The Problem With Iraq

… is that we’re trying to preserve what the British put together in the 1920s with little thought to the actual people who lived there and their pre-existing tribal loyalties. That problem today is nicely encapsulated by Dexter Filkins:

When the Americans smashed Saddam Hussein’s regime two and half years ago, what lay revealed was a country with no agreement on the most basic questions of national identity. The Sunnis, a minority in charge here for five centuries, have not, for the most part, accepted that they will no longer control the country. The Shiites, the long-suppressed majority, want to set up a theocracy. The Kurds don’t want to be part of Iraq at all. There is only so much that language can do to paper over such differences.

Hat tip to Kevin (who appears to have either turned off or broken his trackbacks) for the link.

Congratulations, Claremont

It’s the little things that make a city special. Here’s one of the special things about New York:

On a steamy morning, traffic is backed up on West 89th Street near Central Park.

Moving vans and garbage trucks screech to a halt. Motorists fume. All they can do is honk their horns and watch as a line of eight horses and riders plods out of the Claremont Riding Academy up ahead, and enters the busy street.

“Look out for taxis!” shouts the leader to seven girls riding behind her. The horses walk serenely in front of the congestion. They clip-clop past a housing project and turn right at a pizza parlor. Minutes later, they disappear into the park.

The traffic begins to flow again.

Horses have been fixtures here since 1892, when a carriage depot was first constructed on the site. Today, the Claremont academy is the oldest continuously operated stable in the United States

America Supports Your What?

I’m trying to be openminded here and assume that for some people, this might actually be a way of taking the hell of 9/11 and trying to make a positive out of it. However, it makes me feel sick to my stomach.

The whole concept of 9/11 being “honored” by an overproduced parade and some cheesy country music is just so, so wrong. And of course since BushCo is involved, it’s not even that. It’s simply yet another pathetic attempt to milk 9/11 and boost support for their war machine. Just look at the title of the event: the “America Supports You Freedom Walk”. Ugh. And it gets better:

The goal for next year’s walk is to get each state to host its own Freedom Walk to provide an opportunity for as many citizens as possible to reflect on the importance of freedom.

Give me a freaking break! I can ‘reflect on freedom’ any time I want. I don’t need to be reminded by the Pentagon to do it. And certainly not by some faux event like this.

Crazy Days in Israel

My husband is of the opinion that everyone in the Middle East is nuts, and that the hot climate helps make them that way. I disagree with him on that point, but once in a while I come across something that makes me wonder whether he’s not right after all:

A week ago, 20 men gathered in darkness around a grave in northern Israel to carry out the cabalist ritual pulsa denura, which in Aramaic means “lash of fire.” The object of the curse was Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who refuses to cancel his plan to evacuate 25 Jewish settlements in Palestinian territory.

According to participants, Sharon will be struck down by the Angels of Destruction in less than a month, or else the 20 men themselves will die.

The ritual might have drawn little attention at a quieter moment in a country that has long been a showcase for extreme beliefs. But as the evacuations approach, Israeli society is transfixed by every detail of what Sharon calls disengagement, and images of the chanting men have been played repeatedly on Israeli television.

Sober assessments also appeared in Israeli newspapers Wednesday noting that a pulsa denura was invoked nearly a decade ago against Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin not long before he was killed by a Jewish extremist opposed to his support of the 1993 Oslo accords.

I’m no fan of Sharon, but I don’t want to see him dead either. What I want is an end to the bloodshed. So I hope that G-d decides to confuse the lot of them and ignore the ritual.