"It's a new kind of war, George. It's a new war for a new century."
--Breaker Morant*
A week ago today, my sister-in-law's stepfather was buried with full honors at Arlington National Cemetery. Ralph, her step-father, explained to me years ago at a family gather that he had grown up the child of immigrants in a German neighborhood of St. Louis, where he rarely spoke English until he entered school. In his teens - in the 1930s - he both played minor league baseball and acquired a pilot's license. How, during the Depression, he had access to an airplane for training, I have no idea. Like many Americans of German ancestry, Ralph was deeply troubled by the rise of the Nazis, and felt a particular need to demonstrate that his first loyalty lay with the powers of the "free world." As a trained pilot,and while still a teenager, he volunteered first with the RAF, for which he flew bombing missions, and then later with the US Army Air Force, once America had entered the war.
Given the length of his service to both Britain and the US, I realized that he must've flown a remarkable number of missions. As you may know, the US Air Force mandated that anyone in a bomber crew would be required to fly no more than sixty some-odd missions before being guaranteed a stateside posting. This guarantee was meant to boost crew morale, and sacrificed little in the way of manpower, since (as Air Force statisticians knew) most fliers would be killed in combat long before they ever made the allotted number of missions. So, when I asked Ralph how many missions he had flown, you can imagine my reaction when he answered something along the lines of "two hundred and thirty four."
"Were you ever shot down?" I asked.
"Oh yeah, five times."
My sister-in-law later confirmed that not only had Ralph been shot down five times, but he'd also been awarded six purple hearts, and in fact upon his return to St. Louis at the war's end, he was celebrated as the most highly decorated veteran from the state of Missouri. After the war, Ralph's connection with flying was maintained through service in the Air Force Reserve, from which he eventually retired with the rank of Colonel. In the civilian world, he spent the bulk of his career working for Ralston-Purina, the pet food company, which must have offered quite a "tranquil" contrast to his wartime experiences, if you know what I mean.
In my conversation with Ralph, he did mention something particularly memorable: on more than one occasion, he had bombed towns in Germany where he knew cousins of his were living.
"Wow," I said stupidly, "that must've provoked some strange emotions." (I didn't really know what to say). But it hardly mattered.
"Oh no," Ralph replied with a beaming enthusiasm, "you never see the damage you've done from the air."
Did I mention that Ralph was of German ancestry?
Anyhow, my larger point here is that not so long ago (historically speaking) it was taken for granted that when the US found itself at war, ordinary citizens, ordinary men, actually, would risk their lives to defend their country.
I realize that ethos on which the assumption is based has its dangers, which I will deal with presently. Nevertheless, a tradition of widespread military service in time of national crisis has its virtues, not least of which is that the general populace sees itself as necessarily implicated in the nation's military commitments, and is therefore that much more likely to scrutinize military undertakings.
By way of contrast to the above ethos, I find myself compelled to make reference to Jonah Goldberg, whom you may have read at the National Review, and who - after several seasons of pom pom waving for the war in Iraq - finally faced the obvious question as to why someone so ardent in his support of Operation Iraqi Freedom hadn't gotten around to actually enlisting. Goldberg, still in his thirties, was certainly young enough, was presumably bright enough, and his invaluable insights into matters of tactical if not strategic significance could certainly have proven useful on Fallujah's mean streets.
Sensing the closing of a trap, Goldberg rather ineffectually pleaded that he had a wife and two two children upon whom military service would impose severe financial hardship. He then attempted some self-deprecating joke, the punch line of which I don't remember, though I am confident that it revealed neither wit nor insight, but only a juvenile clownishness masking a well-earned sense of shame.
If I can bang the family drum a bit more, and at the same time rub Jonah's nose a little deeper in the dirt, let me briefly cite the example of my maternal grandfather, who during World War Two abandoned a fairly comfortable position with the Securities and Exchange Commission in Washington D.C. in order to cold-heartedly impose financial hardship upon his own wife and two children. My grandfather's enlistment in the US Navy led him to the Pacific, where he saw considerable action, and attained to the rank of Commander. He was at the time of this impulsive folly (i.e. his enlistment) in his mid-forties, and if one were to attempt the same today one would likely be diagnosed with a mid-life crisis, prescribed Zoloft, and presented with a mountain bike. Though I never had the chance to ask him why he left a family and a desk job to go to war, I guess he believed that this was his duty. And I think that my sister-in-law's stepfather, Ralph, and my own father, who fought in the Battle of the Bulge, and a lot of other people were, by mass indoctrination or by simple tradition, inclined to feel that way as well.
But, understandably, people don't so much these days. For one thing, our wars don't really smack of do-or-die national survival (see one of Jonah Goldberg's defenses of the war). It takes an awful lot of propagandizing to convince the comfortable American public of the gravity of whatever the current crisis is (Tonkin Gulf, Gulf War Two, World War Four, or is it Five, whatever) and then as the news reports and the soldier's angry letters (well, emails and blog posts these days) begin to filter back, those who can read are thankful they didn't totally give in to war fever. Not to the point of actually, you know, joining. And so life goes on.
Yes, I realize a well-placed nuclear device may someday make the words I've just written look more than a tad smug and complacent, and I guess I'll be guilty (if I'm still around) of not taking the current threat seriously enough, but it seems that everything we do in the Middle East only enhances the prospect of such a scenario someday becoming a reality.
One young American who did feel the call to service in the wake of 9/11, was of course Pat Tillman, the professional football player who passed up a multi-million dollar renewal contract with the Arizona Cardinals to enlist in the Army. He and his brother Kevin, a minor league baseball player, both made their way into the Rangers, where (oddly, I think) they served in the same unit in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
In the aftermath of Pat Tillman's death, there was a certain amount of chatter as to whether he was a hero, or a sucker, or a hyper-aggressive jerk who'd more or less gotten what he deserved. For whatever it's worth, I believe there was something admirable in Tillman's readiness to sacrifice enormous economic gain, personal comfort, and physical safety for his country's defense, and I believe it to be not only tragic but criminal that his willingness to do so was shamelessly manipulated, exploited, and ultimately betrayed by the same Army in which he served. The Tillman brothers' enlistment was excellent PR for the military, until it turned out that Pat Tillman had soured on the war in Iraq, which he condemned as "brutal, immoral, illegal, and unjust." According to the website Weazl's Revenge, "The Tillman brothers were due for a furlough, and Kevin stated in interviews that Pat had arranged to meet with an anti-war journalist while at home." Evidently, he wished to go public with his criticisms and reservations about the Iraq invasion, though I have read that he remained more committed to the Army's mission in Afghanistan.
Before Tillman's furlough date arrived, he was killed in combat. Though the military tried to soak this incident for all the PR hero-potential it was worth, eventually it became evident that Tillman's death had actually been a case of "friendly-fire," which the government had done everything in its power to conceal from both journalists and the Tillman family. This revelation went on to serve as one of the hundreds - if not thousands - of military-related scandals associated with Iraq that erupt and disappear with such somnolent regularity that we barely notice them anymore. They're simply the background noise to our abysmal national drama.
At this sad point in our Iraq saga, some bloggers are now alluding to an assassination of Tillman by the US military in order to prevent him from going public with his condemnation of the Iraq war, and while I'm not prepared to go that far (see the previous post on my aversion to conspiracy mania) I suppose it says a lot about the state of our republic that this sort of rumor so readily has its adherents, and besides, given what we already know, can we rule out anything?
I'm not sure if I would be comfortable living in a world full of Pat Tillmans (during his regular interviews a decade ago on the Jim Rome sports radio show, his overuse -by which I mean, his use - of the word "dude" quickly tried my patience) but he was young then, and he was from "So Cal," as the saying goes, and the question hardly matters, since I long ago accepted that it is my fate, as it is our common fate, to live, not in a world of Pat Tillmans, but in a world of Jonah Goldbergs. The powers-that-be wouldn't have it any other way.
*Fans of the film (based upon a true incident) will know that its eponymous Australian hero, Breaker Morant, while being marched to his execution for the commission of war crimes during the Boer War, turns to his fellow condemned solider, and says simply, "Well Peter, this is what comes of empire building."
You may be interested in this letter, written by Pat Tillman's brother and fellow Ranger, Kevin, regarding Pat's death. It's anger and sense of betrayal ring sadly true.
Monday, June 18, 2007
Friday, June 15, 2007
Derin Devlet: The Deep State
“There is one deep state and one other state. The state that should be real is the spare one, the one that should be spare is the real one."--Suleyman Demirel, Turkish president from 1994 until 1999.
The somewhat dramatic, even ominous term, Deep State, refers to "an influential and informal anti-democratic coalition within the Turkish political system, composed of high-level elements within the Turkish military, security and intelligence services, the judicial branch, and important commanders of organized crime."
I first became interested in this Turkish phenomenon in the aftermath of journalist Hrandt Dink's assassination in December of 2006. However, that event, which I've written about earlier, is not the subject of this post. As I located various articles and information about the Turkish Deep State, it became clear to me that we need some term in English, equally dramatic, if not ominous, to describe those forces which seek to exercise their will through the mechanisms of the federal government, in an extra-legal, or at least starkly anti-democratic fashion.
That is the topic, the American Deep State, if you will, which I wish to explore in the near future.
I have been somewhat hesitant to raise this issue directly, though I certainly have done so obliquely in the past, out of my own aversion toward so-called "conspiracy theories," which, quite often seem to me to be the tortured constructions of the woefully confused, over causes and effects the complexity of which they can't begin to acknowledge, much less address. No, I don't envision a small circle of investment bankers, industrialists (do they still exist?), and conniving Jews unleashing global suffering for their own, ill-gotten gain. Nor do I plan to start linking to reports of alien spacecraft at Area 51.
But let's be clear. As several bloggers whose insights I admire are insistently pointing out, America is an ostensibly democratic nation, the majority of whose citizens are increasingly emphatic in their opposition to an amnesty for illegal immigrants, an amnesty which the nation's political leaders seem not to have the latitude, or perhaps the power, to permanently reject. The crux of the argument apparently comes down to the government's insistence on creating a new set of laws while flatly refusing to enforce the existing laws, in blatant disregard of the will of the American public. Something other than representative democracy is at work. I cite this as one example. Our attempts to maintain a sort of covert dominion over the Middle East, or at least over the resources extracted from its sands, would obviously be another.
In other words, the fact that I don't believe in alien spacecraft at Area 51 doesn't mean I don't believe in Area 51, despite decades of federal government denial. (In case you don't get the History Channel, the government was finally forced, in the 1990s, to admit to Area 51's existence as a result of lawsuits filed by former employees poisoned by the burning of toxic wastes at the site.)
My own skepticism ignorance, and uncertainty prevent me from linking various intriguing bits and pieces into some sweeping, tantalizing, but ultimately implausible theoretical whole. A healthy failing on my part, I suspect.
There is a great deal of blindness, blunder, stupidity, and willed self-deception in the actions of any institution, particularly one as cumbersome as the federal government. Nevertheless, the government does move, sometimes unswervingly though inexplicably, in certain directions, and it's only natural to wonder why.
Though I realize that the following opinions will come as no surprise to visitors of his site, we are not in Iraq because of Weapons of Mass Destruction or a War on Terror or to unleash a democracy or to inspire an Islamic reformation. We are not in Iraq so that George W. Bush can show up his Daddy or work through whatever Oedipal issues may be plaguing him. We are not in Iraq because all human beings crave freedom, or because George W. Bush believes all human beings crave freedom. A president, even a deluded and messianic president, isn't allowed to wander on a leash that long.
Iraq may be a disaster, but it isn't a simple blunder. It's more than a mistake. And yet, through some eyes, perhaps, it's no mistake at all. That's what I'm interested in exploring.
“The real rulers in Washington are invisible and exercise power from behind the scenes.”
--Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter
The somewhat dramatic, even ominous term, Deep State, refers to "an influential and informal anti-democratic coalition within the Turkish political system, composed of high-level elements within the Turkish military, security and intelligence services, the judicial branch, and important commanders of organized crime."
I first became interested in this Turkish phenomenon in the aftermath of journalist Hrandt Dink's assassination in December of 2006. However, that event, which I've written about earlier, is not the subject of this post. As I located various articles and information about the Turkish Deep State, it became clear to me that we need some term in English, equally dramatic, if not ominous, to describe those forces which seek to exercise their will through the mechanisms of the federal government, in an extra-legal, or at least starkly anti-democratic fashion.
That is the topic, the American Deep State, if you will, which I wish to explore in the near future.
I have been somewhat hesitant to raise this issue directly, though I certainly have done so obliquely in the past, out of my own aversion toward so-called "conspiracy theories," which, quite often seem to me to be the tortured constructions of the woefully confused, over causes and effects the complexity of which they can't begin to acknowledge, much less address. No, I don't envision a small circle of investment bankers, industrialists (do they still exist?), and conniving Jews unleashing global suffering for their own, ill-gotten gain. Nor do I plan to start linking to reports of alien spacecraft at Area 51.
But let's be clear. As several bloggers whose insights I admire are insistently pointing out, America is an ostensibly democratic nation, the majority of whose citizens are increasingly emphatic in their opposition to an amnesty for illegal immigrants, an amnesty which the nation's political leaders seem not to have the latitude, or perhaps the power, to permanently reject. The crux of the argument apparently comes down to the government's insistence on creating a new set of laws while flatly refusing to enforce the existing laws, in blatant disregard of the will of the American public. Something other than representative democracy is at work. I cite this as one example. Our attempts to maintain a sort of covert dominion over the Middle East, or at least over the resources extracted from its sands, would obviously be another.
In other words, the fact that I don't believe in alien spacecraft at Area 51 doesn't mean I don't believe in Area 51, despite decades of federal government denial. (In case you don't get the History Channel, the government was finally forced, in the 1990s, to admit to Area 51's existence as a result of lawsuits filed by former employees poisoned by the burning of toxic wastes at the site.)
My own skepticism ignorance, and uncertainty prevent me from linking various intriguing bits and pieces into some sweeping, tantalizing, but ultimately implausible theoretical whole. A healthy failing on my part, I suspect.
There is a great deal of blindness, blunder, stupidity, and willed self-deception in the actions of any institution, particularly one as cumbersome as the federal government. Nevertheless, the government does move, sometimes unswervingly though inexplicably, in certain directions, and it's only natural to wonder why.
Though I realize that the following opinions will come as no surprise to visitors of his site, we are not in Iraq because of Weapons of Mass Destruction or a War on Terror or to unleash a democracy or to inspire an Islamic reformation. We are not in Iraq so that George W. Bush can show up his Daddy or work through whatever Oedipal issues may be plaguing him. We are not in Iraq because all human beings crave freedom, or because George W. Bush believes all human beings crave freedom. A president, even a deluded and messianic president, isn't allowed to wander on a leash that long.
Iraq may be a disaster, but it isn't a simple blunder. It's more than a mistake. And yet, through some eyes, perhaps, it's no mistake at all. That's what I'm interested in exploring.
“The real rulers in Washington are invisible and exercise power from behind the scenes.”
--Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Words of War
"They made a desert and called it peace."
--Tacitus
"Peace is not the absence of war; it is a virtue; a state of mind; a disposition for benevolence; confidence; and justice."
-- Spinoza
"There was never a good war or a bad peace."
--Benjamin Franklin
"I do not mean to exclude altogether the idea of patriotism. I know it exists, and I know it has done much in the present contest. But I will venture to assert, that a great and lasting war can never be supported on this principle alone. It must be aided by a prospect of interest, or some reward."
--George Washington
"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public."
--Theodore Roosevelt
"Of course the people don't want war. But after all, it's the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it's always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it's a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger. It works the same in any country."
-- Hermann Goering
"The victor will never be asked if he told the truth."
-- Adolf Hitler
"Think of the press as a great keyboard on which the government can play."
-- Joseph Goebbels
"The Central Intelligence Agency owns everyone of any significance in the major media."
-- William Colby, former Director of the CIA
"War is a malignant disease, an idiocy, a prison, and the pain it
causes is beyond telling or meaning; but war was our condition
and our history, the place we had to live in."
--Martha Gelhorn
"War is a catalogue of blunders."
-- Sir Winston Churchill
"Never, never, never believe any war will be smooth and easy, or that anyone who embarks on the strange voyage can measure the tides and hurricanes he will encounter. The statesman who yields to war fever must realize that once the signal is given, he is no longer the master of policy but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events."
--Sir Winston Churchill
"Regardless of whether we say so publicly, we will go to war, because Saddam sits at the center of a region with more than 60 percent of all the world's oil reserves."
--Anthony H. Cordesman, Senior Analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies
“I don’t think the neocons really give a shit what happened in Iraq and the aftermath. I don’t think they thought it would be this bad. But they said: Look if it works out, let’s say we get Chalabi in, he’s our boy, great. We don’t and maybe there is some half-ass government out there, maybe a strong man emerges, it fractures, and there’s basically a loose federation and there’s really a Kurdish state. Who cares? There’s some bloodshed and it’s messy. Who cares? I mean, we’ve taken out Saddam. We’ve asserted our strength in the Middle East. We’re changing the dynamic. We’re off the peace process as the centerpiece and we’re not putting pressure on Israel.”
--Retired General Anthony Zinni
I now regret that I did not more openly challenge those who were determined to invade a country whose actions were peripheral to the real threat—al-Qaeda. … [T]he Pentagon's military leaders … with few exceptions, acted timidly when their voices urgently needed to be heard. When they knew the plan was flawed, saw intelligence distorted to justify a rationale for war, or witnessed arrogant micromanagement that at times crippled the military's effectiveness, many leaders who wore the uniform chose inaction. … It is time for senior military leaders to discard caution in expressing their views and ensure that the President hears them clearly. And that we won't be fooled again.
--Retired Lt. Gen. Greg Newbold, former operations director for the Joint Chiefs of Staff
"We've got the basic strategy right. . . . Our objective is victory, and that's the road we're walking down. . . . It may not be popular with the public. It doesn't matter, in the sense that we have to continue to do what we think is right, and that's exactly what we're doing. We're not running for office; we're doing what we think is right."
--Vice President Dick Cheney
War is not nice."
--Barbara Bush
"When I take action, I'm not going to fire a 2 million dollar missile at a 10 dollar empty tent and hit a camel in the butt. It's going to be decisive."
-- George W. Bush
--Tacitus
"Peace is not the absence of war; it is a virtue; a state of mind; a disposition for benevolence; confidence; and justice."
-- Spinoza
"There was never a good war or a bad peace."
--Benjamin Franklin
"I do not mean to exclude altogether the idea of patriotism. I know it exists, and I know it has done much in the present contest. But I will venture to assert, that a great and lasting war can never be supported on this principle alone. It must be aided by a prospect of interest, or some reward."
--George Washington
"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public."
--Theodore Roosevelt
"Of course the people don't want war. But after all, it's the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it's always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it's a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger. It works the same in any country."
-- Hermann Goering
"The victor will never be asked if he told the truth."
-- Adolf Hitler
"Think of the press as a great keyboard on which the government can play."
-- Joseph Goebbels
"The Central Intelligence Agency owns everyone of any significance in the major media."
-- William Colby, former Director of the CIA
"War is a malignant disease, an idiocy, a prison, and the pain it
causes is beyond telling or meaning; but war was our condition
and our history, the place we had to live in."
--Martha Gelhorn
"War is a catalogue of blunders."
-- Sir Winston Churchill
"Never, never, never believe any war will be smooth and easy, or that anyone who embarks on the strange voyage can measure the tides and hurricanes he will encounter. The statesman who yields to war fever must realize that once the signal is given, he is no longer the master of policy but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events."
--Sir Winston Churchill
"Regardless of whether we say so publicly, we will go to war, because Saddam sits at the center of a region with more than 60 percent of all the world's oil reserves."
--Anthony H. Cordesman, Senior Analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies
“I don’t think the neocons really give a shit what happened in Iraq and the aftermath. I don’t think they thought it would be this bad. But they said: Look if it works out, let’s say we get Chalabi in, he’s our boy, great. We don’t and maybe there is some half-ass government out there, maybe a strong man emerges, it fractures, and there’s basically a loose federation and there’s really a Kurdish state. Who cares? There’s some bloodshed and it’s messy. Who cares? I mean, we’ve taken out Saddam. We’ve asserted our strength in the Middle East. We’re changing the dynamic. We’re off the peace process as the centerpiece and we’re not putting pressure on Israel.”
--Retired General Anthony Zinni
I now regret that I did not more openly challenge those who were determined to invade a country whose actions were peripheral to the real threat—al-Qaeda. … [T]he Pentagon's military leaders … with few exceptions, acted timidly when their voices urgently needed to be heard. When they knew the plan was flawed, saw intelligence distorted to justify a rationale for war, or witnessed arrogant micromanagement that at times crippled the military's effectiveness, many leaders who wore the uniform chose inaction. … It is time for senior military leaders to discard caution in expressing their views and ensure that the President hears them clearly. And that we won't be fooled again.
--Retired Lt. Gen. Greg Newbold, former operations director for the Joint Chiefs of Staff
"We've got the basic strategy right. . . . Our objective is victory, and that's the road we're walking down. . . . It may not be popular with the public. It doesn't matter, in the sense that we have to continue to do what we think is right, and that's exactly what we're doing. We're not running for office; we're doing what we think is right."
--Vice President Dick Cheney
War is not nice."
--Barbara Bush
"When I take action, I'm not going to fire a 2 million dollar missile at a 10 dollar empty tent and hit a camel in the butt. It's going to be decisive."
-- George W. Bush
Friday, May 25, 2007
Hot Fun in the Summertime
Blogging has been scarce of late, as I've tried to catch up on all the work I should have been but wasn't doing over the past . . . oh well, let's just say I fell behind but am now racing toward the finish line.
On Monday, I'll be leaving for a much needed (though perhaps not deserved) vacation on the Aegean. Before going, however, I wanted to link to the following article, which delves into attempts by our President (sorry, that would be Vice President) Dick Cheney to tie the President's (that would be George W. Bush's) hands on the issue of military action against Iran. In case you're wondering, Cheney is into it. Why not, after our stunning successes in Iraq?
I've long harbored suspicions that Bush was selected as a candidate by the Republican hierarchy because he was seen as a tractable, vain, and naive, in other words, easily manipulatable by the likes of Cheney and Rumsfeld. Of course, it's just a suspicion on my part, because as an American citizen, I really have no insight into the the workings of my government. I fear that this may be by design, or am I lapsing into cynicism?
Though I could be wrong, it is difficult to understand how a nation of 300 million manages to elect, not once but twice, a man manifestly unsuited to the responsibilities of his position. Perhaps there is more to this story than simply the free play of democracy. For whatever it's worth, here in Turkey, when people discuss American politics (which they quite frequently do) Cheney is generally cast as the puppeteer.
My thanks to Ken Frost for raising this issue and linking to this article on his website, Nanny Knows Best (see links to the left). While we're on the topic of interesting links, I've added a new discovery, What I Saw in America, to my list.
I'll be back in Istanbul, with more time to play, in early June.
Try not to get into any wars until then.
On Monday, I'll be leaving for a much needed (though perhaps not deserved) vacation on the Aegean. Before going, however, I wanted to link to the following article, which delves into attempts by our President (sorry, that would be Vice President) Dick Cheney to tie the President's (that would be George W. Bush's) hands on the issue of military action against Iran. In case you're wondering, Cheney is into it. Why not, after our stunning successes in Iraq?
I've long harbored suspicions that Bush was selected as a candidate by the Republican hierarchy because he was seen as a tractable, vain, and naive, in other words, easily manipulatable by the likes of Cheney and Rumsfeld. Of course, it's just a suspicion on my part, because as an American citizen, I really have no insight into the the workings of my government. I fear that this may be by design, or am I lapsing into cynicism?
Though I could be wrong, it is difficult to understand how a nation of 300 million manages to elect, not once but twice, a man manifestly unsuited to the responsibilities of his position. Perhaps there is more to this story than simply the free play of democracy. For whatever it's worth, here in Turkey, when people discuss American politics (which they quite frequently do) Cheney is generally cast as the puppeteer.
My thanks to Ken Frost for raising this issue and linking to this article on his website, Nanny Knows Best (see links to the left). While we're on the topic of interesting links, I've added a new discovery, What I Saw in America, to my list.
I'll be back in Istanbul, with more time to play, in early June.
Try not to get into any wars until then.
Sunday, May 6, 2007
A Trans-Atlantic Exchange
On the comments section of my previous post, Nappy-Headed Dough (no hate mail, please) an amusing exchange slowly evolved with my friend and fellow expat, Grumpy, other wise known as Grumpy Old Expat. As you will see, Grumpy is originally from the British Isles, but has managed through a clever act of self-imposed exile to escape the clutches of both Blair's Labour Government and the European Union in one lateral move, though the EU keeps threatening to absorb, or as Brussels likes to put it, "accept," Turkey.
Anyway, being too lazy or busy at the moment to post anything new, and having been rather pleased by the outcome of our exchange, I decided simply to copy and post our back-and-forth here. If you don't know what we're talking about, go back and read the previous post, or just forget the whole thing and click elsewhere.
grumpy said...
BS,
I seem to recall that, once upon a time, this site was in English.
What happened?
May 1, 2007 3:28:00 PM PDT
Black Sea said...
Dear Grumpy,
As I have noted in a previous post, the British "think tank" (boy, could we have some fun with that term) Demos, has already made clear to you tea-sipping snobs that: "the language is no longer the preserve of the English, who are just one of many shareholders in a global asset".
Stop trying to monopolize this global asset, and start sharing with your fellow shareholders!
As you may know, we are to be instructed in, and are to instruct others in, Hinglish, Chinglish, and Spanglish, with further variations to follow, including the sort found in this post.
I've no doubt that Ms. Clinton will take up this banner just as soon as she occupies the White Horse, sorry, House, and will perhaps employ your old chum T. Blair as special consultant.
May 2, 2007 4:28:00 AM PDT
grumpy said...
I would be fine with the 'sharing' idea if you Yanks could be trusted to take care of our joint linguistic heritage. As it is, it seems that you are doing to English in the US what your government is doing for democracy in Iraq. In the process you create something I would call Manglish, or Garblish.
Having said that of course, I have to admit that 'Our Tony' and his minions are doing for our home-grown version of the language what our naval personnel did for heroism in Iran recently. Surrendering it. The result in the UK is Yoblish.
So far as the redoubtable Mrs Clinton and 'Our Redeemer' Saint Tony are concerned, I would paraphrase the old Vaudeville joke: Take our Tony. Please.
May 6, 2007 12:48:00 AM PDT
grumpy said...
BS,
Sorry to take up your space, but I have just looked at the Fat Wayne/Little Joe video (with the sound off, of course). Now I have a question; Since the principals in the video demonstrate that they are totally devoid of taste in every other respect, how come they have such great taste in hoes?
May 6, 2007 1:08:00 AM PDT
Black Sea said...
Grumpy,
I take your point about the "English in America, Democracy in Iraq" argument, though I object to being referred to as a "Yank" for reasons having less to do with the British-American linguistic debate than with my archaic and no doubt pathological regional loyalties.
Anyway, "Yank" must be preferable to your now infamous "Half-educated Rednecked Bigot," soon re-coined on another website into the less cumbersome acronym "Herb." Who says we "Yanks" have no sense of humor?
But I digress. As to the point that America is doing to democracy in Iraq what it has been doing to the English language for decades (centuries?), let me suggest an alternate analogy.
Democracy in Iraq is not so much equivalent to American English, which though perhaps debased, draws on a long and glorious history, as it is a political equivalent of Esperanto, a wholly inorganic construct which no one seems to practice, though everyone admits it's "a good idea."
Evidently, we human beings are more creatures of custom and culture than of bold horizons and bright new ideas. How sad for us.
Oh, and I think you owe it to yourself to view the Fat Joe video clip with the sound on. Otherwise, you deprive yourself of its full charm. I actually like the song (don't ask me why) or at least, it has tenaciously lodged itself in my brain, perhaps due to the stunning visual impact of the hoes employed as scenery.
What's more, I think the video and lyrics together offer a pretty accurate portrait of the current American political scene:
"Yeah, I'm in this business of terror
Got a handful of stacks
Better grab an umbrella
I make it rain . . . "
More articulate than anything ever to come out of our president's mouth.
May 6, 2007 4:28:00 AM PDT
Anyway, being too lazy or busy at the moment to post anything new, and having been rather pleased by the outcome of our exchange, I decided simply to copy and post our back-and-forth here. If you don't know what we're talking about, go back and read the previous post, or just forget the whole thing and click elsewhere.
grumpy said...
BS,
I seem to recall that, once upon a time, this site was in English.
What happened?
May 1, 2007 3:28:00 PM PDT
Black Sea said...
Dear Grumpy,
As I have noted in a previous post, the British "think tank" (boy, could we have some fun with that term) Demos, has already made clear to you tea-sipping snobs that: "the language is no longer the preserve of the English, who are just one of many shareholders in a global asset".
Stop trying to monopolize this global asset, and start sharing with your fellow shareholders!
As you may know, we are to be instructed in, and are to instruct others in, Hinglish, Chinglish, and Spanglish, with further variations to follow, including the sort found in this post.
I've no doubt that Ms. Clinton will take up this banner just as soon as she occupies the White Horse, sorry, House, and will perhaps employ your old chum T. Blair as special consultant.
May 2, 2007 4:28:00 AM PDT
grumpy said...
I would be fine with the 'sharing' idea if you Yanks could be trusted to take care of our joint linguistic heritage. As it is, it seems that you are doing to English in the US what your government is doing for democracy in Iraq. In the process you create something I would call Manglish, or Garblish.
Having said that of course, I have to admit that 'Our Tony' and his minions are doing for our home-grown version of the language what our naval personnel did for heroism in Iran recently. Surrendering it. The result in the UK is Yoblish.
So far as the redoubtable Mrs Clinton and 'Our Redeemer' Saint Tony are concerned, I would paraphrase the old Vaudeville joke: Take our Tony. Please.
May 6, 2007 12:48:00 AM PDT
grumpy said...
BS,
Sorry to take up your space, but I have just looked at the Fat Wayne/Little Joe video (with the sound off, of course). Now I have a question; Since the principals in the video demonstrate that they are totally devoid of taste in every other respect, how come they have such great taste in hoes?
May 6, 2007 1:08:00 AM PDT
Black Sea said...
Grumpy,
I take your point about the "English in America, Democracy in Iraq" argument, though I object to being referred to as a "Yank" for reasons having less to do with the British-American linguistic debate than with my archaic and no doubt pathological regional loyalties.
Anyway, "Yank" must be preferable to your now infamous "Half-educated Rednecked Bigot," soon re-coined on another website into the less cumbersome acronym "Herb." Who says we "Yanks" have no sense of humor?
But I digress. As to the point that America is doing to democracy in Iraq what it has been doing to the English language for decades (centuries?), let me suggest an alternate analogy.
Democracy in Iraq is not so much equivalent to American English, which though perhaps debased, draws on a long and glorious history, as it is a political equivalent of Esperanto, a wholly inorganic construct which no one seems to practice, though everyone admits it's "a good idea."
Evidently, we human beings are more creatures of custom and culture than of bold horizons and bright new ideas. How sad for us.
Oh, and I think you owe it to yourself to view the Fat Joe video clip with the sound on. Otherwise, you deprive yourself of its full charm. I actually like the song (don't ask me why) or at least, it has tenaciously lodged itself in my brain, perhaps due to the stunning visual impact of the hoes employed as scenery.
What's more, I think the video and lyrics together offer a pretty accurate portrait of the current American political scene:
"Yeah, I'm in this business of terror
Got a handful of stacks
Better grab an umbrella
I make it rain . . . "
More articulate than anything ever to come out of our president's mouth.
May 6, 2007 4:28:00 AM PDT
Saturday, April 21, 2007
Nappy Headed Dough
In a bid to bust yet another cap into the now rotting carcass of Don Imus, and to boost her run at the White House in 2008, Hillary Clinton (ridin' on twenties!) rolled into New Brunswick, NJ to commiserate with, fawn over, and leech blood from the coach and players of the Rutger's Women's Basketball Team. To the team's eternal credit, not one player showed for the conference, citing inclement weather, the need to study, and a general fatigue with the whole sordid episode.
I'm not going to delve into the Imus absurdity at any further length, because . . . well because Dennis Dale has already done it better than you, I, or anybody else is likely to.
Anyway, back at Rutgers, Hillary was - hoes or no hoes - determined to squeeze from this gathering whatever political juice she could:
Clinton addressed about 700 students and faculty on campus later in the day, praising the players and naming them one-by-one while criticizing "bigotry" against women. She never named Imus directly and made a point of saying her criticism wasn't intended to curtail free speech.
She urged the crowd to take a "Rutgers pledge," to say, "Enough is enough, when women or minorities or the powerless are marginalized or degraded."
Later, the former first lady traveled to Manhattan to address Rev. Al Sharpton's National Action Network Convention, where she ravaged President George W. Bush, particularly over Iraq. (article in full)
Meanwhile, down at the FLA crib of rap producer and performing phenom "Timbaland" (whoever the hell that is), a March 31st fundraiser brought in $800,000 for the Senator's Presidential campaign. Yes, that figure is correct. Both Hillary and her 'Dawg' Bill were in attendance, basking in the love (and money) so generously lavished upon them. As you may know, her husband was our nation's first African-American President.
However, the life of a Dee Cee Hustla is not without its weird twists and internal contradictions, as P. Willie can himself attest. It seems that some of "Timbaland's" compositions may not entirely adhere to the principles Senator Clinton outlined in the "Rutger's Pledge," and what is to be done about that?
Here are lyrics from Timbaland's "Come and Get Me":
"Nigga Your Time Is Up, I Aint Come To Kid You
I Knew You Niggas Was Dumb, But How Dumb Is You . . .
I'm A Ride Or Die Nigga, I Be Tearing [expletive] Up
We Aint Like Them Other Fools, Who Don't Compare To Us
All The Hoes Love A Nigga, They be Backing It Up
But Me I Love Money I Be Stacking It Up . . .
I'm Rich I Can Pay To Have You Six Feet Deep (Nigga)"
And from his track "Kill Yourself":
" . . . most of u rap niggas is hoes to me,
wherever u from
the question I ask
is do u think I give a [expletive] . . .
u mad at me? cuz im getting rich,
well put the pistol to ur head and empty the clip, pop nigga!"
And the uplifting "Considerate Brotha":
". . . Hoes coming up short? Hoes finna get cursed out!
. . . Slam the mask out of these hoes and they say, 'What is that, velvet?'
And they betta meet they quota, betta yet betta meet they deadline . . . I'm a pimp all around
A pimp of the town -- we pimpin 'em up, HOES DOWN." (article in full)
Will Hillary "Do the Right Thing" and wash her hands of the misogynistically-tainted 800 "G's"? (I realize I'm dating myself here, and I suppose the issue of my ethnicity is no longer in question, but I don't really know what the slang-of-the-day is for one thousand dollars. "Chump Change" perhaps?)
According to Ms. Clinton, Don Imus' comments "showed a disregard for basic decency and were disrespectful and degrading to African Americans and women everywhere."
How do you suppose she reconciles her concern for the rights and dignity of African American women with the revenues generated by the lyrics above, revenues in which she now shares?
Well, like Fat Joe and Lil' Wayne, I suppose she finds some solace in the notion that, "I make it rain on dem hoes . . . " (Perhaps you've seen the video.)
How will she answer questions regarding the evident contradiction in her own position on disrespectful and degrading images of African Americans and women everywhere? What the hell makes you think she'll ever have to?
We're living in a sawdust circus, we're bit players in a crumbling farce, we're witnessing the latter days. She won't have to answer to anything, and nobody cares anyway.
But what I want to know is:
How is it that the pit of American politics seems to have an ever-receding bottom?
Does the pit of American politics actually have a bottom?
How long before Hillary and Barack square off in some gangstaesque smack-down or face-off, or whatever you'd call it, reminiscent of those stirring scenes of imbecility in Eight Mile Road?
Why is it that our politicians in particular are so keen to excise this word "hoe" from the American vocabulary?
How long before we see a horse serving with distinction in the U.S. Senate, assuming we haven't already?
I'm not going to delve into the Imus absurdity at any further length, because . . . well because Dennis Dale has already done it better than you, I, or anybody else is likely to.
Anyway, back at Rutgers, Hillary was - hoes or no hoes - determined to squeeze from this gathering whatever political juice she could:
Clinton addressed about 700 students and faculty on campus later in the day, praising the players and naming them one-by-one while criticizing "bigotry" against women. She never named Imus directly and made a point of saying her criticism wasn't intended to curtail free speech.
She urged the crowd to take a "Rutgers pledge," to say, "Enough is enough, when women or minorities or the powerless are marginalized or degraded."
Later, the former first lady traveled to Manhattan to address Rev. Al Sharpton's National Action Network Convention, where she ravaged President George W. Bush, particularly over Iraq. (article in full)
Meanwhile, down at the FLA crib of rap producer and performing phenom "Timbaland" (whoever the hell that is), a March 31st fundraiser brought in $800,000 for the Senator's Presidential campaign. Yes, that figure is correct. Both Hillary and her 'Dawg' Bill were in attendance, basking in the love (and money) so generously lavished upon them. As you may know, her husband was our nation's first African-American President.
However, the life of a Dee Cee Hustla is not without its weird twists and internal contradictions, as P. Willie can himself attest. It seems that some of "Timbaland's" compositions may not entirely adhere to the principles Senator Clinton outlined in the "Rutger's Pledge," and what is to be done about that?
Here are lyrics from Timbaland's "Come and Get Me":
"Nigga Your Time Is Up, I Aint Come To Kid You
I Knew You Niggas Was Dumb, But How Dumb Is You . . .
I'm A Ride Or Die Nigga, I Be Tearing [expletive] Up
We Aint Like Them Other Fools, Who Don't Compare To Us
All The Hoes Love A Nigga, They be Backing It Up
But Me I Love Money I Be Stacking It Up . . .
I'm Rich I Can Pay To Have You Six Feet Deep (Nigga)"
And from his track "Kill Yourself":
" . . . most of u rap niggas is hoes to me,
wherever u from
the question I ask
is do u think I give a [expletive] . . .
u mad at me? cuz im getting rich,
well put the pistol to ur head and empty the clip, pop nigga!"
And the uplifting "Considerate Brotha":
". . . Hoes coming up short? Hoes finna get cursed out!
. . . Slam the mask out of these hoes and they say, 'What is that, velvet?'
And they betta meet they quota, betta yet betta meet they deadline . . . I'm a pimp all around
A pimp of the town -- we pimpin 'em up, HOES DOWN." (article in full)
Will Hillary "Do the Right Thing" and wash her hands of the misogynistically-tainted 800 "G's"? (I realize I'm dating myself here, and I suppose the issue of my ethnicity is no longer in question, but I don't really know what the slang-of-the-day is for one thousand dollars. "Chump Change" perhaps?)
According to Ms. Clinton, Don Imus' comments "showed a disregard for basic decency and were disrespectful and degrading to African Americans and women everywhere."
How do you suppose she reconciles her concern for the rights and dignity of African American women with the revenues generated by the lyrics above, revenues in which she now shares?
Well, like Fat Joe and Lil' Wayne, I suppose she finds some solace in the notion that, "I make it rain on dem hoes . . . " (Perhaps you've seen the video.)
How will she answer questions regarding the evident contradiction in her own position on disrespectful and degrading images of African Americans and women everywhere? What the hell makes you think she'll ever have to?
We're living in a sawdust circus, we're bit players in a crumbling farce, we're witnessing the latter days. She won't have to answer to anything, and nobody cares anyway.
But what I want to know is:
How is it that the pit of American politics seems to have an ever-receding bottom?
Does the pit of American politics actually have a bottom?
How long before Hillary and Barack square off in some gangstaesque smack-down or face-off, or whatever you'd call it, reminiscent of those stirring scenes of imbecility in Eight Mile Road?
Why is it that our politicians in particular are so keen to excise this word "hoe" from the American vocabulary?
How long before we see a horse serving with distinction in the U.S. Senate, assuming we haven't already?
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Man Hands on Misery to Man, It Deepens Like a Coastal Shelf . . . .*
"Attackers on Wednesday slit the throats of three people, including a German citizen, at a publishing house in the eastern province of Malatya [Turkey] that distributed Bibles."
An account of this story in ZAMAN, a Turkish newspaper (English edition), may be found here. The Daily Telegraph and various other papers are also carrying this story. The victims were bound, gagged, and tortured for about three hours before having their throats slit.
I believe that Turkey's prospects of joining the EU - never very good to begin with - recede from month to month, if not day to day. There will soon be a presidential election here, which will in all likelihood result in both the President and the Prime Minister being affiliated with the Justice and Development (AK) party, though officially, the President is supposed to suspend or sever his party affiliation and represent only the nation.
The prospect of so-called "mildly Islamist" AK Party representatives gaining both of these high offices triggered last Saturday a protest of approximately 370,000 demonstrators in Ankara. The outgoing president, Ahmet Necdet Sezer, said in a farewell speech, "Turkey's secular regime is facing an unprecedented threat, and domestic and external forces are cooperating to undermine that regime."
The military is also issuing statements about the need for a secular president to preserve Turkey's secular constitution, and, to add to the excitement, Turkey has declared that if the U.S.. doesn't crack down on Kurdish (PKK) cross-border operations, then Turkey will send its soldiers into Northern Iraq.
Oh, and two hundred people were killed by bombs in Bahgdad yesterday, and then then there's the possibility of US/Israeli military action against Iran.
And it's not even summer yet.
*Get out as early as you can, and don't have any kids yourself.
-Phillip Larkin
An account of this story in ZAMAN, a Turkish newspaper (English edition), may be found here. The Daily Telegraph and various other papers are also carrying this story. The victims were bound, gagged, and tortured for about three hours before having their throats slit.
I believe that Turkey's prospects of joining the EU - never very good to begin with - recede from month to month, if not day to day. There will soon be a presidential election here, which will in all likelihood result in both the President and the Prime Minister being affiliated with the Justice and Development (AK) party, though officially, the President is supposed to suspend or sever his party affiliation and represent only the nation.
The prospect of so-called "mildly Islamist" AK Party representatives gaining both of these high offices triggered last Saturday a protest of approximately 370,000 demonstrators in Ankara. The outgoing president, Ahmet Necdet Sezer, said in a farewell speech, "Turkey's secular regime is facing an unprecedented threat, and domestic and external forces are cooperating to undermine that regime."
The military is also issuing statements about the need for a secular president to preserve Turkey's secular constitution, and, to add to the excitement, Turkey has declared that if the U.S.. doesn't crack down on Kurdish (PKK) cross-border operations, then Turkey will send its soldiers into Northern Iraq.
Oh, and two hundred people were killed by bombs in Bahgdad yesterday, and then then there's the possibility of US/Israeli military action against Iran.
And it's not even summer yet.
*Get out as early as you can, and don't have any kids yourself.
-Phillip Larkin
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