Monthly Archives: August 2007

Another Mississippi Bridge?

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WEST MEMPHIS, Ark. — The Hernando de Soto (I-40) Bridge which crosses the Mississippi River between Arkansas and Memphis, Tenn., was closed Monday after a bridge pier in a construction zone settled overnight. Engineers were inspecting the span.

Under a Tennessee highway project that extends into Arkansas, workers are improving the I-40 Bridge to make it safer in case of earthquakes.

The New Madrid fault runs through the area.

Motorists were diverted to Interstate 55, which parallels I-40.

More here.

Primary Calendar Gerrymandering?

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Gerrymandering is the practice of remapping political districts for partisan political gain. Is that what is already happening to the primary election calendar?

Is reshuffling of primary voting schedules on short notice going to benefit some candidates at the expense, literally, of their primary rivals?

Somebody must think so.

Are those primaries going to be won in court instead of the ballot booth?

Don’t bet against it.

Maybe there’s enough time left in the 2008 Election Season for the courts to work through all those lawsuits challenging the results of rescheduled primaries.

Do you think the courts will be able to finish in time for the general election, November 4, 2008?

Who is going to pay for all those court cases?

Is that your phone ringing?

Don’ t worry. They’ll call back.

U.S. Apologizes: Detention Was Wrong

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Abdulameer Habeeb, 41, had been in the United States for 10 months on April 1, 2003, when he stepped off an Amtrak train near the Canadian border in Havre, Mont., to stretch his legs, according to court papers.

Border Patrol agents stopped him to inquire whether he had registered under a “special registration” system mandatory for certain foreigners, which is now mostly suspended. It was not required for legal refugees, but the agents arrested Mr. Habeeb.

He spent three nights in the county jail, underwent a strip search and was mockingly called “Saddam” by other detainees, the A.C.L.U. said. He was taken through the airport in handcuffs and flown to Seattle, where he spent four more days in detention, the group said.

“I thought for a moment that this is it, my life is done, this is the end of my life in this country,” said Mr. Habeeb, who was a legal refugee because he had been jailed and tortured in Iraq under Saddam Hussein.

He turned to the courts. After his case was dismissed by the Federal District Court in Great Falls, Mont., the Justice Department lawyers reviewed what had happened and joined the A.C.L.U. in asking the court to nullify its decision. The case was removed from the record, and the negotiated settlement included both a written apology and an undisclosed financial sum.

The June 13 letter signed by Jeffrey C. Sullivan, the United States attorney for the Western District of Washington, said that the effort to deport Mr. Habeeb was wrong and that “the United States of America regrets the mistake.”

Mr. Habeeb declared himself happy. “My nightmare stopped,” he said. “It is not just a personal case; it is a human case. Everybody should be treated well.”

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Vietnam Lessons in Iraq?

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According to Max Boot:

The problem with Mr. Bush’s Vietnam analogy is not that it is inaccurate, but that it is incomplete. As he noted, “The tragedy of Vietnam is too large to be contained in one speech.” If he chooses to return to the subject in future speeches, there are some other parallels he could invoke:

The danger of prematurely dumping allied leaders.
In the early 1960s, American officials were frustrated with Ngo Dinh Diem, and in 1963 the Kennedy administration sanctioned a coup against him, in the hope of installing more effective leadership in Saigon. The result was the opposite: a succession of weak leaders who spent most of their time plotting to stay in power. In retrospect it’s obvious that, for all his faults, we should have stuck with Diem.

The danger of winning militarily and losing politically.
In 1968, after Gen. Creighton Abrams took over as the senior U.S. military commander in South Vietnam, he began to change the emphasis from the kind of big-unit search-and-destroy tactics that Gen. William Westmoreland had favored, to the sort of population-protection strategy more appropriate for a counterinsurgency. Over the next four years, even as the total number of American combat troops declined, the communists lost ground.

The danger of allowing enemy sanctuaries across the border.
This a parallel that Mr. Bush might not be so eager to cite, because in many ways he is repeating the mistakes of Lyndon Johnson, who allowed communist forces to use safe rear areas in Cambodia, Laos, and North Vietnam to stage attacks into South Vietnam. No matter how much success American and South Vietnamese forces had, there were always fresh troops and supplies being smuggled over the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

The danger of not making plans for refugees.
One of the great stains on American honor in Indochina was the horrible
fate suffered by so many Vietnamese, Cambodians and Laotians who put their trust in us. When the end came we left far too many of them in the lurch, consigning them to prison, death or desperate attempts to escape.

This does not, of course, exhaust the possible analogies between Iraq and Vietnam. Nor is it meant to suggest the parallels are exact; there are in fact substantial differences. Any historical comparison has to be handled with care and not swallowed whole. But there are important lessons to be learned from our Vietnam experience, and as President Bush noted, they are not necessarily the ones drawn by the doves who have made Vietnam “their” war.

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Iraq: Sorry Senator, We’d Rather Do It Our Way

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Thousands of Prisoners May Be Released Soon

IAF MP Reports Security Committee Made Recommendation to Government

Baghdad, Aug 23, (VOI)- A member of the security and defense committee of the Iraqi parliament expressed on Thursday the expectation that thousands of prisoners would soon be set free in accordance with the recommendations made by a joint parliamentary security committee.

MP from the Iraqi Accordance Front (IAF) Abdul Karim al-Samaraei told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI) “there is a committee, which includes members of parliament, Iraqi and U.S. forces, that has presented legal mechanisms to the government to free prisoners from Iraqi and U.S. jails.”

“Once these mechanisms come into force, thousands of captives will be released throughout Iraq,” the man, who is also the spokesman for the Iraqi Islamic party, said.

“The security and defense committee paid several visits to the interior ministry’s jails, including al-Adala jail in al-Kadhimiya region in northern Baghdad, al-Tasfeerat prison in central Baghdad and other jails in the capital, to be updated om the conditions of prisoners there,” he noted.

“The visits unveiled the deteriorating humanitarian conditions in the jails, where prisoners’ human rights are being violated,” the lawmaker asserted.

DNI Talks

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The Director of National Intelligence had a question and answer session with the El Paso Times, about his perspectives on intelligence and, of course, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act or FISA.

The El Paso Times published two articles and the transcript of the Q & A session:

Spy chief reveals classified details about surveillance
By Katherine Shrader / Associated Press Writer

Intelligence chief sees border as terrorist entryway
By Chris Roberts / ©El Paso Times

The transcript of the Q & A session with the DNI

Success in Iraq?

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Is there any chance that things will turn around in Iraq between now and the US general elections in 2008?

The surge seems to be working. The loyal opposition seem to support it, and even say out loud that it is working.

The Iraqi government, we are told, now seems to be the problem. Senator Carl Levin (D-MI), among others, wants the Iraqi leader, Prime Minister Maliki, out of office, and right now!

On the other hand, all those Iraqi legislators must be watching that same surge in their own districts. How long does such a sea change take to work its way up to those leaders?

One of the ways our legislators keep track of the mood swings in their home districts is to take time out and go home. That’s where most of them are these days. Curiously enough, the Iraqi legislators are also on a break at the moment.

There are still many days until the 2008 Elections. Maybe that’s enough time for Maliki and friends to get it all together, in a way that is uniquely Iraqi.

Maybe someday Maliki might even find himself helping us find a way to get our legislative system working again.

Coming Soon To A Phone Near You

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IraqSlogger reports: “809-534-6565 Scam” Tries To Get Families To Call Back About Injured in Iraq

David Baker reports in The Herald Journal: New costly phone scam hits valley

A target gets a phone message saying a family member has been injured or is in the hospital, and a number to call for more information.

One woman received a message saying her son, a soldier in Iraq, was in an Iraqi hospital and she needed to call a number to get more information. Instead, she got in contact with her son’s commanding officer and learned “he was OK.”

Others have been drawn into calling a number in the Dominican Republic, and were kept on the line for extended periods of time and charged anywhere from $200 to $2,500 a minute.

Why Study Dead Greeks?

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Someone asked Victor Davis Hanson that question recently, and he began a blog entry with . . .

Our Silly Modern World

Why Study Dead Greeks?

Someone just asked me that at a reception the other night, wondering why anyone would prefer to write a book on the Peloponnesian War rather than something more modern and readable.

I confess at least part of the reason is to read Greek literature. In fact, I get asked what’s so good about the ancients a lot lately . . . .

Read the rest ->

Pakistan marks independence from British rule

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Cannons boomed a dawn salute and thousands of Pakistan’s olive-green and white flags were raised across the country to mark its 60th anniversary on Tuesday, which fell amid a political crisis and surging militant violence.

President Gen. Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, in speeches and appearances celebrating the milestone, praised Pakistan’s emergence as a Muslim nation with an important international role, but warned its people they must not succumb to extremism.

They renewed vows not to let any nation violate Pakistan’s sovereignty – comments apparently directed at the United States rather than longtime rival India – and Aziz said becoming the world’s first nuclear-armed Muslim country remained a point of national pride.

In the capital, Islamabad, 31 artillery guns fired at daybreak, marking the start of ceremonies to celebrate August 14, 1947, when independence was granted by British colonial rulers and the subcontinent was partitioned into Muslim Pakistan and Hindu-dominated India.

Related story: India celebrates 60th anniversary

Iran Parliament Challenges Gasoline Rationing Quotas

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Iran: Parliament Moves to Challenge Iranian Government over Gasoline Rationing Quotas

Iran’s parliament has agreed to give first priority to a bill enabling Iranians to buy gasoline (petrol) at market prices outside the monthly quota, in defiance of President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad’s policy.

Attaching first priority to a bill means that it will move automatically to the top of the parliamentary agenda and will be debated in the chamber in the coming days.

There has been reoccurring pressure on the Iranian parliament to allow consumers the option of unlimited gasoline purchases at market prices, in order to stem potential widespread discontent when people start to run out of their allotted quotas.

President Ahmedinejad has opposed the measure out of concern that it might stoke already-high inflation.

Do you suppose they have a Daily Kos over there, too?

How To Lose a War

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Mark Davis writes Want to Lose War in Iraq? Study Vietnam.

As painful as it was to watch the Vietnamese we abandoned rushing to cling to
the last helicopters out in 1975, at least we did not face the threat of an empowered enemy following us back to our shores to continue attacking us.

We face that threat now. Political enemies of the war in Iraq seem to have forgotten how to win, but their strategy for losing is ripped right from the pages of how we lost three decades ago.

. . . .

We can find ways to duck the blame for the consequences of choosing to lose in Southeast Asia. It will not be as easy to spin an intentional loss in Iraq, where an energized enemy will not be satisfied with limiting its killing to the immediate area.

The current U.S. surge in Iraq may succeed enough to create new reserves of patience in a country once again tempted to give up. But even if it does not, we would do well to remember that the people we are fighting today want to follow us home.

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