I stretch my imagination through and beyond our system of planets, beyond the visible fixed stars themselves, into that space which is every way infinite, and conceive it filled with suns like ours, each with a chorus of worlds forever moving round him, then this little ball on which we move seems, even in my narrow imagination, to be almost nothing, and myself less than nothing, and of no sort of consequence."

~~~~~~~~~~

If you would like to play and dip your prose toes into this memepool - here are the rules:

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 23.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.

Headlines


Listen up--this is important:

In his new book, Bob Woodward describes a relationship between Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Colin L. Powell that became so strained Cheney and Powell are barely on speaking terms. Cheney engaged in a bitter and eventually winning struggle over Iraq with Powell, an opponent of war who believed Cheney was obsessively trying to establish a connection between Iraq and the al Qaeda terrorist network and treated ambiguous intelligence as fact.
Powell felt Cheney and his allies -- his chief aide, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby; Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz; and Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas J. Feith and what Powell called Feith's "Gestapo" office -- had established what amounted to a separate government.

A SEPARATE GOVERNMENT. A "Gestapo Office". Strong accusations...made by our Secretary of State.


Clear Channel dumped Howard Stern...and they surely don't want you to hear Howard on Satellite Radio, either. Why? They know you'll flock to Satellite to hear Howard Stern--leaving the boring FCC-suck-ups in the dust.

Dominoes? Spain is withdrawing its troops from Iraq. Portugal may follow suit.

Guerrilla warfare is becoming a major concern for our U.S. Military. If one hair on faithful soldier Matt Maupin's head is touched, I'm afraid the few Americans who still have faith in Bush's handling of Iraq will change their minds quickly.

In Kosovo (of all places), Jordanian U.N. peacekeeper Ahmed Mustafa Ibrahim Ali has reacted violently to an emotional argument among fellow police officers over the war in Iraq. What a nightmare!

The anti-Islamic-slanted information source MEMRI is asserting that most Muslim intellectuals are 'all for terror' even though they 'talk of love and peace in Islam'. They say it's just a cover for violence. Consider the source. In my opinion, information sources like MEMRI do absolutely nothing to further peace or understanding in this world.

World Net Daily is all-a-twitter because folks like Warren Buffett, George Soros, Bill Gates Sr. and some of the Rockefellers might make some dough if Kerry's elected. I say "Who cares as long as all our boats are lifted?" WND hates 'em because they're liberal. Could it BE more obvious?

The pseudo-holy-rollers at World Net Daily are spreading more hatred toward Muslims in this beauty of an "article". Muslim clerics preach wife-beating. Where did they get this tripe, you ask? Once again, from none other than the Islam-haters at MEMRI.

This banner is running at MEMRI now (pardon the capital letters..it's them..not me):

IN A COMMUNIQUÉ IN RESPONSE TO THE ASSASSINATION OF HAMAS LEADER ABD AL-'AZIZ AL-RANTISI, FATAH'S AL-AQSA MARTYRS BRIGADES STATED: 'BUSH AND SHARON ARE THE HITLER OF THE ERA, AND THEY CONSTITUTE A DANGER TO WORLD SECURITY. ALL THE FIGHTING [PALESTINIAN] FACTIONS ARE CALLED UPON TO CAUSE AN EARTHQUAKE TO THE ZIONIST ENEMY. THE OCCUPATION WILL PAY A PRICE FOR ITS CRIMES, AND EVERYONE IN THE ZIONIST ENTITY IS NOW A TARGET, EVEN CHILDREN. THEY WILL PAY, IN BLOOD, THE PRICE FOR THE TEARS SHED BY THE PALESTINIAN MOTHERS.' (AL-HAYAT AL-JADIDA, PA, 4/18/04)

Here is Haaretz' take on the Israeli-Palestinian situation.
Richard Gwyn of the Toronto Star claims it all boils down to Incurious George.

The next time someone asks the President if mistakes were made, a Real Audio clip has been provided for those pesky "blank-out" moments. It's titled "Mistakes Were Made".

Contrary to popular belief, you cannot get anything you want at Mohammed’s restaurant.

Iraq and the Bush Administration


There are new ideas and opinions about the war in Iraq swirling around the world of politics, journalism and blogging this week.

Stratfor.com has an interesting (free) analysis of President Bush's recent press conference (try to read it soon as it may be replaced shortly). It contains a point-blank political warning for the Bush administration:

We are convinced that the Bush administration has a defensible strategy. It is not a simple one and not one that can be made completely public, but it is a defensible strategy. If President Bush decides not to articulate it, it will be interesting to see whether President Kerry does, because we are convinced that if Bush keeps going in the direction he is going, he will lose the election.

The summary says, in part:

If the primary purpose of the U.S. invasion of Iraq was to bring democracy to Iraq, then enduring the pain of the current crisis will make little sense to the American public. Taken in isolation, bringing democracy to Iraq may be a worthy goal, but not one taking moral precedence over bringing democracy to several dozen other countries -- and certainly not a project worth the sacrifices now being made necessary.

If, on the other hand, the invasion was an integral part of the war that began Sept. 11, then Bush will generate public support for it. The problem that Bush has -- and it showed itself vividly in his press conference -- is that he and the rest of his administration are simply unable to embed Iraq in the general strategy of the broader war. Bush asserts that it is part of that war, but then uses the specific justification of bringing democracy to Iraq as his rationale. Unless you want to argue that democratizing Iraq -- assuming that is possible -- has strategic implications more significant than democratizing other countries, the explanation doesn't work. The explanation that does work -- that the invasion of Iraq was a stepping-stone toward changes in behavior in other countries of the region -- is never given.

We therefore wind up with an explanation that is only superficially plausible, and a price that appears to be excessive, given the stated goal. The president and his administration do not seem willing to provide a coherent explanation of the strategy behind the Iraq campaign. What was the United States hoping to achieve when it invaded Iraq, and what is it defending now? There are good answers to these questions, but Bush stays with platitudes.

We must ask ourselves...why the platitudes? Why the unwillingness? It makes no political sense in a re-election year.

David Brooks has written a NYT op-ed with the ever-confusing philosophy I find common lately when I read the words of centrist-right mainstream journalists who write for what some people would term "corporate media". Basically, Brooks is saying 'Yes..I was for the war...but not this particular war... a war something like it..." As if you could ever have separated the PNAC Utopian ideals from the failures proved in the realistic results of a foreseeable lack of Bush administration's strategy and old fashioned gut-intuition. I just don't buy this philosophy. "Things are all wrong...but I was right". How was it that disbanding the Iraqi army was visionary? How could one say that General Shinseki's sage advice about a large number of troops was not shunned at the great expense of the cause? How can one look back at the virtual snubbing of the U.N. and say we didn't lose something of invaluable importance when it came to diplomacy and building strong coalitions? How could one say that the burden of paying for reconstruction (with non-adequate security to protect the interests such as the oil pipelines which are being sabotaged far too often) should be placed solely on American taxpayers? How could we look back and say Bush's mistaken use of the word "crusade" from the get-go wasn't a warning sign? This was a sheltered leader with little-to-no true knowlege of the workings and/or mindset of the world outside the U.S. How was it we could not see that he didn't understand the importance of great tact..that he simply didn't "get it"?

On the blog of gifted writer Matthew Yglesias, he comments on the Brooks op-ed and adds some introspective thoughts of his own. I think he's correct in stating that, during the Iraq war lead-up, neither the blind Bush-supporters nor the chanting anti-war crowds fully understood (respectively from right and left standpoints) how unrelated, wrong-minded and Utopian the Bush administration's war plans really were as the right cheered on-- and how the generalities and lack of sophisticated dialogue from the left did not help to make the general public understand what was about to happen. Frankly, I don't think either side had a chance to stop the Iraq "rock"...the Bush administration was bound and determined (before 9-11) to get into Iraq and change its regime. Nothing was going to stop them. Both Brooks and Yglesias have exercised a bit of vanity here..and that's what journalists do.

Patriotic Gore


go to NPR interview w/Bob Edwards by clicking photo

I enjoyed Justin Raimondo's review of Gore Vidal's new book Inventing a Nation: Washington, Adams, Jefferson (The article, Patriotic Gore, linked above).

I have not read the entire book to date, but I've read many parts.
One particular part sticks in my memory. I begin with an excerpt from Sterne's "The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy"

My uncle Toby was a man patient of injuries;--not from want of courage,--I have told you in a former chapter, 'that he was a man of courage:'--And will add here, that where just occasions presented, or called it forth,--I know no man under whose arm I would have sooner taken shelter;--nor did this arise from any insensibility or obtuseness of his intellectual parts;- -for he felt this insult of my father's as feelingly as a man could do;-- but he was of a peaceful, placid nature,--no jarring element in it,--all was mixed up so kindly within him; my uncle Toby had scarce a heart to retaliate upon a fly.

--Go--says he, one day at dinner, to an over-grown one which had buzzed about his nose, and tormented him cruelly all dinner-time,--and which after infinite attempts, he had caught at last, as it flew by him;--I'll not hurt thee, says my uncle Toby, rising from his chair, and going across the room, with the fly in his hand,--I'll not hurt a hair of thy head:--Go, says he, lifting up the sash, and opening his hand as he spoke, to let it escape;-- go, poor devil, get thee gone, why should I hurt thee?--This world surely is wide enough to hold both thee and me.

I was but ten years old when this happened: but whether it was, that the action itself was more in unison to my nerves at that age of pity, which instantly set my whole frame into one vibration of most pleasurable sensation;--or how far the manner and expression of it might go towards it;--or in what degree, or by what secret magick,--a tone of voice and harmony of movement, attuned by mercy, might find a passage to my heart, I know not;--this I know, that the lesson of universal good-will then taught and imprinted by my uncle Toby, has never since been worn out of my mind: And tho' I would not depreciate what the study of the Literae humaniores, at the university, have done for me in that respect, or discredit the other helps of an expensive education bestowed upon me, both at home and abroad since;--yet I often think that I owe one half of my philanthropy to that one accidental impression.


Reading this section of the book where Uncle Toby spares the life of a fly, Aaron Burr (who lived to a ripe old age) is said to have remarked, "Had I read Sterne more and Voltaire less, I should have known the world was wide enough for Hamilton and me."

Coming Soon to a 9-11 Commission Near You...




THE DICK CHENEY AND DUBYA MCBUSHY SHOW!

Leonid's the world's tallest.
Better a veterinarian than a proctologist...
yowzers!

At Critical Viewer, A Busy Person's Guide to the Bush Press Conference


If you don't have time for the original, (so much campaign slogan schlock to wade through), this one's to-the-point.

By the way, this has been tough weeks in that country.

My prize for the weirdest (and most horrifying) answer to a question about the FBI: "We are an instrument of God to deliver freedom to the people of the world."

Oh...please repeat after Cal....It's all Don Gonyea's fault...it's all Don Gonyea's fault...

A particularly 'DUH-ful' moment: "And they were happy — they're not happy they're occupied. I wouldn't be happy if I were occupied either..."

Most unconvincingly delivered line: "I feel incredibly grieved when I meet with family members, and I do quite frequently. I grieve for, you know, the incredible loss of life that they feel, the emptiness they feel." Maybe it was just the delivery, but I wasn't swayed in the least.

Second most unconvincing line: "I wanted Tenet in the Oval Office all the time."
*For PDB threat assessments history lessons, perhaps? Is our children our Presidents learning?*

With Glen Este and the Maupin family and friends...




Here at Iddybud, our prayers are with all of you.



Matt, come home safely.

Have you seen....
"The Front-Runner’s Fall"

The Dean implosion up close, from the vantage point of the candidate's pollster

The night of the Iowa caucus:

We tried hard to cheer him up, and we explained the importance of seeming confident in those interviews. He did beautifully in each of them. But nobody had bothered to write up a concession speech or even a few lines to use when he faced the crowd waiting in the Val Air Ballroom, many of them Stormers. It was as if we were all in shock, and didn't even consider the importance of his first election-night appearance in front of a national television audience.

Report From Fallujah -- Destroying A Town In Order To Save It (News) Rahul Mahajan

Blogs in the Heart of the War Zone

by Rahul Mahajan, EmpireNotes.org
April 15, 2004
Rahul Mahajan's sobering, evocative weblog that he updates several times a day from the heart of the war zone completely dispels the Bush administration's stance that only a handful of mujahadeen are behind the uprisings in Fallujah and elsewhere in Iraq. If you're looking for a lighthearted account that justifies the presence of American troops in Iraq and foresees a quick solution, look elsewhere. But if you crave a street account of the quagmire that sheds light on why many normal Iraqis are rising up against the invaders even though they hated Saddam Hussein, then check out EmpireNotes.org."

Will Cheney's secret energy meetings see the light?

Will Cheney's secret energy meetings see the light?

In These Times | The Task at Hand"The Bush administration has until June 1 to turn over secret documents involving Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force or provide the legal grounds to withhold them."