One gets the impression that Israel is using the recent abduction of a soldier as context to do what it, and others, have desired to do since Hamas won a majority of seats in the Palestinian parliament – get rid of them. Not only has Israel launched a considerable military excursion into Gaza, but has also detained 8 Hamas cabinet ministers and some twenty other members of the Palestinian parliament, and even threatened to assassinate Palestinian PM Ismael Haniyeh.

Now, there is no defending militant rocket attacks across the border into Israel or abductions, among other things, but when one looks at the outright lunacy of this quagmire, where one tosses a stone he is sure to uncover stones to be tossed back. Not surprisingly, according to Haaretz, the detention of Hamas parliamentarians was planned some weeks ago…

“The detention of Hamas parliamentarians in the early hours of Thursday morning had been planned several weeks ago and received approval from Mazuz on Wednesday. The same day, Shin Bet Director Yuval Diskin presented Prime Minister Ehud Olmert with the list of Hamas officials slated for detention.”

What makes a nation so quick to threaten the murder of a legally mandated Prime Minister? What is the point of feigning decency when such threats can be so easily made? What is the point of claiming to believe in the democratic process when, after it produces unfavorable results, it can be vilified? What is the point of playing at democratic legitimacy and then allowing militants to undermine it? One wonders, and I don’t mean to be harsh (actually, maybe I do), if some of this planet’s stupidest people aren’t conveniently grouped together on that tiny sliver of dust.

This week, your Defense Minister, who also happens to be an ex-arms lobbyist, announced that he’s spending some of your money. The big-ticket items include 17 standard tactical-lift planes and 4 strategic-lift aircraft. I was lucky enough to catch him, and the ever-determined Rick Hillier, being interviewed last night on the CBC, which is always an entertaining, if not mind numbing, demonstration of military aggrandizing and scripted rhetoric about operations in Afghanistan. There’s nothing like having troops in a country in which the democratically elected government, which is praised to no end when it suits our purposes, has absolutely no input into the operations of foreign militaries on its own soil. In fact, not even our own forces in Afghanistan operate without the blessing of US Central Command. So, besides humanitarian operations, guess who else will be enjoying the benefits our new purchases?

If you’re in need of a CT scan because you’re coughing up blood and an x-ray has revealed a massive shape in your lung, chances are you’ll have to wait a few weeks, if not a few months, before you get in. While you’re waiting, maybe you can circle the hospital in one of our new planes. In fact, while you’re at it, you might want to airlift in some clean drinking water into a few First Nations communities.

Information on the spending package from the CBC. The article includes…

“This purchase is the pet project of Defence Minister Gordon O’Connor, a former brigadier-general — and former defence industry lobbyist. Because of that, and because of the way this contract is expected to be structured — in such a way that it can only be awarded to Boeing’s giant Globemaster aircraft — this is the one element of the deal expected to kick up the most immediate fuss.”

I emailed Steve Staples last night in an attempt to discover whatever else I can about the contracts. If I learn anything I’ll make sure to update.

Meanwhile, In Iraq

From the BBC…

“Five soldiers are being investigated for allegedly raping a woman and killing her and three members of her family…”

Updated link.

Role Modeling

Today’s impressionable youth directive - buy Nickelback’s new record, throw it in your car stereo, drink six beers, and hit the highway.

And it only took five years…

“The US Supreme Court has ruled that the Bush administration does not have the authority to try terrorism suspects by military tribunal.

In a landmark decision, justices upheld the challenge by Osama Bin Laden’s ex-driver, Salim Ahmed Hamdan, against his trial at Guantanamo Bay.

The court’s ruling that the proceedings violated Geneva Conventions is seen as a major blow to the administration.

But the decision does not mean the closure of the Guantanamo Bay camp.

The Cuba-based facility currently holds about 460 inmates, mostly without charge, whom the US suspects of links to al-Qaeda or the Taleban.”

A half-century ago, two men led a populist movement against the corrupt, pro-American government of Cuba. At the time, Cuba offered the United States everything that it commonly enjoys being offered; an exploitable work force, a friendly pro-corporate government, and sprawling resorts to play host to throngs of American tourists. Gambling was legal, the Mob was in heaven, what more could anyone ask for?

There was a time when Fidel Castro worked within the democratic framework in an attempt to end Cuban economic dependence on the United States and stop the rampant corruption that allowed American interests to bleed his nation. He was a member of the Partido Ortodoxos, and aided in the election efforts of Eduardo Chibás in the late 40’s. Of course, Chibás failed, and would eventually take his own life while on the radio during a second presidential campaign. Eventually, Fidel Castro, along with the Argentinean physician and Marxist, Ernesto Guevara, would resort to toppling the US backed government of Batista through force.

The Eisenhower administration, which had enjoyed success messing about in Latin America, began laying plans to remove Castro from power, which were inherited by the Kennedy administration. The attempted invasion of Cuba by US backed Cuban exiles ultimately failed, but it succeeded in showing the Cubans that without a significant deterrent it was perhaps only a matter of time before the United States employed its own forces to invade the country, or succeeded through the funding of paramilitaries. With a crippling economic embargo looming, Castro’s government turned to the Soviet Union, who seized the opportunity to introduce MRBM’s into the hemisphere. This move has traditionally been viewed as wholly aggressive on the part of the Soviets, something that I have always found bizarre being that, at the time, American missiles in Turkey could reach Moscow within 6 minutes.

In the end, the world was brought to the brink of nuclear war, in no small way because a pro-American puppet democracy was no longer in place in Havana.

Around here we’re taught otherwise. Around here, history books have painted devil horns on the likes of Fidel Castro, who, like so many others in his unenviable position, has been slowly transformed into that which he once worked to defeat. In the end, Dulles, Cabell, and Bissel ultimately triumphed, as they did elsewhere throughout the early, unchecked days of America’s fledgling post-war, neo-military establishment.

Around here we’re pro-democracy, pro-liberty, pro-self determination, pro-a lot of things. One thing that we most certainly are, though never prepared to actually admit it, is pro-bullshit. The President of the United States, like many before him, has pledged to help spread democracy to the four corners of the earth, and we, like air-headed cheerleaders, thrust our pom-poms skyward and scream jubilant paraphrases of inequity.

At Nuremburg, the only member of the Third Reich to admit his complicity in the genocidal undertakings of his government was Albert Speer, Hitler’s architect. And while Speer had nothing directly to do with the holocaust, he knew that because he had said and done nothing that he was just as guilty as those who had. And while the defeated are historically made to realize that the complicity of a people is entirely applicable to the success of those that commit acts of evil, those who blindly support those who get away with it are never placed in a position of being made to understand that their limited involvement in their own government processes significantly contributes to the quiet murders of hundreds of thousands of people. In the case of Nazi Germany, at least the German people could claim theirs was a fascism regime that would simply disappear those who dared speak out. The same cannot be said for the publics of Western democracies who boisterously support the basis on which their freedoms rest yet rarely do or say anything about the foreign actions of their governments that are entirely counter to those principles.

Hypocrisy and democracy are, in my opinion, synonymous. The plutocratic realities of government speaks volumes about the successful indoctrination of the public, be it now or a century ago. If might makes right, the surely right makes saints of killers and heroes of thieves.

Mexico is in the midst of a Presidential election. Right now, leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is seen as one of the front runners. It will be very interesting to see what happens if he wins. After all, Mexico is America’s playground.

Casey is allergic to everything, even chicken. He hates baths but delightfully pounces into the ocean when given the chance. He’s somewhat of an agility dog, and can do neat things like weave between posts and jump up onto tables. But most of all, Casey loves his ball. It’s the center of his universe and something that he never tires of. From the moment that he wakes up until the second that he goes to bed he has it with him, and would gladly spend every second of every day running after it. Actually, I’m pretty sure he even dreams about it.

Today Casey is three years old. The day that I got him he was in a cardboard box outside by himself standing in ripped up magazines and his own filth, completely traumatized. Having found him on the web, there was no accounting for the integrity of the seller, who, after Casey was purchased, was immediately reported to SPCA. But had it not been for that website I wouldn’t have him.

Happy birthday buddy.

I want to conduct a quick survey, so please feel free to comment no matter your political leanings. I want to know how people view Daniel Ellsberg’s leaking of the Pentagon Papers (United States-Vietnam Relations, 1945-1967: A Study Prepared by the Department of Defense) to the New York Times in 1971. Were Ellsberg’s actions treasonable or patriotic?

First, the Guardian Newsblog has an interesting entry by David Fickling about small arms control and Mikhail Kalashnikov, the inventor of the AK47, joining others in calling for tougher restrictions on its use. Fickling goes on to quote 20 Bishops who today wrote the paper and pointed out the following…

“Up to 1,000 people are killed every day by armed violence. However, there are currently tighter regulations on sales of stamps and dinosaur bones than there are on the sale of weapons.�

Second, Nuri al-Malik unveiled his national reconciliation plan today which, interestingly, did not offer insurgents amnesty in exchange for their participation in the political process. I have little doubt that the idea was floated to the insurgency’s various factions to gain a consensus prior to the announcement, which would explain why they rejected the idea over the weekend.

Lasty, Roller Coaster Tycoon remains the best game ever made next to the incomparable Lords Of The Realm (I through III).

Updated: Having played for a while I have to admit that it’s not as player friendly as ones in the past have been. In fact, it was a waste of money. For some reason every year I break down and buy a game thinking that it’ll be fun and, without fail, I am disappointed every time. This year I have done it twice actually, the other game being Rise Of Nations. Despite my comments above, I think the Myst series are probably the best video games ever made. For me, there’s just nothing better than the ambience they create. They’re also games that people who don’t really like computer games are most likely to enjoy, being that they’re experiences just as much as they are games.

It should come as no real surprise that Iraq’s main insurgent groups are already claiming that they plan to reject a peace plan that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is expected to present to the Iraqi parliament, which, not astonishingly, is part of a broader Bush administration strategy aimed at creating the perception of stabilization ahead of November’s mid-terms.

As Daniel Ellsberg once pointed out, US foreign policy objectives tend to have more to do with domestic politics than they do foreign policy, and Iraq is no exception to the rule. Iraq’s main insurgent groups are claiming, and not incorrectly in my opinion, that the current Iraqi government is illegitimate and that it is impossible for them to enter into the political process in a country that is occupied by foreign militaries. While most tend to apply the blanket term ‘terrorists’ to the insurgency as a whole, it should not be overlooked that a great deal of it is actually a guerrilla resistance combating foreign occupation, ironically not unlike Americans did with regards to the British in the eighteenth century. As Bela Liptak wrote in October of 2002…

�In 1956, in Hungary, the Soviets called us terrorists while the West called us freedom fighters. During that Hungarian uprising, the Soviets claimed that our Molotov cocktails were the cause (and not the consequence) of their occupation.�

Democratic success in Iraq must be Iraqi and not based on predeterminations made at the Pentagon. In the early 50’s, an organic democratic movement in Iran succeeded and may very well have changed the face of the Middle East had the United States and Great Britain not engineered Operation Ajax to remove Dr. Mossadegh from power to avert the nationalization of Iranian oil. The initial success of that movement proves that grassroots democracy in the region is not an impossibility.

There is little doubt that Anglo-American military operations, and the occupation itself, have helped solidify the influence of a variety of radical, religious, and criminal factions that may have otherwise not become as influential. The media in the United States has also played a part in the promotion of such groups, such as that of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, whose group by no means constitutes a significant portion of the insurgency. The occupation has also led to other interferences, most probably from the likes of Iran and Syria, who may very well be aiding various insurgent factions. In short, the mess is not one in which staying the course will produce truly positive results for the Iraqi people. Doing so will either produce results favorable to US objectives in the region or a disaster comparable to that of Vietnam that will leave the nation debilitated beyond belief. According to statistics released by the Baghdad morgue, some 50,000 have died violently since the invasion, a figure that I would not be surprised whatsoever to learn is conservative. And as the New York Times pointed out this morning, those numbers, per capita, are the equivalent of 570,000 Americans. Always forgotten in the grand scheme of things, innocent Iraqis have more to do with this November’s mid-terms than they will ever know.

Were it not for Ashley Cole’s thigh, things might have been different in Stuttgart today. There is little doubt that Beckham’s strike at the 60th minute was brilliant, and certainly harkened back to the form of his past, but even that cannot detract from the side’s lackluster, nail biting performance.

Joe Cole, the West Ham youth prodigy, struggled in comparison to his performance against the Swedes, though looked solid next to the performances of his fellow Chelsea compatriots Frank Lampard and John Terry. In all fairness, the team’s performance is not helped by Sven-Goran Eriksson’s continuing inability to find a formation that clicks with his players, especially in the midfield, who produced little quality service to lone striker Wayne Rooney. In my opinion, 4-5-1 does not work for England. And while bolstered midfield’s are a common occurrence in international play, there is something to be said for the time-honoured reliability of employing the 4-4-2 and playing smart, traditional, and fast outside moving English football. The heat must also not be overlooked. Even Beckham, who plays in Spain, was visibly struggling, looking near to vomiting at several points during the second half.

As has been the case for years, too much emphasis is being places on older players and not enough on new talent. The likes of Aaron Lennon of Spurs, and even Arsenal’s Theo Walcott, are unknowns that could seriously and positively impact play. Missing too, in my opinion, was Crouch, who I personally rate more highly than the injured Michael Owen.

If England continue to play such confused football, whomever they meet in the next round, be it Portugal or the Netherlands, may very well hand them their hats. And while there is a chance that facing a European side might favour England’s style, there is no questioning that the mid and backfield problems that are evident are not getting any better.