Category: Current Events

“Good riddance, the world is a better place without you,” says Bush about the recent capture of one of world’s tyrants, Saddam Hussein. There is indeed much cause for celebration. While I agree wholeheartedly with the US president’s statement, we should remind ourselves of a number of things:

1) My government has put into power, funded, and supported militarily far more tyrants than it has overthrown (including Saddam). Let us not, in our euphoria, believe for a second that we are a benevolent empire.

2) There are hundreds of cruel men holding power in infamous regimes all over the world. These include many of America’s regional allies and Saddam’s neighbors. It once included Saddam himself. As has been the case throughout history, we befriend evil men when it suits the interests of our empire and we destroy them and denounce their atrocities for the same. Whatever the motives of the individuals who fight and die for them, nations are not and never have been the agents of justice.

3) The security of the Middle East is better without Saddam than with it. However, it is not entirely clear if the security of the region is net increased by the new presence of a US client state. It may well be that the new configuration will be ultimately more destabilizing, but this depends on a number of as yet unresolved variables.

4) If we rejoice for the capture of Saddam, let us at least not fool ourselves into thinking that we have attained the US goals of the conflict (though a personal goal of the Bush family and the dreams of millions of others have been realized). We have not found WMDs and more importantly, we have almost singlehandedly self-fulfilled the prophesy of violent opposition on almost a civilizational level. We have literally fed the flames of terrorism. We might as well have been spraying oxygen instead of water.

I’m back in the US until the end of the month spending time with family.

I was sitting in the airport in Houston, Texas (at the George Bush Intercontinental Airport no less) yesterday and getting my first taste of American media in a long time via airpot CNN. On the debate program “Crossfire” a CNN correspondent describes how he drove across Iraq to get to Baghdad. On the way, his team stop for gas, where there are 4 miles of gas lines.

He describes how his group of American ex-special forces CNN mercenaries pull in front of the line of Iraqis waiting to get gas, commandeer the gas station and keep everyone else away as they fill up with gas and drive on to Baghdad.

The fiery democrat debater (I don’t know his name) asks the correspondent the exact question that was on my mind when I heard this: Isn’t this exactly the kind of behavior that is stirring anti-American sentiment in Iraq?

Yes, he answered, but as a Westerner in a dangerous country, there was no other option…

What right does a bunch of American reporters and armed mercenaries have to cut in front of miles of waiting Iraqis and, by force of arms, commandeer an Iraqi gas station?

The answer is not, I believe, that this was some blatant act meant as an insult to the Iraqi people or that anyone there necessarily believed they were more important than anyone else in line.

It is the law of the jungle. In the absence of security provided by a state with a monopoly on organized violence, all parties, including but especially prone foreigners who are most likely to be targeted for attack, will act in such a way to protect themselves and achieve their goals.

However, let there be no illusion that the United States of America gives a damn about the Iraqi people, their rights, or their future. Also, let there be no surprise as to why we are despised by the people of Iraq as self-serving hypocrites.

A Taipei Times article mentions the results of a new survey which includes a question about Taiwanese identity:

“…given the choice of identifying themselves as Taiwanese, Chinese or both Taiwanese and Chinese, the proportion of people identifying themselves as Taiwanese had risen from 37 percent in late October to 50 percent.

Those who considered themselves both Taiwanese and Chinese had dropped from 48 percent in late October to 38 percent.

The poll did not, however, show the figures for people identifying themselves as Chinese.”

I suspect this trend will only continue.

A posting from my friend Derek:

This is old, but I found this news blurb at Mainichi

I only wish this sort of thing wasn’t so exceptional that it actually made the news. Even my own wife Ryoko, though she kicks my butt 3 times a week at Aikido class, can certainly take care of herself, she’s told me that the 3 or 4 times that someone tried to fondle her on the train that she didn’t do anything confrontational. She either elbowed the guy and pushed his hand away, or just moved herself away from him. (not necessarily an easy task on a crowded train…) That’s better than just enduring it, I suppose.

Of course the men that do these malicious things are the real perpetrators and are completely at fault, but I can’t help but thinking that if women in Japan weren’t so afraid of creating a scene this never would have escalated to the problem that it is today. In a similar way, if a burglar enters your house and steals your valuables he is at fault and will go to jail, but if you never lock your house when you leave or at night you’re just ‘asking for it’.

The problem is bad enough that several train lines are adding ‘women only’ cars to be used during rush hour. I think it’s a wonderful idea, I’m only sad that it has come to the point where this sort of thing is necessary.

Derek

I wasn’t interested in some journalist getting fired. The news buzzed by me as quickly as it did when that talk-show host got thrown out of Iraq. I didn’t recognize the name and I certainly didn’t recognize his somewhat ugly face even though I’m assured by every article I have read since that this Arnett guy is someone I should know about. What can I say, I don’t watch that much TV?

Then I stumbled upon Walter Cronkite’s editorial at the New York Times. That sparked my interest. I recognized Cronkite’s name because I think I have seen him, or rather recordings and impersonations of him, in various historically set Hollywood productions.

Without knowing any details of the Arnett affair, in which the journalist gave an interview to Iraqi TV and said some disheartening things about the US military effort, the Cronkite editorial was enough to get me really interested. Here was a fascinating little piece to work with.

It began with Walter basically calling Peter a traitor…and I am always interested in traitors.
Continue reading Peter Arnett, the “Traitor”

The looting in Baghdad looks like it is finally dying down. The US forces there are now making genuine efforts in quelling the chaotic looting and killing that has ravaged the city since their entry. They have promised to send police officers, have made efforts to re-recruit local civil service, and are paying local civilians in various areas to work with an appointed US soldier. Although there will be a lot of frustration and bad memories about these first few days, it is likely that the majority of the Iraqis in the urban centers will show some degree of gratitude for increased security provided.

Regretablly, even if the US had done nothing, the looting would probably have died down in a few days anyways. Everything of much value that could be stolen is already gone. 39 of the 40 hospitals in Baghdad have been robbed of equipment with uses their robbers could have only guessed at, double-decker buses have been commandeered, embassies and government buildings stripped of even their chairs, and the National Library emptied by avid looting bibliophiles.

A professor of Political Science at Baghdad University, Dr. Ramiz said, “I believe the United States has committed an act of irresponsibility with few parallels in history, with the looting of the National Museum, the National Library and so many of the ministries. People are saying that the U.S. wanted this ? that it allowed all this to happen because it wanted the symbolism of ordinary Iraqis attacking every last token of Saddam Hussein’s power.” While his anger is understandable, we have to realize that the US didn’t want rampant and indiscriminate looting, and there are many signs they did not expect it, train for it, or otherwise sufficiently plan for it. Also, no one can deny that they are operating in small numbers in large population centers.

However, these reasons cannot be used to excuse the horrible incompetence displayed by the coalition.
Continue reading Command and Control

After programming into the wee hours of night, I woke up late this morning and turned on the TV, expecting to hear some indication of whether the war had started.

I don’t watch TV much here in Japan but when I found myself staring at CNN I was surprised. I don’t remember having CNN access here in Japan…

What I discovered was that more than half of the channels were covering the attack, which had begun with an explosion just a few minutes earlier. In the hours that followed I was beginning to get a feel for how the Japanese television media covers the war.
Continue reading Waking up to War