Forest/Trees

There is an old saying about not being able to see the forest because of all the trees in the way. That can be a real danger in these times, with many people seeing certain events as completely discreet, independent things without seeing that more is going on than one particular data point.

Various pundits out there see and discuss various things going on in the world. Many of these discussions are quite insightful. On whatever topic, there are people willing to talk about the details. But there is a tendency to focus on one thing that is happening in the world when this happens.

Part of this, I think, stems from the way the news is covered and presented. We see stories and events as discreet points in tie. There is an event in Iraq - single point. There is a report of a possible test of nuclear weapons in North Korea - single point. There is a war in Lebanon - single point.

Maybe they are not single points. Maybe they are related. I happen to think they are. Instead of discreet points and events, I see underlying suspicious coordination. Sectarian violence in Iraq begins to accelerate where it really had not been a major problem.Apparently driven by Shi'ite militias of a cleric tied to Iran.  PKK elements (living in an area 10 miles from the Iranian border) suddenly start offenses into Turkey. An Iranian proxy begins a war in Lebanon.

Discreet points? I suspect not.

Court Jester

John "Magic Hat" Kerry continues to show that he deserved to lose in the 2004 election. Today, he began excavating an even lower position for himself. The man who voted for the war in Iraq, then voted against funding the troops used his moral low ground to attack Joe Lieberman.

Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., blasted a fellow Democrat, Sen. Joe Lieberman, for continuing his bid in the Connecticut Senate race despite a narrow loss to newcomer Ned Lamont in the Democratic primary earlier this month.

"I'm concerned that [Lieberman] is making a Republican case," Kerry told ABC News' "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" in an exclusive appearance.

Kerry accused the 2000 Democratic vice presidential candidate of "adopting the rhetoric of Dick Cheney," on the issue of Iraq.

"Joe Lieberman is out of step with the people of Connecticut," Kerry added, insisting Lieberman's stance on Iraq, "shows you just why he got in trouble with the Democrats there."

Kerry called Lieberman's independent bid a "huge mistake" and applauded businessman-turned-politician Lamont as "courageous" for challenging Lieberman on the war.

Of his own views on Iraq, Kerry stated forthrightly, "The course of this country in Iraq is making the world more dangerous."

Kerry, the Democrat's nominee for president in 2004, supported the 2003 Senate resolution that ultimately led to the invasion of Iraq, and was criticized throughout his White House bid for then opposing a measure funding continuing operations in that effort. The Bush campaign seized on what they described as Kerry's wavering views on Iraq, which in part led to the senator's 2004 election defeat.

Mindlessly ambitious, Kerry does not realize how utterly silly he sounds these days. This is a fundamentally unserious person with a long record of mediocrity (that being the kindest assessment of his political career). His vilification of Lieberman is all about Joe's failure to recant a position that Kerry once openly backed. A position that Kerry abandoned not out of principle, but to advance his career.

Love

Whether or not you are a Christian, whether or not you believe in any faith whatsoever, these are some of the most powerful words ever written in any language about any subject.

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.

If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.

It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.

Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.

It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.

For we know in part and we prophesy in part,

but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears.

When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.

Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

May my son and my newest daughter experience love for many years to come.

Wedding Bells

It is unlikely that I will be posting any more today since I will be attending a wedding. My son, home on leave, is getting married. It's hard to blog in a tuxedo!

UPDATE: I'm back earlier than I expected. In hindsight, I should have realized it is, after all, a Sunday and people have to act accordingly. It was a lovely wedding, and the newlyweds are a wonderful couple.

Sunday Nudes

All the Sunday nudes rounded up in one place.

Item: Women in Nepal have rolled out the ultimate weapon to attempt to bring rain to parched fields. They stripped naked and plowed their fields. Reportedly, this then brought on at least some light rain.

About 50 women in two villages in Kapilvastu district, 190 km (120 miles) west of Kathmandu, resorted to the desperate move at night on Friday as days of prayers and Hindu ceremonies failed to bring rains for the parched paddy crop, it said.

"This is our last weapon, we used it, and there was light rainfall," Nepali daily Rajdhani quoted one of the women as saying.

Although there is no clear religious basis for the practice, some locals believe such a move could appease the rain gods.

We do not recommend this practice as there is no scientific proof that it works. Anyone interested in participating in a scientifically controlled study of the phenomenon should contact our research division, the Magic 8-Ball Academy of Science and Window Cleaning, Inc.

Item: The world's largest strip poker tournament has been held. A 32 year old freelance writer named John Young beat out some 200 contenders by keeping more clothing on. Whereupon he took all his clothes off to celebrate his victory.

John Young, a 32-year-old freelance writer from Slough, a town just west of London, secured victory after an eight hour competition involving both men and women from 12 countries, organisers Paddy Power said on Sunday.

"We said we would give 10,000 pounds to Cancer Research if John dropped his trousers at the end of the match and he duly obliged," a spokesman for the Irish bookmaker said.

Paddy Power decided to hold the competition after its spoof April Fool earlier this year generated a lot of interest.

The contest was held on Saturday in the prestigious Cafe Royal in central London with players battling it out in games of "No Limit Texas Hold 'em".

Well, it was for a good cause after all. No word on if it was raining by the end of the tournament.

Active Support

Kofi Annan's UN is more than just a means of passive support for terrorism and terrorists. Indeed, they have crossed over to active support by providing sensitive war materials to Hezbollah.

Israeli intelligence officials have complained to Britain and the United States that sensitive night-vision equipment recovered from Hezbollah fighters during the war in Lebanon had been exported by Britain to Iran. British officials said the equipment had been intended for use in a U.N. anti-narcotics campaign.

Israeli officials say they believe the state-of-the-art equipment, found in Hezbollah command-and-control headquarters in southern Lebanon during the just-concluded war, was part of a British government-approved shipment of 250 pieces of night-vision equipment sent to Iran in 2003.

Israeli military intelligence confirmed that one of the pieces of equipment is a Thermo-vision 1000 LR tactical night-vision system, serial No. 155010, part No. 193960, manufactured by Agema, a high-tech equipment company with branches in Bedfordshire, England, and San Diego. A spokesman for Agema in San Diego denied all knowledge of the system.

The equipment, which needed special export-license approval from the British government, was passed to the Iranians through a program run and administered by the U.N. Drug Control Program. The equipment uses infrared imaging to provide nighttime surveillance that allows the user to detect people and vehicles moving in the dark at a range of several miles.

Use of such equipment would have enabled Hezbollah to detect and record the movements of Israeli forces inside Israel, as well as its military advance into Lebanon.

Britain and Italy both have provided specialized tracking and monitoring equipment over the past decade as part of U.N.-sponsored attempts to stem the flow of heroin and opium into Western Europe from Afghanistan and Pakistan. Iran is a major route for shipment of narcotics to the West.

A spokesman for the British Foreign Office in London said Saturday, "The Israeli Defense Forces have confirmed to us they have found some night-vision equipment in south Lebanon that is apparently made in Britain. We're trying to get further details to see exactly what the equipment is, who made it and who the original buyer is."

The spokesman, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Britain participates, through the U.N. drug-fighting agency, in Iran's interception program, which is run by anti-narcotics forces along the country's eastern border with Afghanistan and Pakistan, both major opium poppy-growing countries.

It can be argued that the UN is not responsible for Iran's misuse of the equipment by handing over to Hezbollah. That is somewhat disingenuous, however. There should have been strict controls on the equipment in order to keep it from being illegally transferred. Of course, the British government is also at fault for not having required those controls.

Speaking Of Dishonor

The previous post notes criticism of France and its duplicity in negotiating a ceasefire in Lebanon. Now we have the New York Times doing its level best to behave like the French.

JERUSALEM, Aug. 19 — Despite a cease-fire agreement, Israel intends to do its best to keep Iran and Syria from rearming Hezbollah and to kill the militia’s leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, says a senior Israeli commander. (Emphasis added).

Note the spin? "Despite a ceasefire" agreement that specifies that Hezbollah must not be rearmed Israel has the unmitigated gall to vow to enforce that ceasefire. Despite the fact that the UN passed a resolution requiring the disarmament of Hezbollah a couple of years back Israel is doing something wrong to act to actually enforce the resolution.

In other words, talk the talk but don't you dare walk the walk. It's downright French.

Honor Lost

Jules Crittendon, writing in the Boston Herald has a stinging indictment of the French and their behavior over Lebanon. Frankly, as harsh as it is, it probably isn't hard enough on them.

French is the traditional language of diplomacy. Diplomacy is the art of saying one thing while doing another. I

n recent weeks, France stepped forward to act as a broker of peace in Lebanon. “Act” is the key verb in that last sentence, as it now would seem that the only other verifiable part of the sentence is “in recent weeks.” 

To correctly parse that sentence, one must understand that when France suggested it wanted to broker peace in Lebanon, it did not necessarily mean “broker” or “peace” or “Lebanon” in the way we might understand those words. The same is true when France further suggested it wanted to “lead” a “strong” “multinational” “force” there.

I don’t speak French, so I have no idea what the actual French words are for those concepts or what possible nuances there may be. I’ve been relying on news reports in English, which now inform me that the French do not intend to send any significant number of troops to what is supposed to be a force of 15,000 in Lebanon, like everyone thought they said they would.

The heady moment of peace brokering having passed, upon sober reflection, the French now say they already have a general and some staff in south Lebanon ordering about UNIFIL, the U.N. monitoring entity there. That’s plenty of leadership, the French suggested: All France needs to contribute now is another 200 combat engineers.

In tactical terms, when it comes to securing a Middle East conflict zone, that can be referred to as “squat.”

The United Nations, which is trying to salvage what is left of its own self-respect after the utter failure of UNIFIL in Lebanon, is now publicly begging European nations to contribute troops.

To find the last plain-speaking French leader, it is necessary to go back to Napoleon Bonaparte. He said he was going to take over Europe, and proceeded to do so. No, scratch that. He said he was going to bring French liberty and equality to Europe, then crowned himself emperor. Subsequent French history offers us a sordid string of third world colonizations followed by bloody wars to hang on long after the time to relinquish colonies had passed, setting the stage for corrupt government and prolonged conflict in places like Vietnam.

As a couple of commenters have pointed out on earlier posts, this is not to cast aspersions on the French troops themselves, but rather on the pathetic leadership that directs them. The words France and dishonor have virtually become synonymous because of the political leadership it has.

Assad Makes Enemies

It appears that Syrian president Bashar Assad has succeeded in deepening his isolation in the world. Arab media in Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia has begun attacking him over the speech he gave criticizing Arab governments for their reaction over Lebanon.

 Syria's president sparked a wave of anger after he knocked Mideast leaders as "half men" in a televised speech, underlining the divisions as Arab nations try to form a unified front in the wake of the Lebanon crisis.

The bitterness over Bashar Assad's speech last week will likely stir up a gathering of Arab foreign ministers in Cairo on Sunday. The meeting is supposed to pave the way for a summit of heads of state later in the month that will draw up plans to help rebuild Lebanon - and try to launch a new Arab peace initiative with Israel.

So far governments have not commented on Assad's jibes - instead, the task has been left to newspapers in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan - some of which are state-guided - which have been sizzling with personal and direct attacks on Assad the like of which the region has not seen directed against an Arab leader in years.

One paper described the Syrian president as a rose that has failed to bloom. Another berated him for remaining silent throughout Israel's offensive on Lebanon. And a third mocked all his talk about resistance when not a single bullet has been fired from Syria toward the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

Assad had been silent throughout the 34 days of fighting in Lebanon between Israel and Hizbullah, a Syrian ally. But the day after a cease-fire set in, he gave his speech.

He said the Lebanon war had "unveiled half men" - a reference to the opposition of Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan to Hizbullah's abduction of two IDF soldiers that triggered the July 12 fighting.

Assad's undiplomatic rhetoric, unusual for this Arab regime that has long seen itself as the champion of Arab nationalism, suggested he was deepening his move away from the Arab world's heavyweights allied to Washington and closer to Persian Iran.

That really is the problem now. Syria is rapidly allowing itself to become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Iran. The other countries in that region are running out of time to stand up to Iran and avoid the same fate. I rather suspect that has a lot to do with the sudden unleashing of the press in this manner.