Istanbul Not Constantinople

Pope Benedict XVI is certainly a brave man. He arrived in Turkey for an official visit despite the threats and protests being made by thugs hiding behind a religious mask. The prime minister of Turkey met the Pope's airplane when it landed in Istanbul.

Two months after the pope touched off fury across the Islamic world with remarks linking violence and Prophet Muhammad, the Turkish prime minister — in a last-minute change of plans — was on hand at the airport in Turkey's capital to greet the pontiff.

"All feel the same responsibility in this difficult moment in history, let's work together," Benedict said during his flight from Rome to Ankara, where more than 3,000 police and sharpshooters joined a security effort that surpassed even the visit of President Bush two years ago.

The pope used his first moments of his four-day trip to try to mend fences with Islamic leaders.

"We know that the scope of this trip is dialogue and brotherhood and the commitment for understanding between cultures … and for reconciliation," he told reporters on his plane.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan welcomed the pope at the foot of the plane.

"I want to express happiness to see you and your delegation in our country," Erdogan told the pope before meeting with him privately. He described the pope's visit as "very meaningful."

Erdogan, who was bound for a NATO summit in Latvia, had only announced the day before that he would make time to meet Benedict in a nation where many people view the pope with suspicion. Erdogan's political party has Islamic roots, though the government is secular.

In his first official act, Benedict visited the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey, and wrote a message in a guest book calling Turkey "a meeting point of different religions and cultures and a bridge between Asia and Europe."

Erdogan also called for Turks to honor the traditional conventions of hospitality and to reject provocations by marginal groups. Whereupon one of said marginal groups immediately tried to return Turkey to the Middle Ages:

On Monday, a group of 100 pro-Islamic demonstrators displayed a petition demanding that the Haghia Sophia, now a museum in Istanbul, be declared a mosque and opened to worship for Muslims.

The Haghia Sophia was built in the 6th century as a Christian church, but was converted to a mosque in 1453 when Islamic armies conquered the city — then a Christian metropolis called Constantinople.

One wishes the media would get the terminology right. Islamists seek temporal power by hiding behind Islam. But they are not "Islamic".

By the way, for those who are unaware of how Mustafa Kemal Ataturk dragged Turkey into the modern world here's the Wikipedia entry. Many of the islamists want to drag it back out.

Rewarding Thugs

The New York Times has an article discussing the hand that Hezbollah has in training fighters for the "Mahdi Army" of Moktada al-Sadr. The Iranian puppet organization is training Iraqi fighters both in Lebanon and in Iraq. The Times appears to be dismayed that this strengthens arguments that we should not be dealing with the thugs who are engineering the violence and fighting a proxy war against the United States.

The official said that 1,000 to 2,000 fighters from the Mahdi Army and other Shiite militias had been trained by Hezbollah in Lebanon. A small number of Hezbollah operatives have also visited Iraq to help with training, the official said.

Iran has facilitated the link between Hezbollah and the Shiite militias in Iraq, the official said. Syrian officials have also cooperated, though there is debate about whether it has the blessing of the senior leaders in Syria.

The intelligence official spoke on condition of anonymity under rules set by his agency, and discussed Iran’s role in response to questions from a reporter.

The interview occurred at a time of intense debate over whether the United States should enlist Iran’s help in stabilizing Iraq. The Iraq Study Group, directed by James A. Baker III, a former Republican secretary of state, and Lee H. Hamilton, a former Democratic lawmaker, is expected to call for direct talks with Tehran.

The claim about Hezbollah’s role in training Shiite militias could strengthen the hand of those in the Bush administration who oppose a major new diplomatic involvement with Iran.

The new American account is consistent with a claim made in Iraq this summer by a mid-level Mahdi commander, who said his militia had sent 300 fighters to Lebanon, ostensibly to fight alongside Hezbollah. “They are the best-trained fighters in the Mahdi Army,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The specific assertions about Iran’s role went beyond those made publicly by senior American officials, though Gen. Michael V. Hayden, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, did tell Congress this month that “the Iranian hand is stoking violence” in Iraq.

The American intelligence on Hezbollah was based on human sources, electronic means and interviews with detainees captured in Iraq.

American officials say the Iranians have also provided direct support to Shiite militias in Iraq, including explosives and trigger devices for roadside bombs, and training for several thousand fighters, mostly in Iran. The training is carried out by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and the Ministry of Intelligence and Security, they say.

The so-called "realists" that want to negotiate with these thugs are operating in a "reality" that does not actually exist. They appear to think that countries like Iran and Syria can actually be relied on to negotiate in good faith. They can't. They are engineering this violence in Iraq for the purpose of defeating the US. Negotiating with them hands them an unearned victory.

American politicians used to understand that you do not reward thuggishness. Robert Goodloe Harper once famously said: "Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute”. Maybe the "realists" should study a bit of history.

Egonet

Michael Kinsley has a column in today's Washington Post that marvels at the humongous display of egos that is the internet. In a way, it is kind of a lament that there are now people able to reach some audience, however small, without going through the massive egos of the gatekeepers of the old media. But the article is kind of amusing even if it is kind of pointless. (Nope, no ego here).

If so, we are all crazy now. There is something about the Web that brings out the ego monster in everybody. It's not just the well-established tendency to be nasty. When you write for the Web, you open yourself up to breathtakingly vicious vitriol. People wish things on your mother, simply for bearing you, that you wouldn't wish on Hitler.

But even in their quieter modes, denizens of the Web seem to lug around huge egos and deeply questionable assumptions about how interesting they and their lives might be to others.

This is strange. Anonymity, for better or for worse, is supposed to be one of the signature qualities of the Web. As that dog in the New Yorker cartoon says, "On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog." The Internet is a place where you can interact with other people and have complete control over how much they know about you. Or supposedly that is the case, and virtually everybody on the Internet is committed to achieving that goal.

But anonymity does not actually seem to interest many of the Web's most devoted users. They are the ones who start their own sites or sign up for MySpace or submit videos to YouTube. Indeed, the most successful Web sites seem to be those where people can abandon anonymity and use the Internet to stake their claims as unique individuals. Here is a list of my friends. Here are all the CDs in my collection. Here is a picture of my dog. On the Internet, not only does everybody know that you're a dog, everybody knows what kind of dog, how old, your taste in collars, your favorite dog food recipe and so on.

Of course, his sweeping generalizations get it wrong. Not all the denizens of the interwebby tubes are dogs. Some are crabs.

Not Invited

I'm guessing Charlie Rangel won't get an invitation to the American Legion Christmas party any time soon. The national commander, Paul Morin has issued a strongly worded demand for an apology to the troops for the insulting and condescending statements Rangel continues to make whenever he can get his smug face on the television. I'm reproducing it in full here. I think they want the American people to read this.

WASHINGTON, November 27, 2006  -  The National Commander of The American Legion called on Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) to apologize for suggesting that American troops would not choose to fight in Iraq if they had other employment options.

“Our military is the most skilled, best-trained all-volunteer force on the planet,” said National Commander Paul A. Morin. “Like that recently espoused by Sen. John Kerry, Congressman Rangel’s view of our troops couldn’t be further from the truth and is possibly skewed by his political opposition to the war in Iraq.”

According to Rangel, “If a young fellow has an option of having a decent career, or joining the Army to fight in Iraq, you can bet your life that he would not be in Iraq. If there’s anyone who believes these youngsters want to fight, as the Pentagon and some generals have said, you can just forget about it. No bright young individual wants to fight just because of a bonus and just because of some educational benefits,” Rangel said.

Rangel was responding to a question during an interview yesterday on Fox News Sunday about a recent study by the Heritage Foundation which found that those enlisting in the military tend to be better educated than the general public and that military recruiting seems to be more successful in middle-class and wealthy neighborhoods than in poor ones.

According to the study, 97 percent of military enlistees were high school graduates versus 80 percent of Americans in general. The study also concludes that the average reading level of military personnel is a full grade level higher than that of the general population.

“I’m not sure I understand what is unfair about letting adults make their own career choices,” Morin said as he visited troops in Korea this week. “Troops serving today have a higher education level than the overall population. Why another member of Congress is insulting our troops’ commitment and education level is beyond me.”

Morin said The American Legion applauds and appreciates the great sacrifices of those who serve - many of whom have put civilian careers aside, college on hold or given up high paying jobs to enlist.
More and more troops say it’s duty and honor before college fund that motivated them to join. Recruiting numbers have been met this year, but more importantly, servicemembers are reenlisting so retention within the armed forces is great, Morin explained. Not everyone holds the view that we should wait to be attacked again as a nation.

“These brave men and women lay it on the line every day for each and every one of us, for which I am very grateful,” Morin said. “Their selfless commitment for the betterment of our world from radical extremists is beyond commendable. It’s time for members of Congress to stop insulting our troops.

“While The American Legion shares the congressman’s appreciation for education, the troops in Iraq represent the most sophisticated, technologically superior military that the world has ever seen,” Morin said. “I call on Congressman Rangel to not only apologize to our troops but to also fight for pay increases and make significant improvements to the current GI Bill - reserves and guard included, as he prepares for a party chairmanship in the 110th Congress.”

Founded in 1919, the 2.7 million-member American Legion is the nation’s preeminent service organization for veterans of the U.S. armed forces, including active duty, National Guard and Reserves, and their families. A powerful voice for veterans in Washington, The American Legion drafted the original GI Bill and was instrumental in establishing the agency that today is the federal Department of Veterans Affairs.

Really a bad crowd to alienate, Charlie. Vets tend to vote. And remember. On second thought, maybe they will invite him. To play Scrooge.

Tracksbacks

In fighting the spam wars around this place, when the waves reach hurricane level, I turn on the anti-spam word for comments just to give the old interwebby tubes a rest. That kills trackbacks, though (and the Bad Behavior plug-in kills a lot of legitimate 'bots access to the site). I've tried turning it off again to see if the frenzy of spam has subsided.

UPDATE: Nope - I had to reactivate it. They were hitting so hard that they caused a CPU suspension for the site.

Kerry The Unlikeable

It seems that John Kerry ranked dead last in likeablity among 20 major political figures in a new poll just out. The Reuters story chose to focus on that bit of "duh" news rather than on something pretty stunning.

Rudy Giuliani finished first. By a fair amount.

In the current poll, former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, a Republican, ranked first with a mean score of 64.2, followed by Democratic Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, 58.8, and McCain, 57.7. All three are potential presidential candidates.

While Obama received a high score, 41 percent said they had not heard enough about the first-term senator to offer an opinion.

What they also bury far, far down on the second page is where Hillary Clinton ranked. That would be ninth. Bill Clinton ranked fifth.

Oh, and out of the field of 20, Kerry ranked 22nd.