IMF, Thy Name Is Hypocrisy
Feb 23, 2010 Disaster Capitalism, Jobs Bills, global news, globalization
Guess what? The IMF is telling Britain it’s too soon to cut the welfare state in a recession. Yes, this is the same IMF that regularly produces ruinous disaster capitalism in the developing world.
There’s a reason why torture and disaster capitalism come from the same minds. It’s inherent in the authoritarian personality.
Inglourious Basterds Up For Oscar?
Feb 19, 2010 globalization
There’s Best-Of Oscar buzz around Tarantino’s last movie, but I can’t fathom why the Director of the ADL would think it’s about the Holocaust. Having watched the movie by Redbox rental just the other day, I can safely testify it is NOT even a movie about World War II.
It’s a farce about the symbiosis of European cinema until World War II, and how Hollywood destroyed it.
Until 1941, no American film critic would have described American films as “art” — and most assumed that any film from France or Germany WAS art. Even through the war, French and German cinephiles watched and respected the other country’s directors and actors. But the Hollywood system arrived along with American occupation, bringing its big budgets and noise and special effects to drown out the artistry of Europe.
All of Tarantino’s best films are meta-narratives; Basterds is no different.
Tags: Film
Those Crazy Mossad Boys
Feb 17, 2010 Espionage, Global Security Issues, Hamas, Israel, Virtual Reality Living, globalization
They done fucked up. Not only did they get busted with good policework by the Dubai cops, it turns out they stole the IDs from Israelis with dual citizenship. Now the Israeli press is having a field day. From the AFP:
As the Israelis struggled to come to terms with their newfound fame as international “assassins,” the Israeli press skewered the operation that it has widely laid at the feet of Mossad.
“A successful operation? Not so sure,” read a headline in the mass-selling Yediot Aharonot daily. “Cracks are appearing more and more in this operation which at first looked like a grand success.”
Wrote Maariv: “Whoever assassinated senior Hamas figure Mahmud al-Mabhuh is in trouble… The intelligence was of high quality, the implementation was polished, the assassins entered and left Dubai safely, everything went like clockwork. Unfortunately, so did the security cameras.”
A columnist in the left-leaning Haaretz called for the resignation of Mossad chief Meir Dagan over the affair and one in the right-wing Israel Hayom questioned the wisdom of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu having extended Dagan’s mandate to a fifth year.
The world’s most over-esteemed intelligence service hasn’t dared assassinate Arab leaders in Western Europe, the US, or even Latin America since the days of Operation Damocles. What the hell made them think Dubai, of all points in the Arab world, was somewhere they could somehow get away with the same thing that brought down Golda Meir’s government?
Afghanistan and the Obama Military (UPDATE)
Feb 15, 2010 11-Dimensional Chess, Afghanistan, Global Governance, Global Security Issues, Muslims and modernity, Obama's Afghanistan Policy, Political Geography, global news, global president, globalization, peacemaking, political hoaxes
Operation Mushtarak began this weekend. The Obama military is going to war under the banner of a non-English noun.
Mushtarak is defined as “common,” “joint,” “combined,” “concurrent,” or “collective;” in the Arabic of international relations this word is used to form the phrase al-amn almshtarak (collective security). Mushtarak is the verbal noun of the eighth measure of the verb root “Sh-ra-ka,” an ancient Semitic and Nilo-Saharan word meaning to share, to participate, and to partner.
As I expected, this is where the lefty blogosphere prepares to lose its shit; but I have full faith and confidence in my branch of service. See the red blob? That’s the strategic objective of the current offensive.
There are going to be civilian casualties (yes, it’s inevitable). There are also going to be dead American heroes because all military operations in urban terrain produce casualties. Rockets will fly off course because, of course, their every component was built by the lowest bidder. Unit commanders will not hesitate to establish superiority of fire; the mission right now is to find and eliminate resistance. The object is actual shock and we — not look-at-me-I’m-tough-on-terr’rsts shock and awe, but actual shock and awe that ends the fighting. This is not a fireworks display to announce the arrival of the American hegemony, but the quiet arrival of the Obama army.
When the battle is over and the Taliban are gone, you have established space for peace.
As we saw in the conquest of Baghdad, once that phase is over you can count on things to remain relatively quiet for about 24 hours. Team leaders will have to establish security. It is an interesting force-mix on the ground: infantry, armor…and lots of Military Police. Y’know, the guys who know how to keep a city secure and direct traffic?
Like, guys trained to do this sort of stuff?
Which…looks a lot like this?
Does any nation do it better? Yes, there are other nations who can do it quite well, and thankfully they are on our side. Indeed, it is a telling difference that America’s strongest allies are still with us in this fight, and doing good work.
The Taliban have shooters and they have weapons, and yes they will use the rules of engagement against us. THAT IS THE POINT; WE ARE THE GOOD GUYS. Some helpful background on the current rules of engagement, from AP via HuffPo, emphasis mine:
Under the current rules of engagement, troops retain the right to use lethal force in self defense, said U.S. Col. Wayne Shanks, a spokesman for the international force.
The rules seek to put the troops in the “right frame of mind to exercise that right,” Shanks said. They require troops to ask a few fundamental questions:
• Even if someone has shot in my general direction, am I still in danger?
• Will I make more enemies than I’ll kill by destroying property, or harming innocent civilians?
• What are my other options to resolve this without escalating the violence?
Luckily, the troops also have an army of aid workers and a sort of government-in-waiting are at the starting line for the go-order. Huge amounts of cash will be spent where they have the most effect, which is in putting people to work and co-opting the local notables. In other words, it’s the perfect relief army, and it’s made up of every international organization under the sun. (Adding: except the UN, it turns out!)
The war will not be over, but the town will be in NATO hands and it will not implode.
From there, follow-on forces will reach further and the same process will continue. This is not understood well by certain editors (Psst: Arianna! Simon Tisdall is not a good source for an opinion on force sizes).
Some reports say the Taliban are regrouping in Uruzgan, north of Helmand. The question thus arises: is the allied offensive merely displacing the problem? And what about the war’s hinterlands: the Talib and al-Qaida bases in Waziristan – where Pakistan perpetually prevaricates – hostile Baluchistan, and the northern borders, where a spreading war threatens fragile Uzbek supply routes?
Helmand Province is a breadbasket. Afghanistan will need it to survive as a landlocked state with so little infrastructure and export power. In other words, if The Thing Called Afghanistan is to become an actual country instead of a basket case, it will need this province. The best look I’ve had at a map is at the Guardian, but it’s a Flash file with no embedding. From UnderstandingWar.org comes a fairly good one that I’ve marked up:
The red horseshoe around Marjah is the perimeter, supported by camps and fuel points throughout the operational zone. The black arrows represent actual strategic real estate. The blue circle is the region where the Taliban have fled: the same sparsely-populated mountains where American firepower was unleashed in 2001. So much the better in the age of Predator drones.
Nor is the Taliban monolithic; “divide-and-conquer” is the order of the day. You’ll note that no one in this administration is giving speeches about the Taliban’s destruction. It’s a remarkably impersonal kind of war for a change.
Perhaps McChrystal can win over the Taliban himself ala George Washington and Doublehead and put a nice, yellow bow on a victory. Which leaves me wondering what a military victory under this president would look like on Fox News. Speaking of which, I predict fake outrage at naming the operation in Arabic in 5, 4, 3, 2… In fact, the better this offensive turns out, the more I expect United Nations hysteria to show up on Faux Noise. Get ready for the John Bolton rerun.
The only question: where are the internationalists among the left, and can the left adequately promote success?
And would someone in the vast liberal media conspiracy please get a political geographer on the air to explain how employment migration patterns will have men returning from those mountains for work in Spring? Number one job: create jobs.
War is a sort of unnatural disaster. Worse, it is a blunt instrument. Yet as a disaster, it is something to be managed by professionals with plenty of supplies and money to maintain the peace. Obama has no intention of being remembered for his wars, but if he is able to keep his promise and announce troop reductions in 2011 he may very well be remembered for redefining America’s military doctrine for the 21st Century.
UPDATE: According to the AP and CNN, Pakistan has captured a senior Taliban commander with knowledge of Osama bin Laden’s whereabouts. Again, I ask: what does an Obama victory look like on Faux Noise?
Morning Notice
Feb 14, 2010 Nicholas Sarkozy, Teh Dreaded Frenche™, global news, globalization, immigration, regressives, religion
Sarkozy’s right-wing government tried immigrant hysteria as a foundation for local elections. It’s not working on the French:
Polls showed that a majority of people initially supported having the discussion about national identity. But those numbers quickly reversed themselves as media commentators attacked the debates for stigmatizing foreigners and their children and as conservative politicians participating in the town hall meetings made what many considered to be racist or xenophobic comments. For example, a conservative mayor in eastern France argued that the country would be “eaten up” by immigrants who already constitute “10 million (people) we pay to do [expletive],” while a former right-wing minister warned that France risked disappearing “when there are as many minarets as cathedrals.” Secretary of State for Family Affairs Nadine Morano also provoked a scandal when she appeared to describe young French Arabs as being unpatriotic and shunning work.
In the most recent survey conducted by the polling firm Obea-Infraforce in late January, a mere 33% of people considered the debates to be constructive and 61% said the process had in no way defined what being French means. More than half of respondents also felt the entire idea was motivated by concerns by Sarkozy’s Union for a Popular Movement party that it could suffer big losses in the March elections.
Sarkozy’s mistake: he didn’t have a Glenn Beck or a Faux Noise Network. Plus, French society doesn’t have that toxic religious angle.
Globalizing Football
Feb 6, 2010 China, NFL, globalization
Remember what I said a while back about the NFL’s (really rather clever) efforts to bring the game to China?
The National Football League has tried and failed to build international audiences, but now they’ve set their sights on China with a new strategy: a reality show starring a Chinese rock band. WaPo buried the money quote on page two:
It was obvious after watching one taping that the reality show will not have the usual sheen of an NFL Films production. But then, it doesn’t have to. The intent is to produce a campy, lighthearted program that will convince Chinese children that if they want to learn the essence of America they must come to understand American football. (Emphasis mine)
They might have a point: George Will once described football as “a combination of the two worst elements of American life. Violence and committee meetings.”
Turns out the NFL’s strategy has as much to do with Sun Tzu as rock’n'roll:
Google vs. China
Jan 14, 2010 China, Chinese censorship, Google, globalization
James Fallows weighs in at The Atlantic:
In a strange and striking way there is an inversion of recent Chinese and U.S. roles. In the switch from George W. Bush to Barack Obama, the U.S. went from a president much of the world saw as deliberately antagonizing them to a president whose Nobel Prize reflected (perhaps desperate) gratitude at his efforts at conciliation. China, by contrast, seems to be entering its Bush-Cheney era. For Chinese readers, let me emphasize again my argument that China is not a “threat” and that its development is good news for mankind. But its government is on a path at the moment that courts resistance around the world. To me, that is what Google’s decision signifies.
Henry Blodget at Advertising Age says “Google has played the overall China situation maturely and brilliantly:”
(B)y playing ball with China until it had some real leverage, Google has a much better chance of actually forcing the government to change.
And that’s the real goal here–change. If Google forces any change at all in China, it will have done more for China’s 1 billion-plus citizens than it would have if it had boycotted the country from the beginning.
Blodget suggests the outcome will be a new compromise of some kind. China’s ruling party should remember the way Europeans compromised themselves onshore once upon a time, and how that worked out; but they probably won’t treat Google like the evil round-eye.
After all, there are probably lots of party members using Google by now.
Morning News
Jan 14, 2010 American diplomacy, Global Security Issues, global news, globalization
Haitians welcomed the return of the US military to their country. Across the world, the United States is once again the good guy.
Which reminds me: this ad, or a version of it, has been running for months. The US Navy has matched the “Army Of One” campaign with branding of its own. I wonder what John Paul Jones would make of “a global force for good:”
The Emperor’s New Map
Jan 13, 2010 China, Chinese censorship, Google, Political Geography, globalization, internet
The AP has stirred my inner map geek at exactly the right time. A million-dollar map is on rare public display:
The map created by Matteo Ricci was the first in Chinese to show the Americas. Ricci, a Jesuit missionary from Italy, was among the first Westerners to live in what is now Beijing in the early 1600s. Known for introducing Western science to China, Ricci created the map in 1602 at the request of Emperor Wanli.
Ricci’s map includes pictures and annotations describing different regions of the world. Africa was noted to have the world’s highest mountain and longest river. The brief description of North America mentions “humped oxen” or bison, wild horses and a region named “Ka-na-ta.”
Maps like this tell us a lot more about the makers than the world they mapped. This was an era when cartography was only beginning to resemble what we’d call a “science.” This is a European doing his best to describe the shape of the world to the Emperor of China; that Florida is prominently “the land of flowers” tells us the missionary understood his audience.
In order to give His Imperial Majesty the most effective view of the world, Ricci put China at the center — which makes it look smaller. To the Chinese dynasties of that time, the world outside China was unknown and therefore unmapped:
The message hiding in this map is that China was not the center of the world, or even the largest or most important state; that vast lands were still barely explored and filled with wonder. That the world surrounded Wanli. Based on the best work of Spaniards, Portuguese, and Venetians, it was a picture of expansion and limits at the same time.
China’s regime spent the next four centuries dealing with all the changes this map would see. Their faith in barriers and oceans proved misguided and shortsighted — a lesson for a more modern, American civilization that was hardly imagined yet, but still a lesson China hasn’t learned. The communist party has gone from the failed “Green Dam” censorship project, a kind of Great Wall of Technology, to a confrontation with Google in less than a year.
Uganda Blowback
Jan 5, 2010 Africa, Human Rights, gay, globalization
Back in the 1990s, Uganda became a hotbed for groups like the C-Street “family” and American evangelists who saw it as an opening for Christ in central Africa. The problem, of course, is the universal law of unintended consequences:
For three days, according to participants and audio recordings, thousands of Ugandans, including police officers, teachers and national politicians, listened raptly to the Americans, who were presented as experts on homosexuality. The visitors discussed how to make gay people straight, how gay men often sodomized teenage boys and how “the gay movement is an evil institution” whose goal is “to defeat the marriage-based society and replace it with a culture of sexual promiscuity.”Now the three Americans are finding themselves on the defensive, saying they had no intention of helping stoke the kind of anger that could lead to what came next: a bill to impose a death sentence for homosexual behavior. (Emphasis mine)
Rick Warren and others are suddenly disowning the monster they created in the heart of Africa: We only taught them to hate Teh Gay, we never imagined they would take us seriously. This is the place where Pastor Muthee leads the occasional witch-burning lynch mob — there’s no way they could have seen this blowback coming at all. They just didn’t understand us, we wanted them to hate gays but not kill them.
Not one of these fine, upstanding Christian gents will actually admit their words had consequences. They are all passive agents in this travesty: “mistakes were made.”
