Rescues in Afghanistan, sitting out elections and border troubles in Colombia

After the Read More! Routine marvels in Afghanistan. A British conservative warns against yielding to frustration. Colombia versus FARC.

---

A reader sends this picture of casualty evacuation in Afghanistan. "This photo was taken by a soldier in Afghanistan of a helo rescue mission. The pilot is a PA National Guard guy who flies EMS choppers in civilian life."

From airline pilots to cops to paramedics, the reserves underscore the crossover between civilian and military life. During the Second World War one of the key, but unstated advantages of the US military was simply that most of its members could drive. This was not necessarily the case in some European armies. A skilled manpower pool is one of the greatest assets of a modern technological army.

---

Andrew Ian Dodge at Pajamas Media warns against following the fate of conservatives in Britain, especially the idea that a political movement can "sit a cycle out".

The reason the various ilks of the right lost their foothold in the Conservative Party is that they didn’t stick around enough to fight their corner and keep their ideas in the mix. They allowed their frustration and angst to get the better of them. They flirted with the various minor fringe parties of the right like the Referendum Party and UKIP; in some case losing the Conservatives seats that were held by similar minded Members of Parliament. I was among those on the right who got fed up and frustrated enough to go home and not bother.

There are of course those who feel that David Cameron's Tory Party is in the doldrums precisely because it left its conservative wing and became 'Labor lite'. One commenter writes:

1) In 1989, the Tory party’s left wing knifed our most popular and successful Prime Minister since the war, Margaret Thatcher. 2) The party elite drifted sleasily leftwards until it became unelectable in 1997. 3) Several sane Tory leaders tried to cope with the party’s left-wing and the consequent massive loss of conservative votes. All failed and resigned.

But however that may be, Dodge's advice about the need to remain in the political arena is probably sound because only continued viability in the electoral process gives a movement the necessary skills to compete in that process. One of the key advantages of many liberals is that they have no 'day job' to go home to. Politics is their life and they become perforce if not competent, at least facile. If conservatives leave the arena they lose skills at a time when they are even more at a premium.

Maybe sitting out a political cycle has its disadvantages.

---

A cross-border raid by Colombia to hit out at FARC rebels based in Ecuador has precipitated a mini military crisis in South America. With Venezuela now mobilized at the Colombian border, the Colombians now claim they've discovered documents showing Chavez was funding FARC.

Although the crisis originally involved Colombia and Ecuador, it has become dominated by an increasingly bitter war of words between Colombia and Venezuela, and especially their ideologically divided presidents, the pro-US rightwinger Alvaro Uribe and Chávez, the self-styled scourge of Washington in the region. Chávez ordered his own military response - announced on his weekly television show on Sunday - and cut diplomatic links with Colombia. ...

The Colombian response has been equally vehement. The country's government says documents recovered from a laptop belonging to Reyes, the killed Farc commander, show the Chávez government gave the rebel group, which the US and EU consider a terrorist organisation, $300m (£150m) in funding.

Such support for Farc meant Chávez should be tried by the international criminal court, Uribe said today.

In a still more dramatic development, Uribe's vice-president, Francisco Santos, told a UN disarmament forum in Geneva today that the Farc documents also revealed that the group was seeking to acquire uranium to build a radioactive "dirty bomb".

Fausta, who has been following the Colombia-Venezuela dustup writes "Let's not mince words here: Colombia is sandwiched between two countries who are aiding and abetting the forces that have waged a four-decade long war against its citizenry."

At any rate, Uribe feels confident enough to seek charges against Chavez at the International Criminal Court.

"I'll present to the International Criminal Court charges against Hugo Chavez for financing and sponsoring genocide," said Uribe, on Caracol Radio, after a meeting with a former rebel-held hostage in Bogota.

Uribe also called on Colombia's neighbors to show solidarity with the country in its long-running conflict with the drug-funded guerrillas. The International Criminal Court, based in The Hague, was created in 2002 and both Colombia and Venezuela are signatories to it.

Colombia yesterday said it uncovered evidence on the laptop of slain rebel leader Raul Reyes showing Venezuela had funneled at least $300 million to the FARC, as the rebel group is known.

---

The Belmont Club is supported largely by donations from its readers.

Ahmadinejad in Baghdad

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad began a two day visit to Baghdad by implictly praising the effect of US actions in Iraq, then attacking it's policy toward Iran. He said "visiting Iraq without the dictator is a good thing," then replied to charges Teheran was supplying EFPs to insurgents by saying "(U.S. President) Bush always accuses others without evidence and this increases problems, the Americans have to understand that Iraqi people do not like America."

The Iranian president appears to have accepted that Iraq is here to stay.

"Iraqi people are passing through a critical situation but as we know, the Iraqi people will overcome the situation and the Iraq of tomorrow will be a powerful, developed and unique Iraq ... an independent state ... the people of Iran and Iraq have close bonds, and there are many holy shrines in Iraq ... people travel there, so we have age-old, historical bonds and common civilization."

This last comment is extremely interesting. At a recent blogger's conference it was remarked that southern Iraq is thriving; and that the pilgrim trade has risen so high that next year it is expected to be two or three times its size.

Several background factors may help clarify to the purposes of Ahmedinajad's trip. The the most important is gas. Iran needs money, both to line the Ayatollah's pockets and to head off domestic unrest. And Europe needs energy. The European Union and the United States have been looking to Iran as an alternative source of natural gas to Russia. A pipeline between Iran and the EU via Turkey would be of enormous value to both. But lingering suspicions over Iran's intentions in Iraq and its nuclear ambitions have stood in the way. The great powers at the UN are preparing yet another round of sanctions on Iran over its nuclear weapons program, sanctions which, from the point of gas pipelines, neither wants.

The next most important is Iran's need to avoid the ruinous expense of having to match the deployments of the new 13-division Iraqi Army on its borders. It has probably now been accepted in Teheran that toppling the new Iraq or subverting it to Iranian control is beyond the capability of the Qods or the Shi'ite militias in Iraq. One of the unappreciated effects of the Surge has been the return of the Sunnis to the national political table. With the Sunnis politically reconciled to the US, albeit partially, Iran's victory option in Iraq has vanished.

A negotiated deal to put a definite stop to the Iranian nuclear weapons program and an undertaking by Iran to abandon all efforts to destabilize Iraq would remove the major obstacles to a gas pipeline deal, and avoid further Iranian entanglements in Iraq. Iran would then have its pipeline. A 'strong and united Iraq' might also forestall a political threat to the Shi'ite theocracy from southern Iraq. The virus of Sistani-ism may spread east through the millions of pilgrims who will visit Iraq to infect the Islamic Revolution. If the gas pipeline is Teheran's fondest dream a popular alternative model to its fading theocratic rule may be its worst nightmare.

The Belmont Club is supported largely by donations from its readers.

A dodged arrest, dogs in Moscow, Bwana Aid and meaning in war

After the Read More! An IDF general dodges a Palestinian arrest warrent -- in London. Wild dogs in Moscow. The "Global Poverty Act": a UN tax? George Packer looks meaning in the media and in Iraq.

---

Haaretz reports that Major General Doron Almog had to stay on an airplane behind with his bodyguards to keep from getting arrested at Heathrow. "Palestinian groups had pressed U.K. authorities to arrest Almog over his alleged role in the destruction of more than 50 homes in the Gaza Strip in 2002, prompting a British judge to issue an arrest warrant." The arrest didn't take place "because the British police feared a "shootout" with Israeli security officials.

My guess is that the British authorities weren't really enthusiastic about arresting him but had no choice but to comply with the warrant. By invoking the fear of a "shootout" the cops had an excuse not to serve the warrant. If the cops really wanted to arrest someone, they would have done whatever was necessary to do it. But this incident highlights the split-personality disorder that now afflicts many Western countries. We do things we don't want to because it's politically correct and then do what we want on the sly.

Sometimes I think the only way to understand the wiretap, interrogation and hate speech controversies is to realize that we're in a schizo situation.

---

There really are wild dogs in Moscow, as ABC News reports. "According to official statistics, last year there were about 20,000 cases of humans attacked by stray dogs; 8,000 of them serious enough to involve the police or requiring hospitalization. ... Commuters have to grapple with packs of unwanted strays on a daily basis."

---

HR 3605 or the "Global Poverty Act" will hold the US to a UN-set benchmark on the amount of foreign aid it must disburse. A reader quotes Rush Limbaugh:

Cliff Kincaid, in Accuracy in Media, has studied this, and has written it up. He says "[A] hugely expensive bill called the 'Global Poverty Act,' sponsored by ... Obama, was quickly passed by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday and could result in the imposition of a global tax on the United States. ... In a column [that Cliff] posted on the [Accuracy in Media] web site, Kincaid noted that Senator Joe Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was trying to rush Obama's 'Global Poverty Act' (S. 2433) through his committee without hearings. The legislation would commit the US to spending 0.7 percent of gross national product on foreign aid, which amounts to a phenomenal 13-year total of $845 billion over and above what the US already spends," on foreign aid. "It was scheduled for a Thursday vote but was moved up a day, to Wednesday, and rushed through by voice vote. Kincaid learned, however, that conservative Senators have now put a 'hold' on the legislation, in order to prevent it from being rushed to the floor for a full Senate vote." Now, the House passed this bill in September. It's now getting rushed through the committee in the Senate, the Biden committee, to soak the US taxpayers again to fund global, liberal, feel-good garbage.

Speaking of "feel-good garbage", the City Journal has an article on the "trendy paternalism" that "is keeping Africa in chains".

Yet in one area, foreign aid, the paternalist spirit is far from dead. A new generation of economists and activists is calling for a “big push” in Africa to expand programs that in practice institutionalize poverty rather than end it. The Africrats’ enthusiasm for the failed policies of the past threatens to turn a struggling continent into a permanent ghetto—and to block the progress of ideas that really can liberate Africa’s oppressed populations.

Foreign aid should really be called "bwana AID". Most of the AID money really goes to AID workers or is skimmed off by corrupt bureaucrats. The thing to remember about official assistance to the Third World is that it is about poor people in rich countries giving money to rich people in poor countries.

Susan Sarandon just said she'll vote for Barack Obama and then added "I can't wait to see what he stands for." Start with HR 3605.

---

George Packer, the author of Assassin's Gate has a long and thoughtful essay on the complexities of right and wrong and the meaning of kindness and cruelty in war. More specifically, in Iraq.

So the lines were drawn from the start. To the pro-war side, criticism was animated by partisanship and defeatism, if not treason. This view, amplified on cable news, talk radio, and right-wing blogs, was tacitly encouraged by the White House. It kept a disastrous defense secretary in office long after it was obvious that he was losing the war, ensured that no senior officer was held accountable for military setbacks, and contributed to the repetition of disastrous errors by the war’s political architects. Meanwhile, the fact that the best and brightest Iraqis were being slaughtered by a ruthless insurgency never aroused much interest or sympathy among the war’s opponents. The kind of people who would ordinarily inspire solidarity campaigns among Western progressives—trade unionists, journalists, human rights advocates, women's rights activists, independent politicians, doctors, professors—were being systematically exterminated. But since the war shouldn’t have been fought in the first place, what began badly must also end badly.

Packer is especially interested by the way in which this polarized vision poisoned reporting, as it did with the New Republic's Scott Beauchamp. Packer goes on to say a complex thing: he says the War did some good. But he's against it anyway.

By then the war was not about nothing. No war ever is. I don’t know where Haithem and Muna and the others are today—some of them might well be among the Iraqis I know to be dead—but for them, the war had a meaning. It meant a chance to live a decent life, something that had never been remotely possible and remains a dream even today. The war began as folly; it became a tragedy when the hopes and lives of Iraqis and Americans began to be expended by the thousands.

A long time ago someone once told me that "the best is the enemy of the good". Somehow I think events will write the history of Iraq. We will read from that book and it will tell us what was tragic and what was meaningful.

---