“Vietnam was not easy, but it was certainly far less complex and more straightforward.”
That is a quote from Bruce Hoffman, a RAND counterinsurgency expert who served as an adviser to the U.S.-led occupation administration, comparing the “complex insurgency” in Iraq with Vietnam. Read it all.
Sounds like the Afghans understand how American democracy really works:
Abdul Razaq stands among the menfolk of this dusty village of Afghan nomads and rejoices that democracy has at last come to his country after more than 20 years of warfare.
“It means I can finally cast my ballot for Hamid Karzai,” Razaq, a Kuchi tribesman, said yesterday, echoing the words of about 300 other men gathered on a treeless hillside near a clutch of tents and mud-brick homes. They had convened to learn from U.N. education officers how to take part in the Oct. 9 vote. “Karzai is our leader. Karzai is our king,” Razaq and the others repeated.
Each man in this poor village just outside the capital, Kabul, says he will vote for Karzai, the interim president and a fellow Pashtun, Afghanistan’s largest ethnic group. They say their elders have told them that Karzai is the best choice, and they see no reason to question that.
“In Kuchi society, we listen to our elders. They have said the choice is ours, but that Karzai is the man for the job,” said Mohammed Saeed, a 41-year-old father of seven. “We all know what to do. We will all be voting for Karzai.”
Of course, the Associated Press chap on the scene fails to see any parallels:
But there is still little understanding in this tribal society of either the mechanics of voting, or the concept that each vote is an individual decision.
That is one reason why the electoral campaign so far has borne such little resemblance to a Western-style vote. There have been only a handful of rallies and debates and few campaign promises. Instead, candidates have spent most of their time meeting behind the high-walled compounds of Kabul’s political elite with tribal elders who can deliver a guarantee of hundreds of votes.
Ah, the comfort of chavinistic delusions! “Such little resemblance to a Western-style vote”?! Has this journalist ever heard of Jesse Jackson or Ralph Reed?
“Karzai is an elder of our tribe. There is no other choice,” Haji Mohammed Anwar said.
I daresay Mr. Anwar’s analysis is no less sophisticated than that of the average voter in the U.S./UK. Instead of marveling at the naivete of Afghans, someone should be asking why a majority of Americans and Britons will likely consider Afghanistan a success story after this bogus vote is over.
Today, on his afternoon interview show Scott Horton will be interviewing Tom Barry, about Iran. Scott will also interview Bob Barr about civil liberties in wartime.
The show is from 4-6PM ET, and can be heard here.
They’re a litigious bunch: Richard Perle, Michael Ledeen, and now Conrad Black:
All members of the special committee were served with legal notice of the lawsuit, Black said, including Hollinger International’s interim Chairman and CEO Gordon Paris. Richard C. Breeden, the former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission chairman who authored the committee’s scathing 513-page report, was also named as a defendant, along with Paul Healey, vice president of investor relations.
The lawsuit, which will be filed in an Ontario court, will seek Canadian $1.1 billion, the statement said. This is the second libel action Black has filed in Canada against Hollinger International figures. A suit filed in February demands approximately U.S.$675 million in damages.
Breeden’s report stated that “Black and (former Sun-Times Publisher F. David Radler) made it their business to line their pockets at the expense of Hollinger almost every day, in almost every way possible. … Ethical corruption was a defining characteristic of the leadership team.” The report documented what it said were excessive and unauthorized payments to top executives, and characterized the star-studded Hollinger board as “inattentive” to the abuses.
In his statement, Black said the payments “were justifiable and disclosed by sophisticated and fully informed independent directors.”
So is Lord Black going to sue Richard Perle? Or could these two chickenhawks resolve their differences in a more dignified manner, say, a pillow fight? Stay tuned.
Julian Sanchez of Reason.com compares reality with Bush’s own words:
Bush (approximately): “He says we didn’t have allies? What does he say to Tony Blair? What does he say to Aleksander Kwasniewski of Poland?”
President Aleksander Kwasniewski of Poland: “They deceived us about the weapons of mass destruction, that’s true. We were taken for a ride.”
Just in case today’s spotlight piqued your interest, here’s the e-mail circulated by Wall Street Journal Baghdad correspondent Farnaz Fassihi. Not-so-shockingly, the warbloggers, who lap up every syllable of WSJ op-eds, have thus far left this one alone.
