17. juni 2003

Gingrich wants overhaul of state department Newt Gingrich continued his criticism of the State Department and Colin Powel today, blaming it for failing to predict the French opposition to the Iraq war, for winning Turkey's support and for undermining the clear statements of President Bush with watered-down versions. "The world does not have to love us," Mr. Gingrich wrote, "but it must be able to predict us." In this, at least, I think he has a point. Europe actually doesn't have a clue why the US changed its foreign policy drastically, leading to the Iraq war and a number of other confrontations. Most politicians and journalists in Europe has felt no need to make themselves familiar with the background for the policy changes, the motivations and arguments of the so-called neocons, and they certainly haven't tried to communicate this to the masses. Much easier, then, to fall back on anti-American slogans and claim it's all about oil. On the other hand, if he wants to place blame for the opposition to the US, I think he might also have a look at a bit of unfortunate rhetoric from his own department's boss, Donald Rumsfeld. The blunt rhetoric of the Bush administration simply hasn't gone over well abroad. The State Department has at least understood how these things have been received, but their "clarifications" have neither been credible nor persuasive. I think Gingrich is right about that: the country needs to speak with one voice. If it has to be one blunt Texan voice, so be it. 11:19:29 PM    comment []

Top anti-terror adviser jumps ship and joins "enemy" When top White House counterterrorism expert Rand Beers quit after only seven months on the job, it caused surprise. When he joined Democratic Senator John F. Kerry's bid to become the next US President, it sent shockwaves through the system. He now explains why he thinks President Bush's conduct of the war on terror is misguided and ineffective, and the reason he thinks the most important task in national security is getting a new commander in chief. "Counterterrorism is like a team sport. The game is deadly. There has to be offense and defense," Beers said. "The Bush administration is primarily offense, and not into teamwork." Beers is highly critical to how the war in Afghanistan was abandoned, how the Iraq war took away resources necessary to fight al-Qaeda, and how homeland defence is grossly underfounded. "We are asking our firemen, policemen, Customs and Coast Guard to do far more with far less than we ever ask of our military," he said. Abroad, the CIA has done a good job in targeting the al Qaeda leadership. But domestically, the antiterrorism effort is one of talk, not action: "a rhetorical policy. What else can you say -- 'We don't care about 3,000 people dying in New York City and Washington?' " If we are to believe Beers' wife, the source of the problem goes right to the top. Part of that stemmed from his frustration with the culture of the White House. He was loath to discuss it. His wife, Bonnie, a school administrator, was not: "It's a very closed, small, controlled group. This is an administration that determines what it thinks and then sets about to prove it. There's almost a religious kind of certainty. There's no curiosity about opposing points of view. It's very scary. There's kind of a ghost agenda." In fact, self-confident leaders with a clear focus about what needs to be done, like Bush, are often the best leaders. And the worst. 9:10:43 PM    comment []

Catholic bishop charged with hit and run The Phoenix bishop Thomas J. O'Brien, who narrowly escaped being made responsible for his involvement in the pedophile scandals, has been arrested after a fatal hit and run. ...and Christians still think they have any right to the moral high ground. 7:12:32 PM    comment []

Seven-year-old boy saves blinded father There sure is enough bad news in the world. If you feel like reading a cute story with a happy ending, read this. 5:32:35 PM    comment []

Why Jews owned banks Here is an interesting article in Slate called Why Jews don't farm. It answers the even more important question: why Jews have dominated the educated urban elite, like bankers and traders, for many centuries. The answer, according to economic historians Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein, is the Jews' religious requirement to be literate. At one time, education was too expensive to really pay off. But that should change. The literacy obligation had two effects. First, it meant that Jews were uniquely qualified to enter higher-paying urban occupations. Of course, anyone else who wanted to could have gone to school and become a moneylender, but school was so expensive that it made no sense. Jews, who had to go to school for religious reasons, naturally sought to earn at least some return on their investment. Only many centuries later did education start to make sense economically, and by then the Jews had become well established in banking, trade, and so forth. It is an interesting theory, and makes sense. 2:01:38 PM    comment []

SCO attacks IBM with AIX injunction SCO has filed a permanent injunction against IBM, seeking to bar the company from distributing or selling its AIX operating system. Business is war. 1:12:03 PM    comment []

© Copyright 2003 Jan Haugland. Last update: 01.07.2003; 00:25:26.