A Prayer for NATO

Please, Allah, give the United Nations the strength and wisdom to keep NATO out of Libya.

The Tripoli breadlift

Western imagination has failed spectacularly in north Africa. It's pathetic, whether it's Tunisia (where a prominent French politician wanted to train more effective thugs to put down the rebellion of ordinary people) or in Egypt where there was NATO bleating about "orderly transitions," to Libya, blah, blah blah.

Now, prominent Western politicians are demanding deeds not words in Libya. The French UN ambassador has frankly stated that military solutions are out of the question, on account of the disastrous experience in Bosnia.

I think "western" governments are short of imagination, David Cameron being a prominent example, a guy who thinks it reasonable to sell arms in the Middle East several days after popular uprisings against governments who suppress them using arms made in Britain. I think Cameron should get drunk, dress up in "full Buller rig", trash a London restaurant, then appear on television in the ruins to deliver a rambling monologue on the white man's burden.

One of course could nuke Tripoli, or at least send in cruise missiles to the "brother leader" compound. There are better solutions.

1. Create field hospitals and refugee camps in Tunisia and Egypt, on an industrial scale. One doesn't want of course to re-create Shatila and Sabra.

2. Carpet bread bombing. Fill up fabulous C-130's with bread, and conduct relentless low level bread bombing of Tripoli. I'm not sure what kind of loaf is aerodynamically optimal, but maybe it doesn't matter. People can get by on bread and water for some considerable time. The sight of waves of C-130's delivering bread will be immensely cheering.

3. Parachute milk drops. Milk is less aerodynamically stable than bread. One needs parachutes. In World War 2, the Germans apparently used canisters that opened automatically after landing, releasing supplies. That was 70 years ago.

4. Body armour drops. The fearless Libyans who demonstrate against the regime are completely without weapons. They could use a little Kevlar.

5. Memory stick drops. Libyans have computers. Drop millions of memory sticks with useful news and information.

People are always fighting the last war.

Obama, George Orwell, and international "norms"

Nor hell a fury like a liberal scorned...

So the black guy is doing some fancy tap dancing. His feet move fast...you don't see what his hands are doing. What are "international norms"?

Obama is talking out of both sides of his mouth. He's trying to deal with "grave breaches of international law" in Libya, without acknowledging the reality of "grave breaches of international law," because if he did, the officials of the previous decade of American administration - including his own - are open to investigation for war crimes, an investigation long overdue and made stunningly obvious in the Iraq helicopter video, just to pick one example out of thousands, a crime so egregious that nobody in the USA knows what to do with it. It's much safer to pretend that an American diplomatic cable listing "sensitive" terrorist targets (like the Brooklyn Bridge, which is going cheap) is a big deal. Civilians murdered - there is no other word - by cannon fire are just awkward and it's much easier to pretend it doesn't matter.

Unfortunately, if you use the loaded phrase "international humanitarian law" the question of war crimes arises, but if - as George Orwell says: "This mixture of vagueness and sheer incompetence is the most marked characteristic of modern English prose, and especially of any kind of political writing. As soon as certain topics are raised, the concrete melts into the abstract and no one seems able to think of turns of speech that are not hackneyed: prose consists less and less of words chosen for the sake of their meaning, and more and more of phrases tacked together like the sections of a prefabricated henhouse."- the awkwardness just magically disappears. I'm seeing Tinkerbelle in the form of Dick Cheney.

How Harper is that?

Resigning chief scientist never briefed Gillard
By Tim Leslie
ABC Australia OnlineFeb 23, 2011


Professor Penny Sackett is resigning halfway through her five-year term due to "personal and professional reasons". (Stateline)
Related Story: Chief scientist stands down

Australia's chief scientist has told a Senate estimates hearing she has never been asked to brief Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

Professor Penny Sackett is resigning halfway through her five-year term due to a combination of "personal and professional reasons".

While refusing to comment directly on how she viewed her interactions with the Government, she told the hearing she briefed former prime minister Kevin Rudd only once during his tenure and had never briefed Ms Gillard.

"I have not met, in her role as prime minister, Prime Minister Gillard. I have met with prime minister Rudd to give a direct personal briefing once," she said.
She also confirmed she was not asked to advise Mr Rudd in the lead-up to the Copenhagen climate conference and was not invited to attend.

When quizzed about what improvements could be made to the role of chief scientist, Professor Sackett said it was the Government's responsibility to clarify what role the chief scientist should play.

"I think the responsibility rests firmly with the Government to make it, to decide how the role of chief scientist for Australia will fit into the variety of advice that it receives on matters of science," she said.

'Ignored and shunned'

Opposition science spokeswoman Sophie Mirabella says Professor Sackett is resigning because she was ignored by the Government.

"It's clear the Government has ignored and shunned her. She's supposed to be the Prime Minister's adviser, and guess what? She's never met Ms Gillard," she said.
"No wonder she resigned. She wasn't even invited to be part of Australia's huge delegation of over 100 people to Copenhagen. She wasn't involved in the process of setting targets we negotiated at Copenhagen."

Ms Mirabella says the comments show the Government is squandering the resources of the office.

"If the Prime Minister doesn't even meet with you and you're supposed to be her chief adviser on science, that shows a pretty rude disregard," she said.
"What is surprising is the Government set this office up, it employs 16 people and costs $2.3 million a year. Why wouldn't you use those resources?"

But the Government's Science, Industry and Innovation Minister, Kim Carr, told the hearing Professor Sackett's role was valued by the Government and he met the chief scientist regularly.

"She's performed a very, very important role on behalf of the Australian people, a role that this Government made full-time," he said.

"Professor Sackett has met with me on average once a month. We have regular dialogue on a range of matters, and of course formal briefings are presented."

The return of Milo Minderbinder to Libya

"Word spread that it was oil, and Chief White Halfoat was kicked off the base. Soon every man who could find a shovel was digging frenziedly for oil. Dirt flew everywhere; the scene was almost like the morning in Pianosa seven months later after the night Milo bombed the squadron with every plane he had accumulated in his M&M syndicate, and the airfield, bomb dump and repair hangars as well, and all the survivors were outside hacking cavernous shelters into the solid ground and roofing them over with sheets of armor plate stolen from the repair sheds at the field and with tattered squares of waterproof canvas stolen from the side flaps of each other’s tents."

Joseph Heller
Catch-22
Simon and Schuster, 2004, pg. 105

A guide to NATO humanitarian operations

In the best of all possible worlds, the "fighter jets" are French, the helicopters are American, the ammunition is British, and all the money is in Switzerland.

In the worst of all possible worlds, the "fighter jets" are Swiss, the helicopters are French, the ammunition is American, and all the money is in Britain.

So this is embarrassing...

Viewing cable 08TRIPOLI498, PETRO-CANADA SIGNS 30-YEAR PACT WITH LIBYA

Petro-Canada agrees to a one billion dollar "signing bonus" with Libya. You know, even Crosby can't pull that off.

The oil business is confusing. Norway is investing in Alberta Tar Sands, and Petro-Canada is investing in Libya. There must be an explanation.

Bye, bye, Miss American Pie....

18 February 2011 –The United States today vetoed a Security Council resolution condemning all Israeli settlements established in occupied Palestinian territory since 1967 as illegal, saying that while it agreed that the settlements are illegitimate the resolution harmed chances for peace talks.

The other 14 members of the Council voted for the resolution, which demanded that “Israel, as the occupying power, immediately and completely ceases all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem and that it fully respect its legal obligations in this regard.” But as one of the five permanent members, the negative US vote is the equivalent of a veto.

The resolution, co-sponsored by over 120 of the UN’s 192 Member States, also called on both parties to comply with their obligations under the Road Map plan, sponsored by the diplomatic Quartet of the United Nations, European Union, Russia and US, which seeks to establish a two-State solution of Israel and Palestine living side by side in peace and security within recognized borders.

It urged all parties to continue with their negotiations on final status issues in the Middle East peace process and called for the “intensification of international and regional diplomatic efforts to support and invigorate the peace process towards achievement of a comprehensive, just and lasting peace.”