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Saturday,
December 31, 2005 Preparation for CES continues.
Talin's comment on copyright,
and my extended remarks in reply, are worth your time if the subject
interests you.
I find there were a number of noteworthy events in 2005, and I am trying
to cover as many as possible for my year end column, which will be filed
from Las Vegas next week.
The end of the year finds us recovering from various minor illnesses.
Roberta is out walking again, and while I consume more Sudafed than I would
like, today's rains may help on that score. We still don't know if my
breathing problems are due to allergies or some low grade permanent
infection. In any case I have adjusted to them.
I continue to recommend the Health Solutions pump for clearing out
sinuses. The banner link is below, but I find that the banner is blocked by
many ad blocking programs; I can see it in Internet Explorer, but Firefox as
I have configured it blocks the banner.
If you want a way to clear your sinuses see
http://www.1shoppingcart.com/app/aftrack.asp?afid=150424 and my
apologies for repeating the link below the banner. I do recommend this
as one of the best things that has happened to me in the past few years,
responsible for better nights' sleep than almost anything else I have
tried (and certainly better than the "freshest of snake biles" which I
once tried in desperation). Truth in advertising: if you buy through
that link I get a small sum. I did not arrange that, they did, after I
recommended the product and they got some new sales as a result. I
seldom endorse any product I don't personally use, and this is no
exception to that.
=======
I should write a years' end essay on Iraq, but I fear
I have little to add to what I have already said. I would not have endorsed
the original invasion, and I certainly would not have endorsed the extended
occupation that followed. I do not believe that any kind of unitary Iraqi
democracy (as opposed to a Confederacy on the Swiss model) is possible in
Iraq, and I believe that allocation of the oil revenues precludes any
unitary French-model state in Iraq. There is just too much money at stake.
The best government for Iraq would be, I think, what I advocated early
on, build up local and regional governments, have relatively strong
Provincial governments with near-sovereignty, and a weaker Confederacy for
national defense; and retain the allocation of the oil revenues in the hands
of the occupation authorities, doling out the money to places where it will
do some good: which is to say, places that practice rule of law and have
domestic tranquility. Reward virtue, not insurgency. The occupation can stay
in enclaves located to maximize protection of the oil fields and production
facilities. The American and European Left will instantly accuse us of every
economic imperialist crime imaginable, but in fact we don't need the Iraqi
oil revenue; they need it, but it must be allocated for building national
unity, not to reward a majority which at the moment mostly seeks revenge on
its former oppressors -- or independence, as do the Kurds, who want
territories in which there is no Kurdish majority because there is oil
there.
"Sire, you can do anything with a bayonet, except sit upon it,"
Talleyrand famously told Napoleon during a review of the Imperial army.
Government, as Ortega tells us, is not a matter of the iron hand as much as
the firm seat. I do not see how any national government in Iraq can have a
firm seat. What might prevail is a Confederacy, with an outside entity -- US
Occupation forces, The King of Jordan as Protector of Iraq, an American
pro-consul -- allocating the oil revenue as reward for tranquility.
I don't see that any such rational plan will prevail, and realistically I
see us continuing to muddle along in Iraq until we elect a government that
just brings the troops home, leaving Iraq to fight a civil war that they
could have fought and had done with if we'd simply toppled Saddam and come
home when the President declared the mission accomplished: in other words if
the invasion of Iraq had been an old fashioned gunboat diplomacy punitive
expedition rather than a Jacobin-inspired attempt to export the blessings of
liberty and democracy on the points of our bayonets (and the muzzles of our
Abrams tanks).
And I fervently hope I am wrong. I do not want to see our troops pour out
their blood in Mesopotamia for nothing. The treasure we throw into the
rivers and sands is nothing; we can replace it easily.
And having said all that, I am sufficiently an American (as opposed to
Southernor by birth and upbringing, Iowan and Washingtonian by education,
and Californian by residence and profession) to say that our national
institutions have made their decisions: the President and Congress have
declared, the troops are in place, and we the people may speak our
opposition, but we must never oppose sending treasure and our fervently felt
best wishes to the troops we have committed. We sent them there, we keep
them there; they are our soldiers carrying out our policies. Politics does
end at the water's edge.
We owe them, and ourselves, a victory. It now remains to find a way
credibly to declare victory and withdraw. The word credibly is the operative
one.
But we need also to realize that energy independence, while expensive in
absolute terms ($600 billion, perhaps) is cheap compared to the cost of
intervention and occupation in the Middle East; and we need to embark on
whatever it takes to achieve that.
And if we do, then our blood and treasure sunk into Iraq will be part of
the price of our national education. We will have learned a hard lesson. So
far the price has not been beyond our means.
To all my subscribers and readers, here and overseas, and especially
troops on deployment,
God Bless you, and
HAPPY NEW YEAR
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