Month: August 2011

by Chris Bodenner

Neal Freeman notices an increased activism from military families against the "global agenda" of neoconservatism:

It includes not just active-duty spouses and retired military personnel, and not just their families, friends and base-neighbors. It includes also a vast number of Americans who love the military, honor them and see in them a unique restorative capability in a society gone soft and commonsense-less. For the first time in my reporting experience, this extended military family has become fully engaged in the political process: you see them at gatherings everywhere, from Republican and Tea Party to independent and goo-goo. And they're no longer sitting in the back taking notes. They are moving up front and taking leadership roles.

William Deresiewicz's essay on the empty sentimentalism toward the military is worth invoking:

The greater the sacrifice that has fallen on one small group of people, the members of the military and their families, the more we have gone from supporting our troops to putting them on a pedestal. In the Second World War, everybody fought. Soldiers were not remote figures to most of us; they were us. Now, instead of sharing the burden, we sentimentalize it. It’s a lot easier to idealize the people who are fighting than it is to send your kid to join them. This is also a form of service, I suppose: lip service.

How many more years in Iraq and Afghanistan will it take for neocons to see that "supporting the troops" is sapping the troops? Deresiewicz also eloquently touches upon a recent thread on the Dish:

[S]ervice members feel uneasy when strangers approach them to — as the well-meaning but oddly impersonal ritual goes — thank them for their service, thereby turning them into paradoxically anonymous celebrities. It was wrong to demonize our service members in Vietnam; to canonize them now is wrong as well. Both distortions make us forget that what they are are human beings.

(Photo: Family and friends await Marines during a homecoming ceremony on October 4, 2008 at Camp Pendleton in Oceanside, California. By Sandy Huffaker/Getty Images)

by Zack Beauchamp

Chait rips apart Stephen Moore's anti-intellectual attack on Obama's economic policy.  It's truly embarassing. Chait's amusing conclusion:

I have been following Moore for years, and I have met him — yes, it was awkward — and I can assure you that this is not just some oddball rhetorical game he's playing. He genuinely has no idea what he's talking about. And I'm sorry to be mean to what seems to be a fairly nice guy, but it does matter that there are completely ignorant people wielding great influence over the policy debate.

 Frum, meanwhile, did a two part (one, two) fisking of the WSJ editorial from last week.

by Zoë Pollock

Who knew?:

Apparently Tibetan monks first used a form of yodeling to communicate. Marco Polo​ brought that knowledge back with him to Western Europe, where it quickly became part of the alpine tradition. The American cowboy yodeling tradition — yippee-kay-yay, y’all! — came about because European immigrants brought the vocal style with them to the range. The cowboy yodeling patterns aren’t as varied as the European traditions. They tend to be slower and simpler, since they were primarily lullabies to calm the cows at night, and also to soothe the animals during milking.

[Updated 8/22: The author of the article states yodeling can be traced to Africa but only discusses Tibet. Obviously Tibet isn't in Africa… sorry for the confusion. –Z.P.]

by Zack Beauchamp

James Traub, while acknowleldging that the Arab Spring hasn't yet fully borne fruit, is still a believer:

There are, I suppose, two reasons to dump cold water on the Arab Spring. The first is that you think the enthusiasm is overblown, and you enjoying taunting the romantic spirit that sees reflections of America and its democratic values in every popular uprising across the globe. Go ahead and jeer; I would only note that even the grumpy and skeptical John Quincy Adams, who famously abjured crusades to destroy foreign "monsters," added that the American people are "well-wishers" to those everywhere who seek freedom.

The second reason is that you believe that while it may be good for them, it's bad for us. But in the long term, that cannot be so. Illegitimate government in the Arab world has been a disaster for the neighborhood, and for the world. Legitimate government provides the only narrative powerful enough to prevail over the appeal of extremism. We have every reason to be well-wishers.

Some evidence supports Traub's optimism. Bernard Haykel sees Saudi capacity to stifle change is on the wane, and Bruce Riedel believes Algeria's government "will be the next to fall:"

Algeria is acutely vulnerable to the contagion of the antiregime and antiestablishment unrest that has rocked the rest of the Arab world. It has a huge youth bulge, large unemployment and underemployment, and a sclerotic regime that permits virtually no public participation in the decision-making process. It is also home to a violent branch of al-Qaeda, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. But the memories of the ”lost decade” are very strong among Algerians, and there is no appetite for a return to the abyss.

by Chris Bodenner

Enduring America is trying to find out:

0046 GMT: According to people who heard the interview, Mohammad Qaddafi was speaking to Al Jazeera Arabic when gunfire and shouting broke out inside his home, where he is under house arrest after he willingly surrendered. He told AJA that he was "under attack," and that the gunfire was inside his home. The gunshots subsided, and Mohammed sounded as though he was in tears as he continued to speak but closed his phone call. According to a caller for Al Jazeera, Mohammed Qaddafi is safe, though he only has three people guarding him.

The Guardian has more:

2.32am: Confirmation through Reuters Flash on Twitter that Mohammed Gaddafi is unharmed. He was back in with Al-Jazeera via phone: "My family and I are safe. I don't know who fired on us."

3.41am: The earlier scenes of jubilation in Green Square appear to have dissipated. CNN's Sara Sidner, who entered Tripoli late on Sunday with rebel forces and made it briefly to Green Square, has pulled back to the outskirts of the city. She reports that rebel forces, earlier seen celebrating, feared Gaddafi's troops were planning an attempt to retake the square. The rebels' mood had changed and they were taking up defensive positions, she said.

The latest updates from Al Jazeera here. Another son, Saadi, has been captured by rebels. Little info on the whereabouts of Muammar. Mackey says the following tweet is from a "blogger named Ali Tweel, who lives close to the Qaddafi family compound of Bab al-Aziziya:

The BBC's Matthew Price is reporting from the Rixos:

The overall picture in Tripoli is patchy. There are certainly large areas, where the opposition is in control. But some areas are still under government control. However, one of the most vivid signs of the collapse of the Gaddafi regime is that government employees have been slowly leaving our hotel – the place from where Libya's state TV has been broadcasting.

Mackey posts the above photo:

The blogger who writes as Pourmecoffee on Twitter suggests that this photograph of Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali, Ali Abdullah Saleh, Muammar el-Qaddafi and Hosni Mubarak at a summit in the Libyan city of Surt in October 2010 should now be captioned: "No more smiles."

by Chris Bodenner

Even the French get props from McCain and Butters:

This achievement was made possible first and foremost by the struggle and sacrifice of countless Libyans, whose courage and perseverance we applaud. We also commend our British, French, and other allies, as well as our Arab partners, especially Qatar and the UAE, for their leadership in this conflict. Americans can be proud of the role our country has played in helping to defeat Qaddafi, but we regret that this success was so long in coming due to the failure of the United States to employ the full weight of our airpower.

by Chris Bodenner

The latest big developments from Libya. AJE:

Al Jazeera has learnt that Gaddafi's eldest son Mohammed has surrendered.

Guardian:

The International Criminal Court prosecutor's spokeswoman says it has been confirmed that Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam has been detained, Reuters reports.

Mackey:

Although there is no word yet on where Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi is, the rebel leadership in Benghazi told Al Arabiya that his security guards have surrendered, Reuters reports.

EA:

The rumor mill – Twitter is abuzz with news that Colonel Qaddafi has been captured. That news allegedly broke via Al Arabiya. The report allegedly came from the International Criminal Court. We doubt the reports, but will monitor.

On the above scene:

Here is Associated Press video showing triumphant cheers of "Allahu Akbar!" or "God is Great!" and celebratory gunfire in Tripoli on Sunday night

It's been a fantastic year at the Dish, but a tough one. We moved from the Atlantic to the Beast. We added Zoe and now two amazing interns, Maisie and Zack. We've kept up a pace of close to 300 posts a week. Our traffic keeps growing, and this August is on track to be our best ever. We've upped our Facebook and Twitter game. And the daily job of fusing our minds and research with the collective brain of our readership. i.e. you, has really deepened. Up next: DishTV of sorts. We hope to launch in September.

Which is, I guess, my excuse for taking a breather until Labor Day.

I used to take a whole month off to recuperate from a year's on-grid-ness. This year, I got two weeks in July to spend with family and friends, which was wonderful but also not total chillax. So I'm grabbing what's left of summer to turn off and drop out, take care of my health and sanity. In my stead, we don't need no guest-bloggers any more. The Dish team – Patrick, Chris, Zoe, Maisie and Zack – will be having their annual "sane-people-take-over-the-asylum" moment. Of course, my absence all but guarantees a Mid-East revolution (in fact, it appears it already has, but you'll be in the best of hands).

I'd like to thank all of the team for one hell of a year, and thank you, just as much, for being the smartest, largest, and most loyal readership any blogger could hope for. I'll miss you. But see you after Labor Day.

(Unless, of course, she announces September 3).