Eddie Beaver

Today it is en vogue to lament or hail the rise of Asia. This is by no means a guaranteed outcome, especially considering demography (informed by both cultural and economic factors that strengthen a case for significant declines in fertility rates and young worker availability) and warranted skepticism about the long-term governance abilities of key countries making the greatest leap who are earmarked for leadership (China, India, and Indonesia). They each have incredible balancing acts to master, some universal in affliction (massive income gaps) and others unique (Islamic radicalization in Indonesia, extreme Hindu nationalism and incredible rural poverty in India). 
However, considering how far each of them (and most of their neighbors) has travelled from the depths of war, devastation and endemic disunity is to generate justifiable optimism.
This is a reflection enlivened by two books (of the many I read, something I'm not bragging about as I panic over how many booknotes are left to type/write) I read this summer, "In The Ruins of Empire: The Japanese Surrender and the Battle for Postwar Asia"and "Forgotten Wars: Freedom and Revolution in Southeast Asia". Filling in substantial details about the complete mess British Asia, Southeast Asia at large and the whole of Asia was at the end of the war, the two are not equal in quality or effectiveness but are still well-worth reading from your local library. 

I have commenced and halted blogging three different times during various key points of my young life. I first entered the blogosphere as I shook the cobwebs off the brain I had by and large turned off as I subsumed myself into the Navy and my many new duties onboard an aircraft carrier. A newfound appreciation for getting around on my own two feet through as much of the local area outside of US Fleet Activities Yokosuka soon found me reading a history book or foreign policy journal on a park bench for hours on end. 

What Joshua Foust speaks of in regards to the great deal of incredibly loud and pointless chatter about the Afghan elections is actually how I've grown to feel about blogging. Much of the time I no longer feel comfortable spending a fair amount of time offering relatively uninformed opinions on current topics that I don't have a formal training in or firsthand experience of. So much of the blogosphere is a well-meaning bout of "I don't really know but let me throw this out here for you all" type of conversation. Its good 10% of the time for fostering ideas, challenging a prevailing narrative, etc. but you still have that 90% that is pure cotton candy.

The medical helicopter industry is one that my father has spent much of his post-Army career in as a lead mechanic. The kinds of shenanigans discussed in this Washington Post story are all too well-known in our family, especially because we suffered financially on numerous occasions when my father would cease employment with a company he felt was risking the lives of crew and patients by demanding steep, untenable cuts to repair budgets or to toe the line on safety regs (or just outright violate them) in order to obtain more profit. My father has an old-school character of integrity and stubbornness that seemed to prevent him from taking such blatant defiance of common safety sense lightly or quietly. People die as a result of such short-sighted decisions, and the FAA and others do very little about it in this industry. Maybe, maybe that will change, as this article seems to imply. In my time in the Navy, my convictions about the need for stringent aviation regulation for carriers and providers serving the public was reinforced by the instances of "gundecking" (falsification of maintenance documents) that seemed to happen every month on the ship, sometimes leading to terrible near or actual mishaps. Always, the sailor responsible was held to account in a manner which was highly detrimental to their immediate finances, reputation among the crew and career. Yet, many of these instances were people who just "didn't feel like doing it" or who "got in too deep and didn't ask for help". Now, if sailors are willing to risk literally everything (from money to career) for mundane reasons, I am supposed to believe ardent de-regulators and reflexively anti-government forces that the FAA and assorted regulations are unnecessary or too powerful?  There may be a good rationale for de-regulation in other industries, but we need a much, much more powerful FAA or a private organization replacing it in the future with incentives to harshly police the aviation industry on such matters.

Background:

Arguing that DNA and forensic evidence points to a prison inmate who has confessed as the sole perpetrator of the crimes, they called on Gov. Tim Kaine to pardon the sailors. “After careful review of the evidence we have arrived at one unequivocal conclusion: The Norfolk Four are innocent,” said Jay Cochran, a former assistant director of the F.B.I. and former special agent who served at the bureau for 27 years. “We believe a tragic mistake has occurred in the case of these four Navy men, and we are calling on Governor Kaine to grant them immediate pardons.” The former agents join a long list of unusual supporters, including four former Virginia attorneys general; 12 former state and federal judges and prosecutors; and a past president of the Virginia Bar Association, who have called for the men to be pardoned. In January 2006, 13 jurors from two of the sailors’ trials signed letters and affidavits saying they now believed the men were innocent.

Governor Kaine concedes the evidence against three Norfolk sailors convicted of rape and murder was sorely lacking and has conditionally pardoned them today. Thank God. The Norfolk Four are now free.

The Attack on the Liberty: The Untold Story of Israel's Deadly 1967 Assault on a U.S. Spy Ship James Scott writes a painfully vivid account of what is now known about the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty in 1967. I emphasize the word "attack" because "friendly fire" incidents don't occur over an hour with rockets, napalm, and cannon on a lightly defended ship with an American ensign waving in the afternoon sky. The heroism of the crew is rightly legendary, if not highlighted in American naval history in the manner the bravery and ingenuity of other recent crews on the USS Cole & USS Stark has been considered. Scott handles these particulars as well as he unfolds the aftermath, weaving together opinions from the Israeli Ambassador to the US about the need for accountability and apology to the sailors and their families and the stifled indignation of many an American government official of the time at soft-pedaling Israel's responsibility and never letting the truth put the issue to rest. Scott steps into a minefield of lies, distortions and murky agendas without falling prey to undue recriminations or relatively baseless accusations. He lays calm, clear fire at several people in the government who (given the evidence available now after several vital pieces of evidence were declassified) appear to be the most culpable in hiding the truth both from the public and the sailors whose lives were irrecoverably changed on that dark day. In an era where an Israeli attack on Iran's hostile nuclear sites could provoke a lethal response from the Islamic Republic and its proxies that take the lives of hundreds of Americans in the days and weeks afterward, clearing up the USS Liberty attack via an investigation by an independent commission empowered by the government to view all relevant evidence and clear up this the lies and deceptions inherent in the official account of the murder of dozens of US sailors by our ally. A few links help answer the following questions or points raised in response to discussion of the attack: (A) this is all in the past, why bring it up? (B) its only fodder for anti-Semites and other opponents (C) this will further imperil US-Israeli relations James Scott responds to letter-writers in the Washington Post: Recent revelations find USS Liberty survivors speaking out: In 2008, the VFW has passed a resolution demanding an official inquiry into the attack. Our sailors richly deserve for the government to stop lying to them. The dead are entitled to be honored for valor in combat, not in a "friendly fire" accident. The nation deserves to have justice for the needless shedding of its defenders' blood, in the form of at least an official accounting and apology from the Israeli government as well as our own. To do otherwise in the face of mounting evidence is to disgrace the sailors who endured an unwarranted assault and saved their ship with as many of  their shipmates as possible.

"The Ayatollah Begs To Differ": Have the recent events in Iran rendered much of the insight and analysis in Hooman Maid's journey through Iranian society and political arena? After a second cursory follow through from a first read in May, I don’t think that is the case. Maid has a pedigree and appearance that seems to have helped open more doors for him than the typical writer about Iran has available, while retaining an affinity with the lower classes and wealthy alike. He's the grandson of an ayatollah and has the beard of a religious man, though he has close ties to former President and reformer Mohammad Khatami. He is remarkably evenhanded in his approach towards Ahmadinejad, which is beneficial because it fosters a pragmatic appraisal of one of the more important faces of the new Iranian junta post 6/12. Scattered throughout his peeks into Iranian society are a few fascinating points and arguments worth sharing: - Ahmadinejad engages in Holocaust denials as a means to humiliate the Europeans by forcing them to admit to their barbarism (“How could such a great civilization do such a thing? Surely you’re not monsters?)and acknowledge their fathers were mass murderers, reminding Iranians and Arabs alike of who the real monsters in history have been. (43) - After the Shah’s fall, the typical urban gangs were co-opted by clerical backed paramilitary committees (Komiteh). (25) - The providing of free education to the children of Basiji establishes a powerful relationship between the regime and its violent legions. (29) Also, programs to populate the universities with the poor, the deeply religious and the underprivileged are changing the character of the educated classes (114). - The more literal interpretation of Shia mythology observed in deeply religious families is a new concept in Iranian history and culture. (85) - The hardliners introduced into government by Ahmadinejad since 2005 will likely be a fixture long after he has left the scene. (103) - The question of rights, fundamental to Shia Islam, is explosive in the sense that attempts to deprive Iranians of them (besides alleged token few like clothing choices) can backfire on the regime in power. (118) - “… the most moderate, and even the most liberal reformist clerics are united in their firm belief that the revolution was pure, that Khomeini's views on a political system were sound, and that any democracy in Iran will always be an Islamic one.” (158) - (Before 6/12), The Abu Ghraib scandal, CIA rendition cases, and the Guantanamo detention facility gave Iran, but also its prisoners, an unexpected boost in the years after 9/11 in that Iran, in order to show its moral superiority, continually trumpets the treatment of its prisoners as comparing most favorably to those in American hands. (184) - Khatami's failure was to not promote a single successor. (195) - Shias have long been taught to not provoke their enemies, who in olden days were the Sunni majority surrounding them.... Shia concerns with avoiding conflict that could mean the annihilation of the minority sect(233). - Iranians are often adroitly reminded by their leaders that when their soon to be deposed prime minister Mossadeq nationalized the Iranian oil industry, in effect demanding their right to the profits from their own oil, the British responded publicly, and at the UN no less, that Iran's exercise of its right was a "threat to the security of the world," words that have been repeated by the US in response to Iran exercising its right, haq, as far as Iranians are concerned, to produce nuclear fuel. (235) - US attempt to pinpoint Iranian machinations behind insurgency foiled by (a) little proof being offered to back up claims and (b) unexploded bombs and shells were displayed with markings, in a perfect English lacking even on unfortunate Iranian road signs (c) dates of manufacture stenciled onto the bombs were not only in English but in the American form (that is month, day, year) rather than in the Iranian (and rest of the world's) standard format. (236) All points being debatable, Maid nevertheless leaves the reader with food for thought given potential US approaches towards Iran post 6/12 and how internal events might proceed. The loss of legitimacy by the Ayatollah and the Revolutionary Guard junta that seems to have co-opted other elements into a seizure of power may yet have dramatic negative consequences if the narrative of the reformers begins to appeal to a wider section of society that feels for religious, nationalist and business reasons the regime can no longer enjoy their support. A multi-pronged message will need to be crafted (as it appears is the case) with a patient investment in resources to begin to sour the population on the regime much as Ayatollah Khomeni sapped the strength of the Shah over more than a year. The book has one notable weakness that should not deflect the reader from at least considering a library check-out: - it lacks much insight (or giving a voice to) regarding Iranian women, who by most available measures in the post 6/12 world seem to be playing a much greater role in events than previously considered

Post 6/12, this is still a good read on Iranian society and politics. B+

Fires are weird creatures. Once they start, if not properly fought with the correct strategy, they can get out of hand fairly quickly. Fought halfheartedly or with inadequate resources, they often become raging infernos comparable to the scale of the location they are in. For months, a slow-burning fire has spread amid conservative partisans around the country. Licks of flame have been spotted at town hall meetings, state party conventions and even national media outlets, but only in recent weeks has the fire truly begun to be visible to most without even looking for it. That fire has been the suspicion that Barack Obama was not really born in the US, that he may be a secret emissary of Islam and that he is some odd hybrid of fascist/Marxist/terrorist intent on destroying America. While all three variants are out there in the public eye at various gatherings, popular blogs and even being uttered or suggested to an extent by allegedly respectable politicians, the first has been the one which has garnered the most momentum. It is now a near-act of courage for conservative institutions like National Review and well-regarded commentators and analysts such as Rick Moran to speak out against the fantasy-based dreams/nightmares of Obama's non-citizenship. Check out the YouTube video of Delaware Republican Congressman Mike Castle being overwhelmed by a proponent of the fantasy and her many supporters in the crowd. Think that was a planned conspiracy to ambush him? In reality, it is likely the increasing feeling of a significant element in the "base" of conservatism. People want Obama to just go away. The fastest, easiest way to get there would be some great scandal or revelation about him. The best thing to latch onto then is the birth scandal. Facts seemingly are not required. With a few Senators and popular talk radio hosts encouraging them, they are ignoring their more responsible brethern and giving into a fit of populist rage and fantasy. A more insighful gentleman told me in another venue something to the effect "that Jacksonians are prone to conspiracies" . He is right, but I wonder at what cost to conservative credibility will this conspiracy entail? I am not familiar with how widespread among liberals the belief that Bush was behind 9/11 was. I do know that wherever they went spreading that lie, they were often forcefully pushed back by their bretheren. Now that sane conservatives are finally doing the same, will this myth go back to being a fringe belief of the few or will it continue to spread, like the seemingly raging fire it has become in recent weeks?

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtmiLdzzgGE/] Portraying Marine Lt. Col. Michael Strobl, Kevin Bacon escorts a slain Marine home to Wyoming to be buried by his family. The film is stirring and faithful to the people it focuses on through minimized dialogue (making it remarkably brief, demanding perhaps more detail) and effective cinematography, especially adept in showing the level of effort and detail people in the military take to render honors and respect to their fallen comrades. Along his journey escorting PFC Chance Phelps home, Lt. Col Strobl interacts with a great many Americans who already know of or soon realize his singular duty. Their parts are exceptionally played and make the movie so effective because they portray what many a veteran of this generation has come to realize. That is, we know the overwhelming majority of Americans from all walks of life treat the military with respect and grace. This is not the 1960's/1970's all over again. May those days never return for the vitriol and hatred targeted at ordinary men and women serving their country as best they can. "Taking Chance" shows how we have moved on as a country from those days and is well-worth your viewing time.