|
|
By Weldon Berger, on May 17th, 2005
Although, then, the story about Syria and New Bridge appears to be untrue, it does help point up the extraordinary web of relationships between Washington insiders who sometimes hold dual, superficially conflicting roles. . . . → Read More: The Empire (Syria) Strikes Back?
By Weldon Berger, on May 16th, 2005
In Ireland on Monday, Condi Rice warned Syria to tighten control of the 600 mile border between Syria and Iraq, saying that the Syrian regime was allowing militants to cross the border and join the Iraq insurgency.
Syria, which has a considerably smaller and overwhelmingly less sophisticated military than does the US, may be turning a blind eye in some instances to the passage of men and weapons across the border. It’s worth noting, however, that the United States, with its far superior technology, is unable to fully control much less remote borders with Mexico, and that neither Iraq nor Syria were able to prevent smuggling of people, oil and contraband across the Iraq-Syria border even when neither of the countries were in flames.
To get some perspective on the problem of controlling 600 miles of remote, desolate border, consider that the 380-mile Arizona-Mexico border, patrolled by unmanned drones and border patrol agents armed with some of the most advanced equipment available, is among the most porous sections of the 2000-mile border between the US and our southern neighbor; of the million or so illegal immigrants caught crossing the Mexico-US border last year, more than half were apprehended in Arizona. And border patrol agents estimate that they apprehend no more than a third of those attempting to enter.
Continue reading Rice to Syria: Secure your borders
By Weldon Berger, on May 16th, 2005
One likely warning sign of an impending Cheney candicacy might be a Republican attempt, beginning in the 2006 Congressional campaigns, to gerrymander the boundaries of “the politics of personal destruction” to include references to a candidate’s health history. . . . → Read More: Does Dick Cheney have the heart for a presidential bid?
By Eric Brewer, on May 16th, 2005
Michael Getler, the Post‘s ombudsman, apologized yesterday for his paper’s failure to cover the “UK memo” story, which we here at BTC News were on top of from the beginning. Apparently, Getler’s been inundated with angry emails on the subject. An excerpt from his column: “I’ve said in earlier columns that I don’t like . . . → Read More: Washington Post apologizes for burying the UK memo
By pdberger, on May 15th, 2005
Why does no one care about Darfur? A rally yesterday in London only managed to draw 150 people (chronicled here by blogger Lakshmi). The answer, I suspect, is multi-facteted, and ranges from indifference and impotence to cynicism and war/genocide-weariness. And I should have a fair idea after all, because I am one of the people who doesn’t care. Correction: didn’t care.
I didn’t care (or rather didn’t act) until a couple of weeks ago when I saw the film Hotel Rwanda, a movie which I had avoided at the movie theater because the trailer made it look like an overly-sentimental (and therefore in my mind, less authentic) version of events. I wanted to learn about what really happened in Rwanda–not the sanitized cinematic replay.
As it turned out Hotel Rwanda was far from sanitized or overly sentimental (although it had its moments). And if there is one thing I was struck by as the film progressed and after the credits rolled it was that although an atrocity like Rwanda should never happen again–it was happening again. Not only that but it was happening on the same continent; hundreds of miles north of Rwanda’s mass graves more graves were being dug.
Continue reading Darfur
By Weldon Berger, on May 14th, 2005
To the untrained eye, one not connected to the brain of a counterinsurgency scholar, it looks like the insurgents are doing this: killing off members of the government; killing off officers of the security services; killing off recruits to the security services; killing US soldiers; blowing up Iraq’s infrastructure; and, demonstrating convincingly that neither the US nor the Iraqi government, such as it is, can protect Iraq’s civilians or their property. . . . → Read More: Wistful and bewildered in Washington
By Weldon Berger, on May 14th, 2005
From AP via the Houston Chronicle:
Staff Sgt. Samuel T. Castle of Naples died Wednesday from injuries suffered from an improvised explosive device in Al Asad, the Department of Defense said Friday. He was assigned to the Army’s 327th Signal Battalion, 35th Signal Brigade, Fort Bragg, N.C.
…
Both Samuel Castle and his wife, Nicole, a soldier in the 51st Signal Battalion, were sent to Iraq at the end of November, leaving their 1-year-old son, also named Samuel, with her parents. The soldier also has a 6-year-old daughter, Mia, who lives in Dallas, Payne said.
Payne said the funeral is expected to be May 21, but they have not yet set a time. She said the soldier’s wife
and his 19-year-old brother — who followed him into the military and is also serving in Iraq — would be coming to Texas for the funeral.
Maybe one or the other of the parents were offered the opportunity to stay home. One would like to think so.
How long can this go on? The Army has missed its recruiting goals for several consecutive months despite Herculean efforts (cheating) by some Army recruiters. The Marines aren’t doing much better, and despite recurrent promises that the troops will be brought home (alive) in increasing numbers, the number in Iraq continues to hover around 140,000.
For those who don’t recall, the original plan was to cut the number of US troops in Iraq to 30,000 by September of 2003. Continue reading Iraq: A Family Affair
By Weldon Berger, on May 13th, 2005
The Washington Monthly’s Drum and Ignatius both think that if the Ignatius scenario is accurate, the reporters are in something of a bind about whether they should breach their confidentiality agreements with the source. But unless they promised the source not to reveal his name in connection with any crimes he might commit during the investigation of the original one, it’s difficult to see the difficulty. Miller might suffer some pangs of conscience about giving up someone who is probably among the sources who lied to her about the Iraq threat, and some trepidation about losing access to other highly placed liars. But that’s not really a First Amendment issue. . . . → Read More: Plame still burning?
By Eric Brewer, on May 13th, 2005
I went to the White House press briefing twice this week, on Thursday and Friday, hoping to get a response to the recent revelation in the London Sunday Times that, eight months before the Iraq invasion, “intelligence and facts were being fixed” to support Bush’s war plan.
On Thursday, the reporters in the . . . → Read More: Questions the White House Would Rather Not Answer: 2nd in a series
By Weldon Berger, on May 12th, 2005
I don’t expect every journalist to pick up a camera or a laptop and head off into a firefight. I do expect every journalist to respect the few who do it and to make sure their work gets the attention it deserves. The people at The Note deserve every bit of scorn they get for ducking that responsibility, and so do all the other journalists who consistently underplay the story. . . . → Read More: ABC’s “The Note” writes an obituary for journalism
|
Word of the Decade Ignoranus: An ignorant asshole.
|
The Empire (Syria) Strikes Back?
Although, then, the story about Syria and New Bridge appears to be untrue, it does help point up the extraordinary web of relationships between Washington insiders who sometimes hold dual, superficially conflicting roles. . . . → Read More: The Empire (Syria) Strikes Back?