Tuesday, June 22, 2004

The Looming Credibility Crisis of the IIG. The Iraqi Interim Government faces a looming credibility crisis, but it's not what you think. [Back to Iraq 3.0] A big part of the problem is the relationship of Iraqis to the idea of government. They're kind of like Texans taken to an extreme in their anti-governmental feelings. For 1,400 years, with only one recent exception in the form of Abdul Kareem Qasim (1958-1963), Iraqis have felt like their governments are an enemy, according to Jumaliddin, and fiercely resisted them. "People hate the government and anything that belongs to the government," he said as peacocks wandered among the date palms and the Tigris bubbled behind us. "Therefore, we have a long history of hating the government or the leaders." I don't know if he's right about that, but if he is it's an extremely positive sign for the future of Iraq. 10:28:00 PM    comment () Quote of the Day. "Mysticism" often just starts out as temporal lobe epilepsy. It enriches your life no more than the bright lights you see if you hit your head with a hammer. It may well be that the brain damaged have had more effect on human civilization than any other single group of people in history. It sure would explain a lot. Steve Van Sickle [Survival Arts] 10:21:22 PM    comment () Bush to screen population for mental illness. President Bush plans to unveil next month a sweeping mental health initiative that recommends screening for every citizen and promotes the use of expensive antidepressants and antipsychotic drugs favored by supporters of the administration. [WorldNetDaily] Could someone remind me who won the Cold War? Because it sure looks an awful lot like the Soviet Union won, by relocating to North America... 10:10:01 PM    comment () Kim Sun-il Killed. Kim Sun-il, the South Korean being held hostage by an al Qaeda-linked terrorist group, has been killed, reports Yahoo news. The Korean government, which negotiated for Kim's release, is standing firm: In a dispatch from Baghdad, South Korea's Yonhap news agency quoted an "informed source" as saying that negotiations with the kidnappers collapsed over the South Korean government's refusal to drop its plan to send troops. "As a condition for starting negotiations for Kim's release, the kidnappers demanded that South Korea announce that it would retract its troop dispatch plan," the source was quoted as saying. "This was a condition the South Korean government could not accept. As the talks bogged down, the kidnappers apparently resorted to an extreme measure." Whole story here. As with the Nick Berg and Daniel Pearl murders, I think it's more likely than not that such heinous acts will actually intensify military resolve in Iraq, rather than weaken it. [Hit & Run] It certainly won't do any good. I can't imagine why anyone would think that a government would be influenced by the plight of one of its citizens. Surely the people making the demands can't be that naive. 12:42:54 PM    comment ()

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