I think its because I was right, and now everyone knows.

When the Iraq War started, I was at a bar, and I prognosticated that it would be terrible, that it would lead to Civil War, that it would be bad for the country. I said war does things to men, things I haven’t seen but history teaches us about violence and urgent means.

I said over the years that the GOP was nasty, was stridently geared towards business and against men, was bad for our country. Sometimes, in my cups, I accused them of being evil.

The world spins and time marches on and things keep getting worse and now, gradually, little by little, the American public is waking up. As the last urban griot of Generation Y, I think it may be coming time for me to retire, to hang it up. My taste for competitive politics is souring, or at least writing about it – I have found that all my lifted turns of phrase about the ill-lighted, smoke-filled room are true, and true, and true again. The bad men flourish and the good men die like dogs, because there are no seats on the fast machine for men of honor or integrity.

But the main point is that I was right about the GOP, and urgent means, and unified government, and the Iraq War. Whether Democrats can make something out of the pendulum swing, speed-enhanced by Republican terribility, is something else entirely.

“We recommend that taxes shall be raised on olive exports and, further, Carthage must be destroyed.”

If you hadn’t guessed, Cato the Elder was the Roman Senate version of Sam Brownback – the first NeoConservative. More Spartan than Roman, he spent the first part of his life pursuing conquest for the Empire, quite unlike today’s hawks; the balance was spent in service to state, applying his strict moral judgment to everything from visiting Greek Ambassadors to how much money women should be allowed to accumulate, from state honors to how many guests could be at a party. He served in the Roman Army as an officer and tribune, fighting in the Second Punic War and at the battle of Thermopylae.

So, nearing the onset of the Third Punic War, again spurring Rome on to the offensive, Cato the Elder hauled his 80-year-old body on to the floor of the Senate and decreed: Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam – Moreover, I recommend that Carthage must be destroyed.

If this feels familiar, it should. The same old song is starting to play again, this time about Iran. I’ve talked about Iran many times here. Seymour Hersh is talking about Iran now because, apparently, Bush And Pals have been talking about Iran for some time.

The march for freedom continues and now the focus in the West Wing, whether you want to admit it or not, is regime change in Iran. I wasn’t sure if it would be Iran or Syria first, but I realize now that the distinction means little – Syria and Iran are teaming up to monkey wrench the works in Iraq, but Iran has a shot at getting the bomb and Syria doesn’t, or at least Syria doesn’t have an infrastructural shot at it. They are basically one and the same, governed by virulently anti-Western fundamentalists. Iran is calling the hand of the West and we, for good or ill, are gearing up to respond.

Israel bears mention, because Israel is going to catch something in all this. They have a habit of pre-emptively striking against anyone that looks at them funny. That’s fine, and within Israel’s purview. They are, after all, surrounded by countries that don’t like them very much, and many times have had to aggressively defend their own borders. This doesn’t mean that Israel is the Wayne Gretzky of the Middle East. They certainly get up to shenanigans all their own.

As a further bit of information, you should know that we’re borrowing an incredible amount of money from China and against our own currency’s futures, and an attack against Iran would raise China’s ire. China buys a lot of oil from Iran. Russia is also a big fan. If China were to call one portion of our debt to them, we would go bankrupt and default on international loans. Defaulting on a loan is one of the major earmarks of political instability within a country. It means bad things for a lot of people.

So that brings me to this: how have we come to be here? The answer, unfortunately, is that we let it happen. We have continually rolled over for our politicians and taken arrow after arrow despite being usually disposed of better sense. The list of problems for the current administration continues to grow, and by the time we’re done its going to make J. Edgar Hoover’s exploits at the FBI look like a cakewalk. You thought Nixon was bad? Or that Reagan was shameless?

The problem with zealots is that they don’t know there’s something wrong with them. When Bush feels like stopping Iran will be his legacy, and that no one other than him will have the courage to do it, well, ok. Guess why we’re drawing down troops in Iraq. Guess why Iran traded all of its international currency holdings for gold. Guess why the surveillance net gets larger in a country now mostly ruled by the paranoid. The drumbeat for war, for the stripping away of civil rights and privacy, is as loud as any have been since Roman times, but for some reason we the people don’t hear it, don’t understand it, or don’t care.

America is not a guarantee. There is no promise written anywhere stating that my kids will get the same America that I got, although it may be a little worse for wear. Our vulnerabilities to external economic forces are trumped only by the danger caused by what we’ve been up to lately. We are in trouble and things don’t seem to be getting better.

A few years ago, I started thinking that I wanted to be a part of something bigger than myself. I am possessed of a hard-bitten patriotism and, in my own private way, I see a future for America with the potential to surpass any period in the history of our country. I see that potential, and for the last four years or so, I have watched as that potential has been mortgaged and disregarded. I have watched it happen, and I have complained and hollered and tried to point it out.

Now I’m scared and I’m angry because the hits keep on coming.

There is another Latin sentence which you should think about: Non semper erit aestas.

How well I have learned that there is no fence to sit on between heaven and hell. There is a deep, wide gulf, a chasm, and in that chasm is no place for any man. – Johnny Cash

Uh-oh. You need a subscription to read it, and if you’re too lazy, let me get you up ins: We are mad at Syria and our diplomats, particularly our Ambassador to Iraq, are angry at Syria. Sure, we were angry at them earlier this year for their occupation of Lebanon, but that worked out better than expected. What we’re really mad at now is what we’ve been saying for a while: Syria is aiding the insurgency in Iraq.

“Our patience is running out,” said the ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad.

How ominous! Its almost as if we’re now openly discussing some sort of plan to go after other countries in the Middle East!

The smart money now is not on aggression against Syria. We don’t have the manpower or the resources to go after such an endeavor. This could be a rogue diplomat with his credentialed panties in a wad. But considering how thick we are into Iraq now, I somehow doubt such a hardline statement would come out of the diplomatic corps without some sort of okay from State.

Unless! Unless Iraq is planning on attacking Syria on its own! While totally implausible for at least a few years, that Iraq could mount any sort of military operation on its own, it still sort of makes you break out in a low-grade greasy sweat, doesn’t it?

Its cool though, I’m sure the civil war in Iraq will last way longer than Syria’s current regime.

109th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. J. RES. 24

Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to repeal the 22nd amendment to the Constitution.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

February 17, 2005

Mr. HOYER (for himself, Mr. BERMAN, Mr. SENSENBRENNER, Mr. SABO, and Mr. PALLONE) introduced the following joint resolution; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

JOINT RESOLUTION

Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to repeal the 22nd amendment to the Constitution.

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled (two-thirds of each House concurring therein), That the following article is proposed as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which shall be valid to all intents and purposes as part of the Constitution when ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States within seven years after the date of its submission for ratification:
`Article --

`The twenty-second article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is repealed.'.

Despite what I think about how the 2006 midterms will turn out, if the GOP gets anything CLOSE to a 2/3 majority in both houses, hello Glorious General George.

This is real – its made it through at least one committee. Its in the Library of Congress Congressional Record, and it hasn’t been killed yet.

I’m not usually one to run off to the Panic Barn and freak out about little things. Legislation like this gets proposed all the time – balanced budget amendments, to repeal the 22nd amendment, etc. Clinton got a party similar to this one started during his time in office.

I wouldn’t normally be worried about something like this, if not for the GOP making so many moves to consolidate power lately, chief among those being the nuclear option. I’m not saying the sky is falling, I’m just saying that this bears watching.

We’ve been inundated with the Pope for the last week. The Pope is still dead everytime I turn on my TV. I think airing his funeral was fine – he is, after all, an historic figure and as such deserves airtime – but the amount of coverage dedicated to the Pope in the last week created some serious problems.

For instance, this story ran on Sunday, April 3rd, and it gives details concerning an attack on Abu Ghraib by about 60 insurgents. At least 50 US soldiers were injured in the attack, that number up from the initially reported 20 and later updated to 44. Did you hear about this? You probably didn’t. It made page A-16 of the New York Times.

At the end of March 2005, the number of United States soldiers wounded in Iraq was 11,442. I don’t know how many of them lost limbs or eyes or will be broken for life, but war injuries tend to not be skinned knees.

Here’s an interesting accompanying fact for you – did you know that if you get wounded in action and cannot finish your tour of duty, if you received a signing bonus you have to pay it back? It enters repayment 30 days after you go home, and it shows up on your credit. I’m willing to bet this is also something you didn’t hear of.

Prince Charles got married today to Camilla Parker Bowles. He’s the man who might be King someday (if the monarchy lasts that long) so I understand why this would make the news. Maybe a 30-second segment with some shots of the ceremony. That’s fine. Hell, I’ll even give you a minute for it.

But I watched CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC in a rotation for three hours this morning, and I didn’t hear one word about the massive anti-American protest in Iraq. Nor did I hear about the CBS cameraman who was shot and then arrested by coalition forces.

You would think a story about a journalist getting shot and arrested in the midst of a conflict that the newspaper guild CWA and the American Federation of Radio and Television Artists purport carries an extremely high casualty rate for media personnel would make the news. They even said so in a letter to President Bush. It is, in fact, news about the news, and it doesn’t make the news.

• War Anniversary
  I’m not surprised we’re still there. I expect to be there for a while longer. I heard an adorable suggestion of opening the matter up to a referendum of the Iraqi people, but voting the first time was hard enough, am i rite? The Iraq Assembly did, however, elect a Kurd as President today. In my infinite analytical wisdom, I think that’s pretty neat. Now if only the Sunnis could get some representational play.
• Blair calls the general election for May 5
  This may spice things up in Iraq a bit, but only if Tony goes nuts before May 5 and pulls everyone out [Probability ----- 0%]. Tony Blair and Labour are going to scream at the Tories about how they held up the anti-terror bill. They will also take a page from the GOP playbook and accuse the Tories of hating Britain. Tony had better figure something out and fast, or the favored and excellent Labour Party will lose their government because of him. One of my professors suggested to #10 that Tony resign, at which point Gordon the New (Old) RockStar would take over and have an election in October. I imagine that wouldn’t fly so well with Tony. I’ll be watching the polls, but if Tony drags down the ship of Labour’s state, don’t expect anything to change in Iraq. Conservatives there are like they are here in matters of war.
• The Pope dies
  He’s the Pope! What can I say. I’m about the farthest thing from a devout Catholic there is without being a Protestant (ha ha) but Pope was allright with me. He had what amounted to a personal conductor, and Maestro Levine earlier this week related a story about how the Pope had arranged for the Krakow Philharmonic Orchestra’s commemoration of the Holocaust to be held at the Vatican, lit menorah and all. He also sent Levine’s son a 16th century menorah for his bar mitzvah. Oy, a mensch the Pope was!

  PS. I’m pushing for a black or Chinese pope.

• Tom DeLay and John Cornyn
  They get their own post.
• Site additions
  Besides the forums, I’ve added a few new sections to the sidebar – ‘Recently Published’ and ‘Scholarly Works?’ Recently published are links to things I’ve written that were recently published in other places, either print media or other sites. Scholarly Works are drafts of research I’m doing at the University of North Texas, note the ‘drafts’ delineation. The theories are in tact but the grammar may not be. Sort of a works in progress you can check out if you are educationally masochistic or want to argue with me about something.
• Intelligence report findings
  Was that everything? Are we set now? Curveball delivered the inactionable intel that we acted on anyways and then promptly disappeared. Take careful notice of whether the press brings this up again after Popestock and the carefree way the White House lays the blame at the feet of the intelligence community.

More on DeLay and Cornyn and the independant judiciary and why I’m pissed off at Democrats in a bit.

The soldier complained that he had had to resuscitate abused detainees and urged the unit’s withdrawal. He told investigators that the unit’s commander, an Army captain, responded by giving him “30 seconds to withdraw my request or he was going to send me forcibly to go see a psychiatrist.” The soldier added: “I told him I was not going to withdraw my request and at that time he confiscated my weapon and informed me he was withdrawing my security clearance and was placing me under 24-hour surveillance.”

A witness in his unit told investigators that the captain later pressured a military doctor — who had found the soldier stable — into doing another emergency evaluation, saying: “I don’t care what you saw or heard, he is imbalanced, and I want him out of here.”

The next day, after the doctor did another evaluation, the soldier was evacuated from Iraq in restraints on a stretcher to a military hospital in Germany, despite having been given no official diagnosis, according to the documents. A military doctor in Germany ruled he was in stable mental health, according to the documents, but sent him back to the United States for what the soldier recalls the doctor describing as his “safety.”

I spend a considerable amount of time studying human rights abuses and the efforts to fix countries after rights abuse atrocities – think apartheid, Pinochet, Rwanda, etc – have occured and those in power have (hopefully) been deposed. The resulting treatment for the country is usually a truth and reconciliation commission that, in many cases, trades amnesty for full disclosure from perpetrators on every side of the conflict. However, it is often the case that the new government is still beholden to or under some auspices of control of the old boss, or the judiciary and enforcement capability of the new government is still in an infant state, and the truth commissions aren’t able to do anything resembling a good job.

Another road block impeding NGO’s and truth commissions are the involvement of outside actors – in many cases when other major world powers are involved in human rights abuses by way of funding and training, those countries get a pass from the truth commission, or the truth commission is explicitly not allowed to pursue any lines of investigation involving that outside actor.

I believe it is safe to say that we may not ever see a truth commission in Iraq or Afghanistan, and we won’t see an external one dealing with Iraq and Afghanistan for a generation.

So support your troops, Dear Readers. California National Guard Sgt. Greg Ford may end up being denied services and benefits he has earned through valorous service to our country because of his forced and false classification as unstable. Since many organizations are trying to get Congress to investigate the widespread abuse of detainees, write or call your Congressman, the Army, the DOD, and the White House and find out what’s being done.