Gyroscope

The fatwa by Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani of Iraq in regard to the massacre at Qana (translation by Juan Cole). Cole believes this is an explicit warning that there will be consequences if there is not an immediate cease fire.

The scale of the tragedy that has befallen Lebanon is a result of the continuous Israeli attacks, which have reached the point where patience can no longer bear more. It is not possible to stand with folded hands before them. The international community must take the intitiative to impose an immediate ceasefire and to halt this horrific tragedy.

The Muslim world and all peace-loving people will not excuse the parties that put obstacles in the way of this. There will be severe consequences in the entire region.

Isrealie prime minister Olmert in Haaretz, taking a page from the Bush "if at first it blows up in your face, do the exact same thing only more so" playbook:

Olmert reiterated on Monday that Israel would continue its offensive until the arrival of an international stabilization force in Lebanon. "Israel is continuing to fight," Olmert told a mayors conference in Tel Aviv. "There is no cease-fire, and there will not be a cease-fire in the upcoming days."

Once again, only a humor blog (Whatever it is, I’m against it) noticed that the empress has only old Prada clothes:

So what is the Israeli government up to? Yesterday when the Israeli 48-hour aerial ceasefire was announced by Condi, it looked like she was being given credit she didn’t deserve. But less than an hour after she got on her plane and left, the prime minister and defense minister said, “Ceasefire? What ceasefire?”, resumed their bombing raids, and within a few hours the cabinet voted to expand the war. It looks very much like Condi was played. Did they really lie to her face about their intentions? Did they do so just to make her go away, thinking she’d accomplished something? And how can she return to the region now?

Two blowhards deny that civilians are really innocent, as posted on Whiskey Bar:

Rush Limbaugh: July 31, 2006 "Until civilians -- frankly, I'm not sure how many of them are actually just innocent little civilians running around versus active Hezbo types, particularly the men -- but until those civilians start paying a price for propping up these kinds of regimes, it's not going to end, folks. What do you mean, civilians start paying a price? I just ask you to consult history for the answer to that.”

Osama bin Laden March 1997 "We declared jihad against the US government, because the US government is unjust, criminal and tyrannical. It has committed acts that are extremely unjust, hideous and criminal . . . As for what you asked regarding the American people, they are not exonerated from responsibility, because they chose this government and voted for it despite their knowledge of its crimes in Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq and in other places."

This seems to be the new move by the crypto-fascists: to deny that Lebanese are really innocent. Alan Dershowitz made that argument earlier as well.

These differences and others are conflated within the increasingly meaningless word "civilian" — a word that carried great significance when uniformed armies fought other uniformed armies on battlefields far from civilian population centers. Today this same word equates the truly innocent with guilty accessories to terrorism. … The Israeli army has given well-publicized notice to civilians to leave those areas of southern Lebanon that have been turned into war zones. Those who voluntarily remain behind have become complicit. Some — those who cannot leave on their own — should be counted among the innocent victims.

So, if Osama warns us about another terrorist attack, then those who don’t leave would be guilty? Palestinians have warned Israel to leave either Palestine or Israel itself for years – so does that mean the Israelis are not totally innocent either? Hasn’t the Israeli population chosen governments that continue to occupy Palestine – and finance those governments – so are they now not totally innocent if they are killed in what people like me would call terrorist attacks?

Better to keep civilians innocent – those getting shelled by Hezbollah rockets and those buried under IDF bombs.

Posted by John Nordin at 11:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Al Jazeera

Israel also continued a vast operation in the West Bank town of Nablus on Friday, where troops destroyed almost all the local Palestinian Authority headquarters, sources on both sides said. Ahmed Anab, a 38-year-old resident whose house is adjacent to the local muqataa (government office compound), was killed outside his home from the force of explosives detonated by the Israeli army, a medical source said. A Palestinian security official confirmed that for the third straight day, Israeli forces were working at destroying the muqataa. "Three bulldozers are destroying it night and day and reducing the buildings to dust," he said. "The police building, local interior ministry and preventive security building have been entirely destroyed," he added.

Reporters without Boarders

Reporters Without Borders voiced outrage today at the Israeli military’s decision to strike telecommunication installations in Lebanon, thereby depriving millions of Lebanese citizens of TV news and information, especially the broadcasts of the commercial Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation (LBC). An LBC technician was killed when installations in Satka, in East Beirut, were attacked. "We are outraged by the death of an LBC technician in these air strikes, which were carried out without taking account of the need to protect media employees and other civilians. Media installations may under no circumstances be treated as military targets," the press freedom organisation said. "After bombing Hezbollah’s TV station Al-Manar, the Israeli authorities are stepping up the destruction of Lebanese media installations and means of communication, and this is absolutely scandalous."

Angry Arab

Israeli planes "bravely" bomb installations for LBC-TV--the most pro-US and most right-wing media in Lebanon. And New TV is now off the air--at least here in the US.

Human Rights Watch

Israel has used artillery-fired cluster munitions in populated areas of Lebanon, Human Rights Watch said today. Researchers on the ground in Lebanon confirmed that a cluster munitions attack on the village of Blida on July 19 killed one and wounded at least 12 civilians, including seven children. Human Rights Watch researchers also photographed cluster munitions in the arsenal of Israeli artillery teams on the Israel-Lebanon border.

Ze’ev Maoz in Haaretz

There's practically a holy consensus right now that the war in the North is a just war and that morality is on our side. The bitter truth must be said: this holy consensus is based on short-range selective memory, an introverted worldview, and double standards.

This war is not a just war. Israel is using excessive force without distinguishing between civilian population and enemy, whose sole purpose is extortion. That is not to say that morality and justice are on Hezbollah's side. Most certainly not. But the fact that Hezbollah "started it" when it kidnapped soldiers from across an international border does not even begin to tilt the scales of justice toward our side.

Posted by John Nordin at 09:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We, you and us, are here today because your political class is not up to the challenge. I am sorry, but the Hamas government was elected democratically, and there were myriad ways to deal with them. MYRIAD. But this is the stage of your destiny that you have reached: you build walls around yourselves (you to whom the Massada is a foundational trauma/myth!), and you chase barefoot, toothless, illiterate, hungry people with a state of the art military arsenal. And you insist that you are victims, and you insist that you are on the right side of history. All this bulllshit will catch up with you.

These words, reproduced in the No Quarter blog are from Nisreen Salti a woman living in Beirut. In the paragraph quoted the "your" refers to Israel. But it could refer to the US also.

Posted by John Nordin at 09:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

On the one hand, some people are claiming that our evacuation is going slowly since we don’t want it to look like things are bad in Lebanon. And on the other hand, conservative commentator (for Fox News, among other things) Debbie Schlussel claims that the “majority” of those being evacuated from Lebanon are “are Shi'ite Muslim Hezbollah supporters” who are “terror-supporting, America-hating Americans”

She goes on to ream the Bush administration (though she never names them) for paying for this, and in an earlier entry, for spending too much time with Detroit area Hezbollah supporters.

The tone of all this illustrates one rhetorical method of conservatives: to attack the federal government and make it look like they are attacking liberals or Democrats – or at least, to totally cover up that they are attacking Bush. Bush and Republicans run all branches of the federal government, and if Clinton was in office, you can bet that such an attack would be evidence for conservatives that Clinton was a traitor. But when a very conservative Republican is in power, suddenly all references to Bush or Republicans disappear and it is only the “feds” or “federal officials” that are mentioned.

This is part of the way that conservatives can run everything but still act like victims.

Posted by John Nordin at 09:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It’s hard to keep up with all the countries we’re going to invade. Just when I was getting around to working on why invading Iran was a bad idea, now maybe it is Syria that is next in our sights. But just in case Israel bombing the hell out of Lebanon continues to be blamed neither on Israel nor on Hezbollah but on Iran, here are some pertinent facts from “Iran: Consequences of a War” by Paul Rogers, published by the Oxford Research Group. Facts from the report; interpretations and questions by me.

Israel does have the capability of projecting air power to Iran thanks to us selling them long-range versions of the F-15 and F-16, as well as over 500 large earth penetrating bombs (p.4). Could any of this have motivated Iran and other nations to acquire longer-range weapons of their own? And what does Israel need bunker-buster weapons for if not to go after the sort of hardened underground facilities that the Palestinians do NOT have?

The US routinely keeps one aircraft carrier battle group near the Persian Gulf and sometimes two during rotations. (p.7). This would presumably provide all the air power needed for the US to launch yet another one of those mythical “surgical” attacks that – because all the trouble they cause is weeks and months later – are regarded as easy and painless by civilian leaders.

We’d presumably want to take out the 1000Mw reactor near Bushehr (p.7), but since it goes critical this year an attack that broke the containment structure would spread radiation not only over Arabs and Persians we don’t care about but maybe over US soldiers (whom the Bush administration doesn’t much care about) and over oil production facilities that we do care about.

We’ve already used drones to map Iranian facilities (p.8). And, actually, this is not a bad thing to have done. I’d hope we’d be doing useful intelligence on a nation of concern to us.

The report expects both that early round of strikes by the US would seem to be very successful and that civilian casualties would not be apparent until much later (p.9). This will be more than enough to paralyze the Democrats yet one more time while the US media announces another triumph for the Great Leader. Naturally, it will be an utter illusion.

Iran’s responses (p.10) could include: a) rapidly restarting their nuclear program – and they’d have no reason to limit anything they would do after being attacked, b) tell Hezbollah to go all out. Perhaps now we understand why it is so advantageous to the US to have Israel take out Hezbollah now, prior to an Iranian attack. However, there is Iraq to consider and Iranian efforts to further destabilize Iraq could intensify. c) close the Straits of Hormuz, having a major impact on oil prices, d) direct use of Iranian Revolutionary Guard elements in Iraq.

The report goes on to discuss some of the longer-term and wider consequences of a war with Iran. Suffice it to say they are mostly all bad for our national desire to drive our SUV’s in peace.

The conclusion:

The termination of the Saddam Hussein regime was expected to bring about a free-market client state in Iraq. Instead it has produced a deeply unstable and costly conflict with no end in sight. That may not prevent a US or an Israeli attack on Iran even though it should be expected that the consequences would be substantially greater. What this analysis does conclude is that a military response to the current crisis in relations with Iran is a particularly dangerous option and should not be considered further – alternative approaches must be sought, however difficult these may be.

Posted by John Nordin at 09:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We often hope that Europe can provide some check on the adventurism of George Bush, but, as a report done for the Council of Europe (a human rights organization) revealed, Poland and Romania apparently participated in the CIA’s rendition operations.

Sean McCormack, of the US State Department, reported the Financial Times (June 8th, p.1) made the amazing claim that “renditions were an internationally recognized legal practice.”

Posted by John Nordin at 08:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Coke vending machines, reports the Financial Times, June 27th, p. 20, will soon be able to “take digital photos and download ringtones.” The machine has an interactive screen for displaying ads. You will be able to take a photo of yourself, framed by the Coca-Cola logo and email it to your breathlessly awaiting friends.

No word if one machine will be able to email another machine.

Posted by John Nordin at 08:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

“Israel’s right to defend itself.” “Confront terrorism.” “Measured response.” “Israel must show resolve.”

All the clichés are out in force to prevent any facts from getting in the way of the next disaster in the Middle East.

Brilliant. Of course, everyone has forgotten that Israel's invasion of Gaza happened just days after Hamas was inching towards changing their position and accepting (in some fashion) Israel's right to exist. No, that fact has been sent down the memory hole, doesn't exist. Couldn’t possibly exist because you know that Arab = Terrorist. If they did say that, it was a trick, because Arab = Terrorist.

Once again the extremists on both sides have won.

So many seem to think that the proper response to an outlaw faction kidnapping one Israeli is to blow up bridges, the airport, electric plants, arrest officials who were condemning the kidnapping, etc, etc. Even more brilliant. Yes, that really encouraged good behavior, rewarded Palestinians working for peace, strengthened those who said terrorism is not the way. Yup, very effective.

And in Lebanon? Rockets being launched against Israel, so of course, bombing their airport, and then the road to Syria, killing scores of civilians, while not bombing the sites where the rockets were being launched from – that will really assist in undermining the terrorists. So the Lebanese government may fall and Hezbollah come to power there. That will really help things out.

Yes, I’m sure the terrorists who did the kidnappings wanted to sabotage the movement in Hamas towards cutting a deal with Israel. Just as Israel is desperate to sabotage Hamas becoming a mainstream political party. Because, you see, there are people out there who don’t want the two peoples to live in peace with each other – people on both sides. It’s just that in one case it’s government policy supported by the US.

And they extremists have really won – big time.

And I don’t suppose many remember that Hamas has been running local councils for over a year – and working just fine with Israeli technical experts at ground level all along – a de facto recognition of Israel. And observing the cease-fire better than Israel has? Better than Arafat’s corrupt Fatah ever did?

Oh, but what about all those rockets from Gaza? Well, more facts that have vanished. The work of Abbas to get a deal brokered in late June to stop that rocket fire – well, that fact has also disappeared. It was hard to get that deal with Islamic Jihad, since they unreasonably thought that Israel should stop bombing Gaza in exchange for them stopping bombing Israel, but the iron law of the region is that only the victims must be pacifists.

The truth was that before the boneheads kidnapped the soldier there was more positive movement towards a realistic deal than in maybe years. But now the hotheads on both sides have done it in.

Lebanon Hezbollah has declared open war on Israel. An Israeli ship has already been hit by a drone. Oil is at $78 a barrel and climbing.

Great.

And of course, Bush is alone in defending Israel. The EU, the Vatican, condemn the actions as out of line. Israel is doing what we did in Iraq, and it won’t work any better.

Great.

Posted by John Nordin at 07:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The French philosopher Michel Foucault thought that making sexual expression and behavior more public would make our inner lives more easily subject to control and exploitation by the capitalist consumerist complex.

So writes Ken Johnson in the N Y Times, July 7, 2006, p. B23. (No original source given.)

At last Foucault says something I agree with. More and more, sexual lives are not private, not the domain of the councilor and the priest, but the domain of products and advertising. Of course going back to the 50’s suppression (to say nothing of the particular suppression of women) would not be progress, but it would be nice if we noticed that making sexuality something we treat like we treat a choice of tires for the car means that it is not sacred, and not core to our being.

And as it is removed from sacredness it is removed from having power. To make it a commodity makes it banal.

Of course, all generalizations about sexuality must be qualified. I think we still know remarkably little about how people think of sex – what we have is public discourse about sex which is not the same as actual practice.

Posted by John Nordin at 09:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)