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Rice Is No Political Scientist

Hume's Bastard — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 11:20:59 +0000

At least, US Secretary of State is consistent – a consistent embarrassment and disappointment. No, she didn’t just trash my college major?

QUESTION: Do you regret your role in the Iraq war?

SECRETARY RICE: I absolutely am so proud that we liberated Iraq.

QUESTION: Really?

SECRETARY RICE: Absolutely. And I’m especially, as a political scientist, not as Secretary of State, not as National Security Advisor, but as somebody who knows that structurally it matters that a geostrategically important country like Iraq is not Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.

She could have blamed it all on the stress of the job, stabbed a colleague in the back, apologized, or just claimed ignorance. Instead, she had to insist on some bizarre standard of intellectual quality.

Al-Zaidi: Villain, or Hero?

Hume's Bastard — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 23:02:14 +0000

ITN asks the question. Obviously, many would call Muntazer al-Zaidi a hero. That’s a bit rich, but so too is demonizing him. Amid the tarring of al-Zaidi’s character, though, I have to ask, what is the Iraqi penalty for tossing a shoe at a person? Are there penalties in other neighboring states?

The Hack in the Iraqi Shoe

Hume's Bastard — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 05:31:41 +0000

Yes, Eli, we shouldn’t idolize Muntazer al-Zaidi. Maybe al-Zaidi even took a few pitches before he went to work. The point is not many Americans would stand on ceremony just to defend George W. Bush’s honor.

Rule of Law Comes to Iraq

Hume's Bastard — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 22:42:42 +0000

It’s revealing what Iraq has taken from America after the invasion. First, a journalist, Muntazer al-Zaidi, confronts a foreign potentate with a shoe. Now, the defense attorney, Khalil al-Dulaimi, for executed dictator, Saddam Hussein, will defend him.

From dictators and submission, to shoes and law – I’d call that “progress”.

The Conflicts Bush Avoided

Hume's Bastard — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 03:19:49 +0000

Woodward, in this first installment, provides a different account of the George W. Bush White House, where a president leery of interpersonal conflict, never learned about the entire truth surrounding his war in Iraq. According to Woodward, President Bush, like President Lyndon B. Johnson, lacked the “temperament and experience” to be a leader.

Ode to Petraeus

Hume's Bastard — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 12:08:11 +0000

I don’t post about the Iraq War much, but it’s still on my mind. Outgoing General David Petraeus caught my attention with these un-Bush-like comments.

This is not the sort of struggle where you take a hill, plant the flag and go home to a victory parade… it’s not war with a simple slogan

Juan Cole evaluates Petraeus.

Petraeus has great virtues as a commander, the chief of which in my view is that he genuinely cares about people. He really, really wanted to stop shoppers in bazaars from being blown to bits, and by God if he didn’t in fact cut down on that sort of thing. He is too smart to think the ‘surge’ did it all, and knows that the situation is still fragile. Another of his virtues is that he understands the need to deal with people where they are. He did not try to ignore or crush the Sunnis and the Sadrists. He dealt with them. A lot of supporters of the Da`wa Party and the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, both fundamentalist Shiite parties, are annoyed with him for striking those deals, because they are convinced that they can crush their enemies. And as long as the new Iraqi government has that attitude, the peace is fragile indeed.

Of course, he’s a general so you also have to expect him to act like one, i.e to kill the enemy. We won’t know for some time all the on-the-ground policies he deployed, and of course Bob Woodward intimated that he presided over a Phoenix Project-like dirty war of assassination of Sunni insurgents. My own guess is that even if such a tactic was pursued, it was the politicking that made the real difference.

The comments section is also very interesting.

What's the Big Secret?

Hume's Bastard — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 11:23:23 +0000

Why is CIA Director, General Michael Hayden, being so coy about the al-Kibar airstrike?

“Our foreign partnerships … were critical to the final outcome,” Hayden said in a speech for delivery to the World Affairs Council of Los Angeles.

A U.S. intelligence official declined to specify the partner Hayden referred to or to say whether it was Israel. He said there have been no signs that Syria was trying to replace the destroyed reactor.

Israel has never given an account of the strike or formally confirmed that it took place and some Israeli officials have quietly voiced dismay at U.S. disclosures about the strike.

The West Takes its Rubles Back

Hume's Bastard — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 23:59:13 +0000

The consistent chest-thumping, conveniently nostalgic security meme fixating on “cold war” dominating the question of dealing with Russia in the wake of its “August war” with Georgia annoys me to no end. After a period in 1991-2001 when both Democrats and Republicans bungled devising a post-Cold War security policy, and then a diet-busting feeding frenzy from 9/11 to now, Russia is not a signal for permanent war.

After offering how much Russian corporations and its military lost in its August war, Anders Aslund argues for a post-Cold War economic attack on Moscow.

First, the EU should adopt a common energy policy, imposing the rules of the energy charter – such as transparency, equal investment rights and third-party access to pipelines – on Russia. A united EU has bargaining power as all Russian pipelines outside the former Soviet Union go to Europe.

Second, the European Commission should force Gazprom to unbundle production and transportation to break up its monopolies. Why does the EC pursue antitrust suits against Microsoft but not Gazprom? It would have to divest its pipeline network outside Russia’s borders, abandon blatant price discrimination and end its planned construction of the Nord Stream and South Stream gas pipelines.

Third, the west should investigate Russian top officials and their trading companies for money-laundering.

Fourth, Russia’s big state companies habitually woo politicians in other countries. Gerhard Schröder, the former German chancellor, is just Gazprom’s most prominent catch. Western ethical rules for contacts with Russian state companies need to be tightened and the EU should establish American rules for the disclosure of income anybody earns from lobbying. Unethical behaviour is best fought with increased transparency.

Finally, if western intelligence agencies possess evidence of any corruption by Mr Putin or his cronies they should publish it. Nothing would undermine him more in Russian eyes than verified facts about corruption. Russia and its leaders are quite vulnerable, but to be effective the west needs to unite.

Well, screw that. Washington would have none of that, unless it’s in the lead – and that means war.

Sometimes Lovers Don't Agree

Hume's Bastard — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 11:35:58 +0000

And, nominations for top prize for inconsiderateness: Moscow, after marring the opening of the Olympics, asks for Beijing’s blessing in the Caucasus.

“Russia’s main aim is to get support from the [Shanghai Cooperation O]rganization for its military action and approval in one form or another for recognizing South Ossetian independence,” an analyst in Moscow for the Washington-based Heritage Foundation, Yevgeny Volk, said. “It is clear that Russia is using it as a counterweight to the West in the conflict and its recognition of South Ossetia.”

While Russia wants diplomatic recognition from members of the group, Mr. Volk said such a decision for countries like China and India, which have separatist regions of their own, would amount to “chopping the branch they sit on.”

The Shanghai organization in recent months has condemned an attempt by Taiwan to seek greater international recognition and unrest in Tibet.