| Saturday,
June 14, 2004 Subject: Pentagon
Journalists
From
http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20040602-111845-1999r.htm
Defense Website balances good wit bad in Iraq By
Jennifer Harper
(June 3, 2004)The Department of Defense has its own
counterpoint to the mainstream press, which often emphasizes lawlessness and
acrimony rather than progress and hope in Iraq as the June 30 transition
approaches.
The Department of Defense's "Defend America" Web site
(www.defendamerica.mil) offers a daily, clear-eyed dose of the good, bad and
ugly that confronts U.S. troops -- along with the noble, poignant,
hair-raising and humorous.
"We try to show all sides of the human experience. If
it impacts our soldiers, we cover it," said editor Linda Kozaryn. "We hear
from parents, families and friends of our troops who are grateful for the
news. We give them something the mainstream media does not."
The site is also a showcase for military
photojournalists on the front lines of both Iraq and Afghanistan, bolstered
with facts, maps, transcripts and operational information.
But the contrast in the coverage of Iraq is startling.
Defend America reported yesterday, for example, a
half-dozen Iraqi armed forces recruiting stations "continue to be flooded
with thousands of eager Iraqi volunteers" -- 25,000 in the past year --
ready "to serve their country and ensure its freedom," said U.S. Marine Maj.
Timothy Fitzpatrick, head of the Iraqi recruiting effort.
The U.S. Army, meanwhile, introduced the concept of
the town meeting to Baghdad neighborhoods this week to "give the community a
taste of democracy and a sense of ownership," said Capt. Michael Levy of the
1st Battalion, 21st Regiment Field Artillery unit.
More than 70 people attended one inaugural gathering,
which was deemed a success by Army organizers.
But The Washington Post said yesterday that American
efforts in Iraq were nothing more than "chaos" and a "controversial, costly
intervention."
USA Today declared that "Iraqis want their country --
now," while the Los Angeles Times referred to the transition as a "messy
process." CBS News continues to call its coverage of transition "Iraq in
Turmoil."
In addition, the Los Angles Times offered a lengthy
story yesterday about a run-down schoolhouse, which served as "a symbol of
how the coalition has failed" Iraqis. Defend America, however, detailed the
exact amounts of U.S. funds -- delivered by Marines -- earmarked for the
city of Al Kharma.
It included $19,000 for city infrastructure, $21,500
for electric power, $23,500 for billboards and flagpoles, $2,500 for street
cleanup, $32,000 for youth recreation and $7,000 for a soccer and handball
league to be run by a local sheik.
The Los Angeles Times story dwelled on "open-air
sewage," while Defend America offered two news items that explained that
"rehabilitation work on turbine 5 has added 110 megawatts of electricity
(105 MW derated) to the Iraqi power grid," and "the 5th Brigade Combat Team
of the 1st Cavalry Division plans to help the people of Al Rashid solve
their sewage problems."
The Department of Defense also maintains its own news
site (www.defenselink.mil).
From Ed Hume
=============
Subject: Shoe box
So why is the podunk airport in
Greenville-Spartanburg, SC the first place I encounter a 4" high box with a
shoe print on the top and a metal detector, with buzzer underneath, just
prior to the walk-through metal detector at the security checkpoint? It
effectively eliminates the question of whether the shoe has metal arch
support or metal shoelace eyelets by having patrons step on it prior to the
body screening. Seems like a time saver to me. Didn't they share the idea
with the rest of the TSA?
For that matter, why does every airport with a
universal shoe removal policy not have a post-screening area optimized for
putting one's shoes back on? I understood the sawhorses-and-partitions look
to screening areas that had to make do with space not originally designed to
be a security checkpoint. But it is two years down the road and I either
stand on my luggage or on the end of the x-ray machine exhaust... waiting
for the next bag to rocket down the rollers and bounce a gray tray off my
knee.
The entire process is optimized for inconvenience. Why
doesn't Disney or Six Flags have a contract to create a flow control process
that accomplishes the required screening in a, if not pleasant, at least NOT
unpleasant manner?
A government trying to encourage repayment of airline
bailout loans would do well to throw a few bucks in that direction.
Peyton
The purpose of TSA is to hire and pay TSA
employees. They will continue whether or not the airlines operate. What do
they care?
======================
I found a link to this article on the Drudge report.
The fact that Iraq was exporting WMD out of Iraq prior to the war isn't news
to me. However, it is encouraging to see this developement get some coverage
in the mainstream press.
http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/breaking_1.html
The fact that WMD along with Surface to Air missile
components are turning up in European scrap yards is interesting and almost
amusing. It certainly doesn't represent a security threat. However, it does
demonstrate that the stuff existed in Iraq and how widely it had been
dispersed by Saddam to conceal it from UN inspectors. The fact that weapons
components are still being exported from Iraq as part of scrap shipments
also demonstrates a failing of the US occupation troops to establish proper
controls on the border. Perhaps this could have been avoided by retaining
the Iraqi army intact to aid in the occupation. Then again, as you've
dramatized in your books so many times, Janissaries can become a serious
threat to their overlords.
While watching the funeral ceremonies for former
President Ronald Reagan, I'm repeatedly reminded of the similarities between
his Presidency and that of George W. Bush. Just as Reagan was denigrated by
the foreign policy and military strategy establishment as well as self
proclaimed intellectuals for having the audacity to suggest that the Soviet
Union was an evil empire and that it could be defeated rather than merely
contained, Bush is being vilified for taking a hard line in the battle
against terrorism and Islamic totalitarianism. I also can't help noticing
that the same liberals who vilified Reagan (Senator John Kerry tops the
list), are now vilifying President Bush. What really amazes me is that so
many of the traditional conservatives who supported Reagan are so incensed
by their feud with the NeoCons that they are now allying themselves with
those same liberals. It kind of reminds me of David Weber's books,
especially "Ashes of Honor." Perhaps Reagan's death will prompt
conservatives to reexamine their situation and their priorities?
James Crawford
In what way?
The invasion was not well planned and not well
done. We are now stuck with it and with trying to make a good result. That
may or may not happen. It certainly will not happen if the neojacobins have
learned nothing and forgotten nothing. It is for them to make some
overtures. It was they with the egregious Frum who turned their backs on us,
insulted Stephen Tonsor, gave flip answers or ignored our replies.
It's their turn. Or they can resign and let someone
else replace them. Expending all out resources to leave them in charge to
make yet more disastrous errors is not in the interests of the nation.
I have seen nothing in the way of long term goals,
or a resolution of the fundamental problem of governing others without their
consent. I have seen nothing showing how we proceed even if Iraq
miraculously becomes a democratic ally, which doesn't seem likely in any
reasonable time.
Are we to be a competent Empire or return to the
Republic?
I have no alliance with the liberals. I don't
believe that government solves all problems. I don't believe that creating
more bureaus and paying more government employees will make us a stronger
nation. I don't believe that "National Greatness" of the kind advocated in
Weekly Standard some time ago and never rescinded will be a good thing for
the nation.
I will remain what I have been for a long time. If
the NeoJacobins want to come back to conservative views, abandon imperial
ambitions and look for ways to strengthen the republic I will cheer for
them. Have you seen signs of this?
At the moment the best outcome we can expect from
Iraq is $2 / gallon gasoline and and end to the financial drains of the
occupation, and the elimination of a source of supply for enemies. That may
be a very good outcome, but I will argue it could have been achieved cheaper
and that the permanent hikes in oil prices are a terrible burden to the
nation.
We need energy independence. We will not get that
this way. There are ways we can go toward that goal at a lot lower costs
than we are paying now.
Or if we are to be competent empire, then there are
measures we must take and they don't involve some of the cynicism we have
seen.
Enough. More when I get home, it is late here.
===========================
Subject: Medical Outsourcing
Dr Pournelle,
Medical Outsourcing
Steve Setzer asks, “Would anyone care to guess on when
we'll start outsourcing routine medical care to India and China?”
Medical outsourcing, especially for more routine and
elective operations, is already big business in India with patients from
Europe and North America.
India has been oversupplied with graduates for
decades. Indian Universities, well founded in the British way of doing
things and much higher quality than most imagine third-world universities to
be, produces hundreds of thousands of graduates every year who cannot find
work that reflects their skills.
A recent TV show in the UK about the relocation of
British call-centres to India, made clear three points that are worth
considering:
(1) They are staffed entirely by graduates. Applicants
don’t even get considered without an honours degree. (2) The working
conditions are not primitive or backward, but very high standard, equal to
those in W Europe or N America. (3) The cost difference between UK and
Indian labour costs (plus all the other associated costs such as management,
telephone calls, buildings, free medical insurance for employees, etc.,
etc.) means Indian call centres cost clients significantly less than 20% of
the cost of a British one.
On that basis, a 10% import duty as you have proposed
would just be shrugged off as irrelevant. And in any case, I don’t see how
you could tax something as ethereal as phone calls (or come to that,
software too.)
Jim Mangles
But the revenue might be used to help alleviate the
problems caused?
==================
=
TOP
CURRENT
VIEW Saturday |
CLICK HERE for
a Special Request. 
