Gràcies per no em canvies d'idea

La doctora Ibtissam Al-Bassam escriu un href="http://www.arabnews.com/Article.asp?ID=22569">article apassionat
sobre el rol de les dones dessous l'islam. Desafortunadament no em canvia d'idea ni em conven?.

No es pas sa culpa però els fets parlen per ells mateixos. La ponència del Fons de
Desenvolupament àrab explica bastant serenament els greus problemes socio-docents,
econòmics, pol¡tics i socials que el m¢n ?rab sofreix. Digui que digui la bona doctora es pal?s
que el món àrab estanca i estancar? si no es deixa uns llibertats de deixar estar.

Una de les coses que em sorprén es que en Aràbia saudita la primera col.legi per a nenes ­no
¡obrí les portes que en 1966! Perdoni però al Occident desde la Edat mitja baixa moltes ordres de monges es dedicaren a ensenyar les nenes i les dones a escriure i a llegir. Al meu parer, mai he
llegit o oït algú semblant al món islàmic.

Estic totalment d'acord que les reformes societàries en els països àrabs s'han de començar al interior d'aqueixos. L'única protest que articulo es aquesta mania d'excloure els cristians; però
suposo que no es res més que la dimmitude.

Perle on France: don't forget your history!

Richard Perle's latest article deriding France as an ally and his prescription to contain French influence within the alliance and the world reminds me that neither he nor the American punditocracy know French history.

I'm not talking about recent history but rather the early modern period. If there's one overriding strategic obsession since the 1600s that France has pursued is never to be surrounded by hostile powers. That's what drove Richelieu to intervene in the second half of the Thirty years' war so that Austria and Spain wouldn't encircle it; to entice the Catalans to join the French monarchy during the 1640 Revolution.

What Perle and Den Beste advocate is tantamount to reawakening that old French nightmare and they'll lash out in consequence. I'm deeply bemused at how the American bloggers rant about how much they don't care about France and mock the country's military failure, laugh at its inept diplomacy in Côte Ivoire; yet all this attention bespeaks the opposite. The Americans do care about France and French opinion. More seriously, I'm fed up with the American commentatoriat; they're so keen on gloating over French pretensions, faux pas and narcissism that they've completely overlooked the need to win over the ordinary French. The commentators, bloggers and pundits' efforts would be better spent in reminding the French that they have a democratic polity with a similar respect for deliberation, freedom, rule of law and constitutional governments, Instead, they prefer to poison the dialogue with rancid comebacks.

So Joe's Katzman's question remains: how will you help remind the French of their common democratic values? If you're just a basher; get out! You're as much a problem as the false grandeur that pervades the French elites.

Enhough all ready!

Here we go again. Den Beste recounts with glee about how Rumsfield tweaks the Germans. Frankly I've had enough of this crap and all this moral voguing under the guise of Jacksonism or whatever other ideological patina of convenience to cloud one's political prudence. The Americans forget that Shroder and his party are temporarily in power and undoubtedly lose power and be replaced by another party. Den Deste and Rumsfield had better ban the idea that whoever takes over the German government will brown nose the Americans over the relationship. It's one thing to be genuinely contrite; it's another to demand abjection groveling as a precondition to rehabilitate a bilateral relationship.
The other problem is that the Americans bitch about how the allies are a bunch of freeloaders for defense but will the former allow the latter to take up its own defense or will the allies be nothing more than waterboys and valets to the 'effective' British and American military.

Update: Den Beste in one of his previous posting insulted the NATO allies as being ineffective. Yet, we read about how the Norwegian and Danish F 16s bombed caves in Afganistan. If the NATO allies are so ineffective than how on earth did the snipers from the Canadian Princess Patricia's Canadian light infantry managed to break the previous record for long range sniping? Or the Canadian soldiers working with the the Coyote reconnaissance vehicle which the American soldiers covet so much? Or the effectiveness of the Norwegian special forces? Davis Hanson in one of his previous articles reminds everyone that while the NATO and other allied countries' militaries aren't as formidable as the American, they're still inherently a Western military imbued with its way of war. What's holding them back is a mixture of political weakness of will and a societal reticence about using military violence. Both factors can easily change given that the other NATO and allied countries live with a constitutional forms of governance where deliberation, debate and political auditing are integral to the societies. In sum, the citizens can be persuaded to change their minds about military spending and defense policy.   ¶ 15:06

 

Perle on France: don't forget your history!

R

ichard Perle's latest article deriding France as an ally and his prescription to contain French influence within the alliance and the world reminds me that neither he nor the American punditocracy know French history.

I'm not talking about recent history but rather the early modern period. If there's one overriding strategic obsession since the 1600s that France has pursued is never to be surrounded by hostile powers. That's what drove Richelieu to intervene in the second half of the Thirty years' war so that Austria and Spain wouldn't encircle it; to entice the Catalans to join the French monarchy during the 1640 Revolution.

What Perle and Den Beste advocate is tantamount to reawakening that old French nightmare and they'll lash out in consequence. I'm deeply bemused at how the American bloggers rant about how much they don't care about France and mock the country's military failure, laugh at its inept diplomacy in Côte Ivoire; yet all this attention bespeaks the opposite. The Americans do care about France and French opinion. More seriously, I'm fed up with the American commentatoriat; they're so keen on gloating over French pretensions, faux pas and narcissism that they've completely overlooked the need to win over the ordinary French. The commentators, bloggers and pundits' efforts would be better spent in reminding the French that they have a democratic polity with a similar respect for deliberation, freedom, rule of law and constitutional governments, Instead, they prefer to poison the dialogue with rancid comebacks.

So Joe's Katzman's question remains: how will you help remind the French of their common democratic values? If you're just a basher; get out! You're as much a problem as the false grandeur that pervades the French elites.

  ¶ 10:45

 

Bloggar and Blogger: tools made in hell sometimes

My apologies to the visitors and readers. I use Bloggar improved interface for Blogger. I find the little program simplifies my life and is sufficently neutral that I don't require Internet Explorer per se. Yesterday, I had the weirdest error which didn', and stil doesn't allow me to send my post or recall them for editing; I've submitted the problem to the blogger crew but I'm really annoyed as I detest using Internet explorer components just so that I can use Blogger's own editing window. Sometimes I view these two tools as made in hell sometimes.
  ¶ 19:21

 

The Europeans and the world problems: some additional thoughts

Collin May has written a very thoughtful article about why America is the only country that can deal effectively with the problems. While I do find his arguments quite cogent I don't always agree with his conclusions.

For example, if Europe suddenly decided to become more robust and intervene more energetically in their former colonies would the Americans really welcome this change of heart or would they bristle at the fears of a reenergized rival? I also suspect that one reason why Europe is so ineffective is because it stopped believing in itself, that when it intervenes, it do so with such half-heartedness that the region might as well have done nothing. Until the Europeans stop fretting about its postcolonial role and drop this nauseating guilt complex about WWI, colonialism or whatever else is bugging them. Honestly, I wish the Europeans would find the guts to be more forthright like back in the late 19^th century race for empire building instead of this wimpy assed snivelling that pervades contemporary European societies. Everyone would respect them but more importantly, the Europeans would rediscover their self respect that disappeared in 1918.

Update: I see that Jesus Gil stoutly defends the pro-Americanism within Europe against those who exaggerate the rift

De la tràgedia del Columbia

No tinc res més a dir. Em penso que tothom a gairebe expessat la seva condolència per la perdua del 7 astronautes. Ara espero que s'investigi les causes, es corregeixin les faltes i que es redissenyi, I cal, els transboradors presents I futurs per que algú semblant no torni a pssar jamés més.  ¶ 15:05