Because I work in news I tend not to want to listen to news on the way in to work, so I usually have the radio tuned to some rock or pop music station. But there’s only so long you can listen to Katy Perry before you go crazy, so I also switch to AM radio to try CKNW and CBC radio. The Current on CBC this morning featured an interesting war games scenario involving Israel and Iran.

The host, Jim Brown, discussed three scenarios to war with Iran to curtail their nuclear weapons program, and none of them sounded very appealing. Brown interviewed, Sam Gardiner, a retired U.S. Air Force Colonel, about the possible approaches to Iran’s regime. They were as follows:

1. Israel attacks Iran’s program preemptively with about 70 stealth bombers that would target identified locations, and then follow up with a special forces team that would set charges on underground facilities. The resulting fallout would likely draw the United States into supporting Israel internationally, while Iran retaliated against Israel with terrorist attacks and would inspire more fanaticism in the Middle East. The nuclear weapons program would likely be set back by five to 10 years.

2. The United States and Israel launch a coordinated attack involving bombing and special forces. No land invasion would occur and the entire operation would take place overnight. The fallout would likely be the same, says Gardiner.

3. Do nothing. Gardiner believes the Iranian threat is not existential to Israel, since he doesn’t think Iran would use the weapons on Israel without dooming itself to annihilation.

Listen to the segment. Which option do you support? Is there a fourth option?

Iran is considering boycotting the Olympics because the above logo is too “Zionist.” Um, I guess the best answer I can come up with is, “good.” More of this.

Personally, I can’t see the word Zion. Here’s what I see:

Norman Spector was not best pleased yesterday:

“WikiLeaks’s mad attack on Canada”/Gadhafi Update

Now the good historian Jack Granatstein is some riled.  From a post at the Canadian Defence & Foreign Affairs Institute’s 3Ds Blog:

Close Down WikiLeaks Now

…the latest release of the US telegrams that detail the critical infrastructure in nations such as Canada that could cause most harm to American interests if destroyed takes me beyond my anger at WikiLeaks’ other releases. These cables are not merely embarrassing to outspoken envoys; these are criminal. The list of critical points is a gift to terrorists everywhere, put out in the open on Julian Assange’s WikiLeaks’ website. It demonstrates now that Assange’s aim is to cause harm, not merely to embarrass…

We are now at the point where the New York Times and The Guardian, for example, should stop publishing WikiLeaks’ material. We are now at the point where those who cooperate with Assange should be charged with aiding and abetting terrorism…

Meanwhile Norman today compares how the NY Times and Guardian covered the same basic story:

WikiLeaks exposes newspaper bias

…
Though troubling to many people, bias in the media is not always due to some dark plot – political or economic. In fact, it is inevitable. And the WikiLeaks document dump provides the perfect case study to prove the point.

Of all the newspapers in the world, four were provided privileged access by WikiLeaks to the diplomatic cables; in return, these newspapers promised to spread out and co-ordinate their publication dates on major issues. One paper, the Guardian, agreed to share the documents it received with the New York Times, which had refused WikiLeaks’s offer this time, though not on two previous occasions.

Both of these newspapers are generally considered to be quality broadsheets [The Guardian is now actually a "Berliner"]. Both would fairly be described as being on the liberal end of the political spectrum [The Guardian is actually a whole lot further to the left]. Both have had financial difficulties in recent years, but have striven to maintain their values in the current environment. And their Tuesday editions provide an excellent case study of media bias…

On the front page of today’s New York Times, under the headline “America Prods and Protests But Can’t halt Arms Trade,” one reads the following report:

Just a week after President Bashar al-Assad of Syria assured a top State Department official that his government was not sending sophisticated weapons to Hezbollah, the Obama administration lodged a confidential protest accusing Syria of doing precisely what it had denied doing…

In contrast, the Guardian report of the arms trade cables is on Page 6 of today’s edition and is headlined “US used Israel intelligence to block arms from Iran and Syria.” It is accompanied by a colour photo captioned: “Palestinian civilians and medics run for safety as Israeli missiles fall in Beit Lahia in the Cast Lead offensive in January 2009.” And the report – written by Mideast editor Ian Black – differs so markedly from that in the New York Times – both in what it includes and what it omits – that you have to wonder whether the two sets of first-rate journalists were reading the same cables…

Mark
Ottawa

Excerpts from a very broadbrush post indeed in which Publius worries we may be going to hell in…a Chevy Volt maybe? At least a world which US policies may be badly letting down:

…
A sweeping health care package, of bewildering complexity, is imposed against the widespread opposition of the American people. Spiralling stimulus costs, whose benefits have amounted to little more than a super-sized pork barrelling project. Meanwhile dangers to the Republic gather.

A China that is openly contemptuous of American power in the Asian Pacific rim. An Iran that is perhaps months away from developing a nuclear weapon. A North Korean foreign policy that is redefining the meaning of the word brinksmanship. The American dollar being turned into toilet paper through the euphemisms of quantitative easing. The last is perhaps the most insidious, as it may provoke competitive devaluation, where other major powers also turn their currencies into toilet paper. The goal? To pursue the mercantilist mirage of “export driven” growth. QE2 could wind up being a modern day Smoot-Hawley.

And little is being done to curb these dangers. The capacity of the United States to defend its interests globally is being withered. Some may cheer the end of the “American Empire.” Let us not share their naivety. However bad an American dominated world has gotten, it is infinitely preferable to the alternative. We are today seeing more than the decline of one world world power, we are seeing the possible collapse of an international system that has lasted nearly seven decades. If the American yoke seems harsh to some, image China as the center of world affairs, a nation whose neighbours have spent decades seeking succour from Washington…

Blaming social problems on culture is a cliche. Like many cliches, it’s also true. Culture can be used as a sort of intellectual short-cut, the intelligent man’s shrugging of the shoulders at the alien and inscrutable. Yet it is real. Anyone who has lived in a culturally diverse area can see this in action, both for good and ill. Some groups display certain traits and behaviour, others do not. It’s a topic avoided gingerly by most, for in modern North America the charge of bigotry is the most damning. Yet it is there.

The poverty of Africa is not because of corrupt rulers, which is a universal problem that varies only in how brazenly it is conducted. Africa is poor because it is tribal…

…While more is needed to create a prosperous society than just national identity, there are plenty of poor nations with a strong national identities, it is a necessary condition. The nation allows room for the individual to free himself of the tribe. The danger always exists of the individual then becoming a slave of a national state, but it is far harder to establish a tyranny over many than over a few. An insight at least as old as James Madison.

The leap between the tribal and national is one the peoples of Africa, and much of the world, have not fully made. They still live in the largely Hobbesian world of the tribe. We the citizens of Lockean states, should remember to keep that mind.

Meanwhile, Publius also finds time to provide a translation for something quoted at the post “Evil language“:

…
Poor Mark. I do hate it when civilians – those not long exposed to the madness of modern academia – encounter its verbiage unprotected. Using the patented Publius-O-Matic Translating machine, we will convert this academic ass-hatery into idiomatic (normal) English:

Ya, know. There is some real serious bat-shit crazy people out there. You gotta wonder whether they’re human at all, or maybe just some kind of weirdos. If it’s true that bat-shit crazy people are just really weird, it’s probably pointless to figure out why they so weird. The shrinks are wasting their time maybe. Now this Terry Eagleton guy says the bat-shit people bat-shit because they choose to be bat-shit crazy. Which is his opinion, right.

Some of these batshits like to see other people in pain, they want to take and use rather than break things and people and stuff. But the people who take and the people who break are both the jealous type. They think because someone else has something worth having, and they don’t have it, then they ain’t worth nothin’ themselves. Like you see a guy with a smoking piece of ass, but you ain’t got no ass, and you think you’re less of man because, right. That gets you all twisted up inside. Not in a good way. But then again, if people are bat-shit crazy because that’s just the way they are, then trying to figure why is probably pointless.

Now if people just bat-shit ’cause they bat-shit, then any trying to find why they bat-shit can’t be taken too seriously. So when someone says there is a reason why people bat-shit, I say, like sure but you gotta take it like an example. Not true, true, just an example to make a bigger point, right. Awhile back I gave an example, I wasn’t joking, that when people try to figure out why bat-shit people bat-shit is sort of pointless.

“Kitsch” is when something tacky, and something is tacky because it’s a cheap knock-off of something good. In being a cheap-knock-off it almost like insult the better original thing. When people bat-shit, it almost like they insult the good in life, like the kitsch insults the good original thing. Like when some guy steal some other’s hot ass, ’cause he jealous, he almost like insult her hotness. But if you think bat-shit people just bat-shit, this example ain’t gonna work for you.

The whole issue’s a big bitch, right, especially for people who think they are a reason why some people bat-shit, but it’s been a big bitch since way back.

Hopefully that makes everything clearer.

Mark
Ottawa

Travel advisory:

IRI warns against Canada travel

IRI’s [Islamic Republic of Iran] Foreign Ministry has warned Iranian nationals against traveling to Canada as the new wave of Islamophobia is sweeping across the North American country.

The ministry issued a statement on Tuesday, cautioning Iranian citizens who plan to visit Canada to take precautionary steps.

The statement warns that the wave of Islamophobia in the Western countries has expanded its reach and is claiming new victims as a number of Muslims, especially Iranian nationals, have been deported under different pretexts, while Ottawa actively hinders Iranian nationals who want to seek justice through the Canadian courts, IRIB reported.

Many Muslims, particularly Iranians, are deprived of their social and political rights…

Via Brian Lilley at the Toronto Sun.  Another headline, from 2007–have things really gone downhill here that fast for Iranians?

Iranians seek refuge in Canada

Predate: Michael Petrou, at his Maclean’s blog, also links to the original story.

Update: What our government says about travelling to Iran:

…
OFFICIAL WARNING: Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada advises against non-essential travel to Iran.

Canadians face some risks in Iran. Iranian authorities are suspicious of foreigners, including Canadians, and any behaviour, such as the use of cameras and cellular phones in public places, is misinterpreted. Canadian travellers can be questioned, arrested, and detained for a long period without apparent reason. Canadians travelling alone or beyond conventional tourist sites are particularly vulnerable to such treatment by Iranian authorities.

The ability of the Embassy of Canada in Tehran to provide consular assistance to Canadians who are arrested or detained is very limited. In some cases, Iranian authorities have not permitted the embassy to have consular access to detainees. Canadian travellers should therefore register with Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada.

Dual Nationals

The Government of Iran does not recognize the Canadian citizenship of Canadian-Iranian dual nationals. As a result, Iran does not allow the Embassy of Canada in Tehran to provide consular assistance to an Iranian-Canadian in difficulty.

Numerous cases have been reported of a Canadian or dual-national woman being stranded in Iran or mistreated by her Iranian husband or a male member of her family. Women in difficulty should know that the Embassy of Canada in Tehran cannot intervene in family matters.

See Section 8 of this Travel Report for more information on dual nationality…

Mark
Ottawa

You gotta love that world body:

The United Nations on Wednesday rejected Iran‘s bid for a seat to the board of the new U.N. agency to promote equality for women after fierce opposition from the United States and human rights groups to Tehran’s treatment of women.

But the U.N. accepted the bid of Saudi Arabia, which is also opposed by human rights groups…

I’ll bet Canada did nothing to stop Saudi (more here)–big bucks, eh? You can be…

Welcome to UN Women

Quick!  What’s the main thing Iran and Saudi Arabia have in common, thought differing over certain important, er, details?  Hint: they both ain’t Arab.

Mark
Ottawa

Norman spectates:

…
–Meanwhile, Iranians are fearful for Canadians

Canadian ‘climate of fear’ disturbs Iranians

Four Iranians scheduled to speak at a controversial conference on peace in Ottawa last week were detained for three hours at Customs while Canadian security agencies vetted the texts of their remarks, one of the organizers said.

“They had to open their computers. Everything was shown to them,” said Paul Maillet, the Green party candidate in Ottawa-Orléans, who organized the Thursday event with three other current and former Green candidates.

He said the Iranians “were actually quite disturbed. They didn’t realize that this kind of climate of fear existed here. They thought Canada was a little more open.”..

Mark
Ottawa

Further to this post,

Afstan update/Throwing to the wolves Update

not so encouraging:

1) U.S. military campaign to topple resilient Taliban hasn’t succeeded

An intense military campaign aimed at crippling the Taliban has so far failed to inflict more than fleeting setbacks on the insurgency or put meaningful pressure on its leaders to seek peace, according to U.S. military and intelligence officials citing the latest assessments of the war in Afghanistan.

Escalated airstrikes and special operations raids have disrupted Taliban movements and damaged local cells. But officials said that insurgents have been adept at absorbing the blows and that they appear confident that they can outlast an American troop buildup set to subside beginning next July.

“The insurgency seems to be maintaining its resilience,” said a senior Defense Department official involved in assessments of the war. Taliban elements have consistently shown an ability to “reestablish and rejuvenate,” often within days of routed by U.S. forces, the official said, adding that if there is a sign that momentum has shifted, “I don’t see it.”..

The blunt intelligence assessments are consistent across the main spy agencies responsible for analyzing the conflict, including the CIA and the Defense Intelligence Agency, and come at a critical juncture. Officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to discuss the matter publicly…

2) Afghan president confirms large cash payments by Iranian officials

Hamid Karzai says his office receives about $2 million annually from Iran, but that the cash is a donation and covers governmental operating costs. The U.S. also makes such payments, he says…

But on the other other hand:

Kandahar diary: Watching conventional forces conduct a successful COIN campaign

By Paula Broadwell
Best Defense Kandahar bureau chief

“We don’t know if what we’re seeing is the start of a trend or an anomaly,” one Counterinsurgency Advise and Assist Team (CAAT) senior advisor admitted when discussing ground operations in Kandahar, Afghanistan. “We just don’t know. It’s like the blind men with the elephant.”

That’s the sentiment I picked up while in Afghanistan recently. “We would be the first to caution that victory is not just around the corner,” said a senior official in Kabul this week. He also noted that while some members of the media may have rushed to change the narrative from one of ‘all is lost’ to ‘winning is inevitable,’ but quickly clarified that “Neither is true.”

So what is true, and what exactly is going on in Kandahar, the “heart of darkness,” as it’s now been coined? What appears to be true is that our conventional forces can still conduct major combat operations, and they’re making some progress…

Update: Video:

Inside Afghanistan: Captain Abi Bradley on patrol

…Captain Abi Bradley of the Gurkha Rifles describes the particular challenges facing female soldiers operating in one of the world’s deadliest environments, the Helmand Province…

Via GAP at Milnet.ca. Good chaps, those Gurkhas (with Canadian content).  Meanwhile the perfect Canadian peacenik photo:

Mark
Ottawa

…but scary smart too?  Perhaps a lot of us have been underestimating the man–Bret Stephens in the Wall St. Journal (with video):

Breakfast With Ahmadinejad
Lox, bagels and the ‘Zionist regime.’

It’s a few minutes before eight in the morning on Tuesday, and the 30 or so journalists who have assembled to meet Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the conference room of a midtown Manhattan hotel are gorging themselves on lox and bagels and wondering whether the buffet is some kind of sly catering joke. A prominent TV personality seated next to me is approached by an Iranian film crew wanting to know her thoughts about their president. She says something cringingly obsequious about how gracious he is for making himself available to the media…

Now CNN’s Fareed Zakaria asks Ahmadinejad whether he would accept whatever deal Palestinians might strike with Israel in the current negotiations.

The question is meant as a trap—if he says no, he is potentially contradicting the Palestinians; if yes, he might have to recognize Israel’s right to exist. Ahmadinejad’s answer showcases his rhetorical gifts. He says he has no trouble deferring to the wishes of Palestinians; he merely wishes they be represented by the people they actually elected, meaning Hamas. In a stroke, he has put himself on the side of democracy and exposed the central fallacy of the current peace process, which is that a majority of Palestinians want to co-exist with a Jewish state called Israel…

In the New York Times’s account of the breakfast, reporter Neil MacFarquhar—who asked an opaque question about Cyrus the Great and was roundly mocked for it by Ahmadinejad—described the president’s remarks as “standard talking points” plus “a little fresh bluster.” Perhaps I haven’t achieved the appropriate degree of jadedness, but my own impression of Ahmadinejad was that he was easily the smartest guy in the room. He mocked us in a way we scarcely had the wit to recognize. We belittle him at our peril.

Mr. Stephens writes the Journal’s Global View column.

Earlier:

President Ahmadinejad: At least he did not call them “bacilli”/Cruise missile Update

Update: Meawhile, a Canadian may face death in Tehran (but I do not share Mr Glavin’s approbation of the MEK):

“Free Hossein Derakhshan”: A Responsory Chant To Murmur While Kneeling.

Whilst the Iranian president is another troofer. Scary, really scary, what egregious people put forward,

Mark
Ottawa

From the transcript of an interview shown in part on NBC Nightly News, Sept. 15:

…we believe that there is a minority in the United States and they are Zionists. They have no religion. They believe in no religion. And they– they have no culture. They are only for their material interests. They are against all religions, against all divine books– divine– all divine– against all divine prophets. Their interests lie in hos– hostility be– nations of the world. And their hostility– their– interests lie in creating wars and conflicts…

…We believe that Zionists are angry today because they say these global development is going against their illegitimate interests. And they continue their ugly works, activities– the– prov– provocations, [unintel] that contains in order to divide nations. And I think they will suffer a defeat, because all Islamic nations– Muslims, the– Americans, and Christians are very vigilant and they are clever. They will not be trapped by this Zionist defeats and– conspiracies…

Video here. Call me Godwin:

The Jew possesses no-culture-creating energy whatsoever… His intellect therefore will never have a constructive effect, but only a destructive one…

He is remains the typical parasite, a sponger who, like a harmful bacillus, spreads out more and more…

Update: The Phantom, in “Comments”, reminded me of this:

Juxtaposin’ cruise missiles

Iran:

Germany:

Mark
Ottawa