THE JAG MEMOS

Here they are – classified for a long time for no apparent reason except to prevent public debate of the government’s actions in treating detainees. I’m on vacation, so I’ll happily allow Marty Lederman to explain why they’re important to the debate on military interrogation, why these uniformed men and women are heroes for resisting the president’s law-breaking, and why decent conservatives in the Senate understand that this administration’s shameful record must be corrected by legislation. The administration is so desperate to retain complete control over detention policies, so as to pick and choose when to torture and abuse prisoners, that they have delayed the military authorization bill to the fall to prevent the McCain and Graham amendments. Deep down, this is a debate about whether the president, in a war with no defined end, can simply place himself above the law whenever he so desires, in order to reverse America’s long-standing policy of treating prisoners humanely. It’s about resisting praetorian government. It should be a matter of pride that the first people to resist this were not the ACLU, or anti-war campaigners, or prickly bloggers, but the men and women in our armed services who are proud of their traditions and horrified by what this administration has been perpetrating.

– posted by Andrew.

NO TO IRAQI VOTING NULLIFICATION

The realists and their Sunni (paymasters?) are at it again. They have sent up another trial balloon in this week’s Businessweek. They report “good” news form Iraq:

Until recently it has been almost pointless to try to negotiate with the insurgents, who are fragmented into dozens of groups. But that may be changing. One group that is emerging and gaining influence is the Iraqi National Foundation Congress, an anti-occupation organization that includes secular, Shiite, and Sunni groups. The Congress, which has lines into the insurgency, plans to hold a conference in Beirut soon with the aim of establishing a broad front against the American occupation. Such activity may sound ominous, but analysts say the formation of a political wing that can speak for the insurgency is vital for any peace process. . . .

How hard will the U.S. push the Shiite-dominated government to make a deal with its rivals? Analysts think it will respect the fact that Jaafari & Co. were duly elected and let them run their own affairs — another reason why turning Iraq around will be a long, bloody process.

In other words, if we only forgot about the 8 million people who risked their lives to vote and turned the country over to those who consider that vote illegitimate, we could have solved the problem. But silly us, we actually think that power should come from the ballot box and not from the barrel of a gun.

I can only hope that Lebanon will not be as ungrateful as to serve as a host to a blatantly anti American conference. The chutzpah!

P.S. Iraq is no longer occupied and neither are Germany, South Korea or the Philippines.
posted by Judith

MARTIN PERETZ LETS IT RIP

in J’Accuse Episcopalians, Presbyterians, et al. It ends thus:

So I come to an unavoidable conclusion. The obsession here is not positive, for one side, but rather negative, against the other side. The clerics and the lay leaders on this indefensible crusade are so fixated on Palestine because their obsession, which can be buttressed by various Christian sources and traditions, is really with the Jews. A close look at this morbid passion makes one realize that its roots include an ancient hostility for the House of Israel, an ugly survival of a hoary intolerance into some of the allegedly enlightened precincts of modern Christendom.

To be honest, Peretz could have written this 30, 40 or 50 years ago. For me there is a feeling of Déjà Vu about the entire debate which I described in my book Vietnam, Jews and the Middle East. Even the split between the upper echelon and rank and file existed then as now.

Jews could still do worse than to heed John C. Bennett’s advice that they remember that “the enthusiasm, affection and admiration of a predominantly Christian nation is exceptionally pro-Israel” and constituted a “capital that should be invested, not squandered.”

Still, I can’t stop wondering if any of these religious leaders ever watched any of the Palestinian Media Watch video clips?
posted by Judith

ON FENCES AND CHECKPOINTS

Remember all those complaints about humiliating Israeli checkpoints. Well, they are sprouting all over. The latest Fence is being built in Kuwaite!

And, apparently, there are humiliating checkpoints on the road to Sharm Al Sheik. Indeed, without these checkpoints, the Egyptian terrorists, excuse my politically incorrect language,“bombers” would not have been “forced” to set off their explosives early and blow up Egyptians to reach those 72 virgins. They could have blown up the tourists, instead.
posted by Judith

THE REAL MEANING OF PROGRESS

Two locust and drought stories focused my mind on the real meaning of progress. The first, on France 2, described the plight of French farmers. The second, on BBC News, the trouble in Niger.
But the difference, oh, the difference:

In Europe the drought meant monetary loss.

The second half of 2005 will also be challenging in Europe.

“In addition, conditions in the Western European market are less certain in the second half of 2005, as farmers may delay equipment purchases due to European Union farm subsidy reforms and drought in certain regions,” Richenhagen said.

In Africa it still means starving children.

The food crisis in Niger also threatens three other countries in the region – Mali, Burkina Faso and Mauritania, the United Nations has warned.

At least 2.5m people in the three countries need food aid and like Niger they were hit by drought and a plague of locusts last year.

And you know what is the best thing about progress? We know about those far away places and are able to do something to soften the blow.
posted by Judith

BUT WHAT ABOUT INEQUALITY?

That is the question posed by many readers. Dan Smith deals with that subject in the 6th edition of the Atlas (p.22). Here are the differences of income between the poorest 20% of the population and the richest 20% in selected countries according to UNDP Human Development Report 1998:

Over 20 times: Brazil, Guatemala, Guinea-Bissau, Lesotho, Panama

10 to 20 times: Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ivory Coast, Dominica, Guinea, Honduras, Kenya, Malaysia, Mauritania, Mexico, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Seychelles, South Africa, Venezuela, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

5 to 10 times: Algeria, Bolivia, China, Ecuador, Ghana, Hong Kong, India, Jamaica, Jordan, Laos, Madagascar, Morocco, Niger, Singapore, Tanzania, Thailand, Tunisia, Uganda, Vietnam.

3 to 5 times: Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka.

Inequality in the US is greater than that in Europe but it soes not reach the proportions of the level of the countries listed above.
posted by Judith

GLOBAL WARMING IS REVISITED

this time by John Kay in the Financial Times. It’s well worth reading not the least because it includes the following paragraph:

The debate has become so polarized that it is more and more difficult to pick one’s way through it. The best recent short guide to the issues I know was published on the eve of the Gleneagles summit by the Economic Affairs Committee of Britain’s House of Lords. The report is balanced in approach and conclusions, and has therefore received little attention. The most trenchant paragraphs describe the ways in which politics, science and advocacy have become entwined. The voices of people who know how little we know are routinely drowned by those who claim to know far more than they or we do.

posted by Judith