Month: November 2009

Reading Dana Priest's summary and then the document itself, it seems to me that in some ways, Hasan was airing an important debate. I don't glean from the notes for his lecture that he was necessarily an Islamist fanatic, merely that he could see how Islam could be seen as incompatible with military service in Iraq and Afghanistan. His view is pretty close to what many critics of Islam argue. Of course, the power-points cannot convey the tone of content of his actual remarks, so I may be wrong. But as a piece of analysis, it's admirably candid and very clear about Islam's total rejection of a separation between church and state. It seems to me from this evidence that his looming deployment, and the impossibility of a conscientious discharge, were contributing factors to his mass murder. The lecture almost reads like a cry for help, rather than a warning.

Nate Silver studies the Stupak amendment vote:

I was surprised at the number of Democrats who have solid pro-choice voting records but who nevertheless voted for Stupak Amendment. And the

vast majority of these Democrats voted for, not against, passage of the underlying health care bill...

I'm sure there are idiosyncratic explanations in a number of cases, but I take this as a sign that they're worried about the re-election environment they'll face in 2010. 11 of the 20 pro-choice Democrats who voted for Stupak reside in districts that are rated as vulnerable according to Cook Political (note: candidates who are leaving the House to run for Senate or governor are rated based on those races instead). And, interestingly, they seem to think that a pro-choice vote would render them more vulnerable than a pro-health care vote, even though the pro-choice position is generally more popular than the health care bill on the table at the moment (although some recent polls have shown the pro-choice position losing ground).

The party tipped to be the next British government is split on familiar lines:

Liam Fox, the Shadow Defence Secretary, and Michael Gove, the education spokesman, are staunch Atlanticists and supporters of military intervention — “neocons” to their critics, although Dr Fox prefers “neo-realist”…

Other Shadow Cabinet ministers think that the priority must be to hand over to the Afghan Army and bring British soldiers home. “There is a significant section of opinion in the parliamentary party that wants the thing over as soon as possible — you can call it isolationist or realist but it is there” one frontbencher says. George Osborne, an instinctive neocon, has, colleagues say become an “economic realist” who is struck by the cost of the war at a time when he must save billions. William Hague hovers between the two positions.

A reader writes:

There is no end to the War on Terror and no way to prevent a 9/11 from happening again.

What I like about Obama is that he is trying to change how we view this conflict – it isn’t nation vs. nation or ideology vs. ideology but rather an effort to get the US out of the role of “The Great Satan” – that role is a great recruiting tool for Al Qaeda and others and unfortunately there are a seemingly endless supply of volunteers/suicide bombers. It will be a tough mission but one that can and will pay dividends if he is given the time (and support) to execute it.

Alternately, we can spend trillions of dollars and lose thousands of lives (US and others) but we won’t win as there isn’t a “loser” in this fight.

Another Facebook uprising that the old guard cannot control. Details here.

A pushback on healthcare costs.

Larison is befuddled by the Crist/Rubio spin:

I don’t begrudge Crist’s conservative opponents their desire to compel him to take positions that are even more in agreement with their views. That is their prerogative, and it may even do some good on one or two issues, but it is curious how Crist’s successful political tactics are being held against him at a time when Republicans are no longer governing very many large states and when the party has declined nationally as well.

This is the same governor who campaigned actively for an amendment that reduced property taxes, so why would he be a top target of the Club for Growth? On policy, Crist is hard to distinguish from the tradition of former Gov. Jeb Bush, who angered a lot of conservatives with his liberalizing views on immigration but who has otherwise been widely respected and admired by many rank-and-file conservatives. Obviously, I am far removed from both Bush and Crist, so this does not recommend Crist to me, but what makes Crist the unacceptable “moderate” in the minds of movement activists that does not similarly tar Jeb Bush?

Greenwald questions whether the Ft. Hood shooting was terrorism:

[If] one accepts that broadened definition of "terrorism" – that it includes violence that targets not only civilians but also combatants who are unarmed or not engaged in combat at the time of the attack — it seems impossible to exclude from that term many of the acts in which the U.S. and our allies routinely engage.  Indeed, a large part of our "war" strategy is to kill people we deem to be "terrorists" or "combatants" without regard to whether they're armed or engaged in hostilities at the moment we kill them.  Isn't that exactly what we do when we use drone attacks in Pakistan?

In a rare moment of agreement, Jonah Goldberg concurs.

Fort Wayne, Indiana, 4 pm.

If you live there, I'll be giving a lecture there tonight on the meaning of friendship at the Auer Performance Hall at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne at 7.30 pm.

Joe Klein:

There are several possible responses to the appalling news that Iran seems to have brought espionage charges against three American hikers who wandered across the Kurdish border. Taken together with Iran's apparent decision not to agree to the nuclear treaty it had agreed to, this is yet another signal of the Iranian regime going off the rails. No doubt, assorted neoconservatives in the U.S. will want to use this as an excuse to whack the Khamenei-Whomever government rhetorically, economically and toss in some use of force threats as well.

Which will give the regime exactly what it wants and needs: proof that the Great Satan exists. I've mentioned before my favorite piece of official graffiti painted on the old U.S. Embassy in Tehran: "On the day the Great Satan praises us, we shall mourn." It always seemed a classic bit of ju-jitsu to me: Want to make the Iranian leaders uncomfortable? Praise them. Or, at least, don't play into their need for a satanic enemy.