Bunker Mulligan "Let us endeavor so to live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry." ~Mark Twain

Wallace has a post regarding the 9/11 Commission which matches my sentiments quite well. Last month, prior to open testimony, I wrote a post about how difficult it is for intel folks to piece together bits of unrelated data to derive some sort of educated guess. If you don’t want to wade through it, the short version is “Damned Difficult.” Once an event has occurred, it is quite simple to look back and see how those pieces fell together.

During the Clinton Administration, the official policy was to treat terrorists as criminals. If they committed a crime, we would do everthing we could to track them down and bring them to trial. With that as the standard, it makes complete sense for Clinton to not have taken custody of bin Laden when he had the chance. In retrospect, it was a deadly decision. But I also wonder whether complaints about this failure are hindsight analyses.

When the Bush Administration took over, GW decided to treat terrorism as a war. I’m sure Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, and Powell stood tall and accepted the new philosophy. However, there is a bureaucracy in Washington with a tremendous amount of inertia. Much of that inertia is ideologically based, some of it very practical. But some of it is based in the knowledge that the new Administration wanting to change things may only be around for four years, and then things will change back again. Why bother. Think Richard Clarke. George Tenet.

The Commission members are busy posing, building some contacts for future “consulting” jobs, and enjoying the limelight. Even Bob Kerrey, whom I respected prior to this, have fallen prey to the partisanship bug. Everyone wants to find someone to blame.

Guess what, guys. Osama bin Laden is to blame. The only way our government failed is by allowing easy access to visas for 19 men who probably never should have been in this country in the first place. Sounds like Colin Powell needs to fire a few people.

This morning on NPR, Bob Edwards spoke with a “Middle East expert” from Sarah Lawrence College. Why an expert from a small liberal arts college near New York City has greater insight than anyone else, I can’t judge. His conclusion was that Iraqis are causing trouble because they feel insecure. If American troops can’t even protect themselves, how can they protect Iraqis.

If that isn’t circular reasoning, I don’t know what is. Edwards went on to discuss Muqtada al-Sadr and his position in all this. The tacit conclusion seemed to be that the US failed when it didn’t arrest al-Sadr months ago, so we have nobody to blame but ourselves.

My view is that he wasn’t seen as a threat before because he has such a small following, and the Coalition didn’t want to spark any controversy in Iraq by picking up a cleric. But Muqtada al-Sadr is now upset because he’s not getting enough attention. “I’m important!” My opinion was confirmed when I opened Outlook this morning.

I receive an email on a weekly basis (although it is often an irregular week) from Iraqi Prospect, an organization in Britain. There is usually some insight into what is happening in Iraq from the Iraqi perspective that makes it worthwhile to digest. Along with Hammorabi and Healing Iraq, I get a picture of the goings on.

Today’s message is Turning the Muqtada Crisis into a Milestone for Iraqi Sovereignty by Sama Hadad in London and Adil Shalan in Baghdad, has take on Muqtada:

Before the establishment of the Iraqi Governing Council he behaved himself very well, and appeared on Al-Jazeera in May speaking positively of the US presence. However, this affirmative attitude soon changed, when he was not included in the 25-member Governing Council. Feeling marginalised, he has grown progressively more hostile and critical of the US-led Coalition and Governing Council.

al-Sadr is whining that he is being ignored. Both Sam and Zeyad agree. Muqtada feels he deserves a position of authority because his father and grandfather were both prominent religious men in Iraq prior to being murdered. His grandfather, in particular, was quite the leader, and we can only wish Muqtada had turned out the same. Grandfather advocated a democratic form of Islam.

There will be pressure from many groups to give the child what he wants so he’ll stop his temper tantrum. Hada and Shalan support that. I don’t.

Americans are often criticized for wanting things to happen too quickly. Pundits in the Old World think we rush things. That’s probably true. This time, when the agenda suits them, the same people want us to rush when it better serves Iraq to go more slowly. Putting Muqtada or one of his representatives on the Governing Council to end the needless violence does nothing but ensure more needless violence the next time things don’t go his way. US troops aren’t responsible for the fighting, Muqtada is.

This weekend, I spent some time with Bogey, playing golf and moving furniture. In between, we had a few miles of driving together. We listened to a wide variety of music. Austin is really a music city. One song came on the radio which really interested him. I can’t remember the name of the performer, but the song was put together from lyrics written by Pete Seeger. After his death, Seeger’s wife gave this writer some lyrics and said, “Please put these to music. Pete never had the chance.”

Bogey made a comment about Seeger being a Communist. I think he was expecting to get a rise out of me. I explained why I felt it wasn’t a big stretch to understand why people would follow communist doctrine in the 1930s. Labor unions were gaining strength, and around the world there was a sense of anguish over the Depression. People were looking to the government to solve their problems, and Marxist theory was appealing. I told him something else that surprised him. There has never been a communist government, because that is an oxymoron. It was not something anyone had ever explained to him.

We called the USSR communist, and China, and Vietnam, and Cuba. But they aren’t. They are Socialist. We use the term “Communist” because the rulers of those countries belong to the Communist Party. Socialism is the final step toward communism.

It is also the primary feature of fascist states. I always find it amusing that die-hard socialists call everyone else fascist. Ever heard of the National Socialist Party? Sure you have; NAZI is the more familiar term.

Where communism and fascism split in their socialistic pursuit is in the eventual form of government. Fascists believe in strong nationalism, and communists don’t. Well, I guess that’s wrong. I can’t think of any nation more nationalistic than the Soviet Union.

I guess it has more to do with economics. Yeah! Fascists want national corporations to be in the hands of individuals, but controlled by the government, and communists want the state to own and operate everything. Hmmm. I think that’s wrong, too. I forgot about China.

The real difference is that socialism, according to Marx, is to evolve into communism once everyone is equal. Each will produce according to his ability, and each will receive according to his need. Because everyone has the same as everyone else, there will be no crime. Everyone will drive a Ford Taurus (because that’s what the majority decided), so there will be no reason to steal someone else’s car. Of course, if someone gets their hands on a BMW, theft might again become an issue. No. That cannot happen in a communist world because the entire world will be communist and nobody will be building BMWs. When the State “withers away”, there is communism in place of socialism.

So, there will be no need for a government of any kind. Peaceful anarchy. That is communism.

Bogey was pleased about learning something new. He, like me, cannot understand how any sane person in this country could now follow the Communist Manifesto. He commented that the principles of communism have been completely discredited.

But they haven’t been. There are still some who follow this dream. But the biggest danger is the even larger group wanting to go just to the edge. Socialism is a parasite, and it consumes all. We have not had socialist governments in this world long enough to draw any solid conclusions, but I think the trend is visible. A century ago, Europe was the richest area of the world. They have been trending down since Marxist ideas began to take hold. Canada was once on the growth side, lagging the US, but growing just the same. Canada is on the downswing economically. The Soviet Union imploded. China changed direction and its economy is booming (taking over Hong Kong certainly helped).

Socialism cannot survive without a host. The biggest potential host in the world is the US. And the only way for socialism to feed off this host is through the UN or changes in our government which are more Euro-friendly. Socialism IS communism, with a supportive government. We just need to be sure our government isn’t socialist-friendly. Our trend is certainly that direction, and a lot of politicians want to see it go that way.

Victor Davis Hanson is my age. He is a phenomenal writer, a student of the Mediterranean and Middle East, and has a clear analytical mind. We have one thing in common.

He writes excellent essays, and his latest is The Mirror of Fallujah

If we are to try to bring some good to the Middle East, then we must first have the intellectual courage to confess that for the most part the pathologies embedded there are not merely the work of corrupt leaders but often the very people who put them in place and allowed them to continue their ruin.

He details many points which have been made by others, but does it all in his own, stylish, way. And in doing so, adds a different perspective.

With a lot of practice, I hope to someday have more in common with him than year of birth.

(Hat tip Big Trunk.)

The Contact Center has a tool for sending messages to your legislators. I generally use email and the phone, but this time I tried the bulk email route. The issue at hand is a resolution in the House slapping the Supreme Court Justices’ collective hand regarding the use of other countries’ view to determine constitutionality. Wrong.

Rep. Tom Feeney (R-FL) has introduced the “Reaffirmation of American Independence Resolution.” This resolution, which is also being co-sponsored by Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), affirms the Sense of Congress that judicial decisions should not be based on any foreign laws, court decisions, or pronouncements of foreign governments unless they are expressly approved by Congress.

I don’t think this is the best way to address the issue, but right now it’s the only way we’ve got.

The Supreme Court is charged with determining the constitutionality of our laws based on the intent of the Constitution. Lately, some of them have used laws in other countries as support for opinions, and O’Conner even went so far as to suggest the Court will do so even more in the future.

See what I mean about this election being so important in regards to more things than the war on terrorists?

Ah…the news that comes out of Coober Pedy. What?! You’ve never heard of Coober Pedy? Well let me tell you, it is the Opal Capital of the World!

Wallace claims it as his own personal sister city. He lives in Midland, so it fits.

Now, your assignment is to visit each of these sites and sit back, relax, and stay a while.