What Civil War?

Sunni and Shiite are uniting to fight Al Qaeda:

Commanders in the field think they have tapped into a genuine public expression of reconciliation that has outpaced the elected government’s progress on mending the sectarian rift.

“What you find is these people have lived together for decades with no problem until the terrorists arrived and tried to instigate the problem,” said Lt. Col. Valery Keaveny, commander of the 3rd Battalion, 509th Airborne unit in the Iskandariya area south of Baghdad. “So they are perfectly willing to work together to keep the terrorists out.”

Note that this is grass roots, bottom-up cooperation. Over time, let’s hope that it filters its way up to the government itself. If Iraq is really becoming a democracy, it should.

[Update a few minutes later]

Speaking of civil wars, it’s been a dozen dozen years, seven score and four, since Lincoln gave the Gettysburg address. Here’s my post on the subject from three years ago.

Network Experts Cast Doubt on Alleged Hirohito Recording

Senate Leaders Warn: Administration May Try to Spin Victory Claim

Aug. 16th, 1945.

WASHINGTON, DC (Routers) Network experts today cast doubt on the authenticity of the enigmatic recording released by the Administration yesterday, and alleged to be a radio address by Emperor Hirohito. Some Administration figures have begun to spin the alleged recording as a “surrender” speech broadcast by Hirohito on Japanese radio, although objective experts have pointed out that, as Hirohito’s voice has never been heard in public before, there is no way to guarantee that the voice was actually his, or even that it had been actually broadcast on Japanese radio.

“We have only the recording made by a military monitoring station on occupied Okinawa. Obviously the Truman Administration and the OSS could have fabricated the recording as a part of the campaign to spin the administration’s war as a ‘victory’,” said one expert, speaking on background.

Objective experts also pointed out that the alleged speech was made in an obscure form of Japanese purported to be the “court dialect,” which was scarcely intelligible to normal Japanese speakers. All of the translations have been made by linguists in government employ, another suspicious circumstance. Administration spokesmen, when questioned on this point, objected that virtually every American able to translate Japanese is currently on government payroll. When asked to comment on this statement, the expert smiled and said “That’s convenient, isn’t it?”

Due to the use of the alleged court dialect, translations have differed widely. The administration claims, for example, that the Emperor’s words could be translated as having “accepted the Four Power Declaration.” Other linguists objected, stating that the words actually translated more accurately as “have heard the Four Power Declaration,” a reading that does not imply that Japan has agreed to its terms, or will cease fighting. “It’s ambiguous,” said one.

They also pointed out that the emperor’s call for the Japanese to “endure the unendurable” could equally be interpreted as a call for the Japanese to endure yet more combat and bombing.

Anti-war leaders in the Senate were adamant in warning the American public not to fall for Administration spin. They claim that they are not going to back down from their demands for an end to the war. One Senate staffer was vehement:

“This is yet one more attempt by the administration to rally public support for a pointless, costly war that America has already lost. We have supposedly had victory in Europe for months now, yet the troops still remain, facing the dread Werewolf insurgency. Thousands of American casualties show up in the sick call every morning, incapacitated by venereal disease and alcohol poisoning from the “victory celebrations” staged by the administration. Tens of thousands of Germans are emigrating to Brazil and Argentina, deprived of their homes and livelihoods by the administration’s “denazification” process,” and hundreds of thousands of Jews have left Europe for America and Palestine. No matter what kind of shine the administration wants to put on this, this war will never be over until they return.”

He went on: “Now our occupation of the portion of the Japanese homeland in Okinawa is driving the Japanese to fiercer resistance. Millions of Japanese troops remain undefeated on the Japanese mainland, and in the home islands themselves. It defies logic that the Emperor would surrender while these forces remain undefeated, or even tested. How many more American lives will be lost in this senseless war? The only sensible policy, which we believe the American people endorsed in the 1944 elections, is to withdraw all troops from the Atlantic and Pacific theaters immediately, release Admiral Doenitz, and his ministers from the OSS prison where they were brought through illegal rendition, along with the rightful President of France, Marshall Petain, and to bring US forces home immediately from Okinawa and other occupied Japanese territories. We should also look into what happened to the Fuerher, who may come out of hiding, wherever he is, if he realizes that we’re now ready to be reasonable and end this war. Peace can be pursued by requesting that the Spanish Caudillo, General Franco, and the Emperor of Manchuria, who have an interest in regional peace, mediate with the German and Japanese governments.”

“It’s too bad that 600,000 American casualties were squandered by the Roosevelt and Truman administrations in their pointless war on questionable grounds, sparked by the suspect and disputed ‘Pearl Harbor’ incident. However, their blood is on the administration’s hands. We are only trying to save further American lives by recognizing reality and rejecting false claims that ‘victory’ is near.”

Copyright 2007 by Transterrestrial Musings

How Does That Work?

Tom Friedman thinks that if Obama gets the nomination, he should keep Dick Cheney as the VP. Well, not really, but I do agree with him that the administration’s policy toward Iran does seem confused and confusing. It’s kind of like “indecisive cop/bad cop.”

But what I really wanted to comment on was this strange sentence:

Mr. Obama would also be more effective if he not only stressed how much further he was ready to go than the Bush team to engage Iran, but also how much further he would be ready to go in bringing meaningful leverage on Iran

Tell Us What You Really Feel

Maybe I’m just reading more than I should from his review, but Michael Medved doesn’t seem impressed with “Redacted”:

I am actually one of the few people in the country who has seen the new movie. It is called “Redacted” … And let me just tell you, before I go to actually reviewing it: It could be the worst movie I’ve ever seen. I mean, the out and out worst, most disgusting, most hateful, most incompetent, most revolting, most loathsome, most reprehensible cinematic work I have ever encountered. This is having reviewing movies for more than 25 years. [It] covers a lot of disgusting ground, but none more disgusting than ‘Redacted,’ which portrays the Marine Corps, one of the finest organizations ever assembled by human beings, portrays the U.S. Marine Corps, as corrupt, vicious, racist killers and rapists … (snip) …

It portrays the members of our Marine Corps in the most disgusting way imaginable. They hang out in barracks, drunk or stoned, with Confederate flags all over the place. And the head Marine, who is the leading rapist and murderer, is a big fat guy, I mean, hugely out of shape, right – just the typical Marine (sarcastic) – Marines tend not to look like that – big fat guy, overhanging belly, cigar-chomping, loud-mouthed, sort of fair-complexion. His name is Rush. Nothing in movies is an accident. They’re clearly trying to indict and smear Rush Limbaugh by saying that secretly he wants to rape and abuse 14-year old girls and murder them and then burn their bodies … (snip) …

The film is atrociously acted. It’s incredibly badly done … (snip)

But why listen to him? He’s just a wingnut…

Chicken

Here’s a cross-dressing “artist” with Islamaphobia:

Speaking at a meeting organised by the Art Fund, Perry said that it was simple fear which stopped him from addressing Islam in his work. ‘I don’t want my throat cut’, he said.

I’ll bet that dress he’s wearing won’t pass muster with the fashion police, let alone under Sharia law.

Biting Commentary about Infinity…and Beyond!