I hate making small talk.

Taha Muhammad Ali

MEETING AT AN AIRPORT

You asked me once,
on our way back
from the midmorning
trip to the spring:
"What do you hate,
and who do you love?"

And I answered,
from behind the eyelashes
of my surprise,
my blood rushing
like the shadow
cast by a cloud of starlings:
"I hate departure...
I love the spring
and the path to the spring,
and I worship the middle
hours of morning."
And you laughed...
and the almond tree blossomed
and the thicket grew loud with nightingales.

...A question
now four decades old:
I salute that question’s answer;
and an answer,
as old as your departure;
I salute that answer’s question...

...And today,
it’s preposterous,
here we are at a friendly airport
by the slimmest of chances,
and we meet.
Ah, Lord!
we meet.
And here you are
asking—again,
it’s absolutely preposterous—
I recognized you
but you didn’t recognize me.
"Is it you?!"
But you wouldn’t believe it.
And suddenly
you burst out and asked:
"If you’re really you,
What do you hate
and who do you love?!"

And I answered—
my blood
fleeing the hall,
rushing in me
like the shadow
cast by a cloud of starlings:
"I hate departure,
and I love the spring,
and the path to the spring,
and I worship the middle
hours of morning."

And you wept,
and flowers bowed their heads,
and doves in the silk of their sorrow stumbled.

this is what happens when I put in Farsi into an online translation service (babylon)—note that this comes from a pashto website’s farsi version:

(dtvrh) (bvà)“(h) (nshraaty) (aarà«aan) (lkhvaa) door (myaashtngh) (nvlsmh) (à«à¼h) press kings. (pnàpm) (kaal) (dryymh) (à«à¼h) (prlpsgh) (nvlsmh) (à«à¼h) _ (d،d¤d¢d) (©h) vomition (shàbaan) - (d،d£d¨d) (§l) and (tqrybaa) eleven spring tonight (aazjmlh) meters (gzmh) (vlsvaaly) (khvgyaany) (yk) (àraadh) meters (rnjrdrdsht) (chmtlh) (h) (drhaaly) (gzmh) activity (my) (nmvdtvst) (maayn) past (shdéy) (rymvt) (ntrvl) devotees (mhaadh) jihad (tvrh) lambs explodent revolve (vtàmh) fire became (vhsht) person (àskr) (mzdvrslyby) (srnshynaan) meters to (hlaakt) arrived. Likewise (bàdaazaanfjaarmaayn) arms (khfyfh) (vthqylh) (àmlyaat) (chryky) (saaàth) demands accomplishment (gshtn) .

This is really more like poetry:

door

press kings.

vomition  and

eleven spring tonight

meters

meters

activity  past

devotees jihad

lambs explodent revolve

fire became  person

meters to  arrived.

Likewise arms  demands accomplishment.

I need to stop obsessively watching/reading news about the Israeli airstrikes. I’m not going to post up my entire opinion yet, but here are some more interesting articles:

Tom Segev writes an excellent op-ed in Haaretz English.

Al Jazeera English interviews Israelis from all over the country. If only it could be on their Arabic site, too…

Oh, no. Haaretz Hebrew says lots of protesters are calling for more bomb/suicide attacks. And Hassan Nasrallah is on board…

Lord help us.

155 dead in rocket attack

In response to dozens of rockets hitting southern Israel from Gaza, Israel launches a rocket attack which has killed, at most counts, 155 people. The strike targeted Hamas militants who had resumed launching massive amounts of rockets (after a six-month cease-fire):

NYTimes and Washington Post, as usual, summarize the attacks pretty well, although, let’s be honest- might come off to you as a little emotional, especially the NYTimes piece which describes wailing women looking for their husbands and dismembered bodies.

Haaretz English and Haaretz Hebrew actually put the death count higher, at 195. I find Haaretz’s reporting on Israeli subjects to be (obviously) better than English news sources. The English article gives a pretty analytical, more-objective viewpoint of the attacks. The Hebrew article says the strikes had 95% accuracy in their targeting, which probably serves a more public-relations purpose than a real assessment of the attack. As the English section writes: “Prior to the operation, Israel sought to catch Hamas off guard by luring it into a false sense of security through certain measures, including the opening of Gaza border crossings on Friday.”

AlJazeera’s English article is similarly well-constructed, albeit for the Palestinian viewppint; it correctly notes that home-made rockets were fired, rather than high-tech rockets with accuracy and that “However, officials of the deposed government in Gaza which maintains law and order, while being Hamas member in the main, are separate from the group’s military wing and other factions responsible for attacks into Israel.” An excellent point. AlJazeera Arabic, on the other hand, starts its article with the headline: Hundreds martyred and wounded in Israeli airstrike on Gaza. However, it does provide an interesting analysis on Israeli Defense Minister’s remarks in response to the attack (essentially saying that these types of oeprations will expand as needed) by quoting officials in Ramallah who worry that these kinds of airstrikes and operations will snowball into more Israeli incursion onto Palestinian territory.

Jerusalem Post provides damage assessment, although given the newspaper’s proclivity for all things pro-Israel, I would take the statements with a grain of salt. Really? All headquarters for Hamas destroyed? Seems quite a claim, yes? Check out a front-page article, though, that simply re-quotes Israeli officials for some insight on the “why” behind the attacks.. Another editorial in the Post actually makes a good point, questioning Israeli lessons from Lebanon 2006 and whether those lessons were well-taken—but loses me at the quote: Naturally, the effort launched Saturday to defang a rocket-firing, Iranian-backed terror army across a hostile border invites immediate comparison with the bid to destroy Hizbullah’s terrorist infrastructure in southern Lebanon two and a half years ago.

“Terror Army”? Oh, lovely. If we completely de-legitimize the other side and also dish out fear like it’s nobody’s business, then we can bomb the crap out of other places. More on that later….

Who decided Afghanistan was exactly like Iraq?

Because it isn’t. In practically every single way. Yes, Afghanistan is ethnically divided—and so is Iraq. Unlike Iraq, though, And yes, both countries have been ruled at one point or another by different ethnic groups, but unlike Iraq, which after 1920 or so was essentially ruled by one leader, Afghanistan, well, has had a series of shaky governments and has always had struggles with tribal leaders (yes, those warlords that everyone seems to talk about). Not to mention these tribal leaders have consistently divided the country along ethnic lines, massacring others on the basis of ethnic identity. So, we have a country traditionally divided along ethnic lines and ruled by various warlords with their own militias which carry out the “rule of law” according to their own terms.

What should the United States do? Let’s arm tribal leaders to help create militias! That sounds like a great idea. At least, that’s what the New York Times recently reported.

Granted, the idea of militia groups definitely worked with the Awakening Councils in Iraq. These groups of men, many of whom were former members of insurgent groups, were perhaps one of the most decisively effective forces which helped stabilize Anbar and other provinces throughout Iraq. However, I am worried about using these types of militias in Afghanistan:

1. Characters like Rashid Dostum, one of the most powerful figures in the Uzbek Junbish e-Milli, affiliated with the Northern Alliance. A powerful warlord once in charge of Mazar e-Sharif, Dostum has been accused of atrocious human rights abuses. While he’s in exile supposedly in Turkey, let’s not forget that the United States and the Afghan government has allied with him before. He serves as one example of the kind of unsavory characters with a violent past that can hold the type of “tribal influence” the United States seeks in Iraq.
2. A brutal history of violence based solely on ethnic division. Now, I know Iraq has this too, but let’s look a little more carefully at Afghanistan: not only do you have ethnic differences among Pashtuns, Tajiks, Uzbeks, and Hazaras; you also have religious differences (most Hazaras are Shia); you also have, most significantly, shifting ethnic and religious alliances. Hazaras, a Shia group, for example, have allied with Tajiks and Uzbeks in the past. Tribes are spread out throughout the land and are fractured from Afghanistan’s violent history.

I feel like the last thing we should do in Afghanistan is enable tribal militias and previous warlords to reignite ethnic tensions and bring back brutal tribal regimes. Instead, why doesn’t the US boost the Afghan forces—try to bring in more recruitment and more resources? Instead of trying to spread the militias all over the country, the United States should reinforce government forces, build up those forces, and move a strengthened-force to other, harder to govern areas, like the mountainous regions and ethnically divided areas like Mazar-e-Sharif.

Please Stop Acting Like We are Doing Iraq a Favor.

John McCain, Joe Liberman, and Lindsay Graham published a piece entitled “A Chance for Consensus in Iraq’ a few days ago in the Washington Post. Citing recent security gains, the transfer of power from Coalition Forces to the Iraqi Security Forces, and positive steps towards democratization, the authors essentially laud the current effort in Iraq and make a case for what they term “reasonable” withdrawal.

“The Sunni Arabs who once formed the core of the insurgency are today among our most steadfast allies in the fight against al-Qaeda.” True, essentially. The Awakening Councils or Sons of Iraq, largely responsible for security gains in the once hostile and fragile Anbar province, are an effective force that is largely Sunni. However, leaving the statement at that is quite misleading.  Insurgent groups target Awakening Council members in attempts to topple security gains.  Juan Cole, reknowned scholar of Middle East Studies, comments correctly that the Sunni Councils are largely disliked by their Shia Iraqi military and counterpart.  As such, the Awakening Councils, whose integration into the ISF was already, excuse my French, “half-assed”, is continuing to pose a problem for the Maliki government.

McCain, Lieberman, and Graham then make all sorts of lovely allusions as to how Iraq is now a democracy with a fragile, but stable state. Yeah, right. We’re talking democracy in a country where a leader like Nouri al-Maliki who decides to create “supporting councils” as Shiite militias instead of relying on a standing military, a country in which an insurgency moves from one province (Anbar) to another (Ninewah or Diyala), or when on Friday, about 24 police and MOD officials accused of trying to stage a coup d’etat against the current government?

Now, don’t get me wrong. The last thing I want to say is that gains haven’t been made. A largely ineffectual military policy was made right through an important decision by George W. Bush and the U.S. Military through innovative planning and informed decision-making. The problem is, however, that arguments like the authors’ then pretend like the current situation in Iraq is agreed upon by everyone: “No longer does Congress need to be locked in partisan trench warfare over withdrawal dates and funding cutoffs. Our shared, central task now is to work together to support a responsible redeployment from Iraq, based on the new and improved realities on the ground.”

Wait, excuse me? Save for Iraqi jurisdiction over crimes committed while soldiers were off-duty, wasn’t the major sticking point A WITHDRAWAL DATE? As in, a concrete one?!  Didn’t someone throw a SHOE at the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES because of the “occupation?” This only reiterates the stupidity (I hate to say it) ensconced by our White House Press Secretary.

Q Why not worry about it? Doesn’t it reflect the feelings of the people?

MS. PERINO: I don’t think that you can take one guy throwing his shoe as representative of the people of Iraq. And I will tell you that Prime Minister Maliki and the journalists who were there in the room, who apologized on behalf of the Iraqis, saying this is not how they would treat a guest — I know that there are people in Iraq who are angry — angry at their situation. It’s been a very rough five years. What we were there talking about, though, is how much progress Iraq has made because of our troops and because of the wonderful work of the Iraqi security forces and their military, and how their economy is coming back. And they’ve grown in leaps and bounds, and so the country is on its way to becoming a wonderful country that can govern, sustain and defend itself, and they will be an ally of ours in the war on terror.

Q But he wasn’t a guest. It was occupied.

MS. PERINO: No, we’re not, Helen. We are absolutely a guest.

I mean, come on, people. There are protests around Arab countries. Insurgents and a lot of Arab media call Iraq an “occupied nation.” Let’s get this thing straight. We have signed a treaty acknowledging that the United States will leave Iraq by 2011. Let’s not go back on our promise. If the people want us out that badly, let’s get out. It’s time to leave Iraq before someone throws something worse.

why “it’s always sunny in philadelphia is the best. show. ever.”

Dennis: I don’t get it Dee, there are tons of women in this city, where do they go?

Sweet Dee: They’re at velvet rope clubs on Delaware Avenue.

Dennis: Why?

Sweet Dee: Dennis, our bar is south Philly in a scary alley… might as well call it “Rape Bar.”