Bad News re: post-Saddam Iraq

From The Observer:

Our hopes betrayed

How a US blueprint for post-Saddam government quashed the hopes of democratic Iraqis.

Kanan Makiya
Sunday February 16, 2003
The Observer

The United States is on the verge of committing itself to a post-Saddam plan for a military government in Baghdad with Americans appointed to head Iraqi ministries, and American soldiers to patrol the streets of Iraqi cities.

The plan, as dictated to the Iraqi opposition in Ankara last week by a United States-led delegation, further envisages the appointment by the US of an unknown number of Iraqi quislings palatable to the Arab countries of the Gulf and Saudi Arabia as a council of advisers to this military government.

( Read more... )

For once, Andrew Sullivan is actually right:

I hope Kanan Makiya is wrong when he says that the forces in the administration least friendly to Iraqi democracy are now calling the shots on the question of a post-Saddam settlement. It seems to me that, after some kind of authoritarian-military rule to avoid chaos in the wake of victory, the U.S. really does have an obligation to find a way to bring real democratic institutions to Iraq. Yes, this is a war largely designed to protect the West and others from Saddam's menace. But no, that doesn't mean repeating the mistakes of the past in propping up failed and illegitimate Arab autocracies in the wake of victory. Makiya has a vested interest, of course. But he's right nonetheless. Liberation without democracy would render this war unjust and unAmerican.

And as Makiya himself wrote,

We Iraqis hoped and said to our Arab and Middle Eastern brethren, over and over again, that American mistakes of the past did not have to be repeated in the future. Were we wrong? Are the enemies of a democratic Iraq, the 'anti-imperialists' and 'anti-Zionists' of the Arab world, the supporters of 'armed struggle', and the upholders of the politics of blaming everything on the US who are dictating the agenda of the anti-war movement in Europe and the US, are all of these people to be proved right?

This, I fear, is how the pax Americana will begin to dissolve, with the collapse of its own promises.

Much-Needed Sensibility

From the New York Times:

Behind the Great Divide
By PAUL KRUGMAN

There has been much speculation why Europe and the U.S. are suddenly at such odds. Is it about culture? About history? But I haven't seen much discussion of an obvious point: We have different views partly because we see different news.

Let's back up. Many Americans now blame France for the chill in U.S.-European relations. There is even talk of boycotting French products.

But France's attitude isn't exceptional. Last Saturday's huge demonstrations confirmed polls that show deep distrust of the Bush administration and skepticism about an Iraq war in all major European nations, whatever position their governments may take. In fact, the biggest demonstrations were in countries whose governments are supporting the Bush administration.

( Read more... )

Oh, darn

Chlorofluorocarbons will have to do until we can begin importing CO2. On the plus side, it looks like there's plenty of water.

( Error: Irreparable invalid markup in entry. Raw contents behind the cut. )

An Anna Akhmatova poem

From

http://www.poetryloverspage.com/yevgeny/akhmatova/petrograd_1919.html:

Petrograd, 1919
And we’ve forgotten till doomsdays,
In the wild capital – our prison –
The towns, steppes, dawns and lakes
Of our great land, as if in treason.
In a bloody circle, day and night,
We’re pined by the abusive leisure…
And none to help us in our plight,
Because we’ve stayed at Home, treasured,
Because, with love fully obsessed,
Instead of liberty, that honors,
We have preserved for ourselves
Its palaces, its flames and waters.

They’re closer – the other times.
And deathly wind cools hearts, our own,
But Peter’s-city, to all us,
Will be the sanctified tombstone.

- translated by Yevgeny Bonver, January, 2002

Of late

I talked with Dr. MacLaine about my Honours essay, the MacLennan segment, as part of a two-part meeting (interrupted by our separate commitments) today concerned with the MacLennan segment of my Honours. I'd some concerns about how to integrate the comparisons with Ringuet's Thirty Acres; fortunately, I was able to get guided past that. Next meeting, for the real next-to-final draft of MacLennan, will be next Thursday morning; Thursday will be busy, I fear, with the ENG 493 assignments from last week thrown in.

I've got an interesting film review, of the German film What to do in case of fire? to submit to the Cadre tonight. I'll combine Brad Deighan's original take, of it as a meditation on anarchism and the challenges it faces as its proponents either get bourgeoisified or marginalized, and mention post-Wende Europe: rich, but directionless. Should be fun.

Also, am making headway on the 2400AD setting--I'll post the timeline to the early 2160s colonization of Tirane possibly tonight, probably tomorrow. It's interesting--I like 2300AD, and the Traveller universe is also cool, while my fondness for my own Tripartite Alliance Earth uchronia is a matter of note. :-)