Tuesday, October 30, 2007
One Toke Over the Line, Gov Arnold
Arnold Schwarzenegger got into the kind of hot water that only happens when politicians accidentally speak their minds. The Gov was interviewed in a British magazine and when the topic of his past pot smoking came up he replied, "(It) is not a drug. It's a leaf." Check out the MSNBC hubbub here.
As indicated in the video link, word from Arnold's spokespeople is that it was 'a joke'. Uh sure, that or he just got caught being truthful and is now backpedalling like crazy. Reminds me of a recent airport bathroom sting involving a conservative Idaho Senator who merely has a 'wide stance' when using the toilet (and then reaches under the stall to touch his neighbor's hand and then peaks in on him over the stall expecting an invitation to visit more closely. . . but what guy has never done that?!!)
But I digress. I doubt that this will come back to bite Arnold the way Larry Craig's escapades took a chunk out of his behind. Even Uber-conservative fundamentalists (the few of them who aren't closeted gays) can see the difference here. Maybe.
Arnold Schwarzenegger got into the kind of hot water that only happens when politicians accidentally speak their minds. The Gov was interviewed in a British magazine and when the topic of his past pot smoking came up he replied, "(It) is not a drug. It's a leaf." Check out the MSNBC hubbub here.
As indicated in the video link, word from Arnold's spokespeople is that it was 'a joke'. Uh sure, that or he just got caught being truthful and is now backpedalling like crazy. Reminds me of a recent airport bathroom sting involving a conservative Idaho Senator who merely has a 'wide stance' when using the toilet (and then reaches under the stall to touch his neighbor's hand and then peaks in on him over the stall expecting an invitation to visit more closely. . . but what guy has never done that?!!)
But I digress. I doubt that this will come back to bite Arnold the way Larry Craig's escapades took a chunk out of his behind. Even Uber-conservative fundamentalists (the few of them who aren't closeted gays) can see the difference here. Maybe.
Labels: Drug War insanity
To the Moon, NASA, to the Moon!
Well it seems that space isn't the only thing that NASA dabbles in. They also have a strong interest in aviation as it turns out. Which is why I guess they were charged with overseeing an extensive years-long study of pilots to gauge air safety back in the halcyon Clinton days of 1997.
Well it seems that space isn't the only thing that NASA dabbles in. They also have a strong interest in aviation as it turns out. Which is why I guess they were charged with overseeing an extensive years-long study of pilots to gauge air safety back in the halcyon Clinton days of 1997.
The study was cut short by funding issues during the less-halcyon Bush regime, but its story is instructional of life in the TeamBush era. The study found that the numbers of near disasters in the air over our fair nation is far, far greater than estimated by the FAA. But as the AP reports this information was buried because "(r)elease of the requested data, which are sensitive and safety-related, could materially affect the public confidence in, and the commercial welfare of, the air carriers and general-aviation companies whose pilots participated in the survey" (emphasis mine).
So lets be clear: An agency of our government (the one that works for us and should serve first and foremost the interest of citizens) buried a report because it could undermine the financial bottom line of our nation's air carriers. Utterly outrageous!!
But wait, there's more. . . when NASA got wind that information about this report had been leaked to the media by a whistleblower, they immediately ordered the company who compiled the pilot survey to destroy any and all traces of the data or reports taken from it. Only the intervention of Democratic members of the House Science and Technology Committee prevented it all from being deleted.
Weighing in themselves, the FAA said that they were concerned the study showed a much higher incidence of aviation problems than their own statistics. But nuggets buried in this article revealed why that may be the case. FAA compiles voluntary data from pilots that is, one assumes, not anonymous. Given the precarious state of job security for these folks, is it any wonder that pilots didn't voluntarily choose too often to complain and in doing so just perhaps add their own name to the list for next round of layoffs?
In contrast, the surveys were anonymous and very detailed, asking pilots a range of standard questions about their recent experiences. The response rate of over 80% (pretty unheard of in the survey world) shows that a large number of pilots were indeed interested in documenting these issues.
Late Word: The head of NASA apologized for the statement of his subordinate. "I regret the impression that NASA was in any way trying to put commercial interests ahead of public safety. That was not and will never be the case."
Seems reasonable enough. . . but then why did NASA try to have all information related to this project deleted and destroyed?
Let the hearings begin!
Labels: airlines, mismanagement, TeamBush
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Link Updates
I've made a few additions to the web links on the left-hand side of the AHU page. Added have been Robert Reich's Blog and James Howard Kunstler's Clusterfuck Nation. Reich is a smart guy, former Sec'y of Labor under Clinton (42?), and author of the new book Supercapitalism. Kunstler, who wrote one of my favorite formative books, The Geography of Nowhere, has in recent years taken aim at Peak Oil scenarios and the future (or, better, pending implosion) of the American 'happy motoring' suburban dream and landscape. A bit alarmist but always interesting, he publishes a new piece every Monday.
One more link note: Riverbend, the Girl Blogger of Baghdad finally fled that country late last month, seeking shelter from the violence along with her family in neighboring Syria. Since before the Iraq War she was a smart, wholly sympathetic observer who chronicled first-hand the decline of her nation and her life. Well educated, very Westernized, and never a fan of Saddam or dictatorship, she watched with hope as the occupation began. She was one of the first to write of the emerging snafus and missteps of the Coalition and nascent Iraqi governments, most often with a resigned humor. But over the months and years that humor she wore as her suit of armor was seen less and less. As her neighbors and relatives were killed, kidnapped, and tortured, as bombs tore up her once middle class district, and as sectarainism and fundamentalism flourished she continued to write about the devolution of her daily life. Gaps began to appear in her blogging. By the end sometimes weeks would go by without posts. One senses it all just became too much to even think about.
Now she's escaped and trying to adjust to life as a refugee.
I've made a few additions to the web links on the left-hand side of the AHU page. Added have been Robert Reich's Blog and James Howard Kunstler's Clusterfuck Nation. Reich is a smart guy, former Sec'y of Labor under Clinton (42?), and author of the new book Supercapitalism. Kunstler, who wrote one of my favorite formative books, The Geography of Nowhere, has in recent years taken aim at Peak Oil scenarios and the future (or, better, pending implosion) of the American 'happy motoring' suburban dream and landscape. A bit alarmist but always interesting, he publishes a new piece every Monday.
One more link note: Riverbend, the Girl Blogger of Baghdad finally fled that country late last month, seeking shelter from the violence along with her family in neighboring Syria. Since before the Iraq War she was a smart, wholly sympathetic observer who chronicled first-hand the decline of her nation and her life. Well educated, very Westernized, and never a fan of Saddam or dictatorship, she watched with hope as the occupation began. She was one of the first to write of the emerging snafus and missteps of the Coalition and nascent Iraqi governments, most often with a resigned humor. But over the months and years that humor she wore as her suit of armor was seen less and less. As her neighbors and relatives were killed, kidnapped, and tortured, as bombs tore up her once middle class district, and as sectarainism and fundamentalism flourished she continued to write about the devolution of her daily life. Gaps began to appear in her blogging. By the end sometimes weeks would go by without posts. One senses it all just became too much to even think about.
Now she's escaped and trying to adjust to life as a refugee.
Friday, October 19, 2007
RIP: Rat Pack
Twin Towers of Swingin' Lifestyle go down in the same week
The Sands Casino in Atlantic City bit the dust last night about 9:30pm EDT. Back before indian slot parlors and government propagated gambling, when AC was just the first east coast location getting into "gaming industry" racket, The Sands was the jewel. Imported from "Sin City" Las Vegas itself, the name had the financial backing and imprimatur of Frank Sinatra, and trailed a heady scent of Rat Pack-era swingin' memories in its wake.
Last night it went down; its demise was preceded by a fireworks display that showed how much casinos have devolved from their swanky, swingin' roots to pure whorishness.
The original Sands in Las Vegas met the same fate as its AC offspring in 1996. This was the hotel of Sinatra, the one to which fictional Michael Corleone signed Johnny Fontaine (fictional guess who?) and 'his friends' to exclusive performing deals. Where the less-than-fictional, bigger-than-life Rat Pack (Sinatra, Martin, Davis Jr., Peter Lawford, and Joey Bishop) convened when they did their landmark shows, two sets a night, while filming Ocean's Eleven.
So fitting then that as the last light set upon RatPack-era backdrops, the last member of the Rat Pack would himself succumb. Joey Bishop died just about 24 hours before the AC Sands collapsed. He was the last of the crew, as far as I know the last surviving member of the Ocean's Eleven cast let alone the Rat Pack.
So rest well Joey (an adopted Philly guy like me). What's to do? Maybe just sing "Ee-Oo-Eleven!"
Twin Towers of Swingin' Lifestyle go down in the same week
The Sands Casino in Atlantic City bit the dust last night about 9:30pm EDT. Back before indian slot parlors and government propagated gambling, when AC was just the first east coast location getting into "gaming industry" racket, The Sands was the jewel. Imported from "Sin City" Las Vegas itself, the name had the financial backing and imprimatur of Frank Sinatra, and trailed a heady scent of Rat Pack-era swingin' memories in its wake.
Last night it went down; its demise was preceded by a fireworks display that showed how much casinos have devolved from their swanky, swingin' roots to pure whorishness.
The original Sands in Las Vegas met the same fate as its AC offspring in 1996. This was the hotel of Sinatra, the one to which fictional Michael Corleone signed Johnny Fontaine (fictional guess who?) and 'his friends' to exclusive performing deals. Where the less-than-fictional, bigger-than-life Rat Pack (Sinatra, Martin, Davis Jr., Peter Lawford, and Joey Bishop) convened when they did their landmark shows, two sets a night, while filming Ocean's Eleven.
So fitting then that as the last light set upon RatPack-era backdrops, the last member of the Rat Pack would himself succumb. Joey Bishop died just about 24 hours before the AC Sands collapsed. He was the last of the crew, as far as I know the last surviving member of the Ocean's Eleven cast let alone the Rat Pack.
So rest well Joey (an adopted Philly guy like me). What's to do? Maybe just sing "Ee-Oo-Eleven!"
Another Grim Anniversary
As this Op-Ed from the 17 OCT Washington Post by 12 disgruntled former Army officers who served in Iraq reminds us, the fifth anniversary of the Congressional resolution allowing TeamBush free reign to start the Iraq War is once again upon us. Current opponents who voted for the now-infamous bill frequently maintain that the vote was just giving Bush leverage at the UN; the handful of congressional supporters who still have their jobs paint it as a clear congressional mandate tantamount to a declaration of war. A few, mostly presidential aspirants, try to split the difference.
Regardless, it has not been a good few years for the US of A. It has been so well detailed, both here and in so many other places, that I'll not digress.
But what's to do? Here's one option: Help the people who tried to help us and are now quite helpless.
Thousands of Iraqis welcomed the liberation of Iraq from the hands of Saddam Hussein, and many with needed skills came forward to help the American and British forces at the start of the occupation. Four years on, with conditions in Iraq being perilous for them and their families, they need out of the war zone. Having witnessed the tragedy first-hand, former USAID in Iraq employee Kirk Johnson started The List Project. The list is comprised of refugees who helped the US and are now facing hardship or death in today's fractured, violent Iraq.
According to NPR's Day to Day, despite administration promises to allow 5,000 Iraqi refugees into the US this year, only 1,600 have been processed. Johnson has seen former Iraqi colleagues killed and just wants some action. Maybe we can all help him out in whatever way we can. I'd like to think this issue transcends party affiliation or 'hawk and dove' camps.
As this Op-Ed from the 17 OCT Washington Post by 12 disgruntled former Army officers who served in Iraq reminds us, the fifth anniversary of the Congressional resolution allowing TeamBush free reign to start the Iraq War is once again upon us. Current opponents who voted for the now-infamous bill frequently maintain that the vote was just giving Bush leverage at the UN; the handful of congressional supporters who still have their jobs paint it as a clear congressional mandate tantamount to a declaration of war. A few, mostly presidential aspirants, try to split the difference.
Regardless, it has not been a good few years for the US of A. It has been so well detailed, both here and in so many other places, that I'll not digress.
But what's to do? Here's one option: Help the people who tried to help us and are now quite helpless.
Thousands of Iraqis welcomed the liberation of Iraq from the hands of Saddam Hussein, and many with needed skills came forward to help the American and British forces at the start of the occupation. Four years on, with conditions in Iraq being perilous for them and their families, they need out of the war zone. Having witnessed the tragedy first-hand, former USAID in Iraq employee Kirk Johnson started The List Project. The list is comprised of refugees who helped the US and are now facing hardship or death in today's fractured, violent Iraq.
According to NPR's Day to Day, despite administration promises to allow 5,000 Iraqi refugees into the US this year, only 1,600 have been processed. Johnson has seen former Iraqi colleagues killed and just wants some action. Maybe we can all help him out in whatever way we can. I'd like to think this issue transcends party affiliation or 'hawk and dove' camps.
The Turkish Two-Step Knuckle Under
Follow up to the recent post: Under pressure from both TeamBush and fellow Congressional Democrats, it appears Nancy Pelosi will not bring to the floor a resolution condemning the 1915 Ottoman Turk slaughter of ethnic Armenians as a genocide. The motion, for years brought up in every Congress by Armenian activists, was approved by a House Foreign Affairs Committee headed for the first time by Tom Lantos (D-CA), the only member of Congress who is also a holocaust survivor (Hint! Hint! He might actually know it when he sees it!!).
As noted previously, it is both a complicated and simple issue. The Turks have been a mostly quite stand-up ally to the US for years; their potential (on the bubble?) EU membership may well ride on the line of this vote to incur into Iraq, even more so if shooting starts inside Kurdish-held northern Iraq. So they're well aware of what's on the line. Mostly, to them, it's the notion of modern Turkish national identity.
Think of it. . . how would Americans feel if they knew that on the verge of their independence our founding fathers had been complicit in the slaughter of an innocent civilian populace, one who had the unfortunate distinction of being foreign to the colonial majority and thus potential allies to military adversaries?!
Oh. . . right. . .
See? It doesn't feel so bad to admit it.
C'mon modern Turks, step up. Just fess that it happened and we can all move on. I know that you're worried about potential reparations (another thing in common with the US-- as we waited for 50 years to acknowledge the whole Japanese internment camp thing until most of the internees had gone to that big Shinto temple in the sky), but reparations are realistically a matter for your parliament in about 30-40 years (Trust us, we know).
Your main complaint, as far as I can tell, is that Armenians were Russian sympathisers; an imperial dynasty which was already in its death throes internally, by revolution, and externally, by the Kaiser's army, by 1915; though truth to tell, so was the Ottoman Empire. But note, a main argument espoused by German Nazis was that Jews were not loyal to the nation; a commonly accepted belief that led to the rise of Hitler, the approval of the Nuremberg Laws, and the so-called Final Solution.
That's a pretty slippery slope.
Still, it looks like upstanding morals (ask the GOP if that's important?!) have been trumped once again by the necessity of kowtowing to the strategic importance of a foreign country.
Not that that might not, in fact, be the best policy choice of the US at this very moment. But it's sad that the choice of starting an unnecessary, and potentially disastrous, war has had the effect of denying an obvious truth. Once again.
Follow up to the recent post: Under pressure from both TeamBush and fellow Congressional Democrats, it appears Nancy Pelosi will not bring to the floor a resolution condemning the 1915 Ottoman Turk slaughter of ethnic Armenians as a genocide. The motion, for years brought up in every Congress by Armenian activists, was approved by a House Foreign Affairs Committee headed for the first time by Tom Lantos (D-CA), the only member of Congress who is also a holocaust survivor (Hint! Hint! He might actually know it when he sees it!!).
As noted previously, it is both a complicated and simple issue. The Turks have been a mostly quite stand-up ally to the US for years; their potential (on the bubble?) EU membership may well ride on the line of this vote to incur into Iraq, even more so if shooting starts inside Kurdish-held northern Iraq. So they're well aware of what's on the line. Mostly, to them, it's the notion of modern Turkish national identity.
Think of it. . . how would Americans feel if they knew that on the verge of their independence our founding fathers had been complicit in the slaughter of an innocent civilian populace, one who had the unfortunate distinction of being foreign to the colonial majority and thus potential allies to military adversaries?!
Oh. . . right. . .
See? It doesn't feel so bad to admit it.
C'mon modern Turks, step up. Just fess that it happened and we can all move on. I know that you're worried about potential reparations (another thing in common with the US-- as we waited for 50 years to acknowledge the whole Japanese internment camp thing until most of the internees had gone to that big Shinto temple in the sky), but reparations are realistically a matter for your parliament in about 30-40 years (Trust us, we know).
Your main complaint, as far as I can tell, is that Armenians were Russian sympathisers; an imperial dynasty which was already in its death throes internally, by revolution, and externally, by the Kaiser's army, by 1915; though truth to tell, so was the Ottoman Empire. But note, a main argument espoused by German Nazis was that Jews were not loyal to the nation; a commonly accepted belief that led to the rise of Hitler, the approval of the Nuremberg Laws, and the so-called Final Solution.
That's a pretty slippery slope.
Still, it looks like upstanding morals (ask the GOP if that's important?!) have been trumped once again by the necessity of kowtowing to the strategic importance of a foreign country.
Not that that might not, in fact, be the best policy choice of the US at this very moment. But it's sad that the choice of starting an unnecessary, and potentially disastrous, war has had the effect of denying an obvious truth. Once again.
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Flying Can Indeed Kill
The shopworn antislogan 'Profits over people' was on full display this past September when a passenger on a Phoenix flight was arrested and died in police custody. The initial story focused mostly on the skeleton in Carol Anne Gotbaum's closet, that she was an alcoholic who had been travelling to a treatment center. Denied boarding, she became upset and violent, (leaving casual readers to assume she was tanked and belligerent) was detained and was later found dead.
With a few weeks of hindsight however, it is clear that she is yet another casualty of an American airline industry that discards virtually all concerns for stakeholders (employees and passengers alike) to make razor-thin profits that are then slipped back into the pockets of shareholders.
Disclaimer: My parents are both stake and shareholders in USAir, they worked there as some of the most loyal company people one could imagine, only to have their salaries and benefits and finally jobs stripped from them by a free falling, mismanaged company. Now of course, they're threatening the retirement funds of those folks like my dad who started there long enough ago that he was still covered by a defined benefit package when he retired. Back when they were loyal to a company that was still loyal to its employees, they did buy alot of USAir stock. It just ain't worth what it used to be. Nor is the airline. Once a regional upstart that pumped up like Barry Bonds following Reagan-era deregulation, it became just another mean-spirtited and mismanaged corporation. OK, OK. . . the rant is almost over; suffice it to say that the last few times I shuttled between Philly and the 'Burgh I took Southwest, once at the urging of my formally-loyal Mum.
It turns out that Carol Gotbaum was the victim over rampant overbooking. According to A.L. Bardach's impassioned article in the Washington Post: "Gotbaum wasn't late for boarding. She didn't forfeit her place by ignoring the airline's procedures. Her only mistake was showing up at the US Airways gate and believing that her paid-in-full, reserved-seat airline ticket meant that she would actually have a seat on the plane".
She tried to swap with willing persons, but the gate agents refused to even entertain the issue. Distraught, probably going on the most difficult trip of her life to an out-of-state treatment facility, she broke down crying and was detained for unruly behavior and locked in an isolated cell at the airport. Bardach again:"They left her chained alone to a bench, crying inconsolably. Not long after, she was found dead, the chain shackling her to the bench stretched across her throat."
Neither I nor Bardach completely blame the airport staff. The know that every flight is overbooked, that they will spend all day, literally everyday, dealing with people who, like Gotbaum, bought and paid for seats, showed up on time, and even had confirmed seat assignments, only to find out that there was no guarantee they'd get out on that flight, or the next one, or even the next because in all likelihood they are all overbooked. Flight attendants, pilots, and gate and ticket agents used to have really cool, hip, trendy jobs, they were the standard bearers for the Jet Age. But imagine going to work in the scenario described above each day, everyday being like the worst-case scenario day of anyone's normal job.
And that's not just the only insult. Domestic aircraft by major US carriers have been diverted to international routes which are more lucrative per seat. Thus, if there is a plane malfunction, the spare idle aircraft that used to replace it on your Newark-Chicago route is now somewhere over Glasgow, and you're getting ready to spend the night in an airport terminal.
But wait, there's more. . . its not just the airlines but also airports, who make their money off of each takeoff and landing scheduled. That being the case, airports across the nation frequently overbook the number of flights coming in hourly, in some cases 20%-30% over what is feasible and often even safe given the gate space and runway capacity. They are loathe to scale back the amount of hourly flights, as are airlines who fear that, in this golden age of deregulation, they will lose valuable gate space if they voluntary scale back their flights to a more manageable and realistic number.
The Friendly Skies just aren't what they used to be anymore, I guess.
The shopworn antislogan 'Profits over people' was on full display this past September when a passenger on a Phoenix flight was arrested and died in police custody. The initial story focused mostly on the skeleton in Carol Anne Gotbaum's closet, that she was an alcoholic who had been travelling to a treatment center. Denied boarding, she became upset and violent, (leaving casual readers to assume she was tanked and belligerent) was detained and was later found dead.
With a few weeks of hindsight however, it is clear that she is yet another casualty of an American airline industry that discards virtually all concerns for stakeholders (employees and passengers alike) to make razor-thin profits that are then slipped back into the pockets of shareholders.
Disclaimer: My parents are both stake and shareholders in USAir, they worked there as some of the most loyal company people one could imagine, only to have their salaries and benefits and finally jobs stripped from them by a free falling, mismanaged company. Now of course, they're threatening the retirement funds of those folks like my dad who started there long enough ago that he was still covered by a defined benefit package when he retired. Back when they were loyal to a company that was still loyal to its employees, they did buy alot of USAir stock. It just ain't worth what it used to be. Nor is the airline. Once a regional upstart that pumped up like Barry Bonds following Reagan-era deregulation, it became just another mean-spirtited and mismanaged corporation. OK, OK. . . the rant is almost over; suffice it to say that the last few times I shuttled between Philly and the 'Burgh I took Southwest, once at the urging of my formally-loyal Mum.
It turns out that Carol Gotbaum was the victim over rampant overbooking. According to A.L. Bardach's impassioned article in the Washington Post: "Gotbaum wasn't late for boarding. She didn't forfeit her place by ignoring the airline's procedures. Her only mistake was showing up at the US Airways gate and believing that her paid-in-full, reserved-seat airline ticket meant that she would actually have a seat on the plane".
She tried to swap with willing persons, but the gate agents refused to even entertain the issue. Distraught, probably going on the most difficult trip of her life to an out-of-state treatment facility, she broke down crying and was detained for unruly behavior and locked in an isolated cell at the airport. Bardach again:"They left her chained alone to a bench, crying inconsolably. Not long after, she was found dead, the chain shackling her to the bench stretched across her throat."
Neither I nor Bardach completely blame the airport staff. The know that every flight is overbooked, that they will spend all day, literally everyday, dealing with people who, like Gotbaum, bought and paid for seats, showed up on time, and even had confirmed seat assignments, only to find out that there was no guarantee they'd get out on that flight, or the next one, or even the next because in all likelihood they are all overbooked. Flight attendants, pilots, and gate and ticket agents used to have really cool, hip, trendy jobs, they were the standard bearers for the Jet Age. But imagine going to work in the scenario described above each day, everyday being like the worst-case scenario day of anyone's normal job.
And that's not just the only insult. Domestic aircraft by major US carriers have been diverted to international routes which are more lucrative per seat. Thus, if there is a plane malfunction, the spare idle aircraft that used to replace it on your Newark-Chicago route is now somewhere over Glasgow, and you're getting ready to spend the night in an airport terminal.
But wait, there's more. . . its not just the airlines but also airports, who make their money off of each takeoff and landing scheduled. That being the case, airports across the nation frequently overbook the number of flights coming in hourly, in some cases 20%-30% over what is feasible and often even safe given the gate space and runway capacity. They are loathe to scale back the amount of hourly flights, as are airlines who fear that, in this golden age of deregulation, they will lose valuable gate space if they voluntary scale back their flights to a more manageable and realistic number.
The Friendly Skies just aren't what they used to be anymore, I guess.
Labels: airlines, deregulation, mismanagement
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Brewing Trouble in the "Good" Region
For the last few years the one region of Iraq that consistently caused few problems for TeamBush has been the northern most Kurdish areas. As primary benefactors of the GW I era no-fly-zone imposed by the US-UK, the Kurds essentially ran their own independent state since 1992. Protected from occasional land forays by Saddam's weakened army by the well-armed and -organized Peshmerga, they developed institutions and a semblance of civil society in Iraq's north. They managed to put aside, for the most part, political differences between the two primary Kurdish factions, the PUK and the KDP, and jointly rule the region in the post-Saddam era; leaving the Bush-Blair coalition the worry largely about the on-going self destruction of the sunni and shi'a areas to the south. Recent events, however, may change this success story quite rapidly.
Neighboring Turkey has always been wary of Kurdish independence in the Iraqi region, fearing that it will fuel greater calls of autonomy from its restive Kurdish minority of about 15 million. For decades Turkey's homegrown Kurdish separatist groups carried out raids against Turkish military and civilian targets, most notably the PKK led by militia leader and folk hero Abdullah Ocalan, who was captured by the Turks in 1999 and remains jailed there.
Beginning in June of this year and continuing unabated ever since, PKK raids in Turkey have increasingly tested the patience of the Ankara government. Despite a recent security arrangement with Iraq's government concerning border security in the region, Turkey maintains that roughly 3,000 members of the PKK militia responsible fro these attacks are being sheltered across the border in Kurdish-held Iraq; the relatively-weak central government in Baghdad, it is thought, is unable to stop the attacks or support in the northern region where it has limited power or credibility.
To date the US-UK has been able to deter Turkey, a NATO ally and de facto supporter of the Coalition since the Iraq War if not prior, with financial and political considerations, including support for its inclusion in the EU. This rising escalation of PKK attacks, however, comes at a time when the US House of Representatives has approved, at this point only at the committee level but a floor vote is said to be impending, a resolution calling the slaughter of ethnic Armenians by the Ottoman Empire in the early 20th century "a genocide."
This vote has been along time in coming. As a student in DC during the 1980s I worked in a residence hall that each year housed a delegation of young Armenians who came to lobby the Congress for such a resolution. And each year the vote failed to materialize, opposed as it was by steadfast official Turkish propaganda and fears of upsetting a key ally against the Soviets/ in the Gulf War/ in the Iraq War/ of the Global war on Terror. It is indeed a complicated issue, as eloquently stated by Richard Cohen in an Op-Ed in today's Washington Post.
The impact of this conflict, once known only to history buffs and those of the various ethnicities with an agenda, is already being felt. The impending Turkish vote authorizing incursion, scheduled for today in Ankara, was one of the primary factors that sent crude above $87 a barrel and thus world stocks tumbling. Should TeamBush allies get into a violent shooting war with one another in what is currently the world's least stable and arguably most critical part of the world, Condi Rice will be wistfully wishing for the days when all she had on her plate was the comparatively easy task of piecing together consensus for an Israeli-Palestinian Peace Plan.
For the last few years the one region of Iraq that consistently caused few problems for TeamBush has been the northern most Kurdish areas. As primary benefactors of the GW I era no-fly-zone imposed by the US-UK, the Kurds essentially ran their own independent state since 1992. Protected from occasional land forays by Saddam's weakened army by the well-armed and -organized Peshmerga, they developed institutions and a semblance of civil society in Iraq's north. They managed to put aside, for the most part, political differences between the two primary Kurdish factions, the PUK and the KDP, and jointly rule the region in the post-Saddam era; leaving the Bush-Blair coalition the worry largely about the on-going self destruction of the sunni and shi'a areas to the south. Recent events, however, may change this success story quite rapidly.
Neighboring Turkey has always been wary of Kurdish independence in the Iraqi region, fearing that it will fuel greater calls of autonomy from its restive Kurdish minority of about 15 million. For decades Turkey's homegrown Kurdish separatist groups carried out raids against Turkish military and civilian targets, most notably the PKK led by militia leader and folk hero Abdullah Ocalan, who was captured by the Turks in 1999 and remains jailed there.
Beginning in June of this year and continuing unabated ever since, PKK raids in Turkey have increasingly tested the patience of the Ankara government. Despite a recent security arrangement with Iraq's government concerning border security in the region, Turkey maintains that roughly 3,000 members of the PKK militia responsible fro these attacks are being sheltered across the border in Kurdish-held Iraq; the relatively-weak central government in Baghdad, it is thought, is unable to stop the attacks or support in the northern region where it has limited power or credibility.
To date the US-UK has been able to deter Turkey, a NATO ally and de facto supporter of the Coalition since the Iraq War if not prior, with financial and political considerations, including support for its inclusion in the EU. This rising escalation of PKK attacks, however, comes at a time when the US House of Representatives has approved, at this point only at the committee level but a floor vote is said to be impending, a resolution calling the slaughter of ethnic Armenians by the Ottoman Empire in the early 20th century "a genocide."
This vote has been along time in coming. As a student in DC during the 1980s I worked in a residence hall that each year housed a delegation of young Armenians who came to lobby the Congress for such a resolution. And each year the vote failed to materialize, opposed as it was by steadfast official Turkish propaganda and fears of upsetting a key ally against the Soviets/ in the Gulf War/ in the Iraq War/ of the Global war on Terror. It is indeed a complicated issue, as eloquently stated by Richard Cohen in an Op-Ed in today's Washington Post.
The impact of this conflict, once known only to history buffs and those of the various ethnicities with an agenda, is already being felt. The impending Turkish vote authorizing incursion, scheduled for today in Ankara, was one of the primary factors that sent crude above $87 a barrel and thus world stocks tumbling. Should TeamBush allies get into a violent shooting war with one another in what is currently the world's least stable and arguably most critical part of the world, Condi Rice will be wistfully wishing for the days when all she had on her plate was the comparatively easy task of piecing together consensus for an Israeli-Palestinian Peace Plan.
Labels: Iraq, Kurds, Oil, Turkey
