Experimentation

I'm trying out a new bloghost. It seems to be a little more flexible (and a LOT more complicated to use). For the next few weeks, I'll be posting the same content on each site, to see how they compare. Give me feedback, please.

On the Other Hand...

A good counter argument to my position. I would argue, however, that, if Buckley is right, then this surge will only make our phased withdrawal more secure. In a gamed risk analysis, the surge makes sense to me.

Surge

The English version of Al Jazeera started broadcasting about a month ago, and I’m at a loss to figure out why its gotten such a bad rap in the western media. My experience has been, I think, the opposite of what most people unacquainted with the organization might expect:
As many of you know, I tend to be a bit of a political junky, especially when it comes to international issues, and most especially, involving this region. As might be expected, I’ve been following the war in Iraq rather closely. For the record, I was in favor of the 2003 invasion, probably for the worst of all possible reasons. I thought that anything was better than the sanctions regime, and all of its inherent corruption (this turned out to be more true than I could have imagined) and burden on innocent Iraqi citizens. I was also incredibly naïve in thinking that democracy, if it took root in Iraq, would have a good chance of positively affecting the other countries in the region. I felt that the administration had done a pretty good job in Afghanistan, and might reasonably be expected to handle Iraq well. I also believed Colin Powell when he said that the WMDs in Iraq posed a significant threat. I further thought that the income Iraq derived (or could derive) from oil coupled with such a strong anti-American regime were intolerable in a region of such importance. I also seriously doubted the liberal nostrum of developing a grand coalition, because I felt that the major European countries would never join.

Since then, incidents like Abu Ghraib, and the widespread arrests and detentions with a total disregard of habeus corpus, the revelation of a total lack of a WMD program, and the near pathological denial on the part of the administration that anything is wrong at all in Iraq have made me regret my position. I remain hopeful that something positive can still happen Iraq, duly noting that it is often just when everything is about to resolve itself that things can seem to be completely disastrous (of course, things also seem completely disastrous just before they get a whole lot worse).

So with all of this background, I was paying very close attention to the debate this weekend over President Bush’s proposal to send in an additional “surge” of troops. My regular daily read, Andrew Sullivan, claimed that it was a half measure, predetermined to fail and an implementation of the “cut and blame” strategy. My daily newspaper, the Herald Tribune, had about ten different stories each day about how everybody in the world thought it was a bad idea. Then, on Sunday night and Monday morning, I watched the pundits roll out on the three Sunday morning talk shows (This Week, Face the Nation, and Meet the Press). Of course, bowing to convention, they had advocates from both sides of the aisle, one of them actually had Republicans for and against the surge as well as Democrats for and against.

It was sad, really. While those opposing the surge had really nothing substantive to offer (the most common phrase was “strong diplomacy”, as if another suit making suggestions were all that it would take, those supporting the surge had nothing better to offer than. “the consequences of failure are catastrophic”. Well, duh! No mention if 20k more troops would actually help things.

And then, dear reader, I turned on Al Jazeera. I usually use it as background noise as I’m reading the paper and uploading my morning caffeine dose, just to see if there’s any late breaking news I should know about. There was an hour long show called, “Indepth Iraq (or something like that) featuring a number of US critics both domestic and abroad (Michael Isikoff was particularly loathsome, in my opinion). There was a “Military Expert” from Cairo, other pundits from around the region, Iraq, Lebanon and Syria, and, most remarkably, a plain speaking, level headed, experienced military strategist from Florida. He was a retired general who was still getting briefings from the pentagon and probably was still consulted on military strategy. He was getting challenges from all over the place. The host of the show started, but other pundits would cut in, challenge the general, and ask snide questions (particularly this Isikoff fellow). They brought up every possible concern or criticism of the new surge plan and this general, not bending words, not answering as a politician, just stating his own (well informed) opinion equanimous.

He convinced me. Here’s my current opinion:

1. 5 brigades and an extra regiment are enough to supplement the Iraqi units in the parts of Baghdad where sectarian violence is an issue.
2. Its also probably all we can muster right now and all that the Iraqi government would put up with.
3. Sadr city, as well as other militia operation centers will be dealt with later, once overall security is in place.
4. If this doesn’t work, it was still a good idea to beef up security for a phased withdrawal (could happen as soon as six months if progress isn’t made).
   
   And to think, I saw it on Al Jazeera!!

Unspoiled

I just got back from the first movie I’ve seen in the theater since last summer. I’m not much for movie reviews, but I’d definitely recommend this one. The English movie selection here in Cairo is, not surprisingly, fairly thin, and I chose to see The Prestige (registration required) basically as the least of the bad ones. It’s been advertised here quite a bit, and I’m a big Christian Bale fan (more from the Empire of the Sun days than American Psycho, although I thought Batman was pretty decent as far as superhero movies go). When I learned that it was written and directed by the brothers who did Memento, it was a lock. I don’t want to write too much for fear of revealing the conciet(yes its one of those). I’m the type of movie goer who loves trying to figure out the trick, but I’m usually disappointed if I succeed. Luckily, my track record is not so good. Dead Again, The Usual Suspects, The Shawshank Redemption, Fight Club, Memento, and The Sixth Sense, all caught me by surprise. Even the Sting surpised me (granted, I was about ten the first time I saw it). The only twist movie I distinctly remember figuring out was The Others, and that was because someone told me beforehand that it was like the Sixth Sense, I was really irritated that the movie had been ruined for me and now I try not to listen to anyone discuss the movie in advance. I saw The Crying Game in the theater, but had to go to the bathroom. The sex scene happened while I was out, and, when I came back in, I asked Scott what I had missed. He just looked at me blankly. I still regret having missed that moment, one which could never be replicated.

Anyway, in this movie (didn’t I say that I sucked at reviews?), I found the twist to be pretty easy to predict, but my enjoyment only increased at watching it unfold. For me, the enjoyment was in seeing the replicated patterns (almost Shakespearean in its duplication of archetypes). The movie also succeeds by asking some very difficult questions and not trying to answer them.

When it comes down to it, though, I have only one empirical measure for a good movie; it is both absolute and impossible to define. When I leave the theater having just seen something wonderful, I feel larger than life, even than the planet. I feel as though I am walking on a very small globe (like the Little Prince), or I’m several miles tall. This happens whether it is a happy or tragic ending. I first noticed this when I left the Hunt for Red October (I know, not a great movie, but I was 16). I was standing outside Kipling Theaters, waiting for my dad to pick me up, and the lamp poles seemed like match sticks. The sky seemed like the top of a pup tent.

Tonight, I walked out of the Galaxy Theater, in Manial, and wanted to walk forever. Nightlife here in Cairo is just starting to pick up around midnight, so I put in my earbuds, played a Norah Jones album and started walking. There were a bunch of cafes along the Nile and small groups of guys were walking down the street, laughing and joking. On the main thoroughfare, the bright lights and fast moving traffic energized me. There were little sheesha joints, and kushri shops with a scattering of customers*. Once I got to Maadi, the wide, leafy streets, the occasional security guards and the pollution haze all combined to enhance my mood. I started taking long measured steps to stretch out my legs, put my hands in my pockets and walked home. Occasionally I would get into my grandfather's bulldog style of walking, head down and working more on speed than style, but when ever I noticed this, I slowed myself down, enjoyed some detail of the walk and tried to regulate my breathing.
There were so many beautiful details. It started with my new shoes, which, after ten days of walking in the dust of the Pharoahs and the Imams, look ten years old but still feel brand new. The night noises, filtered through my own music also got my attention. Then, of course, the Maadi trees captured me and my heart. The last bit, down road Fifteen was the best. I stood at midan moustafa kamal (known by some as the gay garden) and looked down the street. The Sycamore Figs form a canopy, actually a long tunnel all the way down the street. I was leaving the confines of the great wide world and gradually entering the narrow freedom of my personal cave. I was exchanging the refreshing brisk miasma of Cairo for the filtered warm cleanliness of the hearth. Hera, that peacock, would be proud. As I turned into my building, I said goodnight to the guard, and promised to write Athena a letter.

Well, this is what comes of seeing The Prestige, do so at your own peril.

*In the interest of accuracy, I need to mention that a taxi ride and a decaf mocha cappuccino (flavored with cinnamon) broke up the narrative here. I omitted them for purely poetical reasons.