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

It’s official. The Palestinians have come up with a list of terms they want the media to use in news reports. Sarah found this during a web search after a visit to Nuernberg. Her experience with some “enlightened” individuals is of interest!

One of the books I picked up last weekend and am currently reading is The Eagle’s Shadow. The author, Mark Hertsgaard, has written five books, and articles for several periodicals including Time, The Nation, and The Guardian. He is also a contributor to NPR. With that resume, you would assume he has a left-of-center outlook on things.

This article, “Why we still don’t get it one year on” was written for The Guardian. It follows the tone of his book, and is, basically, a preface to it.

The money quote of the article, in my view, is:

But the world doesn’t hate us, the American people. It is our government, our military, and our corporations that are resented. To anyone living outside the US, this may seem an obvious point.

This is an assumption made by many people. What they don’t grasp is that the American people are all those things. It is different in other countries, where the class you are born into determines what you will do for your entire life. Nowhere else can you climb from the lowest rung of the social ladder to the very top in a single generation. Nowhere. Australia comes closest, with England and Canada behind.

Hertsgaard’s view of the world is in direct conflict with those of Ralph Peters. I will leave it to readers to draw their own conclusions, but I think it is important to read both before deciding. Keep this paragraph in mind as you decide whether Mark has a clue:

Americans are ignorant about the outside world mainly because most of what we’re told about it is little more than semi-official propaganda. Our political leaders portray the acts of our government, military and corporations in the best possible light, and our news media do little to challenge these self-serving declarations.

I wonder if that opinion has changed any during this election year.

UPDATE: Check the Trackback link to Sarah’s site. She has much better analysis of this than I do. In particular, she remembered where SDB put this. Thank you smart lady!

I got the photo at the column head from Mudville Gazette.

Thanks, Greyhawk. I’m an insensitive bastard, so I think I’ll keep it up here for a while just to remind people what this election is all about.

Sarah finds some of the best things around. I, too, would like to see Bush make this speech.

Don’t you think isolationists would pull their hair out?

One book I am currently reading is Ralph Peters’ Beyond Terror. The first chapter of the book deals with defining exactly “why they hate us.” He explains how the terrorists of al Qaeda and other similar groups differ from those we’ve dealt with in the past. They are apocalyptic rather than practical, and the bulk of the chapter is devoted to contrasting the two.

Ralph has written many books, papers, and essays for many publications. Some of his work can be found at Parameters, a journal of the US Army War College. This particular chapter of his book, “When Devils Walk the Earth”, is located on line in PDF format from a Marines Corps site. It is essential reading. Maybe I need to emulate SDB in the one way I can by developing an Essential Reading list of my own.

With the events of Haiti in recent days, I thought about all the trouble spots in the world which are, or were, under French control. It is an interesting list.

Of course, there was Indochina, which became Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. I think we?re all familiar with how that turned out. Lebanon and Syria are both part of what used to be the French Mandate after the Great War, and became independent after WWII. They, in turn, were combinations of former French colonies Lattaqui?, Alep, Hatay (Alexandretta), and the Sanjak of Damas and Jabel Druze (Souaida). France also held part of Yemen.

In Africa, they had colonies or mandates for Algeria, Ivory Coast, Congo, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, and Chad. Significant French interest in some of the more, shall we say “troublesome”, parts of the world.

In the Pacific and Indian oceans, France possessed Madagascar, and still has colonial possession of French Polynesia, Vanuatu, Wallis and Futuna Islands, and New Caledonia. Quite the empire, I would say.

French colonies have a history of being violent and corrupt places. Some would say they are no worse than other colonies have been. I disagree, but the important point is that they are still problem areas.

As we try to eliminate threats to the US, France attempts to stand in the way. Looking at the Rogues’ Gallery of French colonialism, I have to wonder whether there is a link. I can?t imagine why it would seem important to anyone in the US to seek French approval for what we need to do.

Sometimes I wonder if I?m not being too hard on John Kerry. As a veteran, I resent him playing up his short time on duty and playing down all he did to distance himself after the fact.

But when I read something like this, I have no doubts about my views.

Isolationists have always been with us. They are often derided as being hicks with no appreciation for the world at large. And they are generally assumed to be conservative?Republican.

You have to look at how the Democrats are acting, though, and you?ll see they are the ones who are isolationist. Free trade? Not on my watch. Foreign intervention? Only if we get permission from abroad to enter their yard.

Kerry knows America must be defended. He knows nobody else in the world can do it, and that nobody else in the world is willing to do it. If he cannot see that, and he is sincere in his beliefs, he doesn?t have the analytical skills necessary to be President. I don?t think he?s sincere. He?s intelligent, and has heard all the facts in ways none of his followers have. He chooses to ignore the fact, and pander to a group he hopes will give him the prize he?s sought all his life.

If he gets it, he promises to go around the world, hat in hand, to make nice. He?ll get chewed to bits, and won?t see it coming. As I?ve said before, he has all the markings of a new Jimmy Carter?without the integrity.

Picture Kerry and imagine the cursor as Kofi Annan!