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Once in a blue moon I stumble across a story that appears so contrary and so bizarre that I honestly do not know what to make of it.
In fact, I had to stand up, breath deeply and take a walk around my apartment just to make sure I wasn’t dreaming when I read that the Israelis have expressed an interest in joining the European Union:
“In principle, the minister thinks a possibility exists for Israel to join the EU, since Israel and Europe share similar economies and democratic values,” said a spokesperson for Mr Shalom before adding, “it doesn’t mean he is preparing the dossier for applying tomorrow”.
MEP, Marco Pannella, of the Transnational Radical Party is said to be heading the campaign for Israeli membership and claimed on Tuesday that Israel does not exclude submitting an application for full membership during the term of this government.
Alright, no binding promises on the table but just the idea that this is even being floated at quite high-level raises a whole bevy of questions without, as far as I can tell, a single satisfactory answer.
First of all, is either party serious? For the EUnuchs it may be. They have made no secret of their ambitions to expand their sphere of influence over the Middle East and North Africa. But do they really think that they are going to be able to cope with the…er local difficulties?
And what about the Israelis? I can see the appeal of access to European markets for their industrial and agricultural output but have they stopped to contemplate the cost of the greatly increased regulatory burden that would be imposed on them? And what about defence and foreign policy, both of which would eventually have to be decided in Brussels? Not even for a fleeting second can I imagine the Israelis being willing to hand over their security to anyone, let alone the EU. Do they honestly imagine that the Belgians are going to come riding to their rescue should the need arise?
On the other hand, maybe it is not serious at all, in which case, what are the Israelis up to?
No, I’m afraid it’s all a big mystery to me but then the opaque and shadowy labyrinth of international relations often are. Searching for solid intelligence amidst the power-plays, hidden agendas, ulterior motives and nuanced positions is enough to drive anyone to the edge of madness and I am not prepared to go that far.
I am just intrigued.
And, by the by, who the flaming hell are the ‘Transnational Radical Party’? I have never heard of them and I can’t be bothered to go googling for an answer but let’s take it as read that I don’t like the sound of them one little bit.
Robert Theron Brockman II observers how not to liberate a country from tyranny and chaos
It seems that the United States government has decided to disarm the Iraqi populace as part of its newly found desire to restore order.
This smells like the sort of thing that could lead to disaster, for all the usual reasons – only outlaws will have guns and whatnot. And if any population needs to be armed as a check on a potentially tyrannical government, it is the population of Iraq.
It almost seems like a clerical error – surely the guys who were the driving force behind the invasion over at Central Command aren’t gun control nuts, are they?
This seems like a good basis for a lively discussion here at Samizdata.
Robert Theron Brockman II
Salam Pax posted a big update yesterday, with photographs taken during a trip from Baghdad to Basra via Najaf.
So, those of you who thought he was not ‘for real’… has this changed your mind? Whilst it is difficult to be sure, I have always suspected the ‘Baghdad Blogger’ was exactly what he said he was.
First they went for New York, then they hit Bali, now they are hitting their own backyard. This is terrorism back in serious business? That’s what I was thinking, and now this guy, damn him, an unnamed e-mailer to this has said it all for me. Best to read the whole thing, but here are a few key paragraphs:
The most telling aspect of these last two attacks is the geographic locations – Arabic countries nearby radical Islamist regimes. In the case of Saudi Arabia, parts of their own country can be considered radically Islamist; Morocco’s location adjacent to Algeria has always made it a prime target.
Why did they hit New York? Because they could. Now, they can’t. Why did they hit Bali? Because they could. Now they can’t. So why are they now hitting their own back yard? Because they can. And that’s all they can.
Why is this telling? These locations are within the “local” sphere of Arabic influence. The infrastructure and resources required to bring the fight to the enemy’s territory (us) has been effectively disrupted. Logistical planning and operational expertise has been effectively eliminated. Al-Qaeda can rely only on local extremist support, as that is what is left. The low-tech, Palestinian method, effectively demonstrates that few resources are available and that the imagination and planning required for more sophisticated attacks is just not present.
Well maybe it’s not all they can now hit, and sometime Real Soon Now maybe they’ll prove me, and this guy, wrong. I’m only optimistic that they won’t hit New York (or London, or Paris, or Rome) because a lot of smart and hardworking people are absolutely not taking this for granted. It’s like how you back a good sports team to win their big game, precisely because they don’t assume that they’ll win, that being all part of what makes them so good.
That necessary caveat aside, my bet about how things are now going is the same as this guy’s bet:
The war on terror has been a success. The arena has not shifted. The roll back continues. Arabic countries have now been forced into the realization that, for their own survival, these groups must be destroyed. These regimes are nothing if not ruthless. Expect a surge of beheadings in the near future.
Soon, in other words, they won’t even be able to hit their own back yard. With luck, and lots more not taking things for granted by our team, there will then, or eventually (after a few more horrors in out of the way spots), be a long period of silence. And then slowly, very slowly, it will dawn on everyone that it just might be … over.
And the moral is, if you have a clever thought, post it fast, or someone else will get to it first.
Although details are still sketchy, it seems that Algerian government forces have rescued some of the European tourists taken by Islamic terrorists of the ‘Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat’, who are part of the Al Qaeda network. Some reports indicate that both Austrian and German special forces (perhaps GSG 9?) were involved in the operation assisting the Algerians.
This is very good news indeed!
One of the news headlines today was about the discovery of mass grave in Mahawil area in Iraq. So far remains of more than 3,000 people have been found but Iraqis fear up to 15,000 people reported missing in the area may have been buried there during Saddam’s government crackdown on Shi’ites when they launched an uprising in 1991. Reuters reports:
Many families stood silently behind a ring of barbed wire coils separating them from the excavation in an attempt to preserve the site but others walked through the piles.
As an earthmover scraped heaps of rich brown earth from the site, bones protruded from the dirt. Once extricated, skulls and what look like the bones from the rest of the bodies were heaped into crumbled piles or stuffed into plastic bags. Clothing hung from the bones. Some skulls were cracked.
Since Saddam’s fall in the U.S.-led war on Iraq, mass graves have been unearthed in Najaf, Basra, Babylon and other areas and are still being found as Iraqis feel free to recount tales of arrests, torture and killings once too risky to tell.
To all those protesters whose righteous hatred for the United States and Britain was declared out of self-proclaimed desire for peace. Is this the kind of ‘peace’ you wanted to preserve when you cried “not in my name”?
Araya Hussein carried the remains of her husband in a bag away from the site weeping.
He went missing in 1991 when we had 10 children. I thought he was a prisoner and would one day come home. I never imagined I would be carrying his bones home.
Explain to this woman why your righteous wrath was directed at Bush and Blair but not at Saddam. Explain how according to your warped view of the world Saddam has ‘the right’ to rule Iraq and kill thousands without any fear of retribution. Explain how you can end up supporting an evil and oppressive regime and distance yourself from the long awaited liberation.
Damn you and your coddled, self-centered and twisted minds. You have caused enough misery and suffering by your irrational and irresponsible opposition to anything that might bring freedom to those parts of the world where free expression is an unknown concept. Perhaps you should change your slogans and cry for ‘peace of mind’, your minds that is, in the face of the gruesome truth emerging from Iraq.
The mass murders in Iraq have been stopped… but not in your name
The Al Qaeda terrorists who attacked western civilian workers in Saudi Arabia are nothing more than a timely reminder that the overthrow of Ba’athist Iraq was not the end of the matter which blasted into the public consciousness on September 11th 2001. Saddam Hussein and Islamic terrorism were related subjects but were never the same. I was starting to detect a “Game over, now it’s Miller Time” attitude in some newspapers and blogs after the triumph in Iraq, but I think this shows that if there is ever a time for complacency, it sure as hell is not now.
It will be interesting to see what happens if this atrocity leads to a mass movement of Westerners out of the accurséd Kingdom. If the risks posed by terrorism means the Saudis become unable to induce western technicians and specialists from working there at any price, I suspect the impact on the Arabian economy will be quite dramatic. No doubt within a couple years infrastructure and certain essential functions will decay beyond the point where the regime’s spin doctors cannot hide the truth that Saudi Arabia is not an internally viable nation-state in any modern sense.
And if the Saudi Wahhabist regime’s ability to use petrodollar funded patronage to buy off the disparate elements of its indolent society grinds to a halt, what happens then?
Would a monstrous and tyrannical fundamentalist regime take over? And would that regime be a breeding ground for Islamic terrorism? Well considering that the current regime already is a monstrous and tyrannical fundamentalist regime, and it is from Saudi Arabia that most of the September 11th terrorist hailed, so frigging what if it collapses?
The House of Saud is built on sand, so let it go down the toilet of history and let’s see what comes in its place. After all, if we like the look of what comes next even less than the current tyranny, it is not like the 3rd Infantry Division has to travel all the way from the United States to do something about it… and that self-evident fact alone should concentrate the minds of those who would be the new rulers in Riyadh.
The US will not be in the region forever but at the moment the peoples of the Middle East are very aware that they are living in the shadow being cast by that 900 foot tall gorilla currently standing astride Iraq… for a short while at least, that might not be such a bad thing just so long as the gorilla knows when it is time to go home.
I just came across this bit of news :
Assailants have gouged out the eyes of three brothers in central Pakistan in revenge for a similar incident 16 years ago. The brothers were kidnapped by 14 members of rival clans from the village of Kabirwala in the central province of Punjab on Monday night, police quoted relatives as saying, the Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) reported.
They were taken to another village where their eyes were gouged out “with a knife one by one…the brothers were in critical condition in hospital. …The attack was apparently in revenge for an attack 16 years ago blamed on the brothers’ family. No one had so far been arrested.
I do not know whether such incidents get reported mainly because of the spotlights directed at islamic and muslim societies or whether they are normal ocurrance, part of the fabric of society. I find such acts abhorent, although in principle I support individual’s taking justice into his own hands where the state or appropriate authorities fail him.
Also, the right to retribution should not diminsh with time, so 16 year delay would not necessarily bother me. But exacting revenge in the form of mutilation that is sponsored by a clan and carried out in the context of collective guilt, undermines the right of individual in that society to fair trial and proportionate punishment. It is barbarism, pure and simple.
Just under a year ago, the Prime Minister’s wife Cherie Blair expressed her sympathy with the plight of ‘suicide bombers’:
Speaking at a charity event in London, Mrs Blair said young Palestinians felt they had “no hope” but to blow themselves up.
Her steaming pile of wisdom was delivered just hours after one of them had murdered 19 Israelis.
But that was then. This is now:
The prime minister’s wife Cherie Blair was forced to pull out of a London charity event following the threat of a suicide bomb attack.
Assuming the threat was genuine, it looks like Mrs.Blair’s outreach exercise was a waste of time.
The bete noir of much of the left, Ariel Sharon, appears to be ‘doing a Nixon’. Just as only Nixon could go to China without a collapse of domestic support, perhaps Sharon can make peace with the PLO, secure Israel’s pre-1967 borders and compromise on the settlements.
He is being branded a traitor by Jewish settlers, a war criminal by pro-Palestinians and a pariah by the usual suspects. So he must be doing something good. He clearly has a difficult task in balancing Israel’s security against peaceful compromise, but with the new strategic reality in the Middle-East, his task might be easier.
Paul Staines
That’s what the voice of this Iranian engineer sounds like to me. He’s spitting out lyrics in his Diary of a Steppenwolf:
I am tired of all the bullshit I spent the last 20 YEARS with.
I am tired of this regime.
I am tired of the stupid mullahs who belong to thousands of years ago.
I am tired of Ali Khamenei the one handed and his regime.
I am tired of all these bearded bastards.
I am tired of this country I live in.
I can’t stand it anymore. It’s over.
What else is going to happen?
You wake up and find all your favorite web pages banned.
What else is remaining for me?
You directed all my social activities into my home.
That was all that is remaining for me.
2 rooms, a TV set and a PC.
I was just READING it! Can you understand that?
I was just READING!
I’m talking to YOU! Yes you!
You stupid religious old man!
You mullah! You dumb fanatic!
You dogmatic bastard who grow beard as an Is-fuck-lamic show off!
You who limit me! You who restrict me!
You who think you are dumb enough to decide for me!
You! Ali Khamenei with all your shitty regime!
YOUR time is over too. One of these days you’ll be as fucked as Saddam Hussein!
You’re dying! You hear me?
These are your last efforts to stay on the surface!
You are going to sink, one of these days.
So ban as much web pages as you can!
Your time is over, mullah!
You’ll be gone,
but the hatred will remain in my heart, and my children’s hearts for centuries
Incandescent passion like this can only smoulder for so long before it bursts into searing flames. I think the House of the Mullahs will soon be burned to the ground.
A message to all the control-freaks of the world: the instinctive human struggle for life, freedom and dignity can be temporarily subdued but it can never, ever be conquered.
It is interesting to note that the pseudonymous Baghdad blogger Salam Pax is considering supporting the secular Iraqi Communists in the aftermath of Ba’athist Socialism:
[May Day], workers of the world unite. The Iraqi Communist Party and the Iraqi Communist Workers Party are covering a lot of walls with red posters. I have not heard that Nadia Abdul Majeed of the Communist Workers Party is in Baghdad. I am still offering to volunteer if they do some cosmetic changes to their name. They have their hearts in the right place, unlike most other parties who have their hearts near their wallets.
Now as he is a member of a minority by virtue of his private and personal lifestyle choices, I am amazed he finds the slightest intellectual or emotional pull towards any system which takes a collectivist view of the world. To be a collectivist is to have a vision of society which argues that not only should ‘society’ have the right to decided what you (and I do mean YOU as an individual) and a willing other person can do together peacefully, be it exchanging good, money, ideas or bodily fluids, but that ‘society’ also has the right to use violence (i.e. law) to compel you to act as the state wishes. This should logically be a hard sell to any group which by its’ very nature will always be in the minority and hense always politically vulnerable.
Islamic collectivists will not tolerate things like homosexuality or charging interest on a loan, even between willing participants, and will use The State to enforce their views… Communist collectivists will not tolerate exchanging goods or even your own labour privately, even between willing participants, and will use The State to enforce their views. But the core principle underpinning all collectivism is that agreements between consenting adults, be it in the market place or the bedroom, are not something that can be allowed without the ‘political community’ accepting it: in other words, regardless of endless claims to the contrary there is no such thing to a collectivist as civil society, just The State, which is to say, everything is political and politics is about the use of FORCE.
Nothing is private and personal under a collectivist system because everything is subject to politics. It is not a survival trait to be a quirky eccentric or outsider in a collectivist system. Under a non-collectivist system you are free to form communes, pray to Allah (or not), have sex with anyone who is willing. But under collectivism, interaction means politics and politics means laws and laws mean force… and as laws are not optional, you cannot just opt-out and pursue an alternative lifestyle.
If the Iraqi Communists, unlike the Iraqi Party of God, will not persecute someone for being gay, that is not because they think such matters are a private issues… there are no private issues under collectivism… it just means they will allow you to do this or that, not that they think you have the right to do as you please. Remember that before you start sticking up pro-collectivist posters in Baghdad, Good Mister Pax.
I would not presume to tell Salam Pax who to vote for but I have no hesitation telling him what to vote for: What you need after Ba’athism is not just a different government but less government.
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