Pandagon

Just Let It Be Run By Voltron

Hamid Karzai, current president of Afghanistan, is casting his lot with the nation's warlords in his bid for a five-year term as Afghanistan's president.

The warlord system seems to have been reinforced by Karzai in a bid to assure stability over progress - he avoids political strife, ensuring his election, while simultaneously assuring that that political strife is avoided throughout his term by not pissing off the people with the guns and the armies by provoking too much reform. And by too much, that seems to be "any".

Now, the promise of the neoconservative plan seemed to be that it bundled hawkery with a commitment to liberal reforms in these countries to stem off the tide of totalitarianism that had made then into such dangerous states in the first place. In Afghanistan, it seems to just be putting a psuedo-democratic statehead in charge of a slightly altered corrupt system. Is that what we went there to do?

Pens

Go be a good person. Send a pen. This, might I add, is how we win hearts and minds. Too bad it's coming from individual initiative and not an Armed Forces bulk order aimed to systematically address the needs of the people.

Flying Rooks

Tom Friedman's latest column is a peculiar mix of utter idiocy, absolute sensibility, and no empathy. His frustration with the Middle East "Peace Process" rightly shines through when he says:

But then he simply jumps off the deep end and argues that:But that's not what he's done. Instead, the Bush Team walked in and moved all of Israel's pieces over to the other side of the board and took the Palestinian's queen. And what that's going to do is raise hostility towards Israel AND the US higher than we've ever seen it. You'd think after what's going on in Iraq, after the threats of terrorism, after we've begun our drive to wipe out Al-Qaeda and after we've successfully negotiated with at least a few Arab leaders, we would stop doing things that will infuriate the Arab world, provide endless content for the anti-American demagogues and further marginalize the moderates who were not yet convinced of our ill intentions. But for no good reason, you'd be wrong.

This policy lies not in a vacuum but in the most volatile region on earth. And for some reason, utterly unknown to me, this administration keeps lighting matches. One thing about throwing chessboards in the air. You never know where they'll come down. And you never know if they're going to land on you.

The Death of Understanding

I highly recommend that you pick up this week's Economist (the outsourcing of jobs is the cover story). The whole issues is great, but I want to flag the article on the situation in Israel as i think it makes some great points that advocates on both sides tend to miss.

I attend UC Santa Cruz where anti-Israeli sentiment is so strong that it occasionally veers if into anti-semitism. Luckily, it's of the ignorant rather than hateful variety, but it is troubling nonetheless. The graffiti and posters declaring opposition to the Israeli apartheid miss some truly fundamental facts that The Economist points out:

That's absolutely true. Wrongs are committed, but we are not dealing the Apartheid, nor the circumstances and climate we saw in South Africa. This is a region engaged in a war of terror where everyone lives in constant fear of attack and both sides see themselves as the persecuted. Worse, attitudes and policies that are completely reasonable are also utterly counterproductive, fueling the cycle of despair and hatred:Israel's economy, needless to say, is not doing that well either. The problem with suicide bombing is that what makes it effective; it's unpredictability and the easy of concealing a deadly weapon on the body of an average person; is what fuels the Conflict. Israelis can't see who has a bomb and who doesn't so they simply stop letting palestinians in. That's a reasonable response. Unfortunately, it creates more unemployed and desperate Palestinians who can (rightfully) blame Israel for their misery and want nothing more than to strike back. Thus the cycle continues.

That, to me, is the essential dilemma that makes this conflict so intractable. Both sides respond logically, and these logical responses make the problem significantly worse, never better. Further, the emotions created by losing friends, by having your home demolished, by watching the latest reports of humiliation and terrorism on the evening news, lead to an anger and resentment so deep that empathy and understanding of your enemy's position is out of the question. And without that, there is little chance of breaking the cycle of logical-but-harmful responses and replacing them with restrained and peace-conducive ones.

Add in to leaders who make peace nearly impossible and you're really quite screwed. Had Sharon given the concessions he's currently making to Abu Mazen, the Palestinians would have a strong and moderate Prime Minister who could lead them down the road to peace. Instead, Sharon weakened Mazan and is back with Arafat, giving concessions to a partner who is unpredictable and untrustworthy. With these two firmly ensconced in the leadership, I fear peace won't be possible until the toll of time replaces those heading their respective states.