Panglossian Notes

Support the Troops: ya sure, sure.

Remember back a couple of months ago when John Kerry supposedly made a joke about those in the US military as being sort of dumb. Remember the big fuss.

Do you think he actually might have got it right? Or could it be just a small income distribution thingy?

Maybe some headlines a couple of days apart and in MSM newspapers about 9,935 miles from one another as the crow flies can help clarify the questions above.

Wall St. Bonuses: So Much Money, Too Few Ferraris

The New York Times
December 25, 2006

After the war, a struggle to survive - George Bush's heroes are forced to rely on handouts

The Sydney Morning Herald
December 22, 2006

Just a few teasers, it's Christmas night after all.

First the hard working Wall Street boys & girls.

"It’s a brisk Wednesday morning in the windy caverns of Wall Street and Sarah Clark’s toes are cold.

Dressed in a purple flight attendant outfit, Ms. Clark, a 26-year-old model, is trying to entice recent bonus recipients at Goldman Sachs into using a charter plane service, handing out $1,000 discount coupons to people in front of the investment bank’s Broad Street headquarters.

“Where am I going?” asks one man, heading toward the Goldman building. “It’s your own private jet,” says Ms. Clark with a smile. “You can go wherever you like.”

For Wall Street’s elite, the sky may well be the limit."

The New York Times
December 25, 2006

Now the boys & girls in uniform.

"In the iconography of American history, no group or idea is more exalted than the United States Marine Corps. In wars, such as the one under way in Iraq for the fourth Christmas in a row, the marines are "the sharp end of the spear", suffering more casualties, as a proportion of deployed numbers, than their comrades in arms in the US Army."

"As an overarching comment, if you look at compensation levels for the military for people with similar age and education levels in the civilian sector, they get paid quite well," says Steven Kosiak, of the Centre for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a Washington think tank. "Forgetting that we're now at war, the military compensation is quite good."

Which brings us to Sergeant Jeff Bentley, standing in a line on a footpath in the Marine base of Camp Pendleton, 60 kilometres north of San Diego.

It's 9.15am outside the Abby Reinke Community Centre, with its noticeboard announcing classes in Middle Eastern dancing. The winter sun of southern California hangs bright and warm and low in the sky as the military families gather. They are waiting for a handout. The few, the proud, the reliant on charity.

Today it's canned, dried and fresh food, and bottled water. On the other side of the base is the "mums' warehouse", where donated high chairs, strollers and disposable nappies are provided, also free.

Bentley has been back for three months from his second tour in Iraq. He has a part-time job, as a doorman at private parties. And he stands in this line every second week or so. This is how he makes ends meet.

The Sydney Morning Herald
December 22, 2006

Yes sir re Bob, or should that be George, both groups "real" icons or representative symbols of something! The question is what's the something, eh?

Technorati Tags: Military, New York Times, USA

A new Report with recommendations on the Iraq situation by International Crisis Group

Some comments on the new Report by the International Crisis Group concerning what to do in and about Iraq are already in the MSM and on the web:

WaPo: included in an article on the Joint Chiefs reaction to sending more troops - i.e. "The Surge".

Marc Lynch at Abu Aardvark:

"After the disappointing showing of the Iraq Study Group, the ICG makes for bracing reading - and offers a much more serious attempt to find some kind of solution. It eviscerates Washington fantasies in ways far deeper than Baker-Hamilton's simple admission that things aren't going well, by going straight to the heart of the political structures which have emerged from the American occupation." Read on here.

Here's a copy of the e-mail sent out by the ICG this morning pointing to their evaluation and recommendations for dealing with the Iraqi situation:

=======================================================

INTERNATIONAL CRISIS GROUP - NEW REPORT

After Baker-Hamilton: What to Do in Iraq


Baghdad/Amman/Damascus/Brussels, 19 December 2006: The rethinking of U.S. Iraq policy represented by the Baker-Hamilton report is an important and welcome start but insufficiently radical if Iraq’s collapse and an unprecedented regional war are to be avoided.

After Baker-Hamilton: What to Do in Iraq,* the latest report from the International Crisis Group, examines the situation in Iraq and the wider region in the wake of the Iraq Study Group. Co-chaired by James Baker and Lee Hamilton, the Study Group described with necessary candour the magnitude of the Iraqi calamity. But though Crisis Group endorses many of its key recommendations, the change the report advocates is not nearly far-reaching enough, and its prescriptions are no match for its diagnosis.

“We are looking at Iraq’s complete disintegration into failed-state chaos, threatening to drag down much of the region with it”, says Crisis Group President Gareth Evans. “More troops in – or out – are not going to solve this. What is needed above all is a new multinational effort to achieve a new political compact between all relevant Iraqi players.”

All Iraqi actors who, one way or another, are involved in the country’s internecine violence must be brought to the negotiating table and pressed to accept the necessary compromises. That cannot be done without a concerted effort by all Iraq’s neighbours, which in turn cannot be done if their interests are not reflected in the final outcome. If Iraq can be saved at this late date, it will require three ambitious and interrelated steps:

A new forceful multilateral approach that puts real pressure on all Iraqi parties. The Baker-Hamilton report is right to advocate a broad International Support Group; it should comprise the five permanent Security Council members and Iraq’s six neighbours. But its purpose must not be to support the Iraqi government. It must support Iraq, which means pressing the government, along with all other constituencies, to make necessary compromises. The government and security forces should not be treated as privileged allies to be bolstered. They are but one among many parties to the conflict and not innocent of responsibility for much of the trouble. It also means agreeing on rules of conduct and red-lines for third-party involvement. Sustained multilateral diplomacy, not a one-off international conference is needed.

A conference of all Iraqi and international stakeholders to forge a new political compact. This is not a military challenge in which one side needs to be strengthened and another defeated. It is a political challenge in which new consensual understandings need to be reached. A new, more equitable and inclusive national compact needs to be agreed upon by all relevant actors, including militias and insurgent groups, on issues such as federalism, resource allocation, de-Baathification, the scope of the amnesty and the timetable for a U.S. withdrawal. This can only be done if the International Support Group brings all of them to the negotiating table, and if its members steer their deliberations, deploying a mixture of 20carrots and sticks to influence those on whom they have particular leverage.

A new U.S. regional strategy, including engagement with Syria and Iran, end of efforts at regime change, revitalisation of the Arab-Israeli peace process and altered strategic goals. Mere engagement of Iraq’s neighbours will not do; Washington must clearly redefine its objectives in the region to enlist regional, and particularly Iranian and Syrian help. The goal is not to bargain with them, but to seek compromise agreement on an end-state for Iraq and the region that is no one’s first choice, but with which all can live.

“There is abundant reason to question whether the Bush administration is capable of such a dramatic course change. But there is no reason to question why it ought to change direction, and what will happen if it does not”, says Robert Malley, Crisis Group’s Middle East and North Africa Program Director.

Contacts: Andrew Stroehlein (Brussels) 32 (0) 2 541 1635
Kimberly Abbott (Washington) 1 202 785 1601
To contact Crisis Group media please click here
*Read the full Crisis Group report on our website: http://www.crisisgroup.org

The International Crisis Group (Crisis Group) is an independent, non-profit, non-governmental organisation covering over 50 crisis-affected countries and territories across four continents, working through field-based analysis and high-level advocacy to prevent and resolve deadly conflict.

Technorati Tags: foreign policy, Iraq, USA

Your dream trip, with Bill Kristol on the S.S. Weekly Standard, maybe?

Now this could maybe be a dream trip for someone like our current PM or some of his other born-again Reform party types to freshen up on neo-con rhetoric.

Myself I think it is really quiet funny because I find it hard to imagine taking a trip up the coast of Alaska, I understand it is quite lovely, with these guys. But then again it does take all kinds right.

The caricatures in the ad-pict are William Kristol (on the right) and Fred Barnes (on the left). I think Kristol is generally recognizable to someone north of the 49th from his various TV appearances but at first I thought Barnes was George Wills, the conservative WaPo columnist.

Just for fun here are some testimonials from pass cruisers.

Quotes from previous guests:

"I could not believe how accessible everyone is - how friendly."

"The ship and crew were wonderful. I loved the food. TWS speakers were very accessible."

"I previously decided that a cruise was not something I was interested in. However the "Standard" cruise was an instant "yes" decision that I'm glad we made."

"I really enjoyed meeting like-minded conservatives as well as well read conservatives, having access to Fred Barnes & Bill Kristol to sound out ideas as well as get the opinions on various topics."

"I knew it would be great and it was 10 times more great than I dreamed. One of the most interesting weeks of my life!"

"I liked the size of the group; quality of the comments/questions of attendees; the accessibility of speakers is an important feature of the program."

"I benefited from sessions and enjoyed dining with other conservatives."

"I really enjoyed The Weekly Standard speakers - especially the 3 young speakers who assure me the conservative movement will be in good hands."

"I especially liked the off-the-cuff answers to questions asked by the audience."

"I enjoyed all of the WS staff on and off the podium. Professional, friendly & courteous. They made themselves available at all times!"

It has started me wondering what "guests" may say after other types of boating trips, for example an "XXX Cruise". I'll bet they are pretty entertaining.

Technorati Tags: Silly

Iraq "Wishful Thinking" in Washington or "we're not in Kansas anymore?"

By now everyone has likely read the the PowerPoint presentation out of the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). There is a link to it in the Morning Reading type-list on the left. It is in pdf format.

To get a feel for some of the "gung-ho" background, that affects the attitude to develop such a plan, check out Fred Barnes article in the weekly Standard. It is optimistically titled "We are going to win"

"It turns out you only have to attend a White House Christmas party to find out where President Bush is headed on Iraq. One guest who shook hands with Bush in the receiving line told him, "Don't let the bastards get you down." Bush, slightly startled but cheerful, replied, "Don't worry. I'm not." The guest followed up: "I think we can win in Iraq." The president's reply was emphatic: "We're going to win." Another guest informed Bush he'd given some advice to the Iraq Study Group, and said its report should be ignored. The president chuckled and said he'd made his position clear when he appeared with British prime minister Tony Blair. The report had never mentioned the possibility of American victory. Bush's goal in Iraq, he said at the photo-op with Blair, is "victory.""

'We are going to win'
Fred Barnes
the weekly Standard
12/25/2006, Volume 012, Issue 15

The pdf version outlining the plan is typical PowerPoint stuff - i.e. suffering from "weaken verbal and spatial reasoning" - so you may prefer to skip the maps and colourful graphics and just get the gist of the victory dreaming. To read the executive summary of the plan here is the link to the AEIs page.

After you've read everything read Colonel Pat Lang's fittingly titled question "Stalingrad on the Tigris?"

A couple of my favourite lines from the AEI pdf presentation which are also included verbatim in the executive summary are :

• The president must request a substantial increase in ground forces end strength. This increase is vital to sustaining the morale of the combat forces by ensuring that relief is on the way.
• The president must issue a personal call for young Americans to volunteer to fight in the decisive conflict of this age.

Great eh. Where the hell do you even start with that last sentence with even the dim-witted now knowing what the "decider" is?

Maybe here:

The Wizard of Oz: Frightened? Child, you're talking to a man who's laughed in the face of death, sneered at doom, and chuckled at catastrophe...

Technorati Tags: foreign policy, Iraq, nitwit, None sense, Pinheads

The PLAN for Afghanistan

Well it looks like the PLAN for Afghanistan maybe just to "kick-more-ass".

NATO Invades Western Kandahar
Afgha.com

Major General Ton Van Loon, Commander of ISAF Regional Command-South, said in a Coalition statement, “Operation Baaz Tsuka will send a very strong and direct message to the Taliban that the people of Afghanistan want them to leave. Those people contemplating joining the Taliban should listen to their tribal elders and choose the way of peace, not destruction.”

Or is the PLAN "to provide vital assistance and targeted development"? Hey maybe it's just a definitional thing - one person's "ass-kicking" is another person's "targeted development."

NATO operation commences in southern Afghanistan
dpa German Press Agency

Kabul- NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) troops and Afghan security forces began Friday a new operation against the Taliban in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar. The ISAF and the Afghan security forces are assembling a "major force" in two districts "as a show of unity and strength" and the soldiers "are prepared to once again demonstrate their ability to combat and defeat the Taliban," said Major General Ton Van Loon, Commander of ISAF Regional Command-South.

"The main aim of Operation Baaz Tsuka (Falcon) is to work together with tribal elders and district leaders to provide vital assistance and targeted development directly to the people of Zahre and Panjwayi districts," he said.

Technorati Tags: Afganistan, NATO, The PLAN

Afghanistan, again, isn't that snafu settled yet?

The title of this post sums up my feeling about Afghanistan this morning. I know my attitude won't likely last the entire day, however.

Why the short burst of frustration?

Because our involvement in Afghanistan is becoming a political football and as the term implies I think it maybe devolving into a classic case of an issue that is "continually debated but left unresolved".

It seems to fit well with what, I think, is the Harper controlled government's undemocratic approach to policy making in the country. I can image what a majority government would be like with this character and the troglodyte reformers he and the PMO capos barely keep under control with their whips, spies and threats. Boy, imagine this charmer and his gang turning on the rest of us. But I am digressing.

Harper and parliament in a fake debate have committed the country to being in Afghanistan until 2009. Questioning this commitment is now being portrayed by him, and the "gung-ho" crowd, in the usual bromide laden fashion, which I had hoped, we might have become resistant to, after being indirectly exposed to more than the usual level of this jingoistic crap spilling over the borders from the US.

Yesterday there were two items of interest related to Afghanistan published.

The first, by the Senlis group, which issued a new document titled: Hearts and Minds Campaign in Southern Afghanistan - a Report. The report is an assessment of the current NATO-ISAF strategy in that country and in summary says:

"The Taliban are winning hearts and minds in southern Afghanistan; the international community is not. NATO-ISAF troops are forced to fight in an increasingly hostile environment because of the international community’s blunt political errors.

The absence of comprehensive development aid plans has given a strategic advantage to the Taliban.

Time for a well-planned village by village hearts and minds campaign to re-engage the Afghan population and make NATO’s mission a successful one."

The "lack of comprehensive development aid plans"? But I thought, according to our military spokes people, that we, at least, were creating dust storms with our busy development activity. Isn't the problem simply that the MSM doesn't tell us poor souls at home about everything being done in our name?

The report also has what maybe a warning about the announced US attitude towards poppy farming (Senlis has recommended that poppy cultivation be legalized but this has brought the organization into direct conflict with the Karzai government)..

"As poppy cultivation is deeply embedded in the social, economic and political fabric of Afghanistan and provides the only sustainable means for rural livelihoods, forced poppy eradication cannot succeed while no viable economic alternatives exist. Eradication creates a deep conflict between the central government and the rural communities that are dependent on poppy cultivation to survive. Poppy eradication alienates rural communities from the Karzai administration drives them into the hands of the Taliban.

The failure of counter-narcotics policies have resulted in a substantial tactical advantage for Taliban groups. These policies provide them with funds and recruitment opportunities among ruined farmers whose crops have been eradicated, and who seek revenge for the destruction of their livelihoods."

The second item of interest was an op-ed piece in the New York Times by Anthony Cordesman.

Just a few excerpts to give you the gist of Mr. Cordesman's assessment:

The present central [Karzai] government is at least two or three years away from providing the presence and services Afghans desperately need. The United States’ and NATO’s focus on democracy and the political process in Kabul — rather than on the quality of governance and on services — has left many areas angry and open to hostile influence. Afghanistan is going to need large amounts of military and economic aid, much of it managed from the outside in ways that ensure it actually gets to Afghans, particularly in the areas where the threat is greatest.

This means the United States needs to make major increases in its economic aid, as do its NATO allies. These increases need to be made immediately if new projects and meaningful actions are to begin in the field by the end of winter, when the Islamists typically launch new offensives.

At least such programs are cheap by the standards of aid to Iraq. The projects needed are simple ones that Afghans can largely carry out themselves. People need roads and water, and to a lesser degree schools and medical services. They need emergency aid to meet local needs and win hearts and minds.

The maps of actual and proposed projects make it clear that while progress is real, it covers only a small part of the country.

......

In Iraq, the failure of the United States and the allies to honestly assess problems in the field, be realistic about needs, create effective long-term aid and force-development plans, and emphasize governance over services may well have brought defeat. The United States and its allies cannot afford to lose two wars. If they do not act now, they will.

No matter what, it seems that some NGOs (Senlis) and analysts from relatively conservative think-tanks, share similar impressions about the current approach in Afghanistan. A plan seems to be needed.

Technorati Tags: Afganistan, Canada, Narcotics, NATO, Politics, Taliban

Pinochet in a box

I think he looks pretty good in the box, don't you.

The "German greeting" is a bit much though, but likely pretty telling overall. I wonder what "uncle" Milty would have thought of the picture. Oh well, he can chit-chat about it with Agusto and Jeane Kirkpatrick while they wait for their buddy Henry Kissinger to show up. A pretty cheap-shot on my part, eh, but I'm not sorry.

Technorati Tags: Chile, Friends of Kissinger, Latin America, nitwit

Ontario politicians, hockey players or ... what?

So Dalton, "are there any more promises I can break before the new year", McGuinty, the premier of Ontario, is going to give himself a massive pay raise.

It seems the very proud premier was upset by the provincial Integrity Commissioner referring to the clowns at Queens Park as a "farm team" because of their pay levels while the delusional

"McGuinty, [who] sees himself as general manager of an NHL franchise, not an AHL squad."

As well, the noble McGuinty is reported to have been concerned that:

"In the past year, four MPPs have [already] made the jump to federal politics — Liberal Gerard Kennedy, New Democrat Marilyn Churley, and Conservatives Jim Flaherty and John Baird."

all motivated, no doubt, by higher amounts the general Canadian taxpayer is willing to pay for the clunkers mooning around some where in postal code K1A 0A6

Good to know that the erstwhile premier thinks he's running some stupid hockey team or worst that being a politician is actually just another profession and moving around from one level of government to another is only dependent on how much money is on the table.

Myself, I thought both Flaherty and Baird were just sadists who wanted to expand the scope of their particular brand of punishment to a wider group of supplicants than just the poor buggers in Ontario.

Oh well, I guess you learn something everyday, eh.

Incidentally, speaking of Day, since being a politician is simply a profession is there anything that can be done about good old Stockwell - remedial night classes when the House isn't sitting, maybe, to bring up his general level of knowledge about something or anything really. This guy takes being a "nobody" outside the fence at K1A 0A6 to heights that Pierre Trudeau didn't even imagine.

It would be fun to have someone from The Hill Times carry out interviews of key government ministers and chairs of parliamentary committees similar to what Jeff Stein, of the Congressional Quarterly magazine, has done in the US.

Could it be that flummoxed is the predominate descriptor in the other qualities section of the CVs of modern politicians?

Technorati Tags: Canada, Politicians

Winnipeg down the road?

So will this type of scene be a regular event in a few years for Winnipeg.

"A member of the Durham Police Department Selective Enforcement Team escorts a child to use the bathroom after serving a search warrant at a suspected drug house. Working closely with the police department's Gang Units, SET is responsible for making high-risk entries into dwellings to serve search warrants. Gang Unit Two made two controlled buys, or drug purchases, from the home with the help of an informant, giving them probable cause for a search warrant."

Technorati Tags: Canada

Winter dreaming!

Just for fun here's a YouTube clip.

The original little clip is courtesy of a Worth While Canadian Initiative. The clip is not the site's usual good and interesting fare though the blogger, Stephan Gould, has, up right now, another link which is a serenade to Orillia. You know, the place Stephen Leacock was usually located in the summer on Lake Simcoe.

I've YouTubed the clip rather than link to Worth While Canadian Initiative because for some reason my OS X system wouldn't let me see it directly from the site.

Technorati Tags: Silly, terrorism