Discussions Around the Web: Islam v. World

I've had many discussions around the web the last three days with Muslims of many different ideas. I think that these discussions are extremely helpful in getting an idea of the many voices and concepts that we see on a daily basis.

I would like to point you to some of these discussions if you have not already read from these sites on a regular basis. Some of them will, no doubt, raise ire in my Western friends for Islam because the comments do represent some of the fears that we have regarding the conservative brands of both Shia and Sunni Islam. Some of the words may give you hope when you see we have a discussion as humans about common ground and ideas. Others will give you hope because the commenters are just as disgusted or worried about the fate of their nations and the fate of Islam under its current struggle for domination by one sect or the other.

When you see the contrasts I hope it will provide an education into what is the problem between us and what we may do to resolve it.

When you read the comments, I hope you will also see that we have some problems too. One of which is that many have such an extreme dislike (can I say "hate") for Islam that they can appear as troubling as some of the Muslim commenters.

The truth is, if we are to avoid war, it is not necessarily that we must become more Islamic or deferrential to Islam nor that Islam must be destroyed or necessarily become more liberal (though, that would be nice). What I read and spoke about with people leads me to believe that the primary problem with Islam is that many adherents don't just see it as a matter of faith. Islam is, as one of the more conservative people put it, "a way of life". For many, it controls every aspect of their lives, from food, to dress, to prayer, to politics, to viewing others that are not like them either in religion or political view.

For many, the idea of Islam and the conversion of people to the belief is similar to the ideas that some Christian sects see as their responsibility to spread the faith, but in Islam, it must be the immersion and conversion to an entire way of life, not just a matter of saving the soul or turning a man away from evil deeds.

In some ways, Islam as it exists today for many as "a way of life" does resemble a cult though I would hesitate to deem every Muslim a cultist. Yet, because it is more than a concept or idea of saving the soul, but is "a way of life" and that way includes the control of every aspect of life from washing, to eating, to praying, to marriage, to family life, to outside relations and even to treating those who leave the religion as "dead" or even actually killing them as well as the belief that dying for the religion in the process of spreading it or protecting it with violence is acceptable, it has the veneer of cultism.

Before we congratulate ourselves on any recognition, nodding our heads to the idea as if we finally understand what is completely wrong with Islam and that it should go, we should understand that religious cults are not just products of Islam or some strange hindu sect or something separate from our own base religion of Christianity (though many an atheist or agnostic may consider Christianity a cult as well). Christianity has had its cults pop up in the name of Christianity far too often, though it is usually small enclaves led by individual leaders all with differing ideas on the purpose and processes of their Cults. Nothing so successful as the ingraining ideas of Islam. However, one would not forget such notables as Jim Jones or David Koresh, just to name two, who were able to convince different people to commit to and live their lives as these men had set down as a way to salvation.

Interestingly, one of the websites I visited about cultism was a Christian website and it did not simply speak about cults as if it were outside of Christianity, but in fact reflected the idea that cult like behavior could occur at any church, large or small, part of a larger sect or one that saw itself as completley independent. The website talked about what to look for inside their church including demands for the adherents to give more and more of their time to the church, the organization of "shame" monitors who would watch if the person came to church or who were in their local community and would keep tabs on the person, then the entire church or designated people may approach the individual and shame them about missing church or drinking liquor or whatever it is.

There were many pointers. In speaking with some of my Islamic acquaintances the last few days, I had an eery feeling that I was speaking to a member of a cult, not just a political, religio political or geographical opponent. One of the interesting aspects was the idea of the "absolute". There are somethings that are simply "absolute" that some people could not be moved on. Of course, occassional interjections from other commenters that were, shall we say, less than rational or reasonable from the opposition, sometimes threw up the proverbial brick wall and reasonable, rational discussion would come to a screeching halt. I understand sometimes the desire to scream, screech and generally lash out when you read someone's words and they seem to be the plodding, insistent, irrational, conspiracy laden comments that we always see.

Of course, with most conspiracy theories, there is always some truth to whatever is being said, but it is often blown out of proportion to its reality or capability to actually effect the world. And, if I may further the opinion of the cultist behavior of many of the adherents of Islam that we see being expressed, I believe that it is these irrational fears that are used to keep the people of these nations, the followers of Islam toeing the line, inside the Ummah, the Muslim enclave, insisting on its protection as the whole, thus making any action against individuals an action against the whole of Islam, re-enforcing the idea that Islam is under attack and that the only protection is to be had within Islam. Even further, the modern Islamist has taken that a step further to include the need to attack anyone outside the enclave that is perceived as threatening the enclave, whether that is through non-physical infiltration of ideas, fashion, food, products or anything else that may lead a man or woman not to follow the tenets of Islam as they would have it, as "a way of life".

It reminds me, not long ago, when Prince Turki al Faisel of Saudi Arabia called the Islamists like bin Laden "cultists". I remember dismissing that as an excuse to mitigate their culpability in spreading Wahhabism, but as I go on and speak to many, from Iran to Saudi Arabia, the more I feel that the breaking of Islamism is not the destruction of Islam (we didn't destroy Christianity after Jones Town, we will not destroy Islam), it is the breaking of a cult and the only way that you break a cult member from these ideas is to isolate them and then insist on the reasonable and the rational, presenting them with evidence that contradicts their "brainwashing".

Let me be clear that Islam itself is not a "cult". It is a religion and it has its faithful. It is a particular practice of Islam that is "cultist". Islam as a faith has many things to recommend it, just as Christianity as a faith has many tenets which can help guide someone to live a better and more fulfilling life. The concept of praying five times a day, giving charity or making a pilgrimage (all similar concepts in Christianity) as basic tenets are admirable traits. The call of the muezzin for prayer is as beautiful as the ringing of church bells and the ritual prayers with their singsong nature reflect similar practices in Judaism, Christianity, Hinduims, Buddhism and many others. The idea that humility is preferable to arrogance, again, similar and acceptable.

But, the idea that leaving the faith is death, both figuratively and literal, is cultist. The idea that dying for that faith, not as a persecuted martyr but in the act of killing the enemy, is cultist. The idea that killing the unbeliever or enemy, even if they have not commited an act of violence against them, in order to protect the "faith", is cultist. The idea that each Muslim is responsible for the behavior of the others and must act to re-enforce the faith in violent and non-violent ways against these "backsliders" is cultist. These are the tenets that are not only dangerous to us, the unbelievers, but to the faith of Islam. In this, Islam becomes something more than personal faith and engenders the cult.

If we can understand that, we can understand one of the ways forward.

One of the biggest issues that we must confront is the conspiracies that surround and enable the cultists to maintain their hold whether from a religious or state practice. It is no more or less than the same propaganda that was used in order to keep Soviet citizens in thrall to the state and fear of Western democracy. Islamism and Communism are not the same, but have similar traits in engendering the Utopia, though, in one of my conversations, the idea of Utopia was rejected by an admitted Islamist from Iran. I hope and wish that to be correct. Yet, it seems that when a group will insist that the only perfection can be had within a state of pure Islam and that if the whole eschews the outside influences, clings closely to ideology and its rules, it can shut off temptations to be "different", this is the search for Utopia.

When I discussed with my friend that Utopia can never happen because man can never be perfect, while denying the search for utopia within the establishment of an "Islamic Nation", she said that I had lost hope in mankind because I did not believe it could improve itself, that I was hopeless and that she was afraid for the world if it was me the "hopeless" that was creating the ideas for the new world. We had talked about faith making people stronger in body and mind and I agreed, as long as it was faith of an individual freely chosen because without that free choice, it was not really faith, but simply rules one was forced to live by. My response to the "hopeless" comment was that I did not see mankind as hopeless. It is just that I see the hope of mankind in the unchained mind, where faith may give him guidance and discipline, but that he must be free to go beyond the bounds.

It is the unchained mind that created machines so that we can fly, developed vacines, created skin grafts, improved agriculture where we can feed billions. It will be the unchained mind that flies us to distant galaxies.

We had a very long conversation about things like "hegemony", "freedom" and a few other narrow subjects but it was most instructive. I would hope, unlike some of the commenters there, even if you find Islamic Nations comments offensive or they seem "stupid" to you, that you would approach the conversation with the idea that you are creating an open conduit of discussion and dialogue. One of the basis of free speech is that we can say what we want and often do, largely by shouting over one another to see who's idea can get the most support. But diplomacy and dialogue are based on not just speaking, but listening and responding to the specifics.

Please read Big Pharoah and comments here to get the feel of the situation.

I did not get to finish answering Islamic Nation certain questions about secret service intervention in the protests (I was not sure if that was in reference to CIA or the secret services of these nations), the comments about the Shah, giving chemical weapons to Saddam and, finally, the big question, why we are opposed to the establishment of an Islamic Nation. These and many other comments and answers are there, so read and get an idea what its like from the otherside.


Also read 7 Questions that Sandmonkey received from fellow Muslims and Egyptians about his non-support of the boycott and protests. I suggest that you scroll down in comments because it includes both secular and Islamic commenters that will provide even more color.

One of my favorites:

You say your mother is a muslim and your father too,I think for people like you Islam is something you inherited, exactly like being Egyptian, I won't be surprised though if Islam to you is just a punch of rituals. i'm not amazed because people think you are a christian or a jew, these are the people where most of Islam enemies came from, not much are aware of modern seculars who look at islam the same way non muslims look.

Don't you realize that Islam has two majors of speech, one for the non beleivers, and one for the beleivers, they are not contradicting but they are addressing differant issues.

For Example, when i talk to a non believer about the cartoons issue I my point should be mutual respect, while if i talk to you about the cartoon issue I should remind you that our Prophet is the best human that ever walked on earth and he should be dearer to us than our families, our people our money and our ownselves.

I can't use the same logic with you as I would use with a non believer, cause we - as muslims- should have established some common basis, and constants, like We only live our lives to worship Allah ,don't we ?

And, here

Ahamad - May peace and Allah mercy and blessings be upon you, Mocking a "dead" man (not to mention a prophet) does NOT equal mocking a living man.

Mocking from a prophet sent as mercy to mankind, and who represents a religion AND its followers, is equal mocking the religion AND its followers, WAKE UP

Sandmonkey Responds:

Ahmad,

One cartoonist, one man, out of 5 million danes, made a cartoon that depicted the prophet of having a bomb-shaped turban.

Another man, Editor in chief, agrees to let the cartoon get published.

2 men's choice, just 2 men, led to all of this talk about how "the west mocks Islam and the prophet" and all the other shit that followed.

I don't know about you, but 2 men mocking me or my religion, prophet or god- while reprehensible- doesn't equate the whole west "mocking Islam and muslims". That's just not fair ya Ahmad. It's not fair to punish 5 million people cause 2 men mocked the prophet. And it's not fair to lump the whole west in that category. And it's also not fair to ignore our responsbility towards curbing the assholes that do the shit that invite such mocking in the first place. I am sure that the Prophet and his sense of justice would see the unfairness in that as well. But as you said, he is dead, and now his followers are making sure his reputation gets and stays tarnished.

However,let's ignore all that, and think about something for a second. One of the basic concepts in Islam is "el A3mal belneyat", right? As in, judge the action by the motive.

Now, if we believe the newspaper's side of the story, the point behind this "exercise of free speech" by them aimed at testing whether or not they exercise self-censorship in regards to Islam, whether the whole world is afraid of insulting muslims cause no one wants to die. Taking that into consideration, their inetntion of drawing the said cartoon wasn;t to mock the prophet or to insult Islam, as much as it was an experiment to see if their style of living is comrpromised by those so called islamists today and a crtique of what the Prophet and his ideas (and by extension the islamic religion) are being viewed in the west in the light of the actions of his followers. What, you thought that they made the turban, which is placed over his head into a bomb for no reason? You don;t think that's suppsoed to signify that they view that his views and beliefs are both dangerous and explosive? And why would they think that ya Ahmad? Is it because they took the time to learn his views and beliefs? Or is it because they see the violence and the mayhem caused by those who call themselves the Mujahedeen and profess doing what they do in the name of allah, Islam and the prophet and no one challenging them or stopping them?

Shown in that light ya basha, one could argue that the intentions behind the cartoons were not to mock the prophet, Islam or muslims, but rather highlight a growing image problem that the whole religion is having because of the actions of its followers as being violent, intolerant and explosive. Sure, the artist could've taken a much lesser controversial route in showing that problem, but he didn't in order to showcase the gravity of the issue: The symbol of Islam is portrayed as explosive because of what Muslims nowadays do. And instead or realizing that, or maybe because it's easier not to take on that issue, we instead chose to attack those who made the cartoon as an offense against every muslims and a mockery of muslims and Islam everywhere, and proceed to go crazy, killing poepole, burning embassies and bombing churches, thus proving the point of the artist to be right and enforcing that stereotype of the prophet thanks to the actions of those muslims worldwide.[snip]

I liked your solution because it acknoweldged the flaw in the design: We are not engaged in the war of ideas, and we are not engaging in enough dialogue with those who view us in that way. Your solution said to me : We say that the prophet is sent as a mercy to mankind, well, let's show them how and why. Let's take control of the debate. And I encourage that and stand with you behind that 100%. You don't seem to get that, and I am less and less concerned that you do with every passing minute!

And then, another favorite:

Ayya - Be ashamed of your Hijab

I look at you with utter pity
Simply because you’re far from witty
For I know what goes inside:
Mythical fears- deprived your mind
A surreal shape is enough to attest
That your brains is under arrest
At your will you are enslaved
To a dogma your group engraved
Your voice under the layers of attire
Replicates your diction- a satire
"O ye women, wrap close your cloak,
So you won't be bothered by ignorant folk",
God doesn't tell you to dress this way,
it’s the beardoos to whom you pray
Oppression for you is a sanctuary
Liberation- a blasphemy
Yes it was given years ago
Check when! If you care to know
Check the sources in history
Not the man-made wana-be
Sure you can climb mountains, cross seas
With a mind loaded trivialities-
You loop in darkness under your gown
“Can I pray with nail polish on?”
God had given us liberty
But man deprived its faculty
For you’re using identity cover
Of lost faith that’s gone forever
Right after the prophet’s death
How could you know that
When you’re deaf!

Btw; just in case your minds wander; I am a Muslim by birth

Read the rest

I also suggest that you read this or the comments from this section (over 315 including right wing western and Muslim commenters as well as voices of reason; but educational for both I think).

And, if you have not caught up on the Iraq political scene, I suggest that you jump over to ITM and get some reading done.

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WHAT'S BEHIND MUSLIM CARTOON OUTRAGE / Muhammad's image: Revered prophet of Islam has been depicted in art for hundreds of years

As enraged Muslims take to the streets to protest cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad, few seem to be aware that representations of Islam's last messenger have existed throughout history without causing alarm.

"There is nothing in the Quran that forbids imagery the way it is condemned in the Hebrew Bible," said John L. Esposito, university professor of religion and international studies at Georgetown University.

Although rare in the 1,400 years of Islamic art, visual representations of Muhammad were acceptable in certain periods. Today, his likenesses grace collections around the world, at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Edinburgh University Library, the British Museum and the Bibliotheque Nationale de France in Paris.

"To say that Islam is anti-imagery is to have a very limited understanding of the religion," said Linda Komaroff, curator of Islamic art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. "Islam isn't just one flavor or one interpretation"

The museum has an unusual depiction of him -- a verbal portrait. Called a hilyeler, meaning adornment, the verbal portrait was common during the Ottoman period and often could be found hanging in Muslim homes.

"They were the equivalent of the paintings of Jesus Christ or Virgin Mary one finds in Christian homes today," Komaroff said.

WHAT'S BEHIND MUSLIM CARTOON OUTRAGE / Muhammad's image: Revered prophet of Islam has been depicted in art for hundreds of years

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Denmark withdraws more diplomats

BBC NEWS | World | Middle East | Denmark withdraws more diplomats

In fear of their lives from the adherents of the religion of peace.

Who are the persecutors, now?

I saw a photo yesterday that I wish I had grabbed. It was a giant poster in a Cairo window: No Danes Allowed.

The reprinting of the Cartoons are viewed in Europe by many as "pre-holocaust" Germany, but in Egypt and the rest of the ME: Dane Verboten, Christain Vorboten, athiest vorboten and gays should just die.

Does this sound familiar?

The hostility of towards Jews increased in Germany. This was reflected in the decision by many shops and restaurants not to serve the Jewish population. Placards saying "Jews not admitted" and "Jews enter this place at their own risk" began to appear all over Germany.

The hostility of towards Jews increased in Germany. This was reflected in the decision by many shops and restaurants not to serve the Jewish population. Placards saying "Jews not admitted" and "Jews enter this place at their own risk" began to appear all over Germany.

Imagine if someone dared to put up a sign saying that Muslims were forbiden, or Saudis, or Pakistanis, or Egyptians. They'd be screaming persecution.

But, the recent fake protests over the cartoons reminds me of something else. Like Kristallnacht, it was deliberate, pre-planned and organized to put the fear of God in Jews.

Yes, it is all too familiar. We even got to see signes that blamed the Joooos.

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Sorry I Dressed Like A Suicide Bomber

Well, if the egregious protest signs threatening another 9/11 or 7/7 or butchering infidels weren't enough, some joker on parole decided that he would dress up like a suicide bomber.

A demonstrator who imitated a suicide bomber in a Muslim protest over cartoons satirising the Prophet Muhammad has been recalled to prison.
Omar Khayam, 22, of Bedford, is a convicted drug dealer who was jailed in 2002 and released on licence last year after serving half his sentence.

He was arrested and recalled to prison for breaching the terms of his licence.

Khayam apologised for his "insensitive" protest on Monday but said he had been offended by the cartoons. [snip]

The MP for Bedford, Patrick Hall, who was there as Khayam read the apology on Monday, said earlier he was unaware he was out on licence but that he still took the apology at face value.

"He acted on impulse - couple of friends, they got on the train and got to London, and I believe this was a impulsive, foolish reaction to what he saw was the offence of the publication of those cartoons."

Don't look here. Move along now. Just boys being boys.

Mr. Blair, though, takes the moment to remind the population what the problem really is:

Prime Minister Tony Blair said he was pleased that "leading members of the Muslim community have expressed their abhorrence along with everyone else in the country" to placards held during the London protest, some calling for beheadings.

"In my view, there is a real issue about how the sensible, moderate, Muslim leaders go into their community and confront this type of extremism and that's something we discuss with them continually," Mr Blair told a select committee.

In the meantime, free speech for me, but not for thee:

Meanwhile, one man has said he and a second man were arrested during the London demonstration as he attempted to mount a counter-demonstration.

The man, named only as John, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that he was arrested as he handed out leaflets with the cartoons printed on them.

The Metropolitan Police said two men were arrested on suspicion of breach of the peace, but no further action was taken.

Probably did it to protect him from being beaten to a bloody pulp by the "peaceful" demonstrators.

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Our leaders have forgotten the legacy of Lawrence of Arabia

Read this Guardian Unlimited | Guardian daily comment | Our leaders have forgotten the legacy of Lawrence of Arabia and return for commentary.

First, my take is that it is a bit of a backhand compliment that America is not seeking empire. I'm sure that anyone reading this in the first place will not be convinced, but it is in the Guardian. Thus, there is no surprise when he starts wondering into the "Rumsfeld the mad bomber" commentary. What may be surprising is that he seems to be advocating the old detente policy of installing our own "SOB". To quote:

It defied the west's strategic interest in a Sunni/Shia balance in the Middle East. It defied the rule that nothing should enhance the status of Iran or galvanise Kurdish revanchism. As for Saddam, at least he should have been replaced with a leader who was secular and strong enough to hold Iraq together.

Which completely flies in the face of the original stated plan to install REAL democracy which includes getting different factions to compromise and work with each other. That was the stated plan. The question was whether to stand back and let people do whatever, duke it out, kill each other or work towards democracy.

He proceeds to talk about history of T E Lawrence and his dash to Damascus then proceeds to imply that the same techniques that worked for Lawrence should have been undertaken in Baghdad:

The British aide Colonel Stirling wrote of that weekend that "a thousand and one things had to be thought of, but never once was Lawrence at a loss". He met any breaches of order with a bullet. He also knew that this might be no passing glory. He wanted Emir Feisal to rule a new Arabia, but when an Arab asked him if Allenby's troops were coming, he answered: "Certainly, but the sorrow is that afterwards they may not go."

None of Lawrence's "thousand and one things" have been achieved in Baghdad in almost three years, let alone three days. The initial errors, the tolerance of looting and the mass sackings of soldiers and Ba'ath party officials have been analysed by authors as varied as Bob Woodward, Paul O'Neill, Richard Clarke, George Packer and Larry Diamond, and now David Phillips in Losing Iraq

.

Damned if you do and damned if you don't. Had the soldiers proceeded to shoot looters, they would have been accused of war crimes. Had Bremmer re-installed the Ba'athists, he would have been accused of doing just what Jenkins suggests and that is installing a puppet regime. In fact, that did and is happening despite the on-going struggles between different factions to come up with a government (obviously, if we had, we would have just picked somebody with some serious power and let them duke it out).

No, he isn't saying the Brits would have done it better simply because the government in Downing Street is wimpy bend with the Washington Wind. Of course, while he points to Lawrence of Arabia and then points to the problems in Iraq, this fellow completely disregards the point in front of his face (if not his head) and that is, this is not 1917. While T E had media attention, it was largely a single guy, following him around, lauding all his exploits. He didn't have 24 hour critical news programs up his rear, taking apart his every action. People didn't care if he killed a bunch of "filthy Turks". I mean, he did massacre a retreating force, right? Yes, they had just raped, pillaged, murdered and burned everything in a village, but in modern times, T E would have been crucified as a war criminal. He'd be on par with Sharon and Bush in most of the modern world's opinion.

Recall Saddam's retreating forces from Kuwait and the "highway of death". The Iraqi Army had just been driven out of Kuwait after raping, pillaging, murdering, torturing and burning, but world opinion, watching live on TV and confronted in their faces with the ongoing act couldn't stomach it, so they were let go, only to turn their power on the Shia and massacre them. So, T E has a nice lesson in the Seven Pillars about letting armies go intact, but I am certain his decision making processes would have been drastically changed in the face of modern media and world opinion.

Fallujah would be another good example.

No, T E Lawrence would have been sent home, court martialed and imprisoned or rotting away in his own personal obscurity if he had to live and make war in the modern world.

People saw Arabs as "noble savages", but they didn't respect them. And the Europeans screwed them over royally, leading to our current mess with Israel/Palestine and the rest of the post colonial Arab world. Which are two points that serve some serious notice about listening to history:

1) History is only right because you can't go back and change it even if you keep trying to re-write it.
2) Keep the Europeans out of policy decisions because, for all their professed modern love for the poor oppressed Arab, they are still the Europe of WWI: they see Arabs as this man does, "noble savages" that we should just run rough shod over. The also believe they should do whatever it takes to get what they want, even if it screws the Arab man on the street. The UN Oil For Food Scandal comes to mind.
3) Setting up strongmen eventually leads to the future where they decide they are the new Mahdi, Sal Ah Din, Nebuchadnezzar or Moses that will lead their people out of their current problems by fighting the very people that brought them to power in the first place. The best unifying enemy being the outside unknown. The future of strongmen we prop up is the future of revolutions. It's the future of mass murder on a state scale. It's the future where we have to go to war with a crazy bastard trying to get his hands on nukes.

Here's the truth: History is a Bitch. She's always reminding you of past glories and acting like she has all the answers for the future. The only problem is, being locked in her house baking glory days cookies all the time, she's constantly looking backwards and inwards without a clue in the world about the realities of current day she's living in.

Kind of like Mr. Jenkins.

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Follow Up Off Broadway Hit: Taqiyya

If you enjoyed the hit song from Johhny Jihad, It's In the Koran, then you'll enjoy the newest song to be released from the Johnny Jihad soundtrack, Taqiyya.

Danish Imam's give it two thumbs up: It's Islam's best kept secret!

Syrian President, Bashar says, "People will be rioting..er..dancing in the streets"

Iranian President, Ahminejad says, "It makes you think that you are free even when you are chained to the dungeon wall."

The Arab street says, "We haven't had this much fun since the Qur'an flushing taqiyya."

Watch buildings burn and flaming flags fly.

Ululating beyond your wildest dreams.

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Leadership: Officers or NCOs

February 6, 2006: Noting over half a century of U.S. Army success with warrant officer program, the U.S. Navy has decided to try it. Sort of. The navy has asked interested sailors to apply for 30 flying officer slots in patrol, electronic warfare and helicopter aircraft. These pilots would remain pilots their entire careers. Commissioned officers are expected to move on to leadership positions.[snip]

There’s a sense of déjà vu with this. The navy had NCOs flying aircraft early in World War II. Ever since, there’s been a controversy over whether all pilots (most of whom are highly trained warriors, not leaders, which is what officers are supposed to be) must be officers. At the start of World War II, the army air force (there was no separate air force yet) also enlisted pilots. These men were NCOs (“flying sergeants”) selected for their flying potential and trained to be pilots. Not leaders of pilots, but professional pilots of fighters, bombers and whatnot[snip]

What the navy is trying to do, besides experiment with the old “flying sergeants” arrangement, is address a shortage of pilots for combat support aircraft. Fighters are the most attractive aircraft for military pilots, but far fewer qualified people want to do the more unexciting work of piloting patrol aircraft and helicopters. The navy is also confronted with the coming generation of robotic aircraft. These UAV (unmanned aerial vehicles) are usually controlled (when they are “flown” at all) from the ground. This job has been unattractive to pilots, and often NCOs are used (except by the air force, which has made some of its UAVs completely robotic so they could allow NCOs to push the buttons) to do this. Warrant Officers would be better suited to be career UAV operators.

Leadership

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Let's admit to a growing Islamist problem

In the aftermath of the rioting Sunday that led to the ransacking of several neighborhoods in Ashrafieh and the burning of a building housing the Danish embassy, there was a consensus in official Beirut that Syria was to blame. Perhaps it was, in part, but many adopted that expedient line to cover-up something far more disturbing: There is a growing Sunni Islamist movement in Lebanon, some of whose members are violent, and no one has control over them.

It seems plausible that the Hariri camp and the office of the mufti at Dar al-Fatwa initially sought to take advantage of the Sunday demonstrations protesting the Danish cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad. Both perhaps sought to reassert their Islamic credentials amid accusations from pro-Syrian groups that the parliamentary majority is in the pocket of Western powers; perhaps, too, they wanted to flex their sectarian muscles. Rioting was certainly not on the agenda, and from the statements of Prime Minister Fouad al-Siniora and Interior Minister Hassan al-Sabaa, the organizers offered assurances that they would control the marchers. That explains why there was wholly inadequate security around the Danish embassy, and why both the Hariri camp and the Lebanese Forces leader, Samir Geagea, were so quick to point a finger at outsiders: everybody would buy into that argument, though Geagea also had to demand Sabaa's resignation to assuage his angry Christian base and deflect attention away from his close alliance with an embarrassed Future Movement.

There were very likely agents provocateurs acting on behalf of the Syrians. However, this was to be expected and only made the government's laxity in providing an efficient defense cordon more incomprehensible. But it would be a mistake to miss the forest for the trees: the extent of the damage was too wide, the statements of some Lebanese demonstrators interviewed on television too enraged, for the destruction to have been solely the work of a few infiltrators.

Even Lebanon must fear more than the Shi'ite extremists.
The Daily Star - Opinion Articles - Let's admit to a growing Islamist problem

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Merkel ‘thinks she’s Hitler’

This has got to be one of the most confused statements I have ever heard from an Iranian butthead who proves, without a doubt, that Iranians have been secluded too far from the real world for too long:

A commander in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards lashed out at German Chancellor Angela Merkel yesterday over her remarks on Tehran’s nuclear programme, saying she “thinks she’s Hitler.”
“In her childish dreams, Merkel imagines she’s Hitler and thinks that now she occupies the chancellor’s seat she can dictate orders to the world and to free countries,” Commander Massoud Jazayeri was quoted as saying by the ISNA news agency. “We cannot expect anything else from people with a Zionist past,” added Jazayeri, the head of the public relations department of the Guards, one of Iran’s most powerful institutions.

So, uh, Hitler was a Zionist?

Who knew?
Merkel ‘thinks she’s Hitler’-Bahrain Tribune Daily Newspaper, Bahrain

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Taheri Reviews Fisk's "The Great War for Civilisation"

According to Fisk, the “Anglo-Saxons” began their mischief-making by destroying the Ottoman Empire, provoking the Armenian genocide, which he calls “ The Holocaust”, proceeded to dominate the Middle East, created Israel, installed despotic Arab regimes , and, more recently, changed the regimes of Afghanistan and Iraq through military invasion.

The Anglo-Saxons also share the blame for the Jewish Holocaust because they did nothing to stop the Armenian genocide which inspired Hitler, and then, allowed the Nazis time to consolidate their power.

It would take a book as long to challenge Fisk’s numerous sensational charges against the “Anglo-Saxons”. But a look at two such charges would show that Fisk’s seething anger might have affected his objectivity as a reporter and amateur historian. [snip]

Apparently a passionate man, Fisk presents himself as “a seeker of the truth” and not a mere reporter looking for facts. He says he is not really interested in what and how but in why.

Describing himself as a “tough dog” Fisk says that when he gets “ a rope between my teeth I won’t let go until I shake it and tug it something rotten to see what lies at the other end.” (Sic) He adds” That, after all is what journalists are supposed to do.” But are they?

The trouble is that Fisk’s doglike determination seems to be selective. While magnifying every real or imagined crime committed by the “Anglo-Saxons” he never took time to expose the illegal prisons and torture chambers maintained by Syrian intelligence in Lebanon, where he has lived for 30 years, or the sources of arms and funds for the Lebanese Hezballah.

A whole chapter is devoted to the story of how Fisk, taking a piece of shrapnel from a missile fired by the Israelis in southern Lebanon, travels to Europe and America to prove that the weapon had been manufactured in the United States. But he shows absolutely no interest in the provenance of the Katyushas fired by Hezballah. He is a crusader for a cause, not a reporter; having chosen his side his task is to help it win the information war.

Nor did Fisk ever bother to find out about liberal and democratic movements in the Arab world or to interview anyone other than officials or anti-Western figures. His claim that he is fighting for truth and justice makes him sound more like an advocate rather than a journalist.[snip]

Because he sympathises with “Arab grievances”, Fisk adopts virtually all the conspiracy theories concocted in teahouses from Baghdad to Cairo in the hope of blaming others for all that has gone wrong with the Arabs.

What he does not realise is that by portraying the Arabs as witless pawns in a game they do not understand, he is presenting a new version of the “White Man’s Burden” narrative.

In the original version the “natives”, including the Arabs, must be saved from their own ignorance. In Fisk’s ethnocentric version, the Arabs are helpless victims. In both versions the omnipotent “Imperialist West” can do whatever it pleases with peoples who are mere objects in their own history. In both cases an “us and them” dialectics is at work. This is why Fisk always says “this is what we did” as if the Arabs couldn’t even fix their own kuffiahs. One might wonder how the “Anglo-Saxon” powers that cannot fix the New York traffic jam or the London underground railway system have managed to shape the world, virtually alone, for over a century.

That isn't even the tip of the ass whooping he gives Fisk. As they say, "read the rest"...

The Great War for Civilisation(English)

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Dreams of the Powerless

One might wonder why every new US President feels the need to promise his people that he will tackle the country’s reliance on foreign oil and specifically that which comes from the Middle East , a highly volatile region? US Presidents are well-aware that such promises are music to the people’s ears and are sure to earn them much needed popular support. They also know that it is unlikely this will ever happen, so long as oil is the number one source of energy. This is why President Bush set a 20 year deadline. In two decades, another president would be in the White House and US citizens would have long forgotten his promise.

Why do writers inflame passions and suggest that doing without western goods is a simple matter? Because they know that such an experiment is difficult to prove. It is impossible for us to stop buying medicine and airplanes, as well as exporting oil for which western technology is needed. A realistic analysis soon reveals that these popular promises cannot be implemented. The first to revolt against any proposed boycott, on either side, will be the people.

In the run up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003, Saddam Hussein’s government continued to export oil and Washington continued to buy it, despite the animosity between the two regimes. As for the boycott of a single product such as butter, cheese or furniture, which can be substituted for other products, it is possible. But boycotting medicine or airplane spare parts is not comparable.

Those who sell promises and pledges to the people should prove they are true.

Dude has a point. Unless, of course, the government really does do a manhatten project for alternate energy resources. We know that we have the people, the question is whether we have the will?
Asharq Alawsat Newspaper (English)

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U.S. Seeks Eight Tied to Passport Ring

BOGOTA, Colombia -- The United States on Friday asked for the extradition of eight people arrested as part of a sting operation to dismantle a false-passport ring, although U.S. officials disputed Colombian suggestions the suspects were linked to Middle East terrorists.[snip]

The eight foreign nationals _ seven Colombians and one Palestinian native _ were among 19 people arrested in 32 simultaneous raids across the country. Authorities said they seized what they believe were fraudulent passports from Hong Kong, Canada, Jordan and other countries.

Four Jordanian nationals were among the 19 captured, Colombian officials said.

Contradicting the claims of U.S. officials, acting Colombian Attorney General Jorge Armando Otalora insisted that his country's detectives uncovered evidence that the criminal gang may have supplied false documents to members of al-Qaida and Hamas terrorists.

The Justice Department denied any links between the counterfeiters and foreign terrorist organizations other than outlawed armed groups in Colombia.

Well, it could be that everyone is claiming that everything is "terrorist" related these days just to get extra attention and maybe to swing some anti-terrorism funds towards the Colombian government who are still fighting their own version of "terrorists".

On the other hand, do you ever get the feeling that the government is sometimes denying these reports with their fingers crossed behind their backs?

Colombia: These are terrorists!
US: Nah-uh!
Colombia: Uh-huh!
US: I double dog dare you to prove that our security still sucks! And, I call no go on the Mexican military infiltration of our borders.
Colombia: You can't do that!
US: Yes I can! I have my fingers crossed, see?

I have my fingers crossed, too, that these are just a bunch of idiots helping drug runners (never thought I'd see the day when I thought "just drug runners") or that, if there are terrorists involved, we aren't saying anything because we don't want to give away what we know.

Considering the state of our "secret" intelligence agencies, I'll have to go with my first wish and hope like hell there aren't any terrorists involved.

U.S. Seeks Eight Tied to Passport Ring

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9 Al-Qaida terrorist including two Kashmiris held in Nimroz - PakTribune

More while you were distracted with cartoon hijinks:

Senior security officials of Nimroz Province say that they arrested eight foreigners last night in separate anti-terrorist operations. Giving details, Governor Nimroz Ghulam Dastgir Azad said that one Iraqi, two Kashmiris form Pakistan administered Kashmir and five Bangladeshis were among the detainees.

He disclose that the intelligence agencies has arrested them from Zaranj city. Mr. Azad said that the Iraqi and Kashmiris were without travel documents but Bangladeshis had them.

He suspected that the detainees had a link with Al-Qaeda. It may be noted that Al-Qaeda suspects had been arrested in Nimroz at the time when the security forces tightened noose around the terrorists in neighbouring Kandahar Province.

9 Al-Qaida terrorist including two Kashmiris held in Nimroz - PakTribune

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Leaders trade blame over cartoon furor, deaths - Mideast/N. Africa - MSNBC.com

“Iran and Syria have gone out of their way to inflame sentiments and to use this to their own purposes and the world ought to call them on it,” Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said at a joint news conference with Israel’s foreign minister.

Asked for proof the two governments sparked violence, Rice’s spokesman Sean McCormack said, “What we have seen in Damascus and Tehran is qualitatively different than we have seen in other places.”

Umm...is Rueters just being funny or what?

Let me answer for the Secretary of State:

We know that Iran and Syria are police states where the government forces are routinely used to quail, disperse if not kill thousands of protestors in the name of protecting their own regimes. Thus, it is not only conceivable, but probable that the same regimes could quail, if they wanted to and were not complicit with, the same acts against embassies and other property and personnel of foreign nations.

Because they did not and because their press, well known not to be bastions of free speech, but controlled by the state, inflamed and sometimes even demanded these actions, we must assume, as any sane government and people would do, that the state is complicit in these activities and responsible for any damage, injury or loss of life that occurs during the commission of these acts.

To believe otherwise is to be a reporter with al-Rueters.

Leaders trade blame over cartoon furor, deaths - Mideast/N. Africa - MSNBC.com

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While You Were Distracted With Cartoons and Cartoonish Characters

The war went on. Al Qaida still exists. Muslims killed and injured Muslims and a few Westerners and "unbelievers" in the name of Mohammed, Allah and Islam.

BEIRUT - A bomb exploded near a Lebanese army barracks in Beirut early on Thursday, destroying a car and slightly wounding a soldier, security sources said.

The sources said a local newspaper had received a telephone call from someone claiming to speak on behalf of al-Qaida and declaring that a security target would be bombed in Beirut in retaliation for the arrest last month of 13 group members.

Blast hits Lebanon after alleged al-Qaida threat - Mideast/N. Africa - MSNBC.com

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Sweden Aims to End Oil Dependency by 2020 - Yahoo! News

Go Sweden, yes you can! If you can't do it, no one can!

Sweden Aims to End Oil Dependency by 2020 - Yahoo! News

I'm actually hoping they are succesful. It might be a small controlled experiment for the rest of the world.

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Clerics Seek End to Protests Over Drawings - Yahoo! News

The drawings — including one depicting the prophet wearing a turban shaped as a bomb — have touched a raw nerve among Muslims. Islam is interpreted to forbid any illustrations of Muhammad for fear they could lead to idolatry.

Violence has escalated sharply in Afghanistan this week, and nine people have died in demonstrations during the past three days. Protests, sometimes involving armed men, have been directed at foreign and Afghan government targets — fueling suspicions there's more behind the unrest than religious sensitivities.

"It's an incredibly emotive issue. This is something that really upset Afghans," said Joanna Nathan, senior Afghanistan analyst at the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based research institute. "But it is also being used to agitate and motivate the crowds by those against the government and foreign forces" in Afghanistan.

You think?

Clerics Seek End to Protests Over Drawings - Yahoo! News

This has very little to do with images of Mohammed or "insults to Islam". The battle lines were drawn long ago by some of the early founders of the modern Islamic movement. The fact that reporters continue to include the line "Islam is interpreted to forbid any illustrations of Muhammad for fear they could lead to idolatry" is bogus on its face.

In fact, depending on the version of Islam, Sunni, Shia, Matridi, Ashuri, Wahabi, etc, etc, etc, images of people and animals totally are forbidden or only some images, or images used in a religious context. It depends on the age old interpretation of Mose's laws brought down from Mt. Sinai. All of the Abrahamic belief systems have a similar law in their books, "Thou shall not put any graven images before me."

Largely due to the casting of the golden calf and its worship leading to the 40 years in the wilderness.

But, even in Islam, even during the height of the Islamic caliphate, there were taboos and then there were "taboos". Images of animals found their way into texts. Medical and scientific books used images of man to illustrate medical procedures. Even Mohammed and certain events were subject to illustration from both western and eastern artists.

No, the current situation has little to do with Mohammed and any depiction, whether satirical, insulting or simple straight forward depiction. This is the battle that was begun over 50 years ago when the founders of the modern Islamist movement, like Qutb (Khattab), wrote that the freedom of the west, the temptations it presented to the Muslim Ummah, which even in the confines of what the west considers a rather staid period, seemed life altering to the visitors from the east.

This same message resonates within the current Islamist movement. The danger they see is not the west in regards to its money, its military, its weapons or even its political power. The danger is the insidious movement of western culture and values into the Muslim Ummah via the unstoppable power of globalization.

It may be considered that even as Qutb and others wrote the words that inspired the current Islamists, it was already too late. Though, they have tried very hard to turn the clock backwards.

Interestingly, the idea of infiltrating or destructing the Muslim world was certainly not any part of a plan to decimate or destroy Islam or Arab people. It was and is simply the outcome of civilizations meeting, not colliding, but simply meeting in the market place and, by osmosis, trading ideas, fashion, technology; all of the things that occur when people meet.

Qutb understood that faith as he knew it, the simple world of Islam, the faithful, the nomads, the bazar with its proud craftsmen; all of these things were bound to change and were changing before his eyes.

It has little stopped since then. It is this that began to invigorate the current Islamists to take action. Not the existense of Israel nor American forces against an "Islamic" state like Iraq. Not even Afghanistan. It is the realization that what was once considered the base, the backbone and the power of the Muslim world, was slipping away.

It was the only remaining power of the Islamic world since the caliphate, rich with the wealth of empire, education and technological advancement, had fallen in long before it ceased to exist.

The recent riots over the "cartoons" are not about a new "offense" or "outrage" upon Islam. It is the continuation of the original battle as perceived by Qutb and carried forward by Zawahiri, bin Laden and the rest. In it, we find not only the definition of the battle, but the weapons by which the battle at large will be fought, the weapons which have been chosen by the Islamists in their writings, videos, audios, speeches and other propaganda: words and pictures.

What we must understand is our part in this play. It is only through the modern, current Islamists that the struggle has been defined between "Islam" and "the West". It is a battle within Islam itself. We are but the peripheral. The outside enemy that one side has chosen to represent a foe to focus the Ummah, the masses, against in order to unify them, pull them back into "the fold" as it were.

Within that struggle are the many other struggles. The definition of the Ummah being one great idea, but the power struggles, the local battles and all that it entails, stirs the pot slowly. While Zawahiri, Zarqawi and bin Laden (and many like them) define themselves as simple soldiers defending the "people", as with all other internal revolutions, they would not shirk or disclaim any power or leadership given to them if they had half a chance to claim it and use it.

Today, continuing to define themselves as simple warriors fighting on behalf of the untouchable, inviolate Allah and the greater, ill defined "Ummah", they can continue to pretend to humbleness. They can continue to pretend that they simply want an ethical "Islamic" leader to come to power; an unknown that will show himself at the right time. It's a feint and a fake that has been seen throughout revolutionary movements whether it is Nazi Germany; Bolshevik Russia; Maoist China; Pol Pot in Cambodia; Ba'athists, Sandinistas, Pinochet, Castro. We have seen it too many times in history.

For us in the West, the battle was simply joined because we were attacked in an effort to provide a rallying point and the battle within Islam will continue to be a concern because it has strategic impact on our continued economic and physical existence.

The power of the latest protests that many feel are aimed at the West as part of the battle with the West, like many a message formulated by revolutionaries and guerillas, is not aimed at us or is barely a consideration. It is our own arrogance and repeated navel gazing which causes us to imagine that the protests, whatever words, signs or deeds of the practitioners, were for our eyes and minds only or largely. This was a message to the Ummah as have been many messages about the temptation, damnation or evil of Western values.

This is a challenge within Islam and to all Muslims; this is the line which demarcates "true" Muslims and apostates. Defend Mohammed and Islam or become "the other", the kufir, the unbeliever, worthy of death at the hands of those who consider themselves betrayed by the erosion of their way of life. The message told those that would question Islam or the lack of freedoms within its practice by the "faithful", to shut up, sit down or die.

That is the purpose of the signs that read, "Butcher the unbelievers".

We may argue between ourselves over actions or purposes, but the truth is, the military and economic power lies within the west. Thus incitement to "butcher the unbelievers" has little connotations for us. The Ummah in the grand sense that bin Laden and his ilk wish to create does not exist. It is not capable of the type of action that these kinds of signs might engender except within a very small and seriously limited arena within certain nations, some of which hold no economic or strategic purpose. To incite such violence in the face of their own weakness is simply insane.

While we may call extremism "crazy", those who are at the forefront are not "crazy" to the point they would jeopardize their current gains by inciting a war they could not hope to win at this time. The message was meant to quail the progress of the liberals. It was a call to arms against the internal. Until the internal is unified, Islam as the definer and the total, complete and massive enemy of the West does not exist.

In fact, the continued bombings, desecrations, cold blooded murders, kidnappings and other terrible offenses in the name of Islam has served to spark a deep debate within the Ummah itself. This activity is to re-establish the fundamentals as the honorable and the leaders of the Ummah; to negate the bad publicity by trying to raise up the single, outside enemy of the "West" and unify some of the people that may have been slipping away from their grasp.

We should always remember that the messages of the enemy are rarely, if ever, direct and single messages to the opposition, particularly in guerilla or revolutionary wars. The messages are always first to the "believers" to buck up moral; second to the sympathizers or fence sitters to bring more to the cause or firm up their committment; third to the "neutrals" hoping to cause them through reason or fear to sit out the struggle and only last is the message ever to the enemy. In this case, to the West as a whole.

The enemy is always the last, particularly when engaged in battle since the act of battle already defines the aspirations of the combattants. In this case, the enemy had chosen long ago to fight and kill. We already know the dead and the wounded. We already have the declaration of war. The message to the West was sent 9/11, 3/11, 10/04, 7/7, 7/21 and the many times in between.

The message was to Muslims: become us or become the "other", there is no in between. The "other" is worthy to die by their standards and that is the threat. The fact that it was cynically used by the very dictators and tyrants that OBL and his ilk wish to dismantle, barely registers within the confines of their strategy sense it serves their purpose one way or the other. For us, it is very telling and defines exactly why, whatever the original intent of the images, benign, provocative and even malicious, we should be conscious of the efforts to squash discussion of Islam, its tenets of faith, its icons:

The untouchable; the inviolate are tools of tyranny and oppression. If one can never question the invisible, how can one question the existent?

The images and the resulting uproar was very instructive for the West, but even more so for the "liberals" or "moderates" (whomever and however many that may be). This is the face of Islam. This is their fate. This is the redline that they should not cross. It is the line that will define Islam: whether that is Islam which turns back the centuries to pre-modernity and forces the war of cultures which it believes exists today and may, indeed, push towards world war and possible destruction of Islamic Ummah, if not the faith; or can it exist as a faith while its adherents take their place within the global world, maintaining faith as a private act and realizing power from within the local borders of nation states instead of the unachievable.

The riots, burnings, flags and pictures, to me, were fortuitous. It set the stage, defined the cause and pointed out the weapon. They will force discussion among people and bring the image of Islam as it is seen by many Westerners, home to the Muslim world. Some will see it as a sign of strength amd join. Others will believe it is embarrassing while others will still yet debate over who has the power of their faith.

Let the pictures be reflected back. This is what the Muslim Ummah has to look forward to under the guidance of those they support or sympathize with.

It may be well what the Muslim world deserves considering their flirtation with such renewed dictatorial concepts, but it is not the Muslim world we deserve regardless of lazy intellectuals declaring it all to be the fault of our "foreign policy". That is the worst hypocrisy and arrogance of all.

tag Jyllands-Posten

Caricature of Respect

Update: Read also Toman Bay - Dirty Dozen

I think that the whole thing is a result of an unholy, unspoken alliance between the forces of political Islam, and the Arabic, secular governments.
It is easy; it goes like this:

Islamists want to rise to power. They try violence but they discover that they’re playing the military-governments’ favorite pastime, so they retreat. They start directing their efforts at the grassroots. They condemn violence, because it didn’t go well with the masses. They know that we’re people who believe that “El Nearafo Ahsan Men El Meanrafosh” (what we know is better than what we don’t), so they don’t try to clash with the existing governments, because they know that people would prefer what they know rather than experimenting with anything new. Also, they have no real solutions to any problems the people are facing in their life, so they, in the manner of every good politician who doesn’t have the solution to a certain problem, invent another one and try to solve it. So they go “forget about life, let’s focus on death”. And then they go on with the very largest implementation of the “carrot and the stick” technique in history.

Thanks for the link John

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Military Might: Combatting New and Old Threats

Reading a series of reports from different organizations this morning, I saw an interesting grouping of subjects.

The first report indicates that four Marines were killed over Sunday and Monday in Anbar province in Iraq by IEDs. Roadside bombs kill four marines in Iraq - Yahoo! News

Time does a follow up piece on Spc Braddock who lost a leg in Iraq, January 13, 2005. Scars of War:

Is Braddock avoiding bigger issues in his life? Probably. He went to see a military psychologist. Didn't like him. He has no time for pity, his own or others'. While fellow amputees were offering encouragement to other survivors at Brooke, his bedside talks were sometimes brutal. "I made it a point to bitch out people who are giving up on themselves," he says. "I told them, 'You know the difference between amputees and cripples? A cripple is someone who gives up.'" Last May, three months after his surgery, he hiked up Washington's Mount St. Helens with his prosthetic leg just to prove that he could do it. "You suck it up and drive on," he says. His mom says he is blessed in his positive attitude. "One of the things that always helped Matthew is he never looked back," she says.

What worries him now is the waiver he needs to get into the Army with a prosthetic leg. Failing that, he might return to Texas, learn some Spanish and try for a border-patrol job. There is no girlfriend in his life. "With this chubby Irish mug?" he asks, noting the 20 lbs. he has put on since his accident. But the ladies do take notice, he admits. "I tell girls I got blown up by an antitank mine in Iraq. It's cheesy, but it works." And he really has drunk out of his prosthetic leg--although he has learned to use a spare one so he doesn't have to walk around with a beer-soaked sock. "Made that mistake once," he says. How much beer does a leg hold, we ask, suspecting a trick. "More than a pitcher," he answers with a perfectly straight face.

Read the rest because I think it is very inspiring. A quick photo essay is here.

The military is not unmindful of the problems caused by these weapons and has come up with a number of old and new solutions to combat them. In fact, according to the New York Times, the Pentagon is expanding it's program spending to $3.5 billion this year to counter the the "no. 1 killer of American troops in Iraq":

The move is a tacit acknowledgment that despite years of rising death tolls from the devices, the response has not been sufficiently focused or coordinated at the highest levels. And it comes in addition to recent spending to get more and better armor for troops and their vehicles, spurred by concerns expressed by Congress and the American public.[snip]

In the next few months, the Defense Department plans to double the number of technical, forensic and intelligence specialists assigned to the problem, to about 360 military service members and contractors in the United States and Iraq. Hundreds of other experts are being called in, including more than are currently involved from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Central Intelligence Agency. New technology and training techniques are also quickly being pushed into service.

The increased response comes after the number of attacks with makeshift bombs against allied and Iraqi forces and Iraqi civilians nearly doubled in the last year, to 10,593 in 2005 from 5,607 in 2004. The military says it is able to discover and defuse only about 40 percent of the bombs, and the result is deadly: 407 of the 846 Americans killed last year in Iraq were killed by the bombs, which are called improvised explosive devices.

Some of the efforts include both old and new technology as well as "anti-technology". One such device is the Buffalo EOD Vehicle which is seeing active duty in Iraq today:

The Buffalo uses steel wheels and disc rollers which allow the vehicle to be driven over and detonate anti-personnel mines without sustaining damage. As a result, unusually large numbers of mines can be neutralized in a short period of time. The vehicle retains all round (including roof) ballistic protection from 7.62mm NATO ball cartridges. This armor is upgradeable to protect against Dragunov AP cartridges. In a recent incident that involved a Buffalo vehicle which ran over an anti-tank mine, the blast tore off a wheel and destroyed an axle on the vehicle. There were no casualties to the crew inside the Buffalo and the vehicle maintained its mobility and drove itself out of the minefield. It was repaired overnight and was back in operation the following day.

Electronic jammers are being used to deny operating remote IEDs. In December 2005, Poland purchased $4 million worth of vehicular and portable jammers for use in Iraq. US forces also received new and improved jammers in December.

Another technology that is old and new is the landmine detector:

The mine detector, unique in its capability to spot the small, high-tech antipersonnel mines littering the landscapes in Afghanistan and Iraq, combines ground-penetrating radar and metal-detection technology to locate both metal and plastic mines lurking beneath battlefield surfaces.

This is more than a simple metal detector. It uses ground penetrating radar because some of the smaller, but just as deadly landmines are made of wood or plastic, a technique perfected by the German's during WWII to confound metal detecting mine sweepers. While the original article talks about combatting user problems, this article outlines some of the practical problems that have been experiences with previous land mine detecting systems:

"Existing mine detectors are based on a single technology -- metal detection," said David H. Fine, president of CyTerra. "Our system fuses together two sensor technologies -- ground penetrating radar (GPR) and metal detection."

The new system dramatically reduces the high number of false alarms that have been a problem with current landmine detection equipment. False alarm rates are especially prevalent with the current systems when you have other metal elements in the soil such as shrapnel or bullet casings. The new HSTAMIDS rate of detection is unaffected by such "noise" during the detection process. The coupling of the GPR also makes detecting plastic-cased mines possible and easier.

During testing at the Army's Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, the CyTerra prototype demonstrated a probability of detection near 100 percent.[snip]

Sylvester also said the new detector allows soldiers to be in the detecting mode longer because the system of audio tones used to alert soldiers to the presence of a buried landmine is gentler to the service-member's ears.

"With the old technology you could go about 20 minutes before you go tone deaf and have to switch off with another operator," he said. "This new system I could go for 30 minutes or more and not have a degradation in performance user time."

Of course, removing landmines isn't just about the safety of our soldiers in combat:

"The need for improved landmine detection is obvious," Fine said "More than 25,000 people a year, about 500 a week with one-third of that number being children are killed or maimed by antipersonnel landmines. Once a mine is in the ground it remains dangerous until removed.

Landmines were responsible for 34 percent of all U.S. causalities in the Persian Gulf War. There are currently 60 to 70 million landmines in the ground in 70n countries around the world. The 12 most affected countries are: Afghanistan, Angola, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Cambodia, Croatia, Eritrea, Iraq (Kurdistan), Mozambique, Namibia, Nicaraugua, Somalia and Sudan.

There are more than 350 different types of anti-personnel landmines, many of which cost as little as $3 to manufacture and as much as $1,000 to remove.

Wikipedia even talks about the use of, not just dogs, but Gambian Giant Pouched Rats that are sensitive to smell and small enough not to set off the mines. There are also genetically engineered flower seeds that can be used in large mine fields and bloom "in distinctive colors" when explosives are located in the soil.

Another interesting concept to the "biological" landmine detector are bees.

Bees... can be trained in a couple of days to pick up the scent of the explosive in the landmine... When released into a minefield, the bees find their way toward the mines... [They] are too small to detect either with the naked eye or high-resolution video at long ranges. So instead, the team employs a laser emitter that sweeps an area like radar or sonar. When the light hits a bee, it reflects, and sensors are able to tell by the reflection just where the bee is. After sweeping several times, the scientists are able to crunch the data and see statistically where the higher occurrences of bees are located.

In controlled situations, the method is extremely effective: Bees can detect very small traces of explosive vapors with 97% accuracy and are "wrong" -- that is, passing over a mine without noticing it -- less than 1% of the time.

It might seem far fetched, but the military has been using different animals and plants to work through these issues for years including dolphins.

Other high tech items include robots for inspecting and disarming devices. According to the article, 150 have been sent to Iraq, but it appears these do not go with regular units, only trained EOD units that are called after another unit discovers the IED. In response to this item being so far up the food chain from regular patrolling units, some have come up with their own unofficial improvised explosive detector:

A young private [named "E.S."] in that platoon has one of those radio-controlled toy cars. When they find unidentifiable debris in the road, E.S. sends out his little RC car and rams it. If it's light enough to be moved or knocked over, it's too light to be a bomb, so we can approach it and get rid of it. If it's heavy, we call EOD [explosive ordnance disposal -- the military's bomb squad]. At night, they duct tape a flashlight to the car.

Of course, the lowest tech items in the military tool box are bomb sniffing dogs and EOD men.

In this war, there's a 50% chance, if you are injured or killed, that it will be caused by an IED. Not even suicide car bombers or VBIEDs are used nearly as often or successful regradless of how much they might be feared or how often they garner media attention. Although the military is advancing the amount spent on research, training and equipment, it's obvious we're behind the eight ball in recognizing the dangers or putting our money where the explosions are.

This could be due to a number of issues, but bueacracy is probably the number one killer. The unsung heroes are the men and women who put their lives on the line everyday, kicking over garbage bags, picking up dead animals and staring bombs in the face (literally) in order to protect the soldier on patrol.

Someday, I believe these men and women will be remembered like the helicopter pilots of Vietnam. Just men and women doing their jobs quietly in extraordinary fashion, little noticed by the rest of the world and unappreciated by even their peers until the day comes when history is written and the number of IEDs and other devices disarmed in Iraq and Afghanistan shows the extraordinary efforts by a few to save many.

Round up of other EOD articles at Defense Tech.

Finally, the military continues to look for new ways to combat old problems like Post Traumatic Stress which was once known as battle fatigue or shell shock. Some historical numbers seem to reflect even modern day problems:

Soldiers who enlisted between the ages of 9 and 17 were nearly twice as likely to suffer postwar disorders than veterans who enlisted at 31 or older, said study author Judith Pizarro of the University of California, Irvine. The younger soldiers also were at higher risk of dying early.

"Percentage of company killed is likely a powerful variable because it serves as a proxy for various traumatic stressors, such as witnessing death or dismemberment, handling dead bodies, traumatic loss of comrades, realizing one's own imminent death, killing others and being helpless to prevent others' deaths," Pizarro wrote.[snip]

The 19th century corollary for post-traumatic stress disorder was "soldier's heart," the study said.

The findings "strikingly echo the results of research into the mental health status of Vietnam veterans," wrote Dr. Roger Pitman of Harvard Medical School in an accompanying editorial.

He said the fate of the youngest combatants also was mirrored in the aftermath of many of today's conflicts: "Their immature nervous systems and diminished capacity to regulate emotion give even greater reason to shudder at the thought of children and adolescents serving in combat, which apparently was common in the U.S. Civil War and still occurs in some countries today."

Just another reason to give incentives to the older generation to join the military.

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Matty O' Says What We've Known All Along

The real story of Iraq will not be written today or tomorrow. You will not see it on your television screen. If you're lucky, you get cable channels like the Military Channel or Times Discovery which often plays segments recorded in Iraq with our soldiers, interviews them, discusses their activities, shows what they are up against, etc. But, what you don't know is the number of people that have done heroic things. You won't hear about men running into fire fights to pull wounded soldiers, both Iraqi and American, sometimes even other allies, from danger, saving their lives and those of their friends.

You won't hear about the sacrifices made on a daily basis. You won't hear about men shooting an insurgent and then Combat Medics running up to save the same man that was trying to kill them a moment before. You won't hear about heroes or battlefield gallantry. You won't hear about the likes Major Biegler who was attacked by a suicide car bomber along with his troops and twenty children standing around, then these same soldiers jumping up, treating the children, trying to run a little girl named Farah to the hospital to save her life (a photograph that made the news, but the story was little known or publicized).

She died, by the way, but not from lack of trying to save her through extraordinary means by tough men with guns who cried over her loss.

No, what you hear are stories about abuse, slow reconstruction, the mistakes that occur in battle that sometimes lead to civilians being injured or killed, reporters being kidnapped or killed, the continuing infighting of politics that allegedly show failure. All of these things are part of the story, but the parts that show something more, that show men and women to be more, that show the world that there are brave men and women who sacrifice, not just idiots playing S&M games in a notorious prison, those stories about good men and women are hard to find on your regular news, cable, print or even web based news organizations.

I know how hard they are to find because I watch the news and read the web everyday. I know because every few months I'm having a relaxing talk with my dad and we're discussing the war, I'll mention something about this or that incident, about activities that are going on, about progress that's being made, about other problems or things we are trying to work out and he is always surprised. He always asks me to remind him where he can find the information. I even introduced him to a few blogs so he could get the info.

My dad is a news junky. He's retired and spends a lot of his time working on hobbies with the TV on in the background. Unfortunately, where they are, CNN is the only international news channel they get.

And, it's not just my dad. My brother in the ANG was up two weeks ago for the funeral and we were having a general chat and chew, the war came up and he was surprised how much I know about what's going on. He was surprised what he didn't know about what was going on.

No, he never heard of Peralta, though he knew about Paul Smith. He was then surprised that I knew about the picture of the EOD guy flipping the bird to the insurgents after they tried to blow him up. While we laughed over that, he wondered where I had seen it since he thought it was something mostly military guys were forwarding to each other from the DoD link. In fact, I told him, that is how I saw it, from a military blogger. And this is from my brother, who, as they say, is "all ate up" (ie, all military, all the time).

There are no heroes in uniform according to the press. Only journalists and activist civilians can get that title.

Sgt York is dead. He's been replaced by Brenda Star, Ace Reporter.

My prayers and good wishes for recover to Bob Woodruff and Doug Vogt

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No Veil Required

In a timely and prophetic manner, my good friends at Iraqi Bloggers Central have scored an interview with a famous Iranian photographer who sparked controversy last year with his presentation "No Veils Required" Amir Normandi.



Amir Normandi's presentation was taken down last year when local Muslim students protested what they considered an insult to Islam, their religion and to their beliefs. It's interesting how many people will bow to demands of Islamic religiosos, but would continue to print or show images offensive to Christians, even in the face of protests and boycotts in the name of free speech.

I believe that organization have the right to show what they please, but I also wonder at the cowardice that we see when the images in question clearly have a purpose beyond seeing how degrading and degraded one can make a religious symbol or concept.

MG: Amir, you are anti-Hejab or Hijab. Can you explain for those who don't know, what a hijab is, and why you're against it?

Amir Normandi: Hejab is the general term for the compulsory dress code for women in Islamic societies. This Hejab is the same covering known as ABAYA in Saudi Arabia, Burqua in Afghanistan, and Chador in Iran. I am against forced Hejab which is a gender specific dress code and a tool for domination of women. It is almost always enforced by men and it is a segregation method which ends up making a woman a half human.

Mr. Normandi goes on to explain that women are not given child custody rights, even in abusive situations; they are not allowed to choose divorce or make complaints against an abusive spouse (if they leave they often suffer ostracization by their family and friends as the least punishment and quite often honor killings); they get half the inheritance of the male counterparts even if they are the only surviving child of a couple, the other parts of the inheritance is often given to male cousins or uncles, no matter how distant. These are but a few of the issues.

We know how women are treated in these societies. While you will find many a defender of these cultures talking about how safe it is for women compared to the US or other Western civilizations, it is only on the surface. Behind closed doors, behind closed minds, behind the delusion that many live under behind the veil that lets them keep the illusion, is a different reality where rape, incest, abuse and death are as common if not more so, than in western civilization. The difference is that they consider it private matters that get little reporting; they consider it to be domestic issues that are not reported as crime; they consider it to be the right of the males to act in these ways and worse towards women because their primary beliefs about women begin with the first act of Eve in the garden and all women are painted as potential harlots that will lead men astray unless veiled and controlled against their "natural" tendencies.

In this society, we get to see what the Medieval era may have been like for western women.

Mr. Normandi's project is meant to show that the veil dehumanizes women into nothing but faceless bodies, which makes it easier for men to abuse them, use them and discard them at their liesure. Even if they are "loved", that they do not have a choice limits the truth of that feeling and cannot allow women to fully express themselves.

I highly recommend that you read the interview with Mr. Normandi and visit the sites linked as it has much information on the many issues of the Middle East, most notably free speech and women's rights and, of course, some great photographic art from Mr. Normandi including 500 ways to look at a black bird. At his website, Mr. Normandi wrote:

There is no justification for the oppression of human beings by other human beings, let alone under the name of God.

Human wisdom and passion have excelled to such a level that laws which protect our environment and its inhabitants have shape the core of our humanity. Yet, in many areas of the world, gender inequality is reaching the extent of gender apartheid. It is unconscionable to still tolerate in our time, oppressive inequalities between men and women as traditional norms of life.


As my sisters and their daughters demonstrated courageously outside the Tehran University’s main gate on March 08, 2005: Women’s Rights ARE Human Rights, Women's Freedom is Equality for Everyone.

And earlier he wrote:

Yes, my brother we have no Virility when we tolerate unjust laws in our constitution which discriminates against our; mothers, sisters, wives and daughters.

Yes my brother we lack Gallantry when women in our society have no child custody rights.

We lack Fortitude when our women can not initiate a divorce petition unless they forego all their potential rights.

We have no Valor if our women can not travel (obtain a passport) on their own.

A big H/T to my friend Diane Carriere, a French Canadian who believes in freedom and Democracy as the only true hope for peace. Her site contains interesting images from history, both photographic and paint, about freedom and oppression.

For those at work, some of the images maybe a little risque for the work environment though none show complete nudity and all are recommended as an appropriate version of free speech in context to the subject so I highly encourage everyone to read and look.

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Airman Shot in LA by Police!

This has been all over the news, but I haven't seen much comment by the military sites (of course, I've been fighting viruses all day so maybe I missed it).

I tried to find the original video from the news program that showed the home made video of the incident so people could look for themselves, but the news sites archives wouldn't produce it. Instead I got this story about the FBI getting involved to investigate whether Senior Airman Elio Carrion had his civil rights violated.

This incident involved two of my favorite types of people, military and police (and I don't mean that sarcastically either, they really are my favorite people, particularly if you throw in firemen). I think the video has been pulled in case it is prejudicial to the investigation, but if anyone finds it, please let me know so I can link it.

In the meantime, I saw the home made video of the last few moments before the shooting and I have to say that the officer who shot the airman is in a big steaming pile of self induced crap right now.

Of course, we haven't seen the police cars video showing the chase (at 100mph) or the recording of the officer getting warrant information on the driver (who is not the Airman that was shot), or how long the chase took, or how fast anyone complied with orders up to the moment of the shooting, but there were somethings, even in the grainy night home video that were pretty clear:

1) The officer was clearly, audibly angry.
2) He made so many mistakes up to the moment of the shooting it's hard to catalogue them all, but the simple version is:

a) When he had both the driver and the passenger (Carrion) on the ground with their hands outstretched, which he had ordered them to do, he should have left them there until back up arrived and should have maintained a safe distance covering them until then.
b) He should not have ordered either of the men to move beyond the ground position at all since that is the position that offers the most control of the suspects and provides the most protection for the officer(s)
c) He should have waited for back up to arrive and then handcuffed each suspect (including Carrion) before attempting to get him up off the ground.

3) The Airman was calm and responding to the officers commands, confirming them verbally. It almost sounded like he knew the officer was in distress and was trying to calm the situation down (which may have angered the police officer more).

4) The officer ordered Airman Carrion to "get up", twice.
5) Carrion's hands can be seen silhouetted from the headlights and it is clear that they are both raised in the surrender position and moving slowly. He did not appear to make any quick or startling moves, nor reach for anything even slowly.

5) The officer shot Carrion with deliberation. He did not shoot Carrion until he had stood up about half way (he did not completely make it to an upright position before being shot). The first shot rings out and there is a pause before two more shots, slightly quicker, but not panicked shooting, ring out.

I'm no expert and I hate to prejudice a situation knowing how their are often factors before the little video clips we see that have more mitigating circumstances, but, if I was on a jury, no matter what was said or shown about the character of any persons involved or their actions up to that moment, seeing that small part of the video where you can see the arms clearly raised, palms straight up and pointing towards the officer, clear of any objects, the order to get up and then the deliberate shooting with a pause between the first shot and the subsequent two that even seemed slow to me - unless this officer was using a revolver - I hadn't considered that since an automatic would respond quicker to firing, though I assume that only an idiot would carry a revolver as their primary weapon in LA instead of a .40 or .45 Glock or other semi-automatic weapon- still, I would say with some authority and fairly decent sense of timing that the pause between the first shot to the chest and the subsequent two was longer than the time it would take to pull the trigger on a revolver. If it was a semi-auto, the shooting was even more unfathomable as a "fear" motivated because the time between the last two shots seems slightly drawn out, even for "double taps".

From my perspective, the officer was thinking through his actions and made a conscious and deliberate decision to shoot Carrion above and beyond any considerations for adrenaline, "sudden moves", etc.

I think the FBI is right to investigate for possible violation of civil rights.

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N.Y.-Bound Puppies Used As Drug Couriers - Yahoo! News

I blame Glen Reynolds.

N.Y.-Bound Puppies Used As Drug Couriers - Yahoo! News

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Virus Update

The virus that is being sent out is the kama sutra virus. If you are receiving emails from my address kehenry1 at hotmail dot com with any attachments on it, it has this virus attached to it. Particularly if it has headings like "my pictures", "photo", "arab sex" (?), "sexy", etc. Most of you should know by now that I would not send out an email with those kind of attachments. I understand one of them is definitely p*rn*graphic photos.

I would like to remind all of my friends not to open these emails.

To date, I have scanned with three of the big virus scanner programs available: Symantec, trend and f-force. I have used each of these programs' tools specific for the kama sutra virus (also known as mywife, nyxem and a few other names). At this time, all of these programs have come up negative for viruses on this computer. The only thing it could come up with was called "joker flipped" at about 6 pm Wednesday evening from some clock software. I deleted the clock and all software just in case.

It appears that the attack began at appx 8:30 pm Tuesday evening while I was using my brother's ethernet. His system was attacked as well. It seems that it was able to spoof my email address and copied the email addresses in my "in box" which included some subfolders that I had emails in. Unfortunately, this included a number of companies I had sent resumes to.

I received back several nasty replies (since it had my email address on it) including demands to stop sending the email and one from a company I had applied with that had the p*rn pictures attached which I could not see on return so I hope like hell that they couldn't see them either. I tried to alert everyone as best as I can that emails from me are infected and not to open, particularly if it says it has attachments.

I'm not sure what else to do.

My brother is particularly upset because his email listings included my nephews' schools and teachers and he received back some nasty email from them. He is now very worried that they will have the police after him for sending p*rn*graphy to a school system. I have tried to tell him to simply call the school and let them know that they should not accept email from that address anymore, explaining about the virus and to report it to his email server. Unfortunately, he is sure that the school is now going to send the FBI after him.

Since it is clearly the virus based on the attachments in the email, I told him he should calm down and not borrow trouble, that even if they came, it would be clear what the problem was, but he's not buying that much.

Anyway, I've done all that I can do, but it seems that it is still sending emails with the virus to everyone in the universe even though every scan shows no viruses found. Seems like they may have simply performed a hit and run to grab info to spoof from without depositing anything on the system (either that or they are really good and have the ability to dodge all the virus scanners available).

So, in an attempt to do an end run on this problem, I will be disabling my old email address. If you are on my "secured" email list, you will receive notification of my new address. If not, you will have to leave your info on the comments and I will get back to you with my new address.

If any of the computer guys knows anything else that I should be doing to stop this (short of burning the computer and throwing it out the window - which I have considered), please drop me a line and let me know what else I can do.

Thank you for your patience and, again, my apologies to anyone that received an email from me with any inappropriate content or viruses attached.

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Virus Alert!

Friends, it has come to my attention that I have been attacked by a virus and it is spamming my email addresses sending inappropriate emails with the virus attached. If you receive an email from kehenry1 at hotmail dot com, do not open it at this time. I will notify my friends and family when the issue has been resolved and it is safe to open emails.

The virus that has infected me is discussed here. This virus is set to destroy files on Friday Feb 3. According to the notification, if you update your software now, do a scan and and remove the virus if you have it, you can save yur computer.

My deep apologies to anyone who opened an email from me in good faith and may have fallen victim to this virus.

Please spread the word.

Thank you

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Virus Alert!

Friends, it has come to my attention that I have been attacked by a virus and it is spamming my email addresses sending inappropriate emails with the virus attached. If you receive an email from kehenry1 at hotmail dot com, do not open it at this time. I will notify my friends and family when the issue has been resolved and it is safe to open emails.

The virus that has infected me is discussed here. This virus is set to destroy files on Friday Feb 3. According to the notification, if you update your software now, do a scan and and remove the virus if you have it, you can save yur computer.

My deep apologies to anyone who opened an email from me in good faith and may have fallen victim to this virus.

Please spread the word.

Thank you

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