reed writes

WAR DESTROYS THE SOUL

You know things are bad when the New York Times publishes an article about an Israeli self-criticism group.

The article is about a group of Israeli soldiers who have decided to confess to the extremely inappropriate behaviour of Israel’s military forces in the Occupied Territories of The West Bank and Gaza. As the piece states, the Israeli Military is the heart and soul of the Jewish state.

According to the soldiers, some of whom I have met personally, the heart is broken and the soul is in pain.  Chen  Alon is one such Israeli army officer.  After he made his decision to go public with his  reports of  how  he and his colleagues had abused Palestinian civilians, he was discharged and sent to prison.

There’s not much substance to the article itself, but it does refer to a website maintained by the soldiers and that website speaks volumes.

LIKING KRISTOFF MORE AND MORE

Yesterday,in his New York Times column, Nicholas Kristoff used irony and   satire to accuse Dick Cheney of being an agent for the government of Iran.

He points out that the U.S. toppled two governments which were enemies of Iran…Afghanistan and Iraq; and then installed a pro-Iran government in Baghdad. It’s an excellent piece of writing and elicited a huge reader response.

The real point of the column is of course- not that Cheney is a real spy, but  rather that he and his boss George W. Bush are simply imcompetent.

But the fact is that the western world has a long tradition of idiotic leadership.

The great Winston Churhill would have fallen into the same pit as Cheney-Bush, if he hadn’t been rescued by the events of World War Two.  Until Hitler attacked Poland, Churchill was a failed political hack and his record as a military strategist was abysmal. As First Lord of the Admiralty, he needlessly sacrificed the  lives of thousands of young British men in the interests of an expanding  the  "Empire".

And Adolf Hitler could easily be accused of being Churchill’s secret agent by  making decisions that
were obviously destined to "break the German military" by stretching it too thin. Just as the American military is now stretched too thin.

And of course let’s not forget- his little friend- the tragically comic Italian lunatic who virtually destroyed his own country in pusuit of personal power and glory.

It’s a fun game to play, to joke about Dick Cheney as an Iranian agent, but what Cheney-Bush have wrought- both in the United States and in the world at large, is no joke.

It’s easy for us to sit back and guess, speculate, analyze and comment- but  we don’t have decision-making power on a scale that defies imagination…they do. Their argument that they have been doing what they think is "the right thing" is a sadly warped view of reality and we all suffer.
More  sadly, the real fault lies with us…the citizenry of the western world. We who have failed to become sufficiently engaged in the political process.

It lies also with the legislators we’ve elected; the men and women who have  failed the test of democracy by failing to pursue issues with enough study  and vigour and yes- courage.

And it lies with our business and academic elites, who have remained cloistered in their institutions and places of commerce and failed to speak out when they knew they ought to.

Humour, irony, satire have all been tried…over and over but they are no  substitute- in the final analysis- for intelligence, knowledge and responsible  oversight. We need some serious, active citizen involvement in the political process. It is  this intellectual and political vacuum, which has embroiled us all in war and conflict that has cost so much blood and treasure.

All the mistakes, all the mis-steps, all the tragedy have been the result- partly of  ignorance…and partly the result of a desire for some sort of revenge without taking the time to reflect. They are also the  result of hubris on the part of a leadership, which subsituted anger and political advantage for logic and common sense.

Kristoff closes his column by saying "we must identify and abandon the   policies that backfired so catastrophically."

It’s difficult to abandon a policy, when there is no policy.

But the best part of the entire column, is  the commenting on it by thoughtful Americans. Their comments show that there’s hope for the future.

THE DANGER OF LABELLING

On Sunday March 18th, The New York Times published a Nicholas Kristoff column, which essentially suggested that the United States needed to take a more balanced approach to the Middle East. His piece is entitled "Talking About Israel".

Kristoff

Kristoff’s main point is– that in The United States– "There is no serious political debate among either Democrats or Republicans about our policy toward Israelis and Palestinians. And that silence harms America, Middle East peace prospects and Israel itself."

Reader response to his column can be found on his blog.

Kristoff Blog

It’s quite astounding for a Canadian to read the comments in response this rather tame and uncontroversial column. A great many readers called it courageous and brave. Many of them thanked Kristoff for "speaking out". In fact the column is quite mild and while it calls for "balance", it’s solidly pro-Israel.

The response by readers is a measure of  just how starved the American public really is for good information and balanced opinion about the Middle East. It also shows how much they long for a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The pendulum swings, but oh so slowly. Here’s what I wrote more than 3 years ago on the CBC website.

Reed

Those who defend and extol Israel in a blindly uncritical and unquestioning way, are in fact the very ones who stimulate the resentment and anger that leads to the worst kind of anti-Semitism. In the Book of Proverbs it says something to the effect that "pride goeth before a fall".

But over-weening Pride, false Pride, Hubris…"my country right or wrong" has led to a level of anti-americanism that is unprecedented in world history.

And now, the same appears to be happening to Israel. According to a recent BBC poll Israel and Iran are viewed in a highly negative light. More than 50% of respondents see those two theocratic nations as failing to make a positive contribution to the world.

BBC POLL

Israel’s best friends are those who point out just how disastrous is that country’s present course.

By that measure, the Bush administration would appear to be Israel’s enemy.

They Think Readers are Stupid

Dear editor,

It’s not often that I write a letter to your paper but this occasion is so compelling I can’t help it. Your article with the blazing headline "A New Face of Jihad Vows Attacks" is- I say with regret- a complete farce. In the email the paper issues to loyal readers- you enlarge on the headline by warning us as follows, "A New Face of Jihad Vows Attacks on the U.S."

After clicking on the email heading, we find that the article itself proceeds to create an instant reputation for the so-called leader of this "new group" …the 50-year-old Shakir al Abssi. It is breathlessly reported that Abssi was sentenced to death in absentia for his alleged role in the assassination of the American diplomat, Laurence Foley, in Jordan in 2002.

The article makes extensive use of quotations from unnamed "intelligence officials", who seem to know how many followers this man has, how many weapons he posseses and the precise location of his "training camp". You even provide a map!!

The article says that a Times reporter managed with difficulty to obtain an  interview with the man, but apparently the "intelligence officials"- who alerted the Times to this threat-  can’t stop him from carrying out his planned "attacks on the U.S."

This story carries the imprint of "reporting" by Judith Miller- in her hyping of the Cheney-Bush agenda in Iraq, taking the genre to new heights. It’s as if Miller gets fired for hyping Iraq’s WMD and she is almost instantly replaced by others, who go about hyping the "new al Qaeda" and the new "attacks on the U.S.

The article reports that, "American and Middle Eastern intelligence officials say Abssi is viewed as a dangerous militant who can assemble small teams of operatives with acute military skill."

Amazing isn’t it, that The New York Times can track down this man, interview him, chat with his media advisor, (a journalism dropout), assess his military capability, locate his training center, make an inventory of his weaponry, including his "anti-aircraft gun"…and yet the "intelligence officials" who are quoted, seem helpless to stop him".

This article is a tragic example of the mainstream news media attempting to continue the Cheney-Bush fear campaign by reporting on pathetic little "terrorist" groups in Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, where people are struggling to find money for food just to survive.

The journalism dropout who led your reporter to the "training camp" is the one who needs investigating. As soon as the investigation of your "reporter" is completed.

Please, editors…take a closer look at what your people are doing.

to read the piece click nytimes 

Defence Minister Gordon O’Connor has been pussy-footing around a flawed agreement with the "government" of Afghanistan.

The agreement, which was signed by Canada’s military chief, General Hillier allows Afghan citizens arrested by Canada, to be incarcerated with no Canadian oversight whatsoever. This isn’t surprising, since Hillier referred to these people as "scumbags" and more than likely believes that anyone who gets arrested has no rights anyway.

O’Connor says that he honestly believes that the Afghans will soon get to "our high standards" of civil rights.And no- apparently he was not joking about that.

The fact that Canada’s NATO partners Britian and Holland insist on their right to monitor the detention conditions of the Afghan citizens arrested by Canadians…and that the agreement was approved by Hillier alone…shows just how far out of control this mission has gotten.

Liberal leader Dion is calling for a review of the mission, something that this writer has called for repeatedly since before the "debate" on the renewal of Canada’s involvement in this NATO debacle.

The problem lies in the fact that neither the Liberal or Conservative governments, nor General Hillier nor his NATO military colleagues ever fully accepted or adhered to the original terms of reference for this "mission". It was the military leadership of NATO that got us off-track and obscured the original intent of the mission as expressed by NATO’s political  leadership and by the United Nations.

The name for this mission was designated as "The International Security Assistance Force". The name clearly spells out the intended nature of the mission itself, as it was originally framed.

It was intended to ASSIST the Afghan government that was  put in place by the Americans and their allies under the leadership of former oil executive Hamid Karzai.

It was intended to HELP that "government" and its  military and police arms. It was NOT intended to perform  a full-fledged combat role IN BEHALF of that government.

By 2005, a combination of ignorant political leaders, both past and present…and presumptuous military leaders including our own…had caused the mission to deviate from one of ASSISTANCE to one of COMBAT. That process went either unnoticed, or was deliberately ignored during the exceedingly brief "debate" on mission-extension by the current parliament.

Dion is correct in calling for a review- and in that  respect he is in accord with several officials in the 
present government, although the political leadership  seems reluctant to allow those opinions to see the light  of day.