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Saturday, March 29, 2003
posted by gbarto at 3:31 AM:
Not a lot of posting tonight, I know. But there is this, a short intro to the Dao (Tao) that I just put up. It's chapter 1 with a Chinese text I threw together from a few manuscripts and my translation and interpretation (note that the text is probably a mess; I arranged it for the purposes of making it point to a semi-coherent translation, not to offer the best scholarly manuscript ever). Other than that, I got to talk to AOL customer service because someone used my aol account to send out viagra offers. A curiosity: would you buy from someone who sent you an offer, only they couldn't use their real e-mail address?* * *
posted by gbarto at 2:59 AM:
French news round-up:Le Monde: Baghdad still bombed, Kuwait City hit. The Iraqis actually got a missile to land somewhere.
Le Figaro: Murderous suicide bombing against American forces. A taxi driver blew himself up at a traffic blockade near Nadjaf, killing 5 American soldier. A missile has hit Kuwait City. And the UN decided to restart "Food for Oil". Lovely.
Libé also leads with the suicide bombing.
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Friday, March 28, 2003
posted by gbarto at 10:51 AM:
Headlines and musings:Blix to Leave Job in June
Now we know when the inspections would have proven done to his satisfaction!
Kurds Rout Militants in North
Ethnic militiamen defeat a unit with alleged links to al Qaeda, reports The Post's Karl Vick from the scene.
Turkey better play nice or the Kurds will establish an independent Kurdistan.
I like it! Instapundit has a reader suggestion from Lou Dolinar for getting the Iraqis interested in our cause and showing the world we're not after the oil: give it to the Iraqi people. Specifically, allocate 50% to paying for the war, rebuilding and the government and put the rest in a people's trust like Alaska has. Reynolds says he's not sure for us to do this. But he should remember what that great legal mind, Abraham Lincoln, would have had to say on the question: "Possession is nine-tenths of the law." If we control the oil, of course we can give it away. And we'll be doing so in a fashion that even the most hardened anti-war leftist would have thought of in any other circumstance.
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posted by gbarto at 10:34 AM:
U.N. Restarts Oil-for-Food ProgramNot clear when aid will reach Iraq
Let's hope the UN can get its sh-- together enough that that's not just code for "Oil for Weapons" like it was last time.
The UN - not Iraq - must administer distribution of food and all other aid or it will just become a way for the government and military to procure extra provisions for themselves, as always at the expense of the people.
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posted by gbarto at 3:32 AM:
Iraqi Military Fires On Its CiviliansThousands of citizens fleeing Basra face mortar, machine gun fire
Here's the story on the behavior of those France would defend from American militarism.
It's interesting that Dominique de Villepin is more concerned about making sure the US isn't in charge of rebuilding Iraq and about "Oil for Food" than he is Iraqi war crimes designed to get those Iraqi people he's so concerned about killed if that's what it takes to make the US look bad.
Perhaps because de Villepin, like Saddam, is more concerned with making the US look bad than the welfare of the Iraqi people.
Perhaps because for France it really is all about oil.
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posted by gbarto at 1:52 AM:
Steve Den Beste has an extremely useful - and extremely scathing - critique of French actions on the world stage of late. France has been getting a lot of bad press lately. More unusual, it's almost uniformly deserved.* * *
posted by gbarto at 1:46 AM:
A Dog's Life has thoughts on hand-wringing over the war.* * *
posted by gbarto at 1:45 AM:
Good column by Leonard Pitts on the television war. Closing graf:Maybe [this up close look] will encourage us to henceforth treat this ugly business with the soberness it deserves. Because what's amazing is not that this war is messy, awful and terrifying, but that any of us ever thought it could be anything but.
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posted by gbarto at 1:39 AM:
French news headlines:Le Monde: Agreement at UN on return of aid to Iraq under the "Oil for Food" program.
Le Figaro: The Coalition Maintains Its Pressure on Iraq.
Libé: Anglo-Americans and Iraqis reinforce little by little.
Two striking things: 1) The French headlines got a lot more neutral after the war started. The obvious anti-US bias has given way to an attempt at reporting "just the facts". 2) There is not a lot of emphasis, nonetheless, on Iraqi war crimes, either from a legal viewpoint or from a moral viewpoint. The TurkeyBlog gives not a rat's patootie about the former, but wonders what those who worry about civilian casualties think of a country that deliberately makes its soldiers blend in and mesh into society in a way designed to force civilian casualties. Not much one way or the other, it would seem.
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posted by gbarto at 1:19 AM:
Protesters Throw Rocks at SergeantVermont teens target uniformed female National Guard officer
If they're so enamored of throwing rocks at women, maybe they should move to Nigeria or Saudi Arabia.
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posted by gbarto at 1:18 AM:
Here's the latest on those the French defend:Iraqi Military Opens Fire on Civilians Fleeing Basra
IRAQIS SEEN UNLOADING CHEMICAL DRUMS
So, if I have this straight, we can't tangle with Iraq because of the danger to civilians... when the Iraqi army shoots them?
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Thursday, March 27, 2003
posted by gbarto at 10:59 AM:
Senator, Scholar
Moynihan Dies
He showed interest in cities, architecture.
Couldn't the same be written of Prince Charles? The WaPo headline crew could have done better by Moynihan.
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posted by gbarto at 10:48 AM:
Iraq Will Be 'Freed,' Bush, Blair AssertAs campaigns resume at full intensity, the allied leaders vow to press on to victory regardless of the war's length.
Meanwhile...
France Insists U.N. Run Post-War Iraq
Their foreign minister "was confident that France and the United States would re-establish the close ties they enjoyed before the Iraqi crisis unfolded," says the Washington Post. I wouldn't be so sure. Gun-totin' cowboys like W may not understand kissing and making up as well as some previous presidents. Incidentally, "De Villepin said France's main priority in the reconstruction of Iraq would be for the U.N. to pass a humanitarian resolution on the oil-for-food program." If that includes one dime for Total-Fina-Elf, the US should inform France that any influence it wants in post-war Iraq will have to be acquired the way we acquired it.
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posted by gbarto at 1:30 AM:
Natalie Solent has found an article suggesting thatSaddam's Forces Fired on an Iraqi Food Line!
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posted by gbarto at 1:23 AM:
We hope Dr. Weevil isn't uniformly down on turkeys!* * *
posted by gbarto at 1:07 AM:
Two UN related posts from Cicero, one on Liebermann, one on UN jurisdiction. I do think pull-out is possible for the simple reason that the UN barely exists as fact. Though it torments the US plenty, it is subject to our will. The UN has yet to do much of anything unless it was the US doing it under UN auspices. And our presence in Iraq demonstrates its impotence when it challenges us. Loss of our money, our troops and our other supports would codify the UN as exactly what it has already been when we've been busy or indifferent: a forum for petty tyrants to rail against us and pass resolutions whose sole effect is to make impotent nations feel better about themselves. Because the UN needs the US far more than the other way around - we're the only nation that ever makes its declarations truly credible. Which means Liebermann's on the mark: we should take whatever political hits we take because rebuilding Iraq the right way will earn us far more respect than the blessings of the UN could ever confer.* * *
posted by gbarto at 12:49 AM:
French news headlines:Le Monde: Imminent Opening of Northern Front, with troops parachuting in by the hundreds.
Le Figaro: Reinforcements in Iraq for eighth day of war.
Libé: Libé goes local with Explosion at Seviso Factory in Pas-de-Calais, 3 dead.
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posted by gbarto at 12:43 AM:
Former Sen. Moynihan Dead at 76Four-term N.Y. senator suffered complications following surgery
Though I disagreed with a lot of his politics, I was always impressed by his flair and his committment to intellectual honesty as best he understood it. New York, the Democratic Party and the US have all lost one of their brighter stars.
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posted by gbarto at 12:37 AM:
U.S. Denies Targeting NeighborhoodCruise missiles hit Baghdad market
Probably the targeting was messed up by Russian made jammers.
If so, the Iraqi people can thank Putin for their losses. Though Saddam is no doubt delighted either way, ever hopeful that since the Iraqi people mean more to us than him they might put a buffer around attacks on him.
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posted by gbarto at 12:34 AM:
Top General: Iraq Executed POWsPentagon's No. 2 general lists a series of violations of the laws of war
If the US were doing this... but Europe probably won't care about Iraq violating the rules of war. Western construct beyond the oriental mind, yada yada yada, they'll probably say.
Because European racism is all about appeasing those they view as unrecoverable to humanity lest violence come.
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Wednesday, March 26, 2003
posted by gbarto at 1:52 AM:
I fear Natalie Solent has now decided to take a short break, and thus I have barely time to link to her post before I blink out again.* * *
posted by gbarto at 12:16 AM:
Here come your French news headlines:Le Monde: Iraq: Violent combat, confusion at Basra, where (according to the Brits) there's a popular uprising against Saddam.
Le Figaro: Uncertainty about Basra uprising, which was announced by the Brits, stymied by the Iraqi army and denied by the Iraqi Information Minister.
Libération: Baghdad bombed, Marines bogged down - in sand, of course.
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posted by gbarto at 12:02 AM:
Quite a splash on Fox at the moment:
The blue cloud of smoke, in particular, is quite something. That's an oil-filled trench on fire.
In the meantime, the good news/bad news combination is at least pointing in the right direction - and truly so. Remembering of course, that we've got the resources to win this and have every reason to do so, there's been an "ohmigod" tone to a lot of the news to date. Tonight, everything is just as scary and yet... The Seventh Cav has apparently done well against an Iraqi attack, the discovery of Iraqi gas masks, while worrying, 1) points out we're right to be doing this and 2) sends that message loud and clear to the fair-weather friends of Western Continental Europe. They can hear it or be hypocrites but we're clean.
There's been a wonderful amount of commentary on the fact that the Iraqis are war criminals, whether the anti-US rhetoric applies the term to us, and it seems that those involved in the fighting are gradually getting stronger support at home as fence-sitters realize 1) that those are our boys and 2) their doubts about how bad Saddam really was are being met with evidence he's thaaaat bad.
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Tuesday, March 25, 2003
posted by gbarto at 12:15 PM:
Good Wa Po editorial on the fact that we've only just finished Day Five.And a fantastic column from Richard Cohen, "Safe Driving in Baghdad".
I hope -- but I do not expect -- that the world in general, and particularly the Muslim world, notices what you and I notice. I hope people note that about 600 journalists are embedded with allied forces, reporting from the battlefield virtually without censorship...
When last I looked, the lights were on in Baghdad and cars could be seen scurrying to and fro. The so-called coalition of the willing -- mainly America and Britain with a dash of Australia -- will win this war. But in a way, the winning of it is being accomplished in the waging of it -- and the unseen drivers of those cars at the bottom of the TV screen know it better than anyone. Already, they must trust America more than they possibly could their own regime.
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posted by gbarto at 12:02 PM:
Better than the Mitterand regime, though...France's Villepin Defends U.S. Overflights
Tuesday, Mar 25, 2003; 11:41 AM
PARIS--Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin defended on Tuesday France's decision to maintain overflight rights for British and U.S. military planes heading for Iraq in a war France staunchly opposes.
"There are, as the French president has underlined, customs between allies that we should respect, and among those are overflight rights," Villepin said in answer to a National Assembly deputy who asked why Paris was letting the planes use its airspace.
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posted by gbarto at 11:58 AM:
Saudis Propose Halting the WarSaudi Arabia said Tuesday it had made a proposal to end the U.S.-led war on Iraq and was still awaiting a response, but it was not immediately clear whether it had launched a formal initiative.Unless it involves Saddam's permanent departure from Iraq, no thanks.
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posted by gbarto at 11:50 AM:
Some good news:SHIITE REBELLION REPORTED IN BASRA
Iraqi GPS Jammers Destroyed
On the other hand, there's the issue of casualties, POWs, and the troubling new element of the day, Russians selling Iraq equipment. The US should put sanctions and cut off all aid for the latter immediately.
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posted by gbarto at 2:38 AM:
French news headlines:Le Monde: Marines cross Euphrates at Nassiriyah, and in heavy combat to boot.
Le Figaro: Republican Guard targeted.
Libé: Nassiriyah and Baghdad primary objectives.
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posted by gbarto at 12:13 AM:
Elite Troops Block Baghdad ApproachWarplanes pound Republican Guard defenders as U.S. forces marshal strength within 50 miles of capital.
Which is to say that we ought to do this, but it's going to be harder than we'd like.
Iraq's 'Deadly Deceptions'
Pentagon denounces false surrenders
But the UN and Europe ought to be denouncing them too and big time. They've just given the US a good reason to shoot anything that moves. Coupled with militia members in plain clothes in other places, the Iraqi military is doing everything it can to maximize casualties military and civilian alike.
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Monday, March 24, 2003
posted by gbarto at 9:53 AM:
Two quick notes:Public Support Stays Strong
Post-ABC poll finding comes even as more expect "significant" casualties.
Which is why it's important that people understand what you're doing. I think that despite the protestors' assertions, most of us do in fact understand what this war's about, even if it's Tony Blair's explanation that sealed the deal.
U.S. Troops Moving Closer to Baghdad
They're less than fifty miles out but struggling with a sandstorm. Let's hope they make it and damn soon.
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posted by gbarto at 4:15 AM:
Not much new overnight, at least not that major news sources have picked up on. But for perspective, it's good to look at the lead editorial in today's Washington Post, "Grievous Losses." After a "bad" day yesterday, they're wondering how World War II would have gone with such instantaneous reporting. As near as I can tell, though are losses are - always are - heartbreaking and awful, they number less than one hundred. In 1942, US and British forces had to attack French forces on the beaches of North Africa (France? Yes, France was allied with Germany for a while; the jokes about résistance, après guerre aren't jokes). So here's the perspectiveOperation TORCH ended in victory, and was reported as such back home. But the three days were marked by confusion, error and avoidable loss, as a recently published history, "An Army at Dawn," makes clear.... "TORCH revealed profound shortcomings in leadership, tactics, equipment, martial elan, and common sense," [Rick Atkinson's] narrative concludes. Eleven hundred American and British fighters died during the three days. [our emphasis]This is ugly, but the technology and advances of 60 years are making it a lot less ugly than it might be, and thank God for that.
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posted by gbarto at 1:28 AM:
Marcus is on a tear, covering all sorts of aspects of the war that aren't necessarily being thought about elsewhere or in the same way. Start at the top and read down.* * *
posted by gbarto at 1:12 AM:
Notes Instapundit, Iraqi soldiers - aware that we're trying not to kill civilians - are fighting in plain clothes. And they've executed U.S. POWs. Both are war crimes. Will Europe march?* * *
posted by gbarto at 1:05 AM:
French news headlines:Le Monde: Iraq: American losses, Iraqi resistance. First rough fighting about 100 km from Baghdad, and the first discovery of a chemical factory.
Le Figaro: First of all, we note that lefigaro.fr is redirecting to irak.figaro.net. Now, the headline: Coalition slowed by Iraqi resistance.
Libé: Baghdad and Mossul bombarded. Libé also pushing this editorial, which passes up the chance to be overly snarky about coalition setbacks and simply reminds that war is still war, hence fraught with peril for all combattants, that the US will surely win, but at a higher price than it would have liked to have paid.
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posted by gbarto at 12:49 AM:
On the war:9 Marines Killed in Faked Surrender
We knew this would happen sooner or later. A horrible thing, a violation of war rules, and an assurance that things will go much worse for their brothers in arms from now on. Also, one more reminder to the UN and all the lovelies out there that this is not about a lack of understanding. Our troops tried to show goodwill and spare the lives of Iraqi soldiers, never mind civilians. Not likely to happen again.
Russian Dealers Supplying Iraq
Electronic jamming equipment could throw U.S. planes, bombs off course
We're going to change this to
Russians threaten Iraqi civilians!
since this is the practical implication. The U.S. has done its damnedest to make sure that innocent civilians aren't hurt if we can avoid it in any way. This is difficult since Saddam purposely put military targets in civilian neighborhoods, valuing PR above his citizens' lives. Now, Russia is engaged in trying to send US weapons astray, potentially redirecting weapons away from military targets and into Iraqi homes. If an Iraqi installation is missed but a hospital or some such thing gets blown up, we'll all know why.And if Vladimir Putin really is a Christian, he's setting himself up for one hot eternity.
There's also bad news about POWs, etc., as to be expected in war, but the top headline at Fox remains:
TROOPS ADVANCE ON 'DAY OF RESISTANCE'
And so they will until the Iraqi people are free.
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Sunday, March 23, 2003
posted by gbarto at 8:16 AM:
Le Monde waking up? Here are two lines from this morning's lead editorial:Le but des Etats-Unis en Irak n'est pas le pétrole, contrairement à ce qui est affirmé dans les manifestations contre la guerre...Not a ringing endorsement, but progress.
The goal of the US in Iraq is not oil, contrary to what the anti-war protests assert...
... [le but] est bien plus vaste, idéologique plutôt, touchant à la fois à la protection des Etats-Unis et à leur conception du monde de l'après-guerre froide.
... the goal is much broader, ideological rather, touching upon the protection of the US and its conception of the post-Cold War world.
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posted by gbarto at 8:08 AM:
A rephrasing of some of the bad news mentioned below:U.S. Suffers Casualties in S. Iraq Fight
Marines fighting to open a new route to Baghdad are said to have taken significant casualties in Nasiriyah.
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posted by gbarto at 8:03 AM:
Some good news:Allies Advance Toward Baghdad
And some very bad news:
Rumsfeld: American Soldiers Missing
Defense secretary says there's report of missing allied aircraft
British: Patriot Missile Shot Down Jet
No word on fate of crew of Royal Air Force fighter aircraft
Which is to say that we are in a war, a decidedly ugly thing in which, alas, death and destruction replace reason and mutual support for our common humanity as the instruments we use. Unfortunately, these instruments sometimes have to be used in the same way that a surgeon's instruments, however well used and finely made, inevitably cut away healthy living tissue in the process of removing a cancer.
The cancer on humanity that is (was?) Saddam Hussein is in the process of being excised, but both the surgery and the healing to follow will have their own traumas.
The TurkeyBlog again sends thoughts and prayers for all those threatened or hurt by this very ugly but very necessary process.
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posted by gbarto at 1:38 AM:
So, here we are. By the headlines below, there's some pretty formidable opposition. And rightly so, in that one cannot count on an entire country renouncing its purpose.. But on balance, things are going pretty well, to which the TurkeyBlog says, Yay!!! Back tomorrow, hopefully with relatively good or happy news.* * *
posted by gbarto at 1:30 AM:
French news headlines:Le Monde: Iraq: Just go around obstacles, the better to advance. About the movement of our troops to maximize political effect and minimize damage done and damage to different parts of the domestic ministry.
Le Figaro: British plane hit by American missile, namely a Patriot potentially attacking a Scud.
Libé: Fighting at Nassiriah, the US army is blocked
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