Iraq divided By Charles Krauthammer Friday, September 7, 2007
Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres. -- Caesar
WASHINGTON -- It took political Washington a good six months to catch up to the fact that something significant was happening in Iraq's Anbar province, where the former-insurgent Sunni tribes switched sides and joined the fight against al-Qaeda. Not surprisingly, Washington has not yet caught up to the next reality: Iraq is being partitioned -- and, like everything else in Iraq today, it is happening from the ground up.
An Iraqi woman waits for the start of supply distribution at a council centre in Zafraniya neighbourhood, southeast of Baghdad September 6, 2007. REUTERS/Carlos Barria (IRAQ) 1. The Sunni provinces. The essence of our deal with the Anbar tribes and those in Diyala, Salahuddin and elsewhere is this: You end the insurgency and drive out al-Qaeda and we assist you in arming and policing yourselves. We'd like you to have an official relationship with the Maliki government, but we're not waiting on Baghdad.
2. The Shiite south.This week the British pulled out of Basra, retired to their air base and essentially left the southern Shiites to their own devices -- meaning domination by the Shiite militias now fighting each other for control.
3. The Kurdish north. Kurdistan has been independent in all but name for a decade and a half.
Baghdad and its immediate surroundings have not yet been defined. Despite some ethnic cleansing, the capital's future is uncertain. It is predominantly Shiite, but with a checkerboard of Sunni neighborhoods. The U.S. troop surge is attempting to stabilize the city with, again, local autonomy and policing.
This radically decentralized rule is partition in embryo. It is by no means final. But the outlines are there.
The critics at home, echoing the Shiite sectarians in Baghdad, complain that an essential part of this strategy -- the "20 percent solution" that allows former-insurgent Sunnis to organize and arm themselves -- is just setting Iraq up for a greater civil war. But this assumes that a Shiite government in Baghdad would march its army into the vast Anbar province where there are no Shiites and no oil. For what? It seems far more likely that a well-armed and self-governing Anbar would create a balance of power that would encourage hands-off relations with the central government in Baghdad.
As partition proceeds, the central government will necessarily be very weak. Its reach may not extend far beyond Baghdad itself, becoming a kind of de facto fourth region with a mixed Sunni-Shiite population.
Nonetheless, we need some central government. The Iraqi state may be a shell but it is a necessary one because de jure partition into separate states would invite military intervention by the neighbors -- Turkey, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Syria.
A weak, partitioned Iraq is not the best outcome. We had hoped for much more. Our original objective was a democratic and unified post-Saddam Iraq. But it has turned out to be a bridge too far. We tried to give the Iraqis a republic, but their leaders turned out to be, tragically, too driven by sectarian sentiment, by an absence of national identity and by the habits of suspicion and maneuver cultivated during decades in the underground of Saddam's totalitarian state.
All this was exacerbated by post-invasion U.S. strategic errors (most importantly, eschewing a heavy footprint, not forcibly suppressing the early looting, and letting Moqtada al-Sadr escape with his life in August 2004) and by al-Qaeda's barbarous bombing campaign designed explicitly to kindle sectarian strife.
Whatever the reasons, we now have to look for the second-best outcome. A democratic unified Iraq might someday emerge. Perhaps today's ground-up reconciliation in the provinces will translate into tomorrow's ground-up national reconciliation. Possible, but highly doubtful. What is far more certain is what we are getting now: ground-up partition.
Joe Biden, Peter Galbraith, Leslie Gelb and many other thoughtful scholars and politicians have long been calling for partition. The problem is how to make it happen. Top-down partition by some new constitutional arrangement ratified on parchment is swell, but how does that get enforced any more than the other constitutional dreams that were supposed to have come about in Iraq?
What's happening today on the ground is not geographical line-drawing, colonial style. We do not have a Mr. Sykes and a Mr. Picot sitting down to a map of Mesopotamia in a World War I carving exercise. The lines today are being drawn organically by self-identified communities and tribes. Which makes the new arrangement more likely to last.
This is not the best outcome, but it is far better than the savage and dangerous dictatorship we overthrew. And infinitely better than what will follow if we give up in mid-surge and withdraw -- and allow the partitioning of Iraq to dissolve into chaos.
I am quickly approaching fifty-seven years living in America and didn’t realize until recently that America was a wonderful, even an idyllic Garden of Eden, prior to January 2001.
Our health care system was in great shape; remember how Hillary said it couldn’t be improved?
Social Security was solvent; remember Al Gore’s glowing praise of all that money tucked away in the lockbox?
Schools were safe havens and all of America’s kids were reading above their grade level and excelling in math.
There was no crime; you could walk any street in any urban neighborhood at midnight.
There was no poverty. Every child in America went to bed with a full stomach.
FEMA was a well-oiled government agency and was always first on the scene of every natural disaster.
There was no corruption in government.
Big business took care of the little guy.
Women made as much as men, doing the same job.
The Jews and Arabs lived in harmony; the Kurds loved Saddam Hussein.
The air was clean; you could drink the water right out of Lake Erie…
Yep, those were the good ole days…
Then America went to hell in a hand basket – it happened overnight; the first night George W. Bush slept in the White House as President…
It’s ALL George W. Bush’s fault…
PS - He even had the nerve to lower taxes - the rat!!
I believe that anyone hiding behind a mask is not worthy of being able to take pot shots at the respectable rest of us. This tendacious fellow or lady is throwing stuff out without the decency of identifying itself. This is WRONG and should not be tolerated. As a suggestion, if one does not identify him or herself they should not be able to rile up others who have genuine points of views. How about it people can we make this right?
Is their a better way to spend $800 Billion dollars in one year on! That’s also a question.
We discuss what, freedom of religion, press, and speech the meanings, sometimes.
But, What about life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness‘!
$450 Billion (give or take a few) [$300 B of it for R&D alone], for the Department of Defense. Another $50 Billion for Iraq, and some not counting what has already been spent. What was that $150 B?
Here is some simple math: Divide 150 Billion by lets just say 300 Million people and what do you get per person? 300 million American Millionaires, perhaps!
Now is that outside the Conservative View of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness‘? Not all that Liberal of a view of that phrase???
The only poor would be the person(s) who foolishly blows it. They profanity persuaded greed over, instead of happiness‘?
Terrible thought isn’t it! The government would go nuts.
BERLIN (AP) - Three suspected Islamic militants were arrested for allegedly plotting "imminent" and "massive" attacks on the Ramstein Air Base, a major U.S. and NATO military hub, and Frankfurt's busy international airport, German authorities said Wednesday.
German federal prosecutor Monika Harms said the three - two of whom were German converts to Islam - had trained at terror camps in Pakistan and procured some 1,500 pounds of hydrogen peroxide for making explosives. And a top legislator said the group could have struck "in a few days," noting a "sensitive period" that includes the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.
"We were able to succeed in recognizing and preventing the most serious and massive bombings," Harms told reporters.
Officials said the hydrogen peroxide, stored in a hideout, could have been mixed with other additives to produce a bomb with the explosive power of 1,200 pounds of TNT.
"This would have enabled them to make bombs with more explosive power than the ones used in the London and Madrid (transit) bombings," Joerg Ziercke, the head of Germany's Federal Crime Office, said at a joint press conference with Harms.
The three suspects - two Germans, aged 22 and 28, and a 29-year-old Turk - first came to the attention of authorities because they had been observing a U.S. military facility at the end of 2006, officials said. All three had undergone training at camps in Pakistan run by the Islamic Jihad Union, and had formed a German cell of the group.
The Islamic Jihad Union was described as a Sunni Muslim group based in Central Asia that was an offshoot of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, an extremist group with origins in that country.
"There was an imminent threat," German Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung told ARD broadcaster.
The three suspects were brought before judges in a closed proceeding at Germany's Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe after being flown in by helicopter, court officials said.
Prosecutors in Karlsruhe said the arrests took place Tuesday afternoon, and that police had also carried out searches across the country. The German reports came a day after Denmark authorities said they had thwarted a bomb plot when authorities rounded up eight alleged Islamic militants believed to have links to al-Qaida.
Wolfgang Bosbach, a top legislator for German Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats, said that "the suspects had been under observation by security officials for a long time"
"Consequently, we know without any doubt that they were planning attacks that would have had considerable consequences," he told N24 television, adding that the three had acquired chemicals for the plot.
Bosbach said an attack could have occurred "in a few days" and pointed out the Sept. 11 anniversary, as well as parliamentary deliberations in the next few weeks over whether to extend troop mandates in Afghanistan.
"We are in a highly sensitive period," he said.
Ramstein is one of the best-known U.S. Air Force bases worldwide because it serves as a major conduit for U.S. troops moving in and out of Europe, Asia and the Middle East. It is a key transit point for injured troops from Iraq and Afghanistan who are flown there to be taken to nearby Landstuhl.
Besides U.S. personnel, British, French, and other international forces are also located there.
Frankfurt International Airport is Europe's third-busiest airport, handling hundreds of in- and outbound flights to and from the Americas, Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Europe. In July, a record 5.2 million passengers arrived or departed from the airport. In 2005, more than 52.2 million passengers came through the airport, which is also a major cargo hub.
German and U.S. officials have warned of the possibility of a terrorist attack, and security measures have been increased. Navy Capt. Jeff Gradeck, spokesman for the U.S. military's European Command in Stuttgart, said German authorities had contacted them concerning the alleged plot, but had no further information.
"We extend our gratitude to Germany for their efforts in protecting us," Gradeck said.
Germany, which did not send troops to Iraq, has largely been spared terrorist attacks such as the train and subway bombings in Madrid and London - although its involvement in the attempt to stabilize Afghanistan against Islamic insurgents has led to fears it might be targeted.
In July 2006, two bombs were placed on commuter trains but did not explode. Officials said that attempt was partly motivated by anger over cartoons portraying the Prophet Muhammad in a Danish newspaper. Several suspects are on trial in Lebanon, and a Lebanese man has been charged in Germany.
The Tuesday arrests in Denmark sent jitters through a country that was the focus of Muslim anger and deadly protests over the cartoons. Jakob Scharf, head of the PET intelligence service, said that the eight suspects arrested were "militant Islamists with connections to leading al-Qaida persons."
Separately in Denmark, four Muslim men went on trial Wednesday in an unrelated case on charges of making bombs for a planned terror attack, a year after they were arrested. The defendants, who cannot be named under a court order, are accused of purchasing chemicals and equipment to produce explosives. All pleaded innocent.
The European Union's top justice official said Wednesday that the threat of a terror attack remained high in the 27-nation bloc. EU Justice and Home Affairs Commissioner Franco Frattini said the EU executive would push ahead with plans to set up an EU-wide airline passenger data recording system despite privacy concerns.
"The threat of new terror attacks continues to be high," Frattini said, citing Spain, Italy, Belgium, Britain and Germany as countries where the risk has been the highest.
The German chancellor said in an interview released Wednesday that German troops would remain in Afghanistan for several more years, despite recent setbacks in the region.
"To walk away would send the wrong signal," Merkel told N-24 television.
Magnus Norell, at the Swedish Defense Research Agency, said while Germany's mission in Afghanistan could be a motive for a terrorist attack, a flood of other factors could also play a role.
"It could be discontent with Germany, or even western Europe as a whole. It's really not that easy as to say that this (Afghanistan) would be the reason for it."
Tilting Left, Tilting at Windmills By Rich Tucker Friday, August 31, 2007
It wasn’t long ago that most conspiracy theories came from conservatives. The right, after all gave our country the John Birch Society. But these days, liberals have a virtual monopoly on loony ideas -- and they seem to be getting crazier all the time.
For example, in case you haven’t noticed, the United States is sliding into fascism. Well, not sliding, actually. We’re being driven into fascism. By you-know-who.
“Beneath our very noses, George Bush and his administration are using time-tested tactics to close down an open society,” Naomi Wolf wrote this year in Britain’s Guardian newspaper. “There is essentially a blueprint for turning an open society into a dictatorship,” she insists, and the Bush administration purportedly is following all the steps. Items on Wolf’s checklist include: “Create a gulag,” “Develop a thug caste” and “Control the press.”
Really.
Now, you’d think people might notice if things like that were going on. But Wolf explains why we haven’t. “Because we no longer learn much about our rights or our system of government -- the task of being aware of the Constitution has been outsourced from citizens’ ownership to being the domain of professionals such as lawyers and professors -- we scarcely recognize the checks and balances that the Founders put in place, even as they are being systematically dismantled,” she insists.
Actually, Wolf isn’t wrong about one thing: We have allowed judges and lawyers to control too much power. But who’s to blame for that development? Liberals. Conservatives have been fighting for years to limit the powers exercised by courts. We want to see a society where lawmakers legislate, the executive enforces and judges interpret. It’s liberals who try to use the courts to enact policies (such as gay marriage) that they could never convince voters to go for. As for whether or not Americans learn about the Founders, well, conservatives would love to see schoolchildren taught more about the remarkable men who started this country. Unfortunately, our liberal-dominated education system has replaced “History” with “Social Studies.”
It apparently takes years to teach children that Columbus was a racist who came here simply to kill Indians, that George Washington was a slave owner only looking out for his own interests and that everyone from Ben Franklin to Abe Lincoln was gay. By the time kids have “learned” all that, there’s no time left to actually, you know, read the Constitution.
Wolf’s a fairly mainstream liberal. She was the key advisor to Al Gore during his 2000 presidential bid, who, among other things, advised him to wear earth tones. So when she espouses crazed theories about creeping totalitarianism, it’s fair to assume many other liberals share her dementia.
Filmmaker Michael Moore proves that.
Just before his latest diatribe, “Sicko,” was released, Moore told reporters he was afraid the Bush administration would attempt to confiscate it. “We took measures a few weeks ago to place a master copy of this film in Canada so if they did take our negative we would have a duplicate negative of this film in Canada,” Moore told reporters.
The corpulent conman claimed that the feds might seize his movie because 15 minutes were filmed in Cuba. These scenes include a visit to Naomi Wolf’s supposed “gulag” at Guantanamo Bay. A gulag where, according to Moore, prisoners get better health care than Americans. Try to square that circle.
In the event, of course, Moore’s film hit screens without government interference. The only thing blocking the screen, in fact, seems to have been people leaving the theater early. Even presidential candidate John Edwards admitted, “I didn’t quite get to see the end.”
Maybe that’s because the former senator had to rush out on his recent poverty tour. “One in eight of us … do not have enough money for the food, shelter, and clothing they need,” claims Edwards who, while serving as a spokesman for the poor, is building himself one of the largest homes in North Carolina.
In reality, though, we’re not tripping over emaciated poor people at every turn. For the most part, the U.S. has defeated real poverty.
Nine out of 10 families defined as “poor” by the government report they have enough to eat. In fact, “poor” children get almost exactly the same nutrition as middle-class children. A poor child today is expected to grow up to be an inch taller and 10 pounds heavier than the average American soldier in World War II.
Why don’t we hear much about this good news? Maybe because (in Wolf’s model) the Bush administration controls the press and doesn’t want good economic news reported. Maybe it’s all part of a Bushco plot to seize more power.
Sounds like a crazy theory. But, sadly, it’s as sane as anything we’ve heard from the left lately.
I bought a bird feeder. I hung it on my back porch and filled it with seed.
Within a week we had hundreds of birds taking advantage of the continuous flow of free and easily accessible food.
But then the birds started building nests in the boards of the patio, above the table, and next to the barbecue.
Then came the poop. It was everywhere: on the patio tile, the chairs, the table...everywhere. Then some of the birds turned mean. They would dive bomb me and try to peck me even though I had fed them out of my own pocket.
And others birds were boisterous and loud.
They sat on the feeder and squawked and screamed at all hours of the day and night and demanded that I fill it when it got low on food.
After a while, I couldn't even sit on my own back porch anymore.
I took down the bird feeder and in three days the birds were gone.
I cleaned up their mess and took down the many nests they had built all over the patio.
Soon, the back yard was like it used to be...... quiet, serene and no one demanding their rights to a free meal.
Now lets see....... our government gives out free food, subsidized housing, free medical care, free education and allows anyone born here to be an automatic citizen. Then the illegal's came by the tens of thousands.
Suddenly our taxes went up to pay for free services; small apartments are housing 5 families.
You have to wait 6 hours to be seen by an emergency room doctor.
Your child's 2nd grade class is behind other schools because over half the class doesn't speak English.
Corn Flakes now come in a bilingual box.
I have to press "one" to hear my bank talk to me in English, and people waving flags other than "Old Glory" are squawking and screaming in the streets, demanding more rights and free liberties.
Maybe it's time for the government to take down the bird feeder.
The United States, no longer prepared to tolerate the risk that Iranian nuclear weapons will be used against Israel, or passed to terrorists, has already launched a bombing campaign to destroy known Iranian nuclear sites, air bases and air defence sites. Iran has retaliated by cutting off oil to America and its allies, blockading the Straits of Hormuz, the Persian Gulf bottleneck, and sanctioned an uprising by Shia militias in southern Iraq that has shut down 60 per cent of Iraq's oil exports.
The good news is that this was a war game; for those who fear war with Iran, the less happy news is that the officials were real. The simulation, which took four months, was run by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank with close links to the White House. Its conclusions, drawn up last month and seen by The Sunday Telegraph, have been passed on to military and civilian planners charged with drawing up plans for confronting Iran.
In a pattern that we are all too familiar with from the Abramoff case, it appears that the Republican Party was extremely generous with stolen money where the Republican Party was the beneficiary. Fabian, co-chairman of Mitt Romney's national finance committee, major Republican fund raiser and donor, was indicted on 23 charges including bankruptcy fraud, mail fraud, money laundering, obstruction of justice and perjury.
Fabian also funded Giuliani, who immediately tried to pointedly remind the press of Fabian's relationship with Romney, much like Romney and McCain threw Craig under the bus earlier this week.
But Fabian's tentacles extended throughout the Republican Party: Reps. Steve Chabot (Ohio), Jim Gerlach (Pa.), Michele Bachmann (Minn.), Jon Porter (Nev.), Heather Wilson (N.M.), Cathy McMorris Rodgers (Wash.), and Dave Reichert (Wash.) have each accepted money from Fabian according to records on file at the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
The Republican Party, on the other hand, has seen its fund raising dry up and even took the drastic step of laying off its telemarketers because they simply weren't raising enough to justify the expense. Last week shocking news injected itself into this already troubled scenario: a major Republican fund raiser and donor was indicted on 23 charges including bankruptcy fraud, mail fraud, money laundering, obstruction of justice and perjury.
Before his commencement address, presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, left, confers with televangelist Pat Robertson, chancellor of Regent University. (By Gary C. Knapp -- Associated Press)
Neil, George Jr., George Sr., and Jeb Bush The Savings and Loan industry had been experiencing major problems through the late 60s and 70s due to rising inflation and rising interest rates. Because of this there was a move in the 1970s to replace the role of S&L institutions with banks.
In the early 1980s, under Reagan, regulatory changes took place that gave the S&L industry new powers and for the first time in history measures were taken to increase the profitability of S&Ls at the expense of promoting home ownership. view link
