Israel just doesn't get Fourth Generation War.  It's been 35 years since the vaunted Israeli military won a military contest. In 2006, Hezbollah chased the Israelis out of Lebanon for the second time and has emerged politically and militarily stronger than before the invasion.

Once again, predictably and as predicted, Israel failed to achieve any of its war aims in the Gaza Offensive and emerges both internally and internationally weaker than before it launched its offensive

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Of the spending cuts the Gang of Nelson made, I challenge anyone to name one more ludicrous or counter-stimulative than the $40 Billion in state budget assistance.  What planet is he living on?  Whatever stimulative impact remains in the bill, a substantiall portion of it is being wiped out in state budget cuts right now, and the worst is yet to come as this in today's Los Angeles Times report from the Real World demonstrates

States' only option now is budget pain

Healthcare, parks, schools: Politicians' proposals to close budget gaps would hit where it hurts. Even zoo animals may not get a break.

Reporting from Atlanta and Las Vegas -- They have plundered reserves, enacted hiring freezes and engaged in all manner of budgetary voodoo to shield us from the pain.

But now state governments -- reeling from a historic free fall in tax revenue -- have run out of tricks. And Americans are about to feel it.

Ready fire aim.

All the "leading lights" - Jindal, Crist. Palin's lobbying McConnell this weekend.  The single most important parts of the package are those which provide countercyclical help to states and localities in every state now in the grips of serious budget crises.

GOP govs break with party over stimulus

Most support economic plan that got no Republican votes in U.S. House

[HT Juan Cole for the London Review of Books link]

Within an hour of the Mitchell announcement today, J Street hit my box with a Thank You Mr. President" email

I looked to see where MJ was

Asleep at the switch?

Immanuel Wallerstein delivers another provocative and trenchant commentary,

 

"Chronicle of a Suicide Foretold: The Case of Israel" 

Following a cogent summary of Israeli national strategy since 1948, Wallerstein concludes:

The three-element strategy of Israel is decomposing. The iron fist no longer succeeds, much as it didn't for George Bush in Iraq. Will the United States link remain firm? I doubt it. And will world public opinion continue to look sympathetically on Israel? It seems not. Can Israel now switch to an alternative strategy, of negotiating with the militant representatives of the Arab Palestinians, as an integral constituent of the Middle East, and not as an outpost of Europe? It seems quite late for that, quite possibly too late. Hence, the chronicle of a suicide foretold.

William Lind, noted military strategist of Fourth Generation Warfare, arrived at a similarly obvious conclusion by a more direct route. Either way the outcome is inevitable - Israel is committing national suicide right before our eyes:

So far, Israel's assault on the Gaza Strip has produced no surprises. On the physical level of war, the IDF is triumphing. The Palestinians are suffering about one hundred people dead for every dead Israeli. To a 2GW military, which is what Israel's formerly Third Generation army has become, that is the main measure of victory. On the moral level, the picture is reversed. Hamas is almost assured of victory. As Martin van Creveld has observed, all it has to do to claim victory is survive, which it will. That claim will not just be propaganda: for Hamas to survive everything a modern state military can throw at it is a legitimate victory. In fact, it will not only survive but be strengthened by a worldwide flood of sympathy, which will translate in part into new recruits and more money. In the end, if Israel wants to stop Hamas' rockets, it will only be able to do so by making a deal with Hamas. Since that was equally true before the war, the question of why it was fought will soon present itself. The real reason is a tad sordid: the current Israeli government is trying to split the "get tough" vote to prevent Likud from winning the next election. The same motivation lay behind last weekend's "discovery" that Olmert asked the U.S. for permission to attack Iran. The parties in the current Israeli coalition government are in effect saying to Israeli voters, "Why vote for an oaf like Bibi Netanyahu when you can get the same thing from us without the endless embarrassments?" What all Israeli parties and the IDF seem to share is that they don't get 4GW. They have repeatedly been defeated by Fourth Generation forces, but they do not learn. .... Can Israel learn? If not, apartment buildings in Miami will prove a great investment.

Via Josh Landis's Syria Comment

One strong warning of the level of anger in the region comes from Prince Turki al-Faisal of Saudi Arabia. Prince Turki has been the Saudi ambassador in both London and Washington. He has always been a leading voice of moderation. For years he has been a supporter of the Saudi peace process and an advocate of Jewish-Christian-Islamic dialog. Few Arab voices deserve more to be taken seriously, and Prince Turki described the conflict as follows in a speech at the opening of the 6th Gulf Forum on January 6th, "The Bush administration has left you (the incoming Obama administration) a disgusting legacy and a reckless position towards the massacres and bloodshed of innocents in Gaza...Enough is enough, today we are all Palestinians and we seek martyrdom for God and for Palestine, following those who died in Gaza." Neither Israel nor the US can gain from a war that produces this reaction from one of the wisest and most moderate voices in the Arab world.

This raises a question that every Israeli and its supporters now needs to ask. What is the strategic purpose behind the present fighting? ... Has Israel somehow blundered into a steadily escalating war without a clear strategic goal or at least one it can credibly achieve? Will Israel end in empowering an enemy in political terms that it defeated in tactical terms? Will Israel's actions seriously damage the US position in the region, any hope of peace, as well as moderate Arab regimes and voices in the process?

To be blunt, the answer so far seems to be yes.

Nir Rosen is out with a worthy OpEd at the Guardian UK in which he examines the on-going disaster in Gaza and Palestine in the context of  colonialism and resistance to it.

I highly recommend the entire piece, but one part struck me because it recalled an observation by Israeli historian and military strategist Martin van Creveld because I think here we can see why the present Israeli violence as with its Lebanon adventure is doomed to bloody and pointless failure

First Rosen:

An American journal once asked me to contribute an essay to a discussion on whether terrorism or attacks against civilians could ever be justified. My answer was that an American journal should not be asking whether attacks on civilians can ever be justified. This is a question for the weak, for the Native Americans in the past, for the Jews in Nazi Germany, for the Palestinians today, to ask themselves
Terrorism is a normative term and not a descriptive concept. An empty word that means everything and nothing, it is used to describe what the Other does, not what we do. The powerful - whether Israel, America, Russia or China - will always describe their victims' struggle as terrorism.

Van Creveld observed in comparing Iraq and Vietnam (an observation equally applicable to the Lebanon invasion which I believe he supported):

In international life, an armed force that keeps beating down on a weaker opponent will be seen as committing a series of crimes; therefore it will end up by losing the support of its allies, its own people, and its own troops. Depending on the quality of the forces - whether they are draftees or professionals, the effectiveness of the propaganda machine, the nature of the political process, and so on - things may happen quickly or take a long time to mature. However, the outcome is always the same. He (or she) who does not understand this does not understand anything about war; or, indeed, human nature.

In other words, he who fights against the weak - and the rag-tag Iraqi militias are very weak indeed - and loses, loses. He who fights against the weak and wins also loses. To kill an opponent who is much weaker than yourself is unnecessary and therefore cruel; to let that opponent kill you is unnecessary and therefore foolish. As Vietnam and countless other cases prove, no armed force however rich, however powerful, however, advanced, and however well motivated is immune to this dilemma. The end result is always disintegration and defeat...

It is a lesson that, after 60 years of unremitting violence and oppression of the Palestinians, the Israelis, to their ulitmate peril, have not learned

Now I fear it is too late for them to learn.

Why Iraq Will End as Vietnam Did

I was in Long Beach,Ca. on Saturday for the annual conference of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, where Pastor Rick Warren and I were both headliners.

Also appearing on the stage Saturday evening were Melissa Etheridge and Salman Ahmad, singing Ring the Bells.

Rick Warren: "I love Muslims . . . I happen to love Gays and Straights"

The George W. Bush Presidential Library is now in the planning stages 
and accepting donations.

The Library will include:

  1. The Hurricane Katrina Room, which is still under construction.

2. The Alberto Gonzales Room, where you won't be able to remember 
anything.

3. The Texas Air National Guard Room, where you don't even have to 
show up.

4. The Walter Reed Hospital Room, where they don't let you in.

5. The Guantanamo Bay Room, where they don't let you out.

6. The Weapons of Mass Destruction Room, which no one has been able to 
find.

7. The National Debt Room, which is huge and has no ceiling.

8. The Tax Cut Room, with entry only to the wealthy.

9. The Economy Room, which is in the toilet.

10. The Iraq War Room. (After you complete your first visit, they make 
you go back for a second, third, fourth, and sometimes fifth visit.)

11. The Dick Cheney Room, in the famous undisclosed location, complete 
with shooting gallery.

12. The Environmental Conservation Room, still empty.

13. The Supreme Gift Shop, where you can buy an election.

14. The Airport Men's Room, where you can meet some of your favorite 
Republican Senators.

15. The Decider Room, complete with dart board, magic 8-ball, Ouija 
board, dice, coins, and straws.

  Note: The library will feature an electron microscope to help you 
locate and view the President's accomplishments.

  The library will also include many famous Quotes by George W.Bush:

1. 'The vast majority of our imports come from outside the country.'

2. 'If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure.'

3. 'Republicans understand the importance of bondage between a mother 
and child.'

4. 'No senior citizen should ever have to choose between prescription 
drugs and medicine.'

5. 'I believe we are on an irreversible trend toward more freedom and 
democracy - but that could change.'

6. 'One word sums up probably the responsibility of any Governor, and 
that one word is 'to be prepared'.'

7. 'Verbosity leads to unclear, inarticulate things.'

8. 'I have made good judgments in the past. I have made good judgments 
in the future.'

9. 'The future will be better tomorrow.'

10. 'We're going to have the best educated American people in the 
world..'

11. 'One of the great things about books is sometimes there are some 
fantastic pictures.' (during an education photo-op)

12. 'Illegitimacy is something we should talk about in terms of not 
having it.'

13. 'We are ready for any unforeseen event that may or may not occur.'

14. 'It isn't pollution that's harming the environment. It's the 
impurities in our air and water that are doing it.'

15.. 'I stand by all the misstatements that I've
made.'...George W.Bush to Sam Donaldson


PLEASE GIVE GENEROUSLY!

Sincerely,

Jack Abramoff, Co-Chair

G.W. Bush Library Board of Directors

Dear Sen Feinstein:

Today the US Senate's Democratic Caucus vote on Sen Lieberman's Chairmanship provided yet another example of why the US Congress is held in such low regard by the American people.  The eviscerated empty shell we see today has lost any significance as a viable democratic institution and has become something very much like the Board of Supervisors here in San Francisco

Perhaps you recall.

In 1996 Willie Brown called his Board of Supervisors a "collection of pantywaists" and proceeded


    "I'm telling you, I can produce six votes on that board any day of the week. For anything. . . . But I have to do it when I think it's wise to do it.

"I have to do it when I can do it a second time. This is not a gas station in the desert. This is not Dick Morris dealing with a $200 hooker. These are long-term relationships. These are mistresses that you have to service."

The US Senate..high priced mistress by any other name

I have today removed my name from the DSCC mailing list and will do the same when Reid sends me one of his "Give Em Hell Harry" missives...if I can stop laughing long enough

And the Chron slams right back!

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, in a campaign appearance Sunday, criticized comments about coal technology that Sen. Barack Obama made to The Chronicle editorial board in January, and suggested that the newspaper withheld the information from the public - even though the interview has been posted on the newspaper's Web site since it was given....

The Republican National Committee also sent out blog reports pushing the notion of a "hidden" Obama videotape withheld by The Chronicle...

John Diaz, editor of The Chronicle's editorial pages, said the paper not only posted the entire audio and video of the Obama interview, but promoted it to readers.

"How can anyone suggest that we hid an interview that we did, immediately put up on the Web - and advertised to our readers?" said Diaz. "We promoted it like hell ... and I'm sure the Clinton campaign and the McCain campaign scrubbed it. You can still find the whole 48 minutes and 33 seconds online."

Wassup 2008

"Oui, on peut -- Yes we can!"
OBAMA ZYDECO FROM LOUISIANA 2008

From MoveOn

Obama's Loss Traced
To John McCutchen

Single Nonvoter Tipped Election
To McCain-Palin Ticket

PS I voted on October 6!