Quote of the day: sex is more sinful than killing

"The real scandal is that we're scandalized by sexual escapades, not by the license to kill given to the CIA's drone program." - a paraphrase inserted in bold in "Real spies don't behave like Bond. Or do they?", David Rothkopf, Star Tribune, 2012-11-14, originally published in Foreign Policy as "Shaken, Not Stirred by CIA 'Values'", 2012-11-12.

I just find it amazing that we are willing to upset people's lives to suit our own purposes, whether it is with subpoenas to ransack houses of people we don't like or with drones to demolish houses of people we don't like.

Muslims do speak out

Many have complained that Muslims aren't speaking out about violence perpetrated by some Muslims.  Do all whites speak out against violence against blacks?  Do all blacks speak out against blacks who commit violence?  Do all... speak out against violence or hate spread by people like themselves.  No, most of us try to quietly go about our business, partly not wanting to be involved with hate, partly fearing the haters, partly feeling we don't have the right words, and partly believing we won't be heard.

Here's how two Muslims have spoken out.

"An unlikely fact-checker, an 11-year-old girl, Malala Yousafzai, stood up and defended her right to an education, exposing Taliban’s biggest whopper. In an online blog for BBC, she wrote, 'I will show them the Quran, what Quran says. Quran didn’t say that girls are not allowed to go to school.' Malala also remembered Prophet Muhammad’s advice that, 'Seeking knowledge is obligatory on every Muslim man and Muslim woman.' Using her knowledge and unparalleled courage, Malala repeatedly pleaded with the world to help her people get rid of ignorant and barbaric occupiers." - M. Imran Hayee

Malala Yousafzai, now 14, was shot by Taliban extremists who felt threatened by a girl who threatened their skewed view of their religion and of the world.  How many brave children must be wounded or die before all perpetrators of violence, state actors or not, will see that "Peace is the way."

For more of how important education is where there are few fact checkers who can counter lies, see

"Spreading education in Pakistan harms Taliban", M. Imran Hayee, Duluth News Tribune, 2012-11-06.

If you want more "speaking out", read Dawn of Pakistan, Al-Jazeera, and The Daily Star of Lebanon, all in English.

The Anglo-Mexican War: Ten Years in

By 2050 Mexico had restored much of the area of Aztec and Mayan control, from the Rio Grande to the Panama Canal.  In 2050 Mexico saw its chance to expand its control.  The U.S. was now bogged down in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, and Korea.  In the name of the freedom of Latinos in the Southwest U.S., Mexico invaded California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas.

After pushing the overburdened U.S. Army out and quelling the Tea Party Patriots, Mexican forces met resistance from Los Insurgentes, a loose confederation of Apache, Hopi, Navaho, and descendants of immigrants from Mexico.

Losses for the Mexican army are now over 15,000.  Five thousand of those were killed when Los Insurgentes lured the Mexican Army into the Grand Canyon and then blew up the Glen Canyon Dam.

The fiercest fighting has been in East Los Angeles where many of the gangs have ambushed Mexican patrols.  The gangs have used the sewer system to great effect to move around the city.  The Mexican army has tried booby traps, tear gas, and other means to hinder the Los Insurgents; but Los Insurgents often seem to be able to turn these back on the Mexican Army.

Mexico City itself had been filled with demonstrations in support of the troops and demonstrations protesting the war.  One of the biggest scandals was the discovery that the government had hired drug lords as contractors to quell the violence in the American cities.  The actions of the contractors have further alienated the residents and all but eliminated any cooperation with the Mexican Army.

Although President Volpe was re-elected in a landslide because he played on the patriotism of the Mexican people, the cost of the war in its tenth year is draining his support rapidly.  People complain that taxes are too high and that the government has done little to alleviate the three-year-long recession.

This just in!  President Volpe has appointed Pedro Santos as Generalissimo of La Reconquista.  President Volpe said that Generalissimo Santos has a plan to bring the war to a close in two years.  An editorial in La Jornada pointed out that Generalissimo Santos' predecessor said the same thing two years ago.

Afganistan - When will they ever learn?

Corruption in a client government!
Hubris in an imperial government!
Wikileaks of a bleak situation!
Reading "The limits of power" by Andrew J. Bacevich
History of the French Resistance
American colonial history
English only in the Lino Lakes government
Cutting foreign languages in schools

It all really ties together, sadly.

Let's start with American colonial history.  The colonists did not like being occupied by a foreign army.  They started fighting back.  They didn't follow the rules of engagement and fought from concealment. George the Third had many derogatory things to say about those rebels.  Many Afghanis (and Iraqis) don't like being occupied by a foreign army.  They started fighting back.  They don't follow the rules of engagement and fight from concealment. George the Bush had many derogatory things to say about those insurgents.

Many French did not like the German occupation.  They fought back, often from concealment.  Instead of roadside bombs, they threw train switches the wrong way.  Some Germans took bribes to look the other way.  Some Vichy police were very hard on the resistance.  Other Vichy police called resistance leaders to warn them of a planned raid.  See "Occupation déja vu".  Oh, yes!  The Germans in France had an advantage that the Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan don't have; a large number of them spoke the local language.

We are running up huge deficits to fight these wars and don't have money for education in our own country.  In fact, we are cutting back on the teaching of foreign languages.  If our soldiers and diplomats are not linguistically proficient, can we expect them to communicate with people who speak other languages with little or no proficiency in English?

Many states and localities want to put into law English-only for government business, the latest being Lino Lakes, Minnesota (Star Tribune 2010-07-26).  What if other countries did the same, including at immigration and customs control at the airport?  If the U.S. is English only, shouldn't Japan be Japanese only?  If so, they should remove the Romaji from all the train station signs and leave only the Kanji and Hiragana.  Ah, so!  You didn't get off at せんだい?  So sorry, you missed Sendai.

Which gets us back to imperial hubris.  If we think we know what's best for other countries, how can we even know what's best for them if we don't speak their language, much less understand many of their customs?  Insurgency will surely follow.  Knowing the culture, the language, and the landscape better than any foreigners, the insurgents have an immense tactical and strategic advantage.

When will they ever learn?

Afghanistan - Doing too much for too little?

Fareed Zakaria thinks that the fight against the Taliban is overreach with little result.  He likens it to fighting Italy after Germany has been defeated.  See "Fareed Zakaria Criticizes 'Disproportionate' Afghanistan War on CNN".

We should also look at the reverse situation.  How many Americans would fight a foreign invader?  Suppose there was an Anti-China League that started hitting Chinese targets.  The Chinese, tired of the "American" terrorism, would invade the U.S. with overwhelming force.  Many Americans would resist, even if they did not like the Anti-China League.

For what many call a "Christian" nation, we seem incapable of following the second greatest commandment - do unto others what you would have them do unto you.

Also, why does the Afghan army need so much training when the Taliban has such minimal training?  If the U.S. can't beat the Taliban with all of its sophisticated training and weapons, will an Afghan army beat the Taliban with the same sophisticated training and weapons?  Either a sufficient number of Afghans are opposed to the Taliban to fight the Taliban on similar terms or too few Afghans are willing to risk their lives against the Taliban.

Did the "surge" in Iraq keep the tigers away too?

Sometime ago I wrote a blog or an article about how people connect actions to results without careful examinations of the relationship. Keeping the tigers away is a reference to a hippie sitting on a park bench snapping his fingers to keep the tigers away.

Reading "The War Within" by Bob Woodword I got a good sense of how the "surge" in Iraq was not a major factor in an improvement. The major factor was appointing General David Petraeus as commander in Iraq (pp. 335-337).

Petraeus assembled his own team to evaluate the situation. It included Colonel H.R. McMaster who led the Tall Afar campaign, the only apparent successful clear, hold, and rebuild campaign, and Derek Harvey of the Defense Intelligence Agency, one of the few people who had gone out and spoken, in Arabic, with many of the factions in Iraq. His team went out all over Iraq to assess the situation and find out what was really going on. Petraeus himself went out into the streets to see what had been happening; he was appalled at the "ghost towns" of once prosperous sections.

Now Petraeus is in charge of both Afghanistan and Iraq. Will he bring about lasting change in either?