As a replacement for raving mad men :)
Showing posts with label OBL. Show all posts
Showing posts with label OBL. Show all posts
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Monday, May 09, 2011
Hitchens takes on Chomsky. Go Hitch!
Two days ago, when I read this Noam Chomsky piece on Osama bin Laden's death, I tweeted that Chomsky has gone off the deep end, and that it is high time he retired.
I may have as well not vented about it, because there is the mother of all responses to Chomsky, from the debater extraordinaire, Christopher Hitchens, who writes that Chomsky is "offensive, inconsistent, and ignorant."
Hitchens points Chomsky, who claims that there isn't evidence linking bin Laden to 9/11, to the ever mounting evidence against bin Laden, and not all of it is from the US government either:
As Hitchens writes, "With the paranoid anti-war "left," you never quite know where the emphasis is going to fall next." He knows it all too well--after all, he was a darling of the left crowd until he pissed them off by turning colors soon after, and in response to, the events of 9/11.
Hitchens summarizes a Chomsky (world)view as thus:
I may have as well not vented about it, because there is the mother of all responses to Chomsky, from the debater extraordinaire, Christopher Hitchens, who writes that Chomsky is "offensive, inconsistent, and ignorant."
Hitchens points Chomsky, who claims that there isn't evidence linking bin Laden to 9/11, to the ever mounting evidence against bin Laden, and not all of it is from the US government either:
Chomsky still enjoys some reputation both as a scholar and a public intellectual. And in the face of bombardments of official propaganda, he prides himself in a signature phrase on his stern insistence on "turning to the facts." So is one to assume that he has pored through the completed findings of the 9/11 Commission? Viewed any of the videos in which the 9/11 hijackers are seen in the company of Bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri? Read the transcripts of the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui, the so-called "20th hijacker"? Followed the journalistic investigations of Lawrence Wright, Peter Bergen, or John Burns, to name only some of the more salient? Acquainted himself with the proceedings of associated and ancillary investigations into the bombing of the USS Cole or indeed the first attempt to bring down the Twin Towers in the 1990s?It is this bizarre anti-war left of the Noam Chomskys and Arundhati Roys that then makes the anti-war people like me even hide ourselves in a closet. Because, normal people think that anybody who is anti-war has to be a fanatical nutcase like a Chomsky or Roy! And the Chomsky faithful think that people like me are sellouts, to whom I know not!
As Hitchens writes, "With the paranoid anti-war "left," you never quite know where the emphasis is going to fall next." He knows it all too well--after all, he was a darling of the left crowd until he pissed them off by turning colors soon after, and in response to, the events of 9/11.
Hitchens summarizes a Chomsky (world)view as thus:
In short, we do not know who organized the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, or any other related assaults, though it would be a credulous fool who swallowed the (unsupported) word of Osama Bin Laden that his group was the one responsible. An attempt to kidnap or murder an ex-president of the United States (and presumably, by extension, the sitting one) would be as legally justified as the hit on Abbottabad. And America is an incarnation of the Third Reich that doesn't even conceal its genocidal methods and aspirations. This is the sum total of what has been learned, by the guru of the left, in the last decade.Stage left, Professor Chomsky. And his populist sidekick, Michael Moore, too.
Friday, May 06, 2011
bin Laden dead. Five days. The $ cost is HUGE
Joseph Stiglitz gave us a $3 trillion figure, which he recently stated is lower than the real price we have paid, once we factor in the opportunity costs.
Ezra Klein revisits this theme, and notes that OBL was successful, even if he didn't win it:
The National Journal provides the following chart to put things in perspective:
And adds:
Ezra Klein revisits this theme, and notes that OBL was successful, even if he didn't win it:
[OBL] had a strategy that we never bothered to understand, and thus that we never bothered to defend against. What he really wanted to do — and, more to the point, what he thought he could do — was bankrupt the United States of America. After all, he’d done the bankrupt-a-superpower thing before. And though it didn’t quite work out this time, it worked a lot better than most of us, in this exultant moment, are willing to admit.Now, OBL is gone, and it is high time we started to seriously rethink the war machinery that has ruled America.
The National Journal provides the following chart to put things in perspective:
And adds:
More than actual security, we bought a sense of action in the face of what felt like an existential threat. We staved off another attack on domestic soil. Our debt load was creeping up already, thanks to the early waves stages of baby-boomer retirements, but we also hastened a fiscal mess that has begun, in time, to fulfill bin Laden’s vision of a bankrupt America. If left unchecked, our current rate of deficit spending would add $9 trillion to the national debt over the next decade. That’s three Osamas, right there.What, me worry?
Although Bin Laden is buried in the sea, other Islamist extremists are already vying to take his place. In time, new enemies, foreign and domestic, will rise to challenge America. What they will cost us, far more than we realize, is our choice.
Thursday, May 05, 2011
Pakistan: be afraid. very, very afraid!
As I reviewed them, it scares the hell out of me that here I am in a small town far away from Pakistan and Washington, DC, and have been constantly harping on the need to remain focused on an effective Pakistan strategy, only to realize after these years that we still do not have one. How awful!
I have selected the following from my posts, and have excerpted a few sentences to convey their main arguments. In chronological order:
August 7, 2008: On the edge of a nervous breakdownNow, against these blog entries, consider the following news stories of today:
the military and the ISI might easily be tempted to play the India card, with a new twist: that India is working with Afghanistan, and using its embassy in Kabul to launch its anti-Pakistan activities, to squeeze Pakistan from all sides. If the country gets sold on this argument, then, say hello to mushroom clouds over the subcontinent.September 14, 2008: Pakistan is Cambodia, if Afghanistan is the new Vietnam
Ever since the US upped the ante by sending in ground and air forces into Pakistan's territory--without getting Pakistan's permission--we knew that it was only a matter of days before we morphed into Pakistan's enemy. It certainly looks comparable to the beginnings of the incursions into Cambodia.November 22, 2008: How to solve a problem like Pakistan
the nuclear armed pakistan is close to failing as a state. ... No, I am not exaggerating: Pakistan's collapse can unleash demons that can be beyond our wildest imaginations.April 4, 2009: Run! Now! Pak says nukes are safe!!!
It is way past time to worry when the prime minister has to go around trying to convince everybody that the nukes are safe! The good thing for us in America: we are far away from the chaos. The bad news: that is what we used to think until September 11, 2001!
Cornered Pakistan may strike India to salvage lost pride (Times of India)Meanwhile, just as bin Laden was America's Public Enemy #1, Dawood has been India's enemy #1. Where was Dawood? Ahem, in Pakistan. Where is he now, in the post Osama world? India Today reports:
Deeply embarrassed by the US raid that killed Osama bin Laden under its nose, the Pakistan army might be tempted to ratchet up hostility towards India and even encourage the terror proxies it controls to stage strikes on the Indian mainland, the Indian security establishment feels.Pakistan dares India to break border (The Nation)
Pakistan, in clear allusion to India, said on Thursday any country that tried to raid its territory in the way US forces did to kill Osama bin Laden would face consequences from its military.India says Pakistan violated LOC ceasefire (Daily Times)
India said the Pakistani army fired on its positions and violated a ceasefire agreement in Indian-held Kashmir.
After Pakistan being caught ignorant about the presence of the world's most wanted terrorist Osama bin Laden, its Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) has whisked away India's most wanted gangster-turned-terrorist -- Dawood Ibrahim -- from the country.If only it were merely about Dawood, says the Times of India:
Headlines Today accessed a secret intelligence dossier which says that the ISI has shifted the notorious underworld kingpin to Azerbaijan or Tajakistan. He has been moved out to keep him from the post-Laden killing troubles.
Despite evidence produced by New Delhi to the contrary, Pakistani leaders have for years rebuffed claims that criminals and terrorists sought by the Indian government are living on its soil. They consistently denied knowledge of Dawood Ibrahim operating out of Karachi and even brushed aside news reports of his daughter's lavish wedding in Dubai.
Police say that Dawood is only the most prominent of names receiving sanctuary across the border. Besides him, Karachi is playing host to Dawood's brother Anees and his lieutenants Chhota Shakeel, Tiger Memon, Aftab Bhatki, Edda Yakoob and Fahim Machmach.
The list is longer. Mumbai train blasts suspects Riyaz Bhatkal and brother Iqbal Bhatkal are also said to be living in Pakistan.
The migration of India's most wanted to Pakistan occurred in the 1990s after New Delhi signed an extradition treaty with the United Arab Emirates, where many of them had taken refuge.
"In 2005, Dawood's daughter got married to cricketer Javed Miandad's son in a big ceremony. Later, his brother Noora died and the entire Pakistani media reported about it. And yet the Pakistani government kept denying the don's presence on its soil," said a senior police officer.
Inspector Louis Renault said it best in Casablanca:
bin Laden is dead. Four days. Unwarranted secrecy
In one of the "Mind your language" episodes, is it Ranjeet or Ali who remarks that he watched the most violent show on television, and when asked for the name of the show he replies, "Tom and Jerry."
Whether it is at the toon level, or in dramatic portrayals, television is super-saturated with images of horror and destruction--sometimes even worse than the ones in real life itself. And then the movies. Probably the worst of all horrific images are in computer games.
Most of the people on this planet are routinely bombarded with horrific images. It is, therefore, bizarre to hear the "it is too gory" justification for not releasing OBL's photo.
Talk about the nanny state!
Jack Shafer writes:
As always, it is only humor that can get me over the hump
Warning: do not eat or drink when watching the following:)
Most of the people on this planet are routinely bombarded with horrific images. It is, therefore, bizarre to hear the "it is too gory" justification for not releasing OBL's photo.
Talk about the nanny state!
Jack Shafer writes:
I'm for the publication of the pictures because they're an essential part of the war on al-Qaida. Withholding the photos and couching their suppression in the name of national security misjudges what makes al-Qaida tick and infantilizes the nation. It also sets a precedent for "news that's too gruesome to reveal." ...The other argument is that releasing the photo would incite anti-American jihad. Oh yeah, wave the "war on terror" banner all over again.
If a nation can be trusted to view the horrors of 9/11 in real time, flip through the Abu Ghraib picture book, witness the made-for-video murder of Daniel Pearl, see images of dead Uday and Qusay on the evening news, and gaze upon pictures of dead soldiers coming home as air freight (photos that President Bush, incidentally, tried to ban in the name of managing the news), then it can be trusted to stomach the last photos of Osama Bin Laden—and whatever turmoil those photos might cause. Why? Because that's what sort of country the United States is.
As always, it is only humor that can get me over the hump
Warning: do not eat or drink when watching the following:)
| The Colbert Report | Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Terrorists: They're Just Like Us! | ||||
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