MSNBC has posted the U.S Army report on prisoner abuse. This is the report that Bush, Rumsfeld and Myers have spent the last two months NOT reading. The damning parts, I think, are not just the well-publicized descriptions of how prisoners were tortured, but also the unreported descriptions of how the US Army was treating its own soldiers. Tabula writes:
. . . members of the 800th MP Brigade believed they would be allowed to go home when all the detainees were released from the Camp Bucca . . . on May 2003. . . . In late May-early June 2003 the 800th MP Brigade was given a new mission to manage the Iraqi penal system and several detention centers. . . Morale suffered, and over the next few months there did not appear to have been any attempt by the Command to mitigate this morale problem. . . . soldiers throughout the 800th MP Brigade were not proficient in their basic MOS skills, particularly regarding internment/resettlement operations . . . not adequately trained for a mission that included operating a prison or penal institution . . . Brigade personnel relied heavily on individuals within the Brigade who had civilian corrections experience, including many who worked as prison guards or corrections officials in their civilian jobs. . . . the 800th MP Brigade as a whole, was understrength for the mission for which it was tasked. . . . the quality of life for Soldiers assigned to Abu Ghraib was extremely poor. There was no DFAC, PX, barbershop, or MWR facilities. There were numerous mortar attacks, random rifle and RPG attacks, and a serious threat to Soldiers and detainees in the facility. The prison complex was also severely overcrowded and the Brigade lacked adequate resources and personnel to resolve serious logistical problems. Finally, because of past associations and familiarity of Soldiers within the Brigade, it appears that friendship often took precedence over appropriate leader and subordinate relationships. . . . In addition I find that psychological factors, such as the difference in culture, the Soldiers’ quality of life, the real presence of mortal danger over an extended time period, and the failure of commanders to recognize these pressures contributed to the perversive atmosphere . . . we observed many individual Soldiers and some subordinate units (who) overcame significant obstacles, persevered in extremely poor conditions, and upheld the Army Values. We discovered numerous examples of Soldiers and Sailors taking the initiative in the absence of leadership and accomplishing their assigned tasks. . . .
I wonder how many other aspects of the occupation of Iraq have been as half-assed, patched-together, and poorly-managed as the prison operation apparently was? The PR hype portrays the American army as the best Army in the world, but the performance of the military command in many aspects of the occupation of Iraq will trash that reputation, leaving the soldiers to bear the blame and the shame.
Wednesday, May 05, 2004
Rising above the smear
Liberal Oasis links to the new Kerry ads - JohnKerry.com - Heart & Lifetime which LO likes a lot -- so do I -- simple, direct, and positive.
I just posted a Kvetch at Counterspin about the importance of Dems talking about what a great leader Kerry has been and will be, to counter the message of the RNC smear campaigns. The RNC and Tricky Dicky Dubya are trying to bury Kerry's outstanding Vietnam record with dirty tricks -- the stupid medals controversy last week, the swiftboat stuff this week fronted by a veterans group of closet republicans who didn't even serve with Kerry. Joe Conason reports the background on how this group was manufactured by a Texas PR firm with close links to Bush. Connason writes "Arguments about the war in Vietnam seem destined to continue forever. For now, however, the lingering bitterness and ambiguity of those days provide smear material against an antiwar war hero with five medals on behalf of a privileged Guardsman with a dubious duty record. The president's Texas allies -- whose animus against his Democratic challenger dates back to the Nixon era -- are now deploying the same techniques and personnel they used to attack McCain's integrity four years ago. Bush's "independent" supporters would apparently rather talk about the Vietnam quagmire than about his deadly incompetence in Iraq."
But I think the pattern is broader than just Vietnam. Yes, Vietnam is still a bad memory for many Americans, but for anyone under 45, its ancient history. For the Bush campaign, its just a convenient hook for smears.
Rather than arguing factoids and conspiracies, Kerry and the Dems must maintain their focus on the main message -- that Kerry would be a great leader for America.
I just posted a Kvetch at Counterspin about the importance of Dems talking about what a great leader Kerry has been and will be, to counter the message of the RNC smear campaigns. The RNC and Tricky Dicky Dubya are trying to bury Kerry's outstanding Vietnam record with dirty tricks -- the stupid medals controversy last week, the swiftboat stuff this week fronted by a veterans group of closet republicans who didn't even serve with Kerry. Joe Conason reports the background on how this group was manufactured by a Texas PR firm with close links to Bush. Connason writes "Arguments about the war in Vietnam seem destined to continue forever. For now, however, the lingering bitterness and ambiguity of those days provide smear material against an antiwar war hero with five medals on behalf of a privileged Guardsman with a dubious duty record. The president's Texas allies -- whose animus against his Democratic challenger dates back to the Nixon era -- are now deploying the same techniques and personnel they used to attack McCain's integrity four years ago. Bush's "independent" supporters would apparently rather talk about the Vietnam quagmire than about his deadly incompetence in Iraq."
But I think the pattern is broader than just Vietnam. Yes, Vietnam is still a bad memory for many Americans, but for anyone under 45, its ancient history. For the Bush campaign, its just a convenient hook for smears.
Rather than arguing factoids and conspiracies, Kerry and the Dems must maintain their focus on the main message -- that Kerry would be a great leader for America.
Tuesday, May 04, 2004
The shot heard round the world
Google reports more than 2300 stories about the Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal,
Do your mom a favour and stay in
Share a meal, and time, with your Mom I got a chuckle out of this article -- I've been to restaurants on Mother's Day and the experience leaves a lot to be desired -- crowded, noisy, irritable waitstaff, rushed service so they can get to the next sitting.
Waitstaff hate Mother's Day, because so many customers are newbies at restaurant dining on that day, and they don't know how to behave in a restaurant or how restaurants usually do things. Mother's Day gets a whole chapter in Waiters:Waiters True Tales of Crazed Customers, Murderous Chefs, and Tableside Disasters
So anyway, cook a meal or bring a deli one to Mom's and go out to eat a week later when everything has quieted down.
Waitstaff hate Mother's Day, because so many customers are newbies at restaurant dining on that day, and they don't know how to behave in a restaurant or how restaurants usually do things. Mother's Day gets a whole chapter in Waiters:Waiters True Tales of Crazed Customers, Murderous Chefs, and Tableside Disasters
So anyway, cook a meal or bring a deli one to Mom's and go out to eat a week later when everything has quieted down.
Will finally gets it
George Will: Time for Bush to See The Realities of Iraq (washingtonpost.com)
Being steadfast in defense of carefully considered convictions is a virtue. Being blankly incapable of distinguishing cherished hopes from disappointing facts, or of reassessing comforting doctrines in face of contrary evidence, is a crippling political vice.
Being steadfast in defense of carefully considered convictions is a virtue. Being blankly incapable of distinguishing cherished hopes from disappointing facts, or of reassessing comforting doctrines in face of contrary evidence, is a crippling political vice.
Monday, May 03, 2004
Gonzo
Hugh Winsor: Martin may yet regret decision to jump on cities' bandwagon
Winsor writes "By embracing 'a new deal for cities' in the Speech from the Throne, the Prime Minister raised expectations he is already finding difficult to deliver -- note the flip-flop around transferring gasoline taxes to municipal governments. And if he continues in power after an election, the challenge of developing policies that can make a difference in urban areas will increase."
Oh, come on! What is Winsor actually saying here -- Martin has been Prime Minister for five whole months and he hasn't yet solved the problems of Canada's cities so he's just a hopeless wanker after all.
This is the kind of gonzo journalism that we see all the time in the US now, where every politican except Bush and Schwartzenegger get raked over the coals for not walking on water. I thought Canadian reporters had a little more perspective.
Winsor writes "By embracing 'a new deal for cities' in the Speech from the Throne, the Prime Minister raised expectations he is already finding difficult to deliver -- note the flip-flop around transferring gasoline taxes to municipal governments. And if he continues in power after an election, the challenge of developing policies that can make a difference in urban areas will increase."
Oh, come on! What is Winsor actually saying here -- Martin has been Prime Minister for five whole months and he hasn't yet solved the problems of Canada's cities so he's just a hopeless wanker after all.
This is the kind of gonzo journalism that we see all the time in the US now, where every politican except Bush and Schwartzenegger get raked over the coals for not walking on water. I thought Canadian reporters had a little more perspective.
Another magic bullet
How Ahmed Chalabi conned the neocons
Great article -- its too bad no journalist connected the dots in January, 2003. Key paragraph: Why did the neocons put such enormous faith in Ahmed Chalabi, an exile with a shady past and no standing with Iraqis? One word: Israel. They saw the invasion of Iraq as the precondition for a reorganization of the Middle East that would solve Israel's strategic problems, without the need for an accommodation with either the Palestinians or the existing Arab states. Chalabi assured them that the Iraqi democracy he would build would develop diplomatic and trade ties with Israel, and eschew Arab nationalism.
They thought regime change in Iraq was another magic bullet -- again, the grandiose but incompetent Bush Administration believed that they could quickly and easily fix a problem which had bedeviled the world since 1920s. They really do believe their own press coverage.
Great article -- its too bad no journalist connected the dots in January, 2003. Key paragraph: Why did the neocons put such enormous faith in Ahmed Chalabi, an exile with a shady past and no standing with Iraqis? One word: Israel. They saw the invasion of Iraq as the precondition for a reorganization of the Middle East that would solve Israel's strategic problems, without the need for an accommodation with either the Palestinians or the existing Arab states. Chalabi assured them that the Iraqi democracy he would build would develop diplomatic and trade ties with Israel, and eschew Arab nationalism.
They thought regime change in Iraq was another magic bullet -- again, the grandiose but incompetent Bush Administration believed that they could quickly and easily fix a problem which had bedeviled the world since 1920s. They really do believe their own press coverage.
Sunday, May 02, 2004
Thumbs-up in Baghdad
There's been a lot of stuff in the news lately about torture, particularly now that the news is full of horrible and disgusting photos of American soldiers giving the thumbs-up over the miserable naked bodies of humiliated Iraqis.
The odd thing is, everyone KNOWS that torture doesn't work very well, that the confessions are likely false, and that there's no way to determine whether anything the torturee is saying is true at all. One of the best things that ever happened to police work in the last 40 years was the Miranda Warning -- it forced police to stop trying to beat often-false confessions out of people and start trying to talk them into true confessions (read the book Homicide for a description of how police now do this).
The dirty little secret is that in our popular culture, torture by the people who consider themselves to be the good guys makes the torturer feel righteous -- particularly when he feels justified in taking some kind of revenge on the torturee. Consider the hundreds of movies and TV shows we have seen over the last half-century where the nice-guy police officer finally "snaps", driven to a righteous rage by the heinousness of some crime and the despicableness of the perpretrator, and starts beating the guy's head against the wall -- "I'll wipe that smile off your face" is the cliche line. And doesn't the audience applaud? Doesn't it seem like the righteous thing to do? Isn't it an enormous release when we have an excuse to disobey society's dictate to "be good", when we just let 'er rip and damn the consquences?
The odd thing is, everyone KNOWS that torture doesn't work very well, that the confessions are likely false, and that there's no way to determine whether anything the torturee is saying is true at all. One of the best things that ever happened to police work in the last 40 years was the Miranda Warning -- it forced police to stop trying to beat often-false confessions out of people and start trying to talk them into true confessions (read the book Homicide for a description of how police now do this).
The dirty little secret is that in our popular culture, torture by the people who consider themselves to be the good guys makes the torturer feel righteous -- particularly when he feels justified in taking some kind of revenge on the torturee. Consider the hundreds of movies and TV shows we have seen over the last half-century where the nice-guy police officer finally "snaps", driven to a righteous rage by the heinousness of some crime and the despicableness of the perpretrator, and starts beating the guy's head against the wall -- "I'll wipe that smile off your face" is the cliche line. And doesn't the audience applaud? Doesn't it seem like the righteous thing to do? Isn't it an enormous release when we have an excuse to disobey society's dictate to "be good", when we just let 'er rip and damn the consquences?
Compassion
CBS News: "First lady Laura Bush says U.S. troops are the face of American compassion abroad. " Unfortunately, this may be true.
How about a Weather Protocol?
CNN.com - Flash floods kill at least six in Texas - May 1, 2004 This is a painful story to read.
I wonder how many people die every year just because they are driving in bad weather? Coming from a part of the country where people die every winter when their cars break down in the cold, it seems to me that the only type of "weather warning" I ever hear about for drivers is when visibility is down to nothing -- ie, that a snowstorm is so bad that RCMP are advising people not to drive. I think we need a broader effort here -- some kind of alert system or set protocol for drivers to follow when they are caught in some kinds of weather. I've seen some advisory stuff for drivers caught by a tornado -- get into a culvert, for example -- but I haven't heard any other protocols for other bad weather situations. I don't know anything about flash floods, but maybe in Texas the protocol would be that during a storm drivers should stop at a high ground location and stay there, and that police or highway workers should patrol these areas to transport these stranded drivers to the nearest motel or school. Here, maybe we should have a procedure that tells people to cancel non-essential evening or night trips when its below, say, 35 below unless they are driving with a "buddy" car, and asks farmers to leave their yard lights on and their porch doors unlocked during such conditions.
My sister could have died one December night when her car ran out of gas, just a few miles from the city -- the first farm she walked to was locked up tight, nobody home; thank god there was someone home at the second farm, because she wouldn't have made it to the third.
I wonder how many people die every year just because they are driving in bad weather? Coming from a part of the country where people die every winter when their cars break down in the cold, it seems to me that the only type of "weather warning" I ever hear about for drivers is when visibility is down to nothing -- ie, that a snowstorm is so bad that RCMP are advising people not to drive. I think we need a broader effort here -- some kind of alert system or set protocol for drivers to follow when they are caught in some kinds of weather. I've seen some advisory stuff for drivers caught by a tornado -- get into a culvert, for example -- but I haven't heard any other protocols for other bad weather situations. I don't know anything about flash floods, but maybe in Texas the protocol would be that during a storm drivers should stop at a high ground location and stay there, and that police or highway workers should patrol these areas to transport these stranded drivers to the nearest motel or school. Here, maybe we should have a procedure that tells people to cancel non-essential evening or night trips when its below, say, 35 below unless they are driving with a "buddy" car, and asks farmers to leave their yard lights on and their porch doors unlocked during such conditions.
My sister could have died one December night when her car ran out of gas, just a few miles from the city -- the first farm she walked to was locked up tight, nobody home; thank god there was someone home at the second farm, because she wouldn't have made it to the third.
Comments
I've been getting some comments on my blog recently, which is rather disconcerting -- its surprising to realize that other people are reading my opinions, warts and all. Though I write my posts as though I am talking to someone, I didn't think I was really talking to anyone except myself.
I started this blog as a birthday gift to me -- turning 55, I wanted to do something new and a little challenging. Mainly, I wanted to sound off about my increasingly-opinionated views, And its fun to see my words "in print". And I had been reading the blogs listed on the right, who have become a left-wing community on the net, and I wanted to be a part of their effort, however small and unsung.
So now I'm getting some comments, and I'm feeling like I need to be better -- improve the quality, quantity and variety of my posts -- just to make sure they have something interesting to read. And I'm getting a lot of negative comments from one fellow in partictular -- it surprises me that he keeps reading a blog he hates, because personally the blogs I like to read regularly are from posters with whom I usually agree so I had just assumed that everyone else felt the same way.
Anyway, its a learning experience for sure. Comment away!
I started this blog as a birthday gift to me -- turning 55, I wanted to do something new and a little challenging. Mainly, I wanted to sound off about my increasingly-opinionated views, And its fun to see my words "in print". And I had been reading the blogs listed on the right, who have become a left-wing community on the net, and I wanted to be a part of their effort, however small and unsung.
So now I'm getting some comments, and I'm feeling like I need to be better -- improve the quality, quantity and variety of my posts -- just to make sure they have something interesting to read. And I'm getting a lot of negative comments from one fellow in partictular -- it surprises me that he keeps reading a blog he hates, because personally the blogs I like to read regularly are from posters with whom I usually agree so I had just assumed that everyone else felt the same way.
Anyway, its a learning experience for sure. Comment away!
Saturday, May 01, 2004
Nortel, how could you?
"Controversial Bonus Plan 'a waste of . . . money' ": The Globe and Mail reports "Nortel Networks Corp.'s controversial bonus plan has design flaws that gave senior management an incentive to play accounting games and manipulate profits, investors and governance experts say."
Honesty in academic work is one of the areas I am involved in at the university where I work, and it can be very difficult sometimes to figure out the ethical course of action. And in a workplace, good employees look to their Board to signal the direction the company should take, and then the employees try to follow this course. So I do wonder whether, by setting up this type of bonus plan, the Nortel board was signalling that employees should puff up earnings. But still, even if this is what the board wanted, the employees cannot justify cheating because "I was only following orders". Since when, I would ask them, has it ever been OK to lie, regardless of the bonus plan?
Its just so sad, really -- Nortel was such a "Canadian success story" for so long, and so many people were proud of them and believed in them even when the bottom fell out a few years ago. And Nortel took that belief and trust, and just threw it away, ground it into the dirt like an old cigarette butt.
Honesty in academic work is one of the areas I am involved in at the university where I work, and it can be very difficult sometimes to figure out the ethical course of action. And in a workplace, good employees look to their Board to signal the direction the company should take, and then the employees try to follow this course. So I do wonder whether, by setting up this type of bonus plan, the Nortel board was signalling that employees should puff up earnings. But still, even if this is what the board wanted, the employees cannot justify cheating because "I was only following orders". Since when, I would ask them, has it ever been OK to lie, regardless of the bonus plan?
Its just so sad, really -- Nortel was such a "Canadian success story" for so long, and so many people were proud of them and believed in them even when the bottom fell out a few years ago. And Nortel took that belief and trust, and just threw it away, ground it into the dirt like an old cigarette butt.
Waves on the beach
As I said in a comment I posted on Billmon about watching Nightline tonight, "the names and faces became like watching waves break on a forlorn sunset beach." I want to expand a little more on that comment.
I was 15 or 16 when Life magazine published its issue with the photographs of every American who had died in Vietnam. Now, I was a pretty ignorant self-centered Canadian prairie teenager at the time, and I hadn't even been particularly aware that the US was so involved in a war so far away, in a country whose name I didn't even really know how to pronounce. As I paged through that issue, looking at face after face after face, I began to realize these were just boys, only a little older than me -- why, they could have been in high school with me, they could have been my friends! It was a personal awakening --for the first time in my life, I was deeply affected by a tragedy which had nothing to do with me or my family or even my country. And it was a political awakening -- for the first time, as I struggled to understand why they were dying, I began to grasp the profound importance of politics.
Watching Nightline tonight, again there were the faces of boys and, for the first time, girls -- again there was the personal impact because so many of these smiling faces are about the age of my own son and daughter. This time, however, I thought that the perspective of 40 years of political awareness would allow a more intellectual approach, blunt the impact, temper the tragedy, immunize me from shock.
But no -- the sadness was even deeper. I know now how much those fine young people have lost, the lives they will never have, the contributions to society they will never make, the joy they will never share with families and friends, and the children who will never be born.
And I have seen the ocean tides now.
When you sit on a beach and watch the waves roll in, one and another and another and another, each individual wave seems to be just the same as the one before it. But cumulatively, there is an enormous effect, as the tide rises inextolerably and the beach is gradually overrun. When the beach is deserted, as it is in the evening, the tide is even frightening, because darkness follows the waves, and the beach itself disappears.
Are the names and faces of the dead in Iraq an evening tide for America?
I am profoundly afraid of an America which lets incompetent and unprincipled leaders pander to the bloodlust of the beltway pundits, the good ol' boys and the Joe Sixpacks by sacrificing your best and brightest in a pointless war. Is the "American way of life" so brittle, so hollow that a single horrific event can crack it? If so, America will take us all down into the darkness. It felt that way for me tonight.
I was 15 or 16 when Life magazine published its issue with the photographs of every American who had died in Vietnam. Now, I was a pretty ignorant self-centered Canadian prairie teenager at the time, and I hadn't even been particularly aware that the US was so involved in a war so far away, in a country whose name I didn't even really know how to pronounce. As I paged through that issue, looking at face after face after face, I began to realize these were just boys, only a little older than me -- why, they could have been in high school with me, they could have been my friends! It was a personal awakening --for the first time in my life, I was deeply affected by a tragedy which had nothing to do with me or my family or even my country. And it was a political awakening -- for the first time, as I struggled to understand why they were dying, I began to grasp the profound importance of politics.
Watching Nightline tonight, again there were the faces of boys and, for the first time, girls -- again there was the personal impact because so many of these smiling faces are about the age of my own son and daughter. This time, however, I thought that the perspective of 40 years of political awareness would allow a more intellectual approach, blunt the impact, temper the tragedy, immunize me from shock.
But no -- the sadness was even deeper. I know now how much those fine young people have lost, the lives they will never have, the contributions to society they will never make, the joy they will never share with families and friends, and the children who will never be born.
And I have seen the ocean tides now.
When you sit on a beach and watch the waves roll in, one and another and another and another, each individual wave seems to be just the same as the one before it. But cumulatively, there is an enormous effect, as the tide rises inextolerably and the beach is gradually overrun. When the beach is deserted, as it is in the evening, the tide is even frightening, because darkness follows the waves, and the beach itself disappears.
Are the names and faces of the dead in Iraq an evening tide for America?
I am profoundly afraid of an America which lets incompetent and unprincipled leaders pander to the bloodlust of the beltway pundits, the good ol' boys and the Joe Sixpacks by sacrificing your best and brightest in a pointless war. Is the "American way of life" so brittle, so hollow that a single horrific event can crack it? If so, America will take us all down into the darkness. It felt that way for me tonight.
Shorter David Brooks
Sex and the Cities Considering how disasterously things are going in Iraq, I think I'll write a column about sex.
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