Month: January 2006

The last details on the word (promise) can be found here. Meanwhile, the correct usage John Gibson was searching for is now available (with eye-candy).

The debate over troop levels in Iraq is moving, as Mickey would say, asymptotically toward the truth. That truth is that the Bush administration sent enough troops for initial victory but way too few to maintain order and establish democracy in Iraq. Paul Bremer, Bush’s former main-man in Iraq, says so in his new book. Now, Colin Powell weighs in with this piece of reality-based analysis:

"There were enough troops to defeat the army. (But that) was only part of the battle. The difficult part was taking control of a very large country with 25 million people and you have just taken out the whole government. And guess what: who then becomes the new government? You do, under the laws of land warfare. We were not able to take control, nor did we have the right political approach … We were characterising the insurgents as a few dead-enders and saying, ‘This isn’t all that bad’. A larger troop presence would have been helpful. I raised the question. The Pentagon says that is not what the generals thought. But the generals were working under political direction that said ‘this is not going to be that bad’. But it did turn out that bad ‚Äî we were unable to strangle the insurgency in its crib ‚Äî and now it is raging."

Three words: Fire Rumsfeld Now.

"In the world’s most beautiful city [Rome] with the Grenfell girls, Debbie Bismarck and her little boy Sasha, whom I tried to corrupt by telling him how good Wehrmacht uniforms looked around the ancient city long ago," – Taki, the Spectator (London). (Subscription req.)

If you have a real appetite for Vatican gossip, politics and theology, you could do a lot worse than visit this peppy blog by one Rocco Palmo. He’s got the papal dope. One random money quote:

We’ll have to get pictures of this posted as soon as they’re available, but the Cardinal-Secretary of State is celebrating the Quincentenary Mass of the Pontifical Swiss Guard… in fiddleback. And lace alb.

This will excite many of you, I am well-aware.

You know who you are. Great pics too.

Like the torture ordered at Abu Ghraib, some things do not register when they are merely facts. Some need to become photos before they sink in.

Karl Rove is now and long has been the under-taker.

In the current HIV prevention discussion, this idea is well worth airing and perhaps pursuing: Why not put all HIV-negative men on a simple anti-retroviral regimen as a prophylaxis, rather than as a treatment? In any single case, the likelihood of possible transmission drops (because the drugs kill off the virus before it can take hold of a new immune system). The big studies being done will help confirm whether there are collective behavioral adjustments that undermine the effort to reduce transmission. My own view is that gay men, if the studies pan out, could and perhaps should embark on a proactive campaign to get as many sexually active men as possible on meds. It’s a way for HIV-negative men to do something which is not simply defensive in nature, and make decisions about their health in a moment outside the inevitable irrationality of a sexual encounter. We’re used to taking pills after we’ve become sick. Why not take them before – as a prevention technique? Even a mild decline in transmission could drastically alter the dynamic of the epidemic – for the better. Next up: involve vulnerable African-American women in the same discussion.

It’s so important for us not to equate the Islamo-fascist nutters in the Tehran regime with the Iranian people themselves. One thing we have learned from Iraq. You can destroy tyranny; you can create an opening for democracy; but people have to choose democracy for themselves. In Iran, a huge majority would, but cannot. Here’s one small story about a poetry club in Tehran – a group that specializes in reading English poetry and literature – that gives us a glimpse of what’s beneath the surface. Money quote:

Meetings are held every Monday afternoon in the disused offices of the banned literary magazine Karnameh; dust coats the desks and the posters are all peeling, but such touches only add to the atmosphere. The members hail from a variety of backgrounds – they range from impoverished students to culturally concerned doctors and dentists – but all attend meetings with the kind of reverence that would humble those jaded by literary freedoms in the west.

Nor are their efforts purely recreational: when they’re done with a poet their notes go to translators, who prepare Farsi versions that are printed and bound along with the original English texts. In a few years they hope to publish the first Modern English Poets in Farsi – assuming they can find a publisher.

"We like to think that all major movements begin with a handful of dedicated people," says Maryam Akbari, a member since day one, "and that’s exactly what we are."

Keep hope alive.

"Iraq, which is born a little and dies a little every day, defies all rules," – Roger Cohen, summing it up, NYT today.