Getting Ready For A Long, Hot Chinese Summer

I’m certainly not talking about the weather.

China continues to show it is not “ready for primetime” at the very time that American incompetence in nearly every aspect of policy, leadership and execution would seem to set the stage for a Chinese ascendance in the world’s eyes.

Anyone ready for the wave of protests that are likely to reignite in Burma right around the time of the Olympics? How about a round two in Tibet? In Turkic China? Why not even in Shanghai? The eyes of the world will be on China like never before, and the sight witnessed will probably not be pretty.

For most people with a (usually quite earned) grievance with the Chinese leadership, the time frame before and during the Olympics may be their last, best chance to get their story of victimization at Chinese hands (directly or indirectly) out to the rest of the world. Desperation will be the order of the day, and that means nothing is impossible.

Most amusing of all this is the fundamental greed of the Chinese (no less than Americans or Europeans, “New colonialists indeed!). The Chinese have not developed Tibet for the Tibetans, they developed it for the Chinese immigrants who they sent there to “change facts on the ground” and desperate Tibetans tired of unfulfilled Chinese promises struck back at their oppressors.

Further, the Chinese leaders are fundamentally unable to solve the contradictions of “get rich quick” and “take care of the people” and probably won’t be for many years to come. This has created a dangerous schism in Chinese society that could very well be on full display during the Olympic coverage.

Previous hopes I had held that the Chinese leadership would handle these challenges competently and perhaps even with a tad of imagination have evaporated amid the dead bodies of Tibetan protesters, continued genocide in Sudan (now spreading to South Sudan.. thank you Beijing!) and pathetic posturing by Chinese nationalists in power.

*Almost makes me wish for a McCain-Obama ticket, one leader who has the balls (and skills) to put the Chinese in their place after the disaster likely to unfold this summer and one leader appealing enough to most of the rest of the world to take advantage of Beijing’s ruthless incompetence.

Betraying Iraqi Interpreters: America Screws Its Friends Again

Earlier this month, Iraq war vet Owen West wrote a blistering piece in the NY Post condemning the State Department for betraying through pure bureaucratic ineptitude the Iraqi interpreters who have sought asylum in the United States.

Now I understand why some of my peers have established underground railroads to Jordan - sneaking their terps through like hunted slaves. They’ve lost faith in their own government.

Iraq vets and terps now call State’s paper maze the “waiting to die list” - because it requires interpreters to risk death to purchase passports and cross the border undisguised.

Congress has held hearings. Reporters have done newspaper and TV stories; there’s even a play about State’s obscene mess. Ambassador Ryan Crocker, the top US civilian in Iraq, has complained, citing “major bottlenecks” in a terse memo to State.

President Bush has a duty to intervene. The honorable remedy is to trust the US military: Let a returning brigade that wants to bring some of its interpreters home simply fill out the visa paperwork on base, then carry them along on the aircraft.

Whom should America trust more, the judgment of a Marine or Army brigade commander - or a faceless bureaucrat in Nebraska or Amman?

I wonder what it will take for the State Department to take this seriously. Does explicit legislation need to be passed authorizing American commanders to take matters into their own hands? Do we need to have a soldier bring back the tortured, mangled body of an interpreter and lay it out on a table in front of the hand-wringing State Department leadership and the war criminal George Bush on international television requesting an explanation for their inaction?

Its obvious why Bush doesn’t care; any admission that his Iraq misadventure is not going so well is tantamount to treason and aiding and abetting the enemy in his minds. Thus the interpreters who happen to risk their lives for this country’s troops get the shaft because of his pride and stubbornness. If he gave the slightest damn about these people, he could tell Condi to make this a priority.  He put a political appointee way out of her depth in charge instead and the result is almost too tragic to behold.

Anti-American forces in Iraq and elsewhere would be wise to broadcast far and wide the utter contempt Bush and Condi Rice have for their “Iraqi” friends. They’re certainly sending a crystal clear message to those of us in America who have a sense of decency and honor.

A Simple Plan For Action:

Congress should immediately pass legislation* authorizing ground commanders to make asylum arrangements for interpreters. Sens. McCain, Clinton and Obama should be the leading sponsors in the Senate to forestall a likely presidential veto attempt and ensure there is no party-line voting on what is a strictly non-partisan emergency and ensure it passes with a veto-proof tally.

Why?

Few things unite the political spectrum in disgust like this utter contempt for life shown by the President and his State Department.

When Ted Kennedy, Michael Ledeen, Owen West and the uber conservative Senator James Coburn agree you’re some sort of lower life form for screwing these Iraqis over, you know this is a winning issue to make progress on.

*Costs for processing the asylum applicants can come out of the Secretary of State’s pay if necessary.

Personally…

I contacted the mother of a friend who died in Iraq in 2005 and asked for her support. She’s collecting letters from other mothers of the fallen in and around Virginia and sending them to Sens. Warner & Webb and the VA House delegation demanding they step up or risk adverse media attention from the mothers in the near future. I’m hitting up the local VFWs here next month and getting signatures for a letter to the NC Congressional Delegation and the war criminal Bush. I would like to do more with IAVA on this over the year.

Firing Admiral Fallon Crosses A Dangerous Line….

Admiral Fallon’s resignation at CENTCOM is certainly not due to Thomas PM Barnett’s Esquire article which painted his critics in the White House, Pentagon and Capitol Hill in a very unflattering light and went way overboard in portraying him (accurately at Admiral Fallon’s rank) as nearly the only man willing to stand between the war criminals George Bush & Dick Cheney (can they be anything else after that little stunt last weekend supporting torture?) in their push for a war with Iran later this year.

It is unbelievable that Barnett would be so naive as to write this article in such a manner… unless of course Admiral Fallon grew tired of being the target of poison pen rumors in Washington from Cheney’s ilk (which has been ongoing since Admiral Fallon had the audacity to look to China during his time at PACOM as a potential ally, or at least a peaceful neighbor, and not the great new threat that Cheney and others desire) and being a rare voice of sanity in the senior ranks of the military when it came to long-term strategy and America’s current predicament and decided to orchestrate an exit before losing the most important argument of his storied career. The timing would seem to be way off on that possibility though.

Barring that narrow possibility then, I’m furious Barnett wants to stand by his story and act like he has nothing to do with this. Can he show at least a bit of regret or show some sign that he realizes the impact his stunt has had and could have in the near future for thousands of American forces on the ground and sailors out to sea?

I’d heard credible stories from friends in the Gulf regarding hostility towards Admiral Fallon from political appointees, Bush administration officials and certain figures within the Navy who did not appreciate his reigning in of the rhetoric and drumbeats towards war with Iran.

Reading more informed milblogs lately, I see a disturbing pattern that only makes me fear the worst for my shipmates who are set to sail to the Gulf and elsewhere for their deployment later this week. They considered Admiral Fallon a serious threat to their plans for war with Hitler II in Tehran (and politicizing intelligence (again!), aiming to provoke Iran by any means necessary and firing a deeply respected admiral is nothing to these people).

Information Dissemination is spot-on in arguing this may have been the first time Bush has fired/forced a senior officer to resign. That it would be such a man of vision and leadership as Admiral Fallon that knows the region and how to help America literally make “water into wine” given current conditions there only exemplifies the utter politicization of the senior military ranks in the Bush years and Bush’s utter incompetence as a war leader.

A common game among us last year when we initially thought Bush would attack Iran was to guess what percentage of officers would actually stand up to that madness and resign rather than go forth. Percentages were low but Admiral Fallon was the one we always thought would have the balls and the honor to tell Bush he was nuts, had no credibility with anyone (including the majority of the American people and the military) and that he would have no part of it. Now he’s gone and the e-mails I’ve received this evening range from the utterly desperate to resigned to fate.

I still have faith in Secretary Gates though. He’d rebuke and resign wouldn’t he?

(1) http://informationdissemination.blogspot.com/2008/03/think-long-and-hard-as-you-contemplate.html