If there was ever any doubt in anyone’s mind that the U.S. has been an obstacle to peace, it’s certainly gone now. It’s kind of appalling to watch the world grope for a way to accommodate George Bush’s and Ehud Olmert’s preconditions for a cease fire in Lebanon. As foreign ministers and diplomats haggle at the U.N., people continue to die in the Levant. Israel attacked a hospital in southern Lebanon, capturing what it described as Hezbollah fighters but what a Hezbollah parliamentarian said were civilians, several of whom were in their 50s. The Hezbollah guy challenged Israel to show the people they captured, but quite frankly, the same demand might be made regarding any of the thousands of detainees Israel holds without charge. Now the IDF is pursuing a push up to the Litani, strafing little fishing boats south of Beiruit, while Hezbollah is promising to respond by targeting Tel Aviv.

This would be a real good time for everyone to stop the hostilities, don’t you agree? Well… even if you do, George Bush doesn’t and neither does the Israeli government, not just yet. Their determination to attain political objectives through wanton violence differs from the tactics of Bin Laden only in scale – Dubya’s attack on Iraq dwarfs the 9/11 death toll by an enormous factor, and Olmert’s war against Lebanese society has the potential to do the same. The Bush administration’s craven insistence that this is somehow going to lead to a better Middle East underscores the contention that this is a deliberate escalation of hostilities and yet another war of choice in that troubled region. Now Dubya’s off for a ten-day break at his ersatz ranch in Crawford, Texas, there to hack away at scrub with various power tools as a small army of secret service men try to look like ranch hands and talk into their cufflinks. I suppose if he’s going to sit on his hands, he might as well do it there. (How like Nero’s fiddle is Bush’s chain saw – scratching away tunelessly as the empire burns.)

Even as the middle east is drenched in blood (Iraq, of course , continuing its slide toward the total anarchy Bush terms “freedom”), there was also time enough to crow about Fidel Castro’s health problems, as the key Bush constituency of Cuban exiles celebrated in Miami and major news outlets pondered what Washington’s “options” might be. My hometown newspaper ran an interesting little chart that compared various socio-economic statistics in Cuba and the U.S. – a comparison in which Cuba fared quite well, actually. Pretty remarkable when you consider the difference in available resources and the fact that Cuba has been under embargo for decades. Far more instructive would be a similar comparison between Cuba and, say, Guatemala or Honduras, since that is the model that America’s political culture would like to see Cuba adopt, post-Castro. Troubled as Cuba’s living standard is, it’s not anywhere near as miserable as that of its neighbors, whose economies are totally supine to U.S. economic power. Even so, the press opines how Cuba is a “nation ripe for economic change” and how its “enormous pent-up consumer demand” and 97 percent literacy rate make “Cuba’s workforce… hungry to work and full of potential.”

Perhaps someone should ask the Cubans in Cuba whether or not they want the Guatemalan model for economic misery. While they’re at it, they should ask the Iraqis, as well.

It’s week three of Israel’s assault on Lebanon, and once again it appears certain that the international community is unwilling to make any meaningful effort at restraining Tel Aviv. The Rome conference was a total waste of time, offering no relief to those whose lives are being torn apart by this attack and, in effect, sustaining (or at least not challenging) Washington’s veto of intervention towards a cease-fire.  With probably 600 dead in Lebanon and close to a million driven from their homes, the Bush cabal is still saying let the killing continue. Word has it that they are rush-shipping more highly sophisticated munitions to Israel to replenish an arsenal probably somewhat depleted by a hysterical use of firepower both in Lebanon and in Gaza. One would think that this might constitute a breach of the Arms Export Control Act since both civilians and non-military infrastructure are being targeted, but honestly… what law is there in times such as these?

With an almost palpable air of disingenuousness, press secretary Tony "tar-baby" Snow declared there to be "no daylight" between the U.S. and its European allies on the question of a cease-fire. Not exactly true, but here again, a U.S. veto means no action will be taken, so we can pretend. One thing is for certain – Israel’s actions are demonstrating in very graphic fashion that there is no daylight between the U.S. and Israel when it comes to tactics, military hardware, and total disregard for Arab civilians. The IDF has attacked fleeing civilians, blown up clearly marked ambulances, hit residential buildings in crowded neighborhoods. Who does that sound like? Lebanon’s cities are getting the Fallujah treatment, to say nothing of what Gaza is facing. As Dubya robotically repeats his stock phrases about "terrorists" and "wanton killers" and Condi Rice stumbles about aimlessly in Southeast Asia, Lebanese, Palestinians, and Iraqis continue to die in disproportionately high numbers as a result of his policy. 

Israel’s strikes on Lebanon are a highly premeditated effort to do lasting damage to the nation’s social infrastructure and economic viability. There is no way in hell these actions can be justified as directed against Hezbollah alone. The fact is, the broad nature of this military campaign is itself an implicit recognition of the fact that Hezbollah is a deeply integrated part of Lebanon’s Shi’ia community and its political/social landscape. No amount of U.S.-supplied munitions will make Hezbollah go away. Israel is simply laying the groundwork for a more virulently anti-Israeli sentiment in Lebanon and elsewhere in the region. This, too, resembles U.S. policy in Iraq. Just like the people of these stricken countries, we will be living with the consequences of these wars of choice for decades to come. It is likely that future jihadists will make no distinction between those who execute our military policies and the quiescent millions back home who blandly allow the killing to continue. 

Prove them wrong: tell your government to put a stop to this now. [White House: 202.456.1111; Congress: 202.224.3121] 

Bombastards. Israel’s hysterical use of largely U.S. supplied firepower continued unchecked this week, deepening the humanitarian crisis in the prison known as Gaza and raining destruction on a virtually defenseless Lebanon. On this side of the pond, pundits, ex-pols, and talking heads of every stripe are blathering their support of the indefensible. Long discredited ex-Speaker Newt Gingrich joined fellow armchair reactionaries Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity in describing this as World War III. (Hallucinogenic neo-con Michael Ledeen took time out from lobbying for war with Iran to announce the advent of something he calls “World War IV” – did I miss something?) Meanwhile, from his impregnable pillbox in the editorial pages of hundreds of U.S. newspapers – a safe distance from the fighting, to be sure – Chuck Krauthammer fulminated about how Israel is fighting for its life… though how a resistance organization of maybe 1,000 full-time fighters with second hand munitions can pose an existential threat to the world’s 4th most powerful military state (one with perhaps 300 nuclear weapons) is a bit of a mystery, frankly. 

The U.S.’s position on this severe breach of the peace is clear – let the killing continue. Presidential spokesman and First Cousin Tony Snow told reporters that the president was not in favor of a cease fire that would leave Hezbollah in place, a sentiment later echoed by Secretary Rice. True to the traditional American position regarding Israel, we have blocked any meaningful action by the Security Council. So much for the Bush doctrine of promoting democracy in the Middle East. How many times have we heard junior babble on about how democracies don’t attack their neighbors? Well, the Israeli democracy is now destroying what was recently hailed by the administration as a budding democracy in Lebanon, effectively ensuring that the dominant political force in southern Lebanon, whether Hezbollah or some successor, will be even more hostile towards Israel. Meanwhile in Gaza, Israel is busily attacking the democratically elected Hamas government, killing its constituents and kidnapping its ministers – essentially an escalation of its ongoing policy since the “disengagement” from Gaza. Clearly our support for democracy is based more on outcomes than on principles. No surprises there. 

Admiral Krauthammer’s second column of the week lamely attempted to frame Israel’s action in Lebanon as similar to the U.S. expulsion of Iraq from Kuwait in 1991. That’s probably the most ass-backwards analysis I’ve heard yet this year. If anyone here resembles Saddam Hussein’s wehrmacht it’s the IDF, unleashing the full fury of its arsenal on a far weaker nation, targeting civilian infrastructure, and killing hundreds of non-combatants so far. Not the first time, either. Furthermore, Hezbollah is anything but a foreign occupier of southern Lebanon, much as it may serve the neo-con paradigm to paint them as terror legions under orders from Tehran and Damascus. Hezbollah is an indigenous political organization deeply rooted in Lebanon’s Shi’a community, the nation’s single largest religious group comprising 40 percent of Lebanon’s population. Like Hamas, they are an Islamist group that has both political and military wings, and provides some level of basic services to a population that has been neglected by its own government and battered by the Israelis. It is Israel that is the invader, and it is they who will ultimately be driven out — now or ten years from now. 

Oh…. and Iraq is going septic. But lucky for Rumsfeld, now there’s another major conflict squeezing it off of the front page.  

Hats off, friends – Uncle Dick Cheney, president of these here United States, came to my home town this Friday to do a fundraiser for a local GOP geek who’s running for an open seat in the House of Representatives. The visit has generated a range of reactions, from expressions of delight at what an honor it is for Utica to host such an illustrious guest (like that nice general Pinochet… oh, and Mrs. Pinochet!) to a fair-sized protest march and rally (see www.creepyveep.com for details). Personally, I’m glad that this 300 pounds of condemned veal in a gray suit (as Gore Vidal so aptly described him) is going out of his way to endorse the Republican in this district’s first truly competitive congressional race in a quarter century. Cheney is a political leper, quite frankly, even less popular than his mutant ninja boss; a clip of him saying what a great congressman Ray Meier would make is just the kind of free advertising the opposition needs. 

Many people ascribe a kind of satanic darkness to this bloated object, but I have to say that I agree with Alex Cockburn on Cheney – he’s largely a fuck up, and thick as a plank. I mean, when has he gotten anything right? If it weren’t for the fact that there is, in essence, no opposition party and that the corporate press is a pack of subservient curs, Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld would have been out on their incompetent asses a long time ago. As it is, the vice president is now probably the most despised politician in America. Pity he’s running the country, really. I mean, the guy is so lame that even Vladmir Putin — VLADMIR PUTIN, for chrissake! — got a laugh line out on him the other day. I always think of that day down in Mississippi when Cheney was doing a post-Katrina photo op in his shirt sleeves and some guy shouted, “Fuck yourself, mister Cheney!” Probably the high point of his presidency… I mean, VICE presidency. Well… I suppose that would beat Bush’s high point — catching a big fish in his private pond. These boneheads could wreck the entire American empire simply by strolling through it. 

Speaking of the empire, things are really going septic just lately. If some kind of imperial order does exist, there is currently no one at the helm. Israel is pounding the living hell out of Gaza and Lebanon at the same time, while Hizbullah (in Lebanon) is vowing all out war on Israel in retaliation. They are, of course, a Shi’ite organization, and attacks on them will ripple through the majority population of Iraq, as well as Iran, Saudi Arabia, and elsewhere. Probably 100-150 million Shi’ia Muslims in the world, and I can’t think that very many of them are happy to see clerics’ homes being flattened and their children beheaded by Israeli munitions. Our official response? Israel has the right to offend itself. Did I get that right? Oh, yeah… a good offense is the best defense, right? So our way of helping is by lecturing the victims. That’s the stuff, Bolton. You tell ’em. 

This is getting pretty scary. That’s all I’ve got. Hang in there, folks. And keep your heads down. 

As you know, the North Koreans launched their deadly ICBM this week — the one our entire political office-holding class has been obsessing about for weeks on end. Turns out the missile that was supposed to be capable of reaching the U.S. couldn’t even make it to North Korea. Essentially the same thing happened back in the 1990s – dud missile makes world headlines and puts NORAD on high alert for a fortnight. Why is this treated like a credible threat to our very survival? Yes, North Korea may have nuclear weapons, but what the hell are they going to do with them? Even if that long-range missile worked, they couldn’t put their nukes on it… and even if they could, firing one at us or our allies would be like firing a pistol at a machine gun nest — a “suicide weapon” in the truest sense of the phrase. It is strange that we tend to behave as though we are threatened by these impoverished societies when, in fact, it is we who pose an existential threat to them. And we’ve demonstrated our willingness to attack without provocation.

Unfortunately, this tendency towards jingoistic alarmism is unlikely to change should Congress flip back to the Democrats this year, or if a Dem is elected to the presidency in 2008. There is a bipartisan consensus on this idiocy such that the party that’s out of power is always pushing the ruling party towards more extreme measures. Just as Kerry criticized Bush in 2004 for not hitting Fallujah hard enough, mainstream Democrats regularly chastise the administration for being too soft on Iran, North Korea, Syria, etc. Everybody wants to go for the “tough” guy routine – it’s a no-brainer in an election year (quite literally). Some of the stuff I hear Hillary Clinton saying is enough to make me want to picket her office and burn her publicity photo. You’d think a Senator would feel it less necessary to hew to a reactionary line in a state that’s one of the nation’s most liberal. Trouble is, she really believes that trash she’s talking, aging Goldwater girl that she is. 

When you’ve got support for the Iraq war at well below 50%, you have to wonder why so many Democrats are avoiding the issue like a new strain of the SARS virus. Why is a conservative Dem like John Murtha among the only ones saying anything substantive about this conflict? My guess is that they’re looking around the next electoral corner. They, in essence, are still trying to inoculate themselves against being on the wrong side of a victorious campaign, just as they tried to do during the 2002 election. Many, I’m sure, still believe in this war in as much as they think it is a worthy cause that’s being ineptly handled, rather than a bankrupt enterprise that is bad for Iraq and bad for us. About the only ones who still love this war are Dubya’s crew and Osama. 

Hey – both need recruits, right? 

The great peacemaker Ehud Olmert started pounding the living shit out of Gaza this week on the pretext of saving a captured Israeli soldier — one soldier, mind you, who is being held on the demand of releasing 1,000 detainees in Israel. Apparently Olmert’s “way forward” (Kadima) is destined to lead through the shattered lives of every Palestinian in that impoverished tract of land. The prime minister is proving that he has the blood of his mentor, the killer Sharon, in his veins – – a wise move, no doubt, given the sentiments of his constituency. We are witnessing collective punishment of a kind that might be vigorously prosecuted in a just world, its planners facing the gallows, if precedent were to be followed. (Not my preference, but there you have it.) The Israeli attack on Gaza began with air strikes against power generation facilities, effectively cutting off electricity and water to entire communities. No small matter in such a place. Civilian casualties have been reported to be minimal, even non-existent, up to this writing, but are they checking the hospitals? People on respirators? Old folks who need meds, heart monitors, etc.? 

Is it a coincidence that this operation should occur as Hamas was in the process of working out a policy regarding recognition of Israel and a two-state solution? Recall the Sharon modus operandi — moderation is the enemy and must be attacked whenever it rears its not-so-ugly head. The Israeli government can only press its expansionist agenda on the West Bank to the extent that it successfully portrays the Palestinians — all Palestinians — as violent extremists hell bent of the destruction of Israel and the killing of Jewish civilians. What if Hamas were to formally accept the prospect of a treaty based on the long-held international consensus (two states based on the pre-June 1967 borders)? What if they were to become principally a political grouping like Sinn Fein or the African National Congress? That would never do — the Israeli government and a significant portion of the population do not want to relinquish the West Bank and Jordan valley. Sharon dedicated most of his career to that conviction, as have many other Israeli politicians of the right and left. A demilitarized Hamas would be a far greater threat to that project than any armed brigade; it would constitute the legitimate negotiating partner Olmert and others insist does not exist on the Palestinian side. 

This is all about keeping the conflict in the military sphere, where the Israelis have an insurmountable advantage, as opposed to the diplomatic/political sphere, where they haven’t a legitimate leg to stand on. If nothing else, the events of this week illustrate what a sham this Gaza “disengagement” policy has been. The place is completely under the control of the Israelis. They control all the exits and entrances. Their massive air force flies over at will, and they lob tank shells and fire missiles into the strip at every opportunity. This is the kind of sovereignty Palestinians on the West Bank can look forward to as well. It is the fulfillment of the vision articulated by an Israeli politician some years back, that the Palestinians should be made to exist like “drugged roaches in a bottle.” An apt description of the quality of life in Gaza, to be sure. 

It may look miserable, but don’t be fooled. For some, Gaza is a dream come true. 

Congressional Republicans and Democrats were tossing non-binding resolutions at one another this week, with members from both sides of the aisle babbling about some conflict that just barely resembles the one grinding on in Iraq. Not a very heartening spectacle to see the legislative branch being just as delusional as the executive. There were, of course, exceptions whose reasonableness cast the lunatic position of the majority in stark relief — Murtha, Feingold, a few others (Kucinich, of course, and McKinney, still swinging away). It does make one wonder how many times the war party can hash out the same lame points. We’re fighting them there so we don’t have to fight them here. It’s America or Al Qaida. When the Iraqis stand up, we’ll stand down. The ludicrous John McCain was on a morning show, using words like “frustratingly slow” and “painful”, and claiming “No one said this was going to be easy.” (Uh… yeah, they did. And you agreed.  

For chissake, gentlemen, even Jalal Talabani — a Kurdish leader and president of Iraq — is calling for a timetable for U.S. withdrawal! Did any of these imbeciles check with the Iraqis to see what they want? Instead, we get sanctimonious speeches from the majority about how, if Murtha’s plan had been applied to WWII (an identical circumstance to the current war, apparently), we’d all “be speaking Japanese now”. (That’s adapted from the old classic that used to end with: “…we’d all have slanted eyes, now.”)

Of course, the week didn’t begin and end with Iraq alone. There was also a great deal heard about the other “axis of evil” members. As always, Iran was all over the news, with fresh accusations that Tehran is behind some elements of the insurgency in Iraq. Now that’s a particularly ironic piece of hysteria. (Imagine the gall of those Iranians, interfering in the internal affairs of another country!) Bush delivered an ultimatum to Iran: accept our terms or suffer the consequences. Quite frankly, he reminded me of the declaration of martial law read by Kodos the Executioner, governor of the planet Tarsus 4, on Star Trek. Too obscure? How about Margaret Hamilton on her broomstick high over Oz, threatening Dorothy et al. with some remarkably readable skywriting? No? Anyway, it was grimly amusing to see Bush and the German Chancellor stand up there and deplore aggression. Seems to me neither Germany nor the U.S. has a lot of credibility on that topic, but anyway…. 

Then there was the dreaded North Koreans and their mighty missile of death. The way the administration talks, you’d think it was the only ICBM on the planet. Jesus, how many times have we test-launched missiles capable of reaching North Korea? And while you’re working on that one, think about the likelihood that more than a few of our thousands of nuclear tipped ICBMs (all on launch-ready status) are targeted on Pyongyang. This is not idle speculation or paranoia — this is a very real danger from their perspective, made worse by 1.) our general bellicosity 2.) our deployment of “missile defense” batteries around the Pacific rim, and 3.) the fact that we flattened North Korea entirely once before within living memory. Pyongyang’s nuclear arsenal, on the other hand, consists of maybe one or more bombs (and maybe none at all), plus a missile the last version of which failed during a test in 1998. 

In truth, by foaming at the mouth over this missile test, we are only helping Kim Jong Il further convince the subjects of his hermit kingdom that he’s making the West tremble. 

This is a white house desperate for good news if I ever saw one. Just as public attention was beginning to light on Haditha and other similar incidents, a one-two punch of “progress” saved Dubya from another bad round — Zarqawi killed and a new Iraqi government fully manned within the same news cycle. Eager to capitalize on this… well… not bad news, Bush convened a round table of top advisors at Camp David — Rumsfeld, Cheney, Rice, etc. — to discuss the Iraq project. I’ll just bet a lot of new ideas were tossed around that room. And if anyone needed convincing that Karl Rove was back on top of his game, they weren’t kept waiting very long. Dubya affected to retire, then padded off to a waiting aircraft (so the story goes) for a surprise visit to Baghdad’s green zone, where he met with the new Iraqi Prime Minister. A little theater for the folks back home, whose attention need not be drawn to the fact that Baghdad remains so dangerous after 3 years of “nation building” that the President of the United States still has to scurry in and out of there like a rat. That’s progress.

Actually, they’re probably quite pleased with how things are going. After all, they’ve got an Iraqi government that wouldn’t even think of repealing Bremer’s various decrees and executive orders virtually (and illegally) transforming the Iraqi economy into a free market free-fire zone. They’ve got kleptocrat Ahmed Chalabi in charge of the oil ministry, at least on a temporary basis. They’ve got the “Salvador” option — indigenous death squads — in full swing, bumping people off left and right as the ghost of William Colby (mentor of the Phoenix Program in Vietnam) smiles down approvingly. Check it out — that mess is success in their anti-matter world, just like New Orleans after Katrina washed away so many of those inconvenient poor people and left the Big Easy whiter, richer, and more Republican than before. 

The only wrinkle for them is that the people are not with them — neither here at home, in Iraq, nor anywhere else in the world, it seems. Of course, all they even marginally care about is domestic opinion, and that they feel they can probably game enough to stay in complete control, particularly now that it appears Rove (a.k.a. Turd Blossom) won’t be indicted for pig-fucking a CIA agent. They will attempt to prevail by visiting upon their opponents the death of a thousand cuts — baiting elections with hot-button issues like gay marriage and immigration, having their allies in the state election apparatuses depress turnout and limit access to voting in opposition districts every way from Tuesday (see Ken Blackwell), discard as many ballots in minority precincts as the law will allow, and so on. It may be just enough again this year… or something else might happen. People might just turn them out. So after a certain point, all they can really do is just look busy and hope for the worst. 

Israeli prime minister Olmert says Israel will not go back to its 1967 borders because they are “indefensible.” Funny – that’s just the word I would use to describe almost forty years of denying an entire people national rights, basic dignity, and in many cases, life itself.

Somebody – I don’t quite remember who – opined recently that irony might still be with us, albeit just barely. Well, I’m here to tell you that rumors of its demise have not been greatly exaggerated. I’m referring of course to Rumsfeld’s Asia trip. Yes, the “Omega Man” of the Bush administration visited the region with which he is truly obsessed – more so, I’ll wager, than with the middle east. Recall that prior to the 9/11 attacks, there was that somewhat exciting stand-off with China over one of our spy planes, covered with typical disdain right here in Notes. Rumsfeld is a poster child for that faction of the Republican party that still has the 1954 map of Red China tacked up on its situation room wall; the folks that fueled the Wen Ho Lee spy controversy during the Clinton administration, which resulted in a bogus trial-by-media of Lee, incarceration, and subsequent retraction of the most serious allegations. (I forget which genius it was, but one Congressional Republican was so worked up in a lather about the Chinese menace that he fulminated over Clinton state department nominee Bill Lan Lee for some time without realizing he had the wrong Chinese guy.  

While in Singapore, Rumsfeld made some ludicrous statement about China’s military spending, which I believe comes in at around $35 billion U.S. per annum. Last I looked, that’s about eight percent of what we spend annually, if you leave out the intelligence budget and various extras. It should surprise no one that China is spending more on defense than it used to – this is a quite predictable response to our massive increases in military expenditure, particularly our stated intention to deploy “missile defense” (which, in truth, amounts to an offensive capability) along the Pacific rim. There is also a little thing called the Bush doctrine, which incorporates “preventive” (i.e. unprovoked) war and the development of a new generation of nuclear weapons. This has got Russia spending more on its military capabilities as well, which provides yet another stimulus for the Chinese, provoking India and Pakistan to follow suit. You can’t really call this an arms race, since we’re so far in the lead… but it’s something similar. 

As remarkable as this East Asia performance may have been, never has irony been so sorely missed as in the wake of Zarqawi’s death. There was Rumsfeld at the podium, earnestly commenting on how, in all the world, no man had been responsible for the deaths of more innocent civilians than the late Jordanian jihadist. I could only ask myself, how many people watching this are thinking the same thing I’m thinking? That, in terms of lives extinguished, no jihadist on Earth holds a candle to the rap sheet of mssrs. Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and partners. That’s another league entirely. A member of Rumsfeld’s press entourage described the defense secretary’s mood on the plane as ebullient and optimistic about the future of the Iraq enterprise. No surprise there – visions of sweets and flowers still dancing in his tiny head. Back in the real world, it seems to me this execution will have two effects on the insurgency. For the foreign jihadists, it will provide a new martyr – a rank far higher than that of regional commander, to be sure. And for the vast majority (85%-90%) that comprise the native Iraqi resistance, it removes what can only be described as a major obstacle to their success – a mad dog bent on killing civilians, one they themselves would ultimately have had to put down. 

So someone has something to cheer about today. The question is, who?