Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader is pleased to see the surviving members of Monty Python doing their best to cash in on the current fadishness of the life of Christ. It seems that they troupe has decided to release their film, The Life of Bryan on DVD sooner than expected.
Great news.
Carry on.
George Bush is running his campaign on his record as a war president.
I blogged recently about my realization that Bush was incapable of winning the war. It seems I am not alone. The following people criticize his tactics. My concern is more than just the tactics: The tactics are failing and it doesn’t appear that Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld have the intellectual capacity to change course.
Tacitus, a Republican Hawk blogger (found via Big Hominid) has a damning indictment of Bush’s policies:
To this roll call of shame — to this litany of missed chances and willful defeats — we must this week add our repulse at Fallujah.
There is nothing else to call it. We are beaten, and we are beaten because our President has ordered us beaten. As you read this, United States Marines, undefeated in actual combat, are quitting the field of battle in the face of an enemy that celebrates, gloats, and kills them still. As you read this, a Ba’athist general in a Ba’athist uniform reigns over a city rife with Ba’athist killers in the Sunni heartland. As you read this, rebllious Fallujah is “policed” by men from rebellious Fallujah. As you read this, the murderers and mutilators of Fallujah go definitively unfound and unpunished. As you read this, General Abizaid sheepishly acknowledges that yes, they’ll still find all the jihadis in Fallujah — they just might not find them in Fallujah.
Well. Right you are, General. Right you are.
One wonders in stupefaction at the magnitude of this folly. Trite phrases spring to mind: in particular, “It is worse than a crime — it is a mistake.” In this case, the mistake is the crime, and it is terrible indeed. It is hardly too much to call it dereliction of duty: with the United States in a global war of extermination not of its choosing against a jihadist foe, the one man ultimately responsible for protecting our nation from that foe ordered our forces to stand down when the enemy was trapped and doomed. Now they live. Now they go free. Now they tell their tales, share their lessons, regroup and re-arm. And why? Because George W. Bush feared Arab public opinion? Because George W. Bush, incredibly, caved to pressure from the United Nations? Because George W. Bush didn’t have the backbone to finish the job?
Yes, yes, and yes.
Fool.
Read the rest here.
In Sunday’s Post, Robert Kagan, a respected voice in the foreign affairs community, launches a blistering attack on Bush’s policy:
“All but the most blindly devoted Bush supporters can see that Bush administration officials have no clue about what to do in Iraq tomorrow, much less a month from now. Consider Fallujah: One week they’re setting deadlines and threatening offensives; the next week they’re pulling back. The latest plan, naming one of Saddam Hussein’s Republican Guard generals to lead the pacification of the city, is the kind of bizarre idea that only desperate people can conjure. The Bush administration is evidently in a panic, and this panic is being conveyed to the American people.”
Read the rest here.
Niall Ferguson, recent recipient of a love blog from the Maximum Leader, also has misgivings about Bush’s ability to learn from the past:
“There are no perfect correlations in history. But there is a suggestive relationship between the duration of American military presence and the success with which occupied countries have achieved economic growth and the transition to enduring democratic institutions. For this reason, there have been grounds for uneasiness about the Bush administration’s proposed timetable for Iraq’s transformation.”
Ferguson regretfully concludes that Bush has failed to learn the lessons of history. Read the rest here.
Who woulda thought that Kerry would become the candidate for the hawks?
The evidence coming out of Iraq regarding our treatment of prisoners of war is damning. Americans are NOT supposed to act like this. I have no truck with the Arab propagandists who are playing this up; they do not seem to condemn their own side’s even more brutal tactics and executions (I found Al-Jazeera’s decision not to show how “an Italian dies” to be particularly illustrative). But America is different.
We are not supposed to torture and humiliate people at all.
When the public finds out that this has happened, we are, by and large, appalled.
The guards who can be identified and their superiors who created the climate should be court martialled. I wouldn’t object if a few are hung as object lessons.
One thing that really upset me was of the female MP who was photographed in a room gleefully pointing out the penises of hooded, naked, and bound prisoners. The disturbing thing was how much she was clearly enjoying herself. While I am willing to have American forces use psychological methods to convince prisoners to give up military information, we should do so very cautiously and mindfully. This bitch is enjoying herself and hamming it up for the camera.
It immediately put me in mind of the photographic display that caused such a stir in Germany a few years ago. German soldiers had posed for and sent home photographs of the pogroms on the Eastern Front. Everyday fellows committing atrocities while so unreflective about the ethical ramifications of what they were doing that they wanted to share the joy with their family members.
I am not saying that our prison is morally equivalent to roving extermination vans. My point is that I find it scary that a woman raised in America could so gleefully dehumanize her captives, taking the first step down the slippery slope of the holocaust.
Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader has been reading the ongoing discussion about animal ethics between Keith Burgess-Jackson and our very own Minister of Agriculture. Today’s recent post by Dr. Burgess-Jackson starts to address the one part of the argument that your Maximum Leader believes has not yet been sufficently addressed. That question is this: “How does one determine that an animal is a moral agent on par with a human being?”
The good doctor begins to address your Maximum Leader’s question in this passage: (NB: emphasis mine)
But animals have futures that contain activities, enjoyments, and experiences, although perhaps not projects in the strict sense. Their lives are the preconditions for these things. Without their lives, these things cannot exist. Even a painless killing deprives an animal of these valued things.
The cases are parallel. You might object that humans and animals are different. Of course they’re different. But are the differences morally relevant? Humans differ among themselves, but not all the differences are morally relevant. We don’t let skin color, for example, affect one’s rights. Why is species membership morally relevant? How could it be, since it’s a biological concept? Species is no more relevant than race is, and you don’t think race is relevant.
It is on this point that your Maximum Leader will differ with the good Doctor. Species membership is the crux of the moral issue. Biological differences may be the roo of our discussion. Skin colour (race) is not an important factor in this discussion, and a bad analogy. Members of the same species will have variation within that species. But between species differences become more important.
Your Maximum Leader believes that in order to treat animals as moral agents on par with humans, they (animals) would have to demonstrate that they are capable of moral action, like humans.
This is an interesting point, and one on which your Maximum Leader will give more thought.
Carry on.
Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader is proud to reveal his new blogskin today. It comes courtesy of Francey Designs. You may notice a few other little changes over the next few days. (Your Maximum Leader thinks the next big change will be auto-generating tag lines!) Not like it will change his mind, but your Maximum Leader would like to know what you, his loyal minions, think of the new look as it progresses. Feel free to drop me a line at: “maximumleader-at-nakedvillainy-dot-com” or at the active hyperlink on the left side nav bar.
And allow your Maximum Leader to publically thank Frances at Francey Designs. He really appreciates your work on this.
Carry on.
Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader would like to take a moment to put down a few things that have been going through his head.
Firstly, many thanks to the Minister of Agriculture and the Poet Laureate for writing during the week. Your Maximum Leader has been occupied with so many different things, blogging has been, at best, an afterthought.
Secondly, your Maximum Leader would like to commend to you two films. They are “Master and Commander” and “Kill Bill Volume 2.” Each in their own way are quite good.
As one who has read some of the Patrick O’Brian books upon which “Master and Commander” are based, it was just what your Maximum Leader expected. The acting was good, and the movie was visually spot on. If you are not a big Royal Navy in the age of Nelson type of guy/gal, this is not your film. Your Maximum Leader watched it in the screening room of the Villainschloss with his esteemed Father-in-law and Brother-in-law. At many points your Maximum Leader nd his esteemed Father-in-law were filling in important historical references for his esteemed Brother-in-law.
As for Kill Bill Volume 2, it was great in a Quentin Tarantino type of way. Flashy action sequences. Great dialouge. And some sick twisted stuff that makes you wonder if Tarantino weren’t a director would he be a sociopath of some sort.
Thirdly, your Maximum Leader highly commends the recent Victor Davis Hanson essay on National Review Online. As always, Hanson is clear as to what our goals should be, and who our enemy is.
Lastly, your Maximum Leader did get to watch most of the “In Depth with Niall Ferguson” on Book TV today. Quite good. Indeed, your Maximum Leader must now start to rethink some of his long-held ideas concerning America as an empire. (Although that is a post for another time.)
Alas, with various commitments to family this weekend, your Maximum Leader didn’t find enough time to write anthing of consequence. He hopes to regale you with some thoughtful stuff during the week.
Carry on.
