Category: The Dish

Noon, Friday, at the Danish Embassy, 3200 Whitehaven Street, in DC. Off Massachusetts Avenue. It’s time to show some support for the freedom-loving Danes. Hitch will be there. So will I. If you’re in DC, come join us.

Pretty much my sentiment:

"Dubai – I don’t have to tell you – is an Arab nation. Yes, two of the 9/11 hijackers were citizens of the UAE, but, then again, as Ivan Eland of the Independent Institute notes, Richard Reid, the attempted "shoe bomber," was a British citizen, and Jose Padilla, among others, is an American citizen (as was Timothy McVeigh). The UAE has been a staunch ally in the war on terror, training security forces in Iraq and helping to cut off the flow of money to al Qaeda.

Isn’t this precisely what the United States preaches? Don’t we want places like Dubai to fight terror and to grow, to invest, to buy, to trade, to adopt Western commercial practices, to expose themselves to the rest of the world and thus become tolerant and moderate?"

My only quibble is Jim Glassman’s assertion that the Bush administration has a good record on homeland defense. I think, by now, we know that this administration is functionally incompetent on any number of levels; and I have close to zero confidence in its work to protect America. But that has nothing to do with P&O. If people are worried about the ports, they need to scrutinize the Coast Guard and the administration’s own DHS. Much of the rest is xenophobic nonsense. Leave that crap to Lou Dobbs.

She’s a young, brave, American journalist, now enduring her 48th day in captivity, held by Jihadists, forced to wear a burka, and facing possible beheading. We cannot bargain with these thugs. But we can remember her; and pray for her. If you are someone who prays, please do. Her fear – and the anxiety of her family and loved ones – must be immeasurable.

Has it just taken off?

Here’s Time’s photo-essay of the desecration.

Omar reports from a country in crisis. One thing that troubles me. The terrorists wore Iraqi police uniforms. Infiltration of the security forces remains a real problem. Juan Cole comments:

"Tuesday was an apocalyptic day in Iraq. I am not normally exactly sanguine about the situation there. But the atmospherics are very, very bad, in a way that most Western observers will miss…
The Twelfh Imam or Mahdi is believed by Shiites to have disappeared into a supernatural realm (just as Christians believe in the ascension of Christ) from which he will someday return.
Some Shiites think his second coming is imminent. Muqtada all-Sadr and his followers are among them. They are livid about this attack on the shrine of the Mahdi’s father.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is also a firm believer in the imminent coming of the Mahdi. I worry that Iranian anger will boil over as a result of this bombing of a Shiite millenarian symbol."

Some major doodoo just hit a massive fan.

Iran is blaming Europeans for the mosque bombing. I kid you not. Money quote from the Tehran Times:

"Undoubtedly, it is a new plot which first of all can be considered as the continuation of the disrespectful move of the European newspapers‚Äô that published cartoons of the Prophet of Islam …  Another issue that should also not be ignored is the fact that the occupier U.S. regime, which has turned Iraq‚Äôs security to insecurity with its 150,000 troops and military equipment, is the main element responsible for these criminal acts."

Khameini specifically blames mercenaries and, of course, Americans and Jews:

"This is a political crime and its roots have to be traced in the intelligence organizations of the Iraqi occupiers and the Zionists."

The only word for this kind of denial and/or propaganda is pathology. In Pakistan, they’re burning American and Israeli flags. Yep: we did it. Of course.

A reader writes:

"I’m shocked you find that article from the National Review folks persuasive in any way. Sure, they talk about using the Dubia Port deal as a "model to build effective bridges to the Arab and Muslim world"..but come on..that must be the biggest joke i’ve ever read. If they truly believed building bridges to the Muslim and Arab world was important they wouldn’t be so gung-ho and supportive of this administrations policies of torture, degradation and abuse of Muslim and Arab citizens. In fact, I’m shocked that you of all people didn’t call them on it.  Any effective bridges that are going to be built between America and Muslim world are going to start with our policies in Iraq … not with some billion dollar company owned by UAE."

Why not both? Another dissenter:

"How exactly will this deal help the disaffected in the UAE? What it sounds like is any low-scale jobs will be given to people living near the ports themselves, so the only monetary benefit that makes its way to UAE will go to those who are already so rich they don’t need it."

The symbolism might matter. Look: I’d like a hold on the deal for a thorough investigation. But I don’t buy the current hysteria on right and left. I guess the Bush administration asks for stuff like this, though. When you engage in populist demagoguery on the war front, it can come back to bite you in the butt.

I found this piece pretty persuasive. Money quote:

"It is understandable that American politicians would want to seek clarifications, safeguards, and accountability on the DP World deal in honor of all those who were mercilessly murdered on that tragic September morning. But the best way to honor their memories is to use the Dubai deal as a model to build effective bridges to the Arab and Muslim world ‚Äî as we did in Pakistan, Iraq, and Afghanistan ‚Äî instead of erecting barriers that reveal America’s paranoia and fear about some Islamist doomsday scenario no one can predict, all the while alienating the very people we need to help raise up the Muslim world’s disaffected so they are not so desperate to tear us down."

Good sense from the Washington Post as well. I’d like that 45-day review. But I see no reason to oppose the deal in principle.

The bombing of the al-Askariya shrine in Samarra may be a turning point, it seems to me. It could be the spark for a full-scale civil war; or it could be a moment for the Sunni Arabs to realize the evil of the Jihadists in their midst. I’m alarmed that the shrine is apparently where the "Hidden Imam" that dominates Ahmadinejad’s theology sought refuge centuries ago, and where he is supposed to return. It’s like a Protestant bombing of St Peter’s. Apparently, Samarra has already seen a rift between Sunni locals and al Qaeda maniacs:

"In September, Sunni rebels in Samarra joined an unprecedented condemnation of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s al-Qaeda in Iraq after the execution of a leading cleric in nearby Ramadi.
‘It is really quite surprising that something like that has happened in Samarra,’ says [Alastair Northedge, a Professor of Islamic Art and Architecture at the Sorbonne in Paris who has just completed an archaeological survey of Samarra]. ‘The people there have a a very, very powerful sense of community identity, they know how to act in their best interests.’
‘If you look at the resistance situation in Samarra, there are two general sorts: there are local fighters and there are al-Qaeda fighters and foreign jihadis,’ said Professor Northedge. ‘I’m absolutely certain that this is not the local people from Samarra, they would not have blown it up.’"

Here’s hoping the civil war will not be between the Shi’a and Sunnis, but between the Sunnis and al Qaeda. I’m not that optimistic, though.