Pot Pouri for Men

One of the funny books I’ve read is called Military Justice Is to Justice as Military Music Is to Music, by Robert Sherrill. The theme for this day has to be International Law is to Law as Iraqi Music is to Music. Hey Saddam, how you hangin, pal?

I guess the hanging has not yet commenced but the Iraq government announced that it would be done by 6AM Saturday, ie 7PM Friday U.S. Pacific time. It seems they are waiting for a judge in Washington, DC to rule on a stay of execution. The request filed in U.S. District Court before Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly argues that because Hussein also faces a civil lawsuit in Washington, he has rights as a civil defendant that would be violated if he is executed. “To protect those rights, defendant Saddam Hussein requests an order of this court providing a stay of his execution until further notice of this court,” attorney Nicholas Gilman wrote.

A similar request by Awad al-Bandar, the former chief justice of Saddam’s Court who also faces execution, was denied Thursday and is under appeal. Al-Bandar argued that his trial violated his rights under the U.S. Constitution but the U.S. Justice Dept. countered that foreigners being tried in foreign courts are not protected by the U.S. Constitution.

This is what happens when U.S. judges start citing international law to justify their decisions. Truly bizarre!!

Another bad man although not in the Hussein class is Robert Jensen, professor of journalism at the University of Texas. Jensen recently wrote an op-ed in the SF Chronicle (insight@sfchronicle.com ) explaining that men being men is a bad deal and urging guys to “evolve beyond masculinity.”

Jensen writes: “It's hard to be a man; hard to live up to the demands that come with the dominant conception of masculinity, of the tough guy. So, guys, I have an idea -- maybe it's time we stop trying. Maybe this masculinity thing is a bad deal, not just for women, but for us. We need to get rid of the whole idea of masculinity. It's time to abandon the claim that there are certain psychological or social traits that inherently come with being biologically male.”

Jensen explains that gender differences are being promoted by an intellectual fad called “evolutionary psychology” that wants to explain all complex behaviors as simple evolutionary adaptations. They say, “Look at how men and women behave so differently; it must be because men and women are fundamentally different,” when it’s the political system that has been creating differences between men and women. (I just finished a course in Evo-psycho so I know about these things.)

So if we take Jensen’s advice and give up on the very idea of masculinity, what then?

Jensen again: “Of course, if we are going to jettison masculinity, we have to scrap femininity along with it. We have to stop trying to define what men and women are going to be in the world based on sex differences. I don't think the planet can long survive if the current conception of masculinity endures. We face political and ecological challenges that can't be met with this old model of what it means to be a man. At the more intimate level, the stakes are just as high. For those of us who are biologically male, we have a simple choice: We men can settle for being men, or we can strive to be human beings.”

There you have it, guys. We have to stop being men so we can begin being human beings. In case you are wondering what they teach in college these days, this is it –- a great example of what the “politically correct” professor substitutes for English literature or journalism or political science. The PIG guide to English and American Literature by Elizabeth Kantor contains dozens of other examples. Did you know that “Shakespeare has played and continues to play a significant role in the establishment and maintenance of gender roles that subordinate women.” (Prof. Robert Lublin, U. Mass.)

But it may be that Jensen has nothing to be worried about. A new study found that testosterone levels in America's males have declined over the past 20 years. No causes, such as aging, obesity or smoking, could be attributed to the decline, according to the lead researcher, Dr. Thomas G. Travison of the New England Research Institutes.

The Massachusetts Male Aging Study found that 50 year old men in 1988 (pre-Clinton) had 1.3% more testosterone than 50 year old men in 2002.

Best known as men's primary sex hormone, testosterone is critical for maintaining bone and muscle mass. Researchers have linked low levels of the hormone to diabetes, low sex drive and other medical conditions. Women also have the hormone, but in much lower levels. Oops, a difference among us humans.

And there is another difference that is undeniable, and now validated by a scientific study. It is something one half of the population has long suspected - and the other half always vocally denied. Women really do talk more than men. In fact, women talk almost three times as much as men, with the average woman chalking up 20,000 words in a day - 13,000 more than the average man.

In her new book The Female Mind, Dr. Luan Brizendine says women devote more brain cells to talking than men. “Women have an eight-lane superhighway for processing emotion, while men have a small country road,” said Dr Brizendine, who runs a female “mood and hormone” clinic in San Francisco.

Well it is about time the science world has finally caught up to the daily scene at Starbucks where we can only get in a word edgewise if we start talking about sports or war or other guy things. Sorry Jensen.

Beowulf Strategy, Part 2

The centerpiece of the Beowulf Strategy (12/23) for Iraq is trust. Now that we have freed the Iraqi people from the rule of Saddam and his thugs, helped to create a fledgling democracy and trained the Iraq military, it is time to get out of their way. The Iraqis themselves need to deal with the radical elements who continue to use terrorism as a means to overthrow the elected government and seize control.

The Iraq Sunnis are either going to turn on the radicals among them or face the kind of repression they long imposed on the Iraq Shiites and Kurds. Of course the Saudi Arabians will be upset. An op-ed by Nawaf Obaid in The Washington Post outlined likely Saudi actions if the United States withdraws from Iraq. The Saudis would support Sunnis in Iraq and then manipulate the oil market to strangle the Iranian economy. Of course Saudi money is already supporting Sunni forces in Iraq, according to the Associated Press. Thus the Saudis continue to be part of the problem rather than the solution. President Bush needs to tell the House of Saud that their days of fermenting unrest in the region are finis.

Now it is time to deal with Iran. While the world frets about the Iranian theocrazies developing a nuclear arsenal, they are busy creating mischief in Iraq and in Lebanon using a combination of homegrown terrorists and Hezbollah. And if they do acquire nukes, giving them to Hezbollah to use against Israel would be a natural.

In a preemptive move, Iran has threatened to cut off oil tanker traffic through the Straits of Hormuz (40% of the world’s supply) if the UN should be foolish enough to impose sanctions on the Islamic Republic. “We have the power to halt oil supply,” a senior Iranian official warned the European Union, “down to the last drop.” Iran and Hezbollah together represent the globe’s most dangerous terrorist threat.

The Pentagon's assessment of the war was recently released. It states that the Iranian government sees an unprecedented opportunity to bring Iraq into its sphere of influence. Iran also seeks to ensure that the political, economic, and human casualty costs of the war will deter future U.S. intervention in the region.

England PM Tony Blair wrapped up a Middle East tour last week with a blunt speech about the struggle between moderates and extremists, labeling Iran the main obstacle to peace. “There is a monumental struggle going on worldwide between those who believe in democracy and moderation, and forces of reaction and extremism,” Blair said.

Furthermore, there are “elements of the government of Iran, openly supporting terrorism in Iraq to stop a fledgling democratic process; trying to turn out a democratic government in Lebanon; flaunting the international community's desire for peace in Palestine - at the same time as denying the Holocaust and trying to acquire nuclear weapons capability; and yet a large part of world opinion is frankly almost indifferent. It would be bizarre if it weren't deadly serious.”

Enter Part 2 of the Beowulf Strategy.

A paper by Arthur Herman in Commentary magazine (November, 2006) presents the military option, excerpted here.

To put it briefly, the Islamic Republic has its hand on the throttle of the world’s economic engine: the stretch of ocean at the mouth of the Persian Gulf known as the Straits of Hormuz, which are only 21 miles wide at their narrowest point. Through this waterway, every day, pass roughly 40 percent of the world’s crude oil, including two-thirds of the oil from Saudi Arabia. By 2025, according to Energy Department estimates, fully 60 percent of the world’s oil exports will be moved through this vital chokepoint.

But—and herein lies a fruitful irony—Iran’s economic existence itself relies on free passage through those very Straits. Almost 90 percent of the mullahs’ oil assets are located either in the Gulf. So is the nuclear reactor that Russia is building for Iran at Bushehr. Virtually every Iranian well or production platform depends on access to the Gulf if Iran’s oil is to reach buyers. Which brings us to the military option.

It begins with the United States Navy organizing convoys and re-flagging ships to protect them against Iranian attacks. When the Iranian navy attacks, the U.S. warships take them out. Then teams of SEALS seize the Iranian oil platforms.

Do you think we could not do it? Well, we did it once already in 1986-88, as the Iran-Iraq war threatened to spill over into the Gulf and interrupt vital oil traffic. The entire operation, the largest naval engagement since World War II, not only secured the Gulf, it also compelled Iraq and Iran to wind down their decade-long war.

This time Herman suggests that the U.S. deployment in the Gulf of Oman include minesweepers, a carrier strike group’s guided-missile destroyers, an Aegis-class cruiser, and anti-submarine assets, with the rest of the carrier group remaining in the Indian Ocean. The U.S. Navy could also deploy a fleet of unmanned airplanes and submarines to keep watch above and below against any Iranian missile threat to our flotilla.

Our next step would be to declare a halt to all shipments of Iranian oil while guaranteeing the safety of tankers carrying non-Iranian oil and the oil platforms of other Gulf States. We would insure this guarantee by launching an air campaign to destroy Iran’s air-defense system, its air-force bases and communications systems, and finally its missile sites along the Gulf coast. At that point the attack could move to include Iran’s nuclear facilities—not only the “hard” sites but also infrastructure like bridges and tunnels in order to prevent the shifting of critical materials from one to site to another.

Above all, the air attack would concentrate on Iran’s gasoline refineries. Though Iran is a huge oil exporter, it imports nearly 40 percent of its gasoline from foreign sources. With its refineries gone and its storage facilities destroyed, Iran’s cars, trucks, buses, planes, tanks, and other military hardware would run dry in a matter of weeks or even days. This alone would render impossible any major countermoves by the Iranian army.

With the systematic reduction of Iran’s capacity to respond, an amphibious force of Marines and special-operations forces would seize key Iranian oil assets in the Gulf, the most important of which is a series of 100 offshore wells and platforms built on Iran’s continental shelf. North and South Pars offshore fields, which represent the future of Iran’s oil and natural-gas industry, could also be seized. Kargh Island, whose terminus pumps the oil from Iran’s most mature and copiously producing fields, could be rendered virtually useless. By the time the campaign was over, the United States would be in a position to control the flow of Iranian oil at the flick of a switch.

The entire operation could be over in a month and since it would take place offshore, there would be no need to engage the Iranian army. It and the Revolutionary Guards would be left stranded, out of action and out of gas.

Currently Iran exports 2.5 million barrels of oil a day. Yet according to a recent report in Forbes, new sources of oil around the world will have boosted total production by 2 million barrels a day this year, and next year by 3 million barrels a day. Thus other producers (including Iranian platforms in American hands) can take up the slack. The real loser would be Iran itself. Crude oil is its only industry, making up 85 percent of its exports and providing 65 percent of the state budget. With its wells held hostage, the country’s economy could enter free fall.

The Islamist regime in Tehran is indeed hated, and also radically unstable. In this connection, it is important to bear in mind that Iran is rent by ethnic divisions and rivalries as fierce as those that divide Iraq. Almost half of Iran’s population is made up of Kurds, Baluchis, Azeris, Arabs, and Turkomans. And most of these minorities are Sunni, unlike the Persians, who are Shiites. Thus, Iran is a country ripe for revolution. Bye, bye Mullahs. So long Ahmadinejad, or whatever your name is.

Holiday Cheer

It was the first Christmas we were ever alone. Daughter Carolynne with Ray and Christy were at Ray’s parents in Oregon. Grandson Johnny is in Iraq. Son John is in Thailand. We thought it would be a nice quiet holiday.

Johnny received his cookies and books a few days before Christmas and this time kept two packages of cookies for himself before the Army 82nd Airborne devoured the rest. They seem to like home-made cookies the best, even better than beef jerky. At least Johnny sent us an email with some pictures. I like this one.




John is working his way through Southeast Asia, sightseeing, diving, meeting interesting people. Anyone who wishes can follow the journey at his blog: http://www.mytripjournal.com/RequestUpdateNotice/johnlama. John will send you an email whenever updates are available. The pictures are great.

Christmas day was quiet. Starbucks was nearly empty but the coffee was free. At home I looked at all the cards on the mantle and leafed through the pile we saved from last year. There was the card with the picture of Lori and Mike and their kids. Mike was too young to leave us; the best husbands and fathers should live the longest. Now Lori and the children have a sweet new Lab puppy. We all miss Mike.

This morning Maria brought her two boys, Nick and Theo, to the ‘bucks and I was reminded again of how precious our old and new friends can be. Sweet Sue listened patiently to Steve about his wife’s recovery from brain surgery. Friends! I’m so lucky with my friends, some, like the Zone Bridge pals I see only in pictures and text. (Hi… TexasJudy and Maggie.)

My oldest friend Jim Cimino called on the day before Christmas. Jim was hiding at the office while his home was commandeered by Terry, his daughters and seven granddaughters. Whoa Nellie! Jim sent me a funny email about a typical Italian family greeting their son’s new girlfriend, an Americaan, on Christmas Eve.

I thought it would be interesting for a non-Italian girl to see how an Italian family spends the holidays. I thought my mother and my date would hit it off like partridges and pear trees..... I was wrong!

“I know these family things can be a little weird,” I told Karen, “but my folks are great, and we always have a lot of fun on Christmas Eve.”

“Sounds fine to me,” Karen said.

I should point out, I suppose, that in Italian households, Christmas Eve is the social event of the season -- an Italian woman's reason for living. She cleans. She cooks. She bakes. She orchestrates every minute of the entire evening.

I should also point out, I suppose, that when it comes to the kind of women that make Italian men go nuts, Karen is it. She doesn't clean. She doesn't cook. She doesn't bake. And she has the largest breasts I have ever seen on a human being.

I brought her anyway.

I’m going to leave it there, but will happily provide the rest to anyone who asks. It is a riot. Thanks, Jim.

Oh, I forgot to mention that my dear daughter sent her old dad a terrific present, a pinup calendar. It seems that the girls of Bend, Oregon got together and created a “Thank You Troops” 2007 calendar. Carolynne got two of the girls, Ashley and Nikki, to autograph their months. Oo-la-la. They made enough money to send twenty thousand calendars to our troops overseas. Thank you, Bend girls!

That reminds me of the Palos Verdes Library “Books for Troops” program that has sent well over 40,000 books to our soldiers. Thanks to our Santa’s, Gene Roeder and Pat Foltz.

Just one more thing and I will put this sentimentalism aside. Did you see the piece on 60 Minutes about the African elephant orphanage? One of the babies was blind and had its own, personal seeing-eye man.

Ok,… one more thing. Have you seen the baby gorilla that was born after her mother was treated with a fertility drug?



Keepers at Bristol Zoo Gardens realized that because Salome was not becoming pregnant by her partner Jock, despite regular mating, she must not be ovulating. A medication named Clomid, which encourages the ovary to release the egg, was smuggled into her food. Soon afterwards, Jock performed his connubial duties and on December 15 the infant arrived. Way to go Jock!

Salome's baby represents an important contribution to the next generation of gorillas, and she surely cheered me up.

Our Beowulf Strategy

A millennium ago in the land of the Danes, a monster called Grendel, half-man, half-fiend, terrorized the population. Each night Grendel would emerge from his lair at the bottom of the lake, enter King Hrothgar’s hall, kill one or more of the king’s men or servants and carry them off to be eaten. After a particularly horrible event when Grendel killed thirty, the king called on Beowulf for assistance. Beowulf the Geat, the hero of a Germanic tribe in Sweden, came to their aid. In a mighty battle Beowulf mortally wounds Grendel and later kills the monster’s mother.

The Old English (tenth century) poem is about bravery in the face of immense odds, but also about those who are not brave. Prominent in the hymn of praise to the warrior is the voice of the king’s courtier Unferth, who dismisses Beowulf’s past exploits and asks the king to appease the monster rather than fight it. Unferth is filled with envy for a sort of bravery that is beyond his reach. The poet asks what is wrong with a man who will not render glory to the hero.

Most of us lack Beowulf’s bravery, but we honor it, or at least we used to. For two hundred years or more the citizen-soldiers of the United States fought wars to expand our dominion over the land between the oceans and other wars to defend the free world from totalitarianism. We were brave and undefeatable. We stood up to the German monster, the Japanese monster and the Soviet monster, among others, and fought until we were victorious. Many died.

There was always a class of Unferths who doubted our capacity and claimed that war is never the way to peace, when obviously it is frequently the only way. Not until Vietnam, however, did these antiwar courtiers led by John F. Kerry and Jane Fonda have their way.

We are now engaged in an existential struggle with the Islamist monster. The American Beowulf has invaded Afghanistan and Iraq and defeated the Al Qaeda monster and the Sadaam Hussein military monster. In Iraq we are left with an insurgency that includes some Sunni foreign fighters and a large number of Iraqi Sunnis, many former Baath Party officials, who are unwilling to compromise with the ruling majority of Shiites and Kurds. On the other hand are the Shiite militias who are fighting the Sunnis on their own terms, unencumbered by the rules of engagement the US military imposes on itself and on the Iraqi military.

While Beowulf-like Americans debate the best strategy for victory, the Unferths among us (Kerry, Murtha, Pelosi, now even Hillary Clinton) call for appeasement, retreat and defeat.

I prefer the strategy for Iraq proposed by Robert Haddick a former Marine Corps infantry company commander who blogs at Westhawk. See “Mission Possible: How the U.S. Will Win in Iraq.”

So what should be the new U.S. strategy?

Politically, the U.S. should abandon reconciliation and put its full support behind the 80%+ Shiite/Kurdish majority. The U.S. State Department has proposed this course to the President.

Militarily, the U.S. should abandon counterinsurgency; the Sunni Arabs will not voluntarily be part of Shiite/Kurdish Iraq or its governance, thus they must logically be considered an enemy population.

What about tactics? In World War II, civilians were carpet-bombed or treated as refugees (note that there were no insurgencies after that war). The U.S. cannot do these things today. The U.S. cannot cut off electrical power to recalcitrant neighborhoods, or do mass preventive detentions, or tell an insurgent-supporting family that it has until dusk to get on a bus heading west to the Syrian border, never to return. But Iraq's army and police, facing an internal emergency, could do all of these things, and more.

Here is what the President should say in his next speech on Iraq:

Iraq is in a civil war. Baathists, ex-army officers, and Al Qaeda are trying to overthrow the elected Iraqi government. Because it is a civil war, the Iraqi government will decide for itself the best tactics, techniques, and procedures to defend itself and its constitution. The U.S. government will stand with its ally, the Iraqi government. The U.S. will immediately turn all Iraqi army and police units under its command over to the control of the Iraq government. Embedded U.S. teams will act as a liaison for logistics, intelligence, and fire support these Iraqi units may require. U.S. military units in Iraq will cease patrolling Iraq's cities and towns. The U.S. will transfer most of its forces currently in al-Anbar province and Baghdad to the Iraqi/Iranian border. U.S. military forces not necessary to protect Iraq's border or to support Iraqi forces in the civil war will exit Iraq.

Here at home we need a massive campaign to counteract the defeatist, blame America, anti-military, non-heroic attitudes that pervade our elite institutions and the Democratic Party.

We need to reinstate the American belief that the virtues of the heroic age are still necessary and that heroism is glorious, praiseworthy and self-evidently valuable. Whether we are warriors or mere citizens, we must overcome the wincey political correctness that hamstrings our efforts and support the war with all our might.

For an insightful look at how our educational institutions have contributed to the Unferthing of America, read The Politically Correct Guide to English and American Literature by Elizabeth Kantor.

Theo and Me

There I was sitting with friends at Starbucks, minding my own business, when Maria approaches brandishing the kind of attitude a nice Italian girl from Brooklyn learns from her pals at parochial school. So Bill,… Have you seen the global warming article on the front page of the New York Times? Before I have a chance to respond, Maria drops little Theo in my lap and heads off to pick up her triple-shot, no-foam latte.

“So Theo,” I asked the four year old, “what do you think of global warming,” figuring I’d get the typical Algore explanation. “Global warming, global warming, global warming… See my owwwie…” as he pulls up his pants leg. Notice that Theo could say it three times without chanting “the science is settled.” Smart kid!

So what’s this New York Times front pager all about?

QUZHOU, China — Foreign businesses have embraced an obscure United Nations-backed program as a favored approach to limiting global warming. But the early efforts have revealed some hidden problems.

Under the program, businesses in wealthier nations pay to reduce pollution in poorer ones as a way of staying within their government limits for emitting climate-changing gases like carbon dioxide.

Among their targets is a large rusting chemical factory here in China. Its emissions of just one waste gas contribute as much to global warming each year as the emissions from a million American cars, each driven 12,000 miles. Holy smokes!!

Cleaning up this factory will require an incinerator that costs $5 million, far less than the cost of cleaning up so many cars, or other sources of pollution in Europe and Japan.

Yet the foreign companies will pay roughly $500 million for the incinerator, 100 times what it cost. The high price is set in a European-based market in carbon dioxide emissions. Because the waste gas has a far more powerful effect on global warming than carbon dioxide emissions, the foreign businesses must pay a premium far beyond the cost of the actual cleanup.

The huge profits of $495 million will be divided by the chemical factory’s owners, a Chinese government energy fund, and the consultants and bankers who put together the deal from a mansion in London.

European and Japanese companies which are paying roughly $3 billion for credits this year, complain that it mostly enriches a few bankers, consultants and factory owners.

As word of deals like this has spread, everyone involved in the nascent business is searching for other such potential jackpots in developing countries.

The situation has set in motion a diplomatic struggle pitting China, the biggest beneficiary from payments, against advanced industrial nations, particularly in Europe. The United States was smart to avoid such encumbrances.

Here we see the unintended consequences of climate change economics that are overlooked in “The Stern Review,” a British government document. The summary in the Review was stark: “If we don’t act, the overall costs and risks of climate change will be equivalent to losing at least 5% of global GDP each year, now and forever.”

Prime Minister Tony Blair painted a dark picture for the world: “It is not in doubt that if the science is right, the consequences for our planet are literally disastrous. Without radical International measures to reduce carbon emissions within the next 10 to 15 years there is compelling evidence to suggest we might lose the chance to
control temperature rises.”

There are only two things wrong with the Stern Review and Blair’s analysis, the math and the science. Yale professor William Norhaus addresses the math (PDF). “The radical revision of the economics of climate change proposed by the Review does not arise from any new economics, science, or modeling. Rather, it depends decisively on the assumption of a near-zero social discount rate. The Review’s unambiguous conclusions about the need for extreme immediate action will not survive the substitution of discounting assumptions that are consistent with today’s market place. So the central questions about global-warming policy – how much, how fast, and how costly – remain open.”

I’ve handled the science at length in a series of blog posts. No way is it settled. Theo agrees with me on the science, but is unusually quiet on the math. Mama Maria, what do you think about it? Owwie!

Kerry’s Diplomacy Tour

The wonderful Baker Boys Iraq Study Group report has now been digested by all the kleptocrats in the Middle East. From Syria, John Kerry reports on his meeting with Bashar “baby thug” Assad that Syria might stop sending “money, weapons and terrorists” into Iraq and Lebanon, if only we asked him nicely. “I certainly came away with a sense that it's worth pursuing as a dialogue,” Kerry said. “It's worth following up on, on a number of avenues. It certainly validated the judgment of the Iraq Study Group.”

Kerry closed his verbal report to the dimwitted David Gregory with the news flash that “there is a major crisis brewing in Lebanon, and it is a three week problem, not a six month problem like Iraq.” Apparently Kerry was surfing last summer during the little war between Israel and Lebanon. Heaven help us, this guy almost became our president.

We’re anticipating that Kerry will continue his diplomacy tour with Mahmoud Ahmadinewackjob in Iran. Recall the fatuous recommendation of the ISG report: “Diplomatic efforts should seek to persuade Iran that it should take specific steps to improve the situation in Iraq.” The report calls for a “New Diplomatic Offensive” as though our enemies are really good old boys who have been “inadequately exposed to the discreet charms of the U.S. diplomatic corps.”

Here’s hoping that Kerry has better luck than Jim Baker, who fared about as well as Neville Chamberlain. You can view this video at the excellent Powerline blog. (Thanks to Zone Bridge friend David for the link to the video.) The key to the benefits program, if I understand Baker correctly, is that there is no need to fight evil when appeasement will do just fine –- just like Chamberlain with Hitler.

By the way, a new report using previously classified photos and video tapes, establishes conclusively that Hezbollah committed war crimes against both Lebanese and Israeli civilians. Asked by The New York Times whether Hezbollah's use of Lebanese “human shields” does not make Hezbollah responsible for Lebanese civilian deaths, Lebanese Army general Elias Hanna replied: “Of course Hezbollah is responsible. But these people are ready to sacrifice their lives for Hezbollah.”

From the Wall Street Journal: “These images suggest how Islamists seek to use the restraint of Western powers against them. They shoot at us from the safety of their own civilian enclaves that they know we are reluctant to attack. Then if by chance their civilians are killed, they call in CNN and al-Jazeera cameras and wait for the likes of Human Rights Watch to denounce America or Israel for war crimes. None of this means the U.S. shouldn't continue to fight with discrimination and avoid civilian casualties. But it means our political leadership needs to speak as candidly as Israelis now are speaking about this enemy strategy, so the American people can understand and be steeled against this new civilian battleground.”

That sweet war-hawk Diana West of the Washington Times writes about the “two greatest obstacles to our efforts in the region: namely, Islam -- culturally unsuited to Westernity, and our own politically correct rules of engagement -- strategically unsuited to victory. She offers two solutions that the Iraq Study Groupies overlooked.

“The first option is military. The fact is the United States has an arsenal that could obliterate any jihad threat in the region once and for all, whether that threat is bands of IED-exploding insurgents in Ramadi, the deadly so-called Mahdi Army in Sadr City, or genocidal maniacs in Tehran. In other words, it's a disgrace for military brass to talk about the 21st-century struggle with Islam as necessarily being a 50- to 100-year war. Ridiculous! It could be over in two weeks if we cared enough to blast our way off the list of endangered civilizations.”

“The great paradox of the war on terror, of course, is that as our capacity and desire to protect civilians in warfare grows, our enemy's capacity and desire to kill civilians as a means of warfare grows also. Thus, the second option: Get out of the way. Get out of the way of Sunnis and Shi'ites killing each other. As a sectarian conflict more than 1,000 years old, this is not only one fight we didn't start, but it's one we can't end. And why should we? If Iran, the jihad-supporting leader of the Shi'ite world, is being strangled by Saudi Arabia, the jihad-supporting leader of the Sunni world, isn't that good for the Sunni-and-Shiite-terrorized West?”

Tough gal, that Diana West.

Let’s hope that the war meetings the president is holding face up to this ugly reality. If we are going to fight this war, we need to “engage” (ie kill) the enemy before they begin shooting at us. There will be civilian casualties because that is part of the enemy strategy. If our leaders are unwilling to fight like that then we should get out of the way and leave it to the Iraqi military and police forces. With all due respect to Ms. West, I’d use our forces to keep the Iranians and the Saudis out of it, but that’s a post for another day.

Palos Verdes Rocks

Every once in a while your palosverdesblogger writes a piece on Palos Verdes, not too often since it is hard to keep from bragging about this paradise we live in. One of the nice things about being an elected official is that you are invited to all the Christmas parties. (I’m glad that people have finally gone back to the traditional “Christmas” parties after a few years of using the PC “holiday.”) With four cities on the Hill, we get to attend four city parties, and several others hosted by homes associations, the Chamber of Commerce, the League of Women Voters, and several lesser organizations. It is a wonderful time.

The Rancho Palos Verdes city party was held at the newly opened Point Vicente Interpretive Center, our jewel of a natural history museum overlooking the Pacific.



Earlier that day I lectured to the new docent class on the Geological History of Palos Verdes, how two million years ago PV rose out of the Pacific Ocean and finally joined with the mainland LA basin about 100 thousand years ago. The docents were interested in my predictions about Palos Verdes in 100 thousand years from now.

If the geological future is like the past (a good bet), the PV hill will be 130 feet higher, reaching 1600 feet, the current beach will be the fourteenth terrace, slippage along the San Andreas Fault will have moved LA and Palos Verdes two miles closer to San Francisco and slippage along the Palos Verdes Fault will have moved us 1/6 mile closer to Santa Monica. Depending on whether we are in an Ice Age (likely) or into another interglacial period, the sea level will be 300 feet lower than now or at its present level. When the current global warming ends, land prices in Palos Verdes are going to be really, really, really … high.

The Rolling Hills Estates party/parade was a blast. The Library had a marching entry that won third place. Pictures are found on the Library web site at www.pvld.org under Director Kathy Gould’s blog. I’m the guy in the long red coat with the tall black hat looking like a cross between a portly British Revolutionary War soldier and the Music Man. My friend James is the Lion King.

The Library has been hosting a combination art show and musical festival during December. “Art in Our Library” is a community art exhibit at the Peninsula Center Library. This year’s theme, “A Picture Tells a Thousand Words” features artwork from local and Southern California artists through January 8. Music in the Library featured harp, piano and flute performances thus far, with the following events upcoming (all at Peninsula Center Library):

Dec. 18 at 7PM -- JJ’s Sunset Syncopators Dixieland Jazz group
Dec. 19 at 4:30PM -- Los Cancioneros Master Chorale
Dec. 21 at 7PM -- PV Symphonic Brass Quintet
Dec. 22 at 4PM -- Dr. Linda Mazich Govel & Students, Piano Recital

Tonight at The Annex is a holiday mixer sponsored by Freedom4U.

The Annex is a teen center funded through a partnership of the Library District and doners, the Peninsula Friends of the Library and Freedom4U, a non-profit organization under the direction of Greg Allen. Freedom4U focuses on creative arts, leadership and community service that promotes these healthy and safe options to local teens. The party promises international appetizers and drinks, with music and comedy by teens. It’s time to go.

Rock On! – Palos Verdes.

Bovine Inconvenience

Here I am not referring to the portly Algore, although that would be fitting. No, I need to tell you about the new British report that confirms our fears about an inconvenient truth. Cows are the problem! The Livestock, Environment and Development Initiative supported by the World Bank, the EU and the UN recently released an incredible study entitled “Livestock's long shadow.” Cutting to the chase we find that “the livestock sector is responsible for 18% of greenhouse gas emissions measured in CO2 equivalent. This is a higher share than transportation.” Whoa Bossy!!

From a Real Clear Politics post by Ross Kaminsky (12/13/06) comes this summary: “What this says is that between deforestation to create pastures, the emissions of greenhouse gasses in the process of making cow feed, and mostly from good old fashioned cow farts, cows are responsible for more of the pollution that people fear is causing global warming than cars, airplanes, trains, ships, snowmobiles, and motorized rickshaws combined.”

“I'll never look at a cow the same way again.”

Kaminsky is validated by my buddy Mahndisa who writes, “In Modesto, our air quality is usually bad and I saw reports attributing this poor air quality to two things: 1. Bay Area smog and 2. COWS. The cows emit so much damned methane and other gases and sometimes the smell is so bad that you have to roll up the windows when driving into town. I certainly don't doubt that cows are a major contributor to our environmental degradation.”

Meanwhile, and on the flip side, an upcoming report from the UN IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) will reduce its estimate of the human (anthropogenic) effect on climate change by a quarter and cut in half its estimate of the maximum rise in sea levels which climate change could cause.

Still the IPCC report warns that carbon dioxide emissions have risen during the past five years by three percent, and predicts that the climate will warm by 0.2 C a decade for the next two decades if emissions continue at current levels. The bottom line: the global temperature is almost certain to warm by at least 1.5 C during the next 100 years, after rising 0.8 C the last century. But it could be worse were it not for the oceans absorbing large amounts of carbon dioxide. Hmmmm.

On the other hand, the IPCC has been forced to cut in half its predictions for sea-level rise from a previously reported upper estimate of 34 inches to 17 inches by 2100. So do you think that an increase in sea level of less than 2 inches per decade could be accommodated by, perhaps, MOVING uphill just a bit?

A reasonable person might conclude that this global warming thing is not so bad after all, until he reads a newspapers. Here are snippets from the UK Telegraph article about the IPCC report:

“People are very worried...”
“...paints a bleak picture...”
“...expect more storms of similar ferocity...”
“...we are storing up problems for ourselves in the future.”

“It will be a tipping point and that is why it is now critical to act…”

However, Julian Morris, executive director of the International Policy Network, urged governments to be cautious. “There needs to be better data before billions of pounds are spent on policy measures that may have little impact,” he said.
Finally a bit of common sense -- but don't tell Algore.

The Kyoto Protocols aim to possibly alter climate change by a fraction of a degree over decades at the cost of billions of dollars of economic output. And, if economic output sounds a bit theoretical to you, think of it as the likelihood that your children will be able to find a job.

Fortunately we have one politician with the sense and courage to stand up against the hype. Senator James Inhofe's reaction to the story is summarized nicely by this quote: “We are all skeptics now. It appears that the UN is now acknowledging what an increasing number of scientists who study the climate have come to realize: Predictions of manmade catastrophic global warming are simply unsustainable.”

After we get past the scare mongering, it is appropriate to think about an energy future based on hydrogen fuel cells (Mahndisa is right) and nuclear generated electricity. It will take about 50 years, if we have the will.

One final note: If we do all that and completely eliminate the need to burn fossil fuels for transportation, we still have all those COWS. Pass me a porterhouse, please.

Miscellaneous Drudge

Do you read the Drudge Report? I check it out at least once a day, and frequently find a gem or two for my blog. Just today I found these beauties:

Who?? Democrat Dennis Kucinich, who unsuccessfully ran for president in 2004, is planning to run again because his party isn't pushing hard enough to lose the war in Iraq. The liberal, anti-war congressman said he was inspired to run because he disagrees with the way some of his fellow Democrats are handling the war, including approval to spend $160 billion more on the effort. His anti-war message drew support from Hollywood celebrities. Let’s see: Hillary, Obama, Gore, Lurch, Silky Pony, Kucinich… you’ve got to be kidding me.

Intelligence?? Rep. Silvestre Reyes of Texas tapped by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to head the Intelligence Committee failed a quiz of basic questions about al Qaeda and Hezbollah. When asked whether al Qaeda is Sunni or Shiite, Reyes answered “they are probably both,” then ventured “Predominantly -- probably Shiite.” Wrong! Al Qaeda, founded by Osama bin Laden, is a Sunni organization and views Shiites as heretics. Reyes could also not answer questions about Hezbollah, a Shiite terrorist organization in Lebanon. Pelosi picked Reyes over Rep. Alcee Hastings of Florida, who had been impeached as a federal judge after taking a bribe. Well done, Nan.

Kofi-Kumbaya! U.N. Sec-Gen Kofi Annan criticized the Bush administration in his farewell, warning that America must not sacrifice its Democratic ideals while waging war against terrorism. “Human rights and the rule of law are vital to global security and prosperity,” Annan said. He listed five principles as essential: collective responsibility, global solidarity, rule of law, mutual accountability and multilateralism. Hmmm: collective global mutual multilateralism -- sounds like a wiener! After a private dinner at the White House for Annan, John Bolton joked that “nobody sang Kumbaya.”

Cow emissions more damaging to planet than CO2 from cars. Meet the world's top destroyer of the environment. It is not the car, or the plane, or even George Bush: it is the cow. A UN report entitled Livestock's Long Shadow has identified the world's rapidly growing herds of cattle as the greatest threat to the climate, forests and wildlife. The 1.5 billion cattle are responsible for 18 per cent of the greenhouse gases that cause global warming, more than cars, planes and all other forms of transport put together. The report concludes that, unless drastic changes are made, the massive damage done by livestock will more than double by 2050, as demand for meat increases. Algore was last seen hunting cows. Duck!! Bossie.

Your carbon footprint revealed. Research to calculate a carbon footprint for the average British citizen has detailed the precise environmental damage each of us causes. A study by the Carbon Trust puts the annual carbon footprint at 10.92 tons of CO2 - roughly half of the 19 tons of CO2 produced each year by the average American. Those ugly Americans! Carbon scores (in tons, including the production of goods and services) were Recreation 1.95, Heating 1.49 (an extra degree on thermostat accounts for 0.03 ton of CO2), Food 1.39, Household 1.37, Hygiene 1.34 (includes bathing and washing), Clothing 1.00, Commuting 0.81, Aviation 0.68, Education 0.49 and Phones 0.1. Mobile phone chargers accounted for 35-70kg while sending letters represented only 0.01kg. Throw away those damn phones!

With French friends, who needs….frogs? In an effort to put a stop to Israeli over-flights in Lebanon, the French Armed Forces has deployed an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) squadron to conduct intelligence-gathering missions in place of actual French soldiers. Military sources in Paris said that French soldiers stationed in Lebanon were given the authority to open fire at Israeli jets if they felt threatened by the flights. Israeli Maj.-Gen. Ido Nehushtan was overheard muttering about the “Fookin Frogs.”

JC, as in Jimmy Carter

Well he has done it again. The worst American president in the 20th century has written a new book that has offended everyone but the Palestinians. Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid strongly criticizes Israel and the US for “blocking serious peace initiatives and for exacerbating terrorism in the Middle East.” JC likes to blame Israel second, right after the US.

Carter’s longtime adviser Kenneth Stein resigned his position as a Carter Center fellow in response to the book. “President Carter's book on the Middle East, a title too inflammatory to even print, is not based on unvarnished analyses; it is replete with factual errors, copied materials not cited, superficialities, glaring omissions, and simply invented segments. Being president doesn't give one the prerogative to bend the facts to reach a prescribed reality.”

Ambassador Dennis Ross claims maps commissioned and published by him were improperly republished in Carter's book. Alan Dershowitz called the book's title indecent. The Simon Wiesenthal Center, an international Jewish human rights group based in Los Angeles, has received more than 16,000 signatures to an online petition to "act now against President Carter's one-sided bias against Israel." Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean and founder of the center, said people in the Jewish community are outraged at Carter's book. “I think the point of the book is to be hostile to Israel,” Hier said.

Top Democrats are rushing to repudiate the book in which he accuses the Israeli government of maintaining an apartheid system. Dem Chairman Howard Dean and House Leader Nancy Pelosi and several congressmen issued statements saying that the book does not represent their views on the Jewish state. “It is wrong to suggest that the Jewish people would support a government in Israel or anywhere else that institutionalizes ethnically based oppression, and Democrats reject that allegation vigorously,” Pelosi wrote.

But the latimes loved the book, and a bunch of my Omnilore friends gushed over the ex-pres. Mike flatly called Jimmy Carter the best ex-president through the 20th Century but says he was “too sincere to run this country well.” Hal thinks that JC “crippled his presidency by his supreme sense of idealism.” Burt sees “the guy as a combo saint and hero.” No faint praise here.

I believe that JC was the worst president in my lifetime, by a landslide, and has been the worst ex-president. In saying that, I grant him full credit for Habitat for Humanity and for his health initiatives in Africa. I’ll even credit him with good intentions (as in the road to hell) in trying to promote peace and human rights. I cannot read his heart or mind but I can look at what his intentions wrought.

Granted, anything he has done since leaving office pales in comparison to his disastrous presidency. I recall his doing nothing to thwart the Soviet arms build up, his gutting the CIA and giving away the Panama Canal. (Senator Thurmond responded by stating in a speech, “The canal is ours, we bought and we paid for it and we should keep it.”)

Worst of all, Carter's undermining the Shah of Iran, one of the few friends of America in the Muslim world, resulted in the rise of radical Islam. His Camp David Accords incited enough hatred in the Arab world to bring about Anwar Sadat's assassination, and created a power vacuum that Saddam Hussein filled.

At home, and his financial policies and pessimism brought us stagflation and a depressed population. Under Carter, the Misery Index (Unemployment + Inflation) reached 22%.

But JC was fun too. Remember when he confessed to consulting Amy about nuclear disarmament. Bob Hope noted: “Amy’s interest in nuclear weapons began when Uncle Billy gave her a Raggedy Ann doll with a nuclear warhead. The only difference between Billy Carter and Jimmy Carter is that Billy has a foreign policy.”

After his dismal record and being slaughtered by Reagan, you’d think Carter would be smart to burnish his reputation through charity work. But no, the egomaniac cannot resist meddling in foreign affairs and criticizing America and his successors.

You may recall these incidents.

In May 1993, Somali warlord Mohammed Aideed killed more that 20 UN peacekeepers. Madam Albright sponsored a UN resolution to get those responsible. But Carter urged Clinton to use diplomacy instead. (Pay attention to that word). Clinton ordered the military to capture Aideed but not to use weapons judged too threatening. Aideed’s forces attacked and killed 18 US soldiers, wounding 78. (See the movie “Black Hawk Down.”)

Clinton was furious saying, “I believe in killing people who try to hurt you, and I can’t believe we’re being pushed around by the two-bit pricks.” Thanks for the advice, JC.

In 1994, Clinton declared “North Korea cannot be allowed to develop a nuclear bomb.” Nice talk, but then he allowed JC to visit Kim Il Sung in NoKo where he declared that the evil dictator was “alert, intelligent and very friendly toward Christianity.” Right!

Then JC got down to business. “In my opinion,” said Carter, “the pursuit of sanctions is counterproductive in this particular and unique society.” Sanctions were lifted, Madam Albright signed the “Agreed Framework” and the NoKos immediately began cheating (this means building nuclear weapons), finally admitting to it in 2002. Good work, JC, and Billy C.

In 1998 Carter brokered a deal backed by an invasion force that returned exiled thug Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power in Haiti. Thanks for the basket case, JC. Meddling down South was his specialty.

In 2002 Carter visited Cuba, met with evil dictator Fidel Castro and addressed the Cuban public on national television. This made JC the first President of the United States, in or out of office, to visit there since the Cuban revolution of 1959. Millions of Cuban-Americans, many who escaped from Castro’s prisons, thank you, JC.

Also in 2002, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Carter for his objections to America’s war on terror. “Fundamental changes,” said JC, “are taking place in the historical policies of the United States with regard to human rights, our role in the community of nations and the Middle East peace process.” Human rights?

The Nobel Committee officially awarded him the prize for brokering the magnificent 1994 NoKo deal, only because they could not award it for America bashing. The Nobel chairman said “it’s a kick in the leg to all that follow the same line as the United States.” Thanks for blaming America first, JC.

I remember Carter best as the guy who was hunted by the killer rabbit and as the president who once greeted Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother of the United Kingdom, with a kiss on the lips. Angered, she reprimanded him by saying: “No man has done that since my husband died.”

If only he would be content to lust in his heart, and shut the hell up!

Grading the ISG Report

The report by the Iraq Study Group made some good points and some terrible recommendations. I’ll start with the good.

The ISG report concluded:

1. A precipitous withdrawal from Iraq could be catastrophic.

2. Partitioning Iraq between Kurd, Shia and Sunni regions would be unwise.

3. The US should not negotiate with Iran over its nuclear weapons program.

4. Syria must abandon hegemonic ambitions over Lebanon.

5. Syria should stem the flood of funding, insurgents and terrorist into Iraq.

6. Iran should stem the flood of arms and training to Iraq.

On all these points the ISG report agrees with the strategy of the Bush administration. (They could have been made by an aware high schooler.)

Then the ISG report draws some conclusions and makes recommendations that are truly reckless. The first one breaks with decades of US foreign policy.

1. It accepts the traditional Saudi and Arabist view that the Middle East's problems are Israel's fault.

There is only one way that the Israel-Palestine conflict is going to be settled, and that is for the Palestinians to be totally and completely defeated. The Palestinians are dedicated to the destruction if Israel, and nothing but complete defeat is going to deter them.

You may remember James Baker's most celebrated soundbite on the Middle East peace process: “F - - - the Jews. They didn't vote for us anyway.”

But if Israel could be forced into giving up the Golan Heights in order to persuade the Syrians and Iranians to ease up on killing American forces in Iraq, our enemies would have learned an important lesson: The best way to weaken Israel is to kill Americans. Bernard Lewis, our greatest Middle Eastern scholar, noted that such a strategy would prove to the world that “America is harmless as an enemy and treacherous as a friend.”

2. The ISG report recommends opening discussions with Iran and Syria on the Iraq problem, thinking that those rogue states would be part of the solution, rather than continuing to be part of the problem.

Asking for help from Iran and Syria would only embolden them. Worse, the ultimate price of our involvement with Iran could be the emergence of Iran as a nuclear power, a nut-job nuclear power run by Islamic militants, in control in the Middle East. And the duly-elected Iraqi government may have its own ideas on whom it wants to sit at the table.

3. It calls for pulling out U.S. combat forces while leaving trainers and support troops behind. That means pulling out the battle-hardened infantrymen and leaving behind the Jessica Lynches. Think that's going to discourage our enemies?

Ralph Peters notes that “Jim Baker longs for the orderly world of Saddam Hussein, the Shah of Iran, the elder Assad and, above all, unchallenged Saudi influence in Washington. Those authoritarian regimes and dictatorships gave us the problems we face today.”

The Baker boys (and Sandra Day) promise us foreign policy realism, but they don’t seem to understand the facts of life. The great Mark Steyn spelled it out for them:

“Like fascism or Communism, Islamism galvanizes millions with its reductionist claims of Western liberal culpability for widely diverse Muslim gripes from Afghanistan to the West Bank. September 11 was no fluke, but the logical culmination of two disastrous prior American policies: appeasement and cynical realism. By not responding to a decade of prior attacks in East Africa, New York, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen, and withdrawing ignominiously from Lebanon to Mogadishu, we gave the fatal impression that a terrorist could strike the United States with near impunity — given our addiction to the good life that we would not endanger at any cost. And by ignoring the abject failures of Middle East autocracies, we inadvertently ensured the second requisite to 9/11: dictatorial regimes that allowed terrorists free rein.

The remedy, then, is to respond forcefully to terrorists and their sponsors, while simultaneously appealing to the people of the Islamic world that the United States is no longer a cynical realist that will play nice with their dictators.”

If we keep working to pacify Baghdad, where almost all the violence in the country is confined, then with the stabilization of Afghanistan, and positive democratic developments in Lebanon and even in Egypt, the Middle East has a chance of broad-based reform not seen in a half century.

“We are still only one lax day away from another September 11, and will continue to be so until the currency and appeal of radical Islamism are history.”

Goh Chok Tong, the former prime minister of Singapore summed it up beautifully:

“The key issue is no longer WMD or even the role of the U.N. The central issue is America's credibility and will to prevail.”

If we give up on Iraq, “America would be revealed to the world as a fraud: a hyper-power that's all hype and no power, or, at any rate, no will.”

American Castrati

Striking new images of Mars have raised hopes life could be found on the Red Planet after all. Scientists say they have photographic evidence that suggests liquid water may have been on the planet as little as five years ago. Expert Bruce Jakosky said the study “underscores the importance of searching for life on Mars, either present or past.” (It must be getting close to budget talks for NASA.)

For several years relationship guru John Gray has been selling books and making gobs of money from his message that “Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus.” I always thought that the Lama men were from Mars, starting with Grandpa John and my father Sam who resembled Ghengis Khan and Attila the Hun, respectively. The rest of the boys were warriors. But the Venus part doesn’t fit the five Lama women, from Aunt Frances, the Bronx bombshell, through the baby Maybelle, a former pro ballerina and tough cookie. Aunt Marie is still kicking butt at age 96.

It is unfortunate, but I think that Grey’s thesis is no longer applicable to the majority of American men who are being infantilized and converted into Venusians.
At Starbucks this morning a good female friend was happily recounting the news from New York. It is becoming the first city in the country to ban all restaurants from using artificial trans fats, while requiring hundreds of eateries to post food calorie counts right on their menus. City health commissioner, Thomas Frieden, said the changes will help fight the twin epidemics of obesity and heart disease.

Isn’t New York the home of the 9/11 heroes, of Mayor Rudy and Mayor Koch? What’s the matter with those men on the health commission? They need to go renew their red blood levels at Ruth's Chris Steak House.

But maybe it’s just New York. After all, this is the city that recently separated anatomy from what it means to be a man or a woman. Under the NYC Board of Health rule, people would be able to change the sex on their birth certificates by providing affidavits from a doctor and a mental health professional stating why they should be considered members of the opposite sex. “Surgery versus non-surgery can be arbitrary,” said Thomas R. Frieden (him again). “Somebody with a beard may have had breast-implant surgery. It's the permanence of the transition that matters most.”

Michael Silverman, executive director of the TLDEF said many Transgender people can't afford sex-change surgery and often don't consider it necessary. Would a woman who becomes a legal man be able to fight in combat, or join the Boy Scouts?

My Starbucks friend gushed over the algore appearance on the Oprah show and ordered a copy of his global warming docudrama on NetFlix. Apparently Oprah devoted a whole hour to algore’s whining and closed with these words: “Thank you, algore, for being our Noah.” I realize that only women watch Oprah, but algore is a man, or he used to be. Maybe he went to NYC for a gender change; he’s become a Venusian.

At least we’re not European. Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, launched his “green revolution” with a stark warning that we are all “living on borrowed time” if we don't stop eating up the world's resources. Charley is determined to reduce his carbon footprint on the world. The Prince launched his “Costing the Earth: Accounting for Sustainability” project at a forum attended by the Archbishop of Canterbury and former US vice president algore. The Queen has already gone green at Windsor Castle with a plan to use hydroelectric power. Algore and the Prince: Nice.

But, enough of this fooling around. The serious side of America’s castration is that it is imperiling our national security. Did you listen to the Senate confirmation hearings on SecDef Robert Gates? Bobby Byrd asked the questions:

“Are we losing the war, Dr. Gates?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Does the President have the authority to attack Syria or Iran?”

“No, sir, I do not think so.”

“What would happen if we were to attack Iran?”

“Well, Senator, the Iranians don’t have the capability to attack America, but they could supply weapons of mass destruction to terrorists who could hit America, and they are interfering in Iraq, but they could do more, and they could attack Israel, and allow Syria to take over Lebanon. So any attack on Iran would have to be the very, very last resort.”

As Chris Hitchens said of the entire Gates performance, it would have been a fine speech by the SecDef designee of Belgium or Luxemburg. But America is supposed to be the world’s only superpower. Never did Gates mention that if we attacked Iran’s nuclear bomb facilities that the result would be a cessation of those bomb-making activities. Oh no, the result would be that they would get mad at us and do more of what they are already doing. What a pathetic performance by a SecDef.

Then the report of the Iraq Study Group came out today. Note this is not the War group, or the “How we will win” group, but rather the study group. It was like study hall, frivolous and a waste of time that could be better spent on baseball.

So notable war strategists like Sandra Day O’Connor and Vernon Jordan, James Baker and a number of other senior citizens told the President what he was doing wrong and how we could best extricate ourselves from Iraq. Nowhere in the report is the word victory mentioned.

The ISG recommendations start with a conference dubbed Madrid-2 to contain U.S. adversaries Iran and Syria. Madrid-2 would be promoted as a forum to discuss Iraq's future, but would actually focus on Arab demands for Israel to withdraw from territories captured in the 1967 war. They said Israel would not be invited to the conference.

So our friends in the Middle East, notably Israel, but also Lebanon and the Kurds, are to be hung out to dry waiting for the Americans to redeploy to Texas and North Carolina. What a pathetic performance by a group of so-called men.

Hugh Hewitt called the ISG report “a wonder, this bit of appeasement virtuosity, and I think it will gain for its authors all the lasting fame that has attached itself to the name Samuel Hoare, and his brainchild, the Hoare-Laval Agreement.” Hoare and Laval: the British and French castrati of the pre-WWII era.

John and Johnny

This is about my two favorite guys named John (or any other name). Son John is in Southeast Asia. Over the last year or so, John decided that he had made enough money and wanted to see the world. He sold the Ferrari and his condo in San Francisco, liquidated his share of U Street Lounge and quit his job. His goal is to travel and do some charity work along the way.

Here is John's first email home:

I am in Singapore, a small city state at the southern tip of peninsular Malaysia. There are three major ethnic groups here; Indian, Chinese, and Malay. The result has been an interesting mix of the three cultures, along with the British colonial influence. For example, everyone speaks his original language (Hindi, Mandarin, or Malay) and English as well. The people have been very nice and helpful. I am staying at a youth hostel called The Inn Crowd which is in the Little India neighborhood. (Apparently, 37 still counts as "youth".)

There are very few Americans visiting here, mostly people from England and Australia, with a sprinkling of other Europeans and a few Canadians. There is even a woman from Wales who spoke Welsh, and I got a little teasing for not knowing that Wales is a country. It’s strange how the city is decked out for Christmas. Christians are a small minority here, and yet the city is decorated with pine trees, candy canes, holiday music in every shop, and young women dressed in Santa outfits.

My itinerary is tentatively to travel up the west coast of Malaysia, into Thailand around Phuket for some diving. Then I’ll go into Burma/Myanmar, traveling up to Rangoon or maybe Mandalay. Then I will head to Bangkok, Thailand and fly to southern India to spend time at the school and orphanage in the Kerala area. My flight will return to Bangkok, and then I will probably get a one-way flight to Hanoi in North Vietnam, and travel down Vietnam to Saigan and the Mekong Delta. Then a slow boat up to Mekong through Cambodia and Laos, visiting places like Ankor Wat and Luang Prabang along the way, ending up in Bangkok again.

I have set up a Personal Travel Website at MyTripJournal.com. I will send you an email notification each time I update it. However, you need to agree to receive my Update Notices. To start the brief two-step process, click the following link and follow the instructions:

http://www.mytripjournal.com/RequestUpdateNotice/johnlama

So far, everyone I’ve met seems to like America, but some don't like American people (ugly American stereotype) or American culture (McDonalds) or American foreign policy (Iraq). But that is not everyone. My new Brit friend Julian loves Starbucks and Hollywood movies, and he thinks American people are great as well. But it turns out that the British are almost as disliked as Americans by the Europeans, so we are in the same boat.

Interestingly, several people mentioned George Bush and assumed I did not vote for him since they have never met a single American who did. I guess that makes sense since most backpackers from the US are young liberal college kids. The rest of the world has really bought into the red state, blue state myth that all the smart people live on the coasts of America and are Democrats, and everyone in the middle are stupid hicks who voted for Bush. I am happy to crush their stereotype by explaining that I tend to vote Republican, and therefore for Bush, due to many issues such as school choice, lower taxes, individual retirement accounts, and a general preference for personal freedom and responsibility instead of equality and a nanny state. They don't really know where to go from there. Just meeting an articulate Bush voter with all their teeth already blows their minds.

That’s my boy!

Johnny Walton is my grandson (Carolynne’s boy) and is on his second tour of duty in Iraq. He is a Sergeant in the Army 82nd Airborne Division and a Kiowa helicopter mechanic. Here is his latest email.

Work has been more constant recently. Regardless of how hard I work, when I complete one task, something happens and there are five new problems to be fixed. I'm not complaining because I like to be challenged and it was a bit slow for a couple of weeks, but I'm ready for it to slow down again.

Yesterday we had a squadron football game, junior soldiers against the senior citizens. The old folks were no match for the youth of the unit. Final score: 23 juniors, 6 seniors. It was fun, but over too quickly.

Now, watching what little bit of news I can on the internet, I'm wondering what can be done to get control of what's happening here. I don't listen to everything in the news because a lot of it is distorted and really doesn't describe what Iraq is really like. I just hope there's more thought put into fixing this situation than just saving political positions. I honestly never agreed with this war, but it does me no use to complain about it and now that we've dug in I believe we need to fix it. When I get back I've got stories for you, things I can't put over the internet. Sorry I didn't write this email very well and it's all running together.

I feel bad asking for things for Christmas but I really just want some more books. I've been through eight so far and I've only got one more. I like books about things that can help me. Not saying they have to be non-fiction, but I'm not really interested in reading a story. My Mom and Dad bought me a guitar which I play every day. Making music is something I've always enjoyed doing. It helps me release everything and forget or deal with what's bothering me at the time. I could also use a drawing pad and pencils.

But, now I must go, work is calling. I’ll talk to you later, Love ya, Johnny.

Lee is packing up his Christmas boxes: chocolate chip cookies, books, drawing materials, beef jerky, baby wipes, batteries, phone cards,… all the things for an American hero in a strange and dangerous land.