"The Democratic Imperative"

Great Britain's Right Honourable (and right HoT!) Foreign Sec David Miliband is hitting Ye Olde Oxford campus today with a demarche of marching orders for changing the world. Sure to make Realpolitikers and Isolationists on both sides of the Pond scream "Foul!"

In a prebill titled "The Democratic Imperative," Secretary Miliband is hot off the trail with Great Satan's delectable Sec of State after touring democratic nurseries in Afghanistan. Miliband underscored that certain world leaders will not sit about as NATO redefs herself as the North Atlantic Trade Org, or as the UN adds the suffix 'fair' to her initials or allowing selfish arroganters to sit about all comfy as tiny baby democracies have their tiny baby heads choked plumb off.

"We've got responsibilities that we're determined to live up to and obligations
that we're determined to live up to and ditto for the Agfhan authorities. That's
something we want to follow through and at the heart of both our strategies is
the belief this has to be done with the Afghan government and in fact led by the
Afghan government, with our support."

Making the case for constant confrontation and selective intervention military wise GB's FoSec sounds like a champion of ideals to take Neoconservatism into the next decade. Blowing off any sure to follow critique about current battles to turn freedom's shaky candles in certain places into blazing torches for freedom in Iraq and Afghanistan, Miliband makes the case that the Free World can handle it - and the sooner she gets fully crunk, aggressive and nonapologetic about it - the better.

"The neo-conservative movement seemed more certain about spreading democracy
around the world. The left seemed conflicted between the desirability of the
goal and its qualms about the use of military means. My plea is not to
let divisions over those conflicts obscure our national interest, never mind
our moral impulse, in supporting movements for democracy."

And how! Yet, isn't there something scary about current ops in Iraq and Afghanistan? Maybe the free world has went too far too fast? Bollocks to that mate!

"In fact, the goal of spreading democracy should be a great progressive project;
the means need to combine both soft and hard power. We should not let the
debate about the how of foreign policy obscure the clarity about the what."

Seeing first hand the probs that intolerance and fear of freedom breed in, oh, say a certain little rats nest in Africa - the torment that time travelling intolerants can provide, Miliband knows where of he speaks.

Last week in Afghanistan, David and Condoleeza were confronted with skeptical press pointing to a most unsuper villan act of terror that seemed like a weak play of 'Gotcha!' Dr Rice fielded that one.

"It frankly doesn't take much courage to blow up a school"

The spiritual sons of El Alamein and Arnhem are sending a message to NATO to pick up the slack - that mainland Europe is vulnerable - that we all need to be in it to win it. After all, why have all these Euro militaries if all they do is prance and parade about on asphalt and use the catchy (in a really dumb way too) logo of "Peace through Dialouge"?

GB currently deploys about 7.7K cats in Ex Talibanland. Deutschland fields about half that - 3.5K and only in stable areas. Kein kriegen Deutschers? The Desert Fox must be rolling in his grave.

"After the end of the cold war it was tempting to believe in the 'end of history' - the inevitable process of liberal democracy and capitalist economics. Now with the economic success of China, we can no longer take the forward march of democracy for granted."

Paddy Wintour the chief Foreign Policy editor at Guardian Uk says Miliband is deathly serious - he's staking it all on a killer case

"Among a string of practical proposals to support democracy, the foreign
secretary will suggest:

· encouraging economic openness as a means of tackling corruption and increasing transparency, including in China;

· a new round of provincial elections in Iraq, to help to bind in former insurgents who want proof of their local influence, and the chance to join the Iraqi security force;

· organisations like the UN or Nato should consider offering "security guarantees" to new but fragile governments, conditional on them abiding by democratic rules;

· support for "civilian surges" for democracy led by "literate, better-educated people able to access information and communicate with others".

David's Democratic Imperatives will argue that fostering democracy in the Middle East "is the best long-term defence against global terrorism and conflict"

"We must resist the argument of the left and the right to retreat into a world of Realpolitik."

NATO

München, Deutschland - home of Beer Hall Putsches, BMW and NATO's Conference on Security Policy. The 44th just wound down and Great Satan and a few select buds were on hand to dish out some strong medicine.

Def Sec Gates pretty much spelled it out in a tripple sized tea spoon

"Some allies ought not to have the luxury of opting only for stability and
civilian operations, thus forcing other Allies to bear a disproportionate share
of the fighting and the dying. "

This is significant. Getting rich, fat, drunk and lazy under Great Satan's protective shield since Cold Warsaw Pact climax time is rapidly appoaching an end.

For all the jazz about Euro Power it could be better called Euro Powerlessness. Euro power failed to stop ethnic cleansing, genocide and war in their own backyard a decade ago. Great Satan had to step in and take out the trash.

Now, it's time for some back pay - with interest.
France's Defence Minister Motin agreed that NATO could shoulder more of the danger.

"A supplementary effort should perhaps be made in the short term"

Def Sec Gates was relentless as he hammered point after point about Europa's naked vulnerbility

"A complex plot to down multiple airliners over the Atlantic that could have
killed hundreds or even thousands;

A plot to use ricin and release cyanide in the London Underground;

A separate plan for a chemical attack in the Paris metro;

Plots in Belgium, England, and Germany involving car bombs that
could have killed hundreds;

Homemade bombs targeting commuter and high-speed trains in Spain and Germany;

Individuals arrested in Bosnia with explosives, a suicide belt, and an instructional propaganda video;

Two plots in Denmark involving explosives, fertilizer, and a bomb-making video; and
Just in the last few weeks, Spanish authorities arrested 14 Islamic extremists in Barcelona suspected of planning suicide attacks against public transport systems in Spain, Portugal, France, Germany, and Britain.

Imagine, for a moment, if some or all of these attacks had come to pass. Imagine if Islamic terrorists had managed to strike your capitals on the same scale as they struck in New York.

Imagine if they had laid their hands on weapons and materials with even greater destructive capability – weapons of the sort all too easily accessible in the world today."

In other words, "Get with it y'all." Actually, Europe doesn't really have much of a choice. Failure in Afghanistan would probably effect Europe much more than Great Satan. And not just from "Ashura Missiles" with a 2K kilometer strike range, that may or may not end up in terrorist hands

"We should also remember that terrorist cells in Europe are not purely homegrown
or unconnected to events far away – or simply a matter of domestic law and
order. Some are funded from abroad. Some hate all western democracies, not just
the United States."

Def Sec Gates delivered a bit of a history lesson to soft power salesmen about NATO's history and how she was founded as a bond between free, functional egalitarian societies to initially defend against and then utterly destroy aggressive regimes bent on conquest by Stuka und Panzer.

Resulting in a several Regime Changes and the forcible establishment of functional, free, egalitarian democracies that remain to this very day. Democracies that tend to fiddle about blindfolded while an ever closer world is literally on fire.

"I am not indulging in scare tactics. Nor am I exaggerating either the threat or
inflating the consequences of a victory for extremists. Nor am I saying that the
extremists are ten feet tall.

The task before us is to fracture and destroy this movement in its infancy – to permanently reduce its ability to strike globally and catastrophically, while deflating its ideology.

Our best opportunity as an alliance to do this is in Afghanistan. Just as the hollowness of Communism was laid bare with the collapse of the Soviet Union, so too would success in Afghanistan, as well as in Iraq, strike a decisive blow against what some
commentators have called Al Qaeda-ism."

Historically speaking, when the smoke cleared after VE Day in 1945, Europe was in ruins - not only physically - but also in cash and spirit. Instead of giving up and going under, America led and Europeans built, created, speculated and came out with the longest period of Peace that Europa has ever known.

Even the Cold War now seems to have been a no doubt victory. The only question really is how on earth did the Soviet Empire hold out so long against a world that ignored the jawflapping, prepped for war and maintained a watchful eye - ultimately resulting in the most awesome of all Regime Changes - from the inside out.

"A time when we again faced a threat to peace and to our liberty squarely and
courageously. A time when we again shed blood and helped war devastated people
nourish the seeds of freedom and foster peaceful, productive societies. That
mission drew us together in 1948 and keeps us together today."

Maybe - it's the same thing now. Alexis de Tocqueville once prophesied that foreign affair wise, democracies had a tough time with "great undertakings" and the willpower to "follow it with determination."

With NATO, the European democracies and Great Satan did follow it with determination. Def Sec Gates gets psychic too:

"Future generations will look back on this period and say, victory seemed almost
preordained."

Water Wars

Great Satan's 13th Colony might be getting more turf - and water. Tennessee would lose parts of East Ridge, Chattanooga and other areas if Georgia lawmakers, angling for aqua access, win a border moving time travelling (1826?) contest in the Georgia State House.

The largest state east of the mighty Mississippi, Georgia has her hands full - supplying water to Alabama, Florida and South Carolina. Hotlanta is the only major city in Great Satan that is not near a coast or a gigantic lake.

Lookout Mountain, Ga., surveyor Bart Crattie, who has written about flawed surveys in 1818 and 1826 that set the boundary, said if the border is moved about a mile north to match the 35th degree of north latitude, Tennessee could lose property from North Carolina in the east to the Mississippi River in the west.

"It would take (into Georgia) the whole city of East Ridge, East Brainerd, all of
St. Elmo, a big part of Lookout Mountain and East Lake"

No diss y'all, yet being fully stocked on hillbillies already, the promise of even more seems a bit selfish.

Georgia's resolution, cranked out on Wednesday, would create a border potentators league to hook up with other borderliners in TN and North Cackalackey to fix probs that Yee Hawlander lawyers openly reckon were incorrectly created with ancient naval navigation devices way back in 1818.

"Historians say mathematician James Camak, who led the team, begged the state to
provide him the latest equipment, but instead he had to rely on an English
sextant -- an instrument more familiar to sea captains than land surveyors.
Other stories say Camak's team was scared away by an American Indian party."

The 35th parallel cuts through a southern dip of the Tennessee River just upstream from Nickajack Dam, north of the current state line.

Peach State Sen. Preston Smith, R-Rome, said earlier this week that Georgia has

"a rightful claim to the land."

Tennessee House Majority Leader Gary Odom, D-Music City joked about militarizing
the border with troops and heavy weaponry.

"I think we need to have our militia down there."

The Empire State of the South's own Sen. Shafer said Tennessee is welcome to do so — provided the troops don’t violate Georgia's turf - no prob.

"As long as they don't deploy south of the 35th parallel."

"Globe Stomping"

Apparently rehabbed from last year's "Condi is a retard" rant, Dr Fred Kaplan is back sounding the alarm about how Great Satan has suicided herself in less than eight years by pursuing some weeded out buzz that never really was. Only now, he's got a new book to hawk with a dope title something like

"Why not sucking up to despots, the UN and enemies is uncool"

Loser lover Seymour Hersch raves it delivers the dirt on the "looney tunes" and "sci fi" fans who usurped America's weak, worthless ignoble waning power and totally ruined everything by taking their day gigs seriously, pretending Great Satan won the Cold War and that 911 could be a harbinger of future threats.

Refraining use of the "R" word out loud this time, Dr K tests the aqua with a toe or two in the LA Times.

"Downsizing our dominance" kicks off with a stealth surge success denial that heads straight down hill faster than popping 2 Xanex washed down with copius amounts of Jagermeister. Totally mentis non compos making.

Confusing American conviction for American arrogance is essential for understanding such subtle, nuanced worldviews like only Foreign Policy saavy stereophiles can.

"U.S. leaders stomped around the globe with wide-elbowed indifference to
the consequences of their actions."

Oh Snap! Globe stomping is what Great Satan does best. Actually called sticking to your guns. Besides - of all the things that could be listed about Globe stomping - indifference AIN'T on the list.

Should Great Satan really care about the regional aspirations of regimes like Iran that openly deny the Holocaust and openly plot the next? Or pitiful rats nests like Sudan that would happily skin a humanitarian lady alive because of some risable retarded (in the classic sense - no less) 8th century concept of sacrilege? Good luck with that.

Complaining that no one in either party really addresses Foreign Policy except for talking to allies, Dr Kaplan dodges the point. Americans kill enemies and only really talk when enemies scream "God! Please! Stop!"

In the New Millenium, scary unfree regimes and time traveling fanboys (rocket hot or not) should worry about what Great Satan thinks of them - not some fan club outreach to a place like Syria that is totally freaked about Facebook. SOTH Pelosi's trek to Basharopolis hasn't really seemed to help.

Like a mirror - Dr K seems to prefer the opposite - punish allies and court enemies

"Germany joins France in opposing resolutions on Iraq in the U.N.
Security Council -- and nothing happens to Germany"

Nothing except the elected PM gets sacked and Deutschers vote in a PM that wants to draw closer - not further from America. The same America that dissed the UN's collection of thug huggers, creepy blocs and leagues and took out the trash at the same time.

"The Turkish parliament votes against letting U.S. troops invade Iraq from
thenorth -- and nothing happens to Turkey"

Nothing except fighting a campaign to put paid to the idea of an independent Kurdistan. Kinda hard to deny Turkey's own Kurds that there's no such thing - when they see it across the border in northern Iraq - kind of a mini Kurdistan free and semi functional.

And Turkey's no closer to the EU than it was before the 20 Day war. And having to host Little Satan's Air Force sometimes to keep their rowdy, Lebanon meddling neighbor in Damascus somewhat in line WMD wise.

"Bush warns Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak not to trample on human rights; the trampling continues -- and not only does nothing happen to Egypt, but on his
recent trip to the Middle East, Bush commends Mubarak for his commitment to
democracy."

Actually, the last one is a play from Dr K's own "Suck up to Hosni Song" that he sang in a possible fit of jealousy last year. Nothing happens to Egypt? Only that Hosni is a lot like the guy who adopted a baby python (constrictus palestinianus) fed it, nurtured it and now it could devour his regime.

"The next president can begin to rebuild U.S. influence, but he or she cannot
do it alone. The task requires rebuilding alliances, and that is a harder task
than before."

YAWN. More nations are drawing closer to Great Satan - like Poland, India, Pakistan, Ukrainia, Japan, SoKo, Taiwan, Canada, Deutschland, France, Philippines, Australia, - the list goes on and on. More nations realize that downsizing American dominance isn't really helping anyone and like France - realizes that if America does split - the world is less likely to instantly become a happy place where stability, tolerance and enlightenment reigns.

Professor Michael Mandelbaum, Foreign Policy and Internat'l expert at Johns Hopkins University reveals in his killer crunk "The Case for Goliath" that

"Every threat to internat'l order for which the United States bore responsibility after the Cold War involved a government that fell short of Western and economic standards.

Every security problem that the American government felt called upon to address would be alleviated, if not solved altogether, if the regimes responsible for them could be remade to American specifications. For the global economy and internat'l security, the United States functioned, in the wake of the Cold War, as the world's government."

Dr K redefines that unhappy fact. Military misfits dug their poisoned claws into weak minded elected pols poisoned by disasterous, daemonic, democratic day dreams

"They believed, and acted, as if American power were not only undimmed but
supreme and unchallengeable -- as if a president's grimace would still make tyrants tremble and the dispatch of light armies could remake the world."

Oh Snap! America Unbound did remake the world -

Regime changing Ba'Athist Iraq (with the largest Arab army in history in 20 days - no less).

Libya's Colonel Khadaffy trembled and gave up the ghost with his surprisingly advanced secret WMD witchcraft.

Decapitating the Taliban and driving them into a giant kill zone like the former 'No Go' Federated tribal turf in Pakistan.

Staring down Iran in Iraq with multiple Mahdi army massacres, Tehran trembled enough to yank Mookie's asset out of the Surge's Mookie minion mashing Bahgdad sweep. And sack Larajani. And their Revo Guard Commander.

The NIE 2007 'nuke free since '03' is 'moderately confident' that Iran "trembled" enough to forsake nukes and are left with only Kamikaze motorboat flotillas to sortee periodically.

The Land of the Pure's General President for Life trembled and dropped the 'General', stopped fiddling about with caliphaters, began killing them off instead, promised to hold a real election and overtly covertly invited Great Satan right on in the house.

Getting Japan to pull naval ops (under a very thin veneer of UN 'legitimacy') to protect Nippon's skirt flirt with military projection along with constitutional pacifism frees up regime killing regime changing global platforms to prowl the seas.

Isolating the HAMAS and using the entire Arab League to do it at Annapolis. Global stomping?
Of all the things that could be listed about the last 8 years - "supreme and unchallengable" is right up there with "universal values of the human spirit."

"The next president might try to rally an anti-Iran coalition of Sunni leaders in
the Middle East. But those leaders will need some enticements from the United
States to take the necessary risks. What deal would the next president offer to,
say, the Persian Gulf states near Iran to encourage them to join the enterprise?"

How about their own survival? If Arabs leaders need to defuse Palestine to deprive Iran of a strategic propaganda ploy to militarize and revolutionize Arab kingdoms to overthrow their leaders or plant resistence movements that tend to resist sovereign legit democracies more than resisting Little Satan - then the fear of what the Islamic Republic could do with an 800 lb nuke in the hood is totally off the hook.

Dr Kaplan does realize that diplomacy is often non profit jaw flapping that doesn't solve everything everytime but then he totally blows it by trying to paint a weak Great Satan that is helpless without the aid and abetment of unfree regimes who are primarily interested in maintaining their own power at any costs, destabilizing the hood, projecting projectile proliferation and a penchant for bomb squads to torment their neighbors.

"In many situations, though, the vital interests of two countries are simply irreconcilable -- and neither has the power to make the other give in."

Now that is flat out Realpolitk - not even good code - and after 60 years of failed Foreign Policy like Dr. K's fave - is so last year - totally out of date in the new millenium. No new ideas, no hope and no future for Great Satan except as a broke no game player trekkin through a bizarro global hood where it's getting dark.

"The next presidents will have to get down in the dirt, strike deals and
trade favors. It's no longer morning in America, but it's not quite twilight
either."

In a way - this piece by Dr. K could be interpeted as saying far more about publicizing an inner ethical wrestling match and coming to terms with Realpolitik's failure. A potential personal epiphany super slide from the old school Cold War amoral, corrupt, cult of stability towards a new school, amoral, corrupt cult of stability.

A history do over and rewriting Great Satan's response to 911 is a very weak excuse for some realthink pursuit to reignite magical mythical stability, detente' or neo isolationist coexistence.

Realpolitik's real history is of wars, genocide, terrorism - in a word - failure. Hopes of a resurrection should really be as incinerated as surely as the nearly 3K innocents who made it to work that late summer day.

Outsourcing Great Satan's ideals and diminishing her dominance will be a tough sell in the new millenium, just like weak, boring, enemy encouraging handwringing that anything that happens is entirely Great Satan's fault.

"The next president can begin to rebuild U.S. influence, but he or she cannot
do it alone. The task requires rebuilding alliances, and that is a harder task
than before."

Since 911, Great Satan has demonstrated her will power, fire power and staying power to hit up scary places in the world, adapting, annihilating and allying.

A better case could be made that Great Satan's Globe Stomping DID remake the world. And Great Satan knows Her way around.

Super Tuesday

Ok, y'all - fixing to get my electoral cherry popped with the closest thing the Great Satan has ever had to a Nat'l Primary.

Vote Early! Vote Often! (just teasing)

Voting is the ultimate homage to American troops who stood long watches over vast expanses of trackless oceans, who killed our enemies in scary dark places like Hurtegan Forrest, Inchon and Fallujah.

Young Americans who laid their lives on Freedom's Altar in the ultimate act of sacrifice to something larger than self.

Voting is using Force. And using Force is Violence - the Supreme Authority - from which all authority is derived.

Jumped Up Ayatollah

Splitting the scene pre surge, Mookie has been hanging (hiding? ) in a comfy compound in Tehran's Preacher Heights hood. Leaving his Mahdi Army(v4.0) to face Great Satan's military might and marginalizing influence, things may not be so sweet for Iran's future plans.

Trekking twice a week to the Mullah's Holy City of Qom (kinda like a Persian version of Najaf) Mookie is in a super summer school for preachers. Ameri Taheri explains why Mookie's act is kinda weak and uncertain and the high hope the Islamic Republic has for him in the future to create a sister theocracy in Iraq and a Shi ite crescent from Persia to the Med

"It normally takes at least 12 years of intensive studies to become a "mujtahid"
(who can offer religious guidance). And the title "Sign of God" can't be secured
solely by studying: Ayatollahs bestow it on only a few individuals in each
generation. The candidate must author a "resaleh" (dissertation), with at least
one grand ayatollah publicly acknowledging its theological value.

Traditionally, no man under 40 could pretend to be a "Proof of Islam," for it
was at 40 that the Prophet Muhammad was approached by Archangel Gabriel and
informed of his divine mission.

But the "Muqtada Project" envisages shortcuts. Sadr is to complete the 12-year course in four or five years, by which time he'd also be 40. Someone could write a resaleh for him and someone else could attest to the work's authority. He could then receive endorsement (tasdiq) from ayatollahs close to the Tehran authorities.

Sometime in 2012 or so, we may meet Ayatollah al-Sayyed Muqtada al-Sadr
al-Mahallati al-Tabatabai. By then, Najaf's four aging grand ayatollahs could
have passed on, thus making it easier for Tehran to market Muqtada as a
religious authority for Iraqis."

Yay. The Holy city of Najaf is key for a caliphate in Iraq - so far Iraqi Ayatollah's haven't really took up with a hook up with Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (also a crash course cleric by order of the Grand Old Ayatollah Khomeini himself). The Mahdi Army is splintered and fragmented, key cats are missing, captured or reclining on green sofa's with dozens of white raisins and silken youth in Paradise. No surprise, the Mahdi Army loses all the time.

Great Satan just cut deals with Iraq and is killing enemies with the new Iraqi army buds. She will most likely be there waiting for him to arrive. Mookie has a lot to consider. Like his first try in Najaf.

"On 23 Aug 2004 at least 15 explosions, many sounding like artillery
shells, rocked the area, as shrapnel fell in the courtyard of the gold-domed
mosque and gunfire echoed through the alleyways. On August 26, 2004, two F-16s
flying out of Balad dropped four 2000 pound JDAMs (Joint Direct Attack
Munitions) on two hotels near the shrine which were being used by the
insurgents. The successful airstrike dealt a devastating blow to Sadr and led to
a hasty settlement with Sistani the following morning."

Though Sadrists honked in nearly 11% in the last elections they will have some pull. But do they really want to become Iranian minions for life?

"Muqtada faces a tough choice. Should he continue with the Iranian project, in hopes of winning big in four or five years - at the risk that others will fill the vacuum in his
absence? Or interrupt the Iranian project and return to Iraq to reactivate his
armed gangs - possibly exposing himself to the Americans' full fire - which,
with Sunni pressure almost gone, could crush him?"

Does he even have the freedom of choice to choose? Or do the Mullahs have their hooks in him for life?

"He might be a virtual prisoner, along with his new Persian bride,
in that villa facing the snow-capped Towchall mountains."

"The Bride Was Ravishing"

Congratulations Mr French President! On behalf of Americans everywhere, still glowing about his super cool, event saavy (au currant or historical) pledge of praise, are wishing the very best. Nicholas Sarkozy, aside from winning elections in France (while championing the ideas of America Unbound - no less), buddying up with Great Satan in killing killers, immodest military projections about the globe pushing the new school 'freedom is for everyone' has literally charmed the britches off a super hottie Italian model with legs right up to her neck.

Faster than Napoleon's campaign that knocked out Austria, Russia and their myriad of client principalities in the Austerlitz blitz, Pres Sarkozy continues the history making niche he's slit out by being the 1st Fench pres in historie moderne to wed while in office. Nikki's charm offensive included a trip to the Pyramids and all the right spots re: night spots.

His bride is the luscious talented quadruple threat ( model, singer, songwriter, multi musician) Carla Bruni. While there are a few years diff in their ages (like a dozen or so) Nicholas is living by an age old maxim for leaders - essentially work hard - play hard. France's Pres is suffering a bit of a hit pop wise as some French folks currently think he's taking up a lot of time on personal things in lieu of state. Perhaps in 9 months or so, Carla and Nikki can create a surge of their own with a precious little baby while at the pennacle of French political power.

And that baby would most likely inherit all the good looks and charm of his or her 'rents. As the officiating Mayor of Paris Francois Lebel (looking hot in Comte de Guerre Ensembe for an old guy) said on Radio Europa Channel One

"The bride was wearing white and was ravishing. The bridegroom wasn’t bad
either"