The genius of the United States is not best or most in its executives or legislatures, nor in its ambassadors or authors or colleges, or churches, or parlors, nor even in its newspapers or inventors, but always most in the common people.
– Walt Whitman
This is from a post at John Avarosis’ Americablog.
NOTE FROM JOHN: AJ is an ex military intelligence officer now writing on AMERICAblog about security issues. He has extensive experience on Iraq policy both here and in country.
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CNN reports that 1,500 troops are being moved from Kuwait into Iraq’s Anbar province, the Sunni stronghold in the west. WaPo and NYT put it at either 3,500, or a full brigade. (The discrepancy, I think, is that CNN is reporting the troops that have already moved; NYT and WaPo are reporting the total number in Kuwait that will eventually be deployed.)
This is a tremendously bad sign, and indicates that Anbar province, and likely the city of Ramadi in particular, are beyond out of control.
[snip]
The articles also indicate a disturbing trend of Al Qa’ida recruitment successes among the indigenous Sunni population. As that occurs, huge swaths of western Iraq will become terrorist havens, camps, training areas, etc. If we can’t control the cities, we’re certainly not controlling the countryside.
In a particularly awful irony, exactly a year ago our Vice President declared that the insurgency was in its last throes. Unreal. Of course, when a government (or occupier) fails to provide any kind of security or basic services for the people, it shouldn’t be surprising when they get pissed, lash out, and turn to anyone that can protect and serve them. Call it the Hamas model.
Here’s a WaPost article on the troop deployment: U.S. Will Reinforce Troops in West Iraq. This article does not appear to be behind a subscription.
Sadly, now GW can say he is fighting the war on terror in Iraq and apparently be correct.
The role of swans and other wild birds in spreading bird flu is still unclear and uncertain, according to scientists meeting in Rome, who called for greater use of poultry vaccinations and aid to Africa in fighting bird flu.
Youth with bipolar disorder misread facial expressions as hostile and show heightened neural reactions when they focus on emotional aspects of neutral faces. Brain scans showed that the left amygdala, a fear hub, and related structures, over-activated in youth with the disorder.
With hurricane season approaching, scientists are voicing worries about the ability of coastal ecosystems to recover from repeated storms. Some 118 square miles of coastal wetlands were lost to Hurricane Katrina, and the Gulf Coast is vulnerable to more loss, as many islands that had acted as storm barriers are fragmented or submerged after two busy hurricane seasons.
As the 28-year-old Voyagers 1 and 2 spacecraft approach the edge of interstellar space, they have found that the heliosphere, the “bubble” within which the sun dominates, bulges outward in the northern hemisphere and is pressed inward in the south.
Widely used in consumer products from tinted Nalgene bottles to sealants on the inside of most cans, bisphenol A is at the center of a health controversy, because new scientific findings say it causes adverse effects at extremely low levels.
In the past 40 years, biodiversity in mussel beds along California’s coast has crashed by an average of nearly 60 per cent. Mussel beds are among the world’s most diverse temperate microhabitats, providing food and shelter for up to 300 invertebrate species at any given location. High sea surface temperatures may be to blame.
“Some 118 square miles of coastal wetlands were lost to Hurricane Katrina”
After reading “Bayou Farewell”, I kept waiting to read all the articles about the disappearing coastal wetlands, but after Katrina there has been only deafening silence on the subject. If they don’t help the wetlands to survive, why bother rebuilding at all? It’s only a matter of time before thousands of square miles of swamp, bayous and dry land are gone forever.
Just the other week I was reading how elevated rates of sexual abnormalities in the wild (mostly ambibians) were being blamed on birth control pills.
Could it be BPA instead? Considering the stuff persists . . .
Sorry to hear it is used in just . . . everything. What are people thinking? There are certain phrases in carbon chemistry that should immediately make one say, “I don’t want to ingest that!”
“Phenol” is one of them.
The Guardian UK interviews Al Gore. So what is President Gore’s evaluation of Bu$h & Co? ‘A renegade band of rightwing extremists.’ Here’s the headline and link.
Bush is ‘renegade rightwing extremist’
This is one candidate who will not allow himself to be swift boated. Step aside Hillary, step aside.
2008 will be very, verrrry.
Idredit, you are so right. I read that Guardian article and it gave me a giggle to see Al so relaxed and fired up. He says no, he’s not running, but he’s leaving that door open. You can tell that he hits nerves on the other side by their shrill reaction to all things Gore.
I’m chomping at the bit waiting for Al to say,
“Yes, my fellow Americans, I’ve heard the call and my country needs me.”
I’ll give 2 years of work for him.
Al, it’s time for you to claim your chair, table and bed in the White House. Time to evict the Great Pretender.
Come to think of it, until that joyous day in Jan 2009, wherever Bush appears, instead of “Hail to the Chief” the band should play, “Oo–oh, oo—ooh yes, he’s the Great Pretender, pretending that all is so swell…
Link
Some good environmental news I think. Over the weekend, the Detroit Free Press ran a story concerning the recent discovery that Whitefish are spawning in the Detroit River. This is the first time this has happened in almost a century. Industrial pollution, and dredging the shallows for shipping lanes caused the whitefish population here to die out, or move to more suitable habitats. Now they are back, numbers are increasing, and they are spawning here again.
hey Knox,
Your Whitman quote made me remember the great poet George Oppen, who won the 1969 Pulitzer for Of Being Numerous, a serial poem which states its theme in the 7th section:
Vietnam haunts the work:
Oppen ends the poem by quoting Whitman contemplating the image of the Capitol in Washington, which I’ve always read as an embrace of Whitman’s common man, our common grounds, our mutual need:
More on global warming; an intriguing article by AP writer Seth Borenstein:
Peace
Minor non-political faux pas:
The major breaking news on CNN for the last hour has been a kidnapped Birmingham, Alabama lawyer. Four times now they have helpfully provided her license plate number as IC—– to help people search (I didn’t take it down because I’m a long way from birmingham).
Alabama tags begin with the county number, which in this case should be “1” for Jefferson, not the letter “I”. It’s an honest mistake, but shouldn’t someone at CNN (in Atlanta, 100 miles from Alabama) notice that the plate they are providing on the air is incorrect? I emailed feedback over half an hour ago but they repeated their error twice after that so they clearly don’t read the feedback as it comes in.